So when this is good, it's REALLY good. The stuff in this game that I liked I really liked. I think that Mae is an awesome character, and the exploration of her state of mind at this point in her life is handled near perfectly in my opinion. Unfortunately there's about 8 hours of game surrounding all of the good stuff. I think that this feels very nascent in that in 20 years time we might look back on NitW as a game that paved the way for much more effective and fully formed works of art, it's very clear that games as a medium are still in their kind of, experimental phase in a lot of ways? and that makes complete sense considering they've only been around for the last 40-50 years compared to films and books which have been around for a whole lot longer. I think this game is worth playing but it is also very frustrating in a lot of ways.

Absolute insanity. Felt like it was made just for me. This is described as a mix between Twin Peaks, Link's Awakening and Monkey Island. The first of those two things are some of my favourite things ever, and since Baobab's Mausoleum is now also one of my favourite things I will definitely be playing Monkey Island at some point soon! This game will definitely not be for everybody, and it probably won't be for many people, but it's very short and changes things up pretty much constantly so it is unlikely to get stale. It is a good example of a game where you should just play it blind, then talk about it a whole bunch after you've played it. I also loved the episodic format! awesome. yes.

This is very good. As a precursor to everything that came after it is amazing, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I found this frustrating at times. I found the first hour very enchanting, everything up to and including Kakariko Village was wonderful. After that when the map opens up I was initially excited but pretty quickly became tired of it, I thought that everything looked too similar and actually travelling around was boring instead of fun. I know that it is unfair to compare it to Link's Awakening since we wouldn't have LA if it wasn't for ALttP but exploring Koholint is so charming and fun, even when it is frustrating! I don't know if that makes sense but even when exploring the overworld of LA was frustrating I was enjoying it, Hyrule however was just irritating to me after a certain point.

The dungeons mostly rock though! Yeah! Dungeons! I love them. I do not like the hands that grab and take you to the beginning of the dungeon, they suck. I do not like that the enemies respawn when you go back into the room in the dungeon. that sucks. the puzzles however? v good. I enjoyed. For the MOST PART. I finished this over a week ago and I remember thinking the ganon's tower one was good but also would've been very annoying without save states. I think that this review probably sounds like a whole lot of moaning but I did really enjoy playing this game! I found it compulsive!

Marking this as completed despite bailing out at the final area - I make the rules here.

For the most part I absolutely loved playing this game, its a soulslike that is quite gentle and relatively peaceful. It has a beautiful art style, the open spaces feel fun to explore and climbing around the world with your JUMP button is always great fun, and always scary! The game would be getting closer to 5 stars if it wasn't for the following issues:

-There is a lack of enemy variety.
-I found the upgrades lacking after a certain point, once I'd maxed out my weapons I felt like I didn't care about collecting Scoria anymore because there was nothing else that I wanted to buy!
-I think the dungeons absolutely suck, they're far too long and difficult. I know this sounds a bit whingey but the first time I got to a proper dungeon I was absolutely loving it, when I died it drove me insane because I hadn't reached a save point. Fine, I'll get there this time. Unfortunately there are no save points in the dungeons until right before the boss room. You have to do it all in one and after dying about 20 times I was just not having fun any more!

I wanted to be able to say that this game was amazing because when it is good it really is amazing. I love the way the town changes as you play through the game, the quest system felt really rewarding despite being simple, and I found exploring the overworld (the bulk of the game) really exciting and cool! Get rid of those shite dungeons and caves and then this is a much better game. Gonna play Elden Ring when I feel like I am good enough at games again :)

If I ever play this again I think this could get an even higher rating, which is shocking to me! I started playing this years ago and found it to be just fine. I got to the first of the more open areas and just immediately stopped playing it. I fancied playing something a bit mindless so started playing this again but on the easiest difficulty and for the first hour or two coming back to it I was not enjoying it that much, it felt just a little bit bland and tired. As soon as Elena showed back up I realised that I had become... invested. The rest of the game absolutely rips and I just had a great time playing as the invincible action film hero who is also charming and likeable, despite being a mass murderer. I think that the games biggest strength is how well written it is, it is quite predictable but there's something about the characters that really drew me in, and by the end I was just loving every moment! How embarrassing!

I only finished this yesterday and I think that the rating could go higher, but this game is pretty good isn't it? I think that what lets it down is it is just a wee bit repetitive and slightly too long for the story it wants to tell. I think that the final hour is handled so well but is also so shocking in a very weirdly understated way that I didn't comprehend just how fucked up it until j spent more time thinking about it. I think that there's a case to be made for this game having oddly repetitive and overly murder-y gameplay on purpose for narrative purposes, that only pay off at the end. Doesn't entirely work I don't think but when this works it works very well, and I am still just very shocked and kind of disturbed by how the last hour made me feel, and then how it's made me feel about playing the rest of the game, it has made me feel gross and quite sick! And that's pretty cool for a videogame! 8/10 looking forward to part 2