thinking (of) video games

Thoughts on Splatoon Raiders

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Splatoon Raiders might be one of the tightest designed video games I’ve played this year. Everything in this game compliments each other. Your movement options, the enemies’ attack patterns and the level design feed into each other brilliantly. The game naturally teaches you how to read it and how to deal with enemy constellations it throws at you. It becomes second nature to chart out your battle plan according to the enemies that spawn. For example, one bit of smart design is that the more long ranged or buffing enemies are better visible from farther away.

My favorite area in Mina the Hollower

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taking elements from other games and building something new and unique is one of Yachtclub Games’ specialties. The biggest ones in Mina the Hollower being Link’s Awakening and Castlevania.

Another big point of inspiration is the FromSoftware oeuvre of games. This is nowhere as evident as the area Septemburg. Besides having a setting straight out of a horror flick the level is an openly written love-letter to Bloodborne. From enemies like the pig that looks straight out Yharnam to the level design. There’s one section in particular that is very open where enemies are roaming everywhere that reminded me of the starting area of Bloodborne. Whereas normally there are only a couple of enemies per screen. In this case though you have to methodically choose who to engage first or you’ll end up in an overwhelming gang fight which is something FromSoft fans should be all too familiar with.

Poverty in Mina the Hollower

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s pretty obvious from the get-go that Mina the Hollower has stuff to say about wealth inequality. I’m only a third of the way through, so I can’t say where exactly it’s going. The town the game plays in is at a turning point. But the way the inhabitants of the main town are portrayed and the ambiguity of Mina’s perceived main antagonist makes it clear the direction the mayor wants to take it, probably isn’t a good one.

How Age of Imprisonment makes you feel like a leader

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is excellent at making you feel like a leader. The story puts a great emphasis on the fact that you play as these chiefs of the kingdom that don’t just sit there while their soldiers fight their wars for them. They love their land and their people and so they dirty their hands on the battlefield.

The most obvious way they represent you as a leader is that you can choose where the other characters should go on the map. But the thing I got obsessed with while playing this game is this games overworld map. On the most surface level it acts as a mission select screen. Besides showing the current state of the occupied or freed regions it also has shops, training camps and side quests. Although they are very minimalist I really liked these smaller points of interest.

I can’t think of a reason why new gaming hardware could be worthwhile

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On the day of writing this Anbernic has announced their new model in the lineage of GBA-style retro handhelds the RGSP. Looking at the facts there’s not much improvement over the model I already own, the RG35XX SP. However, even after knowing this my brain had an instinctive reaction to find a reason why this could be worth it. And that scares me.

The same was the case when the RG rotate came out although it’s gimmick didn’t make it seem like a total waste of resources. Replace that announcement with any other hardware revision news like the Switch 2 getting an OLED variant.

Play more games from 2023

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There is a certain joy in exploring games from the past couple of years that are neither relevant for the current GOTY discussions nor certified classics. I love it when I discover a game that just came and fell off the radar and wonder: “How come not more people talked about this?”

My most recent experience like this was with Fate/Samurai Remnant. Although the game has it’s problems, namely too much fluff in the gameplay and narrative, there is a great game here.

Mother 3's spin on turn-based combat

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Something I find fascinating about Mother 3’s combat is how the player’s health gets displayed. For the un-initiated: Damage and healing don’t happen instantly but instead count up or down gradually. In a typical turn-based RPG it doesn’t matter how fast you decide your next action. In the mother series it does. This gives the round-based combat a faster pace since you can negate the damage of even the strongest attacks, if you beat the enemy before the damage subtracts.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 makes me feel like a NPC

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Even as someone who didn’t have any experience playing Dragon’s Dogma before booting up the sequel last week, one thing I knew about it were the ludicrous screen filling special attacks. Meteor showers or small earthquakes that would wipe out half a dozen enemies at once. What I didn’t expect was that I would experience them only one hour into the game. The other surprising thing was that I actually wasn’t the one doing the cool thing. Whilst I trade blows with a single goblin for probably 20 seconds, one of my pawn companions decides to end my miserable display of power by summoning a tornado that immediately disposes of my nemesis and five others like him.

Demon's Souls and iteration

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After having experienced all of the modern FromSoftware Soulslikes, I finally got around to playing the original Demon’s Souls for the first time. Going back to the first game in this From Software lineage made me realize just how much of the Dark Souls, Bloodborne and also Elden Ring DNA was already there in this game. The team iterated on many of those ideas throughout the years in small and big ways. One example of this is the use of the Stormruler. The Stormruler is a gimmick weapon that allows the player in one specific boss fight to shoot a storm beam. A variation of this re-occurs from time to time in their games but the origin of it was in Demon’s Souls. Of course there are other traditions like the moonlight sword as well. I could talk about the clear counterparts that many Demon’s Souls levels have in Dark Souls and how their level design evolved.

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Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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It happens to the best of us.

About thinking (of) video games

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When playing a game I sometimes think to myself “Huh, this is interesting.” Or when I think about the game while showering. Or laying down in bed. Or driving.

This blog is the place where those thoughts go. I’m interested in game & narrative design, video game culture and the broader meaning they take in my life.

All of this is to say: I like games and writing. This is a blog where I write about games.