have been getting rlly into 5th wave emo as of recent bc honestly have listened to a lot of older emo bands and i wanted to see what the new scene is like. so much of it barely even resembles emo but behind the glitchiness and screams is a very real sense of emotion though it’s often times incomprehensible and not transcribed, you can feel what the artists are feeling, the passion and the pain is always there. and the album covers are so so gorgeous and reflect this as well, pulling from every piece of internet esoterica and history to make these covers that look lived in. crypt underworld reminds me of a lot of the best of 2020’s emo , it’s pulling from every facet of internet history and archaic 90s video game documentation to make something truly dense and incomprehensible. idk I found my house’ doomwad usage of memes and figures like shrek to be rlly fucking annoying and steve buscemi how do you do fellow kids core. it consistently took me out of the new sincerity storytelling when juxtaposed w deeply ironic images. but I was not annoyed seeing pixelated matthew lilliard shaggy or I love lucy here, this is a game that builds on every single thing that came before it, not just video games. games and the culture of them, experimental videos and movies and shows, you can feel and also see everything this was inspired by within the game. I never felt lost or alone and confused in lsd dream emu or other random 90s ps1 walking sims, I felt like I always saw the most of it pretty early on but because this is building off of decades of games similar to it I never felt like I saw all of crypt underworld. I was always able to uncover something more. it’s the final video game bc it’s taking inspiration from every game before it.

(kind of a rambly review whatever fuck it lol. got way too high last night after crying too much and was playing this while watching tv w my boyfwend. my eyes felt dry asf and burned which feels appropriate for the type of game this is. if anyone checks this out I think u should naturally explore all the different worlds here before concentrating on locked doors. was rlly fucking confused on how to open the doors until hours in but I was able to appreciate the visuals and designs of the world without worrying about how to open the doors. idk how similar the gameplay loop here is to prev. games by the same dev but u should kill creatures take whatever u come across like meat/bones/seeds sell them to the pilgrim inside the labyrinth use the money u got to buy the prize capsules across from her and rinse and repeat to get more keys from capsules. it’s a very charming and like dazey and calming loop but it’s also hella confusing and I wanted to leave this here for anyone that’s as much of a ditz as I am. this game slays <3)