People keep thinking I'm gonna run out of souls-likes, but I can guarantee you that I'll run out of energy for these long before I run out of games to play
@@rinnest That is indeed what Anime PFP's oughta do! I was thinking about this the other day but how much better would it be if we lived in an alternative reality where people couldn't shut the fuck up about awesome American cartoons that we grew up loving? Ed Edd n Eddy, Catdog, hey arnold, Johnny bravo, Invader zim, dexters lab and all the other good shit. Where's all the fools who won't shut up about telling the world their love for those types of shows?
I can imagine him going to Dandelion like 'hey, I want to write my daughter a bedtime story & since you're my best friend & a bard & poet, you are legally obligated to help me', & Dandelion absolutely goes along with it & gets so damn invested in this little story about a mouse king he helped his best friend write for his daughter
@@daniloka42 I got Dying Light a couple days ago and it has one of the most satisfying dropkicks in a game I've ever seen. Freerunning from roof to roof and dropkicking a guy off a balcony then watching him hit the floor and his head explode is a great experience lmao.
From the Blood Spear dev team: "We want to address a subject that comes up often “Will there be a full game/sequel?”. As some of you may know, Blood Spear was our graduation project, as newcomers in the industry we are currently looking for more experience in different companies, the team will split up for the moment. However, in the future the team wishes to work together again, whether on Blood Spear or new projects." Sadge
@@jacobnorris8256Makes sense to me, the Vikings are impressive melee fighters and storm troopers can't shoot to literally save their lives so the distance is closed easily.
I'm actually kind of jealous at how good Soul Spear looks as a student project, our game production class in college went about as badly as it possibly could have and I wish we had made anything even close to looking that good.
I know a decent bit about game design, but not enough to get in-depth about it; so maybe you have more insight about this. In the demo, there's the shot of the massive castle wall. What tricks do you think were used to get it rendered at such high quality without tanking the frame rate? To me, it looks like a massive 3-d asset that would absolutely destroy the frames yet it ran really smooth. I thought that was one of the most impressive parts of the demo. Edit: 1:19 for reference
Foregone is another good one. One weird demo that id recommend to anyone is called hidden deep. Just check it out its such a great concept and execution for a indie game.
@@isaacschwartz1257 Admittedly, Hugh Jackman really *is* too tall to play the comic-book version of Wolverine. He was just badass enough to get the part anyway.
I always think of it as Geralt reading a story book to Ciri when she was really young. I absolutely love this game, was so excited when he started playing it!
@@izzy4bitney Really felt bad when he just completely turned on it basically because of video game things, only mentioning its good points in pass when he clearly enjoyed it quite a bit. His phrasing felt overtly nitpicky and bitchy.
"Have I totally lost my mind on what a souls like even is?" Absolutely. But let's be real, souls-likes or not some of the games you find in these dumpster dives are utterly fascinating.
@@Ok-but I think tbh, as long as the game can hold the hook of the like, first hour or so throughout the game, I think it'll do well in like, a standard PC too tbh...
Based off of something Eric Williams (Director of GOW: Ragnarok) said in an interview for the Friends Per Second Podcast, it looks like they may have gotten the spear throw/slam explosion mechanic from Blood Spear. I like to think they reached out to the team behind Blood Spear, especially since it was a student project.
I just played the whole tails of iron game and I honestly loved it myself, it did felt tedious some times and I do agree that the amount of time you spend just walking is too much but I never really got bored of the combat and the game was fun overall, while the points you gave are fair and most people may think it's not worth playing just bc of them, I still recommend it.
I also really enjoyed Tails of Iron, his criticisms are certainly valid, but my guess is most people would still enjoy it. If you're on the fence, I would give it a try. It's free on PS Plus right now too.
Yeah I’m trying to figure out if the developers for Blood Spear had anything to do with Santa Monica bc the animation itself it’s damn near perfectly identical
That gladiator game was freakin hilarious from start to finish-when that one legged guy hopped over, picked up the shield, and aggressively started bouncing toward you I almost spit out my coffee
I just finished the Kin ending here and I loved every minute of the game, and I'm absolutely doing multiple playthroughs of it. And the _music,_ just fantastic. I kinda wanna place Grime around the same level as Hollow Knight, it's a crime that this game is so little known. It also had the most consistently fun bosses I've seen in any Souls-like, every single one felt completely fair and was just _fun_ to fight, with the final boss feeling fittingly climactic.
Hey, for a game recommendation, there's this game coming out in Februray called Elden Ring. It hasn't seemed to gain much hype, but it looks like a faithful souls-like. Definitely check it out when it releases.
The student project game at the start of the video is really impressive. The graphics were beautiful, the mechanics look super comfortable and satisfying, and the boss reminded me of the well boss Bongo Bongo from Ocarina of Time if he existed in the dark souls universe. Really cool game, very talented developers. It's easy to see why it won first.
Yeah it's the level of polish on the gameplay and movement for me. A lot of indie developers and even AAA developers don't really understand how to make moment-to-moment gameplay _feel_ good (I mean, me either, I suspect it's about 50% witchcraft) and when you see someone who clearly knows what they're doing in that department it's a huge green flag.
gladio and glory had my litterally crying, i mean the tears are streaming down my face at 2 am from laughing so hard... seriously your videos are the best when i cant sleep dude
The fact that Iron Pineapple didn't like tails of Iron just shows that some games don't resonate with everyone, and I respect that. A lot of times I come to this series to seek something new within the genre. Buuut I still encourage everyone to try it, but with a less critic mindset. I'm a fool for rats, so to me was like watching a storybook unfold, and it was kinda magical.
Yeah I hope people understand that I’m ultimately just one person with one opinion, and I appreciate a lot in Tails of Iron. I could see the right person enjoying the game a lot despite my issues with it.
To be fair, a lot of what he said was true. I agree with him despite enjoying the game myself. However, what he didnt notice is its potential. I really hope they make a sequel
I love when you find mostly legit good games(or at least honest attempts at good games) in this series. It’s fun to laugh at bad or meme filled “souls-likes” but, seeing smaller games with real inspiration behind them is nice.
Tails of Iron: This is what happens when Dandelion says to Geralt "Well if you don't like my stories, you try writing one!" And he says, "Bet," and comes up with this.
When a game gives you as strong of a foundation as Grime does, it's easy enough to find a few firm puns. You've just got to make sure to sift through the easy stuff and get to the real gems beneath.
The end parts of Song of Iron had me busting a gut. When you said "Why is this Star Wars" I was thinking the exact same thing at that moment. Fantastic.
I read the comment and I thought the ending music would be Star Wars, but nope, actual game became Star Wars lol. Is this commented on in the game itself? Is Thor just a Sufficiently Advanced Alien (TM)?
Loot River seems super interesting. It's nice that they didn't just add the moving platform thing as a mechanic just to stand out from the rest and leave it there, but actually made it a main focus, like with certain enemies being able to affect them, be it through burning them or locking them in place. I'm hoping there'll be more different enemy interactions with the platforms in the future, and hopefully more unique platforms too instead of just platforms with different shapes and/or elevations.
It's not as much that I'm surprised you're not running out of souls-likes, so much as I'm surprised you're not running out of *good* souls-likes. Also, surprised you hadn't played Grime sooner. There was a ton of well deserved hype for it on release. I mean, I still haven't played it, but that's only because I don't have a PC and it hasn't released elsewhere(hopefully there's a "yet" there). I got a recommendation for you: Dandara. It's a metroidvania that's unlike any you've ever played. You can't move left or right and instead can jump from surface to surface. Not soulsy at all, but has great boss fights. The unique movement allows for some really cool puzzles as well. Nothing super complicated, though. This is still my favorite series on CZcams.
Stadia is a pile of bullshit that I'm glad failed. It's the pinnacle of the "games as a service" nonsense that greedy AAA devs would love to implement to kill off the second hand market. It's just another half-assed project that Google execs threw money at then forgot about.
I quite like this series and I'm not fussed about focusing on souls-like games. Would you ever do dumpster diving for a wider bredth of genres finding other hidden gems/trash that aren't neccesarily 3rd person fantasy action games?
@@IronPineapple I would love to see other types of games too. Just keep this series going as well. If you have time of course. Don't stretch yourself too thin as these are amazing.
The moment you realize that Blood Spear had God of War Ragnarok's Draupnir, before Draupnir was a thing in the game. I mean mechanic-wise the Blood Spear is pretty similar. Throw infinite spears at targets and smack into the ground to explode them. It does not have as much particle effects compared to Draupnir itself, but it's a cool observation when looking back to old videos like this one.
10:10 "This one is different by the rest because it answers the question of: what if rocks were people? And what if they also want to kill you?" * Sweats in JoJolion *
I don't know what's the best part of this series, when he finds one that's hilariously wonky or bad, or when he actually finds a hidden gem and gives it the exposure it deserves
I've gotta say, you've really nailed the pacing of these videos, especially the balance between live commentary and post commentary. It didn't feel like you ought to have spent more time talking about any of these or like you spent too long talking about something that didn't warrant it, and that's not an easy thing to achieve
Do you know what the other game he was showing while talking about metroidvanias and grime was? Looked cool but I don’t recognize it, must’ve missed it in another video
Blood Spear, Loot River, GRIME. This episode had some solid games. Let's not forget Gladio and Glory. It genuinely looks super fun. Also, Souls of Iron is fun and engaging, beautiful and simple, well animated. Ending is funny, tho
I gotta be one of the 7 people that genuienly want Plushie from the Sky to be exactly as it is, just longer. That demo was so charming and so dumb in the best ways possible that I immediatelyf3ll in love with it. I especially loved the 4th wall break for stubborn players. I am going to go look up the game right now to see what else there is.
I have never played a game from the Dark Souls franchise, and yet I’ve watched all of your videos in this series and just love them. I look forward to watching you review more “souls-like” gems and turds in the future.
@@bottlebeard I’m the type of person who rages hardcore when I’m up against a frustrating level or section in a game. So I think if I tried playing Dark Souls, I’d break my blood pressure gauge and scare my family with all the screaming I’d be doing. But I very much enjoyed watching Lixian’s whole playthrough of Dark Souls 3. Those who can’t do, watch others do instead.
@@supersexysadie dark souls 1 is worth the temporary process of getting over temperamental issues. either way the game is deceptively portrayed as the hardest video game ever, albeit only by those who never played it and have only heard others advertise it that way, which is all, i think, rooted in the fail/rage compilations that kids who play roblox picked up on and made a meme out of. tldr; it's more bark than bite
@@bottlebeard Lol, you make a pretty good argument. I will at least consider buying it and trying it out. My main fear isn’t actually the difficulty factor because I know I could just quit whenever I want. What intimidates me is being overwhelmed by the menu, different moves, skill tree, inventory, etc. I know there’s no in-game tutorial and the Dark Souls community looks down on that kind of thing. But I feel like I’d have to read the whole Wiki page just to know how to play or what to do next. The thought of too many unknown factors in a game gives me anxiety. I love exploration and tension when I’m playing, but I don’t like feeling ultra confused and dumb haha. Still though, Dark Souls 3 is probably a good price now and it’s almost Xmas. Maybe I’ll dive into deep waters (even though it still gives me anxiety).
@@supersexysadie there is no skill tree in dark souls and certainly no unique controls you might be mentally unfamiliar with or might find surprising. inventory is simple by design because every item is organized in accordance to its purpose; equipment, quest items, and its nonessential, but still existent features that depend on starter classes such as prayer spells, pyromancy spells, magic spells(of which i emphasize a suggestion to avoid altogether because of the immodest game-ruining abundance of power, not just ds1 exclusive). also there actually is an in-game tutorial which begs an inquiry about your previous assertion of its supposed nonexistence. ds1 isn't linear, but it's often clear where you're supposed to go and that's really just wherever you haven't been yet so long as enemies don't feel excessively op which, if they are, will be obvious every time if you compare them to the alternatives. funny thing is that the antidote to fear of the unknown factors is getting to know them, and besides there isn't much of anything interesting to be found at the horizontal tedium that is floating on the surface of water.
Okay, I'm a new subscriber and I'm just catching up on some of your videos, but I had to laugh during all the puns during the Grime review. I was listening to it in the background while I was doing something else and I did an actual double take after hit with all the rock puns. Knowing you weaved them in on purpose... Kudos, Iron Pineapple. Subtle in the audio and hanging a lampshade on them in the video. Genius.
I like to think of myself as someone who can stand jank more than most people, but Iron Pineapple really surprises me with half the stuff you're able to play though, love these videos, one of my favorite video series on youtube
Iron Pineapple: Alright let's dive deep in steam's souls-like dumpster once more. Also Iron Pineaple: *proceeds to play a bunch of well finished fantastic games with actual great quality*
Hey, man. Found your channel very recently through the king's field stuff. It's nice to see someone who has the same interests and takes the time to really delve into them. I appreciate what you're doing!
Those first two games looked really cool. That student project was especially impressive; would love to see them start a Patreon for it to become a full game.
On the game's steam page they said that they aren't planning to keep working on the game for now, or even stay in the same group for that matter. So sadly, it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
Unfortunately with student games that were part of their education, those games are sometimes owned by the school itself. I knew someone years ago that was doing some game dev classes at college and he told me that nobody was doing anything overly impressive since the school would effectively own it.
The school I went to made an effort to say that we owned what we made. The other factor is that working with classmates is different than choosing who you'd want to work with long term. What works well for a semester or a school year isn't great in the long term. And if the students own it, it's hard to split off with a dedicated team if someone else wants to work on it differently.
@@3st3st77Yeah I ended up looking into it and I can understand that something like a student project would be hard to really turn into a full game considering that everybody will be going in their own direction afterwards. Still a shame though, that game looks damn good.
I LOVE that you go through these games! It gives me a lot of information I can make my own decisions on. 1) Blood Spear looks SUPER SATISFYING to play! 2) Loot River looks WILD. Also yeah, the ripples in the water when you move platforms is HYPNOTIC. It's REALLY promising that you went into it with "I think this looks neat" to "NOOOOO THE DEMO CANNOT BE OVER" 3) Gladio and Glory - Thank you for playing this so I know not to. Like, you're laughing your ass off while playing it but it's clear the devs intended it to be taken seriously, and that does not bode well. 4) Grime - That opening animation immediately got my attention. Everything looks GORGEOUS, too. 5) Plushy from the Sky - That, uh... that looks very asset-flip-y 6) Tails of Iron - This would be wishlist material, but when you say the combat becomes a chore after an hour means I'm likely to find it so much, much sooner. 7) Song of Iron - I don't want to be mean. I do NOT want to be mean. I don't want to be mean. Solo dev. Don't want to be mean. But. But. Holy shit how broken can one game be? Like, you'd think it would take an entire dev team to make a game THIS broken. *Star Wars segment starts* OOHHHHHHH, it's an ASSET FLIP. I get it now. Hard pass.
Geralt's voice actor has been doing a some stuff with small indie devs apparently, he's working on a game called Sacred Fire too and it's pretty cool of him
That last game, while absolutely jank, I actually kinda love it's POV and perspective/presentation Feels like of there were a few more devs to edit/write the story, punch up the combat, it could really be something special
I played tails of Iron and i Loved it, i can relate to some of the Things Said in the Video but the for me the Combat was really unique and how the world was changing while progressing was really cool. I recommend this Game 100%.
I'd still recommend Zeno Clash, old as it is. The art is astounding and just kind of surprising, the combat is weighty, and they built the damn thing in source engine which is incredible. The pacing is real tight, the whole experience takes 4 hours. Plus the story is solid, something I didn't expect in a game with duel fish guns, men that are part tea kettle and women that are part hookah. There's a new game in the series lined up. Can't wait. The colors in the Zeno games and how everyone looks partially melted is so good. A beautiful world of weirdos.
I'm in the middle of a gruelling finals week in my last year and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to be able to take a break and watch a new upload of one of my favorite series. Thank you
Just found this series, and it is fantastic. I love how you tackle all of them with good humor and appreciation for the work put into games, even the ones you ended up not liking. Now for a recommendation: if you haven't played it already, Death's Door is a fantastic game where you play as a little crow dude who reaps souls for his day job. It's not super long (maybe 10 hours for a full playthrough), has a lot of charm, and has definite Dark Souls vibes with its mood and style of storytelling. Edit: I'm watching your July 25th episode and see that you've already played it! I'm glad you were able to enjoy it at least! Although it sounds like you didn't get to the true ending (which requires you to 100% the game), so I'd recommend looking up the true ending sequences, if not completing it yourself. I think it really wraps up the story and gives context to some of the collectibles you find.
Grime is super unique! I started it over the summer, and I agree with the comment that it gets old, but the exploration and platforming are pretty well thought out, and with the leveling system you can actually play around with different builds, like dex or strength or even magic! And the art style is so unique and beautiful that it’s honestly worth playing it for that alone
Just the imagery of your big burly Viking dude slowly and delicately pulling on a pair of boots while a giant mob absolutely lets loose on you is hilarious.
I recently finished Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. It took me about 4 hours but is a short, souls-y metroidvania, and I really enjoyed the art, music, and gameplay. Great video as always!
He's already either played and reviewed that one, iirc, or it was too "known" to call obscure (considering a big CZcamsr at the time played it when it was new).
There’s a small indie souls like series you should check out called kingdom hearts, it’s got all the souls-like key attributes: -Dodge roll based action combat -a world filled with darkness/monsters -heavily littered with themes of humanity and light/dark -Large scale boss fights which are the highlights of the combat system -Orchestral music
13:34 I laughed so hard 🤣 but made me think..imagine a comedy souls game where bosses just do ridiculous things but you still have the ds boss elements
This series is slowly becoming the highlight of your channel, just genuinely entertaining to see all the unique creations fresh in your mind. keep them coming!
![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
People keep thinking I'm gonna run out of souls-likes, but I can guarantee you that I'll run out of energy for these long before I run out of games to play
Early squad! ❤️❤️❤️
You will only run out when elden ring comes out and not leave the house for years.
Doubt
don't run out of energy then lol
No one thinks you will run out of garbage souls likes, we however think you will run out of will to live and go hollow
I feel like once Elden Ring comes out Iron Pineapple gonna be like "I've played too many Souls Like games, I'm skipping this one."
He probably already pre-ordered the game on every platfrom where it's available.
Well this atleast if he didn't get a free review copy.
That would be a tragedy.
I don’t think an apocalypse would be enough to stop me from getting Elden Ring once it comes out.
@@MindinViolet not even a Soviet weapons grade apocalypse tank.
@@mwperk02 that's...oddly specific
That "STOP" attack that ends the game by killing you was brilliant.
silence anime pfp using peddle file remove that anime pfp
@@animeiscancerfurriesarefet217 touch grass
@@rinnest That is indeed what Anime PFP's oughta do! I was thinking about this the other day but how much better would it be if we lived in an alternative reality where people couldn't shut the fuck up about awesome American cartoons that we grew up loving? Ed Edd n Eddy, Catdog, hey arnold, Johnny bravo, Invader zim, dexters lab and all the other good shit. Where's all the fools who won't shut up about telling the world their love for those types of shows?
@@NYC_Goody touch grass
@@rinnest please do touch grass that'd be good for you!
"this is a story Geralt wrote" this is def a bedtime story Geralt would tell to Ciri
yeeees! even in the books, Geralt is in dad-mode a lot while searching for her.
I can imagine him going to Dandelion like 'hey, I want to write my daughter a bedtime story & since you're my best friend & a bard & poet, you are legally obligated to help me', & Dandelion absolutely goes along with it & gets so damn invested in this little story about a mouse king he helped his best friend write for his daughter
More non-FIFA games should definitely have slide-tackle functions
or jump kicking sideways with body completely into it with both feet.
FEAR and trepang2 do this and its hilarious because enemies just go sailing across the room
Yes. Add it to any golf and ice hockey sims you make in the future, EA.
@@monx84 You mean a Dropkick?
@@daniloka42 I got Dying Light a couple days ago and it has one of the most satisfying dropkicks in a game I've ever seen. Freerunning from roof to roof and dropkicking a guy off a balcony then watching him hit the floor and his head explode is a great experience lmao.
From the Blood Spear dev team:
"We want to address a subject that comes up often “Will there be a full game/sequel?”. As some of you may know, Blood Spear was our graduation project, as newcomers in the industry we are currently looking for more experience in different companies, the team will split up for the moment. However, in the future the team wishes to work together again, whether on Blood Spear or new projects."
Sadge
😔
Sounds like a time skip on an anime. "Then they will gather again after 5 years of training, to form the most powerful indie development team"
@@inpy only timeskips in anime k
@@saints9379 wat?
Go back to the abyss with nanachi
Wait GOW Ragnarok has the same spear combat mechanics as Blood Spear…? That’s crazy
I was about to say man this video is a year old its the same mechanic lol
What do you think the chances are some of the students who worked on blood spear got jobs at sony Santa monica
draupnir
i was about to comment the same thing
More accurately, I think the first concept of an exploding spear came from Kalista in League
The storm troopers has to be one of the craziest plot twists ever on a souls-like
And worst part they lose to fucking vikings. So much for vastly superior tech.
The other tribes are never gonna believe what happened!
@@jacobnorris8256 To be fair, they also lost to some teddy bears, clearly the technological advantage doesn't count for much in their case.
@@MoonPatch they just have too much Reverse plot armor
@@jacobnorris8256Makes sense to me, the Vikings are impressive melee fighters and storm troopers can't shoot to literally save their lives so the distance is closed easily.
I'm actually kind of jealous at how good Soul Spear looks as a student project, our game production class in college went about as badly as it possibly could have and I wish we had made anything even close to looking that good.
If anything, I hope the students are successful for the environments and concept design. Very impressive project.
@@ExemplarKyle Oh for sure, with something like this on their portfolio they have a shoe-in for any game industry job they apply for
I know a decent bit about game design, but not enough to get in-depth about it; so maybe you have more insight about this. In the demo, there's the shot of the massive castle wall. What tricks do you think were used to get it rendered at such high quality without tanking the frame rate? To me, it looks like a massive 3-d asset that would absolutely destroy the frames yet it ran really smooth. I thought that was one of the most impressive parts of the demo.
Edit: 1:19 for reference
@@dougdynamo9398 Read up on texture & light baking, theres a lot of good articles on the internet that break it down simply.
@@hobgob321
Thanks, man. I appreciate it.
Impressed with the amount of W's in this episode. Already bought Grime. And I can't wait for the full release of Loot River XD
Tails of iron slaps.....well in the beginning lol
X X DD
X X D D
X D D
X X D D
X X D D
Oyeah grime was free on stadia, which stadia was free for a couple of months if u had Google storage. So it was a Def win!
played grime for the sick combat stayed for sexy rock lore
Foregone is another good one. One weird demo that id recommend to anyone is called hidden deep. Just check it out its such a great concept and execution for a indie game.
19:45 - From Souls, to Skyrim, to I Wanna Be The Guy, to Getting Over It, to Star Wars. Damn, what a ride.
Don't forget Limbo.
And God Of War
Throw the Spear and break it by pounding the ground.
*_God of War Ragnarok: Write that down...._*
Bro i was just about to comment this, I IMMEDIATELY knew the similarities.
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed
When I was playing ragnarok this student project was the only thing going through my brain
Iron Pineapple having a gamertag "metallic fruit" is like Bryan Cranston cosplaying Walter White at Comicon
which have happened
I was gonna say, didn't Hugh Jackman once go as Wolverine. People kept giving him shit because he was too tall.
Reminds me how Charlie Chaplin joined a look alike contest of himself and lost
@@isaacschwartz1257 Admittedly, Hugh Jackman really *is* too tall to play the comic-book version of Wolverine. He was just badass enough to get the part anyway.
Tails of Iron being someone in the Witcher universe writing a children's book and then Geralt reading it to someone is such a good headcanon bro
it hit me like a truck when i heard geralt talking
I always think of it as Geralt reading a story book to Ciri when she was really young. I absolutely love this game, was so excited when he started playing it!
@@pavkata9568 bro same, I was sitting here like "wait a god damn minute"
@@izzy4bitney Really felt bad when he just completely turned on it basically because of video game things, only mentioning its good points in pass when he clearly enjoyed it quite a bit. His phrasing felt overtly nitpicky and bitchy.
@@2BsWraith I mean, if he didn't like it, he didn't like it. He was just honest.
You know what? Even though that one gladiator lost his leg, he got right back up and kept fighting like a boss. Respectable.
He was booking it for a man who only had one leg.
@@tianamaycry My mans was faster on one leg than he was with two 😭
tis but a scratch
@@KawaiiStarsTwas a flesh wound
I imagine the hard work that a single dude had to make an entire game. The "now what" ending was like, "I'm tired, enough of that".
This was actually one of the best group of games in this series.
True
Seriously the first 5 were all great.
"Have I totally lost my mind on what a souls like even is?"
Absolutely. But let's be real, souls-likes or not some of the games you find in these dumpster dives are utterly fascinating.
A souls like is definitely any game where you gently slide off a cliff and there's a funny death message in red.
its not a soulslike if it doesn't have sun-praising and beautiful chests ahead
Loot River looks and plays incredibly well I'm gonna buy it 100% when it's out
if loot river comes out mobile the popularity would sky rocket
Same!
It’s like top down noita, which means a lot of pain and a lot of fun
@@Ok-but I think tbh, as long as the game can hold the hook of the like, first hour or so throughout the game, I think it'll do well in like, a standard PC too tbh...
It looks similar to dead cells especially the pink enemy that throws balls at 6:06
Based off of something Eric Williams (Director of GOW: Ragnarok) said in an interview for the Friends Per Second Podcast, it looks like they may have gotten the spear throw/slam explosion mechanic from Blood Spear.
I like to think they reached out to the team behind Blood Spear, especially since it was a student project.
do you have the time stamp of the precise moment in the interview by any chance ? Really curious about this
@@nathank78280 no, sorry.
Could be from league of legends theres a character called kalista that has abilities like that
The true mark of a souls-like, enjoyably breakable barrels.
With nothing in it xD
@@LordGrizzly89 Who needs stuff in the barrels? Breaking them is reward enough.
"This actually looks like..."
Me: "Demons Souls? Boletaria?"
"Crazy good"
*Oh, yeah, that*
Exactly what I was thinking. That vista had Boletaria written all over it.
I was thinking Boletaria!
I just played the whole tails of iron game and I honestly loved it myself, it did felt tedious some times and I do agree that the amount of time you spend just walking is too much but I never really got bored of the combat and the game was fun overall, while the points you gave are fair and most people may think it's not worth playing just bc of them, I still recommend it.
Thank you for your comment! I might give the game a go... if anything it looks beautifull.
@@miniclip1162 Tails of iron is a lot of fun. The combat is really unique. It can be frustrating, but it's definitely worth it.
I also really enjoyed Tails of Iron, his criticisms are certainly valid, but my guess is most people would still enjoy it. If you're on the fence, I would give it a try. It's free on PS Plus right now too.
also a insanely easy platinum for achievement hunters
HOLY SHIT that spear in that student project game, Blood Spear, GoW Ragnarok use the exact same mechanic
Yeah I’m trying to figure out if the developers for Blood Spear had anything to do with Santa Monica bc the animation itself it’s damn near perfectly identical
That gladiator game was freakin hilarious from start to finish-when that one legged guy hopped over, picked up the shield, and aggressively started bouncing toward you I almost spit out my coffee
It's like a Monty Python skit.
It’s free too
@@Jokoko2828 "Right! I'll do you for that!"
All that it's missing is the ability to grab said missing limbs and using them to beat people
Time stamp?
This is one of my favorite series. Never fails to make me laugh or inspire me to try a new game
Fr tho. I always get excited as hell when I see Metal Fruit has posted one of these vids.
Pretty wild how similar those spear mechanics are to God of War Ragnarok.
But it was before GOW
@@D4RKROS3 that’s my point.
And the final ingredient for the spear was blood
@@AkraNyah WAS GONNA SAY THE SAME
“What if rocks were people and what if they also wanted to kill you?”
Ahh, yes. A question as old as time.
*Lithophobia intensifies!*
Song of Iron is what you get when the 3d modeler/asset artist has to also design the combat, level structure, enemies, and the story.
Reminds me of an old-fashioned kusoge, just a bunch of people with no business making a whole-ass game and filling it with capital-D Decisions
That's accurate lol. It was actually on my wishlist for a while before it came out. Kinda sad to see it's not too great.
I gotta be honest...the sci fi thing at the end threw me out for a loop. Look good enough for a solo dev tbh
I got the impression it was just made by a Dark Messiah enjoyer.
That bear fight was just like the revenant.
Personally I think having vikings break into cloning labs and fight stormtroopers with axes is metal as fuck.
every day we get closer to Robot-Pirate Island
Loot River seems REALLY cool. It looks polished, and the mechanics have a lot of potential and are legitimately interesting
Grime is such a underrated game, played it right after release and had great fun playing it
I'm stuck on the hand boss
I just finished the Kin ending here and I loved every minute of the game, and I'm absolutely doing multiple playthroughs of it. And the _music,_ just fantastic. I kinda wanna place Grime around the same level as Hollow Knight, it's a crime that this game is so little known. It also had the most consistently fun bosses I've seen in any Souls-like, every single one felt completely fair and was just _fun_ to fight, with the final boss feeling fittingly climactic.
@@lolman6759have you tried……throwing rock?
@@Daomus I'm not stuck on the boss anymore
Hey, for a game recommendation, there's this game coming out in Februray called Elden Ring. It hasn't seemed to gain much hype, but it looks like a faithful souls-like. Definitely check it out when it releases.
yeah, i heard that Elden ring is going to be one of the games ever made
@@hitfran4644 i heard elden ring is going to be a game? idk about that tho.
Yeah, seems like a pretty cool Indie title.
@@hitfran4644 definitely one of the games ever made
They made a Kickstarter for this and after I dropped few hundreds I knew it was worth it
The student project game at the start of the video is really impressive. The graphics were beautiful, the mechanics look super comfortable and satisfying, and the boss reminded me of the well boss Bongo Bongo from Ocarina of Time if he existed in the dark souls universe.
Really cool game, very talented developers. It's easy to see why it won first.
Yeah, I'm gonna play that as soon as I get home tonight. Students involved in that should be very proud.
Yeah it's the level of polish on the gameplay and movement for me. A lot of indie developers and even AAA developers don't really understand how to make moment-to-moment gameplay _feel_ good (I mean, me either, I suspect it's about 50% witchcraft) and when you see someone who clearly knows what they're doing in that department it's a huge green flag.
gladio and glory had my litterally crying, i mean the tears are streaming down my face at 2 am from laughing so hard... seriously your videos are the best when i cant sleep dude
It's so true. It's 3 am , and I'm sitting here crying, trying not to wake up the whole block. Just look how the dude stands up at 8:52.
bro i think they designed the mechanics for kratos' spear.
The fact that Iron Pineapple didn't like tails of Iron just shows that some games don't resonate with everyone, and I respect that. A lot of times I come to this series to seek something new within the genre. Buuut I still encourage everyone to try it, but with a less critic mindset. I'm a fool for rats, so to me was like watching a storybook unfold, and it was kinda magical.
Yeah I hope people understand that I’m ultimately just one person with one opinion, and I appreciate a lot in Tails of Iron. I could see the right person enjoying the game a lot despite my issues with it.
To be fair, a lot of what he said was true. I agree with him despite enjoying the game myself. However, what he didnt notice is its potential. I really hope they make a sequel
@@kuoliibk They made or inprogreess a free expension patch
@@kuoliibk He noticed the potential just said the padding was bad and that it got repetitive
@@IronPineapple *Iron* Pineapple not liking Tales of *Iron*
I love when you find mostly legit good games(or at least honest attempts at good games) in this series. It’s fun to laugh at bad or meme filled “souls-likes” but, seeing smaller games with real inspiration behind them is nice.
Especially the first game! A lot of potential there.
so the student who worked on "Blood Spear" got hired at Santa Monica right?
I was just thinking the same thing
As someone who has installed but never played Dark Souls, I greatly appreciate this series. Keep it up, these videos are always wildly entertaining!
go play it right now
You must be getting really fken wild ideas about what exactly is going to greet you when you finally boot it up.
Tails of Iron: This is what happens when Dandelion says to Geralt "Well if you don't like my stories, you try writing one!" And he says, "Bet," and comes up with this.
The puns for the Grime review were buried deep, definitely had me rolling.
i really dig multilayered comedy like that
It was good for the first two, then it started rolling downhill.
They were funny I just started taking them for granite.
When a game gives you as strong of a foundation as Grime does, it's easy enough to find a few firm puns.
You've just got to make sure to sift through the easy stuff and get to the real gems beneath.
could you do like a “Best of” list of your souls-like finds?
Tails of Iron brought me back to childhood of how similar it is to the 'Redwall' series I read when I was younger
It is so hilarious to see someone playing games no one else on CZcams plays. You brought my into the "Souls Games". Thanks for that! :D
You should actually play the Souls games too. I mean, why not? They are not impossible nor inaccessible.
Weich aber Vollnass
Indiemause played through grime and that rat one I believe, he also started as a souls youtuber
Mythymoo has actually played all the games shown here. So yeah, Pineapple's not the only one, he's just late lol.
MythyMoo wants to know your location.
Everyone in Gladio And Glory : "Just a flesh wound!" (hops around without arms or legs)
Tis but a scratch
woah that first game had a certain mechanic awfully close to what ragnarok ended up having
That’s exactly what I thought lmao
Okay, but, a boss exercising mid fight to get buffs is actually kind of brilliant.
The end parts of Song of Iron had me busting a gut. When you said "Why is this Star Wars" I was thinking the exact same thing at that moment. Fantastic.
that was the first time I've legitimately cried of laughter in as long as I can remember. feels amazing
My theory is that they ran out of medieval-esque assets and just used the sci-fi assets they had laying around lmao
I read the comment and I thought the ending music would be Star Wars, but nope, actual game became Star Wars lol. Is this commented on in the game itself? Is Thor just a Sufficiently Advanced Alien (TM)?
What broke me was jumping into that first swinging hammer, that had such a great I Want To Be The Guy "asshole platformer" energy
This is LITERALLY my favorite YT series. Please keep making them i click within -1 seconds
Loot River seems super interesting. It's nice that they didn't just add the moving platform thing as a mechanic just to stand out from the rest and leave it there, but actually made it a main focus, like with certain enemies being able to affect them, be it through burning them or locking them in place. I'm hoping there'll be more different enemy interactions with the platforms in the future, and hopefully more unique platforms too instead of just platforms with different shapes and/or elevations.
This man seems pretty skilled, he should play Dark Souls sometime...
It's not as much that I'm surprised you're not running out of souls-likes, so much as I'm surprised you're not running out of *good* souls-likes. Also, surprised you hadn't played Grime sooner. There was a ton of well deserved hype for it on release. I mean, I still haven't played it, but that's only because I don't have a PC and it hasn't released elsewhere(hopefully there's a "yet" there). I got a recommendation for you: Dandara. It's a metroidvania that's unlike any you've ever played. You can't move left or right and instead can jump from surface to surface. Not soulsy at all, but has great boss fights. The unique movement allows for some really cool puzzles as well. Nothing super complicated, though.
This is still my favorite series on CZcams.
Dandara rules! I need to finish it
Grime is on Stadia
Stadia is a pile of bullshit that I'm glad failed. It's the pinnacle of the "games as a service" nonsense that greedy AAA devs would love to implement to kill off the second hand market. It's just another half-assed project that Google execs threw money at then forgot about.
@@namename8004 it's not Games as a service though? You can just buy and play it on there without the need for any subscription.
I quite like this series and I'm not fussed about focusing on souls-like games. Would you ever do dumpster diving for a wider bredth of genres finding other hidden gems/trash that aren't neccesarily 3rd person fantasy action games?
It’s something I’ve thought about, especially since I play lots of niche games in my free time, but I just don’t record them.
That could be cool
@@IronPineapple I would love to see other types of games too. Just keep this series going as well. If you have time of course. Don't stretch yourself too thin as these are amazing.
@@IronPineapple I dont know if u stream, but u could do that with those unrecorded games and than edit those vods if u feel like it
@@IronPineapple Have you played Moonstone: a hard day's Knight? It's VERY souls-like, but for the AMIGA500 terminal. You can probably emulate it.
The moment you realize that Blood Spear had God of War Ragnarok's Draupnir, before Draupnir was a thing in the game.
I mean mechanic-wise the Blood Spear is pretty similar. Throw infinite spears at targets and smack into the ground to explode them. It does not have as much particle effects compared to Draupnir itself, but it's a cool observation when looking back to old videos like this one.
the mechanic also existed in league of legends in a champion called kalista for more than 12 years
@@Eternal_Games1 Trueeee. I forgot about that.
10:10 "This one is different by the rest because it answers the question of: what if rocks were people? And what if they also want to kill you?"
* Sweats in JoJolion *
I don't know what's the best part of this series, when he finds one that's hilariously wonky or bad, or when he actually finds a hidden gem and gives it the exposure it deserves
Yes
I prefer the majority to be of the latter category, with the occasional crap mixed in.
I've gotta say, you've really nailed the pacing of these videos, especially the balance between live commentary and post commentary. It didn't feel like you ought to have spent more time talking about any of these or like you spent too long talking about something that didn't warrant it, and that's not an easy thing to achieve
20:18 For some reason the way this bear just rolls up really made me laugh.
1:36 did gow ragnarok really just do what i think it did
Holy shit Song of Iron looks so goddamn funny. That horizontal hammer had my crying. The boss in Plushie doing pushups was also brilliant.
Not to mention the little anime girl just frog-hopping around the map at the speed of light lol
Grime is so good! So glad you were able to play it
What about Elon Musk now?
Do you know what the other game he was showing while talking about metroidvanias and grime was? Looked cool but I don’t recognize it, must’ve missed it in another video
@@avataraarow It was Ender Lilies, and is a quite amazing game well worth picking up
It looked pretty ROCK SOLID
Although to play it I'd have to be pretty STONED
Blood Spear, Loot River, GRIME. This episode had some solid games. Let's not forget Gladio and Glory. It genuinely looks super fun. Also, Souls of Iron is fun and engaging, beautiful and simple, well animated. Ending is funny, tho
I gotta be one of the 7 people that genuienly want Plushie from the Sky to be exactly as it is, just longer. That demo was so charming and so dumb in the best ways possible that I immediatelyf3ll in love with it. I especially loved the 4th wall break for stubborn players. I am going to go look up the game right now to see what else there is.
"Yo is that Geralt?!"
Yes.
"They got the voice actor for _Geralt???"_
Exactly.
I have never played a game from the Dark Souls franchise, and yet I’ve watched all of your videos in this series and just love them. I look forward to watching you review more “souls-like” gems and turds in the future.
SINNER
@@bottlebeard I’m the type of person who rages hardcore when I’m up against a frustrating level or section in a game. So I think if I tried playing Dark Souls, I’d break my blood pressure gauge and scare my family with all the screaming I’d be doing. But I very much enjoyed watching Lixian’s whole playthrough of Dark Souls 3. Those who can’t do, watch others do instead.
@@supersexysadie dark souls 1 is worth the temporary process of getting over temperamental issues. either way the game is deceptively portrayed as the hardest video game ever, albeit only by those who never played it and have only heard others advertise it that way, which is all, i think, rooted in the fail/rage compilations that kids who play roblox picked up on and made a meme out of. tldr; it's more bark than bite
@@bottlebeard Lol, you make a pretty good argument. I will at least consider buying it and trying it out. My main fear isn’t actually the difficulty factor because I know I could just quit whenever I want. What intimidates me is being overwhelmed by the menu, different moves, skill tree, inventory, etc. I know there’s no in-game tutorial and the Dark Souls community looks down on that kind of thing. But I feel like I’d have to read the whole Wiki page just to know how to play or what to do next. The thought of too many unknown factors in a game gives me anxiety. I love exploration and tension when I’m playing, but I don’t like feeling ultra confused and dumb haha. Still though, Dark Souls 3 is probably a good price now and it’s almost Xmas. Maybe I’ll dive into deep waters (even though it still gives me anxiety).
@@supersexysadie there is no skill tree in dark souls and certainly no unique controls you might be mentally unfamiliar with or might find surprising. inventory is simple by design because every item is organized in accordance to its purpose; equipment, quest items, and its nonessential, but still existent features that depend on starter classes such as prayer spells, pyromancy spells, magic spells(of which i emphasize a suggestion to avoid altogether because of the immodest game-ruining abundance of power, not just ds1 exclusive). also there actually is an in-game tutorial which begs an inquiry about your previous assertion of its supposed nonexistence. ds1 isn't linear, but it's often clear where you're supposed to go and that's really just wherever you haven't been yet so long as enemies don't feel excessively op which, if they are, will be obvious every time if you compare them to the alternatives. funny thing is that the antidote to fear of the unknown factors is getting to know them, and besides there isn't much of anything interesting to be found at the horizontal tedium that is floating on the surface of water.
Love seeing your take on all of these. I played through a couple. Need to go back and check out the rest of your series
Okay, I'm a new subscriber and I'm just catching up on some of your videos, but I had to laugh during all the puns during the Grime review.
I was listening to it in the background while I was doing something else and I did an actual double take after hit with all the rock puns. Knowing you weaved them in on purpose... Kudos, Iron Pineapple. Subtle in the audio and hanging a lampshade on them in the video. Genius.
"What if rocks were people, and also wanted to kill you?"
I've laned against Malphite before, thank you very much.
My reaction: Steven Universe video game lel
When the hammer trap hit you when you jumped over, I almost died myself.
Just found you the other day and I'd have to say this series and your content is pure gold. This channel will only get bigger great job.
19:40 You've got to pay the troll toll, if you want to do the souls roll.
I like to think of myself as someone who can stand jank more than most people, but Iron Pineapple really surprises me with half the stuff you're able to play though, love these videos, one of my favorite video series on youtube
Iron Pineapple: Alright let's dive deep in steam's souls-like dumpster once more.
Also Iron Pineaple: *proceeds to play a bunch of well finished fantastic games with actual great quality*
Honestly, most of these were amazing
U think these were great try a actual good indie game like Witcher 3
@@litrogue6328 lol
@@litrogue6328 "indie"
@@litrogue6328 The new game Elden Ring seems pretty indie in this case...
Hey, man. Found your channel very recently through the king's field stuff. It's nice to see someone who has the same interests and takes the time to really delve into them. I appreciate what you're doing!
3:33 Tetris souls
21:33 lmao seeing him slowly put on shoes as he is being brutally cleaved was so funny
Those first two games looked really cool. That student project was especially impressive; would love to see them start a Patreon for it to become a full game.
On the game's steam page they said that they aren't planning to keep working on the game for now, or even stay in the same group for that matter. So sadly, it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
Unfortunately with student games that were part of their education, those games are sometimes owned by the school itself. I knew someone years ago that was doing some game dev classes at college and he told me that nobody was doing anything overly impressive since the school would effectively own it.
The school I went to made an effort to say that we owned what we made. The other factor is that working with classmates is different than choosing who you'd want to work with long term. What works well for a semester or a school year isn't great in the long term. And if the students own it, it's hard to split off with a dedicated team if someone else wants to work on it differently.
@@3st3st77Yeah I ended up looking into it and I can understand that something like a student project would be hard to really turn into a full game considering that everybody will be going in their own direction afterwards. Still a shame though, that game looks damn good.
I LOVE that you go through these games! It gives me a lot of information I can make my own decisions on.
1) Blood Spear looks SUPER SATISFYING to play!
2) Loot River looks WILD. Also yeah, the ripples in the water when you move platforms is HYPNOTIC. It's REALLY promising that you went into it with "I think this looks neat" to "NOOOOO THE DEMO CANNOT BE OVER"
3) Gladio and Glory - Thank you for playing this so I know not to. Like, you're laughing your ass off while playing it but it's clear the devs intended it to be taken seriously, and that does not bode well.
4) Grime - That opening animation immediately got my attention. Everything looks GORGEOUS, too.
5) Plushy from the Sky - That, uh... that looks very asset-flip-y
6) Tails of Iron - This would be wishlist material, but when you say the combat becomes a chore after an hour means I'm likely to find it so much, much sooner.
7) Song of Iron - I don't want to be mean. I do NOT want to be mean. I don't want to be mean. Solo dev. Don't want to be mean. But. But. Holy shit how broken can one game be? Like, you'd think it would take an entire dev team to make a game THIS broken. *Star Wars segment starts* OOHHHHHHH, it's an ASSET FLIP. I get it now. Hard pass.
Bro that blood spear weapon is like the spear on the god of war Ragnarok
Geralt's voice actor has been doing a some stuff with small indie devs apparently, he's working on a game called Sacred Fire too and it's pretty cool of him
That last game, while absolutely jank, I actually kinda love it's POV and perspective/presentation
Feels like of there were a few more devs to edit/write the story, punch up the combat, it could really be something special
I played tails of Iron and i Loved it, i can relate to some of the Things Said in the Video but the for me the Combat was really unique and how the world was changing while progressing was really cool. I recommend this Game 100%.
I'm already subscribed, nerd. I appreciate you for the fact that you help to highlight games I might miss, though.
I'd still recommend Zeno Clash, old as it is. The art is astounding and just kind of surprising, the combat is weighty, and they built the damn thing in source engine which is incredible. The pacing is real tight, the whole experience takes 4 hours. Plus the story is solid, something I didn't expect in a game with duel fish guns, men that are part tea kettle and women that are part hookah. There's a new game in the series lined up. Can't wait. The colors in the Zeno games and how everyone looks partially melted is so good. A beautiful world of weirdos.
Zeno Clash is a wild ride, very unique game. would recommend it too for sure
I may replay both of em, thanks.
The creators, ACE Team, said that they got inspiration from Bloodborne for the level design in Clash: Artifact of Chaos.
As much as I loved Zeno Clash 1 & 2, they're not soulslikes. Let's not butcher the meaning of the word anymore than it has been already.
I'm in the middle of a gruelling finals week in my last year and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to be able to take a break and watch a new upload of one of my favorite series. Thank you
Just found this series, and it is fantastic. I love how you tackle all of them with good humor and appreciation for the work put into games, even the ones you ended up not liking. Now for a recommendation: if you haven't played it already, Death's Door is a fantastic game where you play as a little crow dude who reaps souls for his day job. It's not super long (maybe 10 hours for a full playthrough), has a lot of charm, and has definite Dark Souls vibes with its mood and style of storytelling.
Edit: I'm watching your July 25th episode and see that you've already played it! I'm glad you were able to enjoy it at least! Although it sounds like you didn't get to the true ending (which requires you to 100% the game), so I'd recommend looking up the true ending sequences, if not completing it yourself. I think it really wraps up the story and gives context to some of the collectibles you find.
Grime is super unique! I started it over the summer, and I agree with the comment that it gets old, but the exploration and platforming are pretty well thought out, and with the leveling system you can actually play around with different builds, like dex or strength or even magic! And the art style is so unique and beautiful that it’s honestly worth playing it for that alone
Honestly, Gladio & Glory looks like it would be SO much fun to play with friends
"What if rocks were people, and they also wanted to kill you?"
Me: *stares in JoJo's Part 8*
I was thinking the same fucking thing!!
*menacing*
@@affegpus4195 *SO IT'S THE SAME TYPE OF STAND AS STAR PLATINUM*
Just the imagery of your big burly Viking dude slowly and delicately pulling on a pair of boots while a giant mob absolutely lets loose on you is hilarious.
When I played GoW Ragnarok, I always thought I've seen the Draupnir spear before, now I know where haha
I recently finished Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. It took me about 4 hours but is a short, souls-y metroidvania, and I really enjoyed the art, music, and gameplay. Great video as always!
He's already either played and reviewed that one, iirc, or it was too "known" to call obscure (considering a big CZcamsr at the time played it when it was new).
There’s a small indie souls like series you should check out called kingdom hearts, it’s got all the souls-like key attributes:
-Dodge roll based action combat
-a world filled with darkness/monsters
-heavily littered with themes of humanity and light/dark
-Large scale boss fights which are the highlights of the combat system
-Orchestral music
key attributes, heh
Bruh
LMAO
Sounds lame
not enough stamina management for my taste
Wait.. is this 1:25 spear mechanic the EXACT same from GOW: Ragnarök? xD
13:34 I laughed so hard 🤣 but made me think..imagine a comedy souls game where bosses just do ridiculous things but you still have the ds boss elements
This series is slowly becoming the highlight of your channel, just genuinely entertaining to see all the unique creations fresh in your mind. keep them coming!
Tails of Iron is probably inspired by "Batracomiomachia", one of Homer's poem, which narrate the war between Frogs and Mice
Also Redwall
@@teaz3139 oh, i imaginated that there were a middle term between them. I'll search It, thx
Its also based on my backyard
This is the first video of yours I’ve watched and I loved it!
I love the series of videos! You are my favorite Souls person on youtube by far.