Fumio
2016
Yakuza Kiwami is a good story with inconsistent pacing being its major downfall. It's a fun title on its own and worth playing if you're interested in the Yakuza series, especially as a follow-up to 0, but as a remake I feel as if Kiwami fails to successfully engage me as a player in its additional content and content directly inherited from Yakuza 0.
In particular I'd like to talk about "Majima Everywhere". Not only does this side story lose all of its initial charm after the first five hours of gameplay, I feel as if it's actually significantly detrimental to the story at times. It creates, with it, something of a tonal black hole in which Majima's character becomes a clustered mess of nonsense that feels undeserved as someone who hasn't played future entries. Coming off of Yakuza 0, Majima's character was played relatively straight the hole time and could hardly be considered a cartoonish goofball. He was grounded and tragic in many ways. Moving in to Kiwami, the opening introductory scene immediately has its tone set by Majima confronting Kiryu and threatening his life. He's established as a man with nothing to lose and a terrifying amount of power.
This is then immediately undermined by him popping out of trash cans and staging a zombie attack.
You then return to the story and proceed along and all of his appearances are played as being genuinely frightening and threatening, yet somehow he doesn't feel to be a threat at all. You already become aware that he's of no real threat to you because, well, he would never harm you or anyone around you because it would impede his overall goal of "fighting you at your absolute strongest" which is established and re-established constantly up to the very end.
I would argue its a total reduction of a character all in the name of shoving him down your throat for the sake of fan service. I'm not saying he had much of a role in Kiwami otherwise, because he truly didn't, he was mostly used as a "goon" type character, but once removed from the Majima Everywhere scenes you're left with a man who could be a legitimately psychotic threat to anyone around him. The scene at Shangri La was actually pretty unsettling until you remember this was the guy who you just got done playing Pocket Racers and MesuKing with.
This is, to be honest, a relatively minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but beyond that I think it's relatively lazy that all the side content in this game is mostly just recycled from Yakuza 0. It was nice seeing continuations of some of the substories from Kiryu's past, at least, but just the same they failed to introduce anything new of any interest. Other issues I had were how absolutely little damage Kiryu can actually deal to boss enemies - the game is borderline miserable to complete when it comes to bosses (and especially the endless Majima encounters) until you unlock tiger drop (thank god), at which point the game is trivialized.
Overall this game just felt pretty weak to me and left me feeling mostly empty upon completing all of the content it had to offer. The story was good as always but the gameplay failed to elevate it or accompany it in a satisfying way.
In particular I'd like to talk about "Majima Everywhere". Not only does this side story lose all of its initial charm after the first five hours of gameplay, I feel as if it's actually significantly detrimental to the story at times. It creates, with it, something of a tonal black hole in which Majima's character becomes a clustered mess of nonsense that feels undeserved as someone who hasn't played future entries. Coming off of Yakuza 0, Majima's character was played relatively straight the hole time and could hardly be considered a cartoonish goofball. He was grounded and tragic in many ways. Moving in to Kiwami, the opening introductory scene immediately has its tone set by Majima confronting Kiryu and threatening his life. He's established as a man with nothing to lose and a terrifying amount of power.
This is then immediately undermined by him popping out of trash cans and staging a zombie attack.
You then return to the story and proceed along and all of his appearances are played as being genuinely frightening and threatening, yet somehow he doesn't feel to be a threat at all. You already become aware that he's of no real threat to you because, well, he would never harm you or anyone around you because it would impede his overall goal of "fighting you at your absolute strongest" which is established and re-established constantly up to the very end.
I would argue its a total reduction of a character all in the name of shoving him down your throat for the sake of fan service. I'm not saying he had much of a role in Kiwami otherwise, because he truly didn't, he was mostly used as a "goon" type character, but once removed from the Majima Everywhere scenes you're left with a man who could be a legitimately psychotic threat to anyone around him. The scene at Shangri La was actually pretty unsettling until you remember this was the guy who you just got done playing Pocket Racers and MesuKing with.
This is, to be honest, a relatively minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but beyond that I think it's relatively lazy that all the side content in this game is mostly just recycled from Yakuza 0. It was nice seeing continuations of some of the substories from Kiryu's past, at least, but just the same they failed to introduce anything new of any interest. Other issues I had were how absolutely little damage Kiryu can actually deal to boss enemies - the game is borderline miserable to complete when it comes to bosses (and especially the endless Majima encounters) until you unlock tiger drop (thank god), at which point the game is trivialized.
Overall this game just felt pretty weak to me and left me feeling mostly empty upon completing all of the content it had to offer. The story was good as always but the gameplay failed to elevate it or accompany it in a satisfying way.
2024
It's always really funny to me how games with a ton of vitriol and discourse surrounding them on this website still tend to average out to a reasonable average rating due to both sides overcompensating their ratings out of spite, and I'd generally agree with that final rating as a score. Apologies if I burst the bubble that rating a game you haven't played but "just don't like existing in your space" a .5/5 isn't going to change the gaming landscape, nor is your ironic 5/5 making the sides of the masses burst from your widely known highly prestigious humor. Fanning the flames only serves to put more eyes on a game like this, so the best you can do is ignore it and hope it passes if it really bothers you so much that a game that amounts to nothing more than slop is fun enough to make a ton of people enjoy it in complacence. Ultimately it really shouldn't bother some of you nearly as much as it does, especially when the devs definitely just don't care about any of this and definitely didn't care before they even made the damn thing.
Anywho, as someone indifferent to allegations that just "seem" true (and possibly could be, as I'm unable to fully dismiss them out of hand and will be happy if they reach some point of resolution) and having the basic ability to competently evaluate a game by the sum of its whole and not by the parts that stitch it together, I'll try to give it an honest review of the actual game and my first draft speedrun through my thoughts instead of just shitposting or slinging shit.
The game is where I'd say it's currently fine if not well made for an early access title. It has a strong number of pals at 111 exactly and they're pretty well spaced; anywhere you go you can frequently find new pals even as you near the completion of your "Paldeck" and the addition of eggs having Pals randomly assigned by size/type and the Black Market traders having daily refreshing random shops means you should make constant progress towards filling out your deck to completion. Palworld succeeds where many monster collectors fail and manages to make finding new Pals exciting; though in this case its less because of combat purposes and more for general base utility and the optimization of automation. Never been more stoked than finding out that my newest Pal has 4 in kindling and can breeze through ingot smelting.
The current amount of content is worth the asking price and your time, and the world is shockingly huge, offering a pretty enjoyable time exploring for a good number of hours (assuming you actually enjoy the slow burn of a survival crafting game - some complaints I see boil down to "I was promised Pokemon with Guns but guns are late game wtf do you mean I have to craft"). There are a ton of bosses in the game if you don't mind the fact that most can be found in the overworld normally, albeit smaller with weaker movesets, but the core 5 "story" bosses (used loosely) offer a legitimate challenge and some strategy due to being HP sponges with attacks that require careful dodging and little room for error. Thankfully they're also totally optional if this isn't your cup of tea, as they don't really provide rewards other than completionism.
A feature I don't see talked about much that I greatly appreciate is that you can adjust the difficulty and the amount of time the game requires in the world settings through scaling EXP and drop rates and those settings definitely solve otherwise balancing issues I'd have with the game played on its default "Normal" settings. This is a great accessibility feature and eases the current imbalance of the game's awful Iron requirements and how inaccessible it is to farm via Pals (as badly as I was hoping) as well as my impatience for EXP, which is a good system in its own right (catching 10 of all Pals, likely requiring borderline the full Paldeck filled out just to reach level cap) but too steep of an investment for my own liking as someone with other games I'd like to get around to this month yet.
Beyond that, it's really just a survival crafting game with the spin of also being a creature collector. It works surprisingly well and is very engaging.
The game has balancing issues otherwise, as expected of a dev team who allegedly made the game from 10 grand with a small team of game devs who were apparently borderline coding-illiterate working in an engine they hadn't ever touched before, and the final result is pleasantly playable through to the very end. I have encountered a few bugs likely due to my CPU being on the weak side but have enjoyed my time more than enough to praise the game's stability.
It's not a groundbreaking game by any means, which again I can't stress enough that it's honestly kind of just slop; but it's fun slop regardless and feels to be higher effort than a majority of slop on the market.
I think rating it any higher is mostly disingenuous and conflating having fun with quality of the end product. It's okay to have fun with mediocre games just as it's okay to not enjoy games that are highly praised, which is a point I think many people forget and overlook when reviewing a title like this. Debated giving this 2.5 stars instead of 3 but I'd still consider it an overall well made game in spite of flaws that become apparent the longer you play. It definitely brings enough unique to the table in its mash-up of game ideas that's incredibly addicting and doesn't feel like anything else I've ever played despite experience with all titles it's directly imitating, which makes it somewhat hard to rate, but still.
If anything it's probably too early to give this game a rating at all as it could just as easily become one of the greatest games of all time through years of updates just the same as it could become abandonware before its first update. We could see Nintendo Ninjas nuke this game from orbit any day now - but until then I'm enjoying my time and will choose to abstain from the discourse surrounding a game with no concrete evidence of any wrong-doing (so far, will be happy to retract my statement if more information comes out).
To conclude my rambling and as a final note, it probably doesn't deserve this explosive popularity. If anything this is just a booming outcry by long-since abandoned Pokemon fans who grew out of Gamefreak's target demographic and were left to cling onto games with very little complexity despite coming into their late twenties and early thirties (myself included). Thankfully all discussion around this game will die in a few weeks and we can stop seeing head-ass takes by people engaging in outrage culture to no real success.
Beyond that I'm tentatively hoping to see if the devs provide any more content of substance.
Anywho, as someone indifferent to allegations that just "seem" true (and possibly could be, as I'm unable to fully dismiss them out of hand and will be happy if they reach some point of resolution) and having the basic ability to competently evaluate a game by the sum of its whole and not by the parts that stitch it together, I'll try to give it an honest review of the actual game and my first draft speedrun through my thoughts instead of just shitposting or slinging shit.
The game is where I'd say it's currently fine if not well made for an early access title. It has a strong number of pals at 111 exactly and they're pretty well spaced; anywhere you go you can frequently find new pals even as you near the completion of your "Paldeck" and the addition of eggs having Pals randomly assigned by size/type and the Black Market traders having daily refreshing random shops means you should make constant progress towards filling out your deck to completion. Palworld succeeds where many monster collectors fail and manages to make finding new Pals exciting; though in this case its less because of combat purposes and more for general base utility and the optimization of automation. Never been more stoked than finding out that my newest Pal has 4 in kindling and can breeze through ingot smelting.
The current amount of content is worth the asking price and your time, and the world is shockingly huge, offering a pretty enjoyable time exploring for a good number of hours (assuming you actually enjoy the slow burn of a survival crafting game - some complaints I see boil down to "I was promised Pokemon with Guns but guns are late game wtf do you mean I have to craft"). There are a ton of bosses in the game if you don't mind the fact that most can be found in the overworld normally, albeit smaller with weaker movesets, but the core 5 "story" bosses (used loosely) offer a legitimate challenge and some strategy due to being HP sponges with attacks that require careful dodging and little room for error. Thankfully they're also totally optional if this isn't your cup of tea, as they don't really provide rewards other than completionism.
A feature I don't see talked about much that I greatly appreciate is that you can adjust the difficulty and the amount of time the game requires in the world settings through scaling EXP and drop rates and those settings definitely solve otherwise balancing issues I'd have with the game played on its default "Normal" settings. This is a great accessibility feature and eases the current imbalance of the game's awful Iron requirements and how inaccessible it is to farm via Pals (as badly as I was hoping) as well as my impatience for EXP, which is a good system in its own right (catching 10 of all Pals, likely requiring borderline the full Paldeck filled out just to reach level cap) but too steep of an investment for my own liking as someone with other games I'd like to get around to this month yet.
Beyond that, it's really just a survival crafting game with the spin of also being a creature collector. It works surprisingly well and is very engaging.
The game has balancing issues otherwise, as expected of a dev team who allegedly made the game from 10 grand with a small team of game devs who were apparently borderline coding-illiterate working in an engine they hadn't ever touched before, and the final result is pleasantly playable through to the very end. I have encountered a few bugs likely due to my CPU being on the weak side but have enjoyed my time more than enough to praise the game's stability.
It's not a groundbreaking game by any means, which again I can't stress enough that it's honestly kind of just slop; but it's fun slop regardless and feels to be higher effort than a majority of slop on the market.
I think rating it any higher is mostly disingenuous and conflating having fun with quality of the end product. It's okay to have fun with mediocre games just as it's okay to not enjoy games that are highly praised, which is a point I think many people forget and overlook when reviewing a title like this. Debated giving this 2.5 stars instead of 3 but I'd still consider it an overall well made game in spite of flaws that become apparent the longer you play. It definitely brings enough unique to the table in its mash-up of game ideas that's incredibly addicting and doesn't feel like anything else I've ever played despite experience with all titles it's directly imitating, which makes it somewhat hard to rate, but still.
If anything it's probably too early to give this game a rating at all as it could just as easily become one of the greatest games of all time through years of updates just the same as it could become abandonware before its first update. We could see Nintendo Ninjas nuke this game from orbit any day now - but until then I'm enjoying my time and will choose to abstain from the discourse surrounding a game with no concrete evidence of any wrong-doing (so far, will be happy to retract my statement if more information comes out).
To conclude my rambling and as a final note, it probably doesn't deserve this explosive popularity. If anything this is just a booming outcry by long-since abandoned Pokemon fans who grew out of Gamefreak's target demographic and were left to cling onto games with very little complexity despite coming into their late twenties and early thirties (myself included). Thankfully all discussion around this game will die in a few weeks and we can stop seeing head-ass takes by people engaging in outrage culture to no real success.
Beyond that I'm tentatively hoping to see if the devs provide any more content of substance.
2021
It starts off pretty strong as you make meta progression (2v2, 3v3, 4v4, so on) but winds up lacking any real staying power by the time you actually go on to win worlds. It has absolutely none of the QoL polish that could make the experience significantly more enjoyable, and not to mention the fantasy of actually raising low level players and making them into pros is dashed when you realize its marginally more effective to just hire the next tier up as soon as you can afford it. Investing time into leveling players just doesn't pan out.
Overall a fun novelty but falls short at being anything greater than brief entertainment.
Overall a fun novelty but falls short at being anything greater than brief entertainment.
2023
Speaking as someone who has now 100%d both this game and the first (crazy flex, I know.) As of right now I'd consider this game a fascinating improvement over the initial game that has a lot to offer in terms of QoL, new mechanics, improved level design, and a more compact but content-rich world by comparison to its predecessor. It's genuinely a massive improvement and it's clear the dev gave a lot of consideration for the complaints made towards the more tedious aspects of the first.
However, aside from being an upgrade of the first title, the game continues to very much offer what it presents; ultimately a unity simulator game with sometimes broken but mostly functioning stealth mechanics and some basic levels of strategy required. It's fun for the amount of time the game requests you invest but doesn't offer much beyond that.
I'm also genuinely shocked to say I'm kind of interested to see where the story progresses after the cliffhanger it leaves us on, but won't be holding my breath.
Overall a solid experience I can't complain about but far from something I'd recommend as a must buy for stealth fans. Enjoyable if you enjoy this kind of thing (which I do, and did).
However, aside from being an upgrade of the first title, the game continues to very much offer what it presents; ultimately a unity simulator game with sometimes broken but mostly functioning stealth mechanics and some basic levels of strategy required. It's fun for the amount of time the game requests you invest but doesn't offer much beyond that.
I'm also genuinely shocked to say I'm kind of interested to see where the story progresses after the cliffhanger it leaves us on, but won't be holding my breath.
Overall a solid experience I can't complain about but far from something I'd recommend as a must buy for stealth fans. Enjoyable if you enjoy this kind of thing (which I do, and did).
2023
Revisited this game as part of the addition of achievements to check it out since I initially tried it on launch.
Overall still a horridly optimized experience with the occasional NPC jank but at its core Shadows of Doubt is a genuine experience with a lot of intrigue and charm. I think the foundation is exceptionally well realized and I think it holds massive potential. Even since launch there's been a lot of updates that make the game generally feel more "alive" and interactive, and I hope the devs continue their good work. They're apparently pretty active on the game's discord and are very responsive to feedback and questions, so they get a big plus for that as well.
Overall it's a pretty enjoyable game that delivers exactly what's on the box, and not much more. Highly recommended experience casually - though whoever designed some of these achievements should probably be put in a psych ward (KO everyone in the city... Accomplished at what cost?).
Overall still a horridly optimized experience with the occasional NPC jank but at its core Shadows of Doubt is a genuine experience with a lot of intrigue and charm. I think the foundation is exceptionally well realized and I think it holds massive potential. Even since launch there's been a lot of updates that make the game generally feel more "alive" and interactive, and I hope the devs continue their good work. They're apparently pretty active on the game's discord and are very responsive to feedback and questions, so they get a big plus for that as well.
Overall it's a pretty enjoyable game that delivers exactly what's on the box, and not much more. Highly recommended experience casually - though whoever designed some of these achievements should probably be put in a psych ward (KO everyone in the city... Accomplished at what cost?).
2020
It's baffling this game is being taken and reviewed as a career simulator type game. Admittedly I went in with similar expectations but, on the contrary, I received a collect-a-thon game with occasional de-emphasized platforming and some career simulator aspects between levels. With it came a natural compulsion to 100% each individual stage and find every secret, and what I was rewarded with was a surprisingly charming little world full of humor reminiscent of the early 2000's (complete with randomly farting when you crouch).
I can't say I praise this game as being a masterpiece or a necessity in anyone's game catalogue. I think a certain type of person will enjoy this game immensely and I happened to be one of them.
Skip the Bid Wars DLC though, that was some garbage.
I can't say I praise this game as being a masterpiece or a necessity in anyone's game catalogue. I think a certain type of person will enjoy this game immensely and I happened to be one of them.
Skip the Bid Wars DLC though, that was some garbage.
2023
Massively expands on and fixes the core issues of the original version of the game in a satisfying way, and so far the post-launch updates have been bangers as well. The addition of the RoR2 control scheme with intuitive mouse aiming is, while easier than what is maybe the intended experience of the game, something that I personally feel I desperately needed and enjoy using immensely to ease the natural clunk of the game.
While the core gameplay loop is admittedly showing its age a bit, in my opinion its still one of the greatest roguelites around and has perfectly captured the power scaling fantasy that the genre should aim to appease to.
The judgement trial grind is a pain in the ass though, still no clue how I'm ever gonna finish out Miner and Artificier.
While the core gameplay loop is admittedly showing its age a bit, in my opinion its still one of the greatest roguelites around and has perfectly captured the power scaling fantasy that the genre should aim to appease to.
The judgement trial grind is a pain in the ass though, still no clue how I'm ever gonna finish out Miner and Artificier.
Cutting to the chase, this game is a masterclass in how to keep a player engaged in the genre of job simulator type games. It doesn't rely on a pointless hunger and health meter to keep you always acutely aware of your actions and time management, but instead it offers a multitude of minigames that cover a variety of services the gas station provides; all of which handled by you until you can afford to hire on employees. Each minigame is enjoyable in its own right, though sometimes challenging initially, and offers a spice of variety to the core gameplay loop that most games will half-heartedly attempt or fail to implement at all.
It continues to build on itself as the business expands until the very end, at which point you can have automation take over and mostly worry about stocking shelves and adjusting decor. I will say the end-game is, at this point, the biggest slog of the game, especially as the push for the max popularity increases the requisites exponentially, but the journey for the first three quarters of the game is surprisingly entertaining and charming. I went in expecting another unity asset flip game but this seems to genuinely be a game the dev took a great deal of care in creating, and I found myself responding in kind in my motivation to complete the title.
Also the story was surprisingly fun, though there's naturally not a whole lot to pick apart there.
It continues to build on itself as the business expands until the very end, at which point you can have automation take over and mostly worry about stocking shelves and adjusting decor. I will say the end-game is, at this point, the biggest slog of the game, especially as the push for the max popularity increases the requisites exponentially, but the journey for the first three quarters of the game is surprisingly entertaining and charming. I went in expecting another unity asset flip game but this seems to genuinely be a game the dev took a great deal of care in creating, and I found myself responding in kind in my motivation to complete the title.
Also the story was surprisingly fun, though there's naturally not a whole lot to pick apart there.
Honestly pretty fun, especially as something to throw up while chilling with friends. Based in extremely absurdist humor with a functional but linear progression, it's hardly innovative at all but somehow charming and engaging. The optimization is my major gripe, but for the most part everything else is pretty acceptable to neutral. It's definitely just not a game you'll enjoy if you take it too seriously, but an occasional kinda bad game is sometimes good for the palette.
The dev really hits his strive here in this streamer contentslop of a unity asset flip game but it's overall pretty enjoyable.
The dev really hits his strive here in this streamer contentslop of a unity asset flip game but it's overall pretty enjoyable.
One of those games where you genuinely can't tell if anything you're doing has any relative impact on your progression or not because there's simply no way to view why, exactly, your numbers are going up or what any stat you're upgrading correlates to. They just do that. Maybe that's just like reality, though.
Enjoyable for a bit but a miserable slog if you're aiming for 100% for some bizarre reason.
Enjoyable for a bit but a miserable slog if you're aiming for 100% for some bizarre reason.
Lost more time to customers walking through furniture and flipping it over than anything else. Pretty fun for the type of brainrotted people who like these games (me).
I expected significantly less but wound up being surprisingly decent. Pretty hectic gameplay loop that doesn't really tend to disrespect the player's time or efforts by making it difficult to achieve a real fail-state while still creating urgency, though I almost wished for a more long-term progression of the life sim / job sim aspects. The story doesn't come across as taking itself too seriously while still being solid, though the ending could be argued as being a tad bit unfulfilling after a lot of build-up that seemingly had no real purpose.
Overall would play again, pretty fun.
Overall would play again, pretty fun.
2022
an incredible precursor to the hit games chop goblins and squirrel stapler, really excited for more from the expanded cinematic davidverse
2017
Teaches you that humans can double jump if they can overcome the primal fear of parkour.
2020
This review contains spoilers
I don't believe House has a message to convey deeper than what it wears on its sleeve; a story of an abusive home and perseverance. It is reflected in a gameplay cycle that is repetition indefinite; alluring in promise of new opportunity, pushing you to seek a happy ending. Though antithetical to fun by design, a perfect solution can be discovered through the failure that brings understanding. Seconds skimmed from cut corners are as valuable as years of a life spared, though they ebb away in the same ways like the very ocean of information that threatens to drown. Things slip through the cracks so easily, time sifts through your fingers and carries with it those you meant to save.
At times it feels insurmountable; a game of chess played solely reactionary until mastered. The house, in turn, plays cruelly, personified by it - not indifferent towards the player, but terrible and spiteful. Somehow it is not unfair; foreshadowing clues you in to the house's next move at every opportunity, but you are helpless to know what it means. The twelfth stroke of midnight brings with it punishment for incompetency. Your father returns home and swiftly deals punishment. He can be defeated with the shotgun, as surely as his and your bodies are made of the same flesh and blood, but that's hardly an ending safe from lifelong trauma.
Death is not an option to win, this much is illustrated clearly. You only wake up to the same cycle again. You are not free from it; but a cog of it. You must persevere. Maybe you just need to be faster. You drop a bowling ball on the cat and watch it pop, justifiable by compromise of five seconds saved. You take the hatchet and cleave your family, cathartic that you can still influence fate.
Only with time does understanding eventually turn complexity into nothing but a fading façade. It becomes so simple once you've memorized the board. House can be solved; a triumph, readily transparent from the start and such an enthralling process it was. You spare your family, and a picturesque dream sequence of an ideal family life plays before you. Is this real, this time, the cycle broken? Can things so easily return to a state of normalcy? Regrettably, not likely.
The true ending of the first act of House is not so perfect, but strikingly more real. It is an escape. The light at the end of the tunnel; a reward for your courage in not resigning yourself to the ideal that life cannot get better. To not allow yourself to suffocate, to be strong in the face of fear.
It is only unfortunate that we are not all so strong as to be able to dig ourselves out. The second act is where I believe the imagery and messaging culminate where they are paired with a more bleak and discouraging atmosphere. Melody's side of the story; her sister gone and with her the reason for living. The state of the family has deteriorated. The clock begins restlessly at 12 AM. The piano has become something Melody fears. Yet once she recovers the flute it is only with memories of song do solutions begin to slowly unravel; the ghost of a kindly grandmother representing the last ounce of hope, represented cautiously by candlelight in the pitch dark.
There is only one ending for Melody, that which allows her to slowly dig herself out. It is forgiveness, and acceptance. It is revealed that the sister, too, was unable to do it alone; she is found at the finish line, clinging on. You take her by the hand and go together, dragging her with newly found strength, to face the unknown future.
House is not totally original or groundbreaking, but it is one that resonated with me. The project oozes charm from a place of passion. It is tightly executed, shortly and to the point. While it is far from profound, possibly not as ambitious as it could of been, it mirrored similar experiences from my own life near symmetrically. Overall an unforgettable experience, even if only because the chisel of repetition engraved it firmly in my brain.
Sometimes I find myself dreaming about this place. I can feel it pulling me back. Like I never even left. But I remind myself this time it's just a dream. An old memory.
At times it feels insurmountable; a game of chess played solely reactionary until mastered. The house, in turn, plays cruelly, personified by it - not indifferent towards the player, but terrible and spiteful. Somehow it is not unfair; foreshadowing clues you in to the house's next move at every opportunity, but you are helpless to know what it means. The twelfth stroke of midnight brings with it punishment for incompetency. Your father returns home and swiftly deals punishment. He can be defeated with the shotgun, as surely as his and your bodies are made of the same flesh and blood, but that's hardly an ending safe from lifelong trauma.
Death is not an option to win, this much is illustrated clearly. You only wake up to the same cycle again. You are not free from it; but a cog of it. You must persevere. Maybe you just need to be faster. You drop a bowling ball on the cat and watch it pop, justifiable by compromise of five seconds saved. You take the hatchet and cleave your family, cathartic that you can still influence fate.
Only with time does understanding eventually turn complexity into nothing but a fading façade. It becomes so simple once you've memorized the board. House can be solved; a triumph, readily transparent from the start and such an enthralling process it was. You spare your family, and a picturesque dream sequence of an ideal family life plays before you. Is this real, this time, the cycle broken? Can things so easily return to a state of normalcy? Regrettably, not likely.
The true ending of the first act of House is not so perfect, but strikingly more real. It is an escape. The light at the end of the tunnel; a reward for your courage in not resigning yourself to the ideal that life cannot get better. To not allow yourself to suffocate, to be strong in the face of fear.
It is only unfortunate that we are not all so strong as to be able to dig ourselves out. The second act is where I believe the imagery and messaging culminate where they are paired with a more bleak and discouraging atmosphere. Melody's side of the story; her sister gone and with her the reason for living. The state of the family has deteriorated. The clock begins restlessly at 12 AM. The piano has become something Melody fears. Yet once she recovers the flute it is only with memories of song do solutions begin to slowly unravel; the ghost of a kindly grandmother representing the last ounce of hope, represented cautiously by candlelight in the pitch dark.
There is only one ending for Melody, that which allows her to slowly dig herself out. It is forgiveness, and acceptance. It is revealed that the sister, too, was unable to do it alone; she is found at the finish line, clinging on. You take her by the hand and go together, dragging her with newly found strength, to face the unknown future.
House is not totally original or groundbreaking, but it is one that resonated with me. The project oozes charm from a place of passion. It is tightly executed, shortly and to the point. While it is far from profound, possibly not as ambitious as it could of been, it mirrored similar experiences from my own life near symmetrically. Overall an unforgettable experience, even if only because the chisel of repetition engraved it firmly in my brain.
Sometimes I find myself dreaming about this place. I can feel it pulling me back. Like I never even left. But I remind myself this time it's just a dream. An old memory.