I have no idea if this is my easiest hint or one of the hard ones, guess we'll find out.

I mean, they're all the easiest when it's you guessing them.

I have a completely irrelevant and somewhat ranty aside to this sentence. roguelike as it is used these days, doesn't refer to a genre at all, but refers to games which share a gameplay feature. The classic definition of the term defined a genre. And classic definition is kinda crazy in itself, as a roguelike conference (yes, that was a thing) defined what a roguelike is in the so called Berlin interpretation. Going after that, Hades is definitely *not* a roguelike, as it is not a turn-based, grid-based dungeon crawler RPG. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a classic roguelike.

The modern usage of the term roguelike loosely refers to permadeath with retaining some abilities/items/whatever for your next run. While the original rogue and roguelikes certainly had permadeath (not suprising, even arcade games had mostly permadeath), they did not at all had a way to retain something from previous runs. So in modern definition, the original rogue is *not* a roguelike. Funny how that works. So maybe everything called roguelike today should be refered to as rogue-unlike.

I wonder if something like this ever happened to another genre. I mean in the beginning FPS were called Doom-clones (after Doom obviously). I wonder if that term had been kept, but instead changed it's meaning to fit modern military shooters. In a way people seem to see it, because they coined the new term "boomer-shooter", to refer to shooters following the old formulas of yesteryear.

So, ranty rambling over, enjoy your rogue-unlike.

I liked Hades, it is visually great, has great music (I knew I heard it somewhere). I especially love, that it represent ancient greek legends, as I liked them as a child and teen (and still does to some degree). I wasn't aware of Zagreus, but this is a real myth. As with most ancient myths these were changing over time, so there are different interpretations about him, but the myth Supergiant was going with is one, in which his mother Persephone and his father Hades struggle over child custody. They eventually decide to have him for some months in the year each. When separated from her son, Persephone is sad, and as she let's plants grow and bloom the plants are withering. This is winter. I like how in classic myths things are working like that.

The goddess I like the most usually is Athena, and I also like her rendition in Hades.

So, after all this praise, why isn't Hades in my list (spoiler alert)? Well, I am not very good with fast paced games like this, so my runs in Hades come to a frustrating stop somewhere in the middle and I have no chance to acquire the reflexes to finish it. Hades is too difficult, unlike Dark Souls, which is much easier. So while I am fond of the game, others will have to make my list.

#31

YoY: NEW!    My Rating: 9.2/10

Seemingly one of the most divisive games of the last several years, The Last of Us Part II had people saying that the game sucks months before it was even released because the leaks revealed that something they didn't like would happen in the story. At that point I basically decided that I wasn't going to put any weight on anybody else's opinion regarding this game, as it was clear that a lot of people were never going to like it no matter what. I also did everything I could to avoid spoilers beforehand, though I did get spoiled about the big early game twist that sets the story in motion. To put it simply, The Last of Us Part II is an excellent game, but not one without a few shortcomings.

I found The Last of us Part II to be a great continuation of Ellie's story, making sure to develop the familiar characters further from where they left off at the end of the first game, while also introducing some very intriguing new ones. At the start of the game you get to see what life for Ellie and Joel could have been like if they had just been left alone, both having grow kinder and softer in the years between the two games. Unfortunately, in the end their actions in the first game come back to haunt them, forcing Ellie back into the world she had effectively left behind, and steering her towards some very dark places in the process. In many ways, this game is a cautionary tale of what happens when a person lets revenge consume their life. Almost none of the main characters come off this one unscathed, everyone losing something important over the course of the story. In general, The Last of Us Part II is tonally an extremely dark game, with no characters getting a truly happy conclusion to their story.

The gameplay received some great additions as well, giving the player more variety in how to approach each combat encounter, the visuals are, as would be expected, absolutely beautiful, and the somber music is a perfect fit for the game as well. However, as mentioned, it's not a perfect game. Perhaps the biggest issue for me is the length. This is a very long game, especially for something that is so emotionally draining on an almost constant basis. As a result, the story can drag a bit in certain parts, and the weight of the story can become too much at times simply because there's so little true levity to any of it. Even the first game, despite obviously taking some dark turns as well, had moments where the characters got a chance to just spend time together and even laugh. Here, those moments are few and far between. That's also partially why this game doesn't quite reach the heights of its predecessor, but it is still unquestionably a great game as far as I'm concerned. Just not one I want to go back and play very often.

I've been slacking, should've given more hints and posted a couple of these already, but here we are. #30 was guessed earlier and I'll add #29. Anyway;

34 - Though not every faction will be affected as harshly, when the hordes from the steppe arrive, you better be prepared.
Hint 2: An attack from hordes like this happens twice in the game, once from the northeast and once from the southeast. These attacks come from factions that are unplayable.
Hint 3: There is a third unplayable secret faction, but you'll not always be able to meet them, because you'll need to travel to the new world.
Hint 4: Not every faction is able to do this, because this requires building ships that can sail across the ocean. Only a couple of western European factions can unlock the ability to do this, and unlock the black left part of the mini-map.

33 - Three influential families and the central government, allies at first, until one seeks to rule them all.
Hint 2: This technically happened in real life too, where the leader of one of these families (they're represented in the game) had cast the die.
Hint 3: So while this game takes place during the start of the empire, its expansion leads up the very end of it (or, what was the end in real-life anyway).
Hint 4: When the Barbarians invade. There's a second expansion by the way; taking place before the main game, about a general that conquered pretty much everything, and in real life, never lost a battle he commanded.

32 - There's a strange bug in the steering in this game where if you make a couple quick, short turns in succession you'll be stuck with a long, big and wide turn that'll send you all across the stadium.
Hint 2: This means you can really annoy your friends when you create a track with a couple of short corners in a row and then a table top, in the map-editor.
Hint 3: Speaking of the map-editor, I've always found it too bad that you could only make tracks for the stadium mode, and not the country modes.
Hint 4: Though only one of those country modes would actually be applicable; the 'National' mode, which is actually a track, while the 'Stunt Quarry' and 'Baja' modes are just vast open landscapes.

31 - In real life, getting cockroaches in your hotel room would be bad, but here, it's completely doomed and you'll need to demolish the rooms and rebuild them.
Hint 2: To prevent this, you'll need to also build cleaning centres, which are as big as two single rooms plus a double room, and connect them with service elevators.
Hint 3: The Hotel rooms are good for your economy though, because they'll give you a bit of money every morning, while Condos only earn money when they're sold and Office spaces only earn money at longer intervals.

30 - Shouldn't rock the boat because someone will puke.
Hint 2: Because you'll really make him sea-sick. Guessed by Darashiva - Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

29 - Though there's a strategy in the order of things, I feel like the metal is just good against everything anyway. Guessed by Darashiva - Mega Man 2

29: Mega Man 2

Correct! Guess my #30 and #29 were easier than those other ones.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms was a series I wanted to try for some time, but it is a bit difficult. Not everything is localized or it released on platforms I don't own. But the most recent title XIV was ported to Switch *and* got an english localization, so there was my chance. And I enjoyed my experience.

Romance (I won't repeat this long name every time) is a strategic title. You build up your principality in the stormy times of the Revolution of the Yellow Turbans or Cao Cao's invasions to become the most powerful entity in ancient China. To achieve that you have to hire officers, historical figures that work for you in fulfilling a lot of tasks: from developing the cities and commerce, to lead armies into battle. This game keeps you for the long run.

It is a lot of fun to use strategies like cutting the supply lines of attacking troups, which throws them into disarray or to set fire to a forest with an enemy army in it. Choosing the right person for each task is important, as their abilities are different, and even with the same troop strength, two different leaders can lead to very different outcomes. The game surely has more focus on military option, but still a lot is to do to grow and develop your cities and areas, and it is necessary as this is bolstering your troops.

The game has a lot of content between different historic and fictive scenarios and in each scenario you can choose between the factions you want to lead with different starting positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wgcPVwyP4M&ab_channel=PlayStationEurope

#30

(NEW)

And another great one I finally got to this year. A great Arkham style answer to Spider-Man with arguably even more refined combat and a glorious swinging mechanic. An absolute blast with an incredible final act with some crazy surprises and a surprising amount of heart and emotion. If it wasn’t for a kinda middling middle section and some useless side character sections, this would be even higher