Suzuka
76 Reviews liked by Suzuka
Pentiment
2022
A lot of what this does is fucking genius but the way it uses fonts to portray someone's culture, accent or tone is pure distilled captial G Genius.
There's a bit where you're talking to this farmer and he starts talking with this hard to read, messy handwriting because, y'know, he's a farmer, he's got a thick accent, the font represents that. Then in some throwaway line of dialogue he mentions that he's actually quite well read and suddenly the font changes to this beautiful script, as if the guy writing the text also got to that line in the book at the same point you did and hurriedly tried to correct himself.
And it does this a ton, playing with something as simple as font choice to give these character interactions so much more "character". If you're talking to someone who speaks another language, it prints the original first, then scrubs it out, and then prints it in english. If someone's angry, the entire text box shakes, or the ink splatters across the page. If someone's whispering, the text is miniscule. The town printer firsts speaks in printer press blocks, which then pull away to reveal the printed text underneath. It's a fucking genius way to make up for the lack of voice acting, it's not just text, it's text with a personality and culture attached.
Pentiment is so good because everything has this amount of thought and care put into it. It's a game about history that revels in the details. It's a game about art that is full of gorgeous, culture specific, time period accurate art. It's a game about making hard choices with limited information, and forcing you to live with the consequences of those choices. It's a game about a village, the ways it evolves and changes through the ages, and the impact you can have on it. Absolutely adore this game.
There's a bit where you're talking to this farmer and he starts talking with this hard to read, messy handwriting because, y'know, he's a farmer, he's got a thick accent, the font represents that. Then in some throwaway line of dialogue he mentions that he's actually quite well read and suddenly the font changes to this beautiful script, as if the guy writing the text also got to that line in the book at the same point you did and hurriedly tried to correct himself.
And it does this a ton, playing with something as simple as font choice to give these character interactions so much more "character". If you're talking to someone who speaks another language, it prints the original first, then scrubs it out, and then prints it in english. If someone's angry, the entire text box shakes, or the ink splatters across the page. If someone's whispering, the text is miniscule. The town printer firsts speaks in printer press blocks, which then pull away to reveal the printed text underneath. It's a fucking genius way to make up for the lack of voice acting, it's not just text, it's text with a personality and culture attached.
Pentiment is so good because everything has this amount of thought and care put into it. It's a game about history that revels in the details. It's a game about art that is full of gorgeous, culture specific, time period accurate art. It's a game about making hard choices with limited information, and forcing you to live with the consequences of those choices. It's a game about a village, the ways it evolves and changes through the ages, and the impact you can have on it. Absolutely adore this game.
At night I put this game on and listen to Toads screams as I gently drift asleep.
This review contains spoilers
The following longpost is more or less a detailed summary of a collection of my thoughts written up immediately after finishing the Last Of Us Remastered one evening and internalizing my thoughts in the breaks inbetween playing it. These are just my own thoughts and experiences regarding the game, and it's perfectly okay if you don't agree with me!
The Last of Us has been a game which has been acclaimed and hyped as this revolutionary groundbreaking title that not only won GOTY award after award, but is also considered one of the greatest video games of all time by many publications. And I've had a couple of friends tell me it's an experience worth having. Needless to say, the expectations were definitely raised quite high for years, and I didn't get to experience The Last of Us until recently, when I picked up a PS5. Unfortunately, this was one of those rare occasions where I felt a bit let down and the overall game and experience did not fully resonate and click with me.
I suppose the main breaking factor for me was the combat. I understand that the combat in The Last Of Us is meant to feel punishing, shaky, and in a sense "feel bad," and I respect that decision. But the game's AI and mechanics turn this punishing combat into a bit of a finicky and contradicting mess; essentially, I feel that the combat lacks a bit of focus. Because combat is meant to be this grueling and costly exercise, you're encouraged to stealth past enemies whenever possible. But personally, I found stealth to be somewhat unreliable, because enemy AI often have randomized patrol patterns (I confirmed this through other hubs on the internet as well to ensure I wasn't the only one going through this) and because enemies are surprisingly quite good at spotting you from a distance or have much larger peripheral vision than you'd expect. There were also several occasions where I was tailing enemies for a stealth take down only for the enemy to suddenly turn around or be alerted, which left me short out of luck. Needless to say, I tried the stealth approach whenever possible, but due to the above reasons, I often got caught one way or another. So because I was trying to play optimally and conserve ammo for the big fights/required fights in the game (such as the bloater in the gymnasium, some zombie fights in tight hallways or some of the bandit encounters), a lot of these fights either ended up turning into situations where I was mashing the X button (to punch zombies to death) and the square button (to escape being grabbed), with the occasional use of triangle when I got grabbed by a clicker (or being forced to use my weapons if I saw the clicker early enough). As such, most of the early combat was me reloading sequences over and over because stealth was not working out and I didn't have the resources to comfortably fight off the mobs, and this is extremely punishing in the early game when you don't have the shiv upgrade (or enough shivs to begin with) to fight off clickers that will end your run. This definitely becomes less of a problem once you get better weapons and equipment upgrades as the game progresses, but regardless, this unreliability of stealth was a giant deterrent playing through the game and especially soured my experience playing through the early game. Again, I understand that this is intentional game design, but to me it turned this part of the game that was supposed to be difficult into a part of the game that became tedious, and as a result, interfered with my ability to progress the narrative and enjoy the game as a whole.
Regarding the story, I think it's fine. Not exceptional mind you, it does play out like a lot of post apocalyptic zombie narratives I've read/viewed before, but it's engaging enough to keep you going to see what happens next. So the narrative itself is not what I take issue with. What I take issue with (and this is where I admit I may be expecting too much) is how the story is often told. I'll admit that I'm looking for an immersive "show not tell" method of story telling in my video games, sort of similar to how games like Journey or Shadow of the Colossus manage to marry storytelling with game mechanics and gameplay. (If I sound like TotalBiscuit and Josef Fares here, let's just say that I do appreciate their commentary regarding gameplay and storytelling and often look to them for the path forward.) And the Last of Us both does that and doesn't do that. I feel the Last of Us uses cutscenes too much. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think the Last of Us's most powerful moments are when it tries not to be a game and just lets you savor the moment as Joel. Some of those moments include every peaceful interlude where Joel and Ellie are just chatting, the opening of The Last of Us, Joel hanging from the ceiling desperately tearing down zombies while Ellie frantically hacks at the rope (thank god you don't have to worry about your ammo there as per the UI, Naughty Dog made the right decision there), and running while holding Ellie escaping the hospital. More of that would have done the Last of Us justice, but unfortunately the majority of the most important storytelling takes place via cutscenes where you aren't in control of Joel, and that really cuts through my immersion when The Last of Us has proven it knows how to make you feel like you're actually Joel. So I'll repeat that I understand this sounds very nitpicky, but when I think about The Last of Us's storytelling, I just see lost potential. I think on this frontier, it was so close but ultimately tried too hard to be a movie instead of a video game, and it suffers and left me a little disappointed for this.
Now I realize I've been somewhat critical of The Last of Us but still gave it 2.5 stars, so I'll go into the things I actually like. As mentioned above, when the Last of Us focuses on instilling meaning and emotion in its sequences rather than focusing on combat gameplay mechanics (see the paragraph above for some of the moments that I found to be quite powerful), it gets the point across very well and does indeed evoke a wide range of emotions. Playing as Ellie struggling to crawl to the knife as David watches and taunts you; playing as Joel limping to the university doors while his vision blurs and a raider charges at him so he's forced to scramble and pull the trigger; even some of those moment interspersed with quicktime events such as Joel getting stuck in the drowning bus and grasping desperately for the handles after repeatedly trying to bust open the compartment. These are all experiences that focus less on gameplay mechanics and more on making the player savor the moment, and Naughty Dog pulls it off well. It's also worth mentioning that this game has fantastic atmosphere thanks to the sound design (you absolutely can feel the tension when you hear footsteps and barking orders all around you) and the graphics as a whole. The Last of Us is definitely one of the prettiest looking games out there, and it manages to both capture beauty in the tranquil abandoned levels and danger in the sinister basements and stuffy buildings that zombies and raiders alike have holed up in. And of course, the soundtrack is quite good, sounding lush and melancholic when there a moment of peace and frenetic and menacing when you get caught in combat or need to escape your foes.
So is the Last of Us overrated? I think in the sense that I felt the Last of Us did not live up to the nearly universal praise and groundbreaking game design that publications have heaped upon it (in my eyes at least), yes, I could see that The Last of Us is overrated. Mind you, I don't think The Last of Us is inherently a bad game because I can see its potential and it does in fact do many things quite well. Ellie and Joel are very believable and dynamic characters, and watching their personalities evolve over the course of the story through their changing interactions is definitely one of the big draws of the game. That said, I think the Last of Us could have been so much more. It definitely doesn't help that many big name games look at the Last of Us as this pinnacle of game design and storytelling and proceeded to do both so much worse. But it's not The Last of Us's fault that it's stuck as the poster child for big budget Hollywood esque titles as it is its derivations. I gave this game an honest shot and maybe it is just a difference of game taste and opinion at the end of the day; who am I to tell you what not to like and like? After all, I can see why people would like The Last of Us. It just wasn't the title for me and definitely wasn't the experience that made me remember why I play video games.
The Last of Us has been a game which has been acclaimed and hyped as this revolutionary groundbreaking title that not only won GOTY award after award, but is also considered one of the greatest video games of all time by many publications. And I've had a couple of friends tell me it's an experience worth having. Needless to say, the expectations were definitely raised quite high for years, and I didn't get to experience The Last of Us until recently, when I picked up a PS5. Unfortunately, this was one of those rare occasions where I felt a bit let down and the overall game and experience did not fully resonate and click with me.
I suppose the main breaking factor for me was the combat. I understand that the combat in The Last Of Us is meant to feel punishing, shaky, and in a sense "feel bad," and I respect that decision. But the game's AI and mechanics turn this punishing combat into a bit of a finicky and contradicting mess; essentially, I feel that the combat lacks a bit of focus. Because combat is meant to be this grueling and costly exercise, you're encouraged to stealth past enemies whenever possible. But personally, I found stealth to be somewhat unreliable, because enemy AI often have randomized patrol patterns (I confirmed this through other hubs on the internet as well to ensure I wasn't the only one going through this) and because enemies are surprisingly quite good at spotting you from a distance or have much larger peripheral vision than you'd expect. There were also several occasions where I was tailing enemies for a stealth take down only for the enemy to suddenly turn around or be alerted, which left me short out of luck. Needless to say, I tried the stealth approach whenever possible, but due to the above reasons, I often got caught one way or another. So because I was trying to play optimally and conserve ammo for the big fights/required fights in the game (such as the bloater in the gymnasium, some zombie fights in tight hallways or some of the bandit encounters), a lot of these fights either ended up turning into situations where I was mashing the X button (to punch zombies to death) and the square button (to escape being grabbed), with the occasional use of triangle when I got grabbed by a clicker (or being forced to use my weapons if I saw the clicker early enough). As such, most of the early combat was me reloading sequences over and over because stealth was not working out and I didn't have the resources to comfortably fight off the mobs, and this is extremely punishing in the early game when you don't have the shiv upgrade (or enough shivs to begin with) to fight off clickers that will end your run. This definitely becomes less of a problem once you get better weapons and equipment upgrades as the game progresses, but regardless, this unreliability of stealth was a giant deterrent playing through the game and especially soured my experience playing through the early game. Again, I understand that this is intentional game design, but to me it turned this part of the game that was supposed to be difficult into a part of the game that became tedious, and as a result, interfered with my ability to progress the narrative and enjoy the game as a whole.
Regarding the story, I think it's fine. Not exceptional mind you, it does play out like a lot of post apocalyptic zombie narratives I've read/viewed before, but it's engaging enough to keep you going to see what happens next. So the narrative itself is not what I take issue with. What I take issue with (and this is where I admit I may be expecting too much) is how the story is often told. I'll admit that I'm looking for an immersive "show not tell" method of story telling in my video games, sort of similar to how games like Journey or Shadow of the Colossus manage to marry storytelling with game mechanics and gameplay. (If I sound like TotalBiscuit and Josef Fares here, let's just say that I do appreciate their commentary regarding gameplay and storytelling and often look to them for the path forward.) And the Last of Us both does that and doesn't do that. I feel the Last of Us uses cutscenes too much. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think the Last of Us's most powerful moments are when it tries not to be a game and just lets you savor the moment as Joel. Some of those moments include every peaceful interlude where Joel and Ellie are just chatting, the opening of The Last of Us, Joel hanging from the ceiling desperately tearing down zombies while Ellie frantically hacks at the rope (thank god you don't have to worry about your ammo there as per the UI, Naughty Dog made the right decision there), and running while holding Ellie escaping the hospital. More of that would have done the Last of Us justice, but unfortunately the majority of the most important storytelling takes place via cutscenes where you aren't in control of Joel, and that really cuts through my immersion when The Last of Us has proven it knows how to make you feel like you're actually Joel. So I'll repeat that I understand this sounds very nitpicky, but when I think about The Last of Us's storytelling, I just see lost potential. I think on this frontier, it was so close but ultimately tried too hard to be a movie instead of a video game, and it suffers and left me a little disappointed for this.
Now I realize I've been somewhat critical of The Last of Us but still gave it 2.5 stars, so I'll go into the things I actually like. As mentioned above, when the Last of Us focuses on instilling meaning and emotion in its sequences rather than focusing on combat gameplay mechanics (see the paragraph above for some of the moments that I found to be quite powerful), it gets the point across very well and does indeed evoke a wide range of emotions. Playing as Ellie struggling to crawl to the knife as David watches and taunts you; playing as Joel limping to the university doors while his vision blurs and a raider charges at him so he's forced to scramble and pull the trigger; even some of those moment interspersed with quicktime events such as Joel getting stuck in the drowning bus and grasping desperately for the handles after repeatedly trying to bust open the compartment. These are all experiences that focus less on gameplay mechanics and more on making the player savor the moment, and Naughty Dog pulls it off well. It's also worth mentioning that this game has fantastic atmosphere thanks to the sound design (you absolutely can feel the tension when you hear footsteps and barking orders all around you) and the graphics as a whole. The Last of Us is definitely one of the prettiest looking games out there, and it manages to both capture beauty in the tranquil abandoned levels and danger in the sinister basements and stuffy buildings that zombies and raiders alike have holed up in. And of course, the soundtrack is quite good, sounding lush and melancholic when there a moment of peace and frenetic and menacing when you get caught in combat or need to escape your foes.
So is the Last of Us overrated? I think in the sense that I felt the Last of Us did not live up to the nearly universal praise and groundbreaking game design that publications have heaped upon it (in my eyes at least), yes, I could see that The Last of Us is overrated. Mind you, I don't think The Last of Us is inherently a bad game because I can see its potential and it does in fact do many things quite well. Ellie and Joel are very believable and dynamic characters, and watching their personalities evolve over the course of the story through their changing interactions is definitely one of the big draws of the game. That said, I think the Last of Us could have been so much more. It definitely doesn't help that many big name games look at the Last of Us as this pinnacle of game design and storytelling and proceeded to do both so much worse. But it's not The Last of Us's fault that it's stuck as the poster child for big budget Hollywood esque titles as it is its derivations. I gave this game an honest shot and maybe it is just a difference of game taste and opinion at the end of the day; who am I to tell you what not to like and like? After all, I can see why people would like The Last of Us. It just wasn't the title for me and definitely wasn't the experience that made me remember why I play video games.
Evil West
2022
Above all else, Evil West is a video game ass video game and that's what I love about it.
The marketing knows this too, it has a trailer featuring goddamn Danny Trejo where it boasts not having lootboxes and making fun of the absurd monetization of games. "I just want to play a game!" he proclaims. If you're beyond a casual consumer (which I assume is the case if you're using this site) you'd find this trailer a bit cringe. It's basically just yelling that its a single player game without a bunch of microtransactions (ignoring the fact it has a pre order bonus skin lol) which yknow, isn't really all that uncommon. But there's something that makes you just wanna vigorously shout "Hell yeah" about that statement and well goddamn Evil West sure is a game.
Saying something "sure is" a game or a movie is usually used as a bit of an insult but for Evil West it is not only a true descriptor but its a bit of a refreshing one. You're just a badass cowboy with electric gauntlets that rips vampires and werewolves in half. There are upgrades and perks, which may be a bit of a mandatory and exhausted system these days, but they only enhance the gameplay and add on to the glorious variety this game has to offer. For most of the game there's constantly new mechanics thrown in. It's entirely designed to make the game more fun and thats what Evil West excels at, being fun. There is an argument to make that the game is a bit simplistic. As many others point out its reminiscent of an older gen title. Non interconnected levels, gruff badass protag and a silly story. Looking at it objectively you can sum up the game as combat arena, slight exploration, combat arena, slight exploration, small puzzle, combat arena, cutscene and so on. But you can really boil any game down to something like that and dismissing Evil West because of that is denying just how fun and cool it is. Maybe its not anything new but it doesn't need to be to be a fantastic time on its own. Hell, even the cover is a form of the "generic cool guy with a gun" but the way its presented and the art style just makes it look sick as fuck.
Throughout Evil West, you'll face a lot of repeat but unique enemies throughout with an occasional new one thrown into the mix. But it's the way enemies are thrown in together and the badass arsenal you're given that still make it so every fight feels different. I was never left with a feeling of boredom or that it was repetitive. It's hella challenging too. I played the whole game on normal. Usually I find games aren't balanced well but Evil West I thought was the perfect level for me. So many of the fights toss a huge amount of tough enemies at you. I was constantly audibly saying "Jesus Christ" or "Fucking hell" at the constant bullshit this game gives you to deal with. But because of how well this game is done I was never left feeling defeated at the constant deaths or like that it was too impossible to win. The only part of this combat I don't like are the suicide bomb enemies. They do cause you to change your play style up a bit but in every game they're put in they're more of a nuisance than a meaningful feature. There's only a few actual boss fights but all of these are quite fun as well, except maybe for The Parasite and thats only because it featured a bunch of the suicide dudes. I nervously laughed at the final bosses transformation. Fighting it, watching some of its surprisingly creepy animations and getting my ass kicked but still killing the fuck out of it in the end was when I knew for sure that this game had succeeded in everything it set out to do.
Now that i've beaten in the fact that the gameplay is super fun (without actually spoiling the mechanics) let's talk about the rest of Evil West. Firstly I want to note that the game gives you an arachnophobia warning (and the option to turn off spiders) at the start which I appreciate. As someone who is deathly scared of them but also didn't want to lessen the overall experience I didnt use this option, and fuck are there a shitload of spiders lmao. Its just a nice little bit of accessibility that I think deserved its own bit of praise. Onto the story, I don't have anything bad to say about it. It's obviously not the selling point. I do honestly wish it was a bit more over the top but I was curious in the direction and it was enjoyable. The ending is slightly abrupt but I still found it to be satisfying. Graphically Evil West isn't the best looking but something I very much appreciated was how much visual variety the levels had. Almost all of them had their own unique setting, color and feel to them. Lots of unique locations is one of the things a game can do to earn a spot in my heart and I was really happy that Evil West committed to this. One thing stopping me from giving it a full 90 is that it was a bit buggy. it was nothing game breaking. The basement of your main base has a lighting glitch, there were two instances where I got stuck in the floor during combat and had to restart. And there were a few audio glitches where just this really loud annoying sound would loop. This was all kinda a pain in the ass when it happened but everything was fixable with a simple restarting checkpoint or death. Playing on performance mode I only ever had one lag spike (that happened every time i got to this section either after death or when replaying for a trophy) was when three big bat demons spawn simultaneously. Otherwise it was never choppy or anything of the such. Another thing worth mentioning isnt a bug but a little silly and definitely a product of budget. When you're at your home base and you walk by an npc they will talk but their mouth wont move or anything. You spend such little time here that it doesnt matter but I thought it was funny enough to share.
That's kinda all I've got to say about Evil West. I really do like this game. In a year where i've gotten lots of games on launch that ended up pretty disappointing, It was nice to play a game I expected very little of that ended up being a surprisingly good time. This year has taught me a lot about both how lame critics are and how terrible I am with money.
Thanks for reading y'all <3
More stuff is on the way.
Nancymeter - 88/100
Trophy Completion - 56% (18/30)
Time Played - 15 hours 12 minutes
Game Completion #150 of 2022
Game Completion #4 of December
The marketing knows this too, it has a trailer featuring goddamn Danny Trejo where it boasts not having lootboxes and making fun of the absurd monetization of games. "I just want to play a game!" he proclaims. If you're beyond a casual consumer (which I assume is the case if you're using this site) you'd find this trailer a bit cringe. It's basically just yelling that its a single player game without a bunch of microtransactions (ignoring the fact it has a pre order bonus skin lol) which yknow, isn't really all that uncommon. But there's something that makes you just wanna vigorously shout "Hell yeah" about that statement and well goddamn Evil West sure is a game.
Saying something "sure is" a game or a movie is usually used as a bit of an insult but for Evil West it is not only a true descriptor but its a bit of a refreshing one. You're just a badass cowboy with electric gauntlets that rips vampires and werewolves in half. There are upgrades and perks, which may be a bit of a mandatory and exhausted system these days, but they only enhance the gameplay and add on to the glorious variety this game has to offer. For most of the game there's constantly new mechanics thrown in. It's entirely designed to make the game more fun and thats what Evil West excels at, being fun. There is an argument to make that the game is a bit simplistic. As many others point out its reminiscent of an older gen title. Non interconnected levels, gruff badass protag and a silly story. Looking at it objectively you can sum up the game as combat arena, slight exploration, combat arena, slight exploration, small puzzle, combat arena, cutscene and so on. But you can really boil any game down to something like that and dismissing Evil West because of that is denying just how fun and cool it is. Maybe its not anything new but it doesn't need to be to be a fantastic time on its own. Hell, even the cover is a form of the "generic cool guy with a gun" but the way its presented and the art style just makes it look sick as fuck.
Throughout Evil West, you'll face a lot of repeat but unique enemies throughout with an occasional new one thrown into the mix. But it's the way enemies are thrown in together and the badass arsenal you're given that still make it so every fight feels different. I was never left with a feeling of boredom or that it was repetitive. It's hella challenging too. I played the whole game on normal. Usually I find games aren't balanced well but Evil West I thought was the perfect level for me. So many of the fights toss a huge amount of tough enemies at you. I was constantly audibly saying "Jesus Christ" or "Fucking hell" at the constant bullshit this game gives you to deal with. But because of how well this game is done I was never left feeling defeated at the constant deaths or like that it was too impossible to win. The only part of this combat I don't like are the suicide bomb enemies. They do cause you to change your play style up a bit but in every game they're put in they're more of a nuisance than a meaningful feature. There's only a few actual boss fights but all of these are quite fun as well, except maybe for The Parasite and thats only because it featured a bunch of the suicide dudes. I nervously laughed at the final bosses transformation. Fighting it, watching some of its surprisingly creepy animations and getting my ass kicked but still killing the fuck out of it in the end was when I knew for sure that this game had succeeded in everything it set out to do.
Now that i've beaten in the fact that the gameplay is super fun (without actually spoiling the mechanics) let's talk about the rest of Evil West. Firstly I want to note that the game gives you an arachnophobia warning (and the option to turn off spiders) at the start which I appreciate. As someone who is deathly scared of them but also didn't want to lessen the overall experience I didnt use this option, and fuck are there a shitload of spiders lmao. Its just a nice little bit of accessibility that I think deserved its own bit of praise. Onto the story, I don't have anything bad to say about it. It's obviously not the selling point. I do honestly wish it was a bit more over the top but I was curious in the direction and it was enjoyable. The ending is slightly abrupt but I still found it to be satisfying. Graphically Evil West isn't the best looking but something I very much appreciated was how much visual variety the levels had. Almost all of them had their own unique setting, color and feel to them. Lots of unique locations is one of the things a game can do to earn a spot in my heart and I was really happy that Evil West committed to this. One thing stopping me from giving it a full 90 is that it was a bit buggy. it was nothing game breaking. The basement of your main base has a lighting glitch, there were two instances where I got stuck in the floor during combat and had to restart. And there were a few audio glitches where just this really loud annoying sound would loop. This was all kinda a pain in the ass when it happened but everything was fixable with a simple restarting checkpoint or death. Playing on performance mode I only ever had one lag spike (that happened every time i got to this section either after death or when replaying for a trophy) was when three big bat demons spawn simultaneously. Otherwise it was never choppy or anything of the such. Another thing worth mentioning isnt a bug but a little silly and definitely a product of budget. When you're at your home base and you walk by an npc they will talk but their mouth wont move or anything. You spend such little time here that it doesnt matter but I thought it was funny enough to share.
That's kinda all I've got to say about Evil West. I really do like this game. In a year where i've gotten lots of games on launch that ended up pretty disappointing, It was nice to play a game I expected very little of that ended up being a surprisingly good time. This year has taught me a lot about both how lame critics are and how terrible I am with money.
Thanks for reading y'all <3
More stuff is on the way.
Nancymeter - 88/100
Trophy Completion - 56% (18/30)
Time Played - 15 hours 12 minutes
Game Completion #150 of 2022
Game Completion #4 of December
The Last Campfire
2020
This review contains spoilers
It's a nice little puzzle adventure game that you can figure your way through in around 5-6 hours without any need for walkthroughs or guides. It's very thoughtful about touching the subject of accepting the struggles of life and the inevitability of death, and it's made particularly more meaningful in that there are some souls that can't be helped because they don't want to be helped. And that's okay too. Sure, it's not the toughest, longest, most gripping and clever tale exploring death that video games have to offer, but it nevertheless was an adorable and comfy time.
Stardew Valley
2016
This game helped and worsened my depression but at most important it made me feel better at the end
At first it was the only thing that motivated me to get out of bed, to eat and to sleep early so I could play it better the next day. The goals, the music and the gameplay all coincided in a way to make me feel cozy and happy and most importantly not useless. Sadly after that period of lifting me it was hard to fully go into the challenges of real life. I abandoned many of my irl duties because they felt tiring and the only space of comfort I had was this game. The only thing that wasn't enjoyable out of the whole experience was the social dynamics they made me felt empty, so artificial and gamey to a point not even persona reached. And the reason it made me sad was that I came to the game because I struggled with loneliness and losing the few people I felt kind of close but not enough to be friends and seeing how easy it was and how I could become best friends with everyone by just gifting without even bothering to help them or talk with them just...
At first it was the only thing that motivated me to get out of bed, to eat and to sleep early so I could play it better the next day. The goals, the music and the gameplay all coincided in a way to make me feel cozy and happy and most importantly not useless. Sadly after that period of lifting me it was hard to fully go into the challenges of real life. I abandoned many of my irl duties because they felt tiring and the only space of comfort I had was this game. The only thing that wasn't enjoyable out of the whole experience was the social dynamics they made me felt empty, so artificial and gamey to a point not even persona reached. And the reason it made me sad was that I came to the game because I struggled with loneliness and losing the few people I felt kind of close but not enough to be friends and seeing how easy it was and how I could become best friends with everyone by just gifting without even bothering to help them or talk with them just...
Death's Door
2021
75% - Two people made this, I struggle to make dinner AND I have a way less fun time doing so.
This game is an actual good kart racer, wtf. The stages, music, roster, and campaign are all pretty dope and leave a lot for you to play around with and master. All the game needed was Kazuma Kiryu and it would've been perfect.
The Last of Us
2013
the first impressions of this game are incredible but as a video game it's really fucking mid. the story is god tier but jesus i will never play this again because i find the actual game play so middling.
In my books, this is the best Kart racer you could ever play. Mario Kart 8 is awesome. But this has a mission mode. And I think the boating and flying is far more fleshed out than the gliding or anti gravity mechanic. It's not as refined as Mario Kart but I just found it more interesting. Definitely recommend both though if you want a fun Kart racer
A Way Out
2018
I was looking for a co-op game to play with my son, and so we decided to give this a try. We both loved it! It was a very unique experience that you can really only have in a video game. Working together, making decisions together, synchronizing our actions and planning ahead as a team, while simultaneously being part of each other's stories was really fun and something we will remember for a long time. Also, big heads up - this game has a ton of content after you get out of prison. I was thinking it was just a prison break game, but I'd say it's more of an action adventure game, with a lot of sequences that reminded me of the Uncharted series. Give this one a try, we blew through it in 2 play sessions because we just didn't want to stop. Highly recommended!
You probably remember this game being better than it was, so dont replay it and youll be fine
they shouldve let me explore more and shoot people less. we get it people are bad.
they shouldve let me explore more and shoot people less. we get it people are bad.
Mario Tennis
2000
It's so crazy that this is a Mario game when the story is about regular kids playing tennis at a sports academy mixed with RPG mechanics.
It is also very fun for what it is.
It is also very fun for what it is.
Death's Door
2021
Even though it's a game that usually falls outside of my enjoyment of narrative games, Death Door drew me in with its exacting combat, inspired art style, complex world design, and rockin' soundtrack. I fell off in the middle of my playthrough due to a difficult boss timed perfectly with me leaving for vacation, but a simple musical cue from the game played during a podcast I listened to brought back an overwhelming desire to come back to the game and see it through (yes, the score is that good!). I am so glad I came back, as the relatively simple story still drew me in as it received most of its development in the final fifth of the game! I highly recommend this game for anyone looking for kinetic, dodge-based combat set in a visually distinct world to a sick score!
Death's Door
2021
To be honest this game has a really good art style and music is really good, I even liked the story and I ADORE this crow BUT the lack of a good healing system brings it all down for me. Fighting system is interesting with a lot of patterns which you can learn and follow but honestly, no healing (except for finding pots) takes the fun away and instead makes it frustrating and sometimes you just want it to be over.
All in all, healing is the biggest flaw of this game and it made everything else less enjoyable and fun than it really is.
All in all, healing is the biggest flaw of this game and it made everything else less enjoyable and fun than it really is.