PixlBit

Good on ya for helping the cause.  m/ 

I heard Broken Age was easy as shit. Good story, but puzzles are too simple for the dedicated adventure game crowd.

Most people seem to prefer the continuous world of Dark Souls, but Demon's Souls has more memorable environments, in my opinion.

I think I like 5 better. Better weapon system, tighter control, the best version of Mercenaries mode in the series, and Wesker. 

6 has the superior atmospherics,  more interesting set-pieces, more melee and defensive options, and resource scarcity. But the Jake/Sherry campaign bring it down a lot.

The camera was fine in 4, but it keeps creeping in closer and closer with successive games. Picking up 5 and 6 for the first time felt like the left side of my body was shot up with novacaine.

The weapon system looks better in Revelations, but the ship/water motif doesn't appeal to me. Maybe one day.

I agree with your criticisms. The game tried to be every action game. The swimming sections are just padding, not mechanics that are hollisticaly woven into the fabric of the game like they are in Super Mario or Tomb Raider classic. You never are called upon to do it after that .

The first God of War was a disappointment to me, gameplay wise. All the hype, yet it felt way too derivative of games I had played not too long before. I thought 2 was the game that lived up to the hype in that department. The hammer was way fun and the bosses were great. But I can't argue about the character development, as it continues to slip until we to get to...

3 was the worst. Basically, Kratos is a murderous child throwing the world's biggest tantrum. Fuck Kratos in that game. I wanted Zeus to cave his head in. Great visuals though.

And I TOTALLY agree about Arkham. Bigger isn't always better. Asylum was focused, effificent, and the environment was more memorable and a character in itself. 

If these games were in first person, they'd feel just like the King's Field games and Ultima Underworld. And Shadow Tower Abyss, which I recommend finding and playing on an emulator as soon as you get a chance.  It's even darker than Demon's Souls, and has that niche Japanese flavor that a lot of mid budget games had back in the PS1/PS2/Dreamcast days.

My computer experience back then was limited to my friend's C64. It's where I had my first taste of western video role-playing and adventure games. Well, besides Oregon Trail on my elementary school's Apple 2C.

Yeah, I have Dark Arisen. I would put it along side the Souls games in the top tier of action-RPGs of the generation.  Haven't done much of the extra content though.

Sounds good to me.

The funny thing about creation, even as a past time, is that you never know where it will take you. For now you are at the RPGMaker-ish level, maybe by next year you'll be making stuff like Project Zomboid, Binding of Isaac, or Terraria. Maybe even an Outlast (interesting horror game that I recommend everyone play) one day. You never know. Effort, persistence, and learning (and probably some contacts/networking) seem to work for many artists.

Well, understand that it takes 100 failures to reach one great work. These people can't expect you to nail your first major release. That's not how creation works, unless you're a prodigy or lucky.  And it only becomes more difficult the more options you have. Square was able to nail a game like Final Fantasy early because the tools were more limited, and the options and language for making a RPG on consoles were more limited.  The lower the bar, the easier to vault over it. But you have not only more complex tools, but 30 years of video game RPG mechanics and approaches to consider.

My un asked for counsel? Determine a deadline for Gutterdelve finality, then get working on the next game. Finishing is an under valued skill in art. Every finished work gets you closer to expertise/professionalism than fiddling with one piece to perfection. My 2 cents.