As a huge Video game essay simp, I've always hoped to get to watch one of my game, thank you. :) Writing notes as I'm watching: Yr den - x: Breakable floor - Fair, I actually wrote a reminder about this, to make sure to add learning a jump slam attack to a new tutorial, whenever I get to make a new one hehe. Ardor - I've still got mixed feelings about it as well. The goal with ardor was to reward playing as intended while not really being all that punishing. I wasn't looking for a player experience where you are super stressed about dying, like in most souls-likes, but rather empowered from getting better at the game, kind of like Sekiro. Since using it against enemies can stack it fairly quickly, a secondary goal was to get players to practice on that area's enemies, which will improve their skill and better prepare them for the boss to some extent. The vessel remains(bloodstain) were an additional mechanic (shamelessly stolen from Mortal Shell) to encourage the player to give it another shot, since now they also have the added bonus of a heal. But it is definitely something I would like to rework into a different death mechanic that hopefully nails that goal more definitively. Vulture Beacon - Fair point, I fell to the game design trap of doing something because it sounded like a cool gimmick, (searching for the beacon all of the place only to find the boss [which is marked on the map at least] chewing on it.) Not thinking through far enough the bad impact it may have on a player's experience. At least it hopefully made finally beating Vulture extra rewarding. :P Bugs - You're absolutely correct, and I can only admit that it has been very embarrassing keep seeing and hearing about these bugs, and that it has always been our priority to get the cleaned is soon as they are found. For what it's worth, I believe either all or most the ones you've mentioned in the video should either already be cleared or fixed in a patch currently in a public beta branch for testing. But yeah, it is the unfortunate consequence of us being inexperienced and GRIME being our first game, as well as being less than a handful of developers. This whole process us made us much more aware of what to look out for and better work practices to avoid repeating these issues in the future. :) Correction - Surrogate Vulture is also mandatory, you can go through the passage down and to the right of the checkpoint and skip it, and the rest of the area entirely. All new bosses are optional. :) The Vases - They were actually the 2nd creatures created for the game, alongside the Rockheads, which started development a few months before Sekiro was announced. So not an Elden Ring reference. :) Story - I greatly enjoyed listening to all of it! But that's all I can say hehe.
Thank you so much for watching, and responding! It's an amazing feeling to know you've seen (and seem to even have enjoyed, haha) my response to your game, one which really effected me. I greatly enjoyed reading your notes here, I'm surprised to find out the pot guys weren't an Elden Ring reference hahaha! I also quite enjoyed Mortal Shell, so it's neat to know you took the husk mechanic from that. I really love Grime, and it's been a joy to play through it several times since launch, and see it improve greatly over time. You're doing great work, and I am eagerly waiting to see whatever you do next. 😁
I kinda like how the vulture is guarding the beacon. Theres lots of points in the area where you need air dash, and after you beat vulture, you get air dash and the beacon, so then youre encouraged to re explore the area.
Thank you for the great game. GRIME was the first game I played to the end in months, and I had fun all the way! P. S. I liked the ardor mechanic; gaining it is easy enough to not fret over dying and losing it. P. S. 2 - I would love to be able to fast travel from the beginning, it would made exploration more enjoyable since I would be able to revisit past zones easily once I acquired new moves.
Grime is the most unique and intersting game I ever Played, it has some rough places but for me it kinda gives it some charm About Ador, maybe add spells? A way to spend your current ador to do something that helps you? Kinda like the soul system in hollow knight but in numerical form, that could also help new Players strugling with the game
I always thought that Shidra might be a personification of the Parent's brainstem or limbic system, given their sense of control over the world, placement at the top of the Worldpillar, and uncompromising approach to survival.
When you were talking about shidra trying to unnaturally extend the lifespan of the world it definitely reminds me of dark souls, with linking the flame and gwyn and everything. I never thought of shidra as the bad guy though. I always saw them as just trying to take care of everyone and make sure life is as good as possible even though everything sucks. Thats why they hired the mothers to help the rockheads. Also I never considered that shidra imprisoned the child with that spinning ring device thing, that was mindblowng.
I mean, it would make sense to think that Shidra was trying to make the best for everyone out of a hopeless situation: he quite literally says something to that effect out loud moments either before his death or before you fight him (i just beat the game yesterday, dialog is decently fresh in my mind). The point I had against that was thinking he was the one allowing passage to the carven into lithic, at least before the gondola was shut down, but that part of the game I played more than 4 months ago, so I'll need to try replaying the game to clear that up.
God this video is such a brilliant tribute and discussion to this gorgeous game I would have never known about. How expertly they understood and conveyed their message and philosophy through aesthetics, gameplay and worldbuilding is simply awe-inspiring. Its deeply spiritual and meaningful without being overbearing, corny or shallow about its presentation, and wonderful immersive execution. Its hard to describe but games like this, Fear and Hunger, Rainworld, Pathologic and the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once are just masterpieces of pure Existenalism experience. Deep diving into the roots of existence, and questioning life itself, our place and purpose across these vast cosmos, hell even questioning the fabric of reality and all that could lie beyond too. Thank you again for the tight script and video editing, this was a great breakdown 👌
Thank you for watching, and responding! I'm glad I was able to share/get across why this game has been such a special experience that has stuck with me since I first played it, especially since there isn't a huge body of work about it.
Man, that ending theory was epic. And then that masterful defusion of the tension afterwards. I've definitely not given this game a fair chance, I lost interest in it when I learned about the focus on parrying. I might have to reconsider that decision.
For what it's worth, parries are always rewarding, and there's a trait you can get to make them last longer so you don't have to stress over the timing as much. I played and beat the game with it at lv1, and it was fine. I can't imagine how much more forgiving it becomes by getting it to lv5, in case you'd have a better time with the game not stressing over tight parry windows that much.
Got the game today, completed all souls sekiro etc....the mostly parry heal system was odd but the game is hella fun now I've got into it, and YOU DONT LOSE SOULS ON DEATH, INSTANT WIN.
Here is to much success. I usually try to avoid recommended videos but caught Fear& Hunger (which I would love to see a more in-depth coverage including story and endings) and your voice does well with these review/retrospective style videos. Here's to some great success, dude. You do excellent work, especially for a "new" channel
You are right about so much in this video, especially the part where few people are talking about it. I've been waiting for the Switch release and now that it is here I am buzzing about it! Great video by the way!
I like your theory about this game, it sound weirdly reassuring. Also, when it comes to the flowers being alien to rocks it made me think about the danger as well, since most plants have roots that with enough time can destroy rocks or at least damage them.
Love these reviews of relatively obscure games. Unrelated you've made me consider playing fear and hunger. Me. Who has played 5 games ever. Looking forward to the suffering.
@@ZuldimYT I know people who would kill to have your power to get others interested in a thing. Like you have not known true desperation until you've met people obsessed w a slash ship from a piece of media from 30 years ago. So to say, you've probably made a (proportional) ton of hardcore fear & hunger, and grime fans fucking ecstatic w the new influx of people you're bringing to their fandom. Mark my words there are people in a tiny discord server somewhere singing your praises for this exact thing. Fucking, breathing new life to tiny fandoms. Wow.
Follow up on this: I have played Fear & Hunger for 17 hours. My furthest along save is 1h 12minutes in. I love it! I am spreading the pain to others like a virus. Idk whether to say "thanks" or "this is your fault"
1:11:25 I think with "It is already inside, we cannot avoid it", the Stargoddess meant you. You formed and therefore, she must now die, causing her to despair as death is coming. Presumably, not every Stargoddess dies when birthing a child, it usually only happens to the elders of their kind. She was an exception, or perhaps getting too old, which is why she told her lover to find a Stargoddess who doesn't have a black hole waiting to erupt inside of her, to find love again. Of course, this is all just speculation and we can clearly see in the comment section that the creators don't feel like clarifying anything (They just oughta admit that they themselves haven't 100% decided, either, that's almost always the reason when creators don't clarify anything about their art)
i really hope the algorithm catches this video like it did with your fear & hunger one. this was another phenomenal video about a truly wonderful and interesting game i would have never heard of otherwise
Thank you for watching (and for the algo boost by commenting lol), I'm glad I was able to share a really great game with people who hadn't heard of it.
Currently watching this video and I have no doubt it will be equally if not more interesting than your Fear and Hunger video. I really want to play more games, but I rarely have the time to and am absolutely terrible at them. However, I’ve gotten the urge to finally play some of the games you’ve talked about on this channel. Around 2:50 really resonated. By the time I’ve decided on a game to invest money into and played and finished it, suddenly there are 20 more games out that I allegedly “have” to play. It’s hard trying to weed through games to find something I’ll really enjoy playing or at least enjoy the philosophical experience of (like Disco Elysium and Pathologic Classic, which were both incredibly stressful games but were ultimately a net positive due to how intriguing they were).
I first played this game on release, just after it came out and was recommended to me by Steam, and I had a really similar reaction to yours: I was enthralled by the aesthetics of it, the narrative, and the combat, but after playing through it, couldn't find any online discourse at all. For me, at least, it is difficult to properly process a game without talking to others about it and without hearing their input, so the game was somewhat left unfinished to me. Well, this video changed that! This really was wonderfully put together and once again highlighted what really *works* in Grime.
Just finished the video. Another fantastic job sir! I love that you are covering obscure horror/creepy type games. If I wasn’t terrible with directions I’d pick up Grime in a heartbeat. Can’t wait to see what you present to us next!
man i just finished the game and i can say that i agree with you on the statement that this game deserves to get alot of coverage and people trying it . even though im not even a big fan of the genre the style of the game when i discovered it and the surreal protagonist with a black hole for a head truly grasped me there. the only slightest amount of complaint that i have is that there is no incentive to replay it (new game +) if so i would definitely replay it again soley for the experience and style that it brings.
Your video on Fear & Hunger made me momentarily obsessed with that game, don't do this to me again! Jokes aside, I love the way you tell a story, consider me subscribed
I think you can relate all the races worshipping one level up as a natural metaphor for human hierarchies. People tend to worship those of higher material status to be valuable - money, status, fame, etc. People looking to work their way up the system to relieve themselves of their suffering, thinking paradice is just hitting 1 million twitter followers. "Pyramid Scheme" is a strong phrase but I think it can similar to what we have. Yon climbs the pyramid to the level of Carven but still feels empty. Even the Carven are worshipping the ones above them, after all their suffering and they resent the player for their lack of suffering.
This is the first video I have seen from you and I can already tell you will be someone I want to watch! I love how you talk about your interpretation of the game and your experience with it! Keep up the good work!
You’ve gotta play Sunless Sea or the sequel Sunless Skies. I prefer Sea, but I think you’d love the strangeness and lore of both, especially after seeing your video on Fear and Hunger.
Those have been on my list to get around to playing for a while actually, I think I have the first one from some bundle a while back. Maybe I'll boot it up on my Steam Deck and check it out later.
I got a lot more I want to write. But i will say as someone who recently finished the game. It is interesting to watch reviews and experience the game in a state that has seemingly adressed many of the issues you mentioned. I'm sitting here like "huh" but the game that has been sitting in my library for over 6 months was still receiving updates/patches. It shows that the devlopers really loved this game. I hope that it can find an wider audience to appreciate it's beauty. I am glad you made this video
I didn't understand the end the same way you did, for me, you, the player, specifically the black hole, just used all of it's energy to transform the world in just another big human figure in the distance, and I think it's more beautiful that way because the habitant of the world didn't suffer, just disepaerd. But great video, I have played 50h, am on my 2nd ng+ (there is a 3rd dlc) and yeah, this game is beautiful, play it.
I came across the fear and hunger video a couple of days ago and really loved it. What a nice surprise to see that you made a video on this videogame since I wanted a video like this ever since I finished it and I couldn't seem to find any. Great work!!
Really enjoyed the lore take. I have to say I find it head and shoulders above Hollow Knight and Metroid Dread in pretty much every aspect. Everything has purpose, has been carefully considered, is incredibly fluid, and the art style is incredible.
I had never heard of The Eternal Cylinder before, but this looks cool as hell and right up my alley so I added it to my Steam wishlist to remind myself to pick it up on a Steam Sale or something, so thanks for that!
@@ZuldimYT The creators of Eternal Cylinder, ACE Team, also created the Zeno Clash games-- which includes the recent Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. Zenozoik is a world of *bizarre* creatures, with a story and logic all its own. Some creatures are references to old medieval woodcarvings, like the Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel. Others are based on prehistoric animals, like Kroggo Longtooth in AoC, who is based on the Platybelodon. The series is very much worth looking into more and experiencing for yourself.
I suspect I understand the intent of the ardor mechanic functioning as a “rich get richer” system. It makes most sense as an incentive to grind. This game is very demanding of its player when it comes to understanding and mastery of its combat mechanics, especially the parry. By having ardor reward you for playing better, it incentivizes you to spend time practicing on less difficult enemies to better achieve that mastery, if for no other reason than to level up enough to be properly scaled for the next area before you enter it. If you have already mastered the mechanics, the experience boost from having high ardor negates any need for grinding, making it easier for players to stay properly leveled without needing to grind on enemies they’ve already beaten, especially on subsequent playthroughs. Is this the best way to incentivize this behavior? I’d say no, but the mechanic makes the most sense to my brain if this was the intention behind it.
it's always great to see more grime content. my personal view of the endings and the coda specifically is that the coda where so obsessed with their end that it left them ignorant and ungrateful. ignorant that they carelessly blocked themselves from the rest of the world,creating the pointless scarcity of flesh/wax that resulted in the system of the carven. while the carven works centuries for scraps of flesh the coda get to live near an infinite waterfall of it. And ungrateful that despite living in a golden city without conflict,not even aware of the suffering they have caused, they still want everything to end. the world of grime was not perfect,but it wasen't hell either. it could have become a better world with time,but it was never given the time to do so. it's very easy for the protagonist to see it's destruction as a mercy considering what THEY get out of it. After all, if we are to trust not those who want to live? why should we be anymore trust worthy
Glad to see GRIME getting the recognition it deserves. Great video, I loved your take on the story. I believe that the game is an allegory to death. As you said the player character is the incarnation of biological death and every other npc is a cell holding up to life. Shidra is definitely a parasite; his appearance is completely different from anything else and he is the only one that knows what we are, meaning he saw the ending happening in other place (the parent) before infecting the child.
There is a breath memory in the pale sky (A hidden one specifically) that calls the thing destroying them Tehom - the Spiral Hearts explicitly. So Shidra seems to be just a creature of the Worldparent like everything else. Interestingly, another of the memories calls the one the worldparents were fleeing a vengeful Tehom
Gosh, TWO banger videos on games I've wishlisted but never picked up. You got me itching to play both. Your style seems more... holistic? Analyzing each element and giving a run-down of the whole game, then giving your thoughts on what the game is trying to say. Which I've really enjoyed! I'd love to see a list of your favorite games or what your overall favorite genres are?
Some of favorite games of all time include: - Fallout: New Vegas - Dark Souls (& Demon's & Bloodborne & so on) - Shadow of the Colossus - Hitman World of Assassination trilogy (this one is no surprise given my video essay series on the games) - World of Warcraft (back in the day, you can't go home again) - Final Fantasy XIV (again, no surprise given my channel contents) - Pokemon (Gen 1-5 in particular, if you held my feet to the fire HG/SS is the best one) FAR from a complete list, but these are some of my all time favorites, which I tend to go back to over and over again year after year. I tend to go for RPGs most often, as far as genres go, but I just really love video games and play almost everything, from AAA action games to niche visual novels. Thanks for watching! Edit: BTW, I really like how you described these vids as a "holistic" approach, I might steal that someday. My main inspirations for the Fear & Hunger and Grime videos have been RagnarRox and Noah Caldwell-Gervais, and if you've ever seen either of their channels, that tends to be how they approach talking about games as well.
I just finished it and im so in love with it, the thought put into it, the fear from death and how to think of it, like this game makes you really think, its really sad that games like this dont get the attention it deserves, thank you for explaining, the whole theme of the dying body I didnt notice it by finishing the game lol
I didn't play Grime until after Colours of Rot. I can confirm that a build focussed on Resonance and traits works very well. My first play through I dumped basically all my points in to Resonance, and I used the parry and dodge traits, with the lantern that adds the bonus resonance damage. I had another weapon for the occasional backup, but the dodge damage traits means even most enemies that you can't parry, or that have a grey health section can still be beaten without attacking. And that greatly tickled my fancy :P It was an extremely fun build :D I also came to enjoy building up the lantern buff to stupidly high levels without doing much damage to them, just to see how ridiculously much damage I could do in one pop. I have no idea if that lantern has a cap, but I never reached it if it does.
what a great review, you are speaking my heart out, I love this game mainly because its story telling, its music, and its concept, it's one piece of an art indeed.
Enter the gungeon also has a rich get richer mechanic(skill based) in giving you the very important extra hp on a perfect boss fight, meaning if you make just a tiny mistake on one, or more early bosses it puts you in a bad position moving ahead for the more difficult later content. The reward for a perfect is too important, it should have been something different than an extra 2 hp. Also really enjoying this game, the quality of life is nice(also added qol in dlc's), the unlockables, etc, I have the platinum on ps4 and am heading into my second playthrough now(different build), with the intention of bringing that to a ng+ and seeing all the changes they made there. The one glitch I've seen every so often is grabbing on nonexistant ledges and a counter loading up to 100%, no idea what that is, otherwise no bad bugs. Love the world of this game, atmosphere, world design, backgrounds, it's like exploring a work of art.
Hopefully this game will port to Switch soon so I can play it! Bookmarking this video until then, the first 5 mins of it completely sold me on going into it as blind as possible from now
I think it'd be cool if they tied Ardor to your health, so when you're struggling and taking a lot of damage you're gaining more exp and dealing higher damage in return which also leads to the strategy of purposefully remaining low on hitpoints for a boost of power in exchange for vulnerability. This way the system benefits both more and less skilled players
It's interesting to hear how "long" it takes to beat metroidvania games for some people - I think of them as relatively short, probably taking a weekend or slightly longer for a first playthrough and after you know the secrets and game mechanics you can rip through them in less then a day. In an era of 50-100 hour games being relatively common in the industry metroidvanias for me feel very time efficient.
the downward smash is pretty easy to figure out, since you already break some wall by that point and the downward wall has the same texture so i pretty much know they can be destroy too
So following your theory on the whole meaning behind alot of the subtext of the game im curious you didn't touch on or theorize about Shidra. I think your other ideas on the (LOOK AWAY COMMENT SPOILERS) Player being literal entropy, seeing the body die from your action, and seeing the different characters showcasing the stages of grief dealing with the coming of death makes sense. And considering the Dev cheekily didn't wana comment makes me think you might be pretty spot on. So considering, I wonder about maybe Shidra being a representation of "the id" in some way. The id, rooted in base instincts for things like pleasure and survival. Like it Shidra enjoys its time being worshipped and doing as it pleases to lesser beings. It will do things to tempt death knowing the danger, while at the same time doing everything in its power to stave off death for another day. It knows death is coming, that it's an inevitability, but it clings to life sometimes at the cost of morality or even the lives of others. The id also deals with sex and libido. While the breath allows the Child to be born and should be a start of a new cycle of life and death, instead Shidra is holding the Child back allowing those born of the Breath. The obvious symbolism of sex and birth, as we know, continuing forever but to the degree it becomes hideous and malformed; not for a purpose anymore. Just continuing so that it won't end. Shidra is a being of narcissistic pleasure worshiped as a God, by the abominations of an infinitely gestating womb, and has a selfish immorality that fuels their survival instinct in the face of inevitable entropy. Idk... Thoughts?
I like that reading on Shidra a lot. Everything you said about Shidra is definitely accurate, one of the few beings we see living in luxury, so to represent the id, selfishly and instinctually clinging to life and hedonistic pleasure works quite well for me.
@@ZuldimYT Pretty awesome. Glad I got it so close as well since I haven't touched the game, just going off your summary and considering what you theorized it seemed to be there. And yeah left me somewhat disappointed when you wrapped all of it up and never gave your theories on them. Them being the one thing living in this world that is so different from everything else within it. Really was expecting you to drive deep into theories about them lol.
Loved your video and love this game, but one thing i disagree is the giant of eyes, i got to him early and struggled, but than i realized he's just a big parry wall. If you learn how to parry his moves he gets really easy, but when I found him, since I was underlevel, i was too scared and "respected" him too much. Being bold and daring on parry makes him way easier, loved the vid, great work :)
Having been looking to play a new metroidvania (for me) I decided to give Grime a go. When I was first saw trailers of Grime when it was released I wasn't a fan of the character design and thought it was a lazy design (literally a rock human figure with a blackhole as a head). But now that I've played and completed my first playthrough I'm so thankful that I did. The game is amazing in so many aspects. The controls are responsive with the movement, jumping, attacking and using absorb (parry) is one of the most satisfying moves I've ever used in a video game. The combat is bit more deliberate and methodical similar to souls-like games but part of the fun is learning and timing the well put together absorb mechanic. The music is decent and eerie in some areas and in some areas there's no music which I thought was odd at first but once you play the game you'll understand why they did that. The platforming is smooth with responsive jumps and dashes although I found it to be a little bit average in terms of difficulty. The world is great with a lot of different biomes. Visually, there are some breathtaking sceneries that will leave you in awe. The maps could feel like a maze and you might feel like you're lost when you don't have the beacon activated (shows the map for that area) which can be unnerving. Although the maps are relatively big and are maze-like there weren't too many distinguishable landmarks that differentiated one part of the map to another of the same area which is a complaint I have about. I found myself having to open up the map frequently to see my location because of how maze-like and indistinguishable some of the map layouts were. On the flip side there are a LOT of nooks and crannies with secret spots and pathways so if you exploring then this will be right up your alley. Boss fights were good with all of them having different attacks and mechanics. The mobs were straight forward so I would have liked to see a little more variety but overall still decent. And finally the story. Grime has such an amazing story and such a twist and unexpected turn to it. I highly recommend this game simply because of the lore. I've played a few metroidvanias such as blasphemous, ender lilies, and a little bit of hollow knight and I have to say Grime is definitely one of my favorite of the metroidvanias. As Zuldim mentions in the video I think Grime got overlooked by some of the other games which is a huge shame because while not perfect I think the game definitely isn't getting attention it deserves. The devs are working on Grime 2 and I will be purchasing it once it comes out.
I love the video and the interpretation of the story. It gave me insight into things I didn't really notice. The fact that your character never has a developed personality or almost any interactions with anything except attempting to end them adds to the idea that they are just death, not evil or benevolent in any way, neutral. One thing that I disagree with is that Shidra is a villain or the implication that they're selfish. We know their status just by it being stated but it's not really a narrative I saw built upon throughout the game with NPC interactions or anything of the sort. The way they acted made them out to be more humble and wise which isn't necessarily true but we don't have much to go off of keeping in mind how few the interactions are. In my opinion if anything Shidra symbolizes the fear of death. They try their best to do something about it but even in the end, they're aware it's inevitable. In both endings they don't really think they can stop it, in the bad ending they beg the main character to reconsider and in the good ending, they themselves say that they can't defeat them but they're still going to fight for every second of life this world has had. I also like the idea that the philosophies of the world resemble the stages of grief and are in a hierarchy of revering each other while lacking understanding of each other, and if you pick up on it while playing it really adds to the experience of getting introduced to each individual region and how the creatures of said region deal with their suffering, but I think that you can also interpret it as life seeping into everything and trying its best to survive any way it can, adapting to the environment, trying things even despite the agony that comes from it. I also think that that leaves whether the main character is evil or not up to interpretation. To most creatures, they're evil because even if they're in pain they don't want to die, to the Coda, they're a saviour and it is left to us, after traversing this grotesque miserable world with all of its differing philosophies when it comes to death, to decide what is best for it. I think the game does a good job of painting the main character as a monster. A big part of that is that there is barely any time spent or content to play through in Cenotaph. They are the next stage in the hierarchy but they are not the final stage in it nor are they the longest one. Yes, a part of that is that everything there is meant to be easy for us because there is no one to dislike the character but the way it is made nonetheless did not make me think of it as a next level in the hierarchy philosophically as much as a differing philosophy. I also think the Ardor system works with the harsh theme of the game. It can feel weird mechanically esp because it indeed makes snowballing easier but I wouldn't really say it is that punishing for losing. I have died a lot of times in this game and I never felt like the levels are what saved me, it's trial and error and I like having Ardor but I often sacrifice it if I don't feel like getting it back. In a way, it's a lot more forgiving than losing money because even if it just returns you back to 0 you still return with money. You can just die over and over again until you can build something. That and while the stats are important, especially force, the game feels more reliant on absorbing, reflecting, pulling and dodging. I also think it fits the vibe of the game to an extent. I have not played many games of this genre but to me, the game feels harsh and unforgiving until a lot later on. You don't have a lot of mobility early on and the fighting itself is not too comfortable, often feeling very slow and clunky (hence why I used the fastest weapon I could find) and this is not a criticism of the combat because I actually like the way it's done. Despite being slow though it's still easier to use than absorbing and absorbing is much more rewarding, forcing me to risk things if I want better rewards or in some cases even to survive like for example absorbing while on low health to get some back. Either way, I think the game being harsh and unforgiving and not giving me things like mobility or regeneration really plays well into the idea that the character is exploring the world, absorbing what they fight and becoming stronger with it. I also think that Ardor does that on a smaller scale. It's not necessarily a morally good way to see things but its a theme of the game that the weak stay weak and the strong rise and it's the same with Ardor - if you are weak and lose you don't get to indulge in the buffs of triumphing over the unforgiving environment of the game, if you are strong it's all the easier for you to do so. I do think that it is a bit of an artificial way to do it though as that's what skill is - you learn to play the game and triumph over the obstacles, Ardor making things easier feels like more of just a way to get upgrades later on in the game because of the insanely high level up costs. There's no way you can quickly collect 9k mass without Ardor. There are more points to make and more things to interpret but I think that adds to the beauty of this game, It feels like it's up to interpretation. Overall loved your video though it's really well made and it really helped me see a different view of the story and the world of grime!
surrogate vulture is not mandatory i got strand of the child before fighting it in my first playthrough by getting to where it was located through childbed instead of garden, kind of taking a back route.
54:30 its a valid take, that one scene is really obvious if you play the slightest amount of attention and theres no way of even acknowledging it. Still a good game, i just think a couple of tweaks could have made it better. Like maybe a way you can show you worked it out, and then have to do it anyway or get a short ending for running away.
I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH. When it was free on Epic Games recently, I might have recommended it to everyone, several times a day, whoops. lol But seriously, I played it a year and a half ago and loved it. I'm not the best gamer so a few of those bosses kicked my ass dozens of times before I got them, and I had to go grind a lil, but it was still such a cool experience. I'm replaying it now with the new DLC and loving it just as much. And hating it so much cuz, again, I really suck at it and am glad I know learned that Surrogate Vulture is not mandatory cuz that second phase is painful lol. Thank you for the video, it was a pleasure to watch!
Great video on a fantastic game. If it weren't for the frame rate drops, I'd agree that this was one of the best of the decade. Hopefully it's patched up in the future.
I do not think the mothers actualy had a scheme, for one, they were in fact powerfull enougth to overpower any creature in litic, and i think they even taugth art to the misshapen. I beliebe they maybe did feel that new pain, a shared pain, and tried to learn somehow from it, changing perpectives and thinking of it as something to love. Maybe they found each other, they are rather unique in design compared to other plant beings in game, maybe they did that themselves, likely after meeting each other. Wild idea: maybe the mothers used the plants to customize themselves to their liking, it is far easier to trim a plant than to carve a stone after all, maybe they wanted to share a non stone beauty.
I Thankfully have not encountered bugs like the ones mentioned in video. I was fighting the mothers and after getting killed many times, I closed the game from task manager. The next time I opened the game, it put me directly in the boss fight, but they were not responsive. So, I got an easy kill.😄
I agree with your feelings about Grime. Hollow Knight's art and animation and NPC characterisation are all impeccable and memorable. These are the only things that set it apart from Grime to me, the only things it does "better". The themes, feel soundtrack and gameplay of Grime sit it somehow above HK for me, despite both being amazing games. This isn't to say that Grime needs to look nicer, it looks great, and I'm a fan of its visual design, it's just kind of difficult to compete with Hollow Knight's art in terms of it being painstakingly painted. NPC's however? I hope Grime 2 is able to improve on this aspect, we got some interesting interactions, particularly with Yon, Shidra and the coda, but there was not many super memorable or revealing things. I don't mind doing a bit of the dark souls thing of burying lore, but i'd like a bit more in terms of direct interaction.
It was an amazing and magnificient video, as a Grime fan, I finished it in one sitting without getting bored and skiping. What do you think about Grime 2?
@@ZuldimYT Dont. It took so many years cause it had an engine change cause the game refused to be worked on otherwise. And now its....something else. Not quite Legally Distinct Metroid Fusion but something close to that feel every Metroidvania seems to be going for after Dark Souls.
That's disappointing to hear. That game is totally in that "I'll end up with this accidentally because of a bundle eventually" category, so I might give it a try eventually, but there are a lot of metroidvanias these days so it's tough to get to them all.
You don’t actually have to fight the surrogate vulture i went in there got the item and never fought it and it took me till after i beat the game to discover it
When it comes to the ardor system, I don't really have much issue with it. There's a key difference between this and your resident evil 4 ammo comparison, which is that the punishment for not playing as well can be alleviated by more grinding, rather than being forced into having a more difficult time overall. I see it more as a far less punishing equivalent to dark souls' and hollow knight's death system, where you can potentially lose all your spending currency if you die again before recovering it from your corpse the first time you died, something that can be incredibly frustrating if you spent a fair amount of time accumulating it. Regulating what you lose to something other than your accumulated mass directly is a lot easier to deal with. My only nitpick with Ardor is when it comes to certain bosses. Namely, the ones with no or very few opportunities to absorb, meaning that even if I get the trait to recover all Ardor instead of half if I return to my corpse, I will inevitably lose more and more ardor as I keep attempting a boss due to taking damage, which is punishing if using the trait that increases damage for the amount of ardor you have. Unless, I go around killing a few enemies between attempts, rather than giving the boss another shot while my muscle memory of their attack patterns are fresh. It would've been nice if repels gave a small amount of ardor. I'm guessing the reason why it doesn't, is the potential for infinite farming of ardor from the same enemy, as opposed to regulating ardor gain to actions that have to advance the combat in some way. My only counterpoint to that is that it's not much different from just killing the same few enemies over and over by respawning them with a surrogate, which I can do. I'd say 1 ardor per repel is fair when you lose 2 from taking damage. The only consequence would be that the trait to increase ardor gain would probably need to be changed to be multiplicative, rather than additive, so that the repel ardor gain doesn't become extremely unbalanced. As far as technical issues go as of the Tinge of Terror update, the only problems I have ever encountered now are clipping through walls and being stuck outside of the explorable area. This is only a real problem before you obtain the item that lets you respawn at a surrogate for free. Before that, I had to kill my vessel and hope I could slash through the wall to hit my husk to get my ardor back. But even then, it's not terrible, even if I couldn't get my ardor back. I'm glad I started getting into this game after the more game-breaking issues have been fixed.
Excellent video man! I'm about to jump into this one for the first time and you gave a well thought out guide on how to start. Also thanks for the spoiler warning, I'm outta here!
40:50 no they came from the child bed but first let me explain what is the plant life it is the the child of the dead world parent that the game takes place in the child in an effort to servaive it curpted the minds of rock monsters and nerve roor monsters to protect him the mothers wanted to seek a new purpose other than protecting the child and they found the pity rock heads getting mind by the carven and they found a purpose of protecting the rockheads (they found the rock heads because shidra directed them to the rock heads and shidra sees the child as a threat so he wanted to destroy the childs hosts)
this game is very jewish to me- for one, there’s the hebrew consistent through the game. for example, akhlan means the eater, shidra means order/arrangement, and the memories we see during the pale sky have mixed hebrew and english. the focus on breath is very jewish imo as well. i’m still mulling over the themes- i finished it about 20 minutes ago- but i was very surprised (positively!) at these aspects and wanted to point them out :-)
Just one thing: you said your first run you finished the game at ~lvl 40, and your second run you finished it at ~70, but you also mentioned that you did your first run before the first expansion (colors of rot) AND you entirely missed Yr Den on your first runthrough, AND you missed misbegotten amalgam. So it makes sense that you were such low level compared to your second playthrough, not entirely due to ardor. If you'd have gone through Yr Den, that's already a bunch of missed levels from enemies and collectibles, and in colors of rot there are 3 new bosses, a whole new area with lots of enemies and lots of mass items. It's very conceivable that with these considerations, you would easily have reached lvl 60-65 before the end, on your first playthrough. Realistically ardor should only account for like 5 levels tops.
This is a fair point. To be clear, my first and second runs were both pre DLC, my third run was the post-DLC one, but Yr Den and Misbegotten Amalgam would account for part of the discrepancy, although I don't think it would account for all of it.
This video is great. Loved your take on what the story is about, but when describing it, I couldn't help but think of euthanasia, a life in a coma is not a life worth living and its end should be welcomed. But that's only my take, really enjoyed this one, hopefully your channel has some other vids I'm interested in.
As a huge Video game essay simp, I've always hoped to get to watch one of my game, thank you. :)
Writing notes as I'm watching:
Yr den - x:
Breakable floor - Fair, I actually wrote a reminder about this, to make sure to add learning a jump slam attack to a new tutorial, whenever I get to make a new one hehe.
Ardor - I've still got mixed feelings about it as well. The goal with ardor was to reward playing as intended while not really being all that punishing. I wasn't looking for a player experience where you are super stressed about dying, like in most souls-likes, but rather empowered from getting better at the game, kind of like Sekiro. Since using it against enemies can stack it fairly quickly, a secondary goal was to get players to practice on that area's enemies, which will improve their skill and better prepare them for the boss to some extent. The vessel remains(bloodstain) were an additional mechanic (shamelessly stolen from Mortal Shell) to encourage the player to give it another shot, since now they also have the added bonus of a heal. But it is definitely something I would like to rework into a different death mechanic that hopefully nails that goal more definitively.
Vulture Beacon - Fair point, I fell to the game design trap of doing something because it sounded like a cool gimmick, (searching for the beacon all of the place only to find the boss [which is marked on the map at least] chewing on it.) Not thinking through far enough the bad impact it may have on a player's experience. At least it hopefully made finally beating Vulture extra rewarding. :P
Bugs - You're absolutely correct, and I can only admit that it has been very embarrassing keep seeing and hearing about these bugs, and that it has always been our priority to get the cleaned is soon as they are found. For what it's worth, I believe either all or most the ones you've mentioned in the video should either already be cleared or fixed in a patch currently in a public beta branch for testing. But yeah, it is the unfortunate consequence of us being inexperienced and GRIME being our first game, as well as being less than a handful of developers. This whole process us made us much more aware of what to look out for and better work practices to avoid repeating these issues in the future. :)
Correction - Surrogate Vulture is also mandatory, you can go through the passage down and to the right of the checkpoint and skip it, and the rest of the area entirely. All new bosses are optional. :)
The Vases - They were actually the 2nd creatures created for the game, alongside the Rockheads, which started development a few months before Sekiro was announced. So not an Elden Ring reference. :)
Story - I greatly enjoyed listening to all of it! But that's all I can say hehe.
Thank you so much for watching, and responding! It's an amazing feeling to know you've seen (and seem to even have enjoyed, haha) my response to your game, one which really effected me.
I greatly enjoyed reading your notes here, I'm surprised to find out the pot guys weren't an Elden Ring reference hahaha! I also quite enjoyed Mortal Shell, so it's neat to know you took the husk mechanic from that.
I really love Grime, and it's been a joy to play through it several times since launch, and see it improve greatly over time. You're doing great work, and I am eagerly waiting to see whatever you do next. 😁
I kinda like how the vulture is guarding the beacon. Theres lots of points in the area where you need air dash, and after you beat vulture, you get air dash and the beacon, so then youre encouraged to re explore the area.
Thank you for the great game. GRIME was the first game I played to the end in months, and I had fun all the way!
P. S. I liked the ardor mechanic; gaining it is easy enough to not fret over dying and losing it.
P. S. 2 - I would love to be able to fast travel from the beginning, it would made exploration more enjoyable since I would be able to revisit past zones easily once I acquired new moves.
Grime is the most unique and intersting game I ever Played, it has some rough places but for me it kinda gives it some charm
About Ador, maybe add spells? A way to spend your current ador to do something that helps you? Kinda like the soul system in hollow knight but in numerical form, that could also help new Players strugling with the game
@@lukaszdluzak3905 Random comment here, but for other interesting and recent games: I recommend checking out Clash: Artifacts of Chaos.
I always thought that Shidra might be a personification of the Parent's brainstem or limbic system, given their sense of control over the world, placement at the top of the Worldpillar, and uncompromising approach to survival.
shidra is spine in hebrew, so ur pretty close
came from fear & hunger vid and stayed to binge your entire channel, im so happy to see a new upload! i can already tell im gonna enjoy it
I did the exact same thing. What an incredible channel and great content creator
same :)
Ah a 15 hour lore dump with wormgirl and frap
Wasn't even aware I'd already watched his f&h vid now here because grime free on epic.
MAN i haven't played a metroidvania as good as Grime in probably years!! so psyched you decided to cover this!!
When you were talking about shidra trying to unnaturally extend the lifespan of the world it definitely reminds me of dark souls, with linking the flame and gwyn and everything. I never thought of shidra as the bad guy though. I always saw them as just trying to take care of everyone and make sure life is as good as possible even though everything sucks. Thats why they hired the mothers to help the rockheads. Also I never considered that shidra imprisoned the child with that spinning ring device thing, that was mindblowng.
I mean, it would make sense to think that Shidra was trying to make the best for everyone out of a hopeless situation: he quite literally says something to that effect out loud moments either before his death or before you fight him (i just beat the game yesterday, dialog is decently fresh in my mind).
The point I had against that was thinking he was the one allowing passage to the carven into lithic, at least before the gondola was shut down, but that part of the game I played more than 4 months ago, so I'll need to try replaying the game to clear that up.
God this video is such a brilliant tribute and discussion to this gorgeous game I would have never known about. How expertly they understood and conveyed their message and philosophy through aesthetics, gameplay and worldbuilding is simply awe-inspiring.
Its deeply spiritual and meaningful without being overbearing, corny or shallow about its presentation, and wonderful immersive execution. Its hard to describe but games like this, Fear and Hunger, Rainworld, Pathologic and the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once are just masterpieces of pure Existenalism experience. Deep diving into the roots of existence, and questioning life itself, our place and purpose across these vast cosmos, hell even questioning the fabric of reality and all that could lie beyond too. Thank you again for the tight script and video editing, this was a great breakdown 👌
Thank you for watching, and responding! I'm glad I was able to share/get across why this game has been such a special experience that has stuck with me since I first played it, especially since there isn't a huge body of work about it.
Man, that ending theory was epic. And then that masterful defusion of the tension afterwards.
I've definitely not given this game a fair chance, I lost interest in it when I learned about the focus on parrying. I might have to reconsider that decision.
It is *really* heavy on parries, I can't blame anyone for that being a deal-breaker if that's not your style.
For what it's worth, parries are always rewarding, and there's a trait you can get to make them last longer so you don't have to stress over the timing as much. I played and beat the game with it at lv1, and it was fine. I can't imagine how much more forgiving it becomes by getting it to lv5, in case you'd have a better time with the game not stressing over tight parry windows that much.
Got the game today, completed all souls sekiro etc....the mostly parry heal system was odd but the game is hella fun now I've got into it, and YOU DONT LOSE SOULS ON DEATH, INSTANT WIN.
Here is to much success. I usually try to avoid recommended videos but caught Fear& Hunger (which I would love to see a more in-depth coverage including story and endings) and your voice does well with these review/retrospective style videos. Here's to some great success, dude. You do excellent work, especially for a "new" channel
I agree on the in-depth coverage of fear and hunger. And I'd also love to see the threat of more FFXIV videos become a promise.
Worm girl does a good law dive for fear & hunger & Termina.
You are right about so much in this video, especially the part where few people are talking about it. I've been waiting for the Switch release and now that it is here I am buzzing about it!
Great video by the way!
An hour long video essay??? On my favorite game that I've been fixating on for almost a year???? Yes please.
I like your theory about this game, it sound weirdly reassuring. Also, when it comes to the flowers being alien to rocks it made me think about the danger as well, since most plants have roots that with enough time can destroy rocks or at least damage them.
Found your Fear & Hunger video and now I am eagerly awaiting your next vids 😁
Love these reviews of relatively obscure games.
Unrelated you've made me consider playing fear and hunger. Me. Who has played 5 games ever. Looking forward to the suffering.
It's an odd power, knowing that I've caused people to suffer those games.
@@ZuldimYT I know people who would kill to have your power to get others interested in a thing. Like you have not known true desperation until you've met people obsessed w a slash ship from a piece of media from 30 years ago. So to say, you've probably made a (proportional) ton of hardcore fear & hunger, and grime fans fucking ecstatic w the new influx of people you're bringing to their fandom. Mark my words there are people in a tiny discord server somewhere singing your praises for this exact thing. Fucking, breathing new life to tiny fandoms. Wow.
Follow up on this: I have played Fear & Hunger for 17 hours. My furthest along save is 1h 12minutes in. I love it! I am spreading the pain to others like a virus. Idk whether to say "thanks" or "this is your fault"
@@christinanikolaidou5389 Man, I didn't realize making that video was going to result in people accidentally PLAYING them. What have I done???
Your Fear and Hunger video was great and now this one is aswell very good, keep up the great work, you deserve more visibility
1:11:25
I think with "It is already inside, we cannot avoid it", the Stargoddess meant you. You formed and therefore, she must now die, causing her to despair as death is coming. Presumably, not every Stargoddess dies when birthing a child, it usually only happens to the elders of their kind. She was an exception, or perhaps getting too old, which is why she told her lover to find a Stargoddess who doesn't have a black hole waiting to erupt inside of her, to find love again.
Of course, this is all just speculation and we can clearly see in the comment section that the creators don't feel like clarifying anything (They just oughta admit that they themselves haven't 100% decided, either, that's almost always the reason when creators don't clarify anything about their art)
i really hope the algorithm catches this video like it did with your fear & hunger one. this was another phenomenal video about a truly wonderful and interesting game i would have never heard of otherwise
Thank you for watching (and for the algo boost by commenting lol), I'm glad I was able to share a really great game with people who hadn't heard of it.
Loving the regular uploads! I love the work you do
Currently watching this video and I have no doubt it will be equally if not more interesting than your Fear and Hunger video. I really want to play more games, but I rarely have the time to and am absolutely terrible at them. However, I’ve gotten the urge to finally play some of the games you’ve talked about on this channel. Around 2:50 really resonated. By the time I’ve decided on a game to invest money into and played and finished it, suddenly there are 20 more games out that I allegedly “have” to play. It’s hard trying to weed through games to find something I’ll really enjoy playing or at least enjoy the philosophical experience of (like Disco Elysium and Pathologic Classic, which were both incredibly stressful games but were ultimately a net positive due to how intriguing they were).
Zuldim just posted turn that shit UP 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
I first played this game on release, just after it came out and was recommended to me by Steam, and I had a really similar reaction to yours: I was enthralled by the aesthetics of it, the narrative, and the combat, but after playing through it, couldn't find any online discourse at all. For me, at least, it is difficult to properly process a game without talking to others about it and without hearing their input, so the game was somewhat left unfinished to me.
Well, this video changed that! This really was wonderfully put together and once again highlighted what really *works* in Grime.
Just finished the video. Another fantastic job sir! I love that you are covering obscure horror/creepy type games. If I wasn’t terrible with directions I’d pick up Grime in a heartbeat. Can’t wait to see what you present to us next!
man i just finished the game and i can say that i agree with you on the statement that this game deserves to get alot of coverage and people trying it . even though im not even a big fan of the genre the style of the game when i discovered it and the surreal protagonist with a black hole for a head truly grasped me there. the only slightest amount of complaint that i have is that there is no incentive to replay it (new game +) if so i would definitely replay it again soley for the experience and style that it brings.
Your video on Fear & Hunger made me momentarily obsessed with that game, don't do this to me again! Jokes aside, I love the way you tell a story, consider me subscribed
I'm glad I subbed after that Fear and Hunger video. This is quality.
Like many others, your Fear & Hunger vid led me to your FF14 vids. Keep up the great work king
I absolutely love metroidvanias and Im really happy they got so much attention. One recent I really enjoyed was Ghost Song.
I think you can relate all the races worshipping one level up as a natural metaphor for human hierarchies. People tend to worship those of higher material status to be valuable - money, status, fame, etc. People looking to work their way up the system to relieve themselves of their suffering, thinking paradice is just hitting 1 million twitter followers. "Pyramid Scheme" is a strong phrase but I think it can similar to what we have. Yon climbs the pyramid to the level of Carven but still feels empty. Even the Carven are worshipping the ones above them, after all their suffering and they resent the player for their lack of suffering.
This is the first video I have seen from you and I can already tell you will be someone I want to watch! I love how you talk about your interpretation of the game and your experience with it! Keep up the good work!
You’ve gotta play Sunless Sea or the sequel Sunless Skies. I prefer Sea, but I think you’d love the strangeness and lore of both, especially after seeing your video on Fear and Hunger.
Those have been on my list to get around to playing for a while actually, I think I have the first one from some bundle a while back. Maybe I'll boot it up on my Steam Deck and check it out later.
@@ZuldimYT House of many doors is also quite good - simpler gameplay, but similar massive web of cool concepts overlapping each other.
Happy to hear it, though it can be hard to get into. It’s worth it though!
Great video man
I got a lot more I want to write. But i will say as someone who recently finished the game. It is interesting to watch reviews and experience the game in a state that has seemingly adressed many of the issues you mentioned. I'm sitting here like "huh" but the game that has been sitting in my library for over 6 months was still receiving updates/patches. It shows that the devlopers really loved this game. I hope that it can find an wider audience to appreciate it's beauty. I am glad you made this video
incredibly sick video that touches on a game happening to span a bunch of my current fixations, so that's nice
thanks dawg
I didn't understand the end the same way you did, for me, you, the player, specifically the black hole, just used all of it's energy to transform the world in just another big human figure in the distance, and I think it's more beautiful that way because the habitant of the world didn't suffer, just disepaerd.
But great video, I have played 50h, am on my 2nd ng+ (there is a 3rd dlc) and yeah, this game is beautiful, play it.
another banger vid!
Lovely video, you raised many angles of the story that I had not considered.
I came across the fear and hunger video a couple of days ago and really loved it. What a nice surprise to see that you made a video on this videogame since I wanted a video like this ever since I finished it and I couldn't seem to find any. Great work!!
Really enjoyed the lore take. I have to say I find it head and shoulders above Hollow Knight and Metroid Dread in pretty much every aspect. Everything has purpose, has been carefully considered, is incredibly fluid, and the art style is incredible.
The giant statues of human faces and hands remind me of the cylinder’s servants from The Eternal Cylinder, and I LOVE that game’s aesthetic so much
I had never heard of The Eternal Cylinder before, but this looks cool as hell and right up my alley so I added it to my Steam wishlist to remind myself to pick it up on a Steam Sale or something, so thanks for that!
@@ZuldimYT The creators of Eternal Cylinder, ACE Team, also created the Zeno Clash games-- which includes the recent Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. Zenozoik is a world of *bizarre* creatures, with a story and logic all its own. Some creatures are references to old medieval woodcarvings, like the Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel. Others are based on prehistoric animals, like Kroggo Longtooth in AoC, who is based on the Platybelodon.
The series is very much worth looking into more and experiencing for yourself.
I suspect I understand the intent of the ardor mechanic functioning as a “rich get richer” system. It makes most sense as an incentive to grind.
This game is very demanding of its player when it comes to understanding and mastery of its combat mechanics, especially the parry. By having ardor reward you for playing better, it incentivizes you to spend time practicing on less difficult enemies to better achieve that mastery, if for no other reason than to level up enough to be properly scaled for the next area before you enter it.
If you have already mastered the mechanics, the experience boost from having high ardor negates any need for grinding, making it easier for players to stay properly leveled without needing to grind on enemies they’ve already beaten, especially on subsequent playthroughs.
Is this the best way to incentivize this behavior? I’d say no, but the mechanic makes the most sense to my brain if this was the intention behind it.
it's always great to see more grime content.
my personal view of the endings and the coda specifically is that the coda where so obsessed with their end that it left them ignorant and ungrateful.
ignorant that they carelessly blocked themselves from the rest of the world,creating the pointless scarcity of flesh/wax that resulted in the system of the carven.
while the carven works centuries for scraps of flesh the coda get to live near an infinite waterfall of it.
And ungrateful that despite living in a golden city without conflict,not even aware of the suffering they have caused, they still want everything to end.
the world of grime was not perfect,but it wasen't hell either. it could have become a better world with time,but it was never given the time to do so.
it's very easy for the protagonist to see it's destruction as a mercy considering what THEY get out of it.
After all, if we are to trust not those who want to live? why should we be anymore trust worthy
defusing that very somber and existential tangent with a game theory joke was very effective at keeping the depression from crawling in too much XD
This game looks amazing from what I’ve seen so far. Definitely checking this out when I get some time. Thanks for the review!
Comment for more popularity!!! Love fear and hunger cant wait for more videos :^)
The only bad part about this video is that it's convinced me to go home and buy Grime...which means I can't finish the video yet.
So happy to see this video. I played Grime not long after release and loved it! I was so disappointed to see so few talk about it though.
Glad to see GRIME getting the recognition it deserves. Great video, I loved your take on the story.
I believe that the game is an allegory to death. As you said the player character is the incarnation of biological death and every other npc is a cell holding up to life.
Shidra is definitely a parasite; his appearance is completely different from anything else and he is the only one that knows what we are, meaning he saw the ending happening in other place (the parent) before infecting the child.
Beat the GRIME like two days ago
Loved it, and I came to learn the sequel ha been announced
I am catiously optimistic because I LOVED the aesthetic
There is a breath memory in the pale sky (A hidden one specifically) that calls the thing destroying them Tehom - the Spiral Hearts explicitly. So Shidra seems to be just a creature of the Worldparent like everything else. Interestingly, another of the memories calls the one the worldparents were fleeing a vengeful Tehom
Grime was definitely my personal game of the year back in 2021
dang that ending scene is magnificent, it really reminds me of what happens at some point in the rebuilds of evangelion
Gosh, TWO banger videos on games I've wishlisted but never picked up. You got me itching to play both. Your style seems more... holistic? Analyzing each element and giving a run-down of the whole game, then giving your thoughts on what the game is trying to say. Which I've really enjoyed! I'd love to see a list of your favorite games or what your overall favorite genres are?
Some of favorite games of all time include:
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Dark Souls (& Demon's & Bloodborne & so on)
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Hitman World of Assassination trilogy (this one is no surprise given my video essay series on the games)
- World of Warcraft (back in the day, you can't go home again)
- Final Fantasy XIV (again, no surprise given my channel contents)
- Pokemon (Gen 1-5 in particular, if you held my feet to the fire HG/SS is the best one)
FAR from a complete list, but these are some of my all time favorites, which I tend to go back to over and over again year after year. I tend to go for RPGs most often, as far as genres go, but I just really love video games and play almost everything, from AAA action games to niche visual novels.
Thanks for watching!
Edit: BTW, I really like how you described these vids as a "holistic" approach, I might steal that someday. My main inspirations for the Fear & Hunger and Grime videos have been RagnarRox and Noah Caldwell-Gervais, and if you've ever seen either of their channels, that tends to be how they approach talking about games as well.
I just finished it and im so in love with it, the thought put into it, the fear from death and how to think of it, like this game makes you really think, its really sad that games like this dont get the attention it deserves, thank you for explaining, the whole theme of the dying body I didnt notice it by finishing the game lol
Common Zuldim W
I didn't play Grime until after Colours of Rot. I can confirm that a build focussed on Resonance and traits works very well. My first play through I dumped basically all my points in to Resonance, and I used the parry and dodge traits, with the lantern that adds the bonus resonance damage. I had another weapon for the occasional backup, but the dodge damage traits means even most enemies that you can't parry, or that have a grey health section can still be beaten without attacking. And that greatly tickled my fancy :P
It was an extremely fun build :D
I also came to enjoy building up the lantern buff to stupidly high levels without doing much damage to them, just to see how ridiculously much damage I could do in one pop. I have no idea if that lantern has a cap, but I never reached it if it does.
what a great review, you are speaking my heart out, I love this game mainly because its story telling, its music, and its concept, it's one piece of an art indeed.
Enter the gungeon also has a rich get richer mechanic(skill based) in giving you the very important extra hp on a perfect boss fight, meaning if you make just a tiny mistake on one, or more early bosses it puts you in a bad position moving ahead for the more difficult later content. The reward for a perfect is too important, it should have been something different than an extra 2 hp.
Also really enjoying this game, the quality of life is nice(also added qol in dlc's), the unlockables, etc, I have the platinum on ps4 and am heading into my second playthrough now(different build), with the intention of bringing that to a ng+ and seeing all the changes they made there. The one glitch I've seen every so often is grabbing on nonexistant ledges and a counter loading up to 100%, no idea what that is, otherwise no bad bugs.
Love the world of this game, atmosphere, world design, backgrounds, it's like exploring a work of art.
Hopefully this game will port to Switch soon so I can play it! Bookmarking this video until then, the first 5 mins of it completely sold me on going into it as blind as possible from now
I think it'd be cool if they tied Ardor to your health, so when you're struggling and taking a lot of damage you're gaining more exp and dealing higher damage in return which also leads to the strategy of purposefully remaining low on hitpoints for a boost of power in exchange for vulnerability. This way the system benefits both more and less skilled players
It's interesting to hear how "long" it takes to beat metroidvania games for some people - I think of them as relatively short, probably taking a weekend or slightly longer for a first playthrough and after you know the secrets and game mechanics you can rip through them in less then a day. In an era of 50-100 hour games being relatively common in the industry metroidvanias for me feel very time efficient.
Fuck can't watch this one now cuz i want to play the game, gonna comment to boost you up the algorythm tho cheers
Great vid of a great game. Nice to see its getting popular finally
Did we found our VaatiVidya for GRIME?
the downward smash is pretty easy to figure out, since you already break some wall by that point and the downward wall has the same texture so i pretty much know they can be destroy too
Love your content, keep up the good work!
So following your theory on the whole meaning behind alot of the subtext of the game im curious you didn't touch on or theorize about Shidra.
I think your other ideas on the (LOOK AWAY COMMENT SPOILERS) Player being literal entropy, seeing the body die from your action, and seeing the different characters showcasing the stages of grief dealing with the coming of death makes sense.
And considering the Dev cheekily didn't wana comment makes me think you might be pretty spot on.
So considering, I wonder about maybe Shidra being a representation of "the id" in some way.
The id, rooted in base instincts for things like pleasure and survival.
Like it Shidra enjoys its time being worshipped and doing as it pleases to lesser beings. It will do things to tempt death knowing the danger, while at the same time doing everything in its power to stave off death for another day. It knows death is coming, that it's an inevitability, but it clings to life sometimes at the cost of morality or even the lives of others. The id also deals with sex and libido. While the breath allows the Child to be born and should be a start of a new cycle of life and death, instead Shidra is holding the Child back allowing those born of the Breath. The obvious symbolism of sex and birth, as we know, continuing forever but to the degree it becomes hideous and malformed; not for a purpose anymore. Just continuing so that it won't end.
Shidra is a being of narcissistic pleasure worshiped as a God, by the abominations of an infinitely gestating womb, and has a selfish immorality that fuels their survival instinct in the face of inevitable entropy.
Idk... Thoughts?
I like that reading on Shidra a lot. Everything you said about Shidra is definitely accurate, one of the few beings we see living in luxury, so to represent the id, selfishly and instinctually clinging to life and hedonistic pleasure works quite well for me.
@@ZuldimYT Pretty awesome. Glad I got it so close as well since I haven't touched the game, just going off your summary and considering what you theorized it seemed to be there.
And yeah left me somewhat disappointed when you wrapped all of it up and never gave your theories on them. Them being the one thing living in this world that is so different from everything else within it. Really was expecting you to drive deep into theories about them lol.
Loved your video and love this game, but one thing i disagree is the giant of eyes, i got to him early and struggled, but than i realized he's just a big parry wall. If you learn how to parry his moves he gets really easy, but when I found him, since I was underlevel, i was too scared and "respected" him too much. Being bold and daring on parry makes him way easier, loved the vid, great work :)
Ótimo vídeo.
My man
Still have this game as my desktop background
Amazing game. Just played it for the first time this year and it's my GoTY. Beating Blasphemous, which is also older but amazing.
Having been looking to play a new metroidvania (for me) I decided to give Grime a go. When I was first saw trailers of Grime when it was released I wasn't a fan of the character design and thought it was a lazy design (literally a rock human figure with a blackhole as a head). But now that I've played and completed my first playthrough I'm so thankful that I did. The game is amazing in so many aspects. The controls are responsive with the movement, jumping, attacking and using absorb (parry) is one of the most satisfying moves I've ever used in a video game. The combat is bit more deliberate and methodical similar to souls-like games but part of the fun is learning and timing the well put together absorb mechanic. The music is decent and eerie in some areas and in some areas there's no music which I thought was odd at first but once you play the game you'll understand why they did that. The platforming is smooth with responsive jumps and dashes although I found it to be a little bit average in terms of difficulty. The world is great with a lot of different biomes. Visually, there are some breathtaking sceneries that will leave you in awe. The maps could feel like a maze and you might feel like you're lost when you don't have the beacon activated (shows the map for that area) which can be unnerving. Although the maps are relatively big and are maze-like there weren't too many distinguishable landmarks that differentiated one part of the map to another of the same area which is a complaint I have about. I found myself having to open up the map frequently to see my location because of how maze-like and indistinguishable some of the map layouts were. On the flip side there are a LOT of nooks and crannies with secret spots and pathways so if you exploring then this will be right up your alley. Boss fights were good with all of them having different attacks and mechanics. The mobs were straight forward so I would have liked to see a little more variety but overall still decent. And finally the story. Grime has such an amazing story and such a twist and unexpected turn to it. I highly recommend this game simply because of the lore. I've played a few metroidvanias such as blasphemous, ender lilies, and a little bit of hollow knight and I have to say Grime is definitely one of my favorite of the metroidvanias. As Zuldim mentions in the video I think Grime got overlooked by some of the other games which is a huge shame because while not perfect I think the game definitely isn't getting attention it deserves. The devs are working on Grime 2 and I will be purchasing it once it comes out.
GRIME is such an awesome game that I feel it is so underrated!!
They just released grime on consoles so hopefully it gets more attention
Dude this video was amazing. Thanks!
I love the video and the interpretation of the story. It gave me insight into things I didn't really notice. The fact that your character never has a developed personality or almost any interactions with anything except attempting to end them adds to the idea that they are just death, not evil or benevolent in any way, neutral. One thing that I disagree with is that Shidra is a villain or the implication that they're selfish. We know their status just by it being stated but it's not really a narrative I saw built upon throughout the game with NPC interactions or anything of the sort. The way they acted made them out to be more humble and wise which isn't necessarily true but we don't have much to go off of keeping in mind how few the interactions are. In my opinion if anything Shidra symbolizes the fear of death. They try their best to do something about it but even in the end, they're aware it's inevitable. In both endings they don't really think they can stop it, in the bad ending they beg the main character to reconsider and in the good ending, they themselves say that they can't defeat them but they're still going to fight for every second of life this world has had. I also like the idea that the philosophies of the world resemble the stages of grief and are in a hierarchy of revering each other while lacking understanding of each other, and if you pick up on it while playing it really adds to the experience of getting introduced to each individual region and how the creatures of said region deal with their suffering, but I think that you can also interpret it as life seeping into everything and trying its best to survive any way it can, adapting to the environment, trying things even despite the agony that comes from it. I also think that that leaves whether the main character is evil or not up to interpretation. To most creatures, they're evil because even if they're in pain they don't want to die, to the Coda, they're a saviour and it is left to us, after traversing this grotesque miserable world with all of its differing philosophies when it comes to death, to decide what is best for it. I think the game does a good job of painting the main character as a monster. A big part of that is that there is barely any time spent or content to play through in Cenotaph. They are the next stage in the hierarchy but they are not the final stage in it nor are they the longest one. Yes, a part of that is that everything there is meant to be easy for us because there is no one to dislike the character but the way it is made nonetheless did not make me think of it as a next level in the hierarchy philosophically as much as a differing philosophy. I also think the Ardor system works with the harsh theme of the game. It can feel weird mechanically esp because it indeed makes snowballing easier but I wouldn't really say it is that punishing for losing. I have died a lot of times in this game and I never felt like the levels are what saved me, it's trial and error and I like having Ardor but I often sacrifice it if I don't feel like getting it back. In a way, it's a lot more forgiving than losing money because even if it just returns you back to 0 you still return with money. You can just die over and over again until you can build something. That and while the stats are important, especially force, the game feels more reliant on absorbing, reflecting, pulling and dodging. I also think it fits the vibe of the game to an extent. I have not played many games of this genre but to me, the game feels harsh and unforgiving until a lot later on. You don't have a lot of mobility early on and the fighting itself is not too comfortable, often feeling very slow and clunky (hence why I used the fastest weapon I could find) and this is not a criticism of the combat because I actually like the way it's done. Despite being slow though it's still easier to use than absorbing and absorbing is much more rewarding, forcing me to risk things if I want better rewards or in some cases even to survive like for example absorbing while on low health to get some back. Either way, I think the game being harsh and unforgiving and not giving me things like mobility or regeneration really plays well into the idea that the character is exploring the world, absorbing what they fight and becoming stronger with it. I also think that Ardor does that on a smaller scale. It's not necessarily a morally good way to see things but its a theme of the game that the weak stay weak and the strong rise and it's the same with Ardor - if you are weak and lose you don't get to indulge in the buffs of triumphing over the unforgiving environment of the game, if you are strong it's all the easier for you to do so. I do think that it is a bit of an artificial way to do it though as that's what skill is - you learn to play the game and triumph over the obstacles, Ardor making things easier feels like more of just a way to get upgrades later on in the game because of the insanely high level up costs. There's no way you can quickly collect 9k mass without Ardor. There are more points to make and more things to interpret but I think that adds to the beauty of this game, It feels like it's up to interpretation. Overall loved your video though it's really well made and it really helped me see a different view of the story and the world of grime!
I love how one of those rock guys is talking and he's like "I said...HUMBLE" and smashes the guy kneeling next to him lmao, so friggin funny omg!
surrogate vulture is not mandatory i got strand of the child before fighting it in my first playthrough by getting to where it was located through childbed instead of garden, kind of taking a back route.
54:30 its a valid take, that one scene is really obvious if you play the slightest amount of attention and theres no way of even acknowledging it.
Still a good game, i just think a couple of tweaks could have made it better. Like maybe a way you can show you worked it out, and then have to do it anyway or get a short ending for running away.
I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH.
When it was free on Epic Games recently, I might have recommended it to everyone, several times a day, whoops. lol
But seriously, I played it a year and a half ago and loved it. I'm not the best gamer so a few of those bosses kicked my ass dozens of times before I got them, and I had to go grind a lil, but it was still such a cool experience.
I'm replaying it now with the new DLC and loving it just as much. And hating it so much cuz, again, I really suck at it and am glad I know learned that Surrogate Vulture is not mandatory cuz that second phase is painful lol.
Thank you for the video, it was a pleasure to watch!
Love it...one of the best games I ever finished...and difficult..but I love it
i gotta say, after the NG+ update, the dreamborn terror has beaten the final performance
Great video on a fantastic game. If it weren't for the frame rate drops, I'd agree that this was one of the best of the decade. Hopefully it's patched up in the future.
I do not think the mothers actualy had a scheme, for one, they were in fact powerfull enougth to overpower any creature in litic, and i think they even taugth art to the misshapen.
I beliebe they maybe did feel that new pain, a shared pain, and tried to learn somehow from it, changing perpectives and thinking of it as something to love.
Maybe they found each other, they are rather unique in design compared to other plant beings in game, maybe they did that themselves, likely after meeting each other.
Wild idea: maybe the mothers used the plants to customize themselves to their liking, it is far easier to trim a plant than to carve a stone after all, maybe they wanted to share a non stone beauty.
Ima check this out
I Thankfully have not encountered bugs like the ones mentioned in video. I was fighting the mothers and after getting killed many times, I closed the game from task manager. The next time I opened the game, it put me directly in the boss fight, but they were not responsive. So, I got an easy kill.😄
I agree with your feelings about Grime. Hollow Knight's art and animation and NPC characterisation are all impeccable and memorable. These are the only things that set it apart from Grime to me, the only things it does "better". The themes, feel soundtrack and gameplay of Grime sit it somehow above HK for me, despite both being amazing games.
This isn't to say that Grime needs to look nicer, it looks great, and I'm a fan of its visual design, it's just kind of difficult to compete with Hollow Knight's art in terms of it being painstakingly painted. NPC's however? I hope Grime 2 is able to improve on this aspect, we got some interesting interactions, particularly with Yon, Shidra and the coda, but there was not many super memorable or revealing things. I don't mind doing a bit of the dark souls thing of burying lore, but i'd like a bit more in terms of direct interaction.
Ori's harcore platforming challenge
The white palace - hold my beer
THis was great, I don't necessarely agree with some of the analisys but it's still a great video.
You should cheack the metroidvania "ATO" and the pursuit of perfection.
Ooh, I've never heard of Ato, this looks neat.
@@ZuldimYT hardest difuculty is the best. Replays are great when you get realy good at the combat.
It was an amazing and magnificient video, as a Grime fan, I finished it in one sitting without getting bored and skiping. What do you think about Grime 2?
no mention of poor Ghost Song.
I should play Ghost Song.
@@ZuldimYT Dont.
It took so many years cause it had an engine change cause the game refused to be worked on otherwise.
And now its....something else. Not quite Legally Distinct Metroid Fusion but something close to that feel every Metroidvania seems to be going for after Dark Souls.
That's disappointing to hear. That game is totally in that "I'll end up with this accidentally because of a bundle eventually" category, so I might give it a try eventually, but there are a lot of metroidvanias these days so it's tough to get to them all.
Grime is in top 3 metroidvanias for me.I still like Blasphemous or HK more but this is very close.Also Grime 2 coming in 2025.
You don’t actually have to fight the surrogate vulture i went in there got the item and never fought it and it took me till after i beat the game to discover it
will be back when i have finished the game
When it comes to the ardor system, I don't really have much issue with it. There's a key difference between this and your resident evil 4 ammo comparison, which is that the punishment for not playing as well can be alleviated by more grinding, rather than being forced into having a more difficult time overall. I see it more as a far less punishing equivalent to dark souls' and hollow knight's death system, where you can potentially lose all your spending currency if you die again before recovering it from your corpse the first time you died, something that can be incredibly frustrating if you spent a fair amount of time accumulating it. Regulating what you lose to something other than your accumulated mass directly is a lot easier to deal with.
My only nitpick with Ardor is when it comes to certain bosses. Namely, the ones with no or very few opportunities to absorb, meaning that even if I get the trait to recover all Ardor instead of half if I return to my corpse, I will inevitably lose more and more ardor as I keep attempting a boss due to taking damage, which is punishing if using the trait that increases damage for the amount of ardor you have. Unless, I go around killing a few enemies between attempts, rather than giving the boss another shot while my muscle memory of their attack patterns are fresh. It would've been nice if repels gave a small amount of ardor. I'm guessing the reason why it doesn't, is the potential for infinite farming of ardor from the same enemy, as opposed to regulating ardor gain to actions that have to advance the combat in some way. My only counterpoint to that is that it's not much different from just killing the same few enemies over and over by respawning them with a surrogate, which I can do. I'd say 1 ardor per repel is fair when you lose 2 from taking damage. The only consequence would be that the trait to increase ardor gain would probably need to be changed to be multiplicative, rather than additive, so that the repel ardor gain doesn't become extremely unbalanced.
As far as technical issues go as of the Tinge of Terror update, the only problems I have ever encountered now are clipping through walls and being stuck outside of the explorable area. This is only a real problem before you obtain the item that lets you respawn at a surrogate for free. Before that, I had to kill my vessel and hope I could slash through the wall to hit my husk to get my ardor back. But even then, it's not terrible, even if I couldn't get my ardor back. I'm glad I started getting into this game after the more game-breaking issues have been fixed.
Excellent video man! I'm about to jump into this one for the first time and you gave a well thought out guide on how to start. Also thanks for the spoiler warning, I'm outta here!
40:50 no they came from the child bed but first let me explain what is the plant life it is the the child of the dead world parent that the game takes place in the child in an effort to servaive it curpted the minds of rock monsters and nerve roor monsters to protect him the mothers wanted to seek a new purpose other than protecting the child and they found the pity rock heads getting mind by the carven and they found a purpose of protecting the rockheads (they found the rock heads because shidra directed them to the rock heads and shidra sees the child as a threat so he wanted to destroy the childs hosts)
this game is very jewish to me- for one, there’s the hebrew consistent through the game. for example, akhlan means the eater, shidra means order/arrangement, and the memories we see during the pale sky have mixed hebrew and english. the focus on breath is very jewish imo as well. i’m still mulling over the themes- i finished it about 20 minutes ago- but i was very surprised (positively!) at these aspects and wanted to point them out :-)
Hope the devs are real Jewish and not Zionist....
Just one thing: you said your first run you finished the game at ~lvl 40, and your second run you finished it at ~70, but you also mentioned that you did your first run before the first expansion (colors of rot) AND you entirely missed Yr Den on your first runthrough, AND you missed misbegotten amalgam.
So it makes sense that you were such low level compared to your second playthrough, not entirely due to ardor. If you'd have gone through Yr Den, that's already a bunch of missed levels from enemies and collectibles, and in colors of rot there are 3 new bosses, a whole new area with lots of enemies and lots of mass items. It's very conceivable that with these considerations, you would easily have reached lvl 60-65 before the end, on your first playthrough.
Realistically ardor should only account for like 5 levels tops.
This is a fair point.
To be clear, my first and second runs were both pre DLC, my third run was the post-DLC one, but Yr Den and Misbegotten Amalgam would account for part of the discrepancy, although I don't think it would account for all of it.
@@ZuldimYT definitely not all of it, ardor does play a role, but in my experience it's not that much :)
This video is great. Loved your take on what the story is about, but when describing it, I couldn't help but think of euthanasia, a life in a coma is not a life worth living and its end should be welcomed. But that's only my take, really enjoyed this one, hopefully your channel has some other vids I'm interested in.