Toribash - 10/20 hours

Why cannot I not improve my skills at this game? The more I play, the worse I seem to get it at it. I understand that even skilled play involves a lot of flailing around. Yet I don't think flailing around is the point.

I guess I just don't understand how the different parts of the Toribash body are meant to work together. I keep trying to plant my feet on the floor so as to have a stable platform for punches, kicks, and grapples, and I keep winding up ass over elbows, because the game interprets moving your joints as an all or nothing affair and I don't think there's any way to just "loosen" a leg to allow it to rest firmly, but flexibly, on the ground.

I think the whole project might be completely hopeless. I keep thinking about things I want my character to do, but those things are divided into a half a dozen smaller things, and each of those smaller things is highly sensitive to both initial conditions and the actions of all of my character's other parts.

There's not a doubt in my mind that Toribash can be a satisfying fighting/strategy/comedy experience for those who are willing to put in the effort towards mastery, but I feel like even if I weren't just putting in time here, I'd still never get to that point. It's fiddly, sure, but it's not fine-tuned, so I never really feel like I have control, and as much as I'd be thrilled with making my puppet perform intricate dance moves, that achievement is so far ahead of me that it's not even visible from where I currently stand. It's a lot of difficult work for essentially no pay-off.

That said, I still like the game. I find its concept as appealing as I did when I first started, and the fact that I seem to be moving backwards in skill is a huge disappointment. I'm sorely tempted to just be a pure spectator for my remaining 10 hours, allowing those who have already done the work entertain me with their skills. Although I have to admit, going into a fight lobby and entering spectator mode makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. There's something almost voyeuristic about it. And, of course, I'm a free rider, not contributing to the community in any significant way.

Maybe I'll load up the parkour mod again and try to walk calmly from one end of the course to the other. It's just as difficult to learn as fighting, but at least I'll be able to measure my progress in the number of steps it takes me to completely screw up and fall to the ground in a heap of limbs.