applebombs
2006
Really good game that shouldn't be a game. Even in a gameplay video, you can feel the sluggishness of this game—and it's infinitely worse when the controller is in your hands. With that said, though, Rule of Rose excels at damn near everything else it does. Haunting music, Fantastic presentation, and absolutely jaw dropping storytelling. If you're playing this game, you're doing it for the story, and it does not disappoint. The big 'oh shit' moment near the game's end where everything comes together is just tremendous. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
I had 'this is a little Utena-esque' in my head from the jump and as time passed the game only proved me more and more right. This is high praise.
I had 'this is a little Utena-esque' in my head from the jump and as time passed the game only proved me more and more right. This is high praise.
2019
Straight up one of the best mystery games I've ever played. The production is ridiculous, and I mean that as praise—the music, voice acting, animation and witty dialogue all come together to form a delightful little game. Me and some friends streamed this one together, and had a grand old time trying to piece the mystery together as a group. The characters are all fun to talk to, and the sheer amount of flavor text with each one is such a treat. No bad puzzles, either, though the clock face one could be a bit agonizing.
The very final scene with the culprit fell a little flat for me, but the build to that moment is top-notch. I won't spoil it, but the "oh, shit" moment when it all comes together? Absolutely amazing.
The very final scene with the culprit fell a little flat for me, but the build to that moment is top-notch. I won't spoil it, but the "oh, shit" moment when it all comes together? Absolutely amazing.
I feel the need to say you should not get this version of this game. But it is the one I played as a kid + revisited recently, so even with its many issues its very near and dear to my heart. A farming sim unlike any other I've ever played — this game is honestly more like a boku no natsuyasumi game than most other Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games, and I think that's absolutely to its benefit. It is at once brisk and ambling—while its ingame years are shorter than your average farming sim, this is in service to its in-depth exploration of the passage of time. Getting married and having a child are key early game events, but as time goes on, your child grows, as do other children in the town. Your neighbors age, and in time, pass — the Valley's inhabitants come and go as their lives unfold alongside yours. A Wonderful Life is a game that breathes, and invites you not to shape its world, but to exist within it. It's clunky, it's dated, it looks and runs horrendously, but I don't even care. There will never be a Harvest Moon game crafted more to my sensibilities than this one.
...Well, other than the remake that lets you be gay.
...Well, other than the remake that lets you be gay.
Loved it as a kid and love it even more today. All the little intricacies of the characters' relationships with each other and the town went completely over my head when I was young! Short, sweet, and incredibly charming—if you skip the postgame, which I did, and I thank myself every day for it.
If this is a bite-sized Boku no Natsuyasumi, then I'm super excited to check out the series proper.
If this is a bite-sized Boku no Natsuyasumi, then I'm super excited to check out the series proper.
2023
I usually try my best to avoid giving kneejerk 5-star ratings, but for this game I don't even give a shit. This game is awesome. RE4, more than any other horror game I've ever seen, understands the need for paced-out scares and levity. RE4's cast hits unreal levels of charm. I coudn't go a few minutes without saying, out loud, "what the fuck" in pure, blissful awe at the way these characters are handled. If you'd told me a few years ago that my favorite RE4 character would be Ashley Graham, I wouldn't have believed you. What a triumph. It feels so nice for a game to really deliver on the legacy I'd associated with it for literally my entire conscious life.
2020
Cannot believe I accidentally started playing this on a Mad Rat Monday.
Man, I love this game. My only real gripe with it is that I wish there were more of it! Mad Rat Dead is an offbeat little game whose idiosyncrasies allow it to really click with me in ways that most of its contemporaries don't. This is a game that oozes both style and sludge, in a way that makes it feel very indie, oddly enough? I was so charmed by its presentation, endearingly clunky writing (it clunks in a way that a roomba clunks against your wall, it's cute, I like it so much), and fucking UNMATCHED penis music OST that I REGULARLY forgot this was an NIS production that normally runs for like sixty goddamned dollars. I've only ever hit that specific feeling of charm with, like... Neon White? Maybe PaRappa the Rapper? Don't dig into those comparisons too much.
All of this to say this game absolutely owns. Outside of my gripes with the lock-on attacks, it plays like a dream, and its soundtrack is an absolute triumph. Story's surprisingly sweet, too—one specific element of the ending really got to me that you have to experience to understand. It can't be captured by video. You'll understand.
Chongo Show's Mad Rat Monday is a must-listen if you like music that makes you feel like your head's exploding.
(Final boss wiped the floor with me, though. Only time I ever got a game over. Ouch.)
Man, I love this game. My only real gripe with it is that I wish there were more of it! Mad Rat Dead is an offbeat little game whose idiosyncrasies allow it to really click with me in ways that most of its contemporaries don't. This is a game that oozes both style and sludge, in a way that makes it feel very indie, oddly enough? I was so charmed by its presentation, endearingly clunky writing (it clunks in a way that a roomba clunks against your wall, it's cute, I like it so much), and fucking UNMATCHED penis music OST that I REGULARLY forgot this was an NIS production that normally runs for like sixty goddamned dollars. I've only ever hit that specific feeling of charm with, like... Neon White? Maybe PaRappa the Rapper? Don't dig into those comparisons too much.
All of this to say this game absolutely owns. Outside of my gripes with the lock-on attacks, it plays like a dream, and its soundtrack is an absolute triumph. Story's surprisingly sweet, too—one specific element of the ending really got to me that you have to experience to understand. It can't be captured by video. You'll understand.
Chongo Show's Mad Rat Monday is a must-listen if you like music that makes you feel like your head's exploding.
(Final boss wiped the floor with me, though. Only time I ever got a game over. Ouch.)
My go-to decompression game. It speaks very highly to the quality of this game if a customer service game is my go-to decompression game.
2020
Wow, that 40 hour exploration game sure was fun! It sure did feel like there was more that could have been done with it, but I'm glad it said its piece and left before it started overstaying its welcome and becoming oversaturated with mindless gacha game mechanics and unskippable cutscenes filled with brain-numbingly circular writing. It'd be a shame if that happened.
2016
This is the sorta game that you can tell I played when I was 13 because its sensibilities are so etched into my being that I can't stream it with friends without feeling like I'm baring a part of my soul to them. Still fresh, charming and sweet seven years later. Mason, Reese and Landry have the best routes.
Secret route is not my favorite but it's optional so I can pretend it doesn't exist <3
Secret route is not my favorite but it's optional so I can pretend it doesn't exist <3
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This. This is the one.
Fire Emblem Echoes is a game I think about a lot. Despite making a name for itself as a franchise with endlessly convoluted plots, I think that the Fire Emblem games that speak to me most are the ones with simple hearts. I would argue this game's heart is as simple as it comes. Not plain, just simple. Two children in a lost and found. Losing their loved ones, losing each other, losing themselves—and then reuniting with each, in their own ways, for better or for worse. A game with a simple core hinges on expert delivery, and Echoes is unmatched in the Fire Emblem series. Hidari's art style suits this game wonderfully, and Echoes has, bar none, my favorite writing in the entire franchise—up there with Trails in the Sky for my favorite writing in a JRPG period. The flavor text is charming, the supports in equal parts funny and heartfelt, and the emotional moments absolutely devastating when they want to be (something only bolstered by the voice acting). Where other Fire Emblem games aim to make the player feel powerful, this game often wisely has its leads feel small, and the player with them. You are no king. You are no queen. You're just a child born to a blue-blooded fool, and now his legacy is yours to unravel. What of your peace?
This. This is the one.
Fire Emblem Echoes is a game I think about a lot. Despite making a name for itself as a franchise with endlessly convoluted plots, I think that the Fire Emblem games that speak to me most are the ones with simple hearts. I would argue this game's heart is as simple as it comes. Not plain, just simple. Two children in a lost and found. Losing their loved ones, losing each other, losing themselves—and then reuniting with each, in their own ways, for better or for worse. A game with a simple core hinges on expert delivery, and Echoes is unmatched in the Fire Emblem series. Hidari's art style suits this game wonderfully, and Echoes has, bar none, my favorite writing in the entire franchise—up there with Trails in the Sky for my favorite writing in a JRPG period. The flavor text is charming, the supports in equal parts funny and heartfelt, and the emotional moments absolutely devastating when they want to be (something only bolstered by the voice acting). Where other Fire Emblem games aim to make the player feel powerful, this game often wisely has its leads feel small, and the player with them. You are no king. You are no queen. You're just a child born to a blue-blooded fool, and now his legacy is yours to unravel. What of your peace?
I played a randomizer of this game because I have despised Fates from launch and Conquest was the only one of the three routes I never played. The map designs were excellent, really making the most of Fates' Dragon Vein mechanic. The self-imposed difficulty of the randomizer was also a delight, since it forced me to come up with new strategies to tackle maps that were clearly designed for certain units. The writing was, of course, horrendous—I knew it would be going in, but after not touching the game for a few years, I forgot the real extent that this game goes to to pad its runtime and protect precious infant baby Corrin from doing any war crimes. Except for the time they kill an entire village of innocent Kitsune for actually no reason after 20 chapters of sparing enemy soldiers and/or having an NPC do the murder instead! Y'know, casual, unskippable genocide committed by our angel baby protagonist because we have to help their comically evil father sit on a throne that will prove he's comically evil. I hate this game.
This is the game equivalent of a kid mixing everything on their school lunch tray into a viscous, unappetizing slop. But like, man, that kid made something. Something that's never existed before. Isn't that kinda amazing? It sucks, but isn't that kinda amazing? Look at you. You invented a biohazard.
This review contains spoilers
If I had a nickel for every modern Fire Emblem game that undermines its cool overworld mechanics, gameplay intrigue, and handful of diamond in the rough characters with a central INCEST MYSTERY I would have two nickels.
This game has so much that works. A charming central hub, fun dialogue, great voice acting, replay value from every orifice, engaging (though WILDLY unbalanced—in a fun way) combat, and a cast of characters that has really grown on me over the years since this game's release. However, very little of this game works together because the connective tissue, the story and the presentation, are both cobbled together in increasingly frustrating ways. Frustrating is a great word for this game, honestly. I want to like it—I do like it, for hours at a time, before I have to talk to Rhea again or interact with Those Who Slither in the Dark or watch Edelgard and Claude change personalities and/or intelligence levels every two cutscenes. Fodlan is interesting, this cast is interesting, this game is interesting, but your intrigue is met with nothing substantial. The best parts of this game are its musings on how war is just waste with no winners (hence the absence of a so-called 'good end' or 'true end', which is a choice I agree with), and Fire Emblem Awakening did that better in a single chapter than this game did in its entire run. I have a friend who burned through all three routes of this game in a week and a half by skipping all the dialogue and they had the better experience of the two of us.
This game has so much that works. A charming central hub, fun dialogue, great voice acting, replay value from every orifice, engaging (though WILDLY unbalanced—in a fun way) combat, and a cast of characters that has really grown on me over the years since this game's release. However, very little of this game works together because the connective tissue, the story and the presentation, are both cobbled together in increasingly frustrating ways. Frustrating is a great word for this game, honestly. I want to like it—I do like it, for hours at a time, before I have to talk to Rhea again or interact with Those Who Slither in the Dark or watch Edelgard and Claude change personalities and/or intelligence levels every two cutscenes. Fodlan is interesting, this cast is interesting, this game is interesting, but your intrigue is met with nothing substantial. The best parts of this game are its musings on how war is just waste with no winners (hence the absence of a so-called 'good end' or 'true end', which is a choice I agree with), and Fire Emblem Awakening did that better in a single chapter than this game did in its entire run. I have a friend who burned through all three routes of this game in a week and a half by skipping all the dialogue and they had the better experience of the two of us.
This game sucks! I hope it doesn't introduce me to wonderful people that I now call my friends and irreversibly alter the course of my life forever!
2004
One of the best, most important indie games of all time. Like a song reverberating out from the depths of a cave, you can feel echoes of this game everywhere.