I leave a trail of shields, helmets, and swords in my wake, and I never have to give any of them a second thought. It might have beautiful gold inlay, and be the only one of its kind in the entire game, but if you can't eat it then it's junk.Įverything only has the value you give it, and it's amazing how freeing that is. Is this axe better than your current one? No? Then its only worth is as a heavy object to hold down a pressure plate. In the world of Grimrock, the only potential anything has is in helping you to survive right now.

Crafting systems only make the compulsion worse, imbuing every piece of detritus in the environment with a dangerous sort of potential. As you hit space limits or your weight capacity, you have to trudge back to town to sell all your pointless gubbins, usually inflating your gold supply to the point where money becomes meaningless before the game is over. We've all been there-you're travelling the lands, recruiting companions and vanquishing evil, and it's all very exciting, but you just can't help bogging down your quest by picking up absolutely everything in sight. And it deftly solves a classic problem almost all RPGs have: hoarding. That's got to be almost unique among RPGs-I struggle to think of another without any means at all of buying or selling goods. Any gold or jewels you do find are just dead weight-if you can drag them to the end of the game, you'll earn an achievement, but really they serve no function. But as in any genre, the things that are missing can end up defining the experience far more than what's there.Īfter adoring the first game, I've finally recently dived into Legend of Grimrock 2, and it's reminded me of one of my favourite absences in gaming: neither game has any merchants.

People want bigger worlds, more stuff, greater choice. Rejecting capitalism in Legend of Grimrock 2-Robin Valentine The only thing left to do? Take down the final boss. My renewed fascination set me off on a VaatiVidya lore video bender, watching every one of his Sekiro story summaries and character-focused videos in a single session. A shame we didn't get to see that story told in DLC or comic book form.

I know who Tomoe is and see signs of her history everywhere. Having already pieced together the basic story, I can pay more attention to the details now, and there's a lot to appreciate. I'm also better able to appreciate the narrative this time around. My favourite a-ha moment was noting that the Okami people were weak to poison in a tidbit of item description, then testing the Sabimaru attachment to trivialise every fight with them. Ingesting Sekiro's combat vocabulary takes time, but little in games feels better than building up that demonstrable instinct. I can also finally parry lightning, which made Genichiro's final form a much cooler, smoother affair. I'm no longer pissed about the surprise second form. Some highlights from Sekiro, Round 2: the ape fight is now my favourite.

Turn down shading on ring of elysium