LiasLola
Played through this again for my bachelor's thesis and it's still as wonderful and brilliant and clever as the last time I played it.
This game left me incredibly torn, and I think that's because its highs are very high and its lows are just really painful. In the first four cases it commits the cardinal sin of adventure games by making the mystery solving process just simply unfun. Everything takes way too long, the mini-games are never really fun and the long load times on Switch really do their best to kill of the rest of the pacing in the mystery labyrinths. But I must also admit that with those last two cases the entire experince just worked? Especially that final mystery labyrinth was snappy enough to be really fun.
Gameplay aside, the standout qualities of Rain Code are its world and visual design. The atmosphere and mood are really impeccable, just walking through this world is a real joy. That atmosphere mostly manages to translate to the story, although the latter part of the game loses some of its style by going all in on a certain plot point that doesn't really mix with the dark and a little more serious atmopshere. It's a little dumb, that's what I want to say. It's expertly handled and I like it, but it's a little dumb. Which is a sentiment that can be applied to the entire narrative. The only thing that really nagged me was those sexist and sleazy "undertones" Kodaka is kinda known for? Verbal sexualised violence is a thing that happens in this game and it's mostly played for laughs. Which sucks, there's no other word for it. I don't necessarily have a problem with being sleazy, there's an audience for that and I'm also sometimes that audience, but it's just really unpleasant in this game.
Last thought: I like the general meditations on justice and power the game features, but it really throws them all out of the window for it's central twist. Rain Code only ever manages to scratch the surface thematically, and remains ambiguous enough that you can read it pro and contra capital punishment - which is... not great?
Gameplay aside, the standout qualities of Rain Code are its world and visual design. The atmosphere and mood are really impeccable, just walking through this world is a real joy. That atmosphere mostly manages to translate to the story, although the latter part of the game loses some of its style by going all in on a certain plot point that doesn't really mix with the dark and a little more serious atmopshere. It's a little dumb, that's what I want to say. It's expertly handled and I like it, but it's a little dumb. Which is a sentiment that can be applied to the entire narrative. The only thing that really nagged me was those sexist and sleazy "undertones" Kodaka is kinda known for? Verbal sexualised violence is a thing that happens in this game and it's mostly played for laughs. Which sucks, there's no other word for it. I don't necessarily have a problem with being sleazy, there's an audience for that and I'm also sometimes that audience, but it's just really unpleasant in this game.
Last thought: I like the general meditations on justice and power the game features, but it really throws them all out of the window for it's central twist. Rain Code only ever manages to scratch the surface thematically, and remains ambiguous enough that you can read it pro and contra capital punishment - which is... not great?
2023
A gorgeous game that doesn't know quite what to do with all of its splendor and mainly works because of its vibes in the end. It's like a seriously cut down Boku No Natsuyasumi game in a way. The gameplay is cute enough, the story is okay enough - only the visuals really excel here. Which is fine, actually. It's a two hour game included in the Xbox Game Pass and you can do far worse with your time. Of course, you could also do far better.
If you would've told me that one of the key questions in the new Dont Nod Game revolve around how violent should an anticapitalist revolution be, I probably would've met that prospect with a lot of scepticism. But after actually having played this game, I really think they handled their subject matter(s) quite well. It's sad that we're still at that point where it's a suprise when a game is explicitely political, but hey, I'll take what I can get. And Harmony does quite well in that department. Sadly, the ending dilutes the entire experience a little, but I get why they went the route that they did - the game's scope would've exploded if they didn't. Some more thoughts, because I cannot be bothered to structure this thing right now:
1) I really like the central gameplay twist! It's a really clever way of using a flowchart. Having to essentially "gather ressources" to reach your desired ending really helps in making the player feel like they are making a difference. Harmony is really good in that regard in general - the consequences of your actions are made abundantly clear, mostly before actually doing said actions. Which is a really nice way of conceptualizing a narrative but also led to me sitting in front of that flowchart for around 10mins each time a chapter began.
2) My biggest frustration are the load times on Switch. They are horribly optimized. Every change of scenery leads to a 5sec loading screen at least. And the game changes scenery often, sometimes even after one or two textboxes. It's really unnecessary.
3) The aspirations are just plain fun. A great core concept executed with a lot of charme and great voice acting. The voice acting is really great in general!
4) A LOT of queer and non-binary representation <3
1) I really like the central gameplay twist! It's a really clever way of using a flowchart. Having to essentially "gather ressources" to reach your desired ending really helps in making the player feel like they are making a difference. Harmony is really good in that regard in general - the consequences of your actions are made abundantly clear, mostly before actually doing said actions. Which is a really nice way of conceptualizing a narrative but also led to me sitting in front of that flowchart for around 10mins each time a chapter began.
2) My biggest frustration are the load times on Switch. They are horribly optimized. Every change of scenery leads to a 5sec loading screen at least. And the game changes scenery often, sometimes even after one or two textboxes. It's really unnecessary.
3) The aspirations are just plain fun. A great core concept executed with a lot of charme and great voice acting. The voice acting is really great in general!
4) A LOT of queer and non-binary representation <3
It's short & sweet and really fun for a few hours, the whackyness of the world and the satisfaction of growing the katamari never fail to make me smile. But as with the first game I really don't see a reason to keep playing this. I'm not much of a highscore person so maybe that's the reason for that. Sweet lil' game with sweet lil' vibes :)
2023
I really tried to love this game. I really did. But I've never witnessed a game draining my energies this much before. I mostly think it's a problem of this games' pace. After Us has a lot of really great visual setpieces and I was in awe of many of them. But it stays way too long on the same page in terms of visual identity and doesn't manage to translate any of it into gameplay. Playing the game feels painfully uniform, you mostly jump from rock platform to pieces of junk to rock platform, the few gameplay ideas never managing to break this cycle in an interesting way. Shortening this (already relatively short) game by about half its length would have done wonders for it, I believe. That may also be because the best part about it is everything but actually playing the game. After Us has nice and creative visual ideas, a moody soundtrack and a nicely packaged but ultimately quite reductive message about pollution and climate change. But I think I can enjoy these parts more when I watch a playthrough on YouTube.
Tears of the Kingdom manages to mostly re-capture the experience I had with Breath of the Wild back in the day - The feeling of exploration these two games offer are really unparalleled. There's a lot of joy in just disovering and traversing the game world, furthered by the new abilities. Flow especially is such a clever idea for an open world game. And the other two abilities - Ultra-Hand and Rewind - feel actually kinda ground-breaking? It's hugely impressive that everything works as well as it does, although it pains me a little to see these abilites be kinda under-utilized in the main story and shrine content. I respect the approachability the devs aimed for here, but I'd really like to have seen more.
For me, themes and atmosphere/vibes are the two most important factors in regards to how much I like a game. Sadly, TotK is really bland and unoriginal in it's theming and story and I wasn't as charmed by the vibes as I was back when I played BotW. It's all way more messy and intense, in a way I don't really like. So I'm kinda looking forward to stepping on the brakes a little for my playthrough now.
For me, themes and atmosphere/vibes are the two most important factors in regards to how much I like a game. Sadly, TotK is really bland and unoriginal in it's theming and story and I wasn't as charmed by the vibes as I was back when I played BotW. It's all way more messy and intense, in a way I don't really like. So I'm kinda looking forward to stepping on the brakes a little for my playthrough now.
As far as remasters go, this one is fine. It's standout feature is the new lighting, everything else is just kinda the same as or a little better than the OG game. I really don't know why they made this, my best guess would be a) they wanted to use the assets again for a new game and decided to just remaster them or b) it's all just a really confusing cashgrab. Well, either way, you can just play the original and it'll be absolutely fine.
Other than that? I last played LiS in my so-called teenage years and as it's a game with that unique brand of 2010s teenage angst, I felt right at home. Might be one of the first games that legitimately impacted me emotionally. After replaying it, I gotta say: It seems kinda dated, actually? LiS is full of weird decisions with questionable political and thematic implications and handles its topics - mostly - with the nuance of a car crash. Which also makes it kinda... charming, in a way? There's of course personal bias speaking here, though. It also has cozy and angsty vibes all at the same time. So yea, LiS not an especially well-written story and is full of weird unquestioned decisions. But if you can relate to this specific brand of 2010s zeitgeist, I think it's still worth looking at.
Other than that? I last played LiS in my so-called teenage years and as it's a game with that unique brand of 2010s teenage angst, I felt right at home. Might be one of the first games that legitimately impacted me emotionally. After replaying it, I gotta say: It seems kinda dated, actually? LiS is full of weird decisions with questionable political and thematic implications and handles its topics - mostly - with the nuance of a car crash. Which also makes it kinda... charming, in a way? There's of course personal bias speaking here, though. It also has cozy and angsty vibes all at the same time. So yea, LiS not an especially well-written story and is full of weird unquestioned decisions. But if you can relate to this specific brand of 2010s zeitgeist, I think it's still worth looking at.
I originally planned on not rating this but after seeing the ratings I really gotta do my part here!
It's really short and really sweet and really fills its little space with actually a lot of vibes and emotions. This game really benefits from its brevity and I love it for sticking with that! It's like that one moment three summers ago you suddenly remember and then it's gone again and you're just left feeling a little nostalgic, a little sad and a little like you remembered a home you once belonged in again.
It's really short and really sweet and really fills its little space with actually a lot of vibes and emotions. This game really benefits from its brevity and I love it for sticking with that! It's like that one moment three summers ago you suddenly remember and then it's gone again and you're just left feeling a little nostalgic, a little sad and a little like you remembered a home you once belonged in again.
2023
This game left me completely burned out on an emotional level but kinda... in a good way? The Wreck features the most emotionally nuanced writing I've ever seen in a video game. I teared up multiple times while playing. It tackles all the themes and, somehow, manages to do them justice. It's a lot. It's devastating and beautiful and, in the end, hopeful. Give this game a chance if you feel up to the subject matter! And remember to take care of yourself while playing, take breaks when you need them <3
2008
This feels like an overly long demo of the most basic gameplay loop for a wayy bigger game. After playing like 2/3rds I don't see that changing anytime soon, so I'm just letting this one go. There is some charm here, the enviroments and character sprites are kinda cute and the gameplay is fun for the first 3hrs. Other than that, it's completely unremarkable but I can see soccer kids in 2008 really digging this one.
2019
I didn't even intend to play through this in one sitting, but then I just kinda ended up doing exactly that! Smile For Me is a really charming game with some really funny dialogue and really clever quest design. It's essentially one big of those trading quests that get in bigger games from time to time, but it's really polished - and the developers made some really clever design decisions. It's also just a joy to experience in its tonality and vibes - I had a really fun time with this game! It's nothing especially groundbreaking or intricate, but it does what it sets out to do so so well!
2023
I wouldn't dare assign a numbered score to this game, it's a really haunting meditation on loss and grief that has the game mechanics in all the right places to make that mean something
When XC3 was first announced, I though it would be exactly like this - I'm very glad that it wasn't!
Future Redeemed feels like one entire Xenoblade-game cramped into a DLC-sized package and is still somehow often redundant, not really knowing what to do with these old characters now that they're there except... doubling down on that really essentialist conception of the "way things should be" focused entirely on the nuclear family that already bothered me in the main game, with a more intense focus on "legacy" now thrown in the mix. Those themes are personified in Rex and Shulk and their children and although there is a charm to that personification that I won't deny, I'd still rather they just hadn't focused on those aspects of the main story. It's neat to see a few (more or less) familiar faces, but it was never more than that for me.
Standout star is again the world design and feel of traversing the world, I'm really amazed at the beautiful and engaging landscapes Monolithsoft is able of creating and I sometimes wished while playing that they had put more of their focus on that. The feeling of traversing worn-down Colony 9 was really great and kinda haunting at the same time and I hoped for more of these moments. Sadly, the exploration of the world is now confronted with morejubilant pop-up messages than ever. I get that you want your game to feel rewarding but I just stopped talking to people after I was met with the same screen-filling announcement that I had made a new bond with the person I just listened to talking about bread for four seconds. It's kinda tiring. There's also some unnecessary roadblocks thrown in to pad for time, but that's fine, it encouraged me to explore a lil' more.
The whole experience somehow left me really saturated, but not in an especially great way? Not in a necessarily bad way either, it just kinda came and went, had some nice moments, went some weird places thematically and arrived at kinda the same conclusion as all the games before XC3, but a little worse. Maybe it's just because 3 wrapped that whole thing up so nicely, but now I'm really fearful of the next Xenoblade game still beating that same old drum.
Future Redeemed feels like one entire Xenoblade-game cramped into a DLC-sized package and is still somehow often redundant, not really knowing what to do with these old characters now that they're there except... doubling down on that really essentialist conception of the "way things should be" focused entirely on the nuclear family that already bothered me in the main game, with a more intense focus on "legacy" now thrown in the mix. Those themes are personified in Rex and Shulk and their children and although there is a charm to that personification that I won't deny, I'd still rather they just hadn't focused on those aspects of the main story. It's neat to see a few (more or less) familiar faces, but it was never more than that for me.
Standout star is again the world design and feel of traversing the world, I'm really amazed at the beautiful and engaging landscapes Monolithsoft is able of creating and I sometimes wished while playing that they had put more of their focus on that. The feeling of traversing worn-down Colony 9 was really great and kinda haunting at the same time and I hoped for more of these moments. Sadly, the exploration of the world is now confronted with morejubilant pop-up messages than ever. I get that you want your game to feel rewarding but I just stopped talking to people after I was met with the same screen-filling announcement that I had made a new bond with the person I just listened to talking about bread for four seconds. It's kinda tiring. There's also some unnecessary roadblocks thrown in to pad for time, but that's fine, it encouraged me to explore a lil' more.
The whole experience somehow left me really saturated, but not in an especially great way? Not in a necessarily bad way either, it just kinda came and went, had some nice moments, went some weird places thematically and arrived at kinda the same conclusion as all the games before XC3, but a little worse. Maybe it's just because 3 wrapped that whole thing up so nicely, but now I'm really fearful of the next Xenoblade game still beating that same old drum.
A really great game that smoothes over a lot of the friction of the predecessor - for better and for worse. It's a lot less angsty and edgy, but still captures a lot of style and essence that made the first TWEWY such a great experience, adding to it some elements that make the experience seem more up-to-date. I'm really interested in how this game will be remembered in the future, because a lot of the first game's charme comes from its 2007-vibes and I'm sure this game has those 2021-vibes we have yet to decipher. After playing the DS-Version I think I actually prefer the former, precisely because of its roughness and edges in some of the places. NEO is a little more tame, which results in a story that is easier to follow and a gameplay loop that is more polished. Which is also really great! Their vibes might be different, but both are impeccable in their own way!