I'm planning to rotate through games, so next Cosmo stream will *probably* be the 13th.

I plan to play Commander Keen (episode TBD) next time.

It absolutely did!

Fun fact: The cats always run around looking for the sound when Majula plays. They don't respond this way to other music.

WAIT SHIT I'M THE ADULT IN THE ROOM I WAS SUPPOSED TO STOP ME

All this to say: I think if DS3 had been my first Souls game, I would have bounced off the series and avoided the "soulslike" tag for a lonnng time.

And if DS2 had been my first, I think I would have stuck with it more readily, despite it being objectively jankier than DS.

(12/12)

So with all that rehash out of the way, oddly enough that friend who bounced off DS3 did let me talk him into playing DS2, and through some combo of the sheer goofiness of character creation, slightly better KBM support, and/or jolly cooperation, he enjoyed it. It's the only one he likes.
(11/?)

I think the main reason I got through DS3 is because yet another friend was playing at the same time, and we like to engage in both jolly co-operation and jolly parallelism.

He did have to put up with fair bit of whining. (He has put up with basically this thread repeatedly over the years.)
(10/?)

The best case I've seen made for DS3 in this regard is that *of course* it's all (dreg-)heaped in a pile of rotting (sometimes burning) slime; the world is ending and all of time is collapsing in on itself!

That is an intriguing take, and I like it! It doesn't help me enjoy the game, though.
(9/?)

What made me dislike DS3 so much was the world. Everywhere felt the same. I'd spend hours progressing through an area just to reach another one that felt identical, except for a different set of enemies and maybe a slightly different tint to the sludge that coated everything.
(8/?)

I mention combat because so many people cite it as the reason they like DS3 best. I don't actually have much of an opinion about the combat in DS3, except maybe "it's a bit overhyped." It's fine. I don't think it's better than 1 or 2, but it's not worse either. It's just different.
(7/?)

The combat was faster, but I didn't feel like it was *better* for it. Just different. Except sometimes enemies were operating at light speed for no reason. (I heard it may have been due to reused assets and/or cut content from Bloodborne? I'm not sure if that's true, but seems plausible.)
(6/?)

So you can imagine my excitement for Dark Souls 3. Everyone was telling me it was the best Souls game, the best game, the best thing since sliced bread, and ho boy I had just beaten DS2, I was READY FOR MORE.

Some of the disappointment must have been hype, but certainly not all.
(5/?)

Dark Souls 2 is a mess, ngl. I love it, though. The world is so wonderfully weird, and the different vibes of each location kept things fresh in a way that the first game mostly pulled off.

And it's the *worlds* that really get me, not the combat or the numerical RPG elements.
(4/?)

So anyway, the controls were rough, the game is hard, but the world was fascinating enough to me that--with ample breaks of "hmph well I'm not interested anyway" frustration--I stuck with it until I got over that hurdle and could just have fun.

And then I got to Dark Souls 2.
(3/?)

I, too, almost bounced off of the series because of the controls. Meanwhile, the friend who introduced me to the game acted like this controller layout was The One Standard Control Scheme for All Games™, which is obviously false, even if you believe they're the One *Correct* yadda yadda.
(2/?)

Context, because it's late and no one can stop me: In light of the controller mapping I've been doing for my DOS collection, I was thinking about how a friend bounced off Dark Souls 3, partly because of its KBM controls (he hates playing controller). (1/?)

The individual games went for $35, with slight discounts for buying bundles. Assuming this form was from 1992 (release date of Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, where I found it), the adjusted price with inflation would be about $81.

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure is $5 on Steam, currently on sale for 84¢.

Adventure games, including text adventures, are definitely on the table here, too. I just don't know many, unless you count Monkey Island (wasn't a fan) and Zork (I have been eaten by a grue).

I'm open to suggestions for games. Particularly interested in recs for RPGs and/or story-focused games

Most of what I already have are sidescroller platformers, because that's where the nostalgia is for me, but I'm actually not a big platforming fan.