This game has a very creative and unconventional approach to its world-building and it manages to create something oozing with identity. On top of this, the entire game acts as a very blatant sardonic property parallelling a wide variety of social and capitalistic issues we experience within society. It manages to present these ideas in its own charming way which gives a whole new layer of substance to the game itself. The game will beat you while you're down, pretty much everything in this game is extremely punishing and the allegoric properties display themselves pretty much as soon as you start the game. Expanding upon this, the game's brutality manages to create such a rich and uncanny atmosphere, things feel incredibly uneasy and unwelcoming until you progress further and begin to understand the world and how this society works. Through completing the various sidequests in the game, your heart grows stronger, allowing you to feel less vulnerable to the hardships of the world around you. Alongside this, everything runs through a day-by-day cycle, each individual lives the same daily routine until you interact with them, potentially sparking a change in how they go about things, or beginning a new side quest. Games built around this sort of system inherently grow stronger when it comes to their world as you end up learning and understanding so much of the setting and people who live there. Games like Majora's Mask or Outer Wilds for example have very detailed worlds that leave an impression due to how rich they are, and Chulip is no different. Another aspect of the game is the obtuse mystery-solving element. Through trading the various cards you get with all the people around you, you understand their relationships and begin to see how you can help this miserable world, and ultimately kiss them. That's one thing I should really emphasize too, this game's world truly is miserable. We see an abusive relationship within a broken household, individuals stripped of their passions due to society paying those focusing on productivity-based occupations far more than any artist, and the despair of living life after the loss of a loved one. It's a cruel journey and an excellent antiphrasis given the cartoony style with its art direction, musical direction, and dialogue, while also covering some extremely heavy subject matter. Some of what you have to do is a little out there for sure, in fact, due to the shortcomings of the English translation, it's quite literally impossible to figure out one of this game's puzzles without extensive trial and error or using a guide, however, they're not cryptic for the sake of being cryptic, it just forced you to really keep track of what's going on and note any of the connection you see in the world. The only other real issue with the game is the lack of depth put into the Underground Residents. They're individuals who are seen as outcasts of society as they fulfill the role of the artist. They alienate themselves from everyone as they simply can't fit in, yet we see that it's the underground residents the fuel so much of what makes society work despite their reputations. Once you help these people out (kiss them) they thank you and no longer exist within the underground, which is pretty obvious symbolism for them understanding their value and being able to move on and progress through life without being concerned about their role or lack of importance within society. This from a thematic standpoint is really deep and thought-provoking...however it's impeded heavily by the fact that the methods of helping out 85% of these guys are braindead easy, and are essentially stripped down to "be at the right place at the right time." That's it. And when so many individuals who, ironically are in the position that they're in due to their individuality and creative role as an artist with something worth presenting to the world, manage to lack an identity entirely because you go about kissing them in the same manner you do for almost every single one of these guys. It doesn't have to be incredibly intricate, just something simple to set these guys apart Jigsaw works really well for establishing them as unique...however this sadly isn't what's done and leaves the game really half-baked for a very vital aspect of the property as a whole. Overall though, Chulip is an unforgivingly unique adventure that anyone willing to try some more abstract games out should definitely give a go.

I was a big fan of O.G. Infinity Ward, so I was a bit disappointed that the original Titanfall was out of my reach. Parkour! Giant robots! That tight arcade shooter gameplay that IW was known for! Needless to say I was thrilled to be able to jump into Titanfall 2 with a campaign available, and what a campaign it was. It had giant robots, it had dinosaurs, and it had one of the coolest mechanics I've seen in a shooter. It didn't overstay its welcome, there was never a lull in the action, and the character of B.T. really added a lot of personality to the story. It was satisfying and self-contained enough that I was both happy with the experience and didn't leave me wanting more.