Posts from Sacred Haven of Debauchery Auto-translated

I've played enough to realize—this isn't for me, even outside the context of the visuals. I don't see any depth behind the new systems. Perhaps the Anphrozens will pull it off on enthusiasm and smooth over all the gameplay rough edges caused by this, but so far they haven't even added water or an underground level. If a miracle does happen, it'll be in about two years. Besides, if you don't play multiplayer, there's simply nothing to do in the game right now—it's not aimed at single-player fans at all.

Those were roughly my impressions of what I saw, so initially I didn't expect much.

As for me, I remember that Heroes didn't really click for me at all. The gameplay mechanic of "if you don't do something in time, it'll be worse later" (spawning new enemies or something like that) became a real thorn in my side. I don't like being "rushed"...

I love Heroes up to the fifth, although I also completed all campaigns in the sixth and regret the time spent, but the last time I tried playing the fifth's campaigns on maximum difficulty. I got extremely lazy dealing with that stuffy rhyming elf.

KB, on the other hand, has started resonating with me more. This month I actually beat Princess on Impossible without losses for the first time, although it used to seem like something out of reach and there were always a couple of bosses where I'd inevitably lose someone.

And the other day I managed to install Warriors of the North for the first time in a long while, which previously wouldn't run on my laptop no matter what. I danced around with a tambourine for a long time before finding that one single file that fixes everything. Though here I've limited myself to high difficulty for now, since I don't remember a damn thing anymore.

Happiness will come when creators can make whatever they want, and fans can enjoy whatever they want, without third parties interfering in that.

The suits upstairs would disagree with you.

The five is sacred. Anyone who disagrees is a shameful three-lover.

All parts up to 6 are cool in their own way. I'm scared of who's a fan of 6 and 7.

I played the fifth one for half an hour and deleted it, and that's after a thousand hours in 3 and 4.

Unfortunately, that is a utopia.

And first and foremost, not because of censorship, but for economic reasons.

When an author is advised from above what the final product should be, art becomes diminished.

It used to be "director's cinema," now it has become "producer's cinema."

Perfumers used to create without regard for the opinion of the crowd, and often produced very unexpected fragrances that ultimately "took off." Now there is a brief from the client specifying roughly what the fragrance should turn out to be.

Games used to be made the way developers wanted; now they adapt to the publisher's opinion.

That's not what I mean. If someone pays someone money to have a specific thing made for them on a voluntary basis — that's normal, and the client's wishes should be taken into account, as it should be. What's not normal is when third entities interfere in these market relations.

I'm not talking about a bespoke one-off product, but about another installment of some game that repeats proven patterns.

Or a "clone" of some game that brings nothing new.

Or the string of faceless generic movies made to rake in box office.

By "client" I meant the perfume manufacturing company. Most often, a perfumer works for some brand. Only a few can afford to promote their own brand.

Well, who forced Lucas to sell Star Wars...

Nah, there's no such thing as six-fags. They have nowhere to come from, because there's nothing to do in the game. It's the most content-poor and stripped-down part of the series. But it had its pluses. A beautiful global map, a story.

The seven, on the other hand, was unfinished and very budget, but it's playable outside of the campaign, unlike the six. It can be modded, it has all the gameplay mechanics foundation. Even a map generator. That's why it formed a community. Yes, it's the community of the global mod 7.5, but still.

Five and three are two mutually exclusive legends. A Heroes fan praises either one or the other. For them to be rated absolutely equally is a rarity. At that, five is actually quite a carbon copy of three and didn't try to stray far from its progenitor. At the same time, three without HotA in its base form is now far less presentable than five.

Four is loved by those who got it in their hands at the right time. For me it was the first part of the series and I treat it with tenderness, but even so it's no match for five and three. Because from the standpoint of completeness, it's just as unfinished a stub as six and seven.

Two and one had a completely different stat system than three. But they were forgotten by 99% of players and didn't stand the test of time. May the still-living fans of two forgive me. By the way, I tried two around 2017 and I liked it then. In places more than three.

Well, as for OE... gameplay-wise it's the best part of the series. But stylistically it loses to five, to three, and even, perhaps, to six and seven (they share one style). It has a weak campaign. And it has a peculiar approach to multiplayer balance. The story scenarios are weird too. As a map builder, I now disagree with the developers on many things. And the AI is still at a very early stage of development. But the gameplay makes up for a lot. OE fixes the things that were an eyesore to me through all the countless hours I played five and three.

The ideal Heroes for me would be five with OE's gameplay) Though, squares don't necessarily have to be changed to hexes.

With games, things are still simpler in this regard. It's enough to simply not sell out to agenda-driven funds and not forget that your key audience has always been not the Twitter lunatics but fat nerds and autists. Want to make something new at your own risk — go ahead; want to recolor dresses for cute girls and throw them into a gacha — do that. That's exactly why based Asians and humble indie devs always outclass the cancerous Pentiple-A studios.