WubGaming
625 Reviews liked by WubGaming
You can really tell this game was made in 2004; the graphics aren't the finest, menuing is often a pain, and you'll be constantly holding down the turbo button if you don't want every engagement to take a century due to the animation lengths. That said, the world building and characterization is fantastic, and the soundtrack is quite understated yet exceptional. If you can get through the somewhat sluggish beginning, you'll be fairly pleased with what's to come. Not my favorite game in the Legend of Heroes series, and I definitely had my gripes with plenty of aspects (stealth missions...), but I ended up liking this a lot more than I had originally expected.
Firewatch
2016
I really liked the concept and where the plot was going. And then the game kinda just... ended. Doesn't help that it ran quite poorly on my machine either.
Trails in the Sky SC is the best of the series that I've played so far, no doubt.
It's got the world-building and characterization of the first game, but without the super sluggish prologue and a more realized and expanded upon combat system. The plot just keeps pushing forward and there's a ton dabbled with and drastically improved with fantastic storytelling and even deeper dives into every character. This one's going to sit with me for a while. I'll keep playing through more of the series (3rd, then Trails of Cold Steel IV once that comes to PC), and hopefully it's just as good, if not better than this. But if this ends up being the peak, I'd honestly be okay with that. SC is just that good.
It's got the world-building and characterization of the first game, but without the super sluggish prologue and a more realized and expanded upon combat system. The plot just keeps pushing forward and there's a ton dabbled with and drastically improved with fantastic storytelling and even deeper dives into every character. This one's going to sit with me for a while. I'll keep playing through more of the series (3rd, then Trails of Cold Steel IV once that comes to PC), and hopefully it's just as good, if not better than this. But if this ends up being the peak, I'd honestly be okay with that. SC is just that good.
The story feels a bit more disjointed with the dungeoneering focused system, but in return, they vastly improved the combat system with more variety, allowing for more strategies and exploits. I love the character interaction with everyone stuck in the void, and I honestly liked it the more I played. I don't like it as much as SC, but I nevertheless found it a worthwhile experience while waiting for Trails of Cold Steel IV to come out on PC.
Art Sqool
2019
I can't play this game anymore lol. The concept of doodling works just fine, but there are a lot of problems. The color scheme of the overworld is absolutely nauseating for one. The camera has a lot of problems too; the FoV is way too small (and there's no slider or way to adjust from what I can tell) so you're often uncomfortably close to your character, and the camera is way too sensitive and rotates a ton every time you try and mess with it. There's no map on the overworld to try and guide you when you need to submit assignments (I later learned that you can just fall off the overworld to auto-submit). There are more tools to work with so you can expand your doodling ability, but these tools all seem to be scattered between isolated isles, with no real way to travel between them except hopefully respawning randomly on the right isle. And finally, I have no idea how the scoring algorithm really works to get a gauge of how in tune this is. The concept is fine, but the lack of attention just about everywhere else is a huge problem.
Kids
2019
Of all of the games I have played, this is certainly one of them.
A Short Hike
2019
There is pretty much nothing wrong with this game, it gets exactly what it wants accomplished in the timeframe given and doesn't overstay its welcome. Play as much as you'd like and explore as much as you'd like, it's all up to you. And there is a lot to do in this game that can be as short or as long as you'd want it to be! I myself spent a good chunk of time fishing before I finally bothered finishing my climbing and flying. It's a good time, and I'd have no reservations recommending this to anyone looking for a wholesome yet adventurous experience.
b
2017
Just got my RTX 3070 and decided to go spec testing.
I can run Control at max settings with ray-tracing and get consistently above 80 FPS.
I can't run b at max dandelions, max meadow size, and max ladybug count at above 5 FPS.
Let it b known (heh) that b may just be the most graphically intensive game known to man.
I can run Control at max settings with ray-tracing and get consistently above 80 FPS.
I can't run b at max dandelions, max meadow size, and max ladybug count at above 5 FPS.
Let it b known (heh) that b may just be the most graphically intensive game known to man.
Still riding that high off of the final case from Trials and Tribulations. Hilarious yet manages to tell a compelling story, and really makes you feel like a genius once you figure out what's really going on. The highs far outweigh the lows of the original trilogy and I'd recommend this to just about anyone.
Miegakure
TBD
I've played this before, and its just ok.
Minecraft
2011
Where better to find some simple encapsulation of the modern digital age video game space than in the storied development of the failure of Minecraft? Notch started out like any of us would, a simplefat swedish man, stealing basic game concepts and code outright from a better that game neither he nor anyone reading this will understand (Zachtronics games are above and beyond and behind all of Minecraft, paring it's fingernails). As Minecraft proliferated online, thanks in large part to some dedicated posting on questionable forums, Notch inflated both his sense of self and his physical stature. His ego grew commensurate with his player base. Can any of you reading this really say you wouldn't sell out your friends and company for Four Billion Fucking Dollars?
But look again: Notch demonstrates something perhaps more chilling and grotesque than simple thievery or selling out. As Notch sat fatly on his great wealth in an emptylarge Los Angeles mansion, abandoned by his non-loving wife; as he dropped tab after tab of presumably high grade acid, alone surrounded by the glow of computer and phone screen on late night Twitter sprees; as the curve of his arc gained speed and turned fully toward right wing fanatacism--there is a trajectory here known toward all gamers, coveted, feared. Notch must have known, we think, deep down, that the cash and celebrity would bring him no true solace. As he settled back down into the normality of his life post-explosion, post-divorce, post-celebrity, and post he did, did anything really change? Look not too closely into the story of Notch, ye gamers, lest ye too see the painful truth of life, love, and greater existence.
But look again: Notch demonstrates something perhaps more chilling and grotesque than simple thievery or selling out. As Notch sat fatly on his great wealth in an emptylarge Los Angeles mansion, abandoned by his non-loving wife; as he dropped tab after tab of presumably high grade acid, alone surrounded by the glow of computer and phone screen on late night Twitter sprees; as the curve of his arc gained speed and turned fully toward right wing fanatacism--there is a trajectory here known toward all gamers, coveted, feared. Notch must have known, we think, deep down, that the cash and celebrity would bring him no true solace. As he settled back down into the normality of his life post-explosion, post-divorce, post-celebrity, and post he did, did anything really change? Look not too closely into the story of Notch, ye gamers, lest ye too see the painful truth of life, love, and greater existence.
Dark Souls III
2016
Despite all of the love people seem to have for it, I didn't really fall for Dark Souls 3. To begin with, the Clownmaster Orgville fight was dissapointing, and not at all what I was expecting given the leadup in the Hallowed Bastion area. Pretty much none of the levels I explored--not even the Forest of Unkempt Fires--really had that DaS vibe that is so important. Demon Stalker was a fun boss, as was the Moss Valkyrie. And I guess filling the Essence Urn with the spirits of the Big Five was a satisfying goal--still, the final fight against Oversoul Snindermight just lacked something. I wished I was back in Lordran, fighting the first iteration of "cool old timey monster bosses," rather than this later take on it. Something was lost, a spark; the game is hollow and the characters fungible.
Omori
2020
This review contains spoilers
alright so this is going to be my review of omori. there are going to be spoilers, which is why I marked it with a spoiler warning. this is also going to be a stream of consciousness thing. I’m not going to edit this is reread it when I’m done. maybe I’ll clean up the formatting and fix spelling mistakes. maybe.
anyway, there's a lot going on in omori. I guess I’ll start with the most important thing, and that's how it all ends, and what that meant to me, because this is my review. your experiences and interpretations are going to be different, probably. I’m not here to convince you I’m right. this is just what I felt playing through omori, or I guess this is the end bit.
the ending got me, big time. I think I had stopped totally emphasizing with omori at that point though, and viewed him more as a character, which is fine, it worked. I mean I’ve never accidentally killed my sister then covered it up by making it look like a suicide. but I think we've all experienced the guilt that come with lying, and lying about something you're ashamed of. the inability to forgive yourself, to accept that you did something shitty, and to present the shitty thing you've done to people you care about. that's a universal experience. but rather that suppress the shame, the fear, the guilt, sunny embraces it. it's a part of him, and it always will be, and that's ok. you can do shitty things and still deserve to live. you deserve a chance at something better.
the actual through line of the story, I mean it worked. it got the job done. I think there was some sad baiting going on with the suicide fake out thing. I was thinking about how much it would suck if my sister committed suicide, about how hard it was on my friends with they lost siblings to mental illness. and then the story wasn't about that, which is like, ok. I was sort of on that roller coaster, but now it's a mystery thing going on, and now it's a personal story about sunny. which is fine, it worked, but it took me out at the end for a few moments. it made me realize there was a story going on. there wasn't going to be anything here for me personally, but I was on board to go with sunny on his journey.
I guess I should talk about basil. the game does a good job of making you care about him. all of sunny's friends, really, are well written. it speaks well to the games writing that I wanted sunny to live for them, because I didn't want them to suffer another loss.
which sort of leads me to the next thing, and it's hard for me to come to grips with this part. the real life stuff was stellar, really great, loved it, you know. but the dreamworld was rough. really rough. and I don't know if omori is the same game without it. it reminds me of the "filler" episodes of avatar the last airbender. they're not really filler, because you grow closer to the characters during those episodes, even if the "Main Story" doesn't go forward during those episodes.
oh also I just remembered I forgot to say, I’m probably going to contradict myself a lot during this, so like, get over it I guess. don't read this if that'll bother you.
anyway, nothing really happens in the dreamworld. or at least, that was my experience. I’ve heard that things may happen in the dreamworld if you do other things, but I didn't do that. but what did happen, was I started to care more about my companions, and that's super valuable for setting up the end of the game. and that's what's so hard for me. I want to say, "the dreamworld could've been cut down by 70% and the game would've been better for it". I really do want to say that, BUT.
and this but is huge, it's really big. I don't think the ending works as well if you don't spend all that time with your buddies in the dreamworld, and the narrative going on in the real world isn't as interesting on its own without having the dreamworld characters to compare the real ones too. like, yeah, of course dream aubrey wants to fuck omori, because sunny totally has the hots for aubrey.
sort of lost my train of thought there. I remember now. so the point I was coming to, is that doesn't necessarily mean that the dreamworld sections were the best way to get the character stuff across. I want to just say, "make the dreamworld stuff better", but that doesn't seem fair, so I guess I’ll have to break down my problems with the dreamworld. I don't know if I said this above or not, but like, the dreamworld is bad, ok? and I’m not saying I know how to fix it, but here are my issues. I had a better conclusion to this but I forgot it. maybe I’ll remember, I know it was something about how dreamworld bad and I’m not going to compare this game to undertale. it was really funny in my head.
so the first thing, right, it's gotta be the combat. hollly shit, it was so boring. I pressed a and waited for things to happen, most of the time. the boss fights were ok, but it felt like a pokemon game, where you're just trying to get the type advantage. it wasn't super deep, and mechanically there was nothing. what if there were like warioware mini games instead of turn based combat? someone should make a game like this with that instead. it'll sell a billion copies, like undertale did. like, the thing about undertale, and this might be controversial, is that it's fun to play. omori isn't.
the 2nd part, and this is totally subjective and not really worth discussing past just getting it out there, was I didn't think it was all that funny. omori's quirky, campy humor just doesn't do it for me. I think it got 2 or 3 laughs out of me the whole time. that's whatever, I don't really blame the game for that. I sort of knew what to expect coming in.
I guess I should've saved that ^ bit for last since it's not that important. the bigger issue is that nothing in the dreamworld really matters that much. on a meta level, it makes sense. the dreamworld literally does not matter, it's made up in sunny's head, and thematically it's better if the story there goes nowhere and doesn't really matter. because the dreamworld is fake, and sunny needs to wake the fuck up and smell the roses, sweaty. the dreamworld isn't as good as the real world, and that's a good message. BUT. man there were so many times I was bored out of my god damn mind in the dreamworld. I realized pretty early on that the quest for basil was going nowhere, and that nothing in the dreamworld really mattered. the side quests at the start are essentially fetch quests that just give you shit you don't really need, and they didn't have interesting stories of their own, so I started to just not do them. the overarching stories of the dreamworld doesn't matter. I don't care about space ex boyfriend, or sweetheart. I really don't, and I’m given no reason to care about them. I want to find basil, because I know that'll tie into what's happening in the real world, and it'll be interesting. instead, I sat through lines and lines of dialogue that I just could not give a shit about. and I think the game really suffers for that, like it teaches you early on that like, none of this matters. the lesson from the first area is "mash a to get through the dialogue, don't think too hard about things". that's fucking rough, and the ending of the game deserves to be set up with something better than that.
what else do I have to say? I guess just some random thoughts. the hand drawn art was great, really unique style, nice to look at. I actually liked the enemies too. wormhole was great, fucking loved that dude. the overworld though? eeeehhhh. I also wasn't super huge on the music for most of the game. I liked the overworld song in sweetheart's castle, but that's the only one that really stands out to me. the battle music was good too. and of course, the music at the ending was great.
so yeah, I guess that's it. I probably have more to say about this game. like if someone prompted me, I could say more things I bet, but that's not what this post is.
do I think you should play omori? yeah, totally. the story gets there. it really does, and I think it earns it to, for the most part. but even outside of that, the game is fascinating. it's super flawed, and that makes it fun to think about and talk about - but that's ok, right? no one's perfect, after all.
anyway, there's a lot going on in omori. I guess I’ll start with the most important thing, and that's how it all ends, and what that meant to me, because this is my review. your experiences and interpretations are going to be different, probably. I’m not here to convince you I’m right. this is just what I felt playing through omori, or I guess this is the end bit.
the ending got me, big time. I think I had stopped totally emphasizing with omori at that point though, and viewed him more as a character, which is fine, it worked. I mean I’ve never accidentally killed my sister then covered it up by making it look like a suicide. but I think we've all experienced the guilt that come with lying, and lying about something you're ashamed of. the inability to forgive yourself, to accept that you did something shitty, and to present the shitty thing you've done to people you care about. that's a universal experience. but rather that suppress the shame, the fear, the guilt, sunny embraces it. it's a part of him, and it always will be, and that's ok. you can do shitty things and still deserve to live. you deserve a chance at something better.
the actual through line of the story, I mean it worked. it got the job done. I think there was some sad baiting going on with the suicide fake out thing. I was thinking about how much it would suck if my sister committed suicide, about how hard it was on my friends with they lost siblings to mental illness. and then the story wasn't about that, which is like, ok. I was sort of on that roller coaster, but now it's a mystery thing going on, and now it's a personal story about sunny. which is fine, it worked, but it took me out at the end for a few moments. it made me realize there was a story going on. there wasn't going to be anything here for me personally, but I was on board to go with sunny on his journey.
I guess I should talk about basil. the game does a good job of making you care about him. all of sunny's friends, really, are well written. it speaks well to the games writing that I wanted sunny to live for them, because I didn't want them to suffer another loss.
which sort of leads me to the next thing, and it's hard for me to come to grips with this part. the real life stuff was stellar, really great, loved it, you know. but the dreamworld was rough. really rough. and I don't know if omori is the same game without it. it reminds me of the "filler" episodes of avatar the last airbender. they're not really filler, because you grow closer to the characters during those episodes, even if the "Main Story" doesn't go forward during those episodes.
oh also I just remembered I forgot to say, I’m probably going to contradict myself a lot during this, so like, get over it I guess. don't read this if that'll bother you.
anyway, nothing really happens in the dreamworld. or at least, that was my experience. I’ve heard that things may happen in the dreamworld if you do other things, but I didn't do that. but what did happen, was I started to care more about my companions, and that's super valuable for setting up the end of the game. and that's what's so hard for me. I want to say, "the dreamworld could've been cut down by 70% and the game would've been better for it". I really do want to say that, BUT.
and this but is huge, it's really big. I don't think the ending works as well if you don't spend all that time with your buddies in the dreamworld, and the narrative going on in the real world isn't as interesting on its own without having the dreamworld characters to compare the real ones too. like, yeah, of course dream aubrey wants to fuck omori, because sunny totally has the hots for aubrey.
sort of lost my train of thought there. I remember now. so the point I was coming to, is that doesn't necessarily mean that the dreamworld sections were the best way to get the character stuff across. I want to just say, "make the dreamworld stuff better", but that doesn't seem fair, so I guess I’ll have to break down my problems with the dreamworld. I don't know if I said this above or not, but like, the dreamworld is bad, ok? and I’m not saying I know how to fix it, but here are my issues. I had a better conclusion to this but I forgot it. maybe I’ll remember, I know it was something about how dreamworld bad and I’m not going to compare this game to undertale. it was really funny in my head.
so the first thing, right, it's gotta be the combat. hollly shit, it was so boring. I pressed a and waited for things to happen, most of the time. the boss fights were ok, but it felt like a pokemon game, where you're just trying to get the type advantage. it wasn't super deep, and mechanically there was nothing. what if there were like warioware mini games instead of turn based combat? someone should make a game like this with that instead. it'll sell a billion copies, like undertale did. like, the thing about undertale, and this might be controversial, is that it's fun to play. omori isn't.
the 2nd part, and this is totally subjective and not really worth discussing past just getting it out there, was I didn't think it was all that funny. omori's quirky, campy humor just doesn't do it for me. I think it got 2 or 3 laughs out of me the whole time. that's whatever, I don't really blame the game for that. I sort of knew what to expect coming in.
I guess I should've saved that ^ bit for last since it's not that important. the bigger issue is that nothing in the dreamworld really matters that much. on a meta level, it makes sense. the dreamworld literally does not matter, it's made up in sunny's head, and thematically it's better if the story there goes nowhere and doesn't really matter. because the dreamworld is fake, and sunny needs to wake the fuck up and smell the roses, sweaty. the dreamworld isn't as good as the real world, and that's a good message. BUT. man there were so many times I was bored out of my god damn mind in the dreamworld. I realized pretty early on that the quest for basil was going nowhere, and that nothing in the dreamworld really mattered. the side quests at the start are essentially fetch quests that just give you shit you don't really need, and they didn't have interesting stories of their own, so I started to just not do them. the overarching stories of the dreamworld doesn't matter. I don't care about space ex boyfriend, or sweetheart. I really don't, and I’m given no reason to care about them. I want to find basil, because I know that'll tie into what's happening in the real world, and it'll be interesting. instead, I sat through lines and lines of dialogue that I just could not give a shit about. and I think the game really suffers for that, like it teaches you early on that like, none of this matters. the lesson from the first area is "mash a to get through the dialogue, don't think too hard about things". that's fucking rough, and the ending of the game deserves to be set up with something better than that.
what else do I have to say? I guess just some random thoughts. the hand drawn art was great, really unique style, nice to look at. I actually liked the enemies too. wormhole was great, fucking loved that dude. the overworld though? eeeehhhh. I also wasn't super huge on the music for most of the game. I liked the overworld song in sweetheart's castle, but that's the only one that really stands out to me. the battle music was good too. and of course, the music at the ending was great.
so yeah, I guess that's it. I probably have more to say about this game. like if someone prompted me, I could say more things I bet, but that's not what this post is.
do I think you should play omori? yeah, totally. the story gets there. it really does, and I think it earns it to, for the most part. but even outside of that, the game is fascinating. it's super flawed, and that makes it fun to think about and talk about - but that's ok, right? no one's perfect, after all.
"wot if u were a boy with no personality but two hot babes fell in love with you because you were nice to them on the most basic level possible and also the hot babes were part of a marginalised group considered your property but it's ok it's not weird we promise they actually like that you are Their Master it's ok :)"
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
Lisa: The First
2012
Your basic RPGmaker child abuse misery porn wankfest. Overly brazen and edgy, even relishing the darkness it plays around in. Not worth playing for most, but perhaps an interesting window into the progression of Dingaling as a game developer; he knows how to create the moods he wants to in the player, even in something as barebones as LISA the FIRST.