1. The title of this game is so long that it has just got to be some kind of joke. Calling it Shiren the Wanderer doesn't differentiate from its predecessors and The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is still too much. I am going to call it Tower of Fortune from here on out. I don't have time for this shit.
2. For some reason, I feel compelled to pretend to enjoy games that
stick w/ the unforgiving mechanics of traditional Roguelikes. Any you
know what? I will pretend to enjoy Tower of Fortune.
It is a role playing game after all. I will play the roll of blog-based
game reviewer who enjoys traditional Roguelikes. It's 2019; we've all
given up on having friends anyway.
3. The reason I feel compelled to pretend to like it is because it's hard and if I don't like it, it means I give up easily--and I don't want to be the kind of person who gives up easily. When you go online to look up tips though, you find all sorts of forum denizens complaining it's too easy. These forum denizens can pound sand.
4. Really, difficulty is the chief appeal of Tower of Fortune, specifically difficulty by way of complexity. If you don't lose, you don't get to get to start one more hour plus long run five minutes before you meant to go to bed. Whether I'm pretending to like it or not, it is a serious time sink.
5. This is the kind of game that will get frequently described as not holding your hand but there is actually an optional tutorial dungeon that is probably one of the most massive tutorial sections in the grand history of gaming. The tutorial here is longer than most games and thoroughly covers all of its myriad of mechanics if you are willing to stick around for the whole thing. I reckon it doesn't make you hold its hand but it will hold your hand a damn lot if you want it to.
6. Realistically, most people will do what I did, which is play a few rounds of the tutorial dungeon after each death before trying again. There are occasional a-ha! moments that will help your through sticking points in your progress and each level of the tutorial grants you useful items for your next try, making it is doubly rewarding to put some time into it.
7. While we are at it, there's actually even more otpional content that's longer than most games. There is a super hard bonus dungeon that's longer than most games. There is a dungeon which is a Rogue-ified version of Minesweeper that's longer than most games. If your main criteria for selecting a game is how many hours it will give you, you've found yourself a winner in Tower of Fortune. Like I said, a serious time sink.
8. When you first start playing the main game, you will find yourself cursing all the cheap deaths, little things that get you that are just bad luck. It's infuriating. After you learn all the millions of little tricks you can do to keep yourself ready for any situation, the cheap deaths stop happening. Obviously, the RNG gods smile upon those who are persistent. Or, maybe it is that game-length tutorial dungeon coming into play and your earlier deaths could have been avoided through skillful play.
9. If you try to just hack through, you will fail. Enemies respawn so you could try to grind up your character and then breeze through but there is a hunger system and limited food on each level so doing this will also cause you to fail. There are methods for keeping some of your gear after you die but even w/ the best gear, you need to pay attention to detail or you will fail.
10. "Losing is fun," as any Dwarf Fortress fan will tell you.
11. The one huge downside of having procedurally generated gameplay such as in this or any Roguelike is that, sometimes, when you have a best ever run or even when you win, you cannot help but feel like maybe you got some help from good luck. You pretty much have to beat it multiple times to prove you've mastered it. It is, indeed, a serious time sink.
12. As far as music and graphics, Tower of Fortune has them. Given that the game this genre is named after is just a bunch of ASCII characters on a black background, this makes it considerably more accessible that many similar things. It looks like a bit-era RPG w/ rather pretty pixel graphics and all the game's systems are effectively communicated visibly. I don't really think you get into something like this if you are looking for a cinematic masterpiece so that's good enough. The music happens to be excellent though.
13. I am not entirely joking about pretending to like this. Tower of Fortune is initially impenetrable and can seem endless, the game equivalent of picking up Finnegan's Wake. I'd only recommend to someone who has expressed some interest in it or who has said they like something similar. Given this fits in such a niche genre, that is actually something of a high compliment. It is for people who like things that are often considered negatives. It is obtuse and frustrating. You can put hours into it and get nowhere. Game designers generally bend over backwards to prevent their games from having these qualities which gives a game designed specifically to have them a certain infection old-timey charm.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Friday, April 5, 2019
13 Points on Shadow of the Colossus - Team Ico - 2005 [Sony PlayStation 2]
1. The word colossus just has a weird number of S's and L's in it to me so I am sure I'll get it wrong a few times here. Bear w/ me, people.
2. From the opening sequence, Shadow of the Colossus seeks to sprawl out along the lines of motion picture epics like 2001 or The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. It is not so much setting or plot but intent. Shadow of the Colossus is a dyed in the wool masterpiece. It aims high and pulls no punches.
3. You play as an unnamed wanderer. You cross a barren land on horseback, carrying the corpse of a woman w/ you. After arriving at a temple, you lay her across the alter and demand its resident god bring her back to life. In exchange for this, you are bid to destroy sixteen colossi in the surrounding area. This is all you are given at the outset. No names. No history. Nothing.
4. In fact, if I had to pick one word to define what sets Shadow of the Colossus apart from typical video games, that would be it: nothing. Broad swatches of gameplay are just riding your horse. The distance, the absence of anything, becomes a character unto itself. Even during battles, you will spend a lot of time avoiding attacks and making no absolute progress in terms of depleting your enemy's energy meter.
5. I mentioned The Good, The Bad and the Ugly earlier because the lighting gives the landscape here a decidedly western feel. The image of the hot sun you might have gotten from lens flares in film is here done w/ bloom. The effect makes you instinctively squint your eyes.
6. Shadow of the Colossus's age has put some rough edges on it graphical presentation but it nevertheless remains impressive due to its sheer scope. Sure, you can see some straight edges on some polygonal models but it nevertheless renders an enormous and believable world where you simply don't notice small problems because the whole of it is so well done.
7. The sound design needs no such qualifier. Effects are weighty and substantial. Music waxes and wanes w/ the action, often fading away entirely and allowing the environmental sounds to form their own soundtrack.
8. Some actions and the camera controls are mapped in a what is now a non-standard way by default. Thankfully, the controls are remappable but even once that's done, the camera has a nasty habit of trying to undo any adjustments you make, often leaving you w/o the visual information you need. Additionally, when you go to aim an arrow, you do not automatically aim where the camera is looking but straight ahead of where the character model is pointed.
9. A bit of this awkwardness is necessary. If running up the back of these colossi was as effortless as parkour in Assassin's Creed, the tension of the battles would be utterly lost. Still, I wasn't exactly screaming from mountain tops what a great game this was when I had to redo minutes of gameplay because I missed a blind jump.
10. Because Shadow of Colossus relies so much on its sense of space, a bit of aimlessness is also necessary. Beyond being given basic instructions and the occasional hint from on high, you are going on very little. Oftentimes, it took me twenty minutes or more to figure out how to even damage some of the colossi and some of the battles took me over an hour. Once you've played through a few times, I'd imagine you could beat the whole game in a single sitting but the first time through involves plenty of tense, frustrating moments where you can't tell if you are trying to do the wrong thing or attempting the correct action and failing. I imagine this quite well mirrors the nameless protagonist's perspective.
11. This is how I think the game really shines. What you are tasked w/ is something unlike anyone has ever actually done--how many of us has ever attempted to resurrect the dead?--but through adroit use of image, sound and gameplay, you experience the same emotions as the character you control.
12. The only possible misstep Shadow of the Colossus makes aside from minor complaints is the inclusion of a few cut scenes that explain some backstory partway. They serve only to make explicit what the game had thus far managed to do very well implicitly. The colossi feel as if they are made of the land itself and you cannot ignore the reality that you are going against nature. To have a few dudes show up and explain this to you seems redundant at best.
13. Shadow of the Colossus is frequently held up as a prime example of video games as art. I don't actually think presenting itself as a work of art was all that notable for a game even in 2005 but doing so in a game so strictly action oriented and w/ so little direct storytelling makes for a unique and captivating experience. I also spelled colossus correctly every time, I think, but double check me on that.
2. From the opening sequence, Shadow of the Colossus seeks to sprawl out along the lines of motion picture epics like 2001 or The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. It is not so much setting or plot but intent. Shadow of the Colossus is a dyed in the wool masterpiece. It aims high and pulls no punches.
3. You play as an unnamed wanderer. You cross a barren land on horseback, carrying the corpse of a woman w/ you. After arriving at a temple, you lay her across the alter and demand its resident god bring her back to life. In exchange for this, you are bid to destroy sixteen colossi in the surrounding area. This is all you are given at the outset. No names. No history. Nothing.
4. In fact, if I had to pick one word to define what sets Shadow of the Colossus apart from typical video games, that would be it: nothing. Broad swatches of gameplay are just riding your horse. The distance, the absence of anything, becomes a character unto itself. Even during battles, you will spend a lot of time avoiding attacks and making no absolute progress in terms of depleting your enemy's energy meter.
5. I mentioned The Good, The Bad and the Ugly earlier because the lighting gives the landscape here a decidedly western feel. The image of the hot sun you might have gotten from lens flares in film is here done w/ bloom. The effect makes you instinctively squint your eyes.
6. Shadow of the Colossus's age has put some rough edges on it graphical presentation but it nevertheless remains impressive due to its sheer scope. Sure, you can see some straight edges on some polygonal models but it nevertheless renders an enormous and believable world where you simply don't notice small problems because the whole of it is so well done.
7. The sound design needs no such qualifier. Effects are weighty and substantial. Music waxes and wanes w/ the action, often fading away entirely and allowing the environmental sounds to form their own soundtrack.
8. Some actions and the camera controls are mapped in a what is now a non-standard way by default. Thankfully, the controls are remappable but even once that's done, the camera has a nasty habit of trying to undo any adjustments you make, often leaving you w/o the visual information you need. Additionally, when you go to aim an arrow, you do not automatically aim where the camera is looking but straight ahead of where the character model is pointed.
9. A bit of this awkwardness is necessary. If running up the back of these colossi was as effortless as parkour in Assassin's Creed, the tension of the battles would be utterly lost. Still, I wasn't exactly screaming from mountain tops what a great game this was when I had to redo minutes of gameplay because I missed a blind jump.
10. Because Shadow of Colossus relies so much on its sense of space, a bit of aimlessness is also necessary. Beyond being given basic instructions and the occasional hint from on high, you are going on very little. Oftentimes, it took me twenty minutes or more to figure out how to even damage some of the colossi and some of the battles took me over an hour. Once you've played through a few times, I'd imagine you could beat the whole game in a single sitting but the first time through involves plenty of tense, frustrating moments where you can't tell if you are trying to do the wrong thing or attempting the correct action and failing. I imagine this quite well mirrors the nameless protagonist's perspective.
11. This is how I think the game really shines. What you are tasked w/ is something unlike anyone has ever actually done--how many of us has ever attempted to resurrect the dead?--but through adroit use of image, sound and gameplay, you experience the same emotions as the character you control.
12. The only possible misstep Shadow of the Colossus makes aside from minor complaints is the inclusion of a few cut scenes that explain some backstory partway. They serve only to make explicit what the game had thus far managed to do very well implicitly. The colossi feel as if they are made of the land itself and you cannot ignore the reality that you are going against nature. To have a few dudes show up and explain this to you seems redundant at best.
13. Shadow of the Colossus is frequently held up as a prime example of video games as art. I don't actually think presenting itself as a work of art was all that notable for a game even in 2005 but doing so in a game so strictly action oriented and w/ so little direct storytelling makes for a unique and captivating experience. I also spelled colossus correctly every time, I think, but double check me on that.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
13 Points on Goats on a Bridge - Cabygon - 2015 [PC]
1. This is sort of a two player co-op game where you rage and hate your
partner every step of the way. Only in this case, the devs make you be
your own partner.
2. The devs are fuckers.
3. I hate myself.
4. This is seriously addictive and fun. It divides your brain and half and it feels weird and somehow makes you want your brain want your brain to feel like that even more.
5. The controls are pretty solid. I like using an Xbox controller better than the keyboard controls but keyboard controls had one advantage which was that it was much harder to accidentally go on a diagonal.
6. Graphics are bright and cute as is the music but this in no way alleviates the rage you feel when you get your hands mixed up and the one half of your brain goes to the wrong side of your head and left becomes right and right is wrong.
7. You can bump resolutions on this game all the way up to 4k and it actually makes it look a lot more clean and nice. The downside of this is the text boxes get too small to read.
8. You can't read them when you are playing anyway because you are too busy trying to figure out why the goat on the right is on the left and why when there's only one goat left, you lose.
9. I still feel cross-eyed twenty minutes after my last session but my eyes are straight as arrows. It is my brain that is crossed.
10. There are equipment upgrades but I never could quite figure out if they were only cosmetic.
11. The camera angle in this is kinda wonky by design. You are supposed to take two goats simultaneously at the same or similar rate of speed down their own individual bridges. If you get them too far apart--which is easier but not what you're supposed to do--the camera angle gets a bit too wide to see what's going on. This encourages you to play the more challenging way by making the more challenging way less challenging than the less challenging way.
12. This is the devs' first game, which they kind of wear on their sleeve a bit. It is a pretty well polished game in my opinion but there are a few things that irritated me here and there. After landing a jump or sliding under an obstacle, it seemed to take a metric hair too long to be able to jump or slide under an obstacle again. Sometimes the wonky camera angle by design seems to be a little wonky not by design. Also there are a few blind sections which seem to be there intentionally but feel unnecessary given this is a pretty hard game otherwise.
13. Holy crap, I have never played a game that infected my dreams w/ weird psychic gameplay remnants in shorter sessions than this. It is basically a legal kind of drug where you pay good money to be feel very confused and yell all your best curse words for reasons those around you do not understand.
2. The devs are fuckers.
3. I hate myself.
4. This is seriously addictive and fun. It divides your brain and half and it feels weird and somehow makes you want your brain want your brain to feel like that even more.
5. The controls are pretty solid. I like using an Xbox controller better than the keyboard controls but keyboard controls had one advantage which was that it was much harder to accidentally go on a diagonal.
6. Graphics are bright and cute as is the music but this in no way alleviates the rage you feel when you get your hands mixed up and the one half of your brain goes to the wrong side of your head and left becomes right and right is wrong.
7. You can bump resolutions on this game all the way up to 4k and it actually makes it look a lot more clean and nice. The downside of this is the text boxes get too small to read.
8. You can't read them when you are playing anyway because you are too busy trying to figure out why the goat on the right is on the left and why when there's only one goat left, you lose.
9. I still feel cross-eyed twenty minutes after my last session but my eyes are straight as arrows. It is my brain that is crossed.
10. There are equipment upgrades but I never could quite figure out if they were only cosmetic.
11. The camera angle in this is kinda wonky by design. You are supposed to take two goats simultaneously at the same or similar rate of speed down their own individual bridges. If you get them too far apart--which is easier but not what you're supposed to do--the camera angle gets a bit too wide to see what's going on. This encourages you to play the more challenging way by making the more challenging way less challenging than the less challenging way.
12. This is the devs' first game, which they kind of wear on their sleeve a bit. It is a pretty well polished game in my opinion but there are a few things that irritated me here and there. After landing a jump or sliding under an obstacle, it seemed to take a metric hair too long to be able to jump or slide under an obstacle again. Sometimes the wonky camera angle by design seems to be a little wonky not by design. Also there are a few blind sections which seem to be there intentionally but feel unnecessary given this is a pretty hard game otherwise.
13. Holy crap, I have never played a game that infected my dreams w/ weird psychic gameplay remnants in shorter sessions than this. It is basically a legal kind of drug where you pay good money to be feel very confused and yell all your best curse words for reasons those around you do not understand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)