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Persona 5 Tactica
2023
This review contains spoilers
Honestly, I ended up really enjoying the game after getting used to the gameplay loop.
I am a huge Persona fan, so my expectations were definitely higher than they should be and that was probably the cause of my initial shock and discontent. However, after getting used to it, I really started to enjoy the loop, the gameplay and even got involved with the story.
The story is pretty much the main hook to keep you playing, since the game really likes the visual novel part of it. I know that all Persona games are like that, but at least the other ones had some 3D characters and environments to look at and take in the scene. I don't really mind the visual novel portion, but I can imagine being a huge turn off for many people. Anyways, I did enjoy the story and the new characters, they're not on the same level of quality as Maruki and Kasumi, but I did enjoy them a lot!
It's pretty much inevitable at this point that some characters are gonna get mischaracterized when Persona Spin-offs come out and I really felt that when it came down to Yusuke and Morgana. The game is ALWAYS pushing the joke of how poor and hungry Yusuke is, same with Morgana and how he's not a cat!!! I don't know if most people fell like this, but I really don't understand why push these jokes so much when they are not even that prominent in the original source. Admittedly, I played P5R a while ago, but I did not get the impression that these kinds of jokes were constant there, so I don't see why it is here. Not that big of a deal, just annoying.
Gameplay is fun, it's not really a "battle", it's more like puzzles. Skills and Sub-Personas does make it a little bit open to different strategies but i personally didn't feel like it changed things that much.
I overall had a really good time with it. If you really like Persona and don't mind visual novels, you're gonna enjoy it too!
I am a huge Persona fan, so my expectations were definitely higher than they should be and that was probably the cause of my initial shock and discontent. However, after getting used to it, I really started to enjoy the loop, the gameplay and even got involved with the story.
The story is pretty much the main hook to keep you playing, since the game really likes the visual novel part of it. I know that all Persona games are like that, but at least the other ones had some 3D characters and environments to look at and take in the scene. I don't really mind the visual novel portion, but I can imagine being a huge turn off for many people. Anyways, I did enjoy the story and the new characters, they're not on the same level of quality as Maruki and Kasumi, but I did enjoy them a lot!
It's pretty much inevitable at this point that some characters are gonna get mischaracterized when Persona Spin-offs come out and I really felt that when it came down to Yusuke and Morgana. The game is ALWAYS pushing the joke of how poor and hungry Yusuke is, same with Morgana and how he's not a cat!!! I don't know if most people fell like this, but I really don't understand why push these jokes so much when they are not even that prominent in the original source. Admittedly, I played P5R a while ago, but I did not get the impression that these kinds of jokes were constant there, so I don't see why it is here. Not that big of a deal, just annoying.
Gameplay is fun, it's not really a "battle", it's more like puzzles. Skills and Sub-Personas does make it a little bit open to different strategies but i personally didn't feel like it changed things that much.
I overall had a really good time with it. If you really like Persona and don't mind visual novels, you're gonna enjoy it too!
euphoria
2011
This game is wild. Essentially an eroge version of Saw with the worst fetishes imaginable. But what lies beneath is a crazy story with some fantastic twists and an amazing soundtrack. I would honestly suggest skipping a good chunk of the h-scenes since the actual storyline is good.
Alone in the Dark
1992
"I'm Alone in the Dark!"
"I'm Alone in the Dark, Too!"
Best quote ever?!
Memes aside, Alone in the Dark was always a series I knew nothing about despite my huge love for the survival horror genre (at least, the old tank control style) and this year I thought it would be nice to fix that. With how much I've heard about it being unplayable """""aged""""" dogshit I figured I wouldn't really get much out of it, but I kinda appreciated it a lot tbh? lol
My favourite aspect was definitely the atmosphere. The fact this shit came out in 1992 is actually uncanny to me. Every single document in the game is voice by various different narrators who are implied to be the writers and it's just one hell of a neat touch. The voice actors simultaneously sound as if they've had a million roles before, and like they're total amateurs. I don't know how else to describe it, the overacting is just godlike.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161553663240716368/AITD.mp4
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1163702809548570725/damned_yankees.mp4
The visuals are so antiquated but I honestly think it only adds to the vibe of the game taking place in a Lovecraftian mansion. It's not the scariest game ever but I genuinely got frightened at multiple moments in the game, including the glass shattering at the very beginning. Like Emily and Edward's models are so pixelated and jaggy (especially in their faces) they look like a living blowup doll with lipstick smeared on and a man made out of triangles, respectively. It's just hilarious seeing them slash equally awkwardly animated pirates to death. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554573090107412/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554441854525531/image.png
The music is honestly stuck in my head at this point. The game is about 2-3 hours long and only has like 4 tracks, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't immediately google a 30 minute extended cut of the ending theme the instant I finished the game. But it's the way the music is utilized in the game that truly makes it stand out like jumpscare chords in a B-horror movie; case in point https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161569731229274153/DOSBox_0.74-2.1_Cpu_speed__8000_cycles_Frameskip_0_Program__INDARK_2023-10-11_03-41-54.mp4
The story of course is nothing deep, but I really love how the documents all serve to create a cohesive sense of setting, that the player truly is Alone in the Dark mansion as they piece together puzzle solutions from the aforementioned overacted documents. There are also some books that will kill the player upon reading them which is still something unique to do in the survival horror genre even today.
Also, a misconception to address. Motherfuckers online said there are no differences between the male and female main characters, and I'm here to say that's a load of horseshit. Even without finishing the game as Edward, I noticed that Emily's campaign differed in multiple ways including her intro being different and her monologuing about her deceased uncle upon finding his pictures. Though, frankly, I 99% just played her on account of her running animation not looking like she had a candle stuck all the way up her arse https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554246462877786/run_animation.mp4
Right, the running and document reading....
The gameplay loop is funny as fuck ngl. Cheap deaths are so frequent in the game that I would dare to call it fake difficulty, save for the the player can quick save and quick load multiple files, with my favourite out of left field death being this one: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1052492536125607966/1162324435752202300/AITDeez_nuts.mp4
Hell, I'd go as far as to say that the game WOULD be unplayable dogshit were it not for the quick saving and quick loading. No judgement to anyone who uses them, but I personally never use save states in emulators since I feel like it removes all the fun from challenges to overcome for me and also prevents me from fairly judging a game as it's more akin to repeatedly bashing my head on a wall than improving my fundamentals. Alone in the Dead feels like a game that simply could not exist in a playable state without these save states, and I feel no guilt using them since the game was clearly balanced around them.
An example of this can be found in the gunplay. On top of having BS deaths to worry about, the characters cannot aim for shit with the rifle especially. Readying a gun or sword takes a trillion years and there is no snappy auto-aiming, so smol monsters can and will just stunlock the player until all 50 HP are depleted. It's so egregious!
Thankfully, the player can just as easily stunlock enemies with their melee attacks (which shockingly were much better to the point I actually had fun meleeing the zombies to death) provided their positioning is on point.
Hell, I even kinda liked the gameplay on the whole. Exploring the mansion was pretty fun, it was more compact than I expected and the running was quite fluid despite the lack of a quick turn. I've seen people online post about how the running was super finnicky and unreliable, but a pro tip to all reading who are interested in playing this....
The default GOG config is borked. There, I said it. In DOSbox, increasing CPU cycles makes inputs delayed and less reliable. By using CTRL+F11 and CTRL+F12, one can manually adjust the virtual CPU cycles. Setting them somewhere in the 8000-10000 range should just about serve to make the running animation consistent, definitely something to experiment with.
I'm not sure if the CPU cycles affected the jumping either (I doubt it tho) but with the complaints I heard about the platforming in the final area, I was surprised I managed to perfectly platform across everything first try. It was kinda rad actually.
Fuck it, this is a pretty strong 7.5/10 to me. If the game was better balanced, there was more music, the main characters were fleshed out a bit better, the experience was slightly scarier, and especially if the weapons didn't suck ass to use, this could be a strong 8+/10 game.
However, the fact it was the first true attempt at a 3D survival horror game, yet still managed to have unique ideas for the genre even today, memorable voice acting even if not necessarily for the right reasons, 2 campaigns with minimal bugginess to them, and an otherworldly atmosphere? I just can't help but love it. Truly one of the most important video games of all time, I definitely respect the vision. Happy October!
"I'm Alone in the Dark, Too!"
Best quote ever?!
Memes aside, Alone in the Dark was always a series I knew nothing about despite my huge love for the survival horror genre (at least, the old tank control style) and this year I thought it would be nice to fix that. With how much I've heard about it being unplayable """""aged""""" dogshit I figured I wouldn't really get much out of it, but I kinda appreciated it a lot tbh? lol
My favourite aspect was definitely the atmosphere. The fact this shit came out in 1992 is actually uncanny to me. Every single document in the game is voice by various different narrators who are implied to be the writers and it's just one hell of a neat touch. The voice actors simultaneously sound as if they've had a million roles before, and like they're total amateurs. I don't know how else to describe it, the overacting is just godlike.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161553663240716368/AITD.mp4
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1163702809548570725/damned_yankees.mp4
The visuals are so antiquated but I honestly think it only adds to the vibe of the game taking place in a Lovecraftian mansion. It's not the scariest game ever but I genuinely got frightened at multiple moments in the game, including the glass shattering at the very beginning. Like Emily and Edward's models are so pixelated and jaggy (especially in their faces) they look like a living blowup doll with lipstick smeared on and a man made out of triangles, respectively. It's just hilarious seeing them slash equally awkwardly animated pirates to death. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554573090107412/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554441854525531/image.png
The music is honestly stuck in my head at this point. The game is about 2-3 hours long and only has like 4 tracks, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't immediately google a 30 minute extended cut of the ending theme the instant I finished the game. But it's the way the music is utilized in the game that truly makes it stand out like jumpscare chords in a B-horror movie; case in point https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161569731229274153/DOSBox_0.74-2.1_Cpu_speed__8000_cycles_Frameskip_0_Program__INDARK_2023-10-11_03-41-54.mp4
The story of course is nothing deep, but I really love how the documents all serve to create a cohesive sense of setting, that the player truly is Alone in the Dark mansion as they piece together puzzle solutions from the aforementioned overacted documents. There are also some books that will kill the player upon reading them which is still something unique to do in the survival horror genre even today.
Also, a misconception to address. Motherfuckers online said there are no differences between the male and female main characters, and I'm here to say that's a load of horseshit. Even without finishing the game as Edward, I noticed that Emily's campaign differed in multiple ways including her intro being different and her monologuing about her deceased uncle upon finding his pictures. Though, frankly, I 99% just played her on account of her running animation not looking like she had a candle stuck all the way up her arse https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554246462877786/run_animation.mp4
Right, the running and document reading....
The gameplay loop is funny as fuck ngl. Cheap deaths are so frequent in the game that I would dare to call it fake difficulty, save for the the player can quick save and quick load multiple files, with my favourite out of left field death being this one: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1052492536125607966/1162324435752202300/AITDeez_nuts.mp4
Hell, I'd go as far as to say that the game WOULD be unplayable dogshit were it not for the quick saving and quick loading. No judgement to anyone who uses them, but I personally never use save states in emulators since I feel like it removes all the fun from challenges to overcome for me and also prevents me from fairly judging a game as it's more akin to repeatedly bashing my head on a wall than improving my fundamentals. Alone in the Dead feels like a game that simply could not exist in a playable state without these save states, and I feel no guilt using them since the game was clearly balanced around them.
An example of this can be found in the gunplay. On top of having BS deaths to worry about, the characters cannot aim for shit with the rifle especially. Readying a gun or sword takes a trillion years and there is no snappy auto-aiming, so smol monsters can and will just stunlock the player until all 50 HP are depleted. It's so egregious!
Thankfully, the player can just as easily stunlock enemies with their melee attacks (which shockingly were much better to the point I actually had fun meleeing the zombies to death) provided their positioning is on point.
Hell, I even kinda liked the gameplay on the whole. Exploring the mansion was pretty fun, it was more compact than I expected and the running was quite fluid despite the lack of a quick turn. I've seen people online post about how the running was super finnicky and unreliable, but a pro tip to all reading who are interested in playing this....
The default GOG config is borked. There, I said it. In DOSbox, increasing CPU cycles makes inputs delayed and less reliable. By using CTRL+F11 and CTRL+F12, one can manually adjust the virtual CPU cycles. Setting them somewhere in the 8000-10000 range should just about serve to make the running animation consistent, definitely something to experiment with.
I'm not sure if the CPU cycles affected the jumping either (I doubt it tho) but with the complaints I heard about the platforming in the final area, I was surprised I managed to perfectly platform across everything first try. It was kinda rad actually.
Fuck it, this is a pretty strong 7.5/10 to me. If the game was better balanced, there was more music, the main characters were fleshed out a bit better, the experience was slightly scarier, and especially if the weapons didn't suck ass to use, this could be a strong 8+/10 game.
However, the fact it was the first true attempt at a 3D survival horror game, yet still managed to have unique ideas for the genre even today, memorable voice acting even if not necessarily for the right reasons, 2 campaigns with minimal bugginess to them, and an otherworldly atmosphere? I just can't help but love it. Truly one of the most important video games of all time, I definitely respect the vision. Happy October!
Petz: Dogz 2
2007
I remember crying as a kid when I got to the part where they go to jail
Petz: Catz 2
2007
im convinced god himself came to earth to write the music for this game
Petz: Catz 2
2007
peak of gaming ngl
Spyro: Shadow Legacy
2005
This is one of those uniquely bad games where I both hate it but also feel like more people should experience it. It's just such a weird fit for this franchise that also kinda flies under the radar when people talk Spyro. I mean, look at the box art. Look at Spyro's superhero pose and the muted painterly style combined with his 90's era platformer hero design. The whole game's like that.
Shadow Legacy tries so hard to be a love letter to all the previous Spyro games with constant reminders to earlier games while also throwing the charm and story tone of the previous games away in favor of more muted color palettes and a darker story with spiky tentacles and void monsters.
In some ways, you can call this game the bridge between the Classic Spyro era and The Legend of Spyro era, which is why the game feels like an awkward mishmash of two different flavors that just don't taste great together. All of your loved ones are pulled into an alternate shadow dimension and drained of their life force in this game where you also help an armadillo dressed as a cowboy find true love, which would sound interesting if done right but instead both of these scenarios have the most boring by-the-numbers writing and lack any charm that never revels in any of the absurdity. Red, the main bad guy from Spyro: A Hero's Tail, gets a redemption arc in this game and not a single Spyro fan cares because the script is as muddy and dull as these muted purples I'm constantly being bombarded with as I play this game.
As for the gameplay, it's bad. You need to draw a triangle on the touch screen to open the map. The X button is used for opening doors, activating portals, and attacking enemies, which will backfire on you multiple times. Combat is mindless. The perspective issues of the GBA games are even worse here.
And yet...I feel like this game needs to be seen by more people. This is crap but every Spyro fan needs to see the awkward attempts at new Spyro lore like "Hunter's father is losing his eyesight from The Darkness" and "Moneybags has a wife and four sons, and his four sons might be a reference to DuckTales". Bad game, gets a higher score than it deserves for being this bizarre mix of dull and fascinating.
Shadow Legacy tries so hard to be a love letter to all the previous Spyro games with constant reminders to earlier games while also throwing the charm and story tone of the previous games away in favor of more muted color palettes and a darker story with spiky tentacles and void monsters.
In some ways, you can call this game the bridge between the Classic Spyro era and The Legend of Spyro era, which is why the game feels like an awkward mishmash of two different flavors that just don't taste great together. All of your loved ones are pulled into an alternate shadow dimension and drained of their life force in this game where you also help an armadillo dressed as a cowboy find true love, which would sound interesting if done right but instead both of these scenarios have the most boring by-the-numbers writing and lack any charm that never revels in any of the absurdity. Red, the main bad guy from Spyro: A Hero's Tail, gets a redemption arc in this game and not a single Spyro fan cares because the script is as muddy and dull as these muted purples I'm constantly being bombarded with as I play this game.
As for the gameplay, it's bad. You need to draw a triangle on the touch screen to open the map. The X button is used for opening doors, activating portals, and attacking enemies, which will backfire on you multiple times. Combat is mindless. The perspective issues of the GBA games are even worse here.
And yet...I feel like this game needs to be seen by more people. This is crap but every Spyro fan needs to see the awkward attempts at new Spyro lore like "Hunter's father is losing his eyesight from The Darkness" and "Moneybags has a wife and four sons, and his four sons might be a reference to DuckTales". Bad game, gets a higher score than it deserves for being this bizarre mix of dull and fascinating.
as sincerely invested in being a horror story as a Jeff the Killer fanfic. does for incest what Changed did for latex furry TF pornography, isn't much beyond that though dudes will swear otherwise. its focus is purely on its incestuous siblings and their sick 'n twisted toxic dynamic - which it thinks is hot. i'm not offended by incest porn but idk why you'd pretend this isn't that. you will witness legions of valorant eboys and egirls with personalities as appealing as their amazon basics LED bedroom lights adopt matching PFPs of it with a FOTM fervour like the many Chainsaw Man (Power i'm so sorry) characters before them. seventeen year old and thirty-two year old fandom-type gay people will probably doxx each other over it. it will be seen as 'reddit' within six months and forgotten shortly after.
black panther for tumblr proshippers
Introduction
I had never heard of this game until the Steam announcement in late September. Looking at it made me quite interested, since I'm a sucker for indie horror stuff, plus the visual style reeled me in a bit as well. What followed was...something, to say the least.
Gameplay
To be honest, with games like this, it isn't fair to critique the gameplay since it isn't a main focus. It's a simple 2D game where you can interact with various things to see the characters' thoughts on them, and you have yourself a button to run. Other than that, there really is no gameplay, so there is nothing for me to talk about or really criticize.
Story (NO SPOILERS)
You play as both Andrew and Ashley, a pair of siblings who have quite a complicated relationship. Ashley is a bit...clingy to Andrew, and Andrew just kinda tolerates her bullshit. Both Andrew and Ashley did some messed up things in the past, and so they (more specifically, Andrew) struggle with it in their current days. They live in a shitty, quarantined apartment, which they were left at due to their parents. Hijinks ensue...
Characters
This is where my major complaints come in at with our two protagonists. Andrew has no backbone when it comes to Ashley's attitude and bullshit. The most he'll do is tell her to fuck off or back away from him, yet he immediately goes back to kissing her ass mere moments later and being all lovey-dovey with her. He hardly ever stands up for himself and instead lets Ashley pin the blame on him for nearly damn everything. He flip-flops between being mad at Ashley and not wanting to continue doing the things that they do together, to immediately being playful with her and playing along with things that she says.
Ashley has plenty of issues, just like Andrew. Ashley is such an annoying character to both play as and to be around. She constantly bitches and nags about anything Andrew says or does, and the moment a single damn female is in his radius, she goes straight to saying shit like "Oh, Andrew, am I not PRETTY enough for you?" and other things in that tone. To make matters even worse, as I stated earlier, Ashley pins the blame on Andrew for everything that SHE thought of/wanted to do. Both of these characters are completely insufferable, which leads me to not liking them or enjoying their dialogue half of the time.
The only character I enjoyed was their mother in Chapter 2. I won't go into detail about anything, but I enjoyed her dialogue and her screen time FAR more than I enjoyed Andrew and Ashley's bickering.
Conclusion
Ultimately, I'm torn on how I feel about this game. On one hand, it has good music and a cute/spooky art style. On the other, it has awful characters and bad writing. I truly want to enjoy this game, and I plan on playing through Chapter 3 when it releases, but as of now, I do not expect to enjoy Andrew and Ashley's adventures anytime soon.
I had never heard of this game until the Steam announcement in late September. Looking at it made me quite interested, since I'm a sucker for indie horror stuff, plus the visual style reeled me in a bit as well. What followed was...something, to say the least.
Gameplay
To be honest, with games like this, it isn't fair to critique the gameplay since it isn't a main focus. It's a simple 2D game where you can interact with various things to see the characters' thoughts on them, and you have yourself a button to run. Other than that, there really is no gameplay, so there is nothing for me to talk about or really criticize.
Story (NO SPOILERS)
You play as both Andrew and Ashley, a pair of siblings who have quite a complicated relationship. Ashley is a bit...clingy to Andrew, and Andrew just kinda tolerates her bullshit. Both Andrew and Ashley did some messed up things in the past, and so they (more specifically, Andrew) struggle with it in their current days. They live in a shitty, quarantined apartment, which they were left at due to their parents. Hijinks ensue...
Characters
This is where my major complaints come in at with our two protagonists. Andrew has no backbone when it comes to Ashley's attitude and bullshit. The most he'll do is tell her to fuck off or back away from him, yet he immediately goes back to kissing her ass mere moments later and being all lovey-dovey with her. He hardly ever stands up for himself and instead lets Ashley pin the blame on him for nearly damn everything. He flip-flops between being mad at Ashley and not wanting to continue doing the things that they do together, to immediately being playful with her and playing along with things that she says.
Ashley has plenty of issues, just like Andrew. Ashley is such an annoying character to both play as and to be around. She constantly bitches and nags about anything Andrew says or does, and the moment a single damn female is in his radius, she goes straight to saying shit like "Oh, Andrew, am I not PRETTY enough for you?" and other things in that tone. To make matters even worse, as I stated earlier, Ashley pins the blame on Andrew for everything that SHE thought of/wanted to do. Both of these characters are completely insufferable, which leads me to not liking them or enjoying their dialogue half of the time.
The only character I enjoyed was their mother in Chapter 2. I won't go into detail about anything, but I enjoyed her dialogue and her screen time FAR more than I enjoyed Andrew and Ashley's bickering.
Conclusion
Ultimately, I'm torn on how I feel about this game. On one hand, it has good music and a cute/spooky art style. On the other, it has awful characters and bad writing. I truly want to enjoy this game, and I plan on playing through Chapter 3 when it releases, but as of now, I do not expect to enjoy Andrew and Ashley's adventures anytime soon.
The Cat Lady
2012
Have you ever held a game so close to your heart that you can't bear to read negative reviews on it?
I'm not going to be the person who says "This game saved my life!", but I will say The Cat Lady did a lot for me.
I was 11 or 12 when I first watched a playthrough of this game. For the most part I was much too young to really understand the subtleties and overarching messages, but by that age I was already struggling with my mental health. I won't get into details, but I was already extremely depressed and deeply contemplating taking my own life.
I vividly remember watching the early part of The Cat Lady, where Susan wakes up in the afterlife and meets the Queen of Maggots, and it shook me to my fucking core. It scared me. It was the first time I'd been faced with the concept of suicide meaning I'd wake up somewhere bleak and terrifying and sinister and revolting, that it wouldn't be an escape to somewhere peaceful and relieving at all. I couldn't get it out of my head, couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of something like that being real - I was a kid with a very overactive imagination who often had night terrors at the slightest glimpse of a Scary Thing or piece of media, and my brain took this and ran with it.
And I was too scared to go through with it. I was, unironically, too scared to risk meeting this fucking maggot lady.
And, God, was I pissed at this game. I hated it. I was so incredibly angry that it had scared me away from what I'd been viewing as a solution. If I just hadn't watched it, if I just hadn't experienced this story, I would've been able to do it.
My memory of it and my fear faded over the years, and I would go on to indeed attempt suicide several times. The last time would be the worst, and I ended up in intensive care for two weeks with doctors trying to save my internal organs from shutting down.
And then I came out the other side. That was two years ago now, and I can now say with full honesty I don't want to die anymore. In fact, sometimes I'm even brave enough to call myself happy. I'm engaged to a wonderful fiancee, I have a solid support network of amazing friends who care about me, my confidence is growing, and I'm proud of who I've become and am becoming.
And so I played this game again.
The Cat Lady is heavy on the heart. It's not a light game you can play on stream, or sink into to take your mind off reality. It's a visceral and real look into the psyche of a depressed, bitterly suicidal woman, and it doesn't make her palatable for you. Susan is resentful, she's cynical, she's reclusive and messy and often rude. But her journey, through her mission and her friendship with Mitzi and her backstory unfurling to the player and her love for her cats and her mental health and her path to learn to live again - it's so, so special. It's really something for a game so unabashedly raw and unfiltered to leave you with a sense of genuine hope and optimism and appreciation for life when the credits roll.
At 11, I hated The Cat Lady for forcing me to live, and now at almost 24 I love it for being here while I learn to do it myself. It took us 13 years to do it, but Susan and I climbed that insurmountable cliff side by side, and for that I'll always sing this game's praises.
I'm not going to be the person who says "This game saved my life!", but I will say The Cat Lady did a lot for me.
I was 11 or 12 when I first watched a playthrough of this game. For the most part I was much too young to really understand the subtleties and overarching messages, but by that age I was already struggling with my mental health. I won't get into details, but I was already extremely depressed and deeply contemplating taking my own life.
I vividly remember watching the early part of The Cat Lady, where Susan wakes up in the afterlife and meets the Queen of Maggots, and it shook me to my fucking core. It scared me. It was the first time I'd been faced with the concept of suicide meaning I'd wake up somewhere bleak and terrifying and sinister and revolting, that it wouldn't be an escape to somewhere peaceful and relieving at all. I couldn't get it out of my head, couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of something like that being real - I was a kid with a very overactive imagination who often had night terrors at the slightest glimpse of a Scary Thing or piece of media, and my brain took this and ran with it.
And I was too scared to go through with it. I was, unironically, too scared to risk meeting this fucking maggot lady.
And, God, was I pissed at this game. I hated it. I was so incredibly angry that it had scared me away from what I'd been viewing as a solution. If I just hadn't watched it, if I just hadn't experienced this story, I would've been able to do it.
My memory of it and my fear faded over the years, and I would go on to indeed attempt suicide several times. The last time would be the worst, and I ended up in intensive care for two weeks with doctors trying to save my internal organs from shutting down.
And then I came out the other side. That was two years ago now, and I can now say with full honesty I don't want to die anymore. In fact, sometimes I'm even brave enough to call myself happy. I'm engaged to a wonderful fiancee, I have a solid support network of amazing friends who care about me, my confidence is growing, and I'm proud of who I've become and am becoming.
And so I played this game again.
The Cat Lady is heavy on the heart. It's not a light game you can play on stream, or sink into to take your mind off reality. It's a visceral and real look into the psyche of a depressed, bitterly suicidal woman, and it doesn't make her palatable for you. Susan is resentful, she's cynical, she's reclusive and messy and often rude. But her journey, through her mission and her friendship with Mitzi and her backstory unfurling to the player and her love for her cats and her mental health and her path to learn to live again - it's so, so special. It's really something for a game so unabashedly raw and unfiltered to leave you with a sense of genuine hope and optimism and appreciation for life when the credits roll.
At 11, I hated The Cat Lady for forcing me to live, and now at almost 24 I love it for being here while I learn to do it myself. It took us 13 years to do it, but Susan and I climbed that insurmountable cliff side by side, and for that I'll always sing this game's praises.
What's bad about this game that hasn't been stated already? Absolutely nothing, every other review on this page sums up clearly the issues this project faces.
Allow me to give you a TLDR.
-Incompetent developer
-Janky gameplay
-Poor optimization
-Bad animations
-Boring. It's just so goddamn boring.
-Incomplete and it's going to stay that way. This man is never going to complete anything ever in his whole life.
I feel sorry for all of the unpaid volunteers that tried to help this game get finished and that poor outside developer that quite literally REWROTE the spaghetti code this game had only for the main developer to kick him to the curb because he didn't understand it. just get good bruh or hand it over to someone else you're just not good enough swallow your pride your fans are more important than your ego you asshole
also are we all really that surprised the developer has accusations against him this game literally has a panty shot mechanic for its HIGHSCHOOL characters and two of the rivals for the teen boy are teachers WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!
anyway the concept for this game is good if anyone can do it better please do it better and dont set it in highschool leave teenage girls alone bro
Allow me to give you a TLDR.
-Incompetent developer
-Janky gameplay
-Poor optimization
-Bad animations
-Boring. It's just so goddamn boring.
-Incomplete and it's going to stay that way. This man is never going to complete anything ever in his whole life.
I feel sorry for all of the unpaid volunteers that tried to help this game get finished and that poor outside developer that quite literally REWROTE the spaghetti code this game had only for the main developer to kick him to the curb because he didn't understand it. just get good bruh or hand it over to someone else you're just not good enough swallow your pride your fans are more important than your ego you asshole
also are we all really that surprised the developer has accusations against him this game literally has a panty shot mechanic for its HIGHSCHOOL characters and two of the rivals for the teen boy are teachers WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!
anyway the concept for this game is good if anyone can do it better please do it better and dont set it in highschool leave teenage girls alone bro
This game is buggy, occasionally appalling design and writing that is often contrived, but that doesn't stop it from also having an odd charm, solid aesthetic, an often great soundtrack and sequences that border on art house. It seems the studio is taking steps to correct almost every complaint about the game (shorter monologues, persona-esque combat, instant level ups, battle balancing, reworking of tone-deaf bosses), though too little too late for most, is always something I can respect. I can guarantee every .5 review is from someone who came to a conclusion through video essays. I 100%ed this shit, and let me tell you, it is far from irredeemable. I'm not here to recommend it, just to say there is clearly a lot of passion and good ideas here, even if their execution didn't pay off. Though most won't make it far enough, the ending is admittedly quite brilliant.
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.
I don't get it. This is the second time I have given this game a chance. I tried the PS3 version of the PS2 original about a decade ago, and I figured that maybe this newer version would remedy the problems I had. I feel like I'm being gaslit in to believing it's a good video game. This has got to be the biggest discrepancy in terms of critical acclaim vs. how I feel. I legitimately think it's a bad one. Without exaggeration, I'm giving it a 1/5. The only redeeming qualities are the lovely music and the sense of atmosphere/scale it provides. Outside of that, there's nothing to enjoy here.
The only feeling I felt while playing was frustration. And no, I don't think it's due to it being 'difficult'. It's just annoying. I got through the first 3 colossi without much issue. I just have no desire to continue on.
Agro is one of the worst controlling horses in all of video games. Imagine the absolute horror of using this thing after experiencing the perfection of the double-jumping horse that can turn on a dime in Elden Ring.
Jumping feels bad. Climbing feels bad. Orienting the camera is a pain. It constantly wants to shift the camera to behind you to give you a cinematic view. I want to put the camera facing behind me as I run away from the giant beast, game! Why can't I do that without it fighting with me to re-center?
This game is nothing but a lump of frustration covered in a thin layer of intriguing aspects like the world/ambience.
Yes, I know it's "intended" for things to be frustrating but that doesn't excuse it. That's a bad decision. Nothing should feel intentionally bad - this is a video game. If something is going to feel "intentionally difficult to perform" it should still be fun to try to figure out and overcome. There's no fun to be had here. That would be like someone sitting beside me as I play a Zelda game and punching me in the face every time I try to use a weapon against the boss. "It's immersive, bro!"
Like I said, this second attempt at playing this has solidified my opinion even further. This has got to be the single most overrated game of all time. It's not like other games such as Pikmin, Animal Crossing, or Microsoft Flight Simulator where I can look at it and go "you know what? That's a great game - it's just not for me." No, this is not a great game. I refuse to accept that people genuinely feel that way about this. It's bad.
Sorry for such a negative rant, but I don't know how else to put it. LOL
The only feeling I felt while playing was frustration. And no, I don't think it's due to it being 'difficult'. It's just annoying. I got through the first 3 colossi without much issue. I just have no desire to continue on.
Agro is one of the worst controlling horses in all of video games. Imagine the absolute horror of using this thing after experiencing the perfection of the double-jumping horse that can turn on a dime in Elden Ring.
Jumping feels bad. Climbing feels bad. Orienting the camera is a pain. It constantly wants to shift the camera to behind you to give you a cinematic view. I want to put the camera facing behind me as I run away from the giant beast, game! Why can't I do that without it fighting with me to re-center?
This game is nothing but a lump of frustration covered in a thin layer of intriguing aspects like the world/ambience.
Yes, I know it's "intended" for things to be frustrating but that doesn't excuse it. That's a bad decision. Nothing should feel intentionally bad - this is a video game. If something is going to feel "intentionally difficult to perform" it should still be fun to try to figure out and overcome. There's no fun to be had here. That would be like someone sitting beside me as I play a Zelda game and punching me in the face every time I try to use a weapon against the boss. "It's immersive, bro!"
Like I said, this second attempt at playing this has solidified my opinion even further. This has got to be the single most overrated game of all time. It's not like other games such as Pikmin, Animal Crossing, or Microsoft Flight Simulator where I can look at it and go "you know what? That's a great game - it's just not for me." No, this is not a great game. I refuse to accept that people genuinely feel that way about this. It's bad.
Sorry for such a negative rant, but I don't know how else to put it. LOL