Its true… i think the fundamental formula is that it makes you an explorer first- turns you loose with a very vague objective and lets you discover… map, traversal, sequence skips, w/e and gives you “clues” while letting you feel empowered to do things in your own order/way/time… thus making you feel clever.

Zeldas, you could say, are more linear, more “adventure” in progression than exploration… but its not black n white and each title has varying degrees of freedom

Sorry late reply… yeah i realized a lot of my frustration was trying to play spoiler free… but this game seems to beg for guides/walkthroughs, and i agree w you i really dont like games that feel super dependent on constantly checking a guide not to mention just breaking your immersion n taking you out of the gameplay… but some of the stuff is like “no way im just figuring that out!” Like egregious level of “hidden area behind a hidden area to fight a hidden boss that unlocks a hidden upgrade” level shit. Its one more in a long list of really bummer decisions from this team.

Its my no.1 genre… i have played A LOT of them. People have already hit on the “big three” - hollow knight, super metroid and castlevania SOTN… heres lesser mentioned gems… sure, they’re not as incredible as those 3 genre topping master pieces, but theyre super super good and worth a play.

• alwas awakening
• tunic*
• hyper light drifter*
• hob*
• Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R)
• Metroid Dread
• castlevania dawn of sorrows/aria of sorrow
• axiom verge
• metroid prime
• castlevania 3
• metroid zero mission
• SM: ancient chozo**
• SM: Ascent**
• 9 Sols

*yes, there could be called “zelda-likes” instead of metroid vanias, but i always felt those two game designs were kissing cousins… if you like one you might like the other.

** these are romhacks…,very very good ones. You need a rom of super metroid and emulator to play em.

Hot take alert
Hollow knight silksong.

Its such a huge letdown for me as a massive fan of Hk… but they did so many things that are just… mean. They disrespect the player constantly… tc actually TROLLS YOU with trick benches n shit. But mainly waste so much of your time with shitty padded content. Fucking fetch quests, timed ‘flower’ quests by the dozen. Most of the primary content ends up being “just like hollow knight, but worse, and now do 10x more of the worse version.” So its unoriginal AND inferior to the source.

I tried so hard to love it and its nothing but frustration in the end.

Baseball like: give u three chances to hit this onion over that fence

The problem is not the game… its getting mad. You’re supposed to be having fun. If you’re not having fun you’re doing it wrong. Either enjoy overcoming challenges or find something else to do.

Finamp was pretty good, but offline mode and playback had some quirks/struggles for me. Maybe its cuz im on graphineOS. The true winner for me on my pixel8 is symphonium. Its a one time purchase, with a free mode… absolute knockout. Zero bugs, great, easy UI, smart playlists, scrobble integration for discovery, etc etc etcccc

I have only recently started with self hosting and after some minor frustration, i am in love!!! Plex isnt just worse cuz its paywalling your own files, its install, support and ui are pretty trash, imo. The one advantage i saw was that it was easy to share w folks. If your jellyfin is going to be secure AND accessible, thats more work to do.

Keep in mind jellyfin does NOT recommend using a pi, bc it struggles w transcoding etc. That said, my first go was an rpi5. I used this guide and it was pretty brainless… ezpz: Indian tech guru to the rescue!

Beware, uptime w the pi is pretty bad… had to restart server all the time, and some devices would not stream properly. It did work, mostly though, and it was a great intro for me since i just had it lying around.

Have fun!

Y know this comment section-and every other i see when this vid comes up- is a perfect illustration of why the left always loses. We would rather criticize everything/anything than DO anything. Who fucking CARES if they care, if the notice, if it matters or affects anything??? Who fucking CARES who/what the mascot is??? The message is something im reasonably sure 99.99 percent of usernames in this particular commie off brand reddit corner of the internet AGREE WITH. Yet. We sit here shouting at each other and arguing over each fucking comment, nuance and semantic instead of doing even the tiniest, most trivial resistance… this more than anything is why the left is so useless and despicable, as a movement. Theyre too busy shooting each other in the feet to notice the race is already over. MORONS.

What an awesome resource!! I feel like I have been looking for this forever