The sounds of Flores con Historias end up feeling like an eerie procession, a calm cacophony to horror. The horror of stories left untold and repressed, pierced down and pinned under buckets of pain and intentional misery. And yet despite the timeline in front of me, nothing has changed. In my own country a 50 year tide is threatened to be overturned by a decision that feels progressively powerless to counteract in time. Stories like this are a reminder to fight, for the garden of lively flowers we help live on, hopefully to never see reaped.

Yet still continuously discomforting how the voices of men compound, breaking down so clearly visceral lived experiences like this. "Not nuanced." "Not of sufficient interest". "So clearly explicit and lacking in subtlety." There is not a shred of empathy in those words, there is no understanding of rights and life there is only an impulse to eye roll at stories that do not affect them. Much better to live in detached houses away from the world, letting the violation continue, refuse the memoir for the easier to consume, to play with the world in centrist "high art" but seek nothing of what's real. I am not surprised, but it will forever be continuously torturous. Eventually they will become discarded wastelands, but as of now they make the gripping darkness of these stories more apparent. We have to keep striving to give these flowers light. For a brighter future. Salud.

Been biding my time thinking about my experience with Halo infinite because I sort of just logged hours when I felt like it and I never really shared it with any friends. Mostly because it's like a flurry of fights not just with the expectation this game brings out, but also my lightly nostalgic feelings on the series, and my tumultuous actual time with the series over time. To describe my conclusion now would be 3 steps forward and 2 major falls back.

We made one big step for suffusing the campaign again with a great deal of charm and a flurry of lovely 'moments' that reminds me what this series Can bring as an experience.
We made another step up in that same area by really stressing the word "infinite" in an interesting place, an infinitely recharging grappling hook that somehow perfectly combines halo textbook shooty patooty with freedom to bring to encounters. Especially doing such in a way where it really never got old for me by campaign's end.
And finally another strong step by having a really super competently put together multiplayer. While I mourn what 5 gave me I'm not at all unhappy with this Halo 3-meets-more-arena-fundies.

The first trip-up was in the story. The immeasurably gross moe Cortana-but-not-Cortana that we infantilize in such a fashion that the meme people make about "Dad Games" is somehow more true here than any other actual example. It's so disgustingly misogynistic while also once again slamming Halo 4's sense of letting go. The idea is twisted into a semblance of moving on by neither addressing john's problems and instead just letting him have a girl he can have grieving fatherly control on.
The second was the multiplayer beginning to regress. Besides the fact that it has no real timeline to keep it afloat while lacking in SOOOO much that pretty much every other Halo multiplayer has as a staple, it's already pushing me back into a Halo Reach situation again, removing the tech I actually enjoyed doing with no communication beforehand (Honestly it's just shocking. I was modding waypoint when I got to see Bungie just sack ability tech in favor of making each one stronger on their simplest shit which is how you got modern armor lock. I'm reliving it!). The idea of compromising with long term vets and re-introducing people to Halo of old is now dissipating like the smokescreen it is.

This leads to such a discombobulate frustrating experience. Even if they reverse some of what I've talked about it won't change how Halo has become so trashy in having a coherent vision. For fucks sake

Trying to delve into this is a lot of insecurity because I have two besties where this is an allll time fav for them, which is difficult because I have such kneejerk rejections to this writing and character dialogue. It's a fine definitely amateur charming dating sim/CYOA hybrid wrapped around murder mystery, but progressively everything about it is a major turn-off. The writing is what I kept looping around to, it's just really dry, and generally nonsensical. Not in the sort of "plot hole" but in sort of how tone/attitude/character motivations can really just shift within the given context and things feel vastly more immature versus the conceit's expectation. Emphasis on tone shifts, within a serious conversation discussing a dragon's corpse right in front of you there'll be meme humor drops that, albeit small, add up. It never quite feels like things are ever settling on how a scene is supposed to feel and while some of the unnerving nature of it is intended this makes things feel more detached and constantly wavy when it very clearly doesn't want to intend such sometimes.

The characters are at least ok, definitely take time to get somewhere and a lot of them do not have what I feel is requisite character voice (delivery is too muted for my tastes it's certainly not personable enough). A lot of the story is backloaded and the first route requiring you to get a bad ending before you can really get to anyone's good ending and true ending is enough to really ice this because it's asking for upfront patience I no longer have for something that is, unfortunately, anti-my-shit. Would I say it's bad? Kind of. I certainly don't like it but it's very glaringly obvious the sort of first work it constantly feels like which is why this entire... rant feels a little sour to type. Like I need to vent my thoughts on this because fuck the dichotomy between me and said besties here hurts and I doubt my perception of this work is alone but it definitely doesn't Deserve much scrutiny. It doesn't ask for it. The writing's just kind of mostly whatever! It's not even interesting for being problematic for something!!

No idea what to make of this. Probably poor insight on my end to start JKS work with this one of all things but it's not like this venture was entirely without value. I'm at least going to give it a shot to assign said value/interpret the work even if it's fullllly out of my wheelhouse.

Well as much as I can, it's really just like pure psychedelic dissociation/dream end vibes wrapped around some sort of hyperapocalyptic dystopia future where things are simply muted through overwhelming noise. There might be threads here but none of them are sort of satisfying to really hold myself to for any moment and to act as if none of them matter would be some facile "haha that's the real art see none of it matters" which is always drivel. Detached from this, the neatest thing about this work is the reverse audience perspective on title cards which is a fun "you are the experience" thing, you're stuck behind the tv screen in whatever this hell is.

Within minutes the whole experience kind of sours on me because I don't like this sort of "oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" overload, not to push away the effort or label it as lesser but I'm lacking in patience on deciphering that, which might ring poorly on the rest of the series for me from here, I don't know! Cute (?) stuff tho??? I'll probably play the next one within a week.

Despite being sort of a return trip to me I honestly didn't do most of these puzzles myself, I sequence broke really really really early in. So a lot of this was a first time!

And it's still soooo great, constantly fluid and intuitive. The sort of lesson culture also being a double for hints at what the puzzles are asking from you as well as the names of the rooms is a really Super Cool thing that I love about this. Said lessons do have a sort of pseudo-intellectual teacher veneer to it I think but it ends up working here? I think if it didn't have such a soft hand behind you it would feel repulsive but it also helps that the whole aesthetic is this very timely 3d flash game lighting/aliasing so it's earnestly put together in the end.

I love how everything is simple yet incredibly pushy on opening your perspective. Mechanics do not interact with each other persay but lessons carry over, to where what you're building is a sort of mental toolkit and actions to keep at heart. Progression is actually rather linear as every new mechanic will quite literally make an arrow to go next on the ground. But even if you get lost the game doubles as an exploration to find new lessons which will also help you with the dedicated path. I love that sort of soft structure and that result still evokes feelings of mountain climbing and a subtle 'journey' that culminates in your mind by the final step by step challenge.

The really only striking issue in my head here is the scope holds itself back. It can't build towards anything too complex and its ending note is really little to chew on. In a way that helps it from not feeling so "ooo what could it meannn" and more comfort piecemeal but it's always walking just at the edge of that tightrope from being truly inventive. Solid time, and honestly it just slots righttttt into my logical thought process for puzzles so it being an easy clear was a back to back serotonin hit. Can't really complain after that.

Coming back to this after a disorienting walk back through history, both author's and subjects surrounding this work, is sort of like welcoming the slaughterhouse of abrasive cuts. Liminal space is a repeated word here, I'm going full circle back through the same ideas, now in search of new messaging through context and a more 'absolute narrative'.

I keep thinking of the scene of finding Ori in the bathtub again. There's no additional answer, no new transformative crux of the story, just the same raw effortlessly crafted emotion. More things make sense, I suppose. But TWC refuses to let you find a stable branch to sort of measure the world with, even if you choose to cut off all that noise it still won't feel right and you'll end up with less sense than you started, just repeating the same circle for yourself. I really really love it, though. I love how difficult it is to wrap your head around the complete grossness of the institutions we make for ourselves to avoid or approach the right answers. I love that half the perspective here is Knowing more of the truth and chaos and in that respect wanting to keep Hiding and boxing yourself to feel safe again. We want factual consolidating answers so we can feel a better breath of tomorrow's air but as soon as hardship within our heads encroaches, we cut it off as noise. This is something HC3 started, actually, that drive to be pure. I like how this response is more hazy.

Final takeaway for me is going to be thinking about Mari's destruction within the society around her and then respond by calling herself alien and "not your sister anymore", then painting her fingers the next day. I can relate.

There's a dichotomy in Anodyne 2. It's constant. In the same ways it asks us to break away from our complacency, the systems that bind and pull us to accept simple easier truths, it plays its hand through various fundamentals of the games that make it. In its commentary on trends it plays on trends, has you walk through trends, blasts away trends with trends. It forges its own path full of its own dust and blemishes. It too is trapped within its own cycle, hoping for more. Hoping to be better than it is. Hoping we can all be better than we are.

All of this is so viscerally poignant to me. It's almost nauseous to me how melancholic and constantly on your shoulder it is. It seeks to understand you as much as you're trying to understand it and there's constantly a bit of friction. It swaps between very clear explicit tones and vague musings. It wants to touch on as many facets of life and experience as it can but in some ways it almost commodifies that idea. There's a sort of 'contradiction' in it all.

I think that's better for Anodyne 2, though. The journey is hard but we'll be free, I believe that. Even if none of this makes sense to 'you', the story is crystal and upfront, we must choose the path to walk forward between some perfect communion full of Limitation vs. accepting us all for our little frictions and attempting to think more Beyond. Also just kind of genius how that's all distilled, whether some of that was intentional or not. All up to you anyhow. Go forth, Nova!

Chicory's melancholic unraveling was nothing but an emotional walk for me. It has such a real captivating idea of stress, anxiety, and unease. Despite being a very clearly inviting cozier work to get yourself into, it's all about bringing those anxious dizzy and frictional creative thoughts to life. In a world full of conversations and pieces on the "artist's experience", this is most certainly one that paints a very personal and graceful stroke of the brush on it.

And I just... love it. All of it. I love that every screen is an encouraging attempt for you to color the place however you like, but you are never judged for leaving it how it is. Every earnest effort is given praise and a warm hug, and home and support are always a call away. Even if you choose not to, you'll find support yourself as you journey. I love how the 'trials' are just little things, small but poignant lessons that help you find your center. I felt teary-eyed at all times during the last four chapters, just building up to capturing that feeling inside, that urge and real sense of want.

I also adore its setting, this lightly fanciful but towny vibe, people of all colors of life simply living and looking up to you as you go. A lot of them are soft and charming, but I enjoy the rare but notable pointed characters you come across too. I especially like how they all seem to be dealing with their own baggage and your color helps them work through the day too. Even when Chicory is at its most twee and hilariously cute, it never ever feels like you left that light permeating sadness that you'll have to deal with by journey's end.

Come join us in making a painting about life.

The most terrifying, oppressive, claustrophobic experience I've had in the medium is no surprise a stalking disturbing message of an encroaching patriarchal faith. Heather wants nothing to do with it, and neither will I. Monsters of repressed memories and physical/sexual trauma stalk the corridors, but catharsis is found in making them all Burn. Aborting god is probably the rawest turn on killing god tbh. I personally got lost in the woods of the threads near the end but I think on just initial reflection that there's a large point in there about an incomprehensibly massive societal issue that makes it difficult to form into something tangible (e.g. male gaze and abuse). It's also like a crystalized end to everything the series culminated in before, tying everything back together. Genuinely super well crafted, and a crazy good final message. That cycle of disparaging hatred is still overturned by the real spark of sympathy, we just want love.

I don't know HOW I could talk about this shit without completely devolving to absolute gushing. This is such an unreal hype action game packed to the brim with charm, complete riding adrenaline and just so insanely good to get me screaming "PINNACLE OF GAMING". I'm screaming and jumping and losing my mind at every world, roaring at every level screen, the only thing painful is how criminal it fell under the radar. I'm only now near the end of normal and I cannot wait to go through hard mode too I just have to get this apex of ecstatic energy out to everyone's minds! Give it a shot I guarantee you won't regret this.

EDIT: HOLY FUCK

Tentative steps on a journey inward and outward. The glide to find purpose is a roundabout path, leaving a touch of your own in every place you stop or marvel at. At first, I was doubtful, as was Sable, that I would find something there in all that empty mournful space. But the experience is intelligently directionless, as well as graceful and comforting. It's a long ride but eventually you will find your calling as you share words with those who simply live their life around you. It's not as limiting as it looks, nor as paralyzingly huge. Your family, whether that be a metaphorical one or very literal, will be there to welcome you to your decision in the end. You will find your way.

"What an adventure you've had. And it's only for you."