![]() ![]() ![]() This also adds more details to the Lore page, filling in the story of Nostalgaia’s history as each new item remembers what it is. Viewing the inventory at the alter shows that the axe is vibrating, and selecting it reveals the new menu item Remember, at which point the axe transforms from its low-res pixely version into a high-resolution weapon, complete with a nice boost to its stats. Viewing a piece of equipment gives a screen showing its stats with an option to switch over to lore, and the lore page gives a hint of the item’s history.Ī massive battleaxe, for example, remembers being used in a defiled church to decapitate people, and sure enough there’s a church with a head on the alter later on. Weapons scale with certain stats, so if you’ve got a favorite type it pays to invest heavily in its dependencies, but each weapon, shield and set of armor also starts off as an unfinished version of itself. Four types are available at the start in the form of balance, physical power, magic power and luck, while the traditional method of leveling up at a rest point by applying experience to add a single point to a chosen stat is in play. Like in any good action-RPG weapons and armor are best used by a build suited to it and “suited to it” is defined by how the player wants to tweak their build. The other feature that sets Last Hero of Nostalgaia apart from other soulsbournes is how gear is tied to the backstory, and the method used to make it more powerful. Sure enough it’s tough and requires focus, but not a “try again in 15 levels” overwhelming show of power. After finally sneaking past it, staying behind obstacles and out of its sight, the save point just beyond its view provides the necessary confidence to see if the big guy is as dangerous as it looks. The grumpy narrator decides to place a huge imposing guardian in a room just before the first resting point and the obvious solution is to avoid its gaze so it doesn’t attack. While enemies aren’t shy about letting their displeasure with ASCII-hero’s existence known, even the bigger ones (in the first two areas that I’ve been able to play) are approachable with proper shield usage and dodge timing. There are two points in the gameplay that deviate significantly from a soulsbourne, though, and the first is in terms of difficulty. All enemies instantly pop back to life after resting, so whether it’s a random low-level villager, hulking guard or twisted dog-like wretch, there’s no reason to worry too much about whether the current enemy is a victim of Nostalgaia’s blight or not. This includes a more careful approach to combat, with enemies capable of knocking off a good chunk of health if they land a hit, the need to reclaim experience from where it dropped when you die, plus intricate levels filled with hidden areas and shortcuts back to the rest/saving point. It would be easier to feel bad for Nostalgaia’s residents getting mowed down by their savior if it wasn’t for Last Hero taking so many elements from the soulsbourne genre. Even if Nostalgaia’s residents recognized the good it was trying to do, whatever is dragging the land back through video game’s rendering history has also turned its people against heroes. While the landscape is currently shifting between various levels of texture resolution and enemies/residents range from a collection of single-poly limbs to more complicated but still low-poly constructs, their hero is a collection of /, |, and \s put together into a vaguely human shape. Something’s happened and nobody is sure what’s causing it, and it doesn’t help that ASCII-hero has no memory to speak of. The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is a soulsbourne adventure where the hero has to fight every single aspect of the game, from a pissed-off narrator to the residents of the land it’s trying to save. This is going to make saving Nostalgaia far more difficult than it should be for an ASCII hero. They’re not happy about it and are ready to take out their displeasure on anything that reminds them of their fate. ![]() The land of Nostalgaia is having the past forced on it, though, reverting to a low-res land that’s a mixture of PS1-quality textures and low-poly residents. Nostalgia may be a trap that makes the past seem better than it was, but it would still be nice to visit. The technology wasn’t as powerful, but clever programmers and designers made the hardware produce miracles, working within the limitations to create a decent number of games that could stand the test of time and hundreds more that have been forgotten for a reason. Once upon a time there was the past and it was… good? Bad? A different time with its own strengths and weaknesses? Once upon a time gaming was a fad, fell into being a niche hobby, then slowly grew into the branch of mainstream media that it is today. ![]()
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