#2022 game reviews

[sage-nebula]

Game Review — Sonic Frontiers

Well, it's been a hot minute since I've done one of these, hasn't it? In fact, this is the first review I've written this year. The truth is, for the other games I've played this year I kind of lost steam partway through writing the reviews, and since so few people read my reviews anyway I figured there wasn't much of a point. But I know that at least a couple people have been waiting for my opinion on this game, and since I've gained quite a few new followers thanks to my Sonic posting, I figure I owe it to Frontiers to give it a proper review.

Overall Score: 8/10

When it was first announced that Ian Flynn was going to be writing the script for Sonic Frontiers, I was super excited. It’s not a secret to anyone who follows me that I really enjoy the IDW Sonic comics, even if I don’t always love every new character or plot beat, so I had full confidence that if he was at the helm of Frontiers, then—at least on the story front—the game was going to deliver. And I’m happy to say, my confidence was rewarded. For more details, let’s head under the cut (and on my blog for prettier formatting).

The Pros:

— As mentioned in the above paragraph, Ian Flynn was put in charge of the English script for Frontiers, and while I know that he didn't have full control over the story (it was a collaboration between him and the writers on the Japanese side), his influence showed in a big way and it was fantastic. Every single character was on point. Sonic had a good balance between snarky, confident, and serious; Amy's compassion shone through and, though her story did touch heavily on her romantic feelings for Sonic, that's not what the main focus of her character was; Knuckles was allowed to be intelligent again, and his struggle between his duty and his feelings of loneliness really came through; and Tails was done so much justice after the absolute nonsense he was put through in Forces, showcasing not only his intelligence, but also his struggles with self-doubt, his love and worry for his brother, and his desire to grow up and out of his insecurities. Ian's influence really shone through with the writing for Tails; without veering too far into spoilers, Tails himself uses the word "inconsistent" to describe his past exploits, which is the exact word Ian has used to describe Sega's handling of Tails in the past as well. Nonetheless, Tails was done justice in this game and I can't wait to see where future games take his character.

But of course, the core four aren't the only characters in this story. Eggman, for as few appearances as he had in the game, ended up really surprising me and touching my heart at the end. Again, I don't want to veer into spoilers here, but I never thought I would feel my heart ache for him, and it actually did in the end. And as for the new character who bears my name, Sage . . . I love her. Her character arc is stunning, and while there is one thing in particular they should have touched on with her but didn't for some reason, everything about her was handled marvelously. I couldn't be happier with what they did with my namesake, truly.

— Characters aside, the story itself was truly heartfelt and, honestly, something that I would expect from the current comics. While Sonic's central conflict was wrapped up very quickly with a moment that most would justifiably call cheesy, this is a Sonic game. Of course it's going to have cheese. You can't play a game with candy-colored anthropomorphic animals and not expect to get some cheese. Plus, I have a feeling that the reason everything wrapped up as quickly (and vaguely) as it did in that critical moment was due to crunch time, but I'll address that in a later section. Point is, the story was truly poignant, and is, in my opinion, the most beautiful Sonic game we've had since Adventure 2 in that regard. But I also haven't played every single game since Adventure 2, so take that with a grain of salt, I guess.

— The music was, of course, amazing. I feel that goes without saying, because Sonic games pretty much always have amazing music, but I'll say it anyway. All of the boss themes were hype as hell, even if I couldn't really hear the lyrics over all of the battle noises (I can always listen to the soundtrack later), but the music in the open world areas was really great, too. I will say that some of the cyber space levels had forgettable music (and I felt personally offended that a cyber space level that looked like it was based on City Escape didn't have some variation of the City Escape music, wtf), but overall the soundtrack is great, and the credits theme for the true ending made me weep actual tears. Again, spoilers, so I won't say which one. But I cried.

— The open world gameplay was really good for the most part (Chaos Island notwithstanding, more on that in a later section). When you were allowed to have full camera control and just sprint across the landscape, the controls worked really well. An open landscape is great for a game like Sonic, where you can sprint across the map in no time at all, making the lack of fast travel at the beginning of each island a non-issue. The 3D platforming segments were great as well; most of the issues I had with landing on rails came from my own clumsy playing (I have a tendency to panic jump when I really shouldn't) than any sort of actual issues with the controls, and there were tons of fun segments with springs and boost ramps and ziplines. The little island challenges were also fun, for the most part, and the fact that there were multiple times I had to look up a solution only to realize I was a dumb-dumb that forgot that cyloops were a thing again was on me, not the game design. So for the most part, the open world worked really well.

— The stat increase system (for speed, ring count, strength, and defense) was a neat little addition to the gameplay, and for me at least, leveling all the way up to 99 lasted the length of the story. (And this was with me cheesing a bit at the very end and just buying a bunch of kocos and seeds from Big so I would be buff enough to fight the final boss on Hard Mode.) I can say that I did notice an increase in speed as the game went on in 3D sections, and having more rings helped whenever I got hit (which happened a lot because I suck at dodging and block with Sonic's face). I can't say I noticed anything happening strength/defense wise, but maybe I would have noticed more difficulty if I'd neglected to level those up. Also, when visiting the Hermit Koco to increase your strength/defense, he just gathered all the seeds and increased both strength and defense all in one fell swoop, which made the process speedy and not a chore at all. (Yes, this is foreshadowing for something in a later section.)

— The combat was fun as well. There's a skill tree that you can use to unlock new abilities, and while I have some not-so-great things to say about that in a later section, I will say at least that it was nice to be able to fight in ways that weren't jumping and homing attacks. There are actual button combos you can use to attack with different moves, and honestly just mashing the attack button over and over won't get you anywhere very fast. You really do need to learn at least a few of the basic attacks in order to be able to do well, as well as parrying (which thankfully doesn't require timing and yes I did learn to parry for the bosses / enemies that required it, it's just not my go-to). Combat was something that Sonic Team could have slacked on for this game, but they didn't, and that was a nice surprise.

— For that matter, most of the Titan fights were sick. Sure, there were times when it felt a little cheap, or that first Titan fight where I forgot that parrying was even a thing in this game and died because of it. But, they really amped up the spectacle in the Titan fights with finishing cutscenes that could have been straight out of shounen anime, and it was awesome. Again, this is a Sonic game. We're here for cheese and spectacle. If you're not here for cheese and spectacle, then I have no idea what you're doing playing a game about an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog whose super form is what it is because the creators of the series looked at Dragonball and were like, "that looks cool, let's do that." The Titan fights have hype music and spectacle and intense gameplay. What more could you want?

— There are side conversations peppered through the islands that give you more time with Sonic's friends, and Sage. These moments aren't necessary, but I really appreciated them. Not only because I am a sucker for character interaction (I don't care half as much about lore as I do about characters talking to each other), but also because it really helps flesh out the character arcs and relationships even more, in addition to giving you a bit more information about what's going on with the islands. I know I just said that I don't care about lore nearly as much as I care about characters talking to each other, and I stand by that, but if you do care about lore then you really will want to do these side conversations, because they give you more information on the lore of the islands as well. Additionally, these side conversations are not hard to find; they are marked with an icon of the character's face on the map, and you can see their little digital self standing out on the field, so it's easy to track them down and initiate them if you want to.

The Neutrals:

— The 3D cyber space levels were fine. That's the nicest thing that I can say about them. They were short enough that they didn't take up too much time, the red star ring locations were in relatively sensible locations for most of them, and they played okay. I will say that it was disappointing how few of Sonic's past adventures the cyber space levels pulled from (if I never have to see Chemical Plant Zone again it will be too fucking soon), but again, they were a relatively inoffensive part of the game overall and they passed quickly enough that it's not like too much time is spent on them, in comparison to how much time is spent in the overworld.

— The length of the game is not the best. As anyone who has read my past reviews knows, I like to get one hour of gameplay per dollar spent on the game. I paid $60 for Frontiers, and got almost 40 hours of gameplay from it. This is being generous, because there were numerous times when I left it sitting idle while I got distracted doing other things (I have ADHD, let me live). Still, having a twenty hours-to-dollars discrepancy isn't too horrible, and it's definitely better than the 5 hours I got out of Sonic Forces after spending $40 on that, so it can go here instead of in the cons section.

— Frontiers has a True Ending, which is only accessible if you beat the final boss on Hard mode. This is in the neutrals section because you can play the entire game on Easy or Normal if you want to, so long as you change the difficulty to Hard right before the final boss, which is a good thing. However, what's not great is that there's nothing in the game (to my knowledge) telling you that you need to do this, and that you haven't seen the True Ending if you haven't done it. The closest I think there is is that if you try to change the difficulty during the fight against Supreme, I hear that a popup appears telling you that the boss fight that would come after Supreme will be skipped. Admittedly, I'm not positive on that though. I only knew about the True Ending thanks to some friends who beat the game before me, otherwise I probably would have missed it since I was playing on Normal due to the time crunch I had with Pokémon coming out on Friday. The True Ending is very good though, so if you can swing it, I would recommend fighting Supreme on Hard. Trust, it's not actually hard. (And neither is the final final boss; I got it on my second try.)

— Speaking of which, the final final boss was . . . interesting? To say the least, in terms of gameplay. It wasn't traditional Sonic gameplay at all, but was instead a bullet hell battle. To be fair this is not completely out of left-field for Frontiers; they give you a few bullet hell stages before this to prep you for how it's going to go down. But it was still a bit odd for a final final boss in a Sonic game to be bullet hell. Additionally, I couldn't hear half of what the boss was saying during the fight, which was a bit disappointing since I like to hear actual dialogue. Nonetheless, I'm glad I did it; the True Ending was worth it, and maybe it just felt easy to me because I've played Undertale and Deltarune (and the secret bosses in both chapters of Deltarune) so bullet hell is old hat to me now. (But seriously, this was much easier than Jevil or Snowgrave Spamton.)

— Without going into spoiler reasons as to why, Sonic's physical condition deteriorates as the story progresses. This is shown by his idle poses, as well as in certain cutscenes. However, although Sonic's physical condition is deteriorating, the gameplay doesn't change at all. Sonic can still run, boost, and fight just as well when he's in the worst shape of the game as he could at the very start. I understand why this is; hampering the movement of the player's character, especially in a game series that is all about movement, is risky business. Even if you're doing it for storytelling purposes, it can come across very badly to the audience. Although Sonic Team is known for taking some risks (they change up gameplay on a whim and clearly don't care too much about what fans think, otherwise we'd have a Chao Garden game by now), I doubt they'd want to go so far as to make it so that Sonic could only walk or barely fight during pivotal moments of the game. So I understand why it is the way it is, but the gameplay and story segregation here still pulled me out of the story a little bit, whereas I would have felt what Sonic was going through much more strongly if it became harder to move as him as well.

— There's a skill tree in this game, which I touched upon briefly above by mentioning that there are different attacks that Sonic can learn as the game progresses, and that it really behooves the player to learn because just spamming the attack button won't get you very far against the guardians and especially not the Titans. However, what's disappointing about the skill tree is that it is very small. You accumulate skill points pretty quickly, and I had the skill tree completely mapped out by the time I was halfway through the third island. For reference, there are five islands in this game. So ultimately, I ended up collecting skill points for literally no reason, which was pretty disappointing. It was nice to have a skill tree, but having a more robust one would have felt more rewarding, and also would have made the player have to think about which skills they wanted to unlock as well.

— It's not a huge deal, so I won't put it under cons, but having a little cutscene play every single time you reach maximum rings got really old after a while. There's a similar little flash of Sonic's eyes every single time he reels something in while fishing, and both of these things just felt like padding at best (for the fishing) and really intrusive on the gameplay at worst (the full ring count). Similarly, the reset for enemies and items in this game comes in the form of shooting star nights, which is really cool at first! It fits with the name of the Starfall Islands, is very colorful and pretty, and overall is a much more pleasant experience than Breath of the Wild's Blood Moon. However, the little slot machine that pops up on the screen is intrusive and makes it hard to see what you're doing, which is really frustrating when you're in the middle of things when the shooting stars hit. So by the second time this event happened, I was over it.

The Cons:

— The 2D gameplay in this game is atrocious. I literally don't know what happened; I was just playing Generations a week before this game came out, and the 2D levels in that game—which, remember, came out something like ten years ago—were fine. In Classic Sonic's levels in Generations, when you press right on the control stick, he runs. Just right out the gate. All you have to do is press right. Similarly, in other recent games such as Sonic Mania, the characters have no problem running when you press right on the control stick. You press right, they run. Sometimes this means you run into badniks or spikes or whatever, but hey! That's how you learn. Live and learn. We had a whole song about this in Sonic Adventure 2.

But for some reason that I cannot for the life of me understand, this is not the case in Frontiers. I don't know if it's just an issue with the Switch version or what, but for some reason, I could jam right on the control stick as hard as I could on the Switch version, and in the 2D areas (both cyberspace and overworld, which was basically all of Chaos Island), Sonic would just walk. He walked. You could almost say it was gameplay and story integration, except this also happened in the 2D cyberspace levels that came before his condition got really bad. I had to literally boost to get him to run at base speed when comparing it to the gameplay of the 3D segments. Worse still is that the camera is very zoomed out in the 2D segments, which makes spikes and other traps difficult to see. The 2D segments felt like honest to god torture in this game given how great the 3D segments were. At least if Sonic could run normally in the 2D segments it wouldn't be so bad, especially since I've played side-scrolling Sonic more than I've played 3D Sonic so, honestly, I'm pretty confident in my side-scrolling Sonic skills. Or hell, when you first boot up the game you're asked whether you want to play in Action Mode or Speed Mode; if he walked in Action Mode I'd understand, but I chose Speed Mode, so he should run. And he does, in the 3D areas! Just not in the 2D areas without really forcing it with boost. It's a nightmare. I don't know what went wrong here, but something sure did, because god fucking christ it was awful.

(And again, most of the third island—Chaos Island—is 2D segments, which made it hell to play through. If not for the fact that the third island hosts the best character, I'm not sure I would have made it through.)

— Earlier I mentioned that you can boost Sonic's stats in this game. I also mentioned that increasing strength and defense, which happens with Hermit Koco, was very quick and easy. Unfortunately, this is not the case for increasing speed and ring count, which happens with Elder Koco. To be fair, Elder Koco takes all of the koco you have collected in one fell swoop. However, you then have to manually choose whether you want to upgrade speed or rings. You have to choose this each time for every single level upgrade you have available to you, which is based on how many koco you brought back, and there's no in-game way of knowing exactly how many koco it takes per level boost of either speed or ring count. You can't move your cursor as soon as the option appears to choose each one, because although the words are on the screen, the menu isn't fully loaded yet. So you have to slowly, very slowly, click through to increase speed or ring count over, and over, and over again. If you wait a while to visit Elder Koco (due to not being in an area where he is for a while, for instance), you could be doing this for ages. I understand not wanting to lock players into spending all their koco on one or the other right away, but there are a few ways that Sega could have sped this process up:

Perhaps make it so that both speed and ring count are increased at the same time, a la strength and defense, without making the player choose.

At LEAST make it so that if you max out one stat, you can just bulk upgrade the remaining one. I maxed out speed before ring count, but I still had to manually select ring count for every subsequent level increase for some ungodly reason.

Perhaps let the player choose which they want to upgrade, and then they can choose how many levels they want to upgrade, in accordance with how many koco they have. This way if they have enough koco for 8 upgrades, they can choose to split 4 and 4 if they want.

In a game that's all about speed, AND one in which we have another stat increasing character who doesn't take nearly so long to go through the process, it feels bonkers bananas that it takes so long to upgrade things with Elder Koco. For someone with ADHD like me, it felt honestly torturous to have to sit there and slowly click through the menus to upgrade the levels one at a time. I felt like I was dealing with one of the sloth DMV employees in Zootopia. It was awful.

—This is a really minor thing comparatively, but it's related, so: the koco are annoying af. I don't find their incoherent gibberish to be cute (and actually . . . mocked them during cutscenes where one of the koco would babble on for a while), and more to the point, it bugged me how, when standing idle, the koco would materialize around Sonic and just start babbling. The koroks in Breath of the Wild were annoying too, but at least once you found them they poofed away and didn't continue to bother you every time you set the controller down for a second. The koco in this game actually made me mute my TV a couple times when I needed to do something but didn't want to shut the game off, because as nice as the background music was, I couldn't enjoy it with the koco babble. Thematically, the koco are beautiful. Audibly, I want them to shut up forever. Again, minor quibble, but still a complaint.

— One thing I was really excited about with regards to this game going into it is that it is chock-full of references to Sonic's past adventures, friends, and even other media (such as a shout-out to Tangle from the IDW comics). However, most regrettably, these shout-outs are extremely hard to trigger, to the tune of I didn't get a single one in my entire 40 hours of playing. The closest I got was two idle lines where Sonic talks to Amy and Knuckles toward the very end of the game, but that's it. There's been talk online about what it takes to trigger them, and some say you have to stand in one place for at least 10 minutes, which a.) who does that, and b.) actually I did that while waiting for nightfall (more on that in a second) and it still didn't help. So I don't know. I think it's really cool that there was fanservice, but the point of fanservice is to service the fans and I was a fan who was not serviced. So overall, I came away from the game feeling a little bitter about it. (And a little extra salty that Amy mentions an allegedly non-canon character in the end credits scene, but couldn't mention an allegedly non-games canon character from a non-games Sonic media I actually like in that scene . . . this is vague because of spoilers, but I'm being petty in this parenthetical, so maybe being vague is okay too.)

— While this is also not a huge deal, I think that this game would have benefited greatly from having a way to change the time from day to night, a la Breath of the Wild's campfires. The reason for this is because there are certain island challenges that can only be done at night. These aren't marked on the map (or at least the nighttime challenges I found weren't, but I also had glitch issues on the third island that prevented me from completing the map on that island so who knows), and if you happen across them during the day your only options are either to a.) stand there like a doofus and wait, or b.) mark it with a beacon and the run around while you wait. Since you can't set multiple beacons (another gripe in and of itself), your best option is to just stand there like a doofus, which can take a really long time (much longer than ten minutes, and yet I still didn't get any character references! yes I'm bitter). There aren't too many nighttime specific challenges so, again, it's not a super huge deal, but it's still something that I think a little developer foresight could have prevented. But alas, that brings us to the final point in this section . . .

— It's really obvious that this game experienced crunch time. I can't pretend to speak for what goes on at Sega, but it's really obvious that the last part of the game was rushed. Evidence of this includes:

The fourth and fifth islands are basically the exact same, landscape wise, as the first island.

Sonic's condition being cleaned up in a finger snap. I don't mind the cheesy aspect of how it happened, because again, this is a Sonic game. But the speed at which it happened, along with the vague handwave of how it happened, speaks to me that they just didn't have time in the game to spend on it and so they rushed it along to keep the player moving.

A lot of the later guardians are just slightly upgraded versions of previous guardians. This is especially noticeable on the final island, wherein we get two "new versions" of the tower guardian, only the only thing different is their coloration and their name. Like what was even the point of that, besides being able to re-use assets like they did by making the fourth and fifth islands the same as the first island.

Sage's memory tokens are the exact same memory tokens used for Amy. While you could claim that this is because she's thematically motivated by the same thing, it still feels . . . not lazy, but like maybe they just didn't have time to design and program in separate memory tokens for her. Something like a floppy desk (save icon for younger players) would have worked a lot better for her.

And so on and so forth. Again, this doesn't make the game bad, not by a long shot. But you can tell that they were rushing toward the end of development, and I wish they hadn't. They could have delayed the game by another few months, or even another year, and it would have been fine. I've waited years and years for Zelda games before; I'd be willing to do the same for Sonic games. It's OK to delay games to make them perfect and avoid putting your devs through crunch. It really is more than okay.

With all of that said, though, as I said at the top of this review, this game is an easy 8/10 and very, very good. While the cons might seem long, that's just because I'm a verbose person. Overall, there's much more to love about this game than there is to dislike about it. This is easily the best modern Sonic game we've had in a long time, and I hope that Sonic Team takes note of the positive reception, and keeps Ian Flynn on to write the next game, too.

#sonic frontiers #2022 game reviews #i kept this as spoiler free as i could #but read the review at your own risk all the same #sth

[kerocola]

Christmas Klonoa (2022)

#kerocola #clip studio paint #illustration #art #christmas #klonoa #2022 #that running shine review was kino as hell and got me to play the games #what a fool i was taking this long to get into them they're so good #klonoa 2 probably my fav with it having the maze of memories #do people read the stuff i put in tags? idk it's 2am and just queuing a bunch of stuff #klonoa 2

[ficwip]

2022 in review

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out? Would you do it again?

What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?

What piece of media inspired you the most?

What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

What ship(s) captured your heart?

Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year?

What fic meant the most to you to write?

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

What fic was the easiest to write?

What were you go-to writing songs?

What were your go-to writing snacks?

What was the hardest fic to title?

Share your favorite opening line

Share your favorite ending line

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Share an excerpt from your favorite scene

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

What did you use to write? (programs, paper & pen, etc.)

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

How did you recharge between fics?

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

What’s something you want to write in 2023?

#ask games #2022 in review #writing asks #writer asks #reblog and have your followers send you a number! #or reblog and just answer the whole thing #you do you! #it's your blog #if you reblog I might send you a number from my personal

[wikiangela]

✨ Fic Writing Review 2023 ✨

Words and Fics

192,761 words published to ao3

2 fandoms (911 and MCU - mcu was like one fic tho lol)

Most recent drop: I wanna spend my forever like that (911, 8.6k, G)

Longest fic: For a holiday (and forevermore) (911, 95k, M)

Top Fics by Kudos

For a holiday (and forevermore) (95k, M)

I can't love you any more (than I do now) (2.6k, G)

I'd marry you with paper rings (3.4k, G)

me, you, our kid and a dog (4.7k, G)

me and you only equals love (6.6k, E)

My fandom fic events in 2023

I don't think I took part in any this year :( maybe next year haha

Upcoming Events and Projects for 2024

well, right now I'm working on a few wips im hoping to get done in the next few weeks/months (depending on time and inspiration lol):

the alive shannon fic - this is my main focus and i hope to maybe finish it sometime next year but who knows hah (I barely started, it's gonna be a while)

buddie coffee shop au - ive been working on this for so long and it's lowkey on hold now but istg i'll finish this

buddie cheating fic

the natalia fic

married buddie smut

another smut I haven't mentioned yet but it's waiting until i finish married buddie smut

bi eddie fic

and probably some more oneshots lol

but tbh, we'll see where the next year takes me, I can't plan too much bc it never works out haha

rules & tags below the cut

tagged by @exhuastedpigeon @underwater-ninja-13 @hippolotamus @jesuisici33 @jamespearce9-1-1 @theotherbuckley @steadfastsaturnsrings @rainbow-nerdss <333

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.

no pressure tagging: @malewifediaz @thewolvesof1998 @eddiebabygirldiaz @honestlydarkprincess @spotsandsocks @loserdiaz @lover-of-mine @disasterbuckdiaz @monsterrae1 @jeeyuns @housewifebuck @giddyupbuck @hoodie-buck @spagheddiediaz @daffi-990 and whoever else wants to <3

#tbf mcu was one fic from january lmao - after that 911 wholly consumed me haha #this year was basically exclusively buddie #i've been writing buddie since march 2021 but october 2022 they *really* took over and i can't write anything else haha #fic writing review 2023 #my fics #wikiangela writes #buddie fics #buddie #tag games

[manonamora-if-reviews]

GONCHAROV - THE MAFIA HIGHSCHOOL DATING SIMULATOR by Monday

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See other games by Monday or follow @mondaysandwich

============= Synopsis

A very, very short highschool dating simulator snippet based on the Tumblr meme Goncharov (1973).

============= Other Info

G - TMHDS is a Twine (SugarCube) piece, submitted to the Goncharov Game Jam.

Status: Completed Genre: Dating-Sim, Unreality, Mafia, Goncharov

CW: Drug and alcohol use, References to gang violence and organised crime, Unreality, Mild internalised homophobia

============= Playthrough

First Played: Dec-2022 Last Played: 31-Aug-2023 Playtime: around 15min Rating: 3 /5 Thoughts: Parody on parody, in an alternate universe

============= Review

I think this line summarises the game best: Your name is Goncharov. You are fifteen years old, and today is your first day of mafia school. G-TMHDS is a very short datim-sim game, dabbling with the Goncharov "lore". Dipped in humour and sarcasm, the game gives the player a short introduction of the main players of the "movie" and their relationship to one another... if this was a Highschool AU.

Spoilers ahead (not so many, but this is a template). It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

Due to its short length, the game feels more of an introduction to a larger dating-sim, rather than a fully rounded story. You wake up, get ready for school, meet up with a friend (Joe), and try to talk to your crush (Katya) and be jealous of her friend (Sofia), before the game ends with a hint of a dark attraction (Andrej). There are a few choices throughout the story, each giving some humourous variation (try ditching school).

From the start, it is clear the game is not to be taken seriously. It will treat your not-so-smart question with disdain, and your doubt with deprecation - an attitude many would have towards teenagers or very naive individuals. The narrator is not afraid to call you out for stupid decisions (or as-stupid thoughts about doing something). "Teresa Maria, Goncharov, don’t be such a square." had me wheezing.

Honestly, I still haven't decided whether this was meant as a parody of the meme or of the highschool dating-sim genre. It makes fun of both mafia tropes and of those dating-sim (as much as it can with the limited passages), juggling between the two without missing a beat. While reading through it, it reminded me of that KFC dating sim game from a few years back - I Love You, Colonel Sanders! - it is of the same tone: frivolous, humourous, and plain stupid (the hahaha this is so dumb kind). It just hits all the right notes.

I think this game might work even better in a VN form...

#GONCHAROV - THE MAFIA HIGHSCHOOL DATING SIMULATOR #Monday #interactive fiction #complete #2022 #twine game #review #goncharov #unreality #dating sim #mafia

[fandom]

Canon Baffy confirmed.

Looney Tunes acknowledge what we’ve all known for decades—Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are an item. The highly anticipated game Stray is finally out and players are having a blast pressing the “meow” button. In other cat news, Renfield pleaded his case for a cat of his own in Dracula Daily recently. Summer has come to Teyvat and we wish everyone playing Genshin Impact the best of luck wishing for Kazuha. There’s lots of adventure and excitement in the current Critical Role campaign. This is Tumblr’s Week in Review.

Stranger Things

Eddie Munson | Stranger Things

Steve Harrington | Stranger Things

Steddie | Steve Harrington & Eddie Munson, Stranger Things

Joseph Quinn

Byler | Will Byers & Mike Wheeler, Stranger Things

Robin Buckley | Stranger Things

Will Byers | Stranger Things

Mike Wheeler | Stranger Things

Artists on Tumblr

Stray

What We Do In The Shadows

Critical Role

Double Life SMP

Nancy Wheeler | Stranger Things

Bugs Bunny | Looney Tunes

The Owl House

Dracula Daily

Dustin Henderson | Stranger Things

Genshin Impact

#week in review #07/25/2022 #stray game

[startistdoodles]

I posted 1,133 times in 2022

That's 502 more posts than 2021!

1,021 posts created (90%)

112 posts reblogged (10%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@startistdoodles

@xxtc-96xx

@junebird24

@ferahntics

@aceofintuition

I tagged 1,132 of my posts in 2022

#ask - 880 posts

#not art - 675 posts

#anon - 473 posts

#pokemon - 415 posts

#my art - 309 posts

#kirby - 117 posts

#arceus - 115 posts

#descendant au - 105 posts

#prisma knight - 99 posts

#giratina - 91 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#there are still timelines where the twins are still together though!! just boot up your copy of bw/bw2 and all will be right with the world

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Have you seen the AU of Emmet being stuck in the Distortion World? If it’s alright, I’d like your take on it.

See the full post

6,328 notes - Posted March 21, 2022

#4

Have you seen the meme where the cat knock over onions and get grabbed in the next picture and they say; it was you!!!

That's how I imagine Emmet finding out Ingo got sent to the past by Volo.

GIVE IT TO HIM

6,677 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

#3

So it's pretty well known that Ingo is one of the very few NPC's that doesn't acknowledge your presence, but apparently he will react to your Pokémon's presence, lol

8,315 notes - Posted February 25, 2022

#2

See the full post

8,659 notes - Posted March 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

weird stinky kitten

15,081 notes - Posted March 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #wait...its all PLA? Always has been #this game corrupted me for over half the year HDSJJDHSKK #also the curse of my best posts being primarily memes strikes again #i better start getting used to the clown suit bc this is what i will be remembered for #thanks yall for all the support this year <3 its been a really good one for sure #ALSO sorry for the tags lmao didnt see those in the post #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

What if westoids permanently shut the fuck up forever

#monumentally offensive on so many levels lol #the only reason you get to review board games for a living in 2022 charlie is because the soviets saved your pale ass from fascism #eat shit

[lumosatnight]

my year in fic - 2022

I was tagged by @the-francakes (x), @schmem14 (x), @broomsticks (x), and @danpuff-ao3 (x) for a fic roundup/2022 review/stats something or other, so I'm combining them all here.

2022 was definitely a year of fests. Fests fests fests fests!!! I joined and modded so many fests that I'm taking a month long break in January. But I also had SO MUCH FUN. Fests are addictive and there's a reason for that.

Alright, here we go. Let's start with some stats.

—

Word Count: 151,378 (alas I did not make my goal of 200k but I'll take what I can get. That's still the length of a full length novel!)

Hits: 56,307

Number of Fics started and finished: 21 works (+ just as many double drabbles/microfics/minifics)

Number of WIPs started: um.... pass

Ships I wrote this year (not including background ships): um.... also pass. There's literally too many to list. I write so many ships it's hard to find a trend. But I guess I gotta answer.

Drarry (10), Wolfstar (4), Rarry (3), Parvender (3), Flintwood (3), Deamus (2), Linny (2), and Fred/George (2) eep

Favorite ship(s): Yo this is such a hard question. Idk EVERYTHING. Drarry, rare pairs, and femslash. That's my answer.

Least favorite ship(s): Fenrir ships. I just can't get into them, but also, I dare you to convince me.

AO3 Fic Writers/Artists/Creators/Readers who have inspired me and my writing this year: ohmygod sososososo many. I'd be so annoying if I tagged them all. Maybe I'll just pick a few

@broomsticks and @consistentsquash for their rec lists! AMAZING STELLAR PHENOMENAL. Jackie also leaves the absolute sweetest comments and Squash is the best hype person you will ever find. I strive to be more like Jackie and Squash.

@thistlecatfics, @bluesundaycake, @danpuff-ao3 for their wonderful characterization. The depth and grittiness to their fics floors me every time.

@the-francakes for her humorous writing and @vdoshu for their creativity. Seriously, you never know what Doshu is going to do next. Every one of Francake's fics makes me laugh.

@crazybutgood, @sugareey-makes-stuff, @anaxandria-writes, @digthewriter for their art. Every time I see their art, I just want to write and write and write because it's so inspiring. I also want to leave them a million and some kudos. Why won't AO3 let me live my best life 😭?

@schmem14, @articcat621, @paulamcg for their lovely comments and dedication to keep reading what I put out. I'm STILL surprised that people like my writing enough to keep coming back 😅

Everyone in the HP Saffics and Rare Pairs server who constantly bring up new ships and headcanons and I NEED TO WRITE THOSE RIGHT NOW. I love you all 💖

Now with stats out of the way, let's do a countdown of fics.

—

5️⃣ Top 5 works I'm most proud of from 2022 (not necessarily my most popular)

Your Cigarette Smell [Sirius/Narcissa, E, 9.7k] — My fic for @hprarepairfest 2021! Which might be cheating a bit, but technically the fest ended in Jan of this year, and I love this fic so much that I really wanted to count it. But what could be better than Blackcest hate sex for the ages?

What is this, fucking Jeopardy? [Drarry, E, 20.5k] — Written for @hd-cluefest this year and an absolute blast! Cursed Draco and Curse-breaker Harry were a dream to write. This was my most popular fic from 2022!

Rosmerta's Special Brew [Andromeda/Rosmerta (but mostly gen), T, 6.0k] — My fic for @hpqueerfest that is a testament to queer joy and queer love. I love this fic with all my heart 💖

Call me baby (I'll be on the way) [Neville/Blaise, E, 6.3k] — Written for @hp-soulmates which I also modded 🙈. So much MISCOMMUNICATION and oblivious boys in love. Also filled with rare pairs galore!

Death and Undeath [Fred/George, E, 3.1k] — Written for @hpcestfest where I got to dip my toes into the Dead Dove scene. This is a fav of mine because I got to combine magic and science and wove it into George's desperation as he tries to bring Fred back to life.

4️⃣ Top 4 current WIPs that I'm most excited to release in 2023

Oh baby, here we go again. I'm SUPER excited for my fic for @dronarryfest 2023. I can't go into details because it's anon, but I am SO EXCITED.

I've started a longer Cissamione fic that I hope I get the chance to work on next year. Will it ever be published? We'll see.

Time travel Tomarry! I've read a lot of Tomarry but never really written it, so I'm trying it out for the first time.

Might finally continue my Drarry Squid Games-inspired fic. Maybe. Possibly.

3️⃣ Top 3 biggest improvements in my writing over the past year

Brevity: I think I'm finally getting the hang of cutting down scenes so I'm not info-dumping too much on the reader.

Confidence: I've definitely become more confident in my writing. I still wouldn't say I'm the best, but confident enough that I enjoy reading what I write.

Angst: I think I can write a fairly good angsty ficlet now. Fluff and smut, I might need to work on a bit more.

2️⃣ Top 2 resolutions (ways I wish to improve my writing/blog) for the new year

FINISH A LONGER WORK. I would love to actually finish something over 50k words and publish it chapter by chapter.

Cut back on fests (lol, yeah right) and make more room for myself. Be more mindful of my fandom limits and when to step back and take a break.

1️⃣ Number 1 favorite line I've written this year!

What if that was not the end?  Flip back to the beginning. Reink the quill. Rewrite the page.  Would that be enough to forget? Would that be enough to remember?

From White, the colour of flowers, my Drarry Hanahaki fic [M, 3.2k]. Lots of angst, multiple endings, and (un)requited love. I used this quote as a transition between sections, and it's still one of my favorites.

—

Happy New Year! 💜💙💚💛🧡❤️

#happy new year! #tag game #asked and answered #year in review #2022 #lumosatnight

[supernightboy08]

Best Of 2022:

Their maybe some bad things in 2022 but their some good movies, tv shows, and video games so Here’s my favorite things about 2022

1. Getting to chat with @lachispipreciosa

2. Seeing the Mario Trailer

Peach is soo cute & bad***

3. Minions Rise of Gru is so Nostalgic!

4. Sonic Movie 2 is the best video game movie of all time!

But I still want Cream to be in it! 😢

5. I love the Ghost & Molly McGee Finale!

6. Turning Red & Lightyear are the best Pixar Movies!

7. The best Marvel movie of all time is Wakanda Forever

It’s so emotional that it pays respects to Chadwick Boseman! 😭

8. Sonic Frontiers has a great soundtrack and gameplay and I’m still trying to get the Chaos Emeralds

9. Sonic Prime is the definitive Sonic cartoon along with Sonic X I’m planning to watch more of it on Netflix!

10. Thinking of my mashup parodies in my head after I draw them on paper like Scrat The Squirrel

What are your favorite things of 2022? Leave them in the Reblogs or comments

And I hope ya’ll have a great 2023 and the end of this year! 🤩

No matter how good or not good 2023 ends up being it will never take the place on 2022! 😭

#best of 2022 #goodbye 2022 #hello 2023 #new year #2022 moments #2022 #2022 movies #2022 games #2023 #gif #review

[vermutandherring]

Atomic Heart

Tumor of the gaming industry

If something annoys you, don't associate yourself with it, just ignore it. In this case, I cannot do so. Criticism should extend to all works and be objective. Therefore, here is my objective criticism of a game that I have not played and do not intend to play, but about which I have seen, heard and read enough to give an evaluative judgment. I allow myself this also because I have lived next to a terrorist country all my life, I have a direct idea of its population and its manipulation of historical facts. And that's why I have something to say about this game.

I will not talk about the fact that art is not outside of politics. Whoever wanted it realized it. Whoever wants to remain blind will remain so forever. Let's talk about a spherical artwork in a vacuum. Each work is created with a purpose: to entertain you, to let you live some experience or emotions, or maybe the author shares their own experience, illuminates their own experiences and even traumas. It follows that each work has a certain meaning. I'm not talking exclusively about games, but about the field of art in general. Games can be a bit more complicated, because in addition to AAA with deep plot/content/lore, we also have simpler games designed to have a good time. But this does not mean that there are no "high matters" in them.

Most of the reviews and feedback on the game that I come across focus on the gameplay and its mechanics, how pleasant or fun it is to play the game. I know that people play for different reasons and that everyone has a preference for what is most important to them in the game. But if for you the whole essence, the whole meaning of the work is lost because you are only interested in running and shooting, then you are no different from people who do not understand games and even hate them, considering them to be children's toys and a waste of time. Because this is exactly what you are doing - playing and wasting your time without trying to evaluate the game from other sides. This is most of the reviews on Atomic Heart:

"The game looks fun, I'm buying". In my diploma, I did not claim that games are art. I was just trying to prove on the basis of what a video game can be considered an art form. However, the closing paragraph of my paper suggests that it will be a long time before people realize this. One of the reasons for this is a prejudiced attitude towards games as something a priori frivolous. And such individuals contribute to this without their own knowledge. In the Atomic Heart promo videos, there are no significant hints about the plot or its essence, the story or the issues are not revealed in any way. Game promos are dynamic videos that dazzle with their brightness and absurdity and, of course, captivate the depraved Western player with the totalitarian aesthetics of the soviet union. Such components of the visual part make it close to a propaganda poster: a screaming slogan, clear and understandable symbolism, a carefully hidden propaganda direction, a call to action (in this case, murder). The purpose of the game is not to give you an experience, not to evoke certain emotions or to reflect the trauma of an entire generation of people destroyed by the cannibalistic regime of the soviet union. The goal of the game is to capture your imagination, as a shiny speck captures the mind of a child, to play on your emotions and idea of what the soviet union is.

Do you want to know what the Soviet Union is? Please, I will do it for you for free, not for 40 bucks, which the game costs:

Victims of hunger on the streets of Kharkiv - the capital of the USSR, 1933. Photo author - Alexander Vinerberger

On April 17, 1938, the most prominent representatives of the Crimean Tatar nation —writers, historians, public figures, artists, teachers—were shot. By order from Moscow, on May 18, 1944, NKVD soldiers herded almost the entire Crimean Tatar population into railway cars and sent them to Uzbekistan. Sourse

Crimean Tatars during repeated eviction from Crimea in the 1960s

One of the first pictures of the destroyed reactor of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. Photo by V. Repik from the archive of the Ukrinform website

russian attack on the Dnipro on 14.01, 2023. That's how you do it, right?

What, doesn't sound like a rosy future? Ask the Uyghurs in China if they have a bright future. Ask the people of North Korea if they feel happy in their utopia. Ask the national minorities of russia what it's like to be a raw appendage of the empire.

In the game, you play as a KGB agent. Do you know what the State Security Committee of the USSR is, as a representative of which you play? This is a state body whose task was to destroy the "enemies" of the regime, that is, all citizens who fell under the definition of a state traitor. In order to become a traitor of the USSR, you need to do a little. For example, all you have to do is write a poem in your own language, in which you would express your love for your own land. Or organize a literary evening (undercover, of course) dedicated to the artists of your country. It sounds like something far away. But try to imagine how your favorite singer is stuffed into a black car, driven to an unknown destination, and then beaten to the point of kidney failure, while the YouTuber whose video you watched 5 minutes ago is shot dead in a nearby cell. It sounds like I'm exaggerating. But in Ukraine, we have a separate concept of Shooted Revival or Red Renaissance (Executed Renaissance). It was a whole generation of young artists, destroyed by the Soviet authorities for their pro-Ukrainian position. Actually, they did not resist the authorities and did not express any protests. They only created in the vein of national art, which the USSR considered a threat to its security and regime. KGB agents were executioners whose job was to destroy these people morally and physically. If the USSR appears as such an utopia in the game, why does such a state body as the KGB still exist in it?

The Krushelnytskys are a family of Ukrainian intellectuals, whose representatives have gained recognition in the fields of literature, medicine, painting, economics, music, social and political activities, etc. In 1934-37, most of the family members in the photo were repressed and executed.

I recently started playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I can't imagine that instead of a Polish-Jewish character resisting the Third Reich, I would play as an SS Oberführer. Let's just imagine such a game: Nazi Germany won the Second World War, red flags with swastikas are growing everywhere instead of national flags, and on the horizon you can see the chimneys of furnaces where traitors who disagree with the regime are burning. You have to play as a concentration camp warden, and investigate a strange case of malfunctions in one of the gas chambers in the research center. On your way, you encounter humanoid robots and all kinds of monsters, designed by the best engineers of the Reich. Everyone loves the aesthetics of Nazi Germany with its black uniforms and neo-Roman architecture. But I'm not sure that I would even have the morale to watch the trailer of such a game. The given example seems so banal and idiotic even to me. But Atomic Heart is a 1 in 1 story, which does not cause any dissonance for a huge number of people. And for some people even on the contrary, it seems fun, exciting and aesthetically appealing.

What is the point of this game? It only once again highlights how well Soviet propaganda worked, because people in the post-soviet space (especially in russia) still feel longing for the Age of Terror, scarcity, hunger and total control. I understand why young people my age and younger see nothing wrong with such a game and its narratives. Because they do not know what a totalitarian regime is. There are no stories in their families about grandparents who ate their children to survive. There are no memories of tortured relatives for a poem. They don't know what it's like to stand in line for an hour for a piece of bread, when the streets are littered with bloated bodies, or shot for stealing three ears of corn for their own children. They have healthy family members who have never suffered from radiation sickness. They have no relatives, deported to the most distant, coldest corners of the world, doomed to a slave existence for generations.

Atomic Heart's raison d'être is a mockery of human dignity, memory and common sense. This game is a cancer of the gaming industry, which proves that all gamers are unscrupulous moral bastards, willing to give their money to terrorists for a nice shiny wrapper. And if you play this game, I'm not saying you're stupid. I'm not telling you what games you should play. Your moral choice is just your moral choice. And if you are comfortable with being brainwashed and having flowing blood of my compatriots on your hands, that is your right. But don't be sorry when russia comes to you with a nuclear bomb that you sponsored.

Yeah, buddy. Keep it up

#gaming #games #videogames #video games #video game review #atomic heart #genocide #russian invasion of ukraine (2022) #ukraine war #russian war crimes #russia is a terrorist state #ussr history #soviet union #jensen ackles #my articles

[trevorz3grasiabae]

Trev with other animals🙃

#anaheim ducks #ducks #hockey #trevor zegras #jamie drysdale #nhl 2022 #nhl all star game #thomas bordeleau #anaheim #nhl hockey #nhl 22 review #cute #animals #cute animals

[woosansang]

CONTENT CREATOR YEAR IN REVIEW (2022)

another year of gifmaking has passed and here we are again with an ateezful year in the cc world. i remembered my 2021 edition of this tag game and wanted to see how things had gone down in 2022, so i did. i was then also tagged by @woosanmas <3

i kicked it off with a bang by posting san gifs on january 1st before i had even admitted my san bias aka clowning from the get go. it was also pretty interesting to scroll through my gif tag and watch as i slowly lost myself to a certain jung wooyoung as the months went by. but don’t worry, i will forever be loyal to yeosang, the one who got me stanning ateez in the first place, and all three biases share the spotlight here. we will not talk about the seonghwa sets. we will not.

tagging a whole bunch of my beloved mutuals to see how your years as ccs went. the instructions are simple, if you choose to play the game - post links to both your most popular and your favourite sets for each month in 2022. i’ve also included a few “special mentions” for some months too <3

no pressure tags: @santhwa @sanhwaiting @hwanwooyoung @applejongho @sanchelinz @blueberrysan @jjongho @kangyeosaang @xuseokgyu @strhwaberries @jonghho @chwejongho @jeong-yunhoes @hwichanis

anyway, strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride!

JANUARY

most popular: pink san favourites: woohwa scream in silence & woosansang season’s greetings special mention: vampire wooyoung that @abiaswreck and i think about nearly daily. yes. still. d a i l y.

FEBRUARY

most popular: deja vu seonghwa favourite: answer era yeosang my beloved special mention: fio’s birthday present

MARCH

most popular: yeosang 1DAY vlog favourite: ige baro meosin gira special mention: first skz gifs! hbd hyunjin <3

APRIL

finally did my long awaited follower celebration x

most popular: vogue photoshoot san favourites: bread wooyo & fellowship japan yeosang & fave wooyo performances

MAY

most popular: concert woohwa smooch favourites: woosansang stage looks & san according to tags pt1

JUNE

it’s yeo month!!!

most popular: woosanshine   favourite: beloved woosang moments & inception wooyoung special mention: yeo day set!!!

JULY

it’s san month!!!

most popular: WoW favourite: that time i made twenty three gifs of wooyoung special mention: san day set!!! & my one year with ateez

AUGUST

most popular: cute tour woosan favourite: stressor things oreo wooyo beloved

SEPTEMBER

most popular: woosan stage moments favourite: woosan wanteez ep 7 aka there’s a rock in my eye

OCTOBER

it’s ateez anniverary month!!!

most popular: turbulence san favourite: fellowship japan livestream wooyoung special mention: ateez day set!!!

NOVEMBER

it’s wooyoung month!!!

most popular: tour hongjoong favourite: wooyo broken shirt & guerrilla wooyo comp set special mention: wooyoung day set!!!

DECEMBER

most popular: glasses wave era san favourite: growl relay dance wooyo special mention: 12 days of woomas and giftmas 2022 (none posted yet but i want to link it here anyway)

#how to tag hmmm #tag games #jazzy facts #2022 in review #i wanted to wait until after critmas to post this bc i have a feeling one of my other sets will outdo sannie for december #but as of today he is still 7 notes ahead of hwa lmao #anyway feel free to change up how u do each month or if u only want to include certain months or whatever #also if u werent tagged and u wanna do it then pls tag me in yours too :DDD #ok to rb!

[shirogane-oushirou]

i'd like to think ren would be just as frustrated as i am at our respective gacha games when they pull some ridiculous shit 🙁 makes it sting a little less kjsndkfj. both of us getting heated over a game's sudden turn from extremely fair to genuinely obnoxiously hard even for built accounts.

#📌 [ my posts. ] #hi i've been trying to beat arkn.ights sl-s-5 cm for the past 3 days straight <3 i'm tired <3 #if this is the first event i don't 100% since uh early 2022? im gonna scream. i beat pinch out but the fucking sheep event does it???? #and i know from cn server reviews that it's only gonna get worse over the next few months. YIPPEEEEE...... #i'm trying not to get TOO heated though KJNSFKJn don't want the heart monitor to freak out and have to be like #'yeah no i wasn't doing any strenuous activity. i was just playing a phone game and got mad. yeah. :( ' #✏️ [ my scenarios. ]

[thecomicsnexus]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #134 NOVEMBER 2022 BY SOPHIE CAMPBELL, KEVIN EASTMAN, TOM WALTZ, FERO PE, RONDA PATTISON AND SHAWN LEE

Things get out of control in Mutant Town as people side against or in favor of the fake turtles, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Donatello finds out the Utroms are searching for Seri as well.

SCORE: 9

I’ve been saying for a while now that this book feels a lot like the old Mirage Comics (volume 4 in particular), but it wasn’t until this issue that I felt like I was reading a comic that could have been in Tales of the TMNT by just removing the colors.

Not only the character designs look like they would fit, but the halftones add a lot of that feel back into it.

Story wise, it feels a lot like Sophie Campbell is trying to correct the things fans didn’t like about her run. And while I still like the Mutant Town saga, I welcome these changes. But it’s a little inconsistent. The moment people rejected Jennika felt a little bit like the fandom, and the way she is starting to break apart from the turtles, kind of feels like a reaction to the (in my personal opinion, unjustified) backlash.

I also feel like Casey Jones is starting to look too much like his Mirage counterpart, it is hard to see him as a young adult.

But in any case, this issue was filled with action... decompressed action, but action nonetheless. The book is still committed to explore these characters, but that much decompression is also not helping. I feel like in these many issues, another writer could have explored all these characters already.

Also because of the decompression, there isn’t much progress in this issue. Just a few things discovered.

It may sound like that score of 9 wasn’t justified, but the issue was very fun to read.

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #the armageddon game #jennika #idw comics #idw publishing #comics #review #2022 #post modern age

[manonamora-if-reviews]

The Archivist and the Revolution by Autumn Chen

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See other games by Autumn

============= Synopsis

A woman alone in a dying city, on a dying world. What will be left when it all falls apart? The Archivist and the Revolution is a slice-of-life/romance/history simulator set in a far-future sealed city that has undergone cycles of destruction and revival. You play as Em, a middle-aged woman who is no longer an archivist, as she struggles with rent payments, chronic illness, and the remnants of past relationships.

============= Other Info

The Archivist and the Revolution is a Dendry* game, submitted to the 2022 Edition of the IFComp. It ranked 4th overall. *Autumn is also an unofficial maintainer of the Dendry format.

Status: Completed Genre: Science Fiction, Slice-of-Life, Romance

CW: optional sexual content, illness, death, transphobia, homophobia.

============= Playthrough

First Played: 6-Oct-2022 Last Played: 05-Aug-2023 Playtime: around 2h (multiple endings) Rating: 5 /5 Thoughts: Some glimmer of hope in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future...

============= Review

This is a Post-Comp Version review. Also maybe biased because I really like Autumn's work.

In a far future, after centuries of conflict, the Earth's population has been reduced to small communities stuck inside arcologies (city domes). In one of them, lives Em, an Archivist (sorta), trying to survive the best she can (sorta), and maybe (re)form relationships to better her situation. Throughout the game, you must ensure Em is on top of her duties and health.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

As with her other Dendy games, A&R works in layers. On the surface, it is a resource management game, where your savings, energy level (hidden), mental and physical health (hidden) must be minded when organising one's day or spending. While you have agency in this, how far you can go with the different actions will depend on whether you've unlocked certain storylets, or Em's current health at the time. Since she has chronic issues, you won't be allowed to churn through hundreds of files for your job, or even do anything at times.

Underneath, two other mechanics come to play: the relationship/storylet aspect with Em's old acquaintances, and the archiving loop, Em's job. Both will affect Em's survival (savings/health) and the ending of the game. The first is relatively similar to Autumn's previous Dendry games, in which a side-story will be parsed throughout the game, requiring the player to meet specific characters multiple times to uncover the story at large. In this game, clearing more than one path in a playthrough is quite doable. The latter is a mechanic I had not really seen before in an IF game, but one I enjoyed greatly. Your job entails decrypting and archiving files, each with a specific code (hint hint), requiring to be either placed in a specific slot or discarded (or you can keep it for yourself). Combing through the documents were quite fun.

The first time I played the game, I thought I could survive all on my own, leaving past relationships where they were, focusing only on my job and keeping myself afloat. I remember it being incredibly stressful (I almost cried when Em was on the brink of eviction). Everything felt hopeless, and the almost-clinical-at-times prose, as well as the UI, accentuated that feeling.

This time around, I followed Autumn's advice and shamelessly begged my acquaintances for money. I didn't want to recreate that very anxious feeling I had the last time - and wanted to see what else I had missed. Indeed, it was much less stressful to go through. I didn't really have to worry about money (thanks A-), I didn't have to exhaust myself with work, and I could explore more different facets of Em's life (her past relationships, herself, how she had to navigate the world). The world is still wretched, but there is more hope. You almost believe that surviving through it is... doable.

The storylets manages to offer a bit of levity in this wretched world, in which Em can find a community helping others, rekindle her relationship with a (re)closeted trans person, rekindle her relationship with her ex who you had a child with. In (re)making connections, you can learn more about your past and how you (don't) fit in this world. You can go on a date, cook with someone, spend time with your child... have a "normal" life. I quite enjoyed how grounded and raw these storylets felt. They, at times, seemed like a commentary on our present, with the tribalism of social media, the lack of trust in the news, the grueling life under capitalism, and the treatment of transfolks. Strip away the sci-fi/post-apocalyptic future, and they could could be right at home with our current time. I still hated the news part... its description changing the 'a form of self harm' was on point considering the comments...

Even if you don't interact with anyone, you can still learn about the world and your place in it through the notes (essentially a Codex page) or DNA files you decode. From old recovered chats between yourself and other characters, science articles, old journal entries, and documents regarding the Arcology's founder - Liana -, you can build together a bleak image about the world, the state of the environment and human condition, filled with disenchantment and conflict. Depending on what you do with your day, you may find some Easter Eggs, like the TV Series you can watch or the Games you can play, little winks to Autumn's other games. Some characters of the game, made obvious by their names, share a resemblance to ones from the Pageantverse.

With the implementation of the Autosave, I was able to reach a lot more endings than the first time around, especially less bleak ones, without having to replay the game. Those endings are highly dependent on the actions you took during the game, some being sweet (especially with K-), some being maybe critical (imo A-'s, Alone), and one specifically blew my mind (Ending 1 - didn't find before). Ending 1 is by far the most interesting one in my book. While it might seem a bit like a Deux Ex Machina or coming from out of nowhere (depending on your playthrough it may feel like a whiplash), it is the one that has not left my brain since I've replayed the game - maybe because of how strikingly different it is from the others. I think this ending might work best if connections with other characters were not made. It also made me wonder whether Em's life would have been that different if her arcology was still in contact with the others, or whether contact was severed between all arcologies. Honestly, it brought a lot of questions about the world after reading through (sequel of Ending 1, when?).

I don't know if there is a point or a moral to the game. If I were to give one to it, it would be that communities are important for people to thrive, maybe even necessary, and that the world can be a very difficult place when you keep to yourself, worse when your situation is dire in the first place. Even if it seems bleak, there is a glimmer of hope and goodness there...

============= Old Review

Can we code DNA to make data storage?

I enjoy Autumn’s games and (re-)played all her other publications this year (after being introduced through A Paradox Between Worlds). So I was excited for her entry this year too!

Although it is supposed to be placed in a bleak almost apocalyptic future, there seems to be references to some sort of post-Covid period, the current inflation (especially housing) and the treatment of transpeople. Or at least this was the vibe I got from it. A strong feeling of almost hopelessness oozes from the prose (though you can end with a more hopeful/positive ending if you play it right). I almost cried when I didn’t make the rent and saw the amount just jump…

Like Autumn other games, there is a focus on the relationship between the different characters and on MC’s conditions (mental and physical). It is a bit hard to go through (the trigger warnings are warranted) but it does offer an interesting exploration on how to survive when your situation looks this dire. The news items are heart-breaking… but I hated the comments even more.

The Archiving mechanic is really interesting. Reading each file (some being contemporary pieces) as if they were bits and pieces from an ancient time is disturbing (but in a good way). The filing section is simple when you get the hang of it, but it does its job as it’s supposed to. I don’t know if this has been mentioned in the other reviews but: the code for the DNA strings are related to which category you are supposed to file it in and or the origin of the document, W being wikipedia. If you ever wanted to make the filing more difficult, you could add subsections to each categories

But, when you take into account the small resource management (you being the resource to take care of), the simplicity of the archiving makes things a bit easier to go through. I think I would have liked some sort of “action points” or “energy level” bar to see how much more I could do that day (but that is almost the only issue I have with the game, and it’s not even an issue really).

The inclusion of a walkthrough is very welcomed, as each ending requires widely different paths to take. I also liked the background changing depending on where the character was physically (outside, in the room, working…) and the way the pictures were edited enhances the feeling of things not being quite right.

I also like the small link between this entry and the previous games (which was made obvious to me by following the progress of this game on the author’s personal blog)

Overall, this was a great entry, and I hope our future is not as bleak as this one.

#The Archivist and the Revolution #Autumn Chen #interactive fiction #complete #2022 #dendry game #anti romance jam #review #ifcomp