Well_known_bear's recent activity
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
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Comment on Frieren manga announces indefinite hiatus in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )Link ParentThere's a bit to unpack here, but my high level thoughts: Weekly serials are a bit of a rare beast nowadays due to how punishing the schedule is, but the big three (Jump, Magazine and Sunday) are...There's a bit to unpack here, but my high level thoughts:
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Weekly serials are a bit of a rare beast nowadays due to how punishing the schedule is, but the big three (Jump, Magazine and Sunday) are still generally seen as the most prestigious and where the 'big hits' are made (leading to fame and riches). Hence, there's a lot of competition to run in these serials, and a lack of popularity can easily lead to getting cut (especially at Jump, the big dog). As a result, I suspect a lot of mangaka put pressure on themselves to put out the best product they can so they can shoot their shot, rather than the magazine editors directly grinding them with demands for X quality in Y time.
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More and more, mangaka are choosing not to participate in that grind. With online electronic distribution being a thing now, there are plenty of smaller competitors to the big weekly serials. Monthly magazines are producing their own share of hits now (e.g. Jump+ with Spy X Family and Chainsaw Man) and also host some big names who want to gear down (e.g. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is monthly now). Some mangaka are even selling directly to the customer (Blackjack ni Yoroshiku attempted something like that, IIRC, and plenty more just make and sell adult content through DLsite - I believe even a couple of former weekly Jump mangaka!)
Even back in the olden days, though, I think people realised that the weekly grind was kind of BS. Mizuki Shigeru once famously said that the reason that he outlived his famous contemporaries like Tezuka (who often ran like a dozen serials at once) was that he just got adequate sleep, and the dude was no stranger to hardship - he became a mangaka after losing his arm in the war!
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Comment on Frieren manga announces indefinite hiatus in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkThis got me curious to check who currently actually serialises weekly in Sunday. I just want to point out how insane it is that Takahashi Rumiko, a 68 year old lady who is a millionaire many times...This got me curious to check who currently actually serialises weekly in Sunday.
I just want to point out how insane it is that Takahashi Rumiko, a 68 year old lady who is a millionaire many times over, is still doing a weekly.
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Comment on Financial collapse? in ~finance
Well_known_bear Link ParentJohn Bogle (founder of Vanguard)'s Little Book of Common Sense Investing is also a good, short and simple read which makes a similar recommendation. Tune out the FUD and invest broadly and for the...John Bogle (founder of Vanguard)'s Little Book of Common Sense Investing is also a good, short and simple read which makes a similar recommendation.
Tune out the FUD and invest broadly and for the long term.
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Comment on Chainsaw Man movie releases in North America on October 24, with early screenings on October 22 for some Crunchyroll membership tiers in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkIt's interesting that this strategy of: building the following via the TV series; and then making the actual profit by putting the rest of the story into movie(s), has now become the de facto...It's interesting that this strategy of:
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building the following via the TV series; and
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then making the actual profit by putting the rest of the story into movie(s),
has now become the de facto standard among the high end studios (Ufotable, Mappa, Kyoto Animation, etc).
The economics are what they are, so I don't begrudge anyone for doing this. Some thoughts off the top of my head, though:
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This is a pretty substantial shift away from what franchise movies tended to be in the past - i.e. stories that stood on their own with distinct ideas. I'm thinking in particular of classics like the Patlabor movies which had a totally different tone from the TV series. Are we now going to see a lot fewer of these?
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Are some stories just better suited to episodic storytelling? Is pacing sacrificed by having to adhere to movie format and running length? I'm inclined to think this is true at least to some extent for shows like Demon Slayer, especially given how it has to be chopped up into separate movies that come out like a year apart.
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In the past, step 2 in the above strategy was to make the profit via goods (particularly videos / DVDs). Have we now seen a decline in that to the point where it's no longer sustainable, at least for high budget animation? How much has the shift to streaming contributed to that?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkFinal Fantasy VII Remake Not an actual remake. The need to stretch what was originally around 15% of the original story into its own full story with a proper arc, along with its outright...Final Fantasy VII Remake
Not an actual remake.
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The need to stretch what was originally around 15% of the original story into its own full story with a proper arc, along with its outright abridgement in many places, leads to it feeling like a totally different narrative.
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For better or worse, the characters don't feel like their original selves. Cloud in particular has gone from merely aloof to some kind of alien who has no idea how to interact with other human beings.
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The combat system feels like it's unsure what it wants to be. The player is asked to play as if it's an action game, but you constantly need to menu to use skills and items and give orders to party members. Attacking feels weirdly floaty with no weight to any hits, and sometimes you'll just be attacking thin air for a while (FF1 style?) after killing an enemy because the targeting won't switch to the next one. Simply repositioning yourself in a fight so you can actually hit the enemies feels like a chore, with the default movement being a slow walk. Enemies can sometimes just walk away while you're preparing to do a special move and you'll just whiff instead of tracking them. Blocking seems to work even if you're being hit from behind. It all just feels jankier than the high production values would suggest.
Despite all of that, it's not a bad game and I'm enjoying it for what it is.
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The visuals are on point and faithful to the original designs. Having facial animation in particular adds a lot.
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It seems that a lot of people don't like the side quests since they kill the pacing of the story, which yeah, they do. I don't think the side quests themselves are too bad, though. They're short, usually let you warp to the quest giver as soon as you're done, and you can even get a little bonus story segment for doing them. If the alternative is just grinding 30 mobs so I can afford the equipment upgrades on offer, I'll take the side quests.
Chadley's side quests do seem a bit grindy though, so I'm not going to go too far out of my way to do those.
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The seamless transition between field and combat is a welcome change. I wish they'd just limit the battle result pop-ups to just loot and level ups, though. As it is, there's too much info to parse in the quick time that it scrolls by (some of which is utterly useless info like "enemy X defeated" - yeah, I already know!), so it's easy to miss stuff.
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The game runs pretty decently on my PC (albeit with the occasional crash), which you can never take for granted when it comes to AAA PC ports.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear Link ParentspoilersIIRC, it's only been directly referenced once so far by the antagonist, around when they leave the board game. Given this new arc seems to tie directly to the antagonist's scheme,...Re:your second spoiler, I didn't realize that was an actual thing, tbh I never really thought to think that it meant anything. Now I'm curious to find out more too!
spoilers
IIRC, it's only been directly referenced once so far by the antagonist, around when they leave the board game. Given this new arc seems to tie directly to the antagonist's scheme, hopefully they'll explain more! -
Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear Link ParentI think one of the only things I don't like about the current state of the series is spoilersthe constantly growing Scooby Doo gang of kids with super powers. There's nothing wrong with any...I think one of the only things I don't like about the current state of the series is
spoilers
the constantly growing Scooby Doo gang of kids with super powers. There's nothing wrong with any individual character or their story arc, but it's getting to the point where there are too many characters for any of them to get more than token lines (in which they're generally just caricatures of themselves - Jiji acting goofy, Sakata acting like a dork, etc), let alone further character development. It really felt to me like this reached a breaking point in the latest volume, with all the school scenes featuring the whole gang just being chaos.Otherwise thought the new volume was great. Hope they start revealing more about
spoilers
the Dandadanin this arc!
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkFinished watching Seirei no Moribito after seeing it recommended here months ago. Man, the maturity of the writing in this show just made me reflect on how starved we are these days for proper...Finished watching Seirei no Moribito after seeing it recommended here months ago.
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Man, the maturity of the writing in this show just made me reflect on how starved we are these days for proper fantasy anime. No one has levels, cheat skills or classes in this show. No one shouts out absurd move names when fighting. There's no hero out to fight the demon lord. No one is getting unjustly kicked out of the party, reincarnated in another world or putting together a harem. It's just a story about people who happen to live in a world with fantasy elements, and some of the best parts of it (like Balsa's backstory) have nothing to do with fantasy at all.
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I definitely get the comparison to Avatar, although it has a lot less flashy action and a lot more somber politics / drama. Some of the plot elements actually made me think more of Lord of the Rings - particularly the burden of the guardian and that moment near the end where the fantasy part of the plot is resolved.
Great show overall.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear Link ParentJust wanted to add that this show has a soundtrack by Kanno Yoko that is as excellent as you'd expect. Also love both the OP with Steve Conte (who also sang a bunch of the songs in Cowboy Bebop)...Just wanted to add that this show has a soundtrack by Kanno Yoko that is as excellent as you'd expect. Also love both the OP with Steve Conte (who also sang a bunch of the songs in Cowboy Bebop) and the slow, moody ED.
I also watched this show when it was originally airing and again a couple of years ago. Man, I appreciate what they were going for - I thought the idea of freely switching between the wolf / human portrayals was really clever and constantly invites the viewer to recontextualise what they're seeing in their own minds. The plot device of traveling to paradise (and what paradise even is) is also compelling. The execution is where it falls over for me. The pacing of the show is just glacial and the story gets pretty abstract towards the end. I'm sure it can all be unpacked if people really go through the show and put the pieces and worldbuilding together from all the hints, but it's definitely not spoonfed to the viewer and if you're just watching it casually on the couch, the "payoff" is not one that is easily processed.
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Comment on Devil May Fly - WIP fighter jet parry in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkLooks great. Also, this video has made me realise that the barrel roll in Star Fox is really just a generous parry.Looks great.
Also, this video has made me realise that the barrel roll in Star Fox is really just a generous parry.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkFinished up Silksong. spoilersI was a bit mixed on Act 3. The story is interesting and definitely the highlight, but the other content wasn't particularly compelling other than the return to and...Finished up Silksong.
spoilers
I was a bit mixed on Act 3. The story is interesting and definitely the highlight, but the other content wasn't particularly compelling other than the return to and escape from the Abyss.-
Other than the plant boss, the extra bosses felt pretty uninspired, and having to fight waves of mobs before some of them even show up is just obnoxious. I thought the first two Lace fights were some of the best in the game as pure one-on-one sword duels, but having to do it a third time while she spams AOE attacks and you often can't even see her windup because she's overlapping with them and everything is the same colour... bleh.
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There's very little to explore. All of the newly accessible areas are essentially just linear corridors with maybe one branch. The main map is also largely unchanged without any cool 'upside down castle' twist.
I guess they didn't want to lock anything super substantial in an optional chapter, which is fair enough.
Won't say too much about the difficulty as I think that's already been discussed to death, but there's so much good stuff in this game that's totally independent of the difficulty (art, music, atmosphere, exploration - all great!) that it feels like a misstep not to just throw in some sliders and let everyone enjoy it at whatever difficulty they like.
Also finished PARANORMASIGHT.
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The introduction set me up to expect horror / death game / social deduction, but there's actually barely any of that in the main story. It's more of a police procedural with supernatural elements where the characters methodically investigate and solve a bunch of interrelated mysteries, along with a few puzzles which require thinking outside the box.
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Despite being short, the story is pretty complex with a ton of characters and mysteries. The game has a notes feature which is pretty good for keeping track of what's what, but a fair bit of important info is only conveyed through the notes, so you really have to read them each time they're updated in order to fully grasp what's happening.
Still decent overall, but pretty different from what I was expecting.
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Comment on What game is your personal "Silksong"? in ~games
Well_known_bear (edited )Link ParentI came to the game through the DE and I'm in the camp that dislikes the epilogue. The original story has this somewhat hard sci-fi vibe, with a pretty 'real robot' approach to the mechs (e.g. they...I came to the game through the DE and I'm in the camp that dislikes the epilogue.
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The original story has this somewhat hard sci-fi vibe, with a pretty 'real robot' approach to the mechs (e.g. they constantly get trashed and need repair; they have to go to a huge amount of effort to get them to fly, etc) and a general absence of magic / supernatural elements in favour of gritty tech often cobbled from scraps - I thought this was great and tied in perfectly with the theme of rebuilding humanity!
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Then you have the post-credits scene that overturns all of the story in the main game. All of the drama and sacrifices made by the good guys - was it all meaningless? Find out in the sequel! OK, it's a big cheque to write, but I can accept it if they actually cash it.
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The problem with the epilogue is that in my view, it doesn't!
Spoilers
The answer is that all the souls were stored in the dimensional cloud! Also, there's a multiverse!I appreciate that there was only so much they could do with the scope they were given, but it just feels so unsatisfying! I can't imagine that this is what the original vision for the story was because it feels so out of tune with the bulk of the main game (particularly the build up to the big bad antagonists who you don't even see in the main game).
Also, I couldn't stand Al, but that might just be me :P He's built up so much in the main story as this legend and he just turns out to be a pretty uninteresting guy with an annoying catch phrase.
The actual main game is great, though. Even the extra area in the epilogue is fun.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear (edited )Link ParentI'm actually not that far in either due to Silksong, but the story seems interesting so far. Once you get past the intro, the game lets you play different routes from each character's point of...I'm actually not that far in either due to Silksong, but the story seems interesting so far.
Once you get past the intro, the game lets you play different routes from each character's point of view using the usual VN flowchart interface, so there are a lot of 'aha, he's the guy they mentioned in that other route!' and 'oh, so that's why this person did that' moments as you see things from a different perspective. I kind of dig it.
Howlongtobeat says it's only around 10 hours long, so it sounds like it's decently paced as well. That certainly lines up with my experience so far with the individual routes being pretty short.
Gameplay-wise, it's pretty much your standard VN. The camera stuff is neat (and it's already gotten me with the jump scares), but really the bulk of it is just reading - especially the copious volume of notes that give the background about the characters, folklore and setting. I'm interested in all of that (particularly love the Showa-retro Japan setting) but I can imagine it being a bit much for someone who isn't.
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Comment on What game is your personal "Silksong"? in ~games
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkSuper Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Back in ye olden days before the internet really took off, gaming news mostly came through a slow drip feed of reporting from monthly...Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Back in ye olden days before the internet really took off, gaming news mostly came through a slow drip feed of reporting from monthly gaming magazines that we'd repeatedly read cover to cover (despite most of it being ads), so it was easy to let your imagination run wild about what a game would be like just from a couple of grainy preview screenshots and sketchy rumours. Needless to say, the actual games frequently did not live up to those dreams!
These two games both had a lengthy development process (the latter often being cited as the origin of the 'delayed game' quote apocryphally attributed to Miyamoto, although I believe he did say something similar) which was closely reported on, and together with the hype for the launch of the Nintendo 64 (it's twice as big as the number for the PSX! It has to be good!) and the shift to 3D, expectations were very high.
You all know how the story turned out. Both turned out to be timeless classics that played like nothing else at the time, giving rise to mechanisms like the 3D camera and Z-targeting which are still used today.
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Comment on Will an AI actress really become ‘the next Scarlett Johansson’? in ~movies
Well_known_bear Link ParentIn the same vein, the AI vtuber Neuro-sama also has a following. Given how willing humans are to form attachments even to LLMs (see also all the recent stories of people confiding in and taking...In the same vein, the AI vtuber Neuro-sama also has a following.
Given how willing humans are to form attachments even to LLMs (see also all the recent stories of people confiding in and taking advice from ChatGPT), it definitely feels too early to rule out an AI actor also taking off.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkHollow Knight Decided to give this another try and got to the regular ending pretty quickly. The runbacks and maps were the reason I first bounced off years ago, and they remain the only things I...Hollow Knight
Decided to give this another try and got to the regular ending pretty quickly.
The runbacks and maps were the reason I first bounced off years ago, and they remain the only things I don't like about this game. Everything else is great.
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Boss runbacks aren't too bad. Once you pick up the basic mobility moves, it's generally pretty easy (albeit still dull) to get back to the boss at full health.
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Corpse runbacks are more annoying.
Unlike in Dark Souls, you can't just empty your pockets at every bonfire and ignore this mechanic. There are ways to mitigate loss / move your corpse, and in principle you could just keep running back to the shop as soon as you can afford something, but those all require you to leave whatever you're doing and go somewhere else, so it's really just a different kind of flow-breaking runback.
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I do understand what they were going for with the map system (i.e. making exploring with no guidance the default whenever you're in new territory), but the implementation just feels kind of clunky. If I missed a turn-off because the map didn't get updated in real time, I'm just going to come back once I get to a bench and the map does get updated. Hiding the map or my position on it does nothing to make the game more interesting or challenging other than the initial challenge of finding the map guy in each area (which I actually do like). Why not have the map / compass be automatic for the area once I've obtained the map? Heck, even an additional compass item per area like in Zelda to show my location and the other icons would be fine.
Other thoughts:
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The difficulty for the bosses felt very reasonable throughout. They all have a pretty limited moveset that is easy to read and punish, and none of them hit as hard as soulslike bosses. Being able to heal after getting a few good hits in also feels great and creates a nice risk/reward mechanism that fits right into the flow of the fight.
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The controls feel super tight. Your character has no inertia at all, so you can stop and start movements / jumps on a dime. My only complaint is that the magic button is the same as the heal button when they could have easily been split between RB and B, so you can accidentally use magic when you mean to heal during a busy fight. Not a major issue once you get used to it, though.
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Goes without saying, but the visual design is outstanding. The storytelling, while sparse, is also easy to follow (although like the rest of the game, it does crib from Dark Souls pretty hard).
Silksong
Not as big on this as many people, but enjoying it overall.
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Art, music and atmosphere are all still great.
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Still dislike the map system and the runbacks, which are only dialled up further in this game.
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Needing basically the whole silk bar to heal is rough. I'm not using the silk arts because being locked out of healing immediately doesn't feel like a worthwhile tradeoff.
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Bosses are pretty fun and none have felt cheap or unreadable so far. I especially enjoyed the 'duel' boss early on. In contrast, the gank gauntlets are just annoying due to the high enemy HP and feel like they should have been mini-bosses instead.
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I could take or leave the quests. They're not egregious, but I'm playing a Metroidvania to explore and find cool stuff / bosses to fight. Constantly checking quest boards so I don't miss out on useful upgrades puts a brake on that, and finally reaching an area only to find an NPC who wants me to grind for 10 rat tails, gather 5 herbs or deliver packages from A to B instead of a cool reward feels like a bummer.
PARANORMASIGHT
Horror VN / adventure game.
It starts out normally enough with the protagonist helping his friend investigate some local folklore in 70s downtown Tokyo, but it suddenly turns into
which is... a change in pace to say the least.spoilers
a supernatural battle royaleThe presentation is reminiscent of old adventure games like the Famicom Detective Club series, with the player being able to look around each scene and check / think / speak with other people. You can also move the camera around with a 360 degree field of view (kind of like Google street view), and this is often used as part of the gameplay - e.g. if you turn your back on someone, they might do something while you're not watching / things might appear, disappear or change when you look away.
Seems pretty interesting so far, although it has a fair number of jump scares which some might not like.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkHappy last week of the season! Reflections on this season's shows: CITY The humour is so offbeat that it's sometimes questionable whether it's humour at all, but the animation and music are a...Happy last week of the season!
Reflections on this season's shows:
CITY
The humour is so offbeat that it's sometimes questionable whether it's humour at all, but the animation and music are a delight even when the jokes don't land.I loved the theatre parts in particular - they're precisely the sort of scene where an anime adaptation can really outshine the original manga and they just nail it.
Ruri no Houseki
Textbook execution of the "4 girls hobby show".Great animation and visual design (there's even a specifically credited mineral designer), educational in an easy to understand way and a broad variety of content throughout the season.
Everything is so well done on a technical level that I can't quite put my finger on why I don't feel more strongly about it. It's a good show, but it feels like it's missing the warm heart of something like Do It Yourself!!
Gachiakuta
Possibly the slowest paced shounen fighting anime in history. The protagonist spends next to no time advancing the main plot or actually fighting, and by the end of this first cour, we've still barely been introduced to the good guys, let alone the antagonists.Osomatsu-san S4
Disappointing season. A few decent episodes here and there, but nothing like seasons 1-2 where you genuinely didn't know if it was going to be heartbreaking drama, some weird high-concept episode with a completely different animation style, a parody of an 80s American movie or baseball in space when you tuned in - it really felt like it could be anything. In this season, the protagonists are mostly just schlumping around town over the course of one summer and it's a lot less interesting.There's also an unfortunate tendency for jokes to go on for much longer than they should and then repeat with only minor variations, which is just torturous to watch.
New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
It feels like there's about a 3 in 4 chance of any given episode being bad, but occasionally it's genuinely good and I'm suddenly reminded that this show is made by people with actual talent who are just pretending to be clowns.I loved
in particular.spoilers
the Hanna-Barbera parody episode and the dark fantasy episodeMattaku Saikin no Tantei to Kitara
All of the main characters are total one-note jokes which does get old and makes the comedy a bit predictable after a while, but it's still a pretty entertaining show due to some absurd premises, funny one-shot characters and great comic performances.
Also watched Super Crooks, the Netflix-backed BONES adaptation of the Mark Millar / Leinil Francis Yu comic book about supervillains pulling heists.
It's pretty much what you'd expect. Millar brings his usual over the top violence and BONES the usual snappy superhero animation. None of it is particularly novel and some of the story developments don't make sense if you really think about them, but it's short and fine to watch just for the action.
Other minor gripes:
- Instead of one big heist, the story is broken up into a bunch of small arcs (presumably to match the original comics), which leaves it feeling a bit disjointed when the arcs only have tenuous connections or introduce elements which feels like they'll be developed later but never are - e.g.
spoilers
the island where all the superpowers originated and the identity of the protagonist's father-
The power levels of characters fluctuate all over the place as the plot demands. The same guys who can pull off feats that affect a whole city block will occasionally just get handled by random goons or a dude without super powers.
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As much as I like Tsuda Kenjirou, his trademark deep, dour voice is not a good fit for the whimsical protagonist at all.
The obvious comparison is to the Netflix / WIT Studio conman heist anime The Great Pretender, which had its own share of issues but which I ultimately liked better.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentI haven't started Elden Ring yet, but fully agree on this OP. It's really exactly the same thing as the Dark Souls OP, but the narrator goes so hard with the delivery. Will definitely pick this...I haven't started Elden Ring yet, but fully agree on this OP. It's really exactly the same thing as the Dark Souls OP, but the narrator goes so hard with the delivery.
Will definitely pick this one up when I have a spare 200 hours.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkFinished up Shuten Order. I think the problem with this game is that: if you don't like the underlying genres, you're not going to like this game; but if you do like the underlying genres, you're...Finished up Shuten Order.
I think the problem with this game is that:
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if you don't like the underlying genres, you're not going to like this game; but
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if you do like the underlying genres, you're just going to be wishing this was Ace Attorney or Zero Escape or whatever.
Each route is just too mechanically shallow and short to feel satisfying - e.g.
spoilers
The escape room route only has one escape room!The overarching story is fine, but:
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A lot of the clues that you pick up for it are actually the same across the routes - you just hear it from different people.
Therefore, if you play certain routes first, you'll already know everything needed to work out almost all of the major mysteries by around the third route and the remaining routes will feel like a drag because you know much more than the protagonist.
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The final chapter goes on for way too long. A lot of the content is either stuff the player should already have figured out, or plot points that didn't really need expanding and are less believable when it's shown exactly what happened.
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There are multiple endings, but you can't save in the final chapter, so you have to do a super long runback if you want to see all of them - and you can't just fast forward through it all either, since there's a ton of menuing and QTEs too. It's an unnecessarily user-hostile design decision, since there's no challenge after you've cleared it once.
Kind of difficult to recommend, even for people who enjoyed Kodaka's earlier games.
Lorn's Lure
Indie first person 3D platformer about a robot spelunking into the ruins of a deep underground facility.
There aren't any enemies, but you'll still die a lot since the platforming is pretty demanding. Like in Celeste, you'll just get sent back a little bit if that happens, so while the difficulty is high, it's not particularly punishing.
I liked the concept, but:
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It's often quite difficult to work out where you need to go next. There's no "trail of red" like in Mirror's Edge that functions as a visual guide, and due to the very brown/grey setting and low-fi visuals (feels a bit like the original Quake), you can get lost pretty easily - and when you do, the game won't tell you you're on the wrong track. It'll even set your checkpoints back to earlier ones if you inadvertently backtrack.
To alleviate this:
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The game does have a sprite that the protagonist is meant to be following as part of the story, but it's often either out of view or too far away to be a meaningful indicator of what your next step should be (and its design, a kind of random assortment of shapes, is also often hard to see).
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There's also a help mode you can toggle which shows the next waypoint, but again, it's usually really far away and unhelpful if you can't work out what the immediate next step is.
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I got serious motion sickness playing this after a while. The first person 3D platforming itself is OK, but some of the mobility tools / skills you get later on involve looking at a rapidly scrolling wall which my brain does not like at all.
It's rough, but it feels like the sort of game that will really appeal to a specific niche.
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Only following a few shows this season, so I've been checking out some Chinese shows too. They've come a long way in recent years and now feel competitive with a lot of what's coming out of Japan.
To Be Hero X / Tu Bian Yingxiong X
3D animation which often features overlaid 2D effects and occasionally uses full 2D animation in a variety of styles. The plot revolves around superheroes whose powers come from the trust of the public (or their fear, in the case of villains). Basically, they're kind of like gods who become whatever people believe they are, but they have to constantly market themselves in order to keep the public's attention.
The 3D animation is quite good and the characters come across as very expressive. The quality of the 2D animation is more variable, although some of it (e.g. the OP) is also pretty impressive.
Apparently this is just the latest series in the Tu Bian Yingxiong franchise, but it doesn't feel like you need to have seen the previous shows to follow the story.
Link Click / Shiguang Dailiren
Time travel thriller / drama about two friends who can enter the pasts of others through their photos.
Haven't watched too much so far, but the story seems interesting, the animation is smooth and clean and the backgrounds have this colourful, stylised look which I quite like.
Daily Life of the Immortal King / Xianwang de Richang Shenghuo
Your standard shounen action / comedy about a kid who goes to magic school and is secretly the strongest but has to pretend to be weak in order not to destroy the world with his powers. The show would be terrible if it took itself seriously, but fortunately it's quite silly and filled with dumb jokes. The animation starts out a bit janky but picks up towards the end of season 1, and by the start of season 2 it's actually pretty good.
Other thoughts:
I'm guessing this is a censorship thing, but they don't have blood in these shows. Instead, you get stuff like people spurting gold. It's very surreal. (Edit: Having watched some more, this isn't always the case and seems to vary even within the same series!)
All of the above shows are directed by the same guy, Li Haoling. I think he does a good job (particularly given how different the tone of each show is), but I guess it also shows how small a pond the anime industry is over there at the moment.