#the level design the mechanics the music the art style all of that is just as integral to the story as the dialogue and narrative itself

[northern-passage]

hey. have you all heard about this. they’re making a squid game reality tv show. like an actual squid games. have you heard about that. did you hear about amazon also planning a disco elysium tv series, and a life is strange tv series? of course we already have rings of power and then over on HBO we have the last of us and then wherever that shit halo show is streaming. and don’t forget all the star wars spin offs whose taglines are “the revolution will be televised” while being streamed by one of the worst media companies of all time who uses their billions of dollars to support bigots in the government and create military propaganda. have you heard about the booktok industry plant? have you heard about that author who gets their agent to spoon-feed them tropes so they can write the most soulless, bland fanfic that they can then repackage as a YA novel (she’s a new york times best-selling author btw) have you heard about all of that?

the creative industry is so discouraging right now. sometimes i really struggle to find any motivation at all when i see the way certain stories are treated - completely bastardized, milked for all their worth (and then beaten like a dead horse just for good measure) or otherwise you have creators that clearly could not care less, nothing but a cash grab with a pretty coat of paint, usually piggybacking off of trends or just using a pre-existing media (because then you already have a pre-existing fanbase. easy money!) and i’m not going to pretend like i understand how all of it works, what the process is from book/game to movie deal to netflix show but i will say i hate that this is the “goal” now, that this seems to be the expectation with so much art these days, whether the creator wants it or not.

it’s all just so... bleak.

#anyways. sorry i saw the squid games thing this morning and snapped i guess #obviously im under no delusion that any of this would ever apply to tnp or anything i write at all #but it's still really discouraging. it's still hard to find the motivation to create in this kind of grim capitalist environment... #especially when it comes to games which are already underappreciated #and i really dislike the games to movies/shows trend #the level design the mechanics the music the art style all of that is just as integral to the story as the dialogue and narrative itself #games are a way to experience a story it's a different way of telling a story. it loses meaning when you strip that away. imo #as someone who 'makes games' i guess. #like with IF the whole POINT is the player interaction #the choices #and there are so many games out there (literally disco elysium and life is strange) where that's a core mechanic #the last of us it's the opposite #the lack of choice and the railroading of the player is a core mechanic #it's not the same when it's just some actor in a costume. the player is part of the narrative. it's important #sigh. anyways support indie creators i guess #personal

[journalsouppe]

Ghost trick!!!! Loved this game it was exactly what I expected from a Shu Takumi game. I do hope they plan to make a sequel or crossover, I really loved the mechanics of this game.

Writing typed below! (plus some extra commentary)

Rating: 9.3 Played: Su 2023 Port: Nintendo Switch Favorite? Y Replayable? Y Recommend? Y

Comments:

LOVE missile

really fun premise - you died and don't know who you are

DON'T GET A CONCUSSION MISSILE

not the PM erotica T-T

LMAO Payne and Wright

the kazuma pose (skull)

I'm in love with Cabanela

Lynne not again T-T

Sissel in the painting...

NOT THE FEET OUT AT WORK T-T T-T

omg the security camera murder and the meory are different. I know your tricks Mr. Takumi (I didn't realize Yomiel shot the gun twice here LMFAOO)

mmm... chicken kitchen

is everyone in love with Lynne?

I'm actually so obsessed with the Ghost Trick art style

ALL of your medicine????

he's already dead... and they used an electric chair.....

THIS IS SO FUCKED UP

chicken kitchen and execution fates were really fun

man I really want an AAxGT crossover

love how oversized all the objects are

MISSILE IS BACK AHHH and he has different ghost tricks omg... then how did the lamp know about mine

so many mysteries omg I love it

how was I supposed to get sissel to the top (skull) (I was genuinely stuck and when I restarted the level it spawned me at a different place LMAO)

SISSEL? IN THE PARK?

HE SAW ME AND TURNED TOWARD THE SCREEN (Skull)

but his name wasn't sissel... who is the lamp....

love this crazy arm contraption

red suit man had radiation in his body... so I/Sissel died near it... but who am I... (I forgot about the cat LMFAOO)

Temsik... kismet... mmmm kismet (kismet is the name of my favorite restaurant)

STOP looking at the screen

yomiel...

I WAS YOMIEL'S CAT T^TT^T

ZAM RAY WAS OLD MISSILE

little Lynne T-T

Sissel has temsik...

Game Dev Notes

really fun animations and character design

unique gamplay - I love moving thru objects

love the character dialogue - great humor and timing

extra puzzles and challenges similar to professor layton

characters have tons of personality in design and posture

LOVE the cool toned shadows on the sprites

great music

fun and sweet ending credits

Summary

Shu Takumi has done it again (even though this is a remaster lol). What and incredible mystery game with really fun mechanics. There were definitely a couple times I was stumped on what to do or was stuck bc I missed my window of opportunity, but I think it worked well since the puzzles were difficulty and you couldn't just immediately breeze past them all. I also really enjoyed gaining missile's abilities later and having to think of the puzzles in different ways. The characters and animations/sprites were really fun. There's so much personality in them without even saying a word. The game also reveals character information in a really good way as you slowly learn more about the mystery of the game yet also feels like you're getting farther from learning who you are. I also just love how this game is just made with so much love for Takumi's real pets and how Sissel ended up being Yomiel's beloved cat... what a sweet ending oh my god. Each level had such a fun and unique design while also adding a twist to the puzzle, like the stealth level or submarine sinking level. The game also has many unlockable achievements to encourage replayability as well as concept art and other illustrations to unlock. There's so much added to this game and you can really feel the love and care the team put into this game, I hope there are more Ghost Trick games in the future or hopefully even a Ghost trick x Ace Attorney crossover -- I wonder how that would play out esp with Maya's spirit abilities. All in all, such a sweet and fun game. Not too long either. Can't wait to replay it to get all the achievements and make fanart!

#ghost trick #ghost trick spoilers #sissel #yomiel #cabanela #journalsouppe #bullet journal #journal #video game journal #lynne ghost trick

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

[Alarm meme sfx] [breaks door] Hallo! I have come up with a suggestion for you!

Which rhythm games do the mercs play, or would play? And why?

There's a lot of different mechanics —such as judgment lines, kinds of notes, spam— and characteristics to explore and compare, so go wild! I'll add some links as guidance: Arcaea, Phigros, Lanota, and Project SEKAI.

Take care! > ◡ <

What Rhythm Games Do The TF2 Mercs Like and Why?

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Hello to you too! This is such a cool ask! Also, mutual appreciation comment: Love you and all the kind reblogs from you 🫶🏻

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I haven't played a lot of rhythm games, so I hope you like these 😭

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Gotta get this out of the way, the reason they all love these games besides the reasons specified is because of the praise. These guys are so desperate to be told they're doing a good job it's crazy.

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Demo- Rhythm Heaven, this man loves cute things. He definitely gets upset about the issues that come with a lack of depth perception. He makes it work, though, and always tries and has fun regardless of if he does well or not.

Engineer- Dance Dance Revolution. He's insane. You'd think a middle-aged man who's used to sitting, sketching, designing, and creating things in his room wouldn't be the best at DDR, but he's so good. He loves to dance!

Heavy- Arcaea is one that he really likes, but I don't think he has a favorite. Rhythm games are hard for him. There's lots of room of error. He loves how like absolutely hard the music in Arcaea goes, so he'd definitely pick that one a lot more than others, if he had to choose.

Medic- Lovebirb. He loves music (so he's already a fan of rhythm games), and now he can add birds into it!? Sign him up. He adores the art style and the idea of birds finding love. It's beautiful to him!

Scout is a killer at Beat Saber. It's almost scary. Once he gets focused on it, good luck beating his high score. So quick tie into another headcannon, Medic loves music and has tried to play Rush E multiple times and struggles, (Ik Beat Saber and acutal instruments are different but like omg they all look super hard.) Scout on second try did Rush E perfect on Beat Saber. Medic was mouth agape. He's a fan of having to spam things. He loves quick moments because he's always in need of a way to burn off energy. (This man is so Jerma coded I'd be so wrong not to say he didn't play the same game Jerma played with Miku even if it isn't a rhythm game 😭).

Sniper- Osu! Laser accuracy. He could be playing the hardest level out there and is pinpointing it perfectly. He is the worst to try and play against. He's almost as bad as Scout, but Scout doesn't really get why people are so shocked at how good he is. Sniper is smug about it.

Spy- Just. Dance. King. This man has played every just dance game out there. He's too good at this game. It's worrying. He's not even really a good dancer or anything. But this man has every dance locked into his memory. He loves the songs and also likes the idea of being a pop star, but he won't ever admit that.

Soldier- Guitar Hero. This man can shread on the guitar. Like Spy and his pop star dreams, he loves the idea of being a rockstar, but he's willing to admit that. I actually think when he was younger, he saved up money and bought himself a guitar and an amp and used to play it all the time. But as he grew up, he didn't have time for it. But now, anytime someone brings up video games, he's super excited to whip out the plastic guitar.

Pyro- Melatonin. Genuinely not a fan rhythm games. It's a sensory overload. Loud noise, lots of movement, and too many things to pay attention to. (Just like me fr). The minute they saw Melatonin, they were thrilled and fell in love instantly.

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I'm sorry if this wasn't as good as my other's. I had a hard time with this bc I don't play rhythm games 😭 it was still super cool to do!

#tf2 demoman #tf2 engineer #tf2 heavy #tf2 medic #tf2 scout #tf2 sniper #tf2 spy #tf2 pyro #tf2 headcanons #tf2 hc #tf2 #team fortress headcanons #team fortress 2 #tf2 soldier

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Let's see if I can sort out what to say about Fire Emblem Engage yet, which might end up with a bit of commentary on other games in the series, which I guess is appropriate since it's basically an anniversary game. The short version is that I feel like a lot of the hate for it from The Gamers is extremely exaggerated, and even though it's not perfect it's probably my favorite Fire Emblem game at this point.

Like most people old enough to have been around at the time my main introduction to Fire Emblem was through SSBM, although in my case I didn't really care about the characters in that so much. Specifically it was the inclusion of Together We Ride in the soundtrack that got my attention. I still have an mp3 somewhere that I recorded from the game by hooking up the line out of my GameCube to the line in on my laptop.

I didn't actually play the GBA games because I never had a GBA of my own, so I started with Path of Radiance instead and have played a decent number of the games since then at least part way through. Still need to get around to Shadows of Valentia one of these days, but it'll probably be my next FE/3DS game when I do.

Up until now I'd say Awakening was my favorite of them. It was pretty satisfying mechanically without being overly complex like Fates (which was great if you really like planning everything out and min-maxing stuff, but it's all a bit much the first time through playing casually), it had a bunch of fun characters and supports, the music is frequently excellent, and the story is completely ridiculous in a fun way.

In a lot of ways Engage felt very similar to Awakening to me, which was great for me. I don't think I could convincingly argue that any other game in the series is anywhere near as fun for me in terms of gameplay. It's incredibly flexible in terms of what you can do with your units and what kinds of team compositions will work, especially on lower difficulties, but it manages to achieve that flexibility without being overly complex in an intimidating way, and a lot of the map design is excellent too.

It does a great job of encouraging you to try different things out by the way the maps are structured and enemies are placed and various different gimmicks on them and is full of moments early on that demonstrate the value of different units and abilities without directly telling you what to do. There's a lot of stuff set up in ways that don't just hand you a victory and have multiple ways to approach them, usually more than one of which makes you feel very clever for pulling something fancy off.

And the Emblem abilities that are restricted in use by being situational and on long cooldowns let them give you some truly ridiculous stuff that would be broken in any other game but feels perfect here, and it lets you do some absolutely bonkers stuff once-ish per map as a result. A lot of it gets balanced out by giving bosses multiple health bars though, which solves so many design problems and stops you from just warping a single unit there to burst them down instantly. That and sometimes having multiple bosses on the same map really forces you to use the ridiculous emblem abilities and take advantage of your whole team you've deployed a lot more often.

I know there are some people who don't love it aesthetically, and that's fine, but just on a technical level it's easily one of the best-looking games on the Switch. Seeing clips of Three Houses again after playing Engage for a while is rough. It feels like looking at a PS2 game running in an emulator, and Engage feels easily at least two full console generations ahead in terms of the tech it uses and the results they get out of it. Plus I actually love the art style too, with all the bright colors and overdesigned characters and stuff, and the combat animations are probably the best the series has ever had.

And I suppose the big thing that the most people complain about is the writing and story. You know what? They're fine. As far as I'm concerned the series has never had top tier writing (sometimes it's pretty decent like the Tellius games or Three Houses, but even those have some issues), and if that's really what I'm in the mood for I have plenty of other options for that. Just from stuff I've played this year there's been Future Redeemed, 13 Sentinels, The House in Fata Morgana, and probably some others I'm not immediately thinking of.

It's not like a story or its characters have to be super deep to be fun or interesting or serve their purpose in a piece of media either, and for me Engage managed to do that for me in the same way Awakening did. I genuinely enjoyed spending several dozen hours with a lot of the characters, and the story's a bit silly sometimes but did what it needed to to bring a bunch of random characters together and through an adventure together.

And something unprecedented for me for a Fire Emblem game (and pretty uncommon for games in general) is that I immediately wanted to play it again right after finishing. Usually I want to see more of the supports and any optional stuff I might've missed (e.g. optional recruits and stuff), but that's not enough of a motivation to play through the whole game again, especially not right away. This time though in addition to that the game mechanics are so satisfying that I wanted more of that too, especially with all the units I never really used and all the new silly build ideas I started coming up with toward the end of the game as I understood how everything worked better. I've been holding back from actually doing it yet because there's so much other stuff I'm trying to get through or finish up, but there's a pretty good chance I'll start over again at some point in the next few months, maybe after SoV and/or going back and finishing my replay of PoR I started earlier this year before getting distracted by this game.

Engage is almost definitely my favorite Fire Emblem game at this point and easily in my top five games I've played this year, probably in the top three. I think it's probably number one for gameplay, with 13 Sentinels for story and Future Redeemed for all aspects combined overall, and Unpacking is an honorable mention for general vibes.

#fire emblem engage

[nintendowife]

It's game over for 2023. Time to talk about the best games I played during the year. I finished many enjoyable titles on various platforms, crossing genres and time to visit even decades old games. I finished a total of 38 games this past year. And because I apparently didn't have enough choice for devices to play all these games on, we got an Xbox Series X to our household on Christmas week.

Anyhow, here are the winners of my personal Game of the Year 2023 awards. *drumroll*

1st place: Vampire Survivors (PC)

My addictive substance of choice. Doesn't shine in the graphics department with modern tech. Doesn't try to impress with thought-provoking narrative. The incredibly simple yet satisfying gameplay however is engineered to perfection. A true masterclass of game design.

+ Infectiously fun, action-filled reverse bullet hell roguelike gameplay. Just one more run! + Bold artistic identity. + Humorous touch in character/enemy design and fun nods to other videogames. + Superb soundtrack. + Tons of quality content for an incredibly cheap price. Free updates and paid DLC with even more content. - The flashing effects can go a little overboard and cause discomfort. - Later stages of game can lag even decently powerful hardware.

See my posts about Vampire Survivors

2nd place: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Wii U Virtual Console, originally on Game Boy Advance)

A classic Castlevania that holds up nicely even 20 years from release and on a big screen. With a bit more memorable music and a small quality of life improvement, Aria of Sorrow would have earned the coveted 5/5 stars in my book.

+ Balanced and fun gameplay with a good sense of progression. + Top tier level design with a concise map. + Nice art style in environments, sprites and character portraits. Great animation and enemy design. + Fitting music and audio. + Good story. - Lacks item to warp to last save room or outside castle.

See my posts about Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

3rd place: Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (PC)

Chill vibes managing your restaurant, gathering ingredients and talking to characters by day turn into frantic cooking and serving action by night. This game got its recipe right.

+ Fun, rewarding gameplay loop mixing leisurely action and challenges testing your attention. + Enjoyable story with funny events. + Wonderfully cute pixel art. + Catchy music. + Lots of content for a low price. - Starts slow, even a bit boring in the beginning before you get special customers and unlock more recipes. - Final battle had annoying RNG. - English translation could use a little polish.

See my posts about Touhou Mystia's Izakaya

Honorable mention: Crimson Shroud (Nintendo 3DS)

This surprisingly challenging table-top RPG inspired game impressed me with its quality and satisfying gameplay. This is a hidden gem worth visiting.

+ Challenging gameplay with long and brutal battles make for a rewarding experience. + Good, well-written story with two endings. + Cool art direction with 3D models mimicking table-top RPG figurines, pretty illustrations. + Great music. + Game's length is just right to keep player invested. - Overall difficulty is higher than usual for JRPGs and Game Over wasn't a rare occurrence on my playthroughs. Slight frustration ensued due to having to retry the long battle from the beginning. - Confusing equipment UI (comparison of current vs new gear).

See my posts about Crimson Shroud

Honorable mention: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Nintendo DS, played on 3DS)

Unique experience with tricky chain reaction puzzles and fantastic characters. Prominently fluid and amazing animations - I can't believe it's a Nintendo DS game! This is no trick - it's a treat.

+ Inventive gameplay and mechanics, perfect fit for touch screen. + Interesting story that definitely doesn't forget humor despite the grim subject. + Memorable characters (Cabanela and Missile were my favorites). + Awesome art style and marvelous animation quality. + Great music throughout the game. - I almost lost interest at some point and got impatient to finish the game. - I guessed one of the key plot twists but luckily that didn't put a dent on the ending.

See my posts about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Honorable mention: Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360, played on Xbox Series X)

Entertaining cover shooter with varying missions. The game never had a boring moment and the length of the single player campaign was just right. I'm looking forward to playing Gears of War 3 next!

+ Fun gameplay that sets expectations for other shooters. + Interesting setting and story with some cool events. + Fun dialogue that made me chuckle many times. + Good music and great English voice acting. + The challenge on Normal difficulty was just right for me. - AI controlled companions got stuck occasionally, leaving you alone in dangerous enemy territory. - I didn't always understand the mission objectives in the hectic situations. - Cutscenes can't be skipped (thankfully this is not a Kojima game).

Honorable mention: Signalis (PC)

Atmospheric sci-fi survival horror paying homage to older games. Puzzles are different from usual and require attentive skill and logical thinking to solve. This game deserves a sequel.

+ Intriquing sci-fi story with an impactful ending (there are multiple endings too). + Great art direction, appealing PS1 era inspired retro graphics with skillfully crafted pixel art. I very much enjoyed the nod to Ghost in the Shell. + Unique, well-designed puzzles and good level design. + Great atmosphere. - A bit clunky combat. - Tiny inventory space forced me to backtrack more than I would have liked. - Annoying design choice to not include a map in a couple of areas.

See my posts about Signalis

Nominees for my personal Game of the Year 2023

Only games I have finished in 2023 have been included (looks like I played a lot of games starting with the letter T).

An Arcade Full of Cats (PC) Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (3DS) Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PS3) Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX (Switch) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Wii U Virtual Console - GBA) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (3DS) Crimson Shroud (3DS) Detective Pikachu Returns (Switch) Dordogne (PC) Fitness Boxing (Switch) Gears of War 2 (Xbox Series X - Xbox 360) Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (3DS) Immortality (PC) Kuru Kuru Kururin (Wii U Virtual Console - GBA) Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (PC) Liberation Maiden (3DS) Need for Speed: Most Wanted U (Wii U) Piofiore: Fated Memories (Switch) Pokémon Art Academy (3DS) Pokémon Rumble World (3DS) Scorn (PC) Shadows Over Loathing (PC) Signalis (PC) Sticky Business (PC) Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) Tekken 7 - Definitive Edition (PC) Toem (PC) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction (PC) Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (PC) Toukiden 2 (PS Vita) Trinity Trigger (Switch) Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC) Umurangi Generation Special Edition (PC) Unpacking (PC) Vampire Survivors (PC) Volcano Princess (PC) We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie (PC) Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PC)

Wishing you all a fabulous New Year 2024 with happiness, health, success and cool gaming experiences!

#game of the year #goty #vampire survivors #castlevania: aria of sorrow #touhou mystia's izakaya #crimson shroud #ghost trick #gears of war #signalis #pc #wii u #nintendo 3ds #xbox series x

[game-boy-pocket]

Today, I beat Super Mario Wonder

I'll do my best not to mention any spoilers.

I just don't know what to say. You know how I say I complain a lot because it's easier to voice what I wish was better than to explain why I already like something? Well that's what's going on here. This game has very little to complain about. At least in my eyes. I already see a lot of people being contrarian about this game. Far be it from me to say anyone's opinion is invalid but I just don't know what these people want.

The most ridiculous things I hear is that it's still just more of the same, both visually and mechanically, and to those people, I frankly think they don't actually want a Mario game. There's wanting things to be more creative and shaken up, and then there are people who want things to be too different, they don't even want it to be recognizable as Mario anymore and like... I get that indie platformers are doing a lot of crazy cool things with mechanics and art styles, but I just don't know where we got to this point of brain rot where platformers need to have very weird and experimental art styles to be considered worth a damn, as if Mario Wonder's art style isn't already fantastic, these people won't be happy until the game looks like Ori and the Blind Forest or Hollow Knight or Baba is You or some shit. As for it being "more of the same", again, what do they want? A story heavy survival horror game? No more power ups? I just don't get it.

This is probably the only 2D Mario that could go toe to toe with the NES and SNES games in terms of quality, NSMB games were good but very much "paint by numbers Mario" that not only didnt' do anything new or interesting, but cut out good things from past games or brought those things back but in a worse form. This legit could compete with some of the 3D Mario games, imo. I just don't know what the hell people could possibly want that this game doesn't do.

To me, there's not much I can think of.

Here are my biggest complaints that I would have liked to be done different....

!!SPOILER WARNING!!

The bosses. There are only two bosses in the whole game (arguably three but it's difficult to count what you find on airships as a boss ).... isn't the lack of boss variety one of the main things people don't like about the Koopalings? Ironically the Koopalings would have added aw whole lot of variety here. They also would have got some dialogue, since this is the first 2D Mario game that actually has dialogue. Koopalings being in Wonder would have fixed a huge issue with Wonder, and with the Koopalings themselves, as not only would they be able to display a little more personality through dialogue, but the Wonder power would have made their battles a lot more interesting than what we're used to. Mario has never had strong bosses but this feels like it was their chance to change that. I'll say this, the Boss battles in this game are pretty good, even though they re-use Junior over and over.

Yoshi being baby mode doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would but I still would have preferred and option to just ride a Yoshi without having it tied to multiplayer. The only way you'll experience Yoshi, is if somebody plays as him, there are no yoshi eggs out there like in Super Mario World for you to find and ride on a Yoshi who runs away if you get hit. Seems unfair to lock one of Yoshi's features to multi player, especially to people like me that enjoys playing alone more.

Nabbit still sucks and feels like a forced character. I swear they better have a pay off in mind for Nabbit if they're going to insist on him sticking around

That's all I got... level designs are solid, music is mostly good, ideas are great, I guess a flying power up would be cool but I don't care that much. There are a few enemies I wish I saw more often but I also wouldn't want them to be less special and oversaturated. This really is the best Mario game in a long time, I would probably even say it's the best one on Switch.

I have not yet 100 percent completed the game, I missed a few wonder seeds and badges in the second world. But I got everything in every other world, including the Special one. That's another point in this game's favor, they didn't lock anything behind post game as far as I can tell. You could challenge the harder levels in the game before you fight Bowser, and I appreciated that, though it did spoil some of the wonder flower events in the final act of the game, but it's no big deal.

I don't like giving number ratings but this really is as close to 10/10 as a Mario game gets. I'd call it 9.5 outta 10, if the things I listed in my bulleted complaint list were different, I'd maybe give it a perfect 10.

The game is wonderful. If you like Mario, don't sit on the fence.

This might be my last post about the game for a while, I'm gonna try and get the few wonder seeds I missed and all the standees ( even tho I don't use them ), if anything significant changes, I'll come back, but for now, consider these my final thoughts. Great fuckin' game.

#pocket plays #super mario bros. wonder #nintendo #wowie zowie

[splashink-games]

A Note On... Frogun and Coins

Frogun is a 3D platforming game by Molegato! Save your parents (and coincidentally find some treasure) through these crazy ruins!

First off, I am astounded by the number of people (in the Steam reviews) who absolutely hate the controls and the checkpoint usage. I can understand their gripes from the "precise platforming that the controls don't accommodate" but damn. I've had my fair share of frustrating moments, for sure. Frogun is definitely a difficult and (for me, mildly) frustrating time because of the later levels. However, it definitely does not detract from its experience.

In terms of controls, my issue was that at certain angles (too angled/obtuse) and distances (way too close or too high) and timings, the grapple simply does not work. The reticle would say you can grapple, but you'd still be too high to connect, so the grapple just goes right over. Sometimes it should've and sometimes it shouldn't have. Either way, I got through this pretty awesome game just fine.

The biggest issue with the game is while 100%-ing it. In which case, you need to be good enough to perform the platforming skips. And once you know the basics, you don't even need to do the more difficult ones. But most of all, you need to farm 30,000+ coins after you've beaten all the levels. It was at that number for me since I'd only completed each level 2-3 times for the medals. It's an absolutely insane 4 hour grind where you only collect 360 coins per run on one kind of annoying level.

Setting grievances aside, the game is pretty great. The art style and music feels very retro, reminiscent of my days of playing Mario 64 at the dentist's office when I was a kid. Or more recently, it felt similar to playing Here Comes Niko at the end of last year. I do absolutely love the choices I have for hats too. My go-tos were the froggy hood and the red box that I don't know the name of.

The level design is pretty interesting for the most part. There are, of course, a lot of areas where it was frustrating for the same reasons I stated above. But overall, it does a nice job of easing you into the mechanics before it gets too hard. As well, when you're used to the basics, it always adds a new thing for you to pay attention to.

Surprisingly, where this game really shines is the boss battles. They started off super simple, but by the end, the boss battles were my favourite thing and got me super excited for the boss rushes. Which were also surprisingly enjoyable given their difficulty.

As a platformer, Frogun isn't for everyone. But if you love this style of game, definitely give it a shot.

As always,

Enjoy gaming!

#game review #video games #gaming #a note on... #ink reviews #Frogun #it was super surprising to me to find out all the negative reviews were for those reasons

[purplekoop]

Music. Heart should be music based. Microphone weapon? Literal vocal chords body slot? You can reuse performer mecha girls designs. Magic? Shielding Melodies. Feel one’s pain through song? LUCIO.

oh. my god. oh my god that's it. that's IT!!!!

oh my god that's literally PERFECT, I was so set on just going further with the ballgown-shaped design that I didn't think of anything else to integrate into it. but sound. SOUND. MUSIC. AAAAAAAAHHH THAT'S ACTUALLY PERFECT!!! Her existing abilities can be rethemed perfectly into that, and just thinking about how to make a music-themed visual design for a tank has my mind racing with all the fun ways that could be done

As exciting as this idea is I do sadly have work tomorrow, so I can't go all-in on fleshing out this concept like I wish I could right this moment, but hey, at least I got something to think about in my downtime then!

Though you do bring up something I wanna clarify real quick, and that's MeckaRocka. y'know, that OC group I made right before Art Fight started and then made Mirianna partway through. See, I do wanna do more with those characters, but not as a part of the same world as War Bots. I know it's confusing, but in my mind the big aesthetic difference between the two is that MeckaRocka is in a high-tech near future setting (y'know like that one game), while War Bots is in a comparatively low-tech post apocalyptic setting.

Despite technically being thousands of years in the future, the actual time the story takes place in is fairly basic. The bots themselves exist, but their society is still fairly limited to the essentials even after about 500 years. Most of the cast I try to keep feeling very "mechanical", you can see the moving parts and most abilities have at least a theoretically plausible physical explanation, with maybe a bit of partial cartoon logic to make some abilities work. It I think also adds to the charm of the characters, it helps a lot of them feel like charming underdogs who are making it by on the bare minimum gear and raw tenacity. The exceptions to this are deliberately sparse. Velenna (who still needs a visual overhaul but the idea stands) is a scientist, so her outfit and gear is relatively sleek and modern-looking, which also plays off her harsh, "sterile" personality. Martinet is a pile of classic secret agent jokes so his stuff is similarly clean, but is more "high tech" in a cartoony way. Ezela meanwhile is more high-tech because of her story reasons, and also it fits with her theme of electricity to have more advanced tech powering her abilities. And Sorsier... I retain plausible deniability on how their abilities work until further notice, but their theme of magic/""magic"" makes it so they get to have abilities that'd be harder to explain with other characters. With MeckaRocka meanwhile, the characters are very explicitly high tech, and that difference is apparent in their designs. They're much more extravagant compared to the more "bare essential" War Bots designs.

Even the basic principles of how they're functionally built are consistent with this different theming. War Bots characters have basic hinged metal limbs, like big action figures, while the MeckaRocka characters have bendy Fugitoid-style limbs. The MeckaRocka members also just have more high tech superfluous details, like extra lights, LED faces instead of mechanical eyes (some War Bots have screen faces too but shush), and in general just are made to look "fancier". Which not only works with the tech level, but also their roles in their respective worlds. The War Bots cast is made up of what are just ordinary folks trying to stay alive in a hostile world, while the MeckaRocka gang is a synthetic pop idol group who are specifically built for that role.

I say all this just to explain that the two worlds are deliberately separate. I know it's a little confusing to have two different robot OC projects going at once, but I hope this clarifies why they're different. Fun fact actually: Edia, the ironically heart-themed lead of MeckaRocka, was also first made for the same project that Wilderoad was originally made for! The MeckaRocka cast and world is informed by Edia and the story she was originally made for, while I took Wilderoad and made them the starting point for the War Bots universe. That original story had robots in a more Star Wars style role, where they're essentially fancy property but have the capacity for advanced thought and personality. Even then Wilderoad was a rogue in this system who took up bounty hunting after breaking away from their intended purpose, which in a more distant way also applies to their current role. MeckaRocka is a much less defined story and world right now (to the point where "story" and "world" feel like hyperbole), so the exact parameters on how it all works are much more in question. I think it'd be interesting for that story to explore themes of "how do I find meaning in my existence" and "what does it mean to be human" in a super interesting lens, which I don't think makes sense in the world of War Bots where they explicitly do have more or less the same capacity of humans, and don't feel the need to make the comparison when there aren't any alive to compare to.

All this to say: I like my robot pop band exactly where it is. And I don't mean that in a negative way, I think it's a cool suggestion!! And I'm not above swapping characters between universes (as said above), but it just doesn't feel right for reasons that I figured would be worth elaborating on. I really did leave MeckaRocka in the dumpster for the past few months, and while it's still definitely gonna be a backburner thing, I would like to flesh it out as a fun minor story. I think the ideal format would be a webcomic at most, maybe some more long-form written-only content too. But that's the level of material that'd be supplementary media for War Bots, so it's kind of unfortunately a matter of priorities. And y'all should know I suck at those by now, I was up at 5 AM last night brainstorming a Kirby PvP tactics RPG based on an existing Bug-themed PvP tactics RPG that's also been chilling in the brain dumpster for months now, and that had a programmed google sheet for damage calculations and everything. I have enough stuff in my brain to make three more polls of equal option count to the one that I made last week, between War Bots, Role Requeue, Splatoon OCs, MeckaRocka, the Bug RPG, my superhero story, my fighting game concept, and that long-term big game project City of Desos that was the initial home of Edia and Wilderoad.

this is a ramble by the way, I should be asleep now, I got excited with the Heart breakthrough but then I got THOROUGHLY derailed explaining why the robots go in separate boxes.

ANYWAYS, initial point, this is an ask response, and responding to that ask, I would like to formally thank you for this suggestion, it really has helped me crack the code on where to take this character and I'm extremely excited to finish figuring out her kit and giving her a really cool design now that it's all finally clicked. Expect a report back uhh... later.

#koop's oc stuff #war bots #meckarocka #asks

[denimbex1986]

'Andrew Haigh’s emotional fantasy drama projects luminous rays of romance into a swirling dustbowl of self-imposed isolation and trauma.

Withdrawn and wounded, Adam has formed a supernatural bond with his parents who died in a tragic car smash when he was 12. Visiting them regularly frozen in time, he is trapped in a deeply unhealthy coping mechanism for his devastating grief. When he meets the charismatic but troubled Harry he is forced to confront his rose-tinted regression. Through a tapestry of tenderness and trust, Adam must shrug off his supernatural comfort blanket if wants to reclaim his life and sexuality.

Haigh’s paradoxical film manages to be both heartbreakingly personal and invitingly inclusive at the same time. He uses his actual childhood home as a backdrop, yet peppers the drama with needle drops everyone can relate to. He forges a narrative of extraordinarily finite melancholia, yet encompasses universal truths. He draws simplistic intimacy from the clumsy chaos of budding romance while daring the viewer to accept, and interpret, the audacious phantasmagorical premise.

Andrew Scott is mesmerising as the vulnerable Adam, a man who is stuck in a bottleneck of loss and abandonment, obsessed with seeking acceptance and unconditional love at the idealistic altar of his dead parents. For the most part, he drifts on the outskirts of existence in a pragmatic daze of unhappiness. However, there are moments of sheer sadness that crack his stoicism like a sledgehammer. These astonishing glimpses of undiluted anguish are handled by Scott in a way that is only achievable by actors willing to mine their own life experiences down to the juiciest marrow.

The soundtrack is engaging in its familiarity, mirroring Adam’s mindset. It explores both the power of music on young minds in terms of expression and its subsequent dominance through nostalgia. Often acting as subtle signposting for the narrative it also eases tonal transitions with effortless style. Not least Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s iconic ballad The Power of Love, a song that proved a resonating anthem for those losing loved ones to the horror of AIDS in the mid-1980s.

It’s not crazy to suggest this movie could have easily worked as a musical. Indeed, during a touching Christmas tree decoration scene, it becomes just that. This sequence elicited a wave of weepy empathy from me that surprised me in its intensity. Many such scenes could swiftly ambush you too, and I wager that at least one of them will. The fact the two lovers are queer is, of course, relevant. However, it does not exclusively define the film. It is more concerned with the power and pain memories excerpt on all of us, irrespective of sexuality, and the struggle to survive in the trenches of life under fire from fate, loss, and grief. As is always the way with such emotionally honest art, how intensely you identify with All of Us Strangers will determine how much of a cathartic wrecking ball it is for you.

Haig designed his film to be a compassionate and caring cinematic hug. Indeed, it is warm, woozy, and well-meaning. But be warned, it ends up being the kind of embrace that spawns such levels of self-recognition and bittersweet catharsis that tears ducts will surely dampen its shoulders. Beautifully written and impeccably acted, it’s a stunning movie about cutting the masochistic anchors of the past and learning to live in the scary fragility of the moment.

★★★★★'

#Andrew Haigh #Andrew Scott #All of Us Strangers #Frankie Goes to Hollywood #The Power of Love

[nitrosodiumfmp]

Looking Forward (and Back)

I'm feeling a little better mentally about the whole project; I've cleared up my bibliography and also altered my project proposal a little. This time I did attempt to make it more open-ended, and that's because I've thought about some potential renovations to the idea.

A lot of this has been inspired by Doom - the originals, not the remakes. They're really good games, and the art and level design are very intriguing. I watched a very interesting video by GermanPeter about what the levels could be as real-life places, and it made me think about the abstract, surreal nature of the visuals. It's something that could be quite interesting to replicate. For example, in the video, Peter suggests that MAP02, The Underhalls, is not a sewer system as it first appears, but actually a network of flooded subway tunnels, with various stops where you can scavenge for loot and fight demons.

I've also gotten quite hung up on the Sinister Workshop vs Dark Tomb debacle, and I think the best way to get around this is to combine the ideas into one cohesion, called "Sinister". It'll be chunky, mechanical and industrial, while also appearing fantastical and almost Gothic. This style has been proven to work - once again, look at Doom.

Some of the Doom maps do still carry a sense of dread and unease, as you creep through darkened corridors, expecting an ambush at any moment. But they also have the more adrenaline-fuelled segments you'd expect from a shooter, running circles around a hungry horde and blasting them into mincemeat. Doom does attempt full-on horror in some segments, too. There's a map in the cartoonishly malicious Plutonia Experiment called Hunted, where you're trapped in a maze filled with Archviles (particularly resilient demons who can revive the dead for extra fun), not enough ammo to kill them all, and all the while, as if to mock you, it plays the bunny song from the end of Doom 2.

A lot of Doom 1 maps had this more horror focus, actually. Obviously nowadays, it's not scary, but back then, when you were confined to keyboard controls, a crap resolution, and the old-school software renderer that made dark areas DARK, it was probably pretty spooky. With this ethos, I can have my cake and eat it - I can keep making the slower horror-atmosphere game, and also make it more active.

This is what I want to do. This is the vibe I want to replicate. Here's my idea for more fleshing-out. Essentially, you're in the afterlife - the god of death has entered a deep sleep, and the world is being subverted by his altered consciousness. Since nobody can properly die anymore, only existing as malformed ghosts in the warped remnants of the afterlife, you've been sent to wake the god up from his slumber and banish these spirits back to the ethereal realm. The surrealism still works here - it's all in a dream-like world, but it's also the afterlife. Think of some of the music videos for TOOL songs, where strange visuals are used to signify the dying process, or passing in and out of consciousness. This helps to explain the inevitable weirdness of the environment, and also relates to many of the interesting themes that people have extrapolated from the original Midas myth: dreams, surrealism, illusion, conspiracy, myth.

And, a final note, enemies. Also inspired by Doom (what can I say, I love boomer shooters) I think I'll have enemies that are 2D sprites. They'll be fun to draw, easier to animate, and help to make the world seem off. If the world is 3D and they're not, it'll give everything an optical illusion vibe, which is what I want.

A final final note: I think I might call it Sinister Afterlife. But it's just Sinister for now.

#devlog #gamedev #indiedev #indiegamedev #indie game dev #indie games #indie game #nitrosodium #indie dev #boomer shooter

[bird-214]

I'm sick and bored, so let's play a bunch of free random itch.io games that caught my attention and see what I think of them. Underneath is gonna be my opinions about said games right as I'm done with them. Put under a read more for your convenience.

The Life Of Plastic Bag: Very cute and simple platformer game that you can play directly in your browser. Kind of made me nostalgic for flash platform games (which speaking off I swear one of the sound effect the devs used was part of the sue games... you know the ones) Nothing too tough, but nothing too overtly simple either! Each level brought in a new mechanic and build up on existing ones, despite how short it was it's clearly a finely designed little thing. While the art style is cute there are moments where it really lacked contrast and made me struggle to notice like, important stuff I needed to continue the level. Still a good experience though, it's only like 30 minutes at most. A good time.

How Fish Is Made: I have a lot of thoughts about this one. Definitely weird as hell but I fucking loved it. There's an expansion but I don't have the brains to play it right now I need to get to it. You play as a sardine going through some weird vaguely eldritch/fleshy conveyor belt and have one simple decision to make. Do you go up or down? And that's pretty much as far I can really explain because I mean. There's not really anything else to say? It's creepy and kind of existential and I think it's about the after life but also the fake idea of free choices in a video game and also at one point there's a tongue-eating louse that gives a musical performance that's honestly a banger. You should play it.

The open house: ... well that's another weird one I probably shouldn't be playing horror games while I'm sick and it's late. It was certainly a cool experience though. Basically a virtual open house visit and then you notice... odd things in the house and then shit gets really fucking weird. At first I thought "heh I prefered when it was only subtle horror in the details" (I say as if I wasn't shitting my pants) but then they got EVEN weirder with it and that really hooked me in honestly. There's also a few moments of genuine humor that I quite enjoyed. Also waiiit I just checked the creator's itch.io page and they also made the ARD demo that one also really freaked me out, I need to check more of their stuff out clearly.

And that's gonna be all for me for tonight. I'll rb this post with the other free itch.io games I'll play later probably.

#bird.txt #bird.rec #truly a gamer moment <- im sick pls don't bully me for saying that #indie games #itch.io #love that platform no matter how much people make fun of it #like idk man how about you play a weird little 30 minutes free game. then maybe you'll calm down loser

[littlestartemis]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG Review (spoiler free)

(copied from my steam review)

While I'm tempted to just make a one sentence "sounds gay I'm in" review and call it a day, I genuinely feel like that would be a disservice to everything I experienced with it.

Point by point, starting with music, I loved everything about this game. The music has a retro FEEL to it, without being straight up chiptune. It's very relaxed and pleasant most times, which makes the off kilter and upsetting sounds of some of the more important dungeons all the more impactful. The battle themes hit hard, character themes hit all the right notes. Absolutely no complaints.

The writing is incredibly clever, and overall just entertaining. In my opinion, the best way to make a compelling original world is thus: no matter how ridiculous the world may seem to us on the outside, everyone inside of it should treat it seriously. Because for them, it IS their reality. While the dialogue is very cheeky, and genuinely funny on frequent occasions, it never feels like its shattering your immersion to look into the camera and go "would you get a load of THIS nonsense?" The characters are believable and grounded despite living in a world of magical multicolor furries, and their relationships and dynamics feel real enough to make you care about them. At no point did I go out of my way to speak with someone or investigate something and come out disappointed. Every additional dialogue path and optional conversation was a treat, and the lore and worldbuilding felt fantastically well thought through.

Mechanically, while it is a very Classic style turn based RPG at its core, it feels like it does just enough unique with its additional mechanics to add depth without becoming obtuse or hard to grasp. Everything is simple to execute, without being boring, and even at max level I found myself mostly engaged with even common endgame enemies. Not much more to say here, but I truly enjoyed the gameplay without getting bored of fighting enemies, and never felt the need to grind.

The art direction is additionally truly gorgeous. I played at fullscreen for the entire game, and while initially it might look a LITTLE bit fuzzy compared to playing on its native windowed resolution, I genuinely don't think it hurts the aesthetic much. Everything is cohesive, vibrant, and overall the entire game has a very cozy look and feel to it. I am a resident Desert World Hater and this one was a treat to explore and discover. If you have a problem with the character designs, then I recommend you reexamine your personal biases and yank the stick out of your rear. Same can be said for the "Lesbian" element of the game. It's in the title for a reason.

My only complaint, cliche as it sounds, is that there wasn't more of it. Ultimately a roughly 30 hour adventure for me, playing to 100% completion. But I don't think your dollar equates to your playtime, so this was hardly a concern. Would I have liked to have gotten another 10 hours out of it? 20? Double that? Obviously, I'm in love with this world and cast. But what I did get was a tightly packed, neatly made gift of an experience start to finish.

This is easily in my top 3 games of 2022, by a wide mile. It's criminally cheap. Do yourself a favor, get it, play it, enjoy it, let go and let the world take you. To simply say "it's worth it" would be an understatement, and I look forward to anything else this creator presents in the future.

#SLARPG #Super Lesbian Animal RPG #arte-missed the point

[shadowcrash10]

GAMES PLAYED IN 2022 - RANKED

11) Knack 2

Boring, standard gameplay, visual presentation, music and story. Not much here, but a kid may be into it, especially with the co op carrying a lot of the weight.

10) The King of Fighters XV

More King of Fighters, it's solid but lacks innovation and single player content, while also being very expensive as of now. The visual presentation is a stark improvement from XIV, and the roster is very strong.

9) Chibi-Robo!

Cute and unique, provides a lot of cool ideas coupled with genius sound design, a surprisingly cool story and memorable characters. Could have done with a more focused second act, but it never stops being fun.

8) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

The peak of the series to me, with amazing art direction and great combat led by a simplified control system that still gives all the depth you want. Mechanically engaging all around, with a great roster to boot. Online isn't so hot though.

7) Final Fantasy VII

The glowing reception paints an accurate picture of a touchstone of the medium, with one of my favorites storylines in an RPG, alongside a dynamic, customizable fighting system, great music and a fun world to indulge. Only criticism comes from the lack of a few quality of life implementations, omissions that were common at the time.

6) SoulCalibur II

A great showcase of a single player-focused fighter, with fun controls and mechanics, a cool roster and great music, with lots of content to explore. Weird and funny mission design is coupled with light RPG elements to provide some extended playtime, and it very much works.

5) No More Heroes

A very funny game, maybe the most funny I've played in a while. It has simple combat controls that shine through in the focused, challenging boss fights, pitting the protagonist against a great roster of characters. Everything is punctuated by banger music and stylish visual direction. The loop of doing part jobs in a hub world for money to enter in new levels might turn some off, but it helped me further connect with the story. The ending is also great, a complete left turn.

4) Sonic Frontiers

Sonic's next 3D formula kicks off to a great start, with controls and level design that complement each other to create open stages that are just fun to move around. The combat is also surprisingly varied, carrying along some of my favorite boss fights in any game. An emotional, fascinating storyline and amazing score complete the package. There's a noticeable lack of polish, and the latter half of the game feels rushed, but the strong pacing and base gameplay manage to hold the game and carry it to the finish line, which - while controversial - absolutely satisfied me. Looking forward to what else they can do with this take on Sonic.

3) Resident Evil (2002)

Couldn't ask for a better introduction to survival horror. While the creepy atmosphere and jump scares are absolutely on point, the strength of the game is on its replay value, making sure it has a shelf life long after it stops being scary to the player. The puzzle design is smart and the story is fun to figure out. An absolute masterclass.

2) Doom (2016)

Provides old school design sensibilities with a modern touch, making a game with the best of the past and present. Everyone already knows about the soundtrack, but it's still worth noting what a classic on its own it became. The gameplay loop is extremely well calibrated, leading to an aggressive play style fitting of the story and main character. Everything in the presentation helps solidify the core feelings of the work, in what feels like a very focused, hand crafted piece. A joy from beginning to end.

1) Rayman Legends

Everything I could have asked for and more. My expectations were quite high and I came out as satisfied as I wanted to be. No bad levels, no lesser moments, a game that left no aspect of it without oozing polish and creativity. Absolutely recommend it.

[risu5waffles]

EXCUSE ME? No one was gonna tell me it was TEN yesterday?

Honestly, y'all just left me hangin' out to dry there. i still love you, but i'm holding on to these cupcakes. [ed.'s note: risuko has no cupcakes]

It's like JplusK made this level expressly for me. Just look at that puppet! Look at it! Seriously, tho', the level is cute wivout being twee, and quirky wivout being overbearing. It's got that over-large, heavy angled build style i love so much. It's expansive, but moves along quickly enough it doesn't feel like it was overstaying its welcome. The power-up introduces a fun gameplay mechanic that can be a little challenging, but not so much you find yourself questioning why. i could have maybe done wivout the fart jokes, but that's just 'cause i'm such a classy gal. But that's really my only complaint, and it's not so frequent as to be too off putting. i tried another of JplusK's levels to see if this was a one-off, or their general idiom, and unfortunately that one, while it looked neat, was heavily focused on doing... clever things wiv jetpacks that may, in fact be clever if you're good at it, but mostly wound up being frustrating to me in the end. There might be a physics difference in there too, but i'm more than willing to say it just didn't click wiv my skill set.

We talked about this last week, and it continues to be what it is, tho' as of writing it continues to be what it is wiv the addition of a pink ribbon. It's nice to know i called it in my review.

This is just a giveaway level for some logic bits we got screwed out of in LBP3, because someone at Sumo forgot (i'm being charitable here) to enable the tutorials that would unlock them. It leaves me pretty salty, tho', seeing as they were part of the DC and Move Pack DLCs; like if you spent money on those, you should be able to get the lot of it, you know? Not that Sumo seems to really care.

We took a play through chairoCAT's CAT RESTAURANT way back in LittleBite-sizedArchive #137, but this one is a very different kettle of fish. Instead of a tightly contained series of minigames, we've got a quite expansive pseudo-underwater platformer that is a lot of fun (even if it gets a touch long in the tooth by the end). But the red thread between the two is the presentation. Highly detailed, wiv a lot of charm. All the little fish you interact wiv are just cute as buttons, and it really elevates the whole affair. Those porkypine fish, tho', gods but i could die. This one's really, really good.

i played this one for the old review show waaaaaay back in the day, and just fell in love wiv it. The gameplay really isn't much of much, but it's far more interested in showing off Kimuko's chops in environmental design and custom stickering. Seriously, the art here is just something else. i wish i could say the same about the music selection; i get what they're going for, and i don't not appreciate it, but gods i just hate every single one of the 50's pop tracks. Easily (personally speaking) the worst part of LBP3's story mode. Which is a total shame, because the Manglewood levels have some of the nicest level design in the game. Not directly related to anything, but i've played this level a bunch of times at some very different periods in my life, and not once have i been able to not make friends wiv the AI. It's just impossible. i challenge you to do it. Go ahead and break her poor heart. You monster.

This one'd actually been suggested by a viewer ages ago, and it just slipped my mind, and would have continued to slip my mind if they hadn't reminded me. i'm glad they did, 'cause i had a blast wiv it. Some really inventive mixing of gameplay and simple, physics/mechanics-based puzzles. This was definitely an unexpected gem for me.

Oh my gods, you can hear me coughing, because i didn't realize the PScamera had a mic on it. At least i wasn't swearing or anything. There were a couple of neat ideas in this one; the time slow-down was a cool effect, but ultimately it was just kinda ok? Like, not a bad level, i don't want to give that impression; but there's not much in the presentation to really sink your teeth into, and the gameplay is, for the most part, pretty standard for an LBP2 level. i certainly don't regret the time i spent wiv it, but i don't really think it's going to stick in my memory all that much.

i adored this level. There's just so much great detail work going on. The gameplay can be a bit fiddly sometimes, but it should be pretty clear at this point that a strong presentation will win me over almost every time. i hate that you can hear me coughing again here. i must have recorded this right after the last one. Also, holy crap, but am i loud on the controller. Like you can hear the button presses, and that can't be good for hardware longevity.

No matter how long it looked in the mirror, it remained Taser Temple.

It is super impressive that tyrew12 managed to pull off this animation in game, but it's such a shame that LBP's audio compression just takes a steaming turd all over the actual song. That's been a problem since 2, so i can't throw shade on Sumo for that for once. Still it's worth a watch because the level is quite a feat.

-----------------------------------------------------

And that's our ten this go about. Some real good ones in the mix, that's for sure. i am so, so tired tho', and i need to sleep. Before i crash, some fun(?) useless trivia. i made some subplaylists for folx who're interested in stuff from just one game, and it turns out the 226 levels we've played so far 48 have been from LBP, 92 from LBP2, and 86 from LBP3. The LBP2 numbers don't surprise me much, but i honestly thought LBP and LBP3 would have been flipped. It just felt like i was spending a lot of time wiv the really old school stuff, but clearly that's not hardly the case. i'm going to have to do a binge it seems. Anyhoot, i really am beat, it's Sunday, and that's always my chores and errands day on top of a full day of work. Didn't even get my curry made, it's gonna have to be tomorrow morning, 'cause i just have nothing left in the tank, and i still got to get my head shaved up. Hope you're all taking care of yourselves out there and staying safe. Love ya!

#littlebigplanet #little big planet #lbp #lbp1 #lbp2 #lbp3 #littlebite-sizedarchive #lbsa #just a tired little trans lass #Youtube

[sir-mantis]

Soul Hackers 2

This was an incredible game for me. It’s now tied with Persona 5 Royal for my absolute favorite megaten game, even surpassing it in some areas. Everything from the story, the characters, music, and gameplay I thoroughly enjoyed.

I love the games art style and presentation. The character designs and portraits are really well drawn and expressive. It was my introduction to Shirow Miwa’s work and I’m already a fan! I also love the design and vibe of the many hubs like Karakucho and the Roppo Realm.

All of the characters are so well rounded and just full of personality; they all have their own goals, motivations, and don’t start immediately as friends which I love. After a while they kind of come together in a found family kind of dynamic and it feels so natural throughout the story, especially if you complete their Soul Matrix floors and invite them to hangout events. Hangout events were nice little rewards to side quests and completing parts of the story, nice humorous moments where the characters bounce off each other so well. The voice acting in the game is stellar, everyone does an amazing job here.

The standout character for me is Ringo. She’s my absolute favorite protagonist now in this series. I’m so glad Atlus decided on her to be the protagonist, and for her to have an actual character. Her journey to learn to connect with others as well as her humor and charisma, I found to be mega endearing. A great balance of quirky and sarcastic that never gets grating after a while. And she’s got a great design that is fun to draw lmao.

The story does start off a bit simple, but grows into this interesting personal story about putting an end to conflict and learning to communicate with others. Both of these story beats really spoke to me on a personal level, and on an inspirational level for my own writing. Watching these characters develop as you complete the Soul Matrix was a huge incentive for me to get the true ending. Unlocking the true ending was a fun game of balancing the group’s soul levels, and it was extremely satisfying to unlock on my first playthrough. Without going into spoilers, I’d view the bad ending first, then view the true ending. The bad ending strengthens the true ending to a huge degree for me, but both play to the themes touched on in the story very well.

I found the gameplay to be very fun, the sabbath system is a a pretty cool mechanic. Strategizing on maximizing stacks and damage kept me entertained throughout. The ways you can gain stacks really opens up when you get some character skills from the Soul Matrix. Upgrading the groups COMPs and demons to best fit certain play styles and boss fights was also very fun. Speaking of boss fights, I really liked all the major boss fights here. They all have a nice challenge and they complimented the sabbath system very well.

The soundtrack really grew on me as the game went on. Hopeless Call is an amazing song for the opening intro and the credits theme still makes me swell up in tears. The final boss theme is incredible, probably my favorite of the OST. Some of my other favorites from the OST are the normal boss fight theme, COMP smith theme, and the Axis theme. I do wish there were more than one track for the dungeons besides the final one and the Soul Matrix though. Overall, a great OST!

The dungeons are probably the game’s weakest part but they didn’t really bother me. Besides the final dungeon, I do wish they were a bit more visually interesting but it is what it is. I also wish some side quests like the Aion directives had more variety to them. Some of my other minor complaints like Ringo’s speed and encounter rates are getting updated this month so I can’t really complain too much about them.

This game really surprised me. I went into it thinking it was going to be an enjoyable enough experience, but left out of it really adoring it. Soul Hackers 2 more than earned it’s spot in Amazing on my tier list, and it’s my personal game of the year.

#review #game reviews #media review #soul hackers 2 #devil summoner #smt #shin megami tensei #megaten #Ringo

[iamgrowingstronger-blog]

Cloning Clyde

Hours played: Around 10

Completion: 100%'d

I believe this was among the first wave of games for the Xbox 360 marketplace, and man, I remember playing the shit out of the trial version of this game as a kid. I don't think I even knew what the concept of trial version meant, but that didn't stop me from replaying the game again and again. Recently, I saw it was cheap on Steam and decided to buy it and finally see once and for all what was in the full version of the game.

The biggest thing I love about the game is its graphics, honest. Everybody has some old video game artstyle they really love, be it the beautiful pixel art on some of the titles on the PC-98, or the early uncanny stages of 3D on the PS1. For me, it's gotta be the specific kind of 3D in this game that I can't find the words to describe (maybe when I get better at writing). Combined with the surprisingly animated Clydes you control, and the game has this style that, while old, does not feel very dated. I absolutely adore how this game looks.

Anyway. You control the Clydes in individual levels, defeating security robots and exploding chickens to reach the goal while using various switch mechanisms, using animals to get further, and combining your Clyde WITH an animal to gain new abilities. The game only really has a handful of assets: just four or five level types, the aforementioned enemies are the only enemies, and the number of different puzzle-related objects are probably in the single-digits. Despite that, I never really got tired of the game's small handful of assets. I always enjoyed kicking the crap out of the security robots or jumping around the map riding a sheep, or pulling a random lever to see what happens. What the game has is charm.

However, the game does have a big weak point: the level design. Aside from the occasional puzzle that made me think a little bit, most levels can be beaten while functioning on autopilot. If you're going for 100%, the levels can just feel tedious, since some of them have 15 or 20 Clydes that you have to control and have escape individually, one at a time. Other times, the levels just get questionable, like how there were a couple levels toward the end that were very, very spacious for seemingly no reason. I didn't hate it, but it felt like instead of doing something new, they just took a level and spread it way out. GImmicks get reused, objects get used in the same way, and thus, a lot of the game's 30 or so levels blend together. There were a couple that stuck out, like a neat catapult puzzle that made me have to think for a minute, or the penultimate level, which was this absolutely massive sprawling course that felt like this game's The Great Maze from Brawl, but generally, most were forgettable.

Another gripe is the lack of background music. You'll get a little melody at the start of levels or for defeating every security robot in a level, but otherwise, it's just silent. In a game like Frogger Returns, I'm focused so much on not dying that I don't notice as much, but in a more explorative, relaxed game like this, it really bugs me.

For what the game has, I still really like it. It pretty much was what my childhood self remembered: this fun, jank little game with funny little character animations. I really, really wanted to give this game a 7, but it just doesn't quite reach that bar. Too much of the game just doesn't feel like it's pushing what it has to the limit. It's not the lack of assets that's the problem, it's that they mostly get used in very surface-level ways. Most levels in the game you could stick at the beginning and few would bat an eye.

Overall score: 6/10. Can recommend, was a fun experience. If you're an achievement hunter-type, this game is pretty easy to 100% on top of being relatively short.

#game review #cloning clyde