Signalis est un jeu qui nous signale dès son écran d'accueil qu'il a capté le signal suivant : « Industrie AAA décédée. Enterrement en permanence. Sentiments distingués.»

Il a donc décidé d'être un jeu indé absolument culte, ce qui est un choix des plus appréciables.
Honnêtement, avoir une longue discussion sur le gameplay de Signalis ne m'intéresse pas vraiment, il est là, il est peaufiné pour fonctionner avec son genre, le survival-horror et il faut jouer avec le mode de base contenant l’inventaire limité. Et les passages en 3D sont diablement magnifiques et goûteux.

Non, ce qui est vraiment appréciable avec Signalis, c’est la jonction formidable entre le fond et la forme. Alors c’est très drôle parce que comme ma dernière phrase, on pourrait croire que via ses références alambiquées, le jeu se donne un air intellectuel, un péché que transgressent en permanence les jeux “deeps” qui s’étouffent en référence toutes plus hasardeuse les unes que les autres.

Il y a un un spectre à observer ici pour rester honnête, il faut que le jeu porte des références cools juste parce que c’est stylé et qu’il assume que c’est stylé, ou, comme c’est le cas pour Signalis, que ses références fonctionnent avec ses thématiques. Entre ces deux cas, on a ce qu’on peut nommer très vulgairement, la branlette intellectuelle, ou le posing.

J’ai joué à ma petite dose de jeu et la catégorie penchant vers le spectre comportant Signalis semble aussi disparue que la matrice du protagoniste dans l’Étranger de Camus, et c’est pour ça que j’ai envie de pointer le télescope de cette analyse vers les élégants anneaux de références ( Toutes ! ) tournoyant autour de Signalis.

Dans le jeu, on a un cas d’école magnifique, comme si le jeu avait sélectionné sa référence pour expliquer avec la maîtrise d’un chef d’orchestre comment ça fonctionne ici.

“ Die Toteninsel “ ou l’Île des Morts, de Arnold Böcklin, est une série de tableaux du 19e siècle. Cette œuvre est réputée comme très profonde, très spirituelle, une véritable invitation à se griller une sèche, l'air pensif. De ce fait, (Kino Der) Toteninsel est très souvent utilisé comme placeholder de réflexion profonde ( deep ) .Il faut y voir une version annexe du Saturne dévorant un de ses fils, de Goya ( le tableau est dans le jeu très furtivement au passage ).

L’utilisation et la place centrale accordée à l’Île des Morts dans Signalis n’est pas qu’une coquille vide, sa présence est justifiée par la façon dont les thématiques abordées dans le jeu, ses mots, son ambiance et son symbolisme s’entrecoupent avec l’oeuvre pour dépasser son essence et l’amener vers une nouvelle île de réflexion. On prend la barque de Charon ( Χάρων ), et on lui demande de nous emmener derrière l’île.

Il en est de même concernant la présence récurrente du “ Roi en Jaune “ ( The King in Yellow ) de Robert W. Chambers, que l’on peut interpréter au passage comme une volonté de dépasser la sacro-sainte référence à Lovecraft dès lors qu’une histoire d’horreur se déroule dans l’Espace, Chambers proposant dans son recueil de nouvelles un pont entre Poe et Howard, au même titre que Signalis propose un pont entre l’ambiance du livre, la nouvelle de la Demoiselle d’Ys et l’essence du jeu.

La force des références de ce genre, que je vais cantonner à ces 2 exemples, car ils sont les plus présents et donc, ici, les plus forts, c’est la façon dont ils s’inscrivent dans un ensemble qui leur répondent, entraînant ainsi une cascade de réponses qui permet à ces références de se transcender et d’enfin, dans un élan quasi mystique tant il est délicieux de le vivre et de l’observer, proposer un intellectualisme propre et honnête.

Le jeu n’est pas en train de simuler qu’il est profond et très intelligent en utilisant des références qui le sont connotées elles aussi, il donne un sens et un contexte qui font repenser les références et font repenser le jeu. Et ça, c’est suffisamment rare pour être noté, c’est d’ailleurs ce qui m’a le plus secoué en jouant au jeu, la cohésion totale de son tout, la résonance entre ses parties.

Signalis est un jeu qui nous signale dès son écran d'accueil : « Le Fond et la Forme, le Fond pour la Forme et la Forme pour le Fond »

Hey Buddy! Now that's what SOUL is !

Earthbound is the textbook example of Soul, what's Soul ? Well hmm .. uhhh.. It's what Earthbound have ?

The most striking thing with Eartbound is its setting, departing from a long tradition of a fantasy world, we arrive in a cliché view of the United States that manage to stay delightful while playing with its tropes in a whimsical manner, making it really refreshing to play.

With this in mind, know that the bestiary derives from this premise and is, therefore, really interesting to witness, and bears a lot of unique and funny ideas. There's a gas pump enemy with drowsy eyes ! Woah, now that's something else compared to those goblins !

So yeah, Earthbound manage to be unique by working hand in hand with its settings, add on top of that a really fresh colour palette and you're in for quite a visual ride !
Now, you might be aware that Earthbound OST is hailed as a pretty neat one, and if you go into the game with those assumptions... well you might be pleased to know that you were right to believe what people say. It's really lovely and the soundfont they used hold its own cartoony texture, making it instantly recognisable.

What else is unique to this game ? The writing ? Indeed. A herculean tour de force happened on this cartridge, Prometheus stole the fire of comedy and gave it to this JRPG. Now that might come as a surprise, even as a shock to some people, but Earthbound managed to be a funny game. It made me laugh audibly, rendering me stunned, because, first of all, the game was funny, and two, it was funny enough to make me chuckle. Now that's a feat ! The writing is also quite cute and touching when it needs to be, overall, they really nailed it.

The uniqueness of Earthbound is that every time you think it's unique, it ends up being even more unique.

This game has a Soul !

Has it been a diaporama of nice backgrounds, I might have been more lenient to tolerate the atrocious combat system of Chrono Trigger, but it's also the only thing I can criticise out of good faith !

None the less, I must say that the high octane pacing is fun when you play the game, but didn't manage to get me that hooked into it. I don't cherish those memories as much as I did when playing FF6 for example, a less rhythmic JRPG !

My main issue with Chrono Trigger, is the fact that it's so smooth, you can't really grab yourself on any of its edges before you're left sliding from it, not being able to develop any strong memories with it.

It is a good game, of course, but the way everyone praises it as the best thing that happened to JRPG should be brought back to the thinking room. Being perfect because you were too scared to get yourself into risky territories shouldn't be that praised in my opinions.

Anyway, you should try Chrono Trigger, it's still a perfect game, right ? ( Let's forget once again the combat system. )

I might prefer slightly imperfect game.

Isn't Moon a cool video game ? I mean what's cool in a video game ?

It would be better to present Moon as a charming experience, and I'm all for charming experience, video games or not.

Moon is a take on the rpg genre where no battle occurs, unless mind battle is a thing, and Moon made mind battle a thing. You'll have to best Shyrocks, walking eggplant and 2 o clocky in order to retrieve their soul and gain LOVE my friend.

LOVE is the moteur of the Moon world, and the only way to go further in your adventure. You'll also be able to gain LOVE by being a nice person to the NPC, which are definely more than NPC this time, I mean in the sense we used to know it in RPG.

Good news, MOON is an RPG REMIX.

You SHOULD play MOON, it's a unique experience with amazingly crafted visual and one of the most interesting OST ever made, in my opinion.

Thanks Moon for showing me what's LOVE.

If someone stopped me on the streets, begging me to give him the name of the gamest game, I might have to tell him Katamari. Why ?

Katamari takes on a simple concept, you roll a ball on objects and it gets progressively larger, leading to rolling bigger items etc... all while executing the idea perfectly, keeping it's simplicity while brilliantly playing around it. In a way it might also be the best take on the arcade genre.

It never felt so good to progress in a video game, and the final levels of the game are something that you'll only experience here.

Now let's talk about the Artistic Direction : Couldn't have been better, every object has its own unique charm, the levels are perfectly crafted and looks cute, and the soundtrack is one of the best things that happened to video game music having its own Frank Sinatra impersonator on one of the tracks.

Now mix all of that, and you have the best cocktail ever.
Katamari managed to encapsulate all of this into a single game, with the perfect amount of everything and with every single parts tied together, all while crafting all of its elements with the same amount of love.

And that's why Katamari is the gamest game, because it takes on a simple game idea, and do all that's possible to elevate it without altering its core concept.

Play it and you'll understand.

First time I played Touhou, loved all of it, from the mechanics to the ost ( which is phenomenal ).

Gameplay is your classic bullet hell shmup but I feel as if it's more elegant than the classic arcade one, the bullets are also a bit slower than what I played before ( I feel so, might be wrong ), you can survive most of it on pure skills without learning patterns and that's mainly why I enjoyed it, because it's pleasant to play and doesn't feel too unfair ( depending on the patterns .... )

It doesn't have the QOL of Perfect Cherry Blossom but I don't really mind it as the game is still fully playable without it.

A good place to start Touhou ?

Unique Roguelite, with its own unique wand crafting system that'll make you go crazy once you get the hang of it, incentive to explore and discover, unforgivable difficulty and interesting physics mechanics.

I would say this game is really good if you're someone who enjoys video games and like to see the universe unfold in front of you.
Some of the secrets of the games are nearly impossible to find alone, having the community discover it by shared research, which I think is great and add to the substance of the universe.

Again, the game is really difficult to get the hang of, you'll die a lot, but you'll grow familiar which each enemy and each spell, leading to more and more progress.

Noita play by his own rules and that's why it's great.
You didn't play the game unless you exploded yourself with your own wand.

You HAVE to play System Shock, it's such a good experience when you end up having to manage your ammo and your weapons depending on the situations and thinking of what to come .

Fighting follow this ressource management idea, as you'll have to approach each enemy carefully, peaking around corners trying to bait the AI when it comes to tougher enemies that would obliterate you otherwise.
The moments when you're low on health and ammo and you come across an elite enemy are when the game shine, having you engage in all its mechanics to succeed.
Even as of today and with the free look added, System Shock is a fun game to play and didn't lose a bit of its glory.

If you're looking to play a game that'll make you go " Oh, so that's where this comes from ", play it and if you want to play a great game, play it.

The OST will grow on you, trust me.

Omega Boost is a 3D rail shooter akin to Panzer Dragoon, but this time in space and inside a mech. ( Look at who did the game. )

Maybe the game that uses most of the PSX capacity ? I mean it's really beautiful and the vfx are a sight to behold, check for yourself, you'll understand.

You want to feel cool ? Play this game. Fast paced gameplay with the Scan makes it so it's easier to follow targets in the 3D environments and really manage to capture the feeling of a space mech battle while nailing the theatrical aspect of these dogfights.

It's also really difficult, so good luck with this, as upgrades that makes the game easier are awarded with a good rank score.

The soundtrack is really something to hear, quite fitting but not what you would think of by seeing gameplay.

I recommend that you try it even if you don't finish all the levels, just to discover it.

( The last zone is PURE KINO )

Fun game, keeps you occupied, but once you start scratching the layer you realise it's just a nice coat of paint on a rusty metal. The writing goes downhill at the end of act 1, the game offer no challenges at all even on tactician and the rolls offer 2 options : Succeed and continue the quest or fail and end it here. Leveling up is boring as hell because they decided to go with 5e, notorious for being braindead, and therefore, you get offered a hp boost and sometime your dice goes from 1D4 to 1D6, truly boring.

The setting is not that interesting too and only Act II managed to get me interested visually.