I won't ever make the mistake of playing any gatcha more than its main story again, so this review only talks about exactly that. And... I kinda liked it? Since the game is mostly two parts - visual novel and combat - I'll structure this review this way.

So, the story! The script's translation is beautifully bad, which gives the international cast quite a lot of charme (honestly I buy that none of these ppl know "correct" grammar). This translation also makes the script more mysterious than its "original" version probably is. And there's still quite a lot of good writing - the voiced segments with the really deep voice especially are a real treat most of the time. Thewriting also tends to delve into delightfully weird or unconventional ideas (the final chapter i.e. is a weird bureaucracy thriller), which I really like! So yea, story's good & weird & a little unconventional & really charming in its "bad" translation.

The combat on the other hand? It's the one link the story mode has to the awful gatcha and progression mechanics that and it's exactly that link making the experience much worse. While the actual combat mechanics are actually quite cute & fun, the awful grind for the resources necessary to level up your characters is really tedious & boring. Also, gatcha is gambling, which is not only exploitative but also a very cheap gameplay mechanic. So yea.

The bottom line: It's a great and charming story with an okay combat system made (a lot) worse by all the things that make it a gatcha. Which, to be honest, was the review I could've already written before playing the game.

hell yes.

I think this is Remedy's first game where the storytelling overwhelms the gameplay this intensely, and the results are absolutely glorious. Alan Wake 2 is completely streamlined to tell this one story and it doesn't really bother with extensive enemy encounters (which got really tedious really fast in the first game), instead it uses those moments more as a way to accentuate certain story moments and/or the general atmosphere. On that topic: I'm still absolutely in AWE (hehe) of Remedy's enviromental designers, the moodyness this game already has through its enviroments alone is really immense. The Dark Place is a game enviroment I'll talk about for years to come.

Alan Wake 2 also manages to turn the story of the first game into even more of a beautifully meta multimedia-mess. I can safely say that after playing I understand even less now, and I really love it. The entire story just clicked for me, weaving together the plot beats of the first game, CONTROL and its many new ideas quite seamlessly. And I love Saga as a protagonist.

I'm sure there've been many versions of what an Alan Wake 2 could've been. I'm very glad it's this.

(I only hope that Sam Lake has had his fair share of screen time now, because, at this point, his omnipresence in his own game felt quite self-indulgent.)

((ah yes and the chapter songs absolutely slap))

I'm convinced this wouldn't have been as great as it is without all the user-made levels made in Super Mario Maker (2). Not only were there quite a lot of levels where they kinda adapted popular Mario Maker formats (One screen puzzles, music stages, etc.), giving the game way more variety, but they were also forced to come up with a clear distinguishing factor from the editor-based levels you can create in those games and the end result is really wonderous (hehe). Having these unique, specially programmed moments where you lose all grip on reality for a moment is really, really fun and adds to the huge amount of charme the game already has going for it. I was actually suprised by how much the game was able to charm me, I don't like the Mario franchise as a vibe all that much, but here it kinda worked! It's really fun, kinda cute and quite addicting!

(but honestly that secret final fucking level if I ever have to play through these last three sections again just to die at that one jump I will throw my switch out of the window, I had to put a sticker on my switch just to kinda estimate where the character was like what the actual fuck I died like 120 times. why the fuck did they make it like that it's actually just evil)

I completed the original Alan Wake five (!!!) years ago. Time sure flies. And what's especially suprising to me is that this game kinda stuck with me all that time? I think its last ten seconds are really hard to forget, "It's not a lake, it's an ocean." is such a raw line and I am really glad that we'll get to see it soon.

I remember that first playthrough really fondly, experiencing this game blind was a real joy. Playing this again tho, I'm not that taken (hehe) by everything as I was back then, but maybe that's just the effect of replaying a story organized around a core mystery. The music and atmosphere are still absolutely brilliant, the gameplay is still "only" fun enough, so not much has changed really. Still the same game with the same qualities, but I'm feeling a little less excited by it nowadays. Luckily, I'm over the moon for Alan Wake II!

I think 2023 might be the year the choise-based narrative adventure (or whatever you wanna call it) is starting to hit its peak. First The Wreck, then Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, then Stray Gods & The Cosmic Wheel of Sisterhood and now Goodbye Volcano High (this list is in no way complete) offer such diverse approaches to what cyoa storytelling in video games can look like and I love them all so much for it.

With this meta commentary out of the way, let me say that I had a great time with Goodbye Volcano High. It has great production value, really lovely animations and character designs and an emotional core to it that I so love to see in games revolving about teenage angst & joy & everything in between. It's raw in a way, less filtered and adjusted by what is considered the "adult" perspective on the world, which here just means a perspective that takes itself too seriously to acknowledge the absolute messyness and intensity of our emotional landscapes. I love that about it. It's also a really charming and funny game! I had a lot of audible "aawwws" and laughs while playing this. Big hugs to all the queer characters on their own little journeys, they were joyful to witness. So yea, it's great, it rules, please play it if it seems appealing to you, and fuck all the insecure manbabies hating on this <3

I'm really struggling what to think abt this game, been like two months since I completed it but I still can't get my head around it. Ghostpia has a lot of cuteness and gruesomeness at the same time, which sometimes works, sometimes just seems like an attempt at shock value, and sometimes these two vibes clash so hard that everything else is lost in the battle. The narrative just meanders along for most of its runtime while the expressive visual style really tries to hold the entire experience together. It's an uneventful experience with a lot of confusing vibes, which might make it a cult classic in the future, maybe?

After I realized I was twenty levels under the recommended level for the two final bosses, I stopped trying to brute-force them and just watched the ending on YouTube. This game's approach to difficulty in general kinda confused me sometimes, but if you're ready to grind (which I am not) then you'll have no issues, I think. Other than that? I think the first ten hours were the most straight-up fun I had with a JRPG in a while: the vibes and towns and music and visual design is just really lovely and well-done in this game and actually carried me just until the ending. I love these little villages and towns with their own color schemes and hidden secrets. The graphics of the game are really good in that aspect, and I'd argue, in general. Theres a roughness to it all that's really charming. The character designs are all really lovely, too! I just like this games' vibes a lot. The story is middling at best but at least finds an interesting enough plot point to settle on in the last hour. Gameplay is also fun enough and I really appreciate the games insistence on throwing 10+ enemies at you at once, those were the best battles. The entire experience lost a lot of steam for me after the 15hr mark, but those first 15hrs were really great and what came after was still good enough!

I was already enamored with the demo, and the full version is even better. I absolutely love The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, it's a beautiful game that manages to create so much narrative intrigue through its core gameplay system of creating your own Tarot cards and then reading them. It's really fun designing your own card designs. There's also lots of lovely little moments where you are reminded of the choices you have made and cards you pulled, the game manages to really feel like a cohesive whole with a suprisingly large amount of impact the player has on the narrative - I imagine there's a relatively huge variety of ways the story can play out. I especially loved where they took the entire thing in the end, it's a really nice, explicitely political direction (although the implementation leaves some things to be desired).

There's also a lot of joy to be found in the interactions between characters and the way they develop. Some themes and moments really pulled on my heartstrings. Even though this game is about immortal witches, the way the story is told is really down to earth and focused on the small moments, it's kind. The game rules, I want to say, it absolutely rules. I played through it in one sitting (Yes, it's 5hrs long), it's that good. A lot of queer joy here, too. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood has impeccable vibes, a tight grip on its loose themes & a really fun and cleverly implemented central gameplay mechanic. It's a space I will return to, sometime in the future!

2023 is a really great year for visual novels.

I really really loved my time with Stray Gods and I definitely intend to return to check out some of the other paths the story could have played out (Although I suspect they won't be that different). It's a lovely visual novel with a moderate integration of player choice that really shines in the musical segments of the game! While your choices there don't feel like they change the course of the story all too often, they do heavily impact the style and tone of what's sung, which is a delightful thing to witness. The OST is really good and catchy, the voice performances are stellar and the visual style manages to tie each element together well enough. On the story side of things it's a bit messy sometimes, but always intriguing - Let's see what I can dig up in subsequent playthroughs! The entire experience left me wanting more and I think that's a good sign that they were onto something here. With a little more polish (the game crashed on me quite often), some more budget for animations and a tighter narrative and theming, this would've been even better, but I'm really glad the game's out there as it is.

Back again with my problem with writing about 3D platformers for kids. Rift Apart is fun, it's cute. The use of the adaptive triggers is actually really amazing and is a standout quality of this game. The rest is... good? Gameplay has enough oomph to work, the platforming is fun enough. Only the story is frustrating, really. I wouldn't have minded if there was none, actually, but now there is one and it's really frustratingly written. The game also sometimes just flat out broke and I had to restart. Mostly lost around a minute of playtime so that's fine. I gotta say, other than the adaptive trigger thingy and the real beautiful graphics, I don't feel like there was much there that was really exceptional. It's all a lot of "good enough." Which is fine! I had a cute time.

I really liked my time with Final Fantasy XVI. It's world is really captivating to witness and the intricate worldbuilding of the first half is one of the strongest aspects of the entire game. It's a little sad this aspects gets phased out in the latter half of the game, but the replacement is interesting enough.

The only thing that really bothers me about this narrative is that it's a thematic mess sometimes, musing about free will and opression on the one hand and about (the rightful inheritance of) nation states on the other, which leads to sometimes contradictory results. The game also falls back to the most tropey version of a "chosen one" narrative at times, although it tries to paint the idea of Clive as the chosen one as something to be abolished. But that portrayal is also kinda inconsistent. Final Fantasy XVI doesn't exactly know what it wants to say, it mostly gestures in a general direction and that mostly works. The emphasis is on "mostly" here though, because it sometimes really doesn't. Prime example: They did Jill as a character really dirty. I won't go in depth here for the sake of spoilers, but the game really tries to push most of the female characters into that "mother/healer/partner" role and it succeeds at such a high cost to the narrative. At least the men get to cry on occasion!

But those are all the things that bug me about the game. The rest is really good! Especially the Eikon are really powerfully staged and a joy to witness. It just feels very polished in general, most cutscenes are beautifully shot and the voice acting is really superb on all fronts. And also, dunno, the vibes are just really bangin' sometimes. Oh and active time lore rules!