1. I kinda figured this would be a walking sim w/ some platforming
thrown on top but it's the opposite. It is a platforming game first w/
cute, sentimental fantasy plot thrown on top.
2. I start playing a
3D platformer and I immediately reach for the controller out of habit.
This was the wrong move. There is no aim assist and this, makes the accuracy of a mouse absolutely essential.
3. While I was still using
the controller, I stacked a bunch of pillows on the side of my couch so
I could have a place to safely chuck it at the wall. This wasn't as satisfying as
crushing the thing to smithereens in a fit of nerd rage but a whole lot
cheaper.
4. It's not really the same kind of game but this reminds me of Portal
as much as anything. There is a story overlayed via narration but you
are not really involved in it. It just comes at you bit by bit as you
progress. It's also a first person game where you have to aim and shoot
but can't kill anything.
5. The way A Story About My Uncle works is,
basically, you are Spiderman w/ rocket shoes. This is obviously pretty sweet.
Grappling is the gameplay focus. There is a bit of challenge
puzzling your way into finding the best root through a given set of
obstacles but it's mostly about getting the timing right and aiming
quickly. This works well and for the most part the game flows smoothly.
6.
You play as a young boy who goes off looking for his uncle. In his
house, you find a magic space suit and somehow manage to transport
yourself out to a bizarre world of floating rocks and frog people.
Adventure ensues.
7. I don't know where the hell
the voice actors for this game from but they all speak like people who
learned English as a second language and spent years perfecting it but
still ended up like 1% short of speaking it perfectly. They are in the accent uncanny valley. It is strikes me
as kind of creepy at times but sort of works for the fantasy setting. If
you tell me frog people from outer-space speak like northern Europeans
who majored in English, who am I to say any different?
8. I found
this much more difficult than most people. That is partly because I
stubbornly stuck w/ a controller for longer than I should have and also
because I was drunk half the time. Not gonna lie.
9. The
graphics here are not a technical marvel or anything but are quite
pretty and alluring so I feel the artists accomplished what they wanted
so good for them.
10. Number 10 being said, I did have two
issues w/ the graphics. Firstly, there are spots where it is too
dark to see your various grappling points in the distance. Towards the
end, I had to crank the gamma way up to see what I was doing and I liked
the look of the game much less once I did that. Also, often, I felt that at times it was not clear based solely on
their appearance what points you could grapple. This made some sections a
little more trial-and-error based than I thought they should be.
11.
I played this solely on Linux. Thanks for the support! It worked almost
perfectly but I did have some trouble w/ menus becoming unresponsive.
Still, not nearly bad enough to avoid the Linux version.
12.
Most of the replayability here is going to come from just wanting to
play it again. There are also opportunities to find collectables to encourage
some off-course exploration and a time trial mode if you are into such
things.
13. It'd be a stretch to call A Story About My Uncle
a perfect game if I'm being honest. The plot wasn't great, the
platforming certainly had annoyances but it's cute, almost always fun
and is the kind of thing you can knock out over the course of a weekend
w/o having to block off a huge section of time so it doesn't overstay
it's welcome. People looking for a little something different in a
platformer won't go wrong by checking this out.
Showing posts with label story driven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label story driven. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Monday, April 2, 2018
13 Points on Emiliy Is Away Too - Kyle Seeley - 2017 [PC]
1. AIM was put to rest late in 2017. Fortunately, Emily Is Away Too can fill that Instant Messenger shaped hole in your heart.
2. This game consists 100% of mashing on the keyboard and pretending to type into a simulated chat window. It is actually really good.
3. The only sound effects in game are the stock sounds which seem to have been lifted straight from the original software. Realism!
4. The way Emily Is Away Too incorporates music is really clever. Whoever is talking to you sends a link to the in-game version of of YouTube. That opens in your browser in stylized web page made for the game w/ an actual YouTube video embedded in it which you can just play and listen to in the background. Viola! Licensed music w/o the license.
5. I found myself listening to Soulja Boy Tell 'Em at some point. Ummmm.....
6. You play as a young man sitting in front of the computer and typing things two young women in 2007. It is clear from the outset you have at least some romantic interest in both of these women and they may have some similar feelings for you.
7. Any time you have a chance to talk, you get three choices of what to say. You have to select one response and then mash on the keyboard and it types out what you actually respond. This is a little Mass Effect in that your actual response does not match verbatim what you input but there's no real surprises. I also found that it was really rare that I did not want to respond any of the options I was given.
8. There were some moments early on where I was nervous that the game was finding clever ways of giving me the same results no matter what answers I put in. It becomes clear as you play though that what you say in Emily Is Away Too actually matters and the landscape of the game changes because of it.
9. Number 8 is what makes the narrative in Emily Is Away Too more effective as a game than it would in any other medium. The sense of choice and purpose draws you into the protagonist's shoes. You are made to understand the story as if you are one of the characters in it.
10. To me, it was pretty obvious what choices were "right" as far as it goes. Presuming you don't want these young women to hate you, you do simple things like not lie to them and if you are romantically interested in one of them, you have to ask them out. It is pretty easy to see how you can get you some lovin' if that's what you're after.
11. This being said, for a more realistic experience, you can be the grand fuck up you are in real life and they will react accordingly.
12. This is where a lot of tension in Emily Is Away Too comes from. You are torn between roll playing how you think the protagonist might act, acting how you would actually act or acing like some idealized version of yourself. Playing through again will reveal what other outcomes you could have had but, you know, you only get to play it the first time once.
13. If you are looking for inspiration for getting into narrative game design, look no further than Emily Is Away too. It is simple, effective and built in such a way that it makes sense for the story to be told via game play. It is also just believable and touching in a way that few games are. This is one of those games where if you are inclined to play such a thing in any given moment, this will quite definitely work for you in that moment. It is a game designed seemingly w/ a clear goal in mind and achieves its aims unquestionably.
2. This game consists 100% of mashing on the keyboard and pretending to type into a simulated chat window. It is actually really good.
3. The only sound effects in game are the stock sounds which seem to have been lifted straight from the original software. Realism!
4. The way Emily Is Away Too incorporates music is really clever. Whoever is talking to you sends a link to the in-game version of of YouTube. That opens in your browser in stylized web page made for the game w/ an actual YouTube video embedded in it which you can just play and listen to in the background. Viola! Licensed music w/o the license.
5. I found myself listening to Soulja Boy Tell 'Em at some point. Ummmm.....
6. You play as a young man sitting in front of the computer and typing things two young women in 2007. It is clear from the outset you have at least some romantic interest in both of these women and they may have some similar feelings for you.
7. Any time you have a chance to talk, you get three choices of what to say. You have to select one response and then mash on the keyboard and it types out what you actually respond. This is a little Mass Effect in that your actual response does not match verbatim what you input but there's no real surprises. I also found that it was really rare that I did not want to respond any of the options I was given.
8. There were some moments early on where I was nervous that the game was finding clever ways of giving me the same results no matter what answers I put in. It becomes clear as you play though that what you say in Emily Is Away Too actually matters and the landscape of the game changes because of it.
9. Number 8 is what makes the narrative in Emily Is Away Too more effective as a game than it would in any other medium. The sense of choice and purpose draws you into the protagonist's shoes. You are made to understand the story as if you are one of the characters in it.
10. To me, it was pretty obvious what choices were "right" as far as it goes. Presuming you don't want these young women to hate you, you do simple things like not lie to them and if you are romantically interested in one of them, you have to ask them out. It is pretty easy to see how you can get you some lovin' if that's what you're after.
11. This being said, for a more realistic experience, you can be the grand fuck up you are in real life and they will react accordingly.
12. This is where a lot of tension in Emily Is Away Too comes from. You are torn between roll playing how you think the protagonist might act, acting how you would actually act or acing like some idealized version of yourself. Playing through again will reveal what other outcomes you could have had but, you know, you only get to play it the first time once.
13. If you are looking for inspiration for getting into narrative game design, look no further than Emily Is Away too. It is simple, effective and built in such a way that it makes sense for the story to be told via game play. It is also just believable and touching in a way that few games are. This is one of those games where if you are inclined to play such a thing in any given moment, this will quite definitely work for you in that moment. It is a game designed seemingly w/ a clear goal in mind and achieves its aims unquestionably.
Monday, March 19, 2018
13 Points on The 39 Steps - The Story Mechanics - 2013 [PC]
1. This is an adaptation of a novel in game form. It is not a game based on a book. It is the entire book redone as a game. Yes, there is a difference.
2. It does this by taking the narrative from the original novel pretty much straight-up and augmenting it only w/ some simple game mechanics. For example, when a room would simply be described in a book, you are asked to click around on various objects in the room and receive the description in return for your trouble in doing so. Your interaction w/ the world is really quite minimal and the whole experience is entirely scripted.
3. If you look through user reviews on games like this, there will frequently be admonishments that it's not really a game. I am not sure quite where the line between being a game and not being a game is but I do feel like this holds up pretty well as a way of telling stories whatever it is.
4. The story here is... I dunno... pretty good. It's based on a novel by the same title which was good enough to be reworked by Hitchcock among others so they probably know better than I do. I thought the setup was a bit thin but it works well enough as an excuse to put together suspenseful scenes.
5. Like basically everything in The 39 Steps, the initial impetus to action for the main character comes at random. Our man is called Hannay and he's a Canadian living in London after amassing some wealth mining diamonds in Rhodesia. He is growing ever more bored of living the high life but, luckily for him, this seems about to change upon meeting a spy who just happens to live in the same apartment complex.
6. It is not lucky for the spy who is promptly murdered after leaving Hannay w/ the details of an insidious conspiracy to murder the Greek premier when he visits London.
7. Actually, it is only lucky for Hannay if you consider being on the lam from both the law--who think he murdered the spy--and the people who actually murdered the spy preferable to being bored by eating in London's best restaurants every night.
8. Hannay flees from London to Scotland from where his family is native. He runs into a series of improbable situations, both helpful and potentially deadly where he is forced to rely on wits and quit thinking to push toward his ultimate goal of surviving and busting the conspiracy to assassinate the Greek premiere. The episodic nature of these encounters provides a constant pulse of tension and release that keeps The 39 Steps consistently tense and captivating throughout.
9. While the story here is pretty pulp, the presentation keeps it from seeming entirely stupid. A hand drawn art style and mostly well-acted voice work (there is one guy who does bit part accents that are a bit much) set a believable stage for each scene to be acted out. The coincidences are a bit much--Hannay even seems to acknowledge as much in his own narration--but this is less about being strictly believable than it is about creating a mood.
10. Along w/ the art and music, some the unique details that make this presentation of The 39 Steps the most engaging have nothing to do w/ the game-like elements. People, for example, are typically shown as ghost-like figures leaving the player to fill in the details w/ what fits their mind best for the story.
11. There are a few times though where having some interaction is essential. The simple act of having people click on things to get a description works well in a visual medium. In a novel, the author can subtly point out the most important details, but just displaying the scene as you might in a movie, the viewer could miss essential elements you want them to see. You also have the option of just altogether skipping looking through everything, which is something someone in Hannay's situation might reasonably do.
12. The conclusion to this whole business is rather satisfying and not sewn up in quite the way you might expect.
13. I am hesitant to use the word experimental to describe this. I feel like when people call art experimental, what they really mean is that it is art that is trying to be weird. The 39 Steps is not weird at all. It is an actual experiment in narrative that incorporates elements of movies, games and novels and it comes off as a perfectly natural way to tell a story.
2. It does this by taking the narrative from the original novel pretty much straight-up and augmenting it only w/ some simple game mechanics. For example, when a room would simply be described in a book, you are asked to click around on various objects in the room and receive the description in return for your trouble in doing so. Your interaction w/ the world is really quite minimal and the whole experience is entirely scripted.
3. If you look through user reviews on games like this, there will frequently be admonishments that it's not really a game. I am not sure quite where the line between being a game and not being a game is but I do feel like this holds up pretty well as a way of telling stories whatever it is.
4. The story here is... I dunno... pretty good. It's based on a novel by the same title which was good enough to be reworked by Hitchcock among others so they probably know better than I do. I thought the setup was a bit thin but it works well enough as an excuse to put together suspenseful scenes.
5. Like basically everything in The 39 Steps, the initial impetus to action for the main character comes at random. Our man is called Hannay and he's a Canadian living in London after amassing some wealth mining diamonds in Rhodesia. He is growing ever more bored of living the high life but, luckily for him, this seems about to change upon meeting a spy who just happens to live in the same apartment complex.
6. It is not lucky for the spy who is promptly murdered after leaving Hannay w/ the details of an insidious conspiracy to murder the Greek premier when he visits London.
7. Actually, it is only lucky for Hannay if you consider being on the lam from both the law--who think he murdered the spy--and the people who actually murdered the spy preferable to being bored by eating in London's best restaurants every night.
8. Hannay flees from London to Scotland from where his family is native. He runs into a series of improbable situations, both helpful and potentially deadly where he is forced to rely on wits and quit thinking to push toward his ultimate goal of surviving and busting the conspiracy to assassinate the Greek premiere. The episodic nature of these encounters provides a constant pulse of tension and release that keeps The 39 Steps consistently tense and captivating throughout.
9. While the story here is pretty pulp, the presentation keeps it from seeming entirely stupid. A hand drawn art style and mostly well-acted voice work (there is one guy who does bit part accents that are a bit much) set a believable stage for each scene to be acted out. The coincidences are a bit much--Hannay even seems to acknowledge as much in his own narration--but this is less about being strictly believable than it is about creating a mood.
10. Along w/ the art and music, some the unique details that make this presentation of The 39 Steps the most engaging have nothing to do w/ the game-like elements. People, for example, are typically shown as ghost-like figures leaving the player to fill in the details w/ what fits their mind best for the story.
11. There are a few times though where having some interaction is essential. The simple act of having people click on things to get a description works well in a visual medium. In a novel, the author can subtly point out the most important details, but just displaying the scene as you might in a movie, the viewer could miss essential elements you want them to see. You also have the option of just altogether skipping looking through everything, which is something someone in Hannay's situation might reasonably do.
12. The conclusion to this whole business is rather satisfying and not sewn up in quite the way you might expect.
13. I am hesitant to use the word experimental to describe this. I feel like when people call art experimental, what they really mean is that it is art that is trying to be weird. The 39 Steps is not weird at all. It is an actual experiment in narrative that incorporates elements of movies, games and novels and it comes off as a perfectly natural way to tell a story.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
13 Points on L.A. Noire - Team Bondi - 2011 [PC]
1. L.A. Noire is a landmark, a game that pushed not only technical boundaries but the way games were be used as a storytelling and world building medium. It is a decent experience overall but it is starting to feel like the kind of thing that's worth playing because it is historically important rather than because it is genuinely enjoyable to play right now. This isn't a such a terrible thing. I'd put L.A. Noire in the same category as the first Resident Evil games. It's great, maybe a masterpiece, but as it ages and it can't rely so much on its unique presentation, you start to notice more and more problems w/ gameplay.
2. It takes place in a realistic but still stylish take on post-war Los Angeles. You get a real sense of its size w/o actually having to and see all of it--though you can go see all of it if you want. It does not quite give you the sense of a bustling city w/ a million things going on but, I dunno, if you want that, you have to have in-game traffic jams so a little poetic license in that regard isn't a bad thing.
3. The real news when this came out back in 2011 was its facial animation. Aaron Staton who you most likely know as Ken Cosgrove on Mad Men plays lead character, Cole Phelps, and there is not a moment that goes by where you are not like, yeah, that character model looks and acts exactly like the dude who plays Ken Cosgrove on Mad Men. The other character models are a little inconsistent--women esp. seem to look a bit funny for some reason--but the fact remains that the facial animations in this are so good they make everything else about the graphical presentation, which was still excellent for the time, look just a little bit clunky.
4. The acting across the board is compelling, which is necessary because L.A. Noire leans really heavily on its cinematic sequences. In addition to Aaron Staton, it borrows what must be over half the cast of Mad Men for various roles so that is the kind talent you an expect to see.
5. The sound design is right up there too. Voices sound like they are in realistic spaces, guns pop-off w/ convincing immediacy, radios blare period music, engines rev and roar and the whole thing is polished off by a memorable score that emphasizes the moment to moment impact of each scene perfectly.
6. I like what it attempts w/ its gameplay too. It is essentially an adventure game in the form of police procedural. In theory, I really like the idea of investigating physical evidence which you then use to tease the truth out of the suspects you question. In reality, investigating physical evidence is walking around and clicking on every little thing and interrogating subjects consists of asking suspects a limiting set of questions and trying to guess weather they are telling the truth or lying. The whole thing feels like you are stuck on rails rather that unraveling each case on your own.
7. This lack of control is really felt when you start seeing how little your performance affects actual outcomes. At one point, I really dropped a ball on one case. The police chief really let me have it but, in the very next scene, he says the DA is really happy w/ my work and drops a promotion in my lap. I did literally nothing in between.
8. There are also action sequences and these are outright miserable. I constantly found myself losing suspects I was chasing because I ran into something accidentally or got stuck halfway climbing up a fire escape. Aiming guns is a pain and the fighting system is just plain odd. The game basically admits to the player how bad these sequences are by just allowing them to just be skipped after a few tries. Thankfully.
9. The story is cut up into five sections, each of which has a few cases for you to solve w/ story-relevant cut scenes in between them. The first section is basically an introduction, the second is an extended introduction and the third is an in-depth introduction. Only once we get to section four is the overarching plot of the game revealed w/ any thoroughness. It is then wrapped up in section five. Needless to say, I found the pacing of the game to be a bit slow through some of the middle sections.
10. Women in L.A. Noire exist for the exclusive purpose of being victims--generally the victims of murder. The one female character that is given any sort of agency uses it to go ask for help from a man. She does this upon instruction from a different man.Similarly, black people play no other role in society than that of junkies, jazz musicians and small time criminals. Or, I should say black men. There is not a single black woman w/ a meaningful line of dialog in the whole game.
11. Some would be willing to write these issues off as either being a product of the 1940s setting or simply to genre tropes. I'm not. Fictional late forties L.A. presumably has a similar population as real late forties L.A. and real late forties L.A. County had a population approaching four million. If you cannot imagine, of these four million fictional people, a few that have control of their circumstances and who are not white men, you are just not trying. It is simple as that.
12. L.A. Noire is an open world game but doesn't really feel like it because you are pretty much stuck on a single path as far as the main story line goes. It does offer you some incentive to explore but the opportunities it gives you are lackluster at best. You can indulge in the horrible action mechanics and solve street crimes or go poking about looking for various hidden extras. Really, the best way to enjoy the scope of the game's take on Los Angles is just to go for a ride and see what you can see.
13. For all my complaining, most of what drives me nuts about this game was all done in service of what it does really well. You are stuck on rails because it has a story to tell. The mechanics are bad because the focus is on police procedure, not gun slinging. Women and minorities are portrayed poorly because... well, there's no excuse for that. Ultimately, L.A. Noire is nothing if not ambitious. In some regards, it bites off more than it can chew but it succeeds incredibly at building a believable world and spinning its twisted tale. I did not love every moment I spent playing it but it is a game that will undoubtedly remain bouncing through my thoughts for a long time to come.
2. It takes place in a realistic but still stylish take on post-war Los Angeles. You get a real sense of its size w/o actually having to and see all of it--though you can go see all of it if you want. It does not quite give you the sense of a bustling city w/ a million things going on but, I dunno, if you want that, you have to have in-game traffic jams so a little poetic license in that regard isn't a bad thing.
3. The real news when this came out back in 2011 was its facial animation. Aaron Staton who you most likely know as Ken Cosgrove on Mad Men plays lead character, Cole Phelps, and there is not a moment that goes by where you are not like, yeah, that character model looks and acts exactly like the dude who plays Ken Cosgrove on Mad Men. The other character models are a little inconsistent--women esp. seem to look a bit funny for some reason--but the fact remains that the facial animations in this are so good they make everything else about the graphical presentation, which was still excellent for the time, look just a little bit clunky.
4. The acting across the board is compelling, which is necessary because L.A. Noire leans really heavily on its cinematic sequences. In addition to Aaron Staton, it borrows what must be over half the cast of Mad Men for various roles so that is the kind talent you an expect to see.
5. The sound design is right up there too. Voices sound like they are in realistic spaces, guns pop-off w/ convincing immediacy, radios blare period music, engines rev and roar and the whole thing is polished off by a memorable score that emphasizes the moment to moment impact of each scene perfectly.
6. I like what it attempts w/ its gameplay too. It is essentially an adventure game in the form of police procedural. In theory, I really like the idea of investigating physical evidence which you then use to tease the truth out of the suspects you question. In reality, investigating physical evidence is walking around and clicking on every little thing and interrogating subjects consists of asking suspects a limiting set of questions and trying to guess weather they are telling the truth or lying. The whole thing feels like you are stuck on rails rather that unraveling each case on your own.
7. This lack of control is really felt when you start seeing how little your performance affects actual outcomes. At one point, I really dropped a ball on one case. The police chief really let me have it but, in the very next scene, he says the DA is really happy w/ my work and drops a promotion in my lap. I did literally nothing in between.
8. There are also action sequences and these are outright miserable. I constantly found myself losing suspects I was chasing because I ran into something accidentally or got stuck halfway climbing up a fire escape. Aiming guns is a pain and the fighting system is just plain odd. The game basically admits to the player how bad these sequences are by just allowing them to just be skipped after a few tries. Thankfully.
9. The story is cut up into five sections, each of which has a few cases for you to solve w/ story-relevant cut scenes in between them. The first section is basically an introduction, the second is an extended introduction and the third is an in-depth introduction. Only once we get to section four is the overarching plot of the game revealed w/ any thoroughness. It is then wrapped up in section five. Needless to say, I found the pacing of the game to be a bit slow through some of the middle sections.
10. Women in L.A. Noire exist for the exclusive purpose of being victims--generally the victims of murder. The one female character that is given any sort of agency uses it to go ask for help from a man. She does this upon instruction from a different man.Similarly, black people play no other role in society than that of junkies, jazz musicians and small time criminals. Or, I should say black men. There is not a single black woman w/ a meaningful line of dialog in the whole game.
11. Some would be willing to write these issues off as either being a product of the 1940s setting or simply to genre tropes. I'm not. Fictional late forties L.A. presumably has a similar population as real late forties L.A. and real late forties L.A. County had a population approaching four million. If you cannot imagine, of these four million fictional people, a few that have control of their circumstances and who are not white men, you are just not trying. It is simple as that.
12. L.A. Noire is an open world game but doesn't really feel like it because you are pretty much stuck on a single path as far as the main story line goes. It does offer you some incentive to explore but the opportunities it gives you are lackluster at best. You can indulge in the horrible action mechanics and solve street crimes or go poking about looking for various hidden extras. Really, the best way to enjoy the scope of the game's take on Los Angles is just to go for a ride and see what you can see.
13. For all my complaining, most of what drives me nuts about this game was all done in service of what it does really well. You are stuck on rails because it has a story to tell. The mechanics are bad because the focus is on police procedure, not gun slinging. Women and minorities are portrayed poorly because... well, there's no excuse for that. Ultimately, L.A. Noire is nothing if not ambitious. In some regards, it bites off more than it can chew but it succeeds incredibly at building a believable world and spinning its twisted tale. I did not love every moment I spent playing it but it is a game that will undoubtedly remain bouncing through my thoughts for a long time to come.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
13 Points on LiEat - △○□× (Miwashiba) - 2016 [PC]
1. I am not sure how LiEat is pronounced but I recommend pronouncing it the same way as "1337."
2. This seems to get pegged as an RPG but it's really only an RPG in the most shallow sense. It uses the basic mechanics of an old console RPG but it's really more of an interactive mystery story.
3. LiEat would seem to be one short game but it's actually a collection of three very short games. They are related--it is a broader story told episodically--but you don't carry progress from one section of the game to the next.
4. The first two episodes are monster-of-the-week type deals were you walk into a new town and solve some mystery that's going down. These get you interested in the characters, the origin of whom is explained in the third episode. This structure worked really well, much better than if the origin story had been told first thing.
5. Your character is a dragon that makes lies become physically manifest and then eats them. She doesn't look like a dragon but she is. Your partner, who serves as something like your legal guardian, is some kind of detective or something. I'm not honestly sure what he does. He collects information and sells it. What manner of profession is that? Who knows. Regardless, neither being a dragon that eats lies or working in the field is particularly strange in LiEat's world.
6. The bit-era throwback graphics look nice enough but I honestly had trouble telling some characters apart based on their pictures.
7. The music is flippin' awesome. I listened to it a bunch outside of playing. Best part of the game, hands down. It is a just-convincing-enough symphonic soundtrack w/ a bit of a vintage-keyboard edge that fits the retro-influenced but not retro-shackled presentation of the game perfectly.
8. Going back to number 2 and how this isn't really an RPG, there is not much meaningful character advancement. You do level up and upgrade your equipment but, at the start of each section, you pretty quickly discover very overpowered equipment which makes any improvement to your character pretty much immaterial. Even if you chose not to use this stuff, you really don't find many other things to use anyway.
9. The focus here is very strongly on story. If your favorite part of old RPGs is going around and talking to everyone once you've found a new town, LiEat is very much for you as that comprises the meat of the gameplay.
10. Thankfully, there is no voice acting involved in this clearly lower-budget production. This is a problem for people like me who never learned to read but most of you nerds should be fine.
11. Some menus in this were in Japanese only. It's not a big deal but made it tough to figure out how to get this into full screen. Hit F4 then F10 for nostalgic 4:3 goodness that fills your monitor as much as possible. Huzzah!
12. The characters in this are all pretty cute but the subject matter can be quite dark indeed. We are talking people dying here. The combination of these two elements is quite disarming and helped to bring me into LiEat's charming story.
13. I think if you go and watch the trailer for LiEat and it looks like something you'll enjoy, you'll enjoy it. It is not a deep, complex RPG--or even an RPG at all--but it delivers quite well on its promise of an engrossing story with an endearing set of characters. I am always impressed when a developers really nail the bullseye they are aiming at and I think that Miwashiba did that here.
2. This seems to get pegged as an RPG but it's really only an RPG in the most shallow sense. It uses the basic mechanics of an old console RPG but it's really more of an interactive mystery story.
3. LiEat would seem to be one short game but it's actually a collection of three very short games. They are related--it is a broader story told episodically--but you don't carry progress from one section of the game to the next.
4. The first two episodes are monster-of-the-week type deals were you walk into a new town and solve some mystery that's going down. These get you interested in the characters, the origin of whom is explained in the third episode. This structure worked really well, much better than if the origin story had been told first thing.
5. Your character is a dragon that makes lies become physically manifest and then eats them. She doesn't look like a dragon but she is. Your partner, who serves as something like your legal guardian, is some kind of detective or something. I'm not honestly sure what he does. He collects information and sells it. What manner of profession is that? Who knows. Regardless, neither being a dragon that eats lies or working in the field is particularly strange in LiEat's world.
6. The bit-era throwback graphics look nice enough but I honestly had trouble telling some characters apart based on their pictures.
7. The music is flippin' awesome. I listened to it a bunch outside of playing. Best part of the game, hands down. It is a just-convincing-enough symphonic soundtrack w/ a bit of a vintage-keyboard edge that fits the retro-influenced but not retro-shackled presentation of the game perfectly.
8. Going back to number 2 and how this isn't really an RPG, there is not much meaningful character advancement. You do level up and upgrade your equipment but, at the start of each section, you pretty quickly discover very overpowered equipment which makes any improvement to your character pretty much immaterial. Even if you chose not to use this stuff, you really don't find many other things to use anyway.
9. The focus here is very strongly on story. If your favorite part of old RPGs is going around and talking to everyone once you've found a new town, LiEat is very much for you as that comprises the meat of the gameplay.
10. Thankfully, there is no voice acting involved in this clearly lower-budget production. This is a problem for people like me who never learned to read but most of you nerds should be fine.
11. Some menus in this were in Japanese only. It's not a big deal but made it tough to figure out how to get this into full screen. Hit F4 then F10 for nostalgic 4:3 goodness that fills your monitor as much as possible. Huzzah!
12. The characters in this are all pretty cute but the subject matter can be quite dark indeed. We are talking people dying here. The combination of these two elements is quite disarming and helped to bring me into LiEat's charming story.
13. I think if you go and watch the trailer for LiEat and it looks like something you'll enjoy, you'll enjoy it. It is not a deep, complex RPG--or even an RPG at all--but it delivers quite well on its promise of an engrossing story with an endearing set of characters. I am always impressed when a developers really nail the bullseye they are aiming at and I think that Miwashiba did that here.
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