Strategy

Resident Evil 0 Remastered Is Classically Beautiful and Fun

March 21, 2026March 20, 2026Halsdoll2 Comments

This is the fourth time I’ve played the game back to back. By now, I recall all the puzzles and the locations of the enemies. I love it so much that I am going to shoot for 100 percent! It might take me the entire year or more, since I don’t want to get burnt out because that will ruin the joy. However, I played the game enough to finally write a proper review. The gameplay is as addictive as Dark Souls to me! The lack of item boxes and the Resident Evil “report card” at the end make me want to become better at the game. It can be quite the sport.

Grading Rank Screen — Rank A on *Normal Mode*

A lot of people complained about the lack of item boxes. Having to haul your items because each character only has 6 slots to carry. Some items, such as the shotgun and the crossbow, take up two slots! Although I think part of my frustration comes from not knowing whether I should keep the items with me when I move on to the next area. That was me being greedy. On a side note, I do want to point out that the level difficulty determines item’s availability. On hard mode, there wouldn’t be a need to haul items since it’s scarce. However, this is bad if you run out of ammo towards the final boss!

Rebecca standing over all the items — *I do feel the pain having to haul these items but it didn’t bother me too much*.

Once I memorized the game layout and its sequence, I became more efficient. For instance, right before moving on from the training facility to the lab, I made sure that Rebecca was equipped with the crossbow because I didn’t want to backtrack and face the aggressive monkeys. They do re-spawn once an event has passed. I tried to avoid at all costs to conserve ammo and herbs. More importantly, save time. The longer you take to complete the game, the more it will hurt your rank.

Crossbow taking up two slots — *I forget to mention that there is a limit to how many items you can leave*.

In normal mode, it takes two shotgun shells to take down each hunter; one acid grenade for each spider; and one standard handgun bullet on each zombie if you aim for the head. Also, it’s not always necessary to shoot enemies if you don’t need to–like the leech man. Just run around it quickly.

The limited herbs also made it difficult to navigate, since Rebecca takes more hits than Billy. So here is where I had to strategize. Let Billy clear the path since he is more of a tank character. Rest assured, Rebecca is not a useless weak character. There will be time for her to shine. Not only is she skilled at mixing herbs, but she didn’t abandon Billy when she had the chance to, despite knowing he is a convict.

Rebecca caring for Billy — *Billy* rescued *Rebecca many times, in the end, it was her turn to save him*.

Billy lifting Rebecca for item — *Great teamwork*.

Lastly, I want to talk about the puzzles. I didn’t have to look up online once on how to solve them. It made the gameplay experience seamless. For me, the most frustrating thing to me in a game are cryptic puzzles like the ones in Goetia and Song of Horror.

Visual and Sound

The cherry on top of this game is the atmosphere and the sound. I feel so relaxed playing the game. As I mentioned in one of my posts, the sound of switching items between two characters is like ASMR to me. The train area is my favorite, and I wish it is longer because I enjoy the sound of the pouring rain, and the scenes are just stunningly beautiful, but you can say the same goes for the rest of the game. The training facility has an ominous, evil presence, but the lighting makes it so calming.

Rebecca and Billy looking up — *Marveling at the equipment* *in the Training Facility.*

Billy wearing prisoner outfit — *The yellow and blue is so nice*. *What an artistic lab*.

Billy walking towards train — *Taking the train* *from lab to Treatment Plant.*

Rebecca looking at the elevator — *Factory* *elevator after defeating Tyrant*. *Red light =dangerous.*

Rebecca walking up the steps — *I like the green light reflection on the wall in the Treatment Plant.*

All of the area was beautiful to me. I took over 300 screenshots!

Final Thoughts

Whenever I play a good game, I feel happy. It gives me something to look forward to at the end of the day or in the early morning. I love video games that make me feel alive, especially one that is strategic but not overly complex. Resident Evil 0 is my favorite game from the franchise. I guess to some people I have bad taste, but more so, I think I prefer something that has some technical limitations but is methodical. I wouldn’t like Resident Evil 0 as much if it did have an item box. It’ll remove the challenge and make it like any other survival horror game. Resident Evil 0 is unique. To me, it’s a good thing.

DS3: Strategy and Lore on Aldrich, Devourer of Gods

July 29, 2025July 28, 2025HalsdollLeave a comment

Disclaimer: Contains Spoilers

Approaching the Cathedral of the Deep — *Pathway to the Cathedral of the Deep*

When I was working my way towards the Road of Sacrifice from the Undead Settlements, I was anticipating meeting Aldrich, the Saint of the Deep, also known as the Devourer of Gods. He is notorious for eating people (the undead) and, even more daringly, eating gods for pleasure in the most gruesome ways. And he doesn’t do it alone. He shares his joy with other twisted souls, “imbibing the final shudders of life while luxuriating in his victim’s screams (description from Aldrich’s Ruby).” So, when I reached the Pathway to the Cathedral of the Deep after defeating Sage Crystal, I thought I was getting closer. Oh no, I still had a way to go. I had to face the lesser twisted souls: Deacons of Cathedral of Deep, the Abyss Watcher, High Lord Wolnir, Old Demon King, Pontiff Sulyvahn, and Yhorm the Giant. Defeating Aldrich was the climax of the game. Like Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough from Dark Souls, the boss fight was difficult. It took me the entire day, after several runs, to finally beat a 5-minute battle. For one, I play as a sorcerer, and the boss was resistant to magic. So, what did I do? I switched to melee. Leveled up my endurance twice. Infused my hand axe weapon +6 to lightning effect because lightning is one of its weaknesses. Switched out sorcery’s rings for Chloranthy Ring, Estus Ring, Life Ring, and Dark Stoneplate Ring. For armor, I wore something light with high magic defense. I even allocated all of the Estus flasks (healing potion) to HP. Normally, I leave some for FP since I use magic spells. What I found comical was that I forgot to upgrade the healing potency of the Estus flask! It could have saved me time from trying to defeat the boss if I had upgraded it from +2 to +8, so I wouldn’t have to consume so many Estus flasks. Oopsie, that was a bit of a noob move! But in the end, it was the strategy that helped me defeat the boss.

Upon entering the boss fight, I ran towards it before it could blast its magic beam and perform its piercing rain arrow shots because it’s bad news for us players who do range attacks. The boss’s AoE is deadly. But what helped me in this battle was knowing exactly where it would spawn. For instance, if it is in the bottom left corner of the room, it will reappear in the upper right corner of the room, but it doesn’t always happen. I think I got lucky. Also, knowing when to reserve stamina (since running and hitting used up stamina) helped me defeat the boss. I let the stamina bar refill by not running toward the direction of the boss until it reappeared so that I could dodge and attack its tail as quickly as possible. Speed and damage are what it will take to defeat Aldrich. For better visualization, I include a video clip of my boss fight.

After defeating Aldrich, I learned that he had no fear of devouring the gods himself when he started ruminating about the fading of the fire. He envisioned the coming age of the deep sea (item description from Soul of Aldrich). It made me wonder why the fire was fading in the first place. And why was I transported back to the High Wall of Lothric to face the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, who happens to be the distant daughter of Pontiff Sulyvahn? Let’s backtrack a little bit here: Pontiff Sulyvahn is one of the earlier twisted souls I had to defeat. He is one of Aldrich’s cronies. He “imprisoned a god of the old royalty in the abandoned cathedral to be fed to [Aldrich] the devourer (item description from Souls of Pontiff Sulyvanh).” I must admit that I am a bit frightened. It sounds like they had a logistic, criminal system in place there. Do you know the saying “Wolves in sheep’s clothing”? That is exactly what Aldrich is, a supposedly upright lord with a dark appetite.

*Dancer of the Boreal Valley*, another twisted soul

Once I defeated the Dancer, I unlocked an area called Lothric Castle. It seems like she was either guarding or holding Prince Lothric hostage because I was asked by the High Priestess Emma of High Wall Lothric, in her last breath, to save Prince Lothric’s soul. She told me to tell Prince Lothric “that he must be. A Lord…” She didn’t get to finish her sentence, so I can only speculate that he must be the Lord of Cinder. And you are probably wondering like me…what is the significance of being the Lord of Cinder? Why is it important to the story? It has to do with the linking of the flames, the source of life, which is also the source of corruption. But that is just my educated guess for now, from all the sources I gathered in the game so far. Who knows what my conclusion is? So stay tuned, I still have more bosses to defeat and uncover their lore!

Elden Ring: Malenia the Beautiful Rotten Flower

August 17, 2023October 30, 2023HalsdollLeave a comment

No, I didn’t throw the controller. Didn’t pull my hair. Didn’t scream at the T.V. I did none of that, but like a crazed gambler, I played until I win. During the battle, I called her the stinking scarlet rotten flower as a coping mechanism to relieve my frustration. The truth is she didn’t stink. She was like an alluring perfume scent that stunned me into a relationship for two whole days. She moved around with her blade elegantly with one swipe. I was obsessed. I kept thinking: “I am almost there if I keep trying,” but the result was the same. It was until I decided to re-strategize, reallocate my stats, level up, and went on a hunt for moon spells that I started to have a glimmer of hope. After all, I was facing a boss who claimed to “have never known defeat.”

For such an intimidating statement, I was beginning to lose hope despite my best effort to dodge and cast spells. Skills can only get us so far until we need luck on our side. If I can recall, medieval writers personify luck and called it Fortune. When things go wrong, we blame Fortune, but when things go right, we thank her. I felt the same way about this boss fight. I tried to beat the boss several times to the point I started daydreaming during the first phase of the battle because I knew her patterns quite well. In the second phase not so much because I was panicking. To defeat any boss in the soul-like games, it’s about natural reflex and timing! And unlike other games, if you die in the 2nd phase, you have to start all over again from phase 1 of the boss fight! That’s why I said this boss fight was almost pure luck. When she consecutively bloomed twice in the 2nd phase, I knew it was my chance to blast her with a powerful spell (Thank you Fortune for being on my side).

*Comet Azur may be an overrated powerful spell but I am so grateful for it.*

There were two phases in this boss fight and what made it so difficult was that not only was she quick with her blade, but she also regenerated her health by attacking the player. In other words, she absorbed the player’s health. It was like one of those soul-sucking relationships where the person took more than give. Not a pleasant feeling. So, I had to really learn how to play this game. I ended up defeating her by using only two important spells: Stars of Ruin in the first phase because it auto-locks the target and Comet Azur in the second phase because of its high damage. The rest was up to me on how well I dodged and blocked her attacks! For talismans, I equipped Radagon Icon, Primal Glinstone Blade, Edtree’s Favor +1, and Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman. My armor didn’t really make a huge difference whether I had it on or not, although I did wear something light so that it was easier to move around and dodge. One hit took a lot of damage. Meanwhile, my summoned Ash War Mimic Tears (a spirit that cn assist you in battle) didn’t take as much damage. I wonder how that is possible when the Ash War Mimic Tears is a replicant of my character. I didn’t use her though–instead, I used Black Knife Tiche who has been upgraded to Plus 10. As for the shield, I equipped Carian Knight’s Shield upgraded to +23 (which I am pretty sure there are better shields but I don’t want to waste materials because upgrading items can be scarce) and my staff/weapon Carian Regal Scepter upgraded to its max.

When I see videos of people fighting Melania effortlessly, I am not fooled by the thought that they probably struggle a bit in their first few tries. It must have taken the player several tries until they got pretty good at it. No damage hit? Yeah, it requires skills, but also a lot of practice too. While that is fun and game to some people, I definitely don’t want to deal with her again in NG + ! I am just happy that I finally learned how to play the game, and that in itself is an achievement! On my next round, my journey with Elden Ring would be less rocky and more pleasant. I hope! Who am I kidding? The bosses would just get harder on NG+!!!