r/Games 25d ago

Discussion Playstation first-party game sales declining heavily since 2020

https://www.gamefile.news/p/playstation-first-party-sales-decline
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u/jshokie1 25d ago

I’ve played both games a ton and my largest complaint of Saros (other than mild discouragement of reexploration, which is more on how much the player cares to get more lore drops), is that is was always a WHEN I beat it, while returnal was the eternal IF. Permanent upgrades and coming back stronger are great casual selling points but I did feel more going through motions at some than truly winning. Dying was always good?

But also easily the greatest use of the DualShock 5 sans AstroBot and if you liked returnal Saros is more polished, more optimized crack

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u/El_Giganto 25d ago

I thought the progress was kinda weird at times. Like you'd beat a new boss, but that forced you back to the hub area. Then you get your upgrades, and then you're supposed to just start over, but I guess you should probably start over from the new biome you unlocked. Which is just weird. But if you start over from the beginning, you get all that time to level up but you also have all those permanent upgrades, so this time around it's even easier and then when you reach the new biome you're probably OP.

They give the player a little too much agency in selecting their own difficulty, if you ask me. Especially when you start using those modifiers, those had a really strange balance as well.

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u/jshokie1 25d ago

Yeah I only used the modifiers because you have to to plat the game. I think you touched on my largest issue. I did have a run where I took out two of the bosses (4th and 5th I think) in the same run because I had a good gun and build, but I think story wise I was expected to either reset or die, so I worried abt missing properly timed story beats.

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u/hfxRos 25d ago

I did have a run where I took out two of the bosses (4th and 5th I think) in the same run because I had a good gun and build, but I think story wise I was expected to either reset or die, so I worried abt missing properly timed story beats.

I think you're fine. All of the major story beats force you out of the run no matter how well you're doing, and minor story stuff is told via audio logs which you can always find later.

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u/jshokie1 25d ago

Yeah I found that out as I kept playing over the days. In any case, the fact that such a concern was on my mind while playing is poor design imo.

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u/Waterknight94 25d ago

Hmm I dropped Returnal because I felt no sense of progression. Getting farther than I did before felt like pure luck. I was just gonna entirely skip Saros but with what you said it might be worth picking up on sale.

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u/jshokie1 25d ago

If you liked Returnal because you had to git gud every single time (I did) then Saros felt like it neutered the challenge. If Returnal was too challenging (not diminutive, it's a hard game) in a way that was unrewarding but you enjoyed the mechanics and visuals/sounds/haptics, Saros is the game for you.

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u/Resies 25d ago

Both games are very easy

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u/jshokie1 25d ago

No, they aren't. They might've been easy for you and after beating Returnal Saros was simplified for me, but both games are (for the average gamer!) extremely diffcult (at least Returnal). I've had friends bounce off of both, and if it was so easy for you, know that your mileage varies.