It's not your fault. | En Garde Demo Review
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- Опубликовано: 23 июн 2023
- En Garde isn't a bad game, and its flaws aren't its own, but it reminds me of better art.
Game Page: store.steampowered.com/app/16...
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#EnGarde 
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Your central issue is that this game is too easy, but it seems to me you can't imagine someone else finding it challenging in any way. I know I'm shit at games, but I found it appropriately challenging and had a lot of fun, besides the horrendous optimization and overly sticky controls, even on medium difficulty. It could use some tweaking, but I really liked the ideas it had with the environmental combat and haven't seen them used too often in similar titles. The dodge and parry timings were too generous for you, but I found them to be just long enough to not be frustrating. It's not Sekiro and It's not trying to be and I don't know why you're faulting it for that. I think that there is room in gaming for both accessible and challenging games. There are plenty of games that let you "earn" it, but they can also be too grueling for some people. Again, different people have different reaction times, gaming experience, time, patience and inherent abilities, or desires for what they want out of games. So some games can be hard for some people and easy for others. It's the thing that frustrated me a bit from a lot of Joseph Anderson's reviews/critiques. A lot of his critiques boil down to "this game is too easy and I wanted more options to make it more difficult to accommodate me without having to restrict myself", while not fully acknowledging that he's in the 99.99th percentile of players.
I feel like you're assuming a lot of things about me that I never explicitly stated. And... I think being frustrated is fine. I don't understand why everyone is so opposed to frustration. It's not like I'm saying 'git gud' or I started out exceptional at action games, you know? I'm not a superhuman, either, but then I engaged with them and gradually improved, because they demanded me to improve
I don't believe fun is itself a good enough reason to make art. And older games did used to push people more, with their mechanics, stories, and concepts. You rose to meet the challenge and explore what the games have to offer, or, you didn't. And that was it
I don't believe there's a worse thing that art can be than crowd-pleasing. I don't believe in simplifying interactive elements in art simply because people would find them difficult. I don't tolerate that in literature or films, either
Also: What is Hard Mode on the Challenge Arena even for, if it's still not challenging to action-game veterans?
You can enjoy what you enjoy, and I'm not trying to rob you of that by sharing my own experiences and thoughts
@@AddyLovestar That's fair enough, maybe I reacted that way because I felt your tone was too authoritative, but that's my fault.
People are opposed to frustration because it can take away from the experience and waste your time. I did not expect the game to be overly difficult and demanding because it's a lighthearted action game where the central mechanic is interacting with the environment. It would not fit in thematically or mechanically for it to have precise dodge and parry timings. What function would it serve other than make the game harder? And what would making it harder serve in turn? I don't want difficulty for difficulty's sake. I want difficulty to be fully integrated into the core of the game. That's why I'm fine dying thousands of times in Celeste or dozens of times in Demon's Souls, but I wouldn't be here. I think for some people (including you, I'm assuming), you need some baseline of challenge to be able to fully engage with a game and the game failed to deliver that for you even on hard, which is an absolutely valid thing to take issue with.
I just don't agree with you about art having to be anything other than itself or that it has to push people with anything. But that's okay different people have different views on art. I agree with you to some extent about being averse to art just made to be crowd-pleasing, but I can still also see art contorting itself to be deep and challenging because artists are seeking validation from critics and that's just as bad imo. It's better for art to be true to itself, to be "sincere". But that's more of an art creation thing and maybe something sensed in aggregate. But when I'm personally engaging with art I find it exceptionally difficult to judge whether any element of it is "sincere" or not, because I'd just be projecting my own ideas of what "sincerity" is, so I don't.
You're free to think differently of course and I apologize if I came across as hostile. I was just trying to share my thoughts as well.
Edit: Out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite older more challenging games? I'm interested.
"If you wanna go spend 30 minutes on a single-button combo to do a simple punch, go play Tekken."
"If you wanna press three buttons and look down on people who press two, go play Elden Ring."
-Fleekazoid
Games haven't started to become too easy, you're just a pro >:)
Games that are easy to learn but hard to master are the best.
Games have gotten easier over time, and it's easy to see this by playing practically any action game from 10+ years ago. I talk about the differences in this very video. I regularly still play those old games. They are just more challenging
Also: You punch in Tekken by just pressing the Square Button
@@AddyLovestar I know lol
Also glad you edited the 'Objectively wrong' part out
Because I can name tons of modern games that are harder than the ones back then.
I'm very happy that this game is not "art," whatever "art" is supposed to mean; I go to other games for "art"
Being ignorant of how these things work does not make them less so, it just makes it easier to sell you targeted products
Yeah! I wanted a "non art" game and got a "non art" game and they got my money for making a "non art" game. It's great. Once someone makes an "art" game that looks interesting to me - I hope they target me too.
Have you played Sifu? Curious what your thoughts would be on it. On one hand it has button prompts and glowing props but it is much more challenging otherwise.
I haven't. It looked interesting but I just haven't gotten around to it yet
You should try midnight fight express, a really good isometric beat em up compared to this.
Not to mention it has way more fluent combat. And gets harder as the game goes on with new enemies with thier own quirks and such which is strange for a button mash combat style.
In short, the game does make you feel like a badass but you do have to earn it.
Also it was made by one guy.
EDIT: If you do plan on getting it I advise playing it on normal first so you can see what enemies look like when they do an attack that can be parried and one that can be not.
Realistic difficulty removes all indication from enemies but I've got over 100hrs in so there attack patterns are hard wired into my brain.
i agree...i'll probably not play this now. i thought a game called engarde and seemingly about swords would have somewhat of a steep learning curve...and be kind of like "hellish quart". Cool analysis. Can you review Baldur 3?
Baldur's Gate 3 really isn't my kind of game, even if I like the writing
Watching this “review” and then looking at the channels other videos is some of the funniest shell shock I’ve experienced on the internet
Glad I could entertain
You are making a mistake, the game is challenging! And I wouldn't be surprised if the first wave kills you in less than 2 minutes! You need to use the stage and items! You need to or you will die!
Nice video
i dont know how you feel about character action games but one i would recommend if your looking for some more complexity is assault spy which is around the same price and i think has better optimzation but to add to the video i think some games are just meant for fun kinda like kirby or a mario game or like another character action game like hifi rush( potential bias because im used to character action games and ive heard some people call it hard). But i do agree on removing player agency being bad though no matter how easy a game is the controls shouldnt be sticky. Lastly i do think games should be more innovative then necessarily harder especially character action games but i feel like another problem with character action games have is while you may have to learn them i feel like they make it hard to learn because of bad tutorials. For example i am a fan of platinum games and have many of hours on all their games but they dont teach dodge offset in almost all their games except bayo 3 and they dont even go over the other types of offsets in bayo 1 like taunt and crow offset . Also the reason why i dont like V in DMC5 because you barely interact with the game playing as him.
sorry if this doesnt make sense its late at night also sorry for a bit of a ramble just have a lot of thoughts about character action games
edit also what other action games do you find easy just wondering and what action games would your recommend ive been obessed with all the older character action games like vanquish and dmc3 and i plan to play ninja gaiden eventually
Yeah, Ninja Gaiden (especially the original Xbox version) is pretty good. I also enjoy Devil's Third but it's crazy expensive unless you emulate. There's also Chaos Legion
I'll give Assault Spy a look
@@AddyLovestar ill check it those out never heard out those games before
I’m mostly only interested in this because I like the musketpunk genre and it is almost nonexistent in games.
I love you.
You lied to me! Is this a demo review? We didn't play the same game! I was fighting 9 enemies at the same time!
It kicks your ass! At the end I had to fight all bosses at the same time and 2 of them called up to 4 enemies if reinforcements, I had to use my environment, priorize order and separate the enemies to get them one by one!
It reminds me of the Futurama episode where they try to write the finale to an old TV show. "Whats wrong? Its clever it's unexpected!" "Exactly! Clever things make people feel stupid, and unexpected things make them feel scared"
the interact-able items both glowing and giving a button prompt sounds more like an issue of taste thany any real issue since I can appreciate some of that in games if it's not always clear what random level objects are things I can actually manipulate or not. That said a toggle for both or either one could be nice.
Other than that I do agree that it's a shame that games will go out of their way to make the default fairly thoughtless.
The notion of "failure is wrong" is much older than modern gaming. Honestly, the inherently competitive nature of human beings in general teaches us that, and it's been pushed further by tying it to the idea that in order to survive and thrive, we can't afford to make mistakes.
And this mentality has also driven "Soccer Moms" to insist on "Participation Trophies" while also insisting that those are the fault of "kids these days" as these boomers have turned blind to their own faults. In reality, "Kids these days" have grown wise to these participation trophies and see them as marks of shame ("You failed! Good job!"), which in turn has pushed them into the same neurosis that our hyper-competitive society has created for our ancestors.
thanks for the honest review or else would have wasted my precious time
Glad someone appreciated it
Honestly, this take and discourse could apply to a lot of games I've played recently, and this is a weird one to levy it at. Sure, it's not hard, but I don't think it's trying to be. It's like a cross between a button mashy roguelike that makes everything simple and familiar, and a skill based combat system. Most of all, it's fun. Way more fun than the bullshit that is FFXVI, which everyone is loving for no apparent reason.
I don't think being fun is enough by itself. And I acknowledge in the video that it isn't En Garde's fault, it's just following trends
A lot of media doesn't want to be challenging, unique, or outstanding. That doesn't mean it gets a free pass to follow homogenized industry trends. We should expect more from art, especially from indie art
@@AddyLovestar why isn't being fun enough for GAMES? how is making a game fun following a trend? sorry, but all of your arguments here point to a pretty closed mind about the purpose of games. Games were harder back in the day not just simply because of trend reasons, old designs were often difficult due to limitations of the medium (and Kirby is old, easy AND great, or are you considering old fun games like Mario and Kirby not part of the medium?) I love hard games, but I really enjoyed the demo for this one because it exuded breezy fun in both gameplay and tone, and that consistent expression of that vibe is what i think makes a game "art" even if not DEEP DARK HIGH ART. It's En Garde in the way of a fun swashbuckling movie ala Errol Flynn's Robin Hood.
L take, go replay elden ring
I don't really care for Elden Ring, cool attempt at blatant stereotyping though
My kind of game. I don’t play video games to get stressed out. I play for fun and progressing an amazing game and replay if I am having fun. I would never play long games in my life again which are bloated and challenging as hell. Clearly you have a lot of time on your hands just like critics whose job it is to play video games and want more hours and more challenge. Although nothing wrong with that. But games used to be made for players first. Now it’s for critics and their awards.
That's a common fallacy people commit. Art which challenged people existed before game critique was this normalized or professional. In fact, games used to be more challenging in general in the past (which I point out in this video), not less
And there are plenty of people who play challenging games who also have full-time jobs. I know several of them. There is no excuse for art to be unchallenging or simplified
Art does not just exist to make you happy or content. It exists as a force of culture. It shouldn't just replicate your mind, it should seek to offer new insight
@@AddyLovestar You are thinking way too much into this. At the end of the day its a video game meant to be fun. Games can be artistic, fun and accessible and for kids. Games are complete different then any other entertainment out there.
Game: Has helpful UI.
Addy: "This is demoralizing to me. It speaks to a lack of respect for my intelligence, and yours."
Dude just went through a small existential crisis because the game was too easy for them.
Maybe check out Hi-Fi Rush if you want a fun concept with more challenge.
Hi-Fi Rush is always automatically in sync, it's not to my taste either. Also, I feel like you're inherently misunderstanding the criticism:
The more overbearing a user interface is, the less it feels like we're engaging with a world, and the more it feels like we're completing simple tasks. You should be trusted, as a thinking person, to analyze your environment without the need for so many prompts
@@AddyLovestar That little indicator is overbearing for you? Do you have visual sensory issues?
Joking aside, you spent like a quarter of the review complaining about something they could add a setting for in the options. That minor UI annoyance isn't the right example to springboard into a meta discussion about how the games industry is afraid to challenge the players and let them fail.
Lots of comments are suggesting games in the Souls series because those devs "Respect their player's Intellegence" enough to let them fail and learn. Too bad those games give you an OVERBREARING prompt when you go to pick up an item. Guess those game disrespect your intellegence too. Maybe try Dwarf Fortress without the graphics update.
That's a shame. Seemed interesting.
Try the demo, it is actually pretty good.
So, a video critique of "modern gamers" rather than the actual game.
Must try harder.
I brought up several things about the actual game in this video, including its artistic intention, how it expands upon and utilizes its genre's themes, its mechanics...
Also, when did I critique people? I just critiqued the choices of modern interactive media. People are largely the same (psychologically) throughout history. What's changed isn't people, it's the art they consume