1. It is apparently impossible to write about Sword of Mana w/o mentioning it's a remake of the Game Boy non-classic Final Fantasy Adventure but I will do my best not to.
2. Since I have not yet mentioned what this game is a remake of, it will not surprise you at all that the game play here in no way resembles a Final Fantasy game. It seems to be an attempt at a Legend of Zelda type experience--and, yes, it's only an attempt.
3. It feels more like a straight-up bit-era RPG that has real-time combat awkwardly overlaid. Your character always moves w/ this sort of stiffness that's fine when combat is always dealt w/ in a separate battle sequence but doesn't work w/ real-time fighting. In theory, there's lots of depth to the combat system. In practice, I just mashed attack towards enemies that were easy enough to kill and ran past the ones who weren't.
4. This is pretty representative of the quality of Sword of Mana as a whole. There's a lot of good ideas here but everything lacks polish to such a degree that it ends up being a few things that are done well poking from behind a wall of mediocrity. Honestly, I can already tell this review is going to just be a list of things that annoyed me about this game and I'm not even going to fight it.
5. To get it out of the way, the music is rocking and awesome and I love it. Now, let's hop aboard the complain train!
6. You play most of the time w/ a various NPC companions. They are, of course, supposed to be helpful and, of course, they are not. Let's just say that when one of mine walked into a pit of lava and just stood there until he died, it did not surprise me even slightly.
7. There are a ton of different weapon types and different kinds of elemental magic but the GBA does not offer enough buttons to access to all this stuff easily so you are forced to pause the game and go through multiple levels of menu in order to switch things out. It's cool that various enemies and obstacles require a certain weapon or spells to deal w/ but having to dive into a menu every time you run across these things gets grating after a while.
8. Graphics look technically great and will pull at the wee nostalgia strings of those who are fond of 90s RPGs but I found I missed all kinds of important details and got stuck a few times just because it was too difficult to discern a wall w/ a small crack in it from the hundreds of nearly identical wall sections near by.
9. There is a day and night cycle that doesn't matter at all. I mean there are different enemies depending what time it is and sometimes there's obstacles that can only be passed at a certain time of day but you can just walk back and forth between screens until it's the time of day you want so it's more annoying than anything.
10. Save points are scattered haphazardly throughout the land. They are normally fairly frequent but there are some pretty long stretches w/o one which is a big problem for a handheld game. Also, they love placing them such that you have to rewatch the cut scenes before boss battles over and over if you don't win the first try.
11. Number 10 is not a problem because most of the bosses are trivially easy, aside from one that is strong against literally every single weapon type. What the hell? I just loved having to take down a 600+ hit point boss a couple hit points at a time. Sorry I didn't do a magic-based build that was completely useless against everything but this one boss.
12. There's some puzzle solving invovled here but the puzzles are like, "find each switch and hit it." They went as far as to copy the classic Zelda trope of having to hit switches from mine carts on tracks and it was still just an exercise in hitting every single possible switch.
13. For all my complaining, Sword of Mana is actually a pretty good game. There's a ton of complexity and build options for your character, lots of side content and two playable characters that change the way the story is told depending on who you picked to play. Nearly every single moment of it though is marred by some oversight or another. If you are not hitting five buttons to switch weapons, you are hitting five buttons to switch spells or having to hit the same button five times in an attempt to find the correct spot to jump over a wall. Writing this here in mid 2019, I wonder just who the audience to this game might still be. It is certainly not a must-play classic. It is not really a hidden gem for action RPG or handheld nerds and there's tons of better options if you are just looking for something fun to play. I suppose if you are some sort of GBA or Square Enix completest, this might be worth playing but otherwise I am just not sure it's worth your time.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Thursday, May 9, 2019
13 Points on Her Story - Sam Barlow - 2015 [PC]
1. I whole heatedly recommend playing this game even though there are an
absolute ton of issues w/ it. Watching the trailers kind of gave me
flashbacks to Night Trap and other horrible full motion video games back in the 90s but this is much more than just a novelty.
2. The reason for number 1 is Viva Seifert's acting, very strictly. It was a performance that required a heroic amount of subtlety to even be decent and she made it great.
3. Honestly, the rave reviews for Her Story's writing are more indicative of how low the writing bar is set in gaming than it is of the writing actually being good. This is really about made for TV level. Sure there are some interesting bits but it's nothing fans of the mystery genre don't see a hundred times a year.
4. I only realized number 3 after thinking about the game quite a bit after playing. The reason for this is number 2.
5. It is worth emphasizing that this is the kind of game you will think about quite a bit after playing.
6. Though the gameplay is not at all the same, I feel like this fits in the with the walking sim genre in terms of feel. The difference is instead of wandering around and discovering little bits and bobs about the story in the manner of, say, Dear Esther, you input searches into a database program and the story is revealed to you through the videos that come up.
7. This was way more engaging than any walking sim I've ever played. To explain this, I will simply point you once again to number 2.
8. As a story telling medium, this type of game really works but I think it could have been done a lot better. It only took me an hour or maybe an hour and a half to figure out essentially everything important but it took me four hours to finish the game.
9. Number 8 brings us to the essential problem with this style of story telling, which is that it kind of inherently can't have a planned climactic moment. Maybe it's your hundredth search that gives you the big reveal, maybe it's the second. Her Story seemed to try to get around this by having many small reveals but the problem remains that you may find all the good stuff early on and then find yourself watching unimportant garbage for the next hour or two.
10. This game doesn't really end. After a while, you basically get an option to say you don't want to play anymore and then when you quit, the credits roll. This is again kinda the same problem as 8 and 9.
11. This does not wrap up everything in a neat little package for you when it's done. The ending such as it is is intentionally ambiguous. If that bothers you, grow up.
12. I went and rewatched the videos in order after playing and I do think the story works better as it was presented than it would have been in a more traditional manner. I don't think this is quite so ground breaking as some of its little marketing blurbs would have you believe but, you know, almost.
13. It is worth emphasizing that Her Story is good enough that I wanted to go back and rewatch everything immediately after playing. See again: number 2.
2. The reason for number 1 is Viva Seifert's acting, very strictly. It was a performance that required a heroic amount of subtlety to even be decent and she made it great.
3. Honestly, the rave reviews for Her Story's writing are more indicative of how low the writing bar is set in gaming than it is of the writing actually being good. This is really about made for TV level. Sure there are some interesting bits but it's nothing fans of the mystery genre don't see a hundred times a year.
4. I only realized number 3 after thinking about the game quite a bit after playing. The reason for this is number 2.
5. It is worth emphasizing that this is the kind of game you will think about quite a bit after playing.
6. Though the gameplay is not at all the same, I feel like this fits in the with the walking sim genre in terms of feel. The difference is instead of wandering around and discovering little bits and bobs about the story in the manner of, say, Dear Esther, you input searches into a database program and the story is revealed to you through the videos that come up.
7. This was way more engaging than any walking sim I've ever played. To explain this, I will simply point you once again to number 2.
8. As a story telling medium, this type of game really works but I think it could have been done a lot better. It only took me an hour or maybe an hour and a half to figure out essentially everything important but it took me four hours to finish the game.
9. Number 8 brings us to the essential problem with this style of story telling, which is that it kind of inherently can't have a planned climactic moment. Maybe it's your hundredth search that gives you the big reveal, maybe it's the second. Her Story seemed to try to get around this by having many small reveals but the problem remains that you may find all the good stuff early on and then find yourself watching unimportant garbage for the next hour or two.
10. This game doesn't really end. After a while, you basically get an option to say you don't want to play anymore and then when you quit, the credits roll. This is again kinda the same problem as 8 and 9.
11. This does not wrap up everything in a neat little package for you when it's done. The ending such as it is is intentionally ambiguous. If that bothers you, grow up.
12. I went and rewatched the videos in order after playing and I do think the story works better as it was presented than it would have been in a more traditional manner. I don't think this is quite so ground breaking as some of its little marketing blurbs would have you believe but, you know, almost.
13. It is worth emphasizing that Her Story is good enough that I wanted to go back and rewatch everything immediately after playing. See again: number 2.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
13 Points on Squidlit - Squidlit Ink. - 2018 [PC]
1. Squidlit seeks to recreate the Game Boy experience on hardware that is much more expensive and powerful. You might think this is kind of dumb but it's a good time so hold your tongue.
2. I think a lot of people w/ this goal might just go ahead and build an Game Boy homebrew to play on emulators. I like the idea of just making it a playable Windows game that holds to the same limitations. It's much more accessible. Only dorks download Game Boy homebrew to play on emulators. Cool people like us just want to click a button and have things work after waiting for a download and install.
3. I actually think the developers stuck a little too much to what Game Boy games are really like. Specifically, there is no way to save your progress. It's a super short game but this is still no fun to find this out by surprise. I dunno... I guess what I'm saying is don't start this if you expect a pizza to be delivered in fifteen minutes.
4. In Squidlit, you play as a squidlit, which is a small land-walking squid. You can jump and shoot ink downward at enemies. It's a simple control scheme but it's enough.
5. At the game's outset, you talk to the first character you see and are given a quest. Unsurprisingly, this quest involves a lot of jumping and shooting ink downward at enemies, while traveling towards the right side of your screen.
6. I am very impressed by the shades of green they use here. I feel like many Game Boy emulators and such never get the greens quite right but Squidlit does. W/o a non-backlit screen, you never really get Game Boy games looking just so but this comes as close as anything I've seen. In all seriousness, I think Squidlit is worth playing simply to experience this greenness sublime.
7. The sound too is Game Boy correct. The developers said they used Little Sound DJ to make it so this makes sense. They also took pains to not use too many sound channels at once when using sound effects. I am of the mind that you can take some liberties w/ this stuff when making bit-era throwbacks but I do appreciate the attention to detail.
8. It helps that the music is excellent and it seems to get better as the game goes on.
9. Actually, in general, Squidlit gets better as it goes on. It's one of those games where you can tell the developers built the levels in the order they occur. The early levels are pretty plain and straighforward but the last levels start to have some cool puzzle solving elements.
10. I wish the puzzle solving would have started at the level it was at at the end of the game and progressed from there. Squidlit only started feeling really engaging once that element was there.
11. The boss battles are really cool. Each one breaks from standard gameplay and provides a nice change of pace. My favorite is really the first one though, which is a side scrolling shmup type boss that I believe is a reference to Tatanga in Super Mario Land.
12. The story of Squidlit is told completely through on screen text and most of it is skip-able when you have to replay the first half of the game after you closed it halfway through. It's a light-hearted and a bit silly take on the hero's quest. Pretty standard fare for the style of game and well done.
13. It might seem like I'm focusing a bit too much on the Game Boy-ness of Squidlit but that's really its whole pitch. The developers set out to make a Game Boy game on PC and sure as sunshine they did it. It's fun and quick to play in addition to being a neato curiosity so definitely worth checking out if you are inclined to check such things out.
2. I think a lot of people w/ this goal might just go ahead and build an Game Boy homebrew to play on emulators. I like the idea of just making it a playable Windows game that holds to the same limitations. It's much more accessible. Only dorks download Game Boy homebrew to play on emulators. Cool people like us just want to click a button and have things work after waiting for a download and install.
3. I actually think the developers stuck a little too much to what Game Boy games are really like. Specifically, there is no way to save your progress. It's a super short game but this is still no fun to find this out by surprise. I dunno... I guess what I'm saying is don't start this if you expect a pizza to be delivered in fifteen minutes.
4. In Squidlit, you play as a squidlit, which is a small land-walking squid. You can jump and shoot ink downward at enemies. It's a simple control scheme but it's enough.
5. At the game's outset, you talk to the first character you see and are given a quest. Unsurprisingly, this quest involves a lot of jumping and shooting ink downward at enemies, while traveling towards the right side of your screen.
6. I am very impressed by the shades of green they use here. I feel like many Game Boy emulators and such never get the greens quite right but Squidlit does. W/o a non-backlit screen, you never really get Game Boy games looking just so but this comes as close as anything I've seen. In all seriousness, I think Squidlit is worth playing simply to experience this greenness sublime.
7. The sound too is Game Boy correct. The developers said they used Little Sound DJ to make it so this makes sense. They also took pains to not use too many sound channels at once when using sound effects. I am of the mind that you can take some liberties w/ this stuff when making bit-era throwbacks but I do appreciate the attention to detail.
8. It helps that the music is excellent and it seems to get better as the game goes on.
9. Actually, in general, Squidlit gets better as it goes on. It's one of those games where you can tell the developers built the levels in the order they occur. The early levels are pretty plain and straighforward but the last levels start to have some cool puzzle solving elements.
10. I wish the puzzle solving would have started at the level it was at at the end of the game and progressed from there. Squidlit only started feeling really engaging once that element was there.
11. The boss battles are really cool. Each one breaks from standard gameplay and provides a nice change of pace. My favorite is really the first one though, which is a side scrolling shmup type boss that I believe is a reference to Tatanga in Super Mario Land.
12. The story of Squidlit is told completely through on screen text and most of it is skip-able when you have to replay the first half of the game after you closed it halfway through. It's a light-hearted and a bit silly take on the hero's quest. Pretty standard fare for the style of game and well done.
13. It might seem like I'm focusing a bit too much on the Game Boy-ness of Squidlit but that's really its whole pitch. The developers set out to make a Game Boy game on PC and sure as sunshine they did it. It's fun and quick to play in addition to being a neato curiosity so definitely worth checking out if you are inclined to check such things out.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
13 Points on Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate - Chunsoft - 2016 [PlayStation Vita]
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
13 Points on A Dark Room - Doublespeak Games - 2013 [Browser]
1. A Dark Room is not actually the rudimentary idle clicker game it initially seems to be.
2. You could be forgiven for thinking that though as the opening minutes of gameplay consist exclusively of clicking on buttons in order to get more buttons to click, which matches well to what seems to be the goal of collecting resources in order to be able to collect more resources.
3. Text prompts appear to the side of the play area which bring to mind the status messages you get when playing the original Rogue. Over time, these begin to tell the story of your encampment, which starts as the titular dark room and gradually blossoms into a village. Random wanderers. Eventually, you start getting an image of the bleak, destroyed world in which A Dark Room is set.
4. The only graphical elements are ASCII characters and some very simple effects but in spite of or perhaps because of this, A Dark Room manages to be quite evocative. I found images of ragged survivors and savage battles dancing though my head as I played. One advantage of such limited graphics is they never get in the way of your imagination.
5. Another advantage is you can play this at work w/o being totally obvious about it.
6. As mentioned, this appears to be an idle clicker on first glance. From there, it branches out into a management sim and then keeps branching from there. The next step is into a Roguelite adventure and switching between this and resource management will be how you spend the bulk of your time playing.
7. Essentially, you use the resources your encampment produces to supply your exploration. As you explore, you discover things that allow you to harvest additional resources that let you explore further. It's a good loop.
8. There's some combat as you explore. You click on various actions all of which are on cooldown timers until you win or die. If you die, you lose the consumable items you happen to be carrying which can sting a bit but it's easy enough to get back on your feet. You can also die buy running out of food or water--which took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out so please don't tell anyone I told you that.
9. You do acquire resources if you just leave this running in a browser but there is some material that is very helpful in the end game that can only practically be had by going out and finding it while you're exploring so that keeps the gameplay experience pretty active.
10. On a similar note, if you keep your resource management under control, there is very little waiting around. For some of the more expensive structures, it may take some time to build up resources but you can generally keep it such that you have what you need to do some exploring in the meantime.
11. As you scratching out a living and then building a larger and more productive village, aspects of the game's wasteland begin to reveal themselves slowly. You don't get so much a story as a world that unfolds before you. Many hints to the true nature of your situation require a pretty close reading of the text and so are easily missed. The game doesn't lean to heavily on its story though so don't worry you're missing anything too important.
12. You eventually find a thing that let's you finish the game. You are scored at this point based on the amount of resources you've produced. I am not sure if the developer has weighed in on this specifically but the community surrounding A Dark Room tends to play by the rule that lower scores are better since they mean you've been more efficient in your quest. Do what you want though. Nobody cares.
13. A Dark Room presents a huge depth of play and touches on tons of different genres while keeping to a graphical style used by the only the most ancient of PC games. It's engaging while still being the kind of thing you can just keep open in a browser tab to come back to when you get a chance. It works really well on many levels and something about it just strikes me as creative and refreshing. Definitely a must play game.
2. You could be forgiven for thinking that though as the opening minutes of gameplay consist exclusively of clicking on buttons in order to get more buttons to click, which matches well to what seems to be the goal of collecting resources in order to be able to collect more resources.
3. Text prompts appear to the side of the play area which bring to mind the status messages you get when playing the original Rogue. Over time, these begin to tell the story of your encampment, which starts as the titular dark room and gradually blossoms into a village. Random wanderers. Eventually, you start getting an image of the bleak, destroyed world in which A Dark Room is set.
4. The only graphical elements are ASCII characters and some very simple effects but in spite of or perhaps because of this, A Dark Room manages to be quite evocative. I found images of ragged survivors and savage battles dancing though my head as I played. One advantage of such limited graphics is they never get in the way of your imagination.
5. Another advantage is you can play this at work w/o being totally obvious about it.
6. As mentioned, this appears to be an idle clicker on first glance. From there, it branches out into a management sim and then keeps branching from there. The next step is into a Roguelite adventure and switching between this and resource management will be how you spend the bulk of your time playing.
7. Essentially, you use the resources your encampment produces to supply your exploration. As you explore, you discover things that allow you to harvest additional resources that let you explore further. It's a good loop.
8. There's some combat as you explore. You click on various actions all of which are on cooldown timers until you win or die. If you die, you lose the consumable items you happen to be carrying which can sting a bit but it's easy enough to get back on your feet. You can also die buy running out of food or water--which took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out so please don't tell anyone I told you that.
9. You do acquire resources if you just leave this running in a browser but there is some material that is very helpful in the end game that can only practically be had by going out and finding it while you're exploring so that keeps the gameplay experience pretty active.
10. On a similar note, if you keep your resource management under control, there is very little waiting around. For some of the more expensive structures, it may take some time to build up resources but you can generally keep it such that you have what you need to do some exploring in the meantime.
11. As you scratching out a living and then building a larger and more productive village, aspects of the game's wasteland begin to reveal themselves slowly. You don't get so much a story as a world that unfolds before you. Many hints to the true nature of your situation require a pretty close reading of the text and so are easily missed. The game doesn't lean to heavily on its story though so don't worry you're missing anything too important.
12. You eventually find a thing that let's you finish the game. You are scored at this point based on the amount of resources you've produced. I am not sure if the developer has weighed in on this specifically but the community surrounding A Dark Room tends to play by the rule that lower scores are better since they mean you've been more efficient in your quest. Do what you want though. Nobody cares.
13. A Dark Room presents a huge depth of play and touches on tons of different genres while keeping to a graphical style used by the only the most ancient of PC games. It's engaging while still being the kind of thing you can just keep open in a browser tab to come back to when you get a chance. It works really well on many levels and something about it just strikes me as creative and refreshing. Definitely a must play game.
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