Week of 26 Feb 2023
“Overcome the trial beyond the light!”
Achievements Earned In:
Oh man, I couldn’t stand El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron by the end of this week as I polished it off. And it honestly didn’t take me long to reach that point once I started in on the hardest part of the completion. First, let me say the game is a feast visually. Each floor of the Tower that Enoch is tasked with destroying has a different visual style, ranging from a tranquil forest to a cyber-heavy futuristic city. The filters used sometimes can make platforming difficult (I’m looking at you, Chapter 8…) but usually it’s cool how the game can look so different minute to minute. The story is also cool, because you just don’t see this kind of material adapted into videogames so directly, with this taking elements of “The Book of Enoch” and the tale of the Tower of Babel and other bits and pieces of lore from the Abrahamic mythologies into a wild anime-style narrative. Sadly, it’s everything else involved that is just not up to snuff. The combat is just unnecessarily frustrating! This is an action game, but there is no actual dodge mechanic, and the enemies rarely have a reaction to your attacks, opting instead to immediately punish and break your combos with their own attacks. When you’re trying to keep up a combo for score and/or trying to survive the harder difficulties, this can get rage-inducing very quickly. Don’t even get me started on the harder Arch-wielding enemies introduced in Chapter 3, because they are so unfairly aggressive that it can many times end up more difficulty than any boss encounter in the game. Getting stuck fighting two of them while Enoch has the Veil weapon equipped is downright stupid. I can’t express how much I raged at those sections, especially in Chapters 10 and 3. Just UGH.
But, while the combat on Hard during my effort to G-rank the missions was frustrating, the actual scores I needed never were. The only level I had to try more than once was Chapter 11, the final one, because the level is structured in such a way that you’re locked into each of the three fights and have to make sure you get the score you need before you wrap each up. I also did this level first, so I was learning which moves were best for scoring (while an awful, slow weapon The Veil’s power allows for quick score accumulation) and getting a handle on the combat difficulty. I didn’t really get a chance to acclimate to an increased difficulty when I moved from Easy (first playthrough) to Extra (second) because you unlock an outfit when you grab all the Bones of Ishtar collectibles that negates any damage you take, so I just powered my way through. …Well, except for when the game pulls a Raiden and makes you play as the side-character Armaros for Chapter 8 and Dark Enoch for Chapter 9 and you lose that denim-powered invincibility, becoming susceptible to Extra’s two-hit kill mechanic. This all ended up being manageable (obviously), but there’s no way I’d ever recommend playing this one. Or, if you do, don’t achievement hunt in it. Oddly, it got a fan following online if my search for the banner art was any indication, even getting a sequel.
Achievements unlocked: 50 (+34) | Completed
I’m calling an Uber and getting out of here.
After the tribulation that was El Shaddai, I thought I’d take it easy and start Paradise Killer, which was announced to be leaving the Game Pass library next. Now, I knew it was a narrative-focused game, but I kind of expected something lowkey, akin to Boyfriend Dungeon or a point-and-click. Instead, what I got was a first-person exploration game filled with fun visuals and characters and a wacky story, like Danganronpa and a Bethesda open world had an indie baby. You play as Lady Love Dies, investigator for The Syndicate on Paradise, and you explore the island to deduce who committed some atrocious murders. You gather clues and perform interviews to try and prove whodunnit, though I haven’t really gotten to that latter part. The fun part (for me) is that there is SO MANY types of collectibles in the game, so I’m getting to slowly make my way across the island, searching for sodas and blood crystals and chances to speak to Shinji. I’m one of the few gamers/hunters that like collectibles, so I’m sure this point isn’t shared by many others, but it’s making my brain very happy. All but one of the game’s 39 achievements are missable, but it seems that you can just play freely and avoid the point of no return. I’m loving this game so far, and I’m very happy I got around to it before it is “gone”.
Achievements unlocked: 5 (+5) | Completion: 13%
Umm… why are you in my exile house?
Highest ratio: 9.30 (tie)
Conquerer (El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron)
Lord of the Metatron (El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron)
Lowest ratio: 1.15
Infinite Terror (Paradise Killer)
