fancyynancyy
2023
A somewhat interesting concept, but a sloppy execution.
Similar to Infra because of the exploration and camera, but exclusively photography oriented. Though I don't know why you would choose to make a game about picture making and ruin it by having the indie pixelated PSX look with all the grainy mess going on. The closer you are, the worst the object looks, so your best bet is to take photos from mid-range or afar. There are even some (hideous) level-specific filters that affect your camera directly... so you would say "this looks cool", take a picture, and for it to come out different from what you're seeing.
Also, isn't like the point of liminal stuff to be creeped out from the environments themselves? Like the uncanny feeling or whatever? Something tells me that the dev was not too confident on transmitting that feeling (well, it didn't) since the game is plagued by these shadowy-men working as scares. Similar to the shadow figures you would see on a liminal Gmod map, though at least in those the figure is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing that makes you question if you actually did see something.
Anyway, probably the best liminal game that you could play, so... there's that.
Similar to Infra because of the exploration and camera, but exclusively photography oriented. Though I don't know why you would choose to make a game about picture making and ruin it by having the indie pixelated PSX look with all the grainy mess going on. The closer you are, the worst the object looks, so your best bet is to take photos from mid-range or afar. There are even some (hideous) level-specific filters that affect your camera directly... so you would say "this looks cool", take a picture, and for it to come out different from what you're seeing.
Also, isn't like the point of liminal stuff to be creeped out from the environments themselves? Like the uncanny feeling or whatever? Something tells me that the dev was not too confident on transmitting that feeling (well, it didn't) since the game is plagued by these shadowy-men working as scares. Similar to the shadow figures you would see on a liminal Gmod map, though at least in those the figure is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing that makes you question if you actually did see something.
Anyway, probably the best liminal game that you could play, so... there's that.
2023
Drowning In Problems if it wasn't made by a hateful person (there's even a "mechanic" here that could be somewhat compared to the one on that game). Still, some of those nihilistic sentiments are present but followed with what is a positive and much-needed reflection on them. Featuring commentary on escapism and loneliness, and the Slav setting that works as a conduit for them (I see people on steam getting tangled in its setting, but I don't think this is really about that), with a great ambiance and song choices... I think this will stick in my mind just by the music.
Watched a few playthroughs to see if I missed any details, and it's interesting to notice how the overall message also works on a meta-level. With the players that don't take time to soak in the game's world and don't interact with the people end up not finding much meaning in it (this was something I forgot to mention with A Short Hike, now that I remember).
Btw, consider turning off the pixelation filter once you start playing... made me dizzy as hell by the end.
Watched a few playthroughs to see if I missed any details, and it's interesting to notice how the overall message also works on a meta-level. With the players that don't take time to soak in the game's world and don't interact with the people end up not finding much meaning in it (this was something I forgot to mention with A Short Hike, now that I remember).
Btw, consider turning off the pixelation filter once you start playing... made me dizzy as hell by the end.
2014
Nihilistic nothingness. One of the worst things I've experienced in my time with this medium, congrats. Stay away from this, specially if you're dealing with depression or some type of anguish. Only played it for morbid curiosity but it does at least give some context as to why the person that made it is such an awful human.
Curious that the game that directly influenced Symphony of the Night, the one that seemingly everyone loves, is overwhelmingly hated because some angry nerd decided to do an awful, flawed review video and successfully manipulated a whole generation of gamers.
It's sad because there's actually a lot to love about this game. It kind of resembles modern gaming's problem in the way that gamers shun any type of experimentation whatsoever and are okay with a regurgitated Assassin's Creed camouflaged into a new IP every year. Here, instead of repeating the successful structure of the first Castlevania, they decided to try something different and ended up setting most of the fundamentals of contemporary action RPGs already in 1987. Seriously, play this with Bloodborne or the Souls games in mind, and you'll see that it's not that different. The gloomy setting; paths that split into two, with one of them leading you in the right direction and the other inaccessible until later; open world but with difficulty walls that lead you; characters that give you tips where to go with really cryptic dialogues; multiple trinkets to use; illusory/hidden walls; deadly traps; required item interactions to progress the story; NPCs that try to misdirect you; even poison swamps. It all sounds too familiar.
Now, I should mention that I've played Castlevania II with bisqwit's ROM hack that fixes the mistranslation issues (I didn't tick the optional gameplay changes), but still, without it, it'd probably be like a 4/10 minimum (and that's because of my rating system, it's probably a 6/10 minimum for most). It's nowhere near a half star like the hive mind make it out to be. I actually considered rating this a 6, but I can't ignore the instakill shenanigans and the lame bosses, specially in contrast to the original that features some great fights. On top of that, there are a few items here that completely trivializes them.
A flawed game, but overall, I loved the intent. Use bisqwit's hack and go into it with an open mind, and you probably won't hate it.
Also, if you're like 20-something+ years old, and grew up listening to retro videogame music in your adolescence you might find that some great tracks came from this. And Binding of Isaac's "What a horrible night to have a curse" reference too.
It's sad because there's actually a lot to love about this game. It kind of resembles modern gaming's problem in the way that gamers shun any type of experimentation whatsoever and are okay with a regurgitated Assassin's Creed camouflaged into a new IP every year. Here, instead of repeating the successful structure of the first Castlevania, they decided to try something different and ended up setting most of the fundamentals of contemporary action RPGs already in 1987. Seriously, play this with Bloodborne or the Souls games in mind, and you'll see that it's not that different. The gloomy setting; paths that split into two, with one of them leading you in the right direction and the other inaccessible until later; open world but with difficulty walls that lead you; characters that give you tips where to go with really cryptic dialogues; multiple trinkets to use; illusory/hidden walls; deadly traps; required item interactions to progress the story; NPCs that try to misdirect you; even poison swamps. It all sounds too familiar.
Now, I should mention that I've played Castlevania II with bisqwit's ROM hack that fixes the mistranslation issues (I didn't tick the optional gameplay changes), but still, without it, it'd probably be like a 4/10 minimum (and that's because of my rating system, it's probably a 6/10 minimum for most). It's nowhere near a half star like the hive mind make it out to be. I actually considered rating this a 6, but I can't ignore the instakill shenanigans and the lame bosses, specially in contrast to the original that features some great fights. On top of that, there are a few items here that completely trivializes them.
A flawed game, but overall, I loved the intent. Use bisqwit's hack and go into it with an open mind, and you probably won't hate it.
Also, if you're like 20-something+ years old, and grew up listening to retro videogame music in your adolescence you might find that some great tracks came from this. And Binding of Isaac's "What a horrible night to have a curse" reference too.
2024
Of all the new horror genres one can imagine, Pool-core horror is certainly one of the dumbest trends possibles.
Silly, but similar to Kid A Mnesia Exhibition in the way that shows how underused the videogame medium is with music releases. Funny, and captivating.
1989
This review contains spoilers
What an M. Night Shyamalan moment when you figure out the Alien final boss weakness was the BUBBLES out of all the weapons...
In general, better than the first. I was surprised by how fair it is, even if a few sections on the last levels try their hardest to ruin that. It doesn't feel as sadistic thanks to enemies dropping more health packs. After the first couple bosses I tried defeating the remaining without their weaknesses, because overall they feel more mechanically balanced. More enjoyable than the first game thanks to all that. I think the only boss I can complain about is Wily's second phase, the hitbox on those ball-thingies is awful. Can't really say I understand that "I Cannot Defeat Airman" song.
Btw, Dr. Wily's Castle theme >>>>> your favorite videogame song. It's only factos.
In general, better than the first. I was surprised by how fair it is, even if a few sections on the last levels try their hardest to ruin that. It doesn't feel as sadistic thanks to enemies dropping more health packs. After the first couple bosses I tried defeating the remaining without their weaknesses, because overall they feel more mechanically balanced. More enjoyable than the first game thanks to all that. I think the only boss I can complain about is Wily's second phase, the hitbox on those ball-thingies is awful. Can't really say I understand that "I Cannot Defeat Airman" song.
Btw, Dr. Wily's Castle theme >>>>> your favorite videogame song. It's only factos.
1986
Great ambiance and soundtrack makes it charming, and it's overall enjoyable gameplay-wise. Too bad that like most retro games there's some bullshitery going on, but still features some cool mechanics and boss fights (Specially the grim reaper and frankenstein fight). Also, this is how I realized that Vampire Survivors reused (stole?) this game's sprites...
1987
Fun game for how old it is tbh, got pretty far without using save states but started using them around Elec Man. I thought the weakness mechanic was interesting, even if it's a little sadistic to hide that from the players by letting them choose whatever level they want. I'm so sorry to whoever tries to do Elec Man's level without knowing they can use Cut Man's weapon to kill those killer robot mops.
Like I said It's fun, but then it came... the fucking Yellow Devil, holy shit. It's not even difficult per se, but it's so slow and tedious that you're bound to make a mistake by how long the fight is. Can't really push myself to beat it, but had fun for the most part. Take that thing out of the game, and I'll give it a 2 and a half stars.
(Finished it. Thanks to @MyGameOpinions for showing me the pause trick for Yellow Devil.)
Like I said It's fun, but then it came... the fucking Yellow Devil, holy shit. It's not even difficult per se, but it's so slow and tedious that you're bound to make a mistake by how long the fight is. Can't really push myself to beat it, but had fun for the most part. Take that thing out of the game, and I'll give it a 2 and a half stars.
(Finished it. Thanks to @MyGameOpinions for showing me the pause trick for Yellow Devil.)
1989
Played for nostalgic purposes. Had the cartridge for the megadrive when I was little. Not much to say, I haven't played any other shmup apart from this one, but I'm guessing this is a pretty generic one. There's nothing really that stands out. I think I remembered the soundtrack being kind of good... It's not.
I'm at an age where it's becoming harder to remember stuff from my childhood, but I can pinpoint this game's sounds to a tee... Funny how that works. I can probably "see" this game's noises with how much I remember them.
I'm at an age where it's becoming harder to remember stuff from my childhood, but I can pinpoint this game's sounds to a tee... Funny how that works. I can probably "see" this game's noises with how much I remember them.
2016
I think this was the first impression I had on Kitty Horrorshow a while ago (watched a random playthrough that popped up on youtube), and my opinion hasn't changed after playing it.
It's eerie and visually intriguing, but mostly thematically barren. Leechbowl works as a direct critique of industrialization presented in an angsty trivial way (0_abyssalSomewhere is similar to this, but created its own fantasy world that worked as a metaphor to stylize its commentary); Grandmother is just a dream that Kitty had, so there's not much to analyze here at least (I know this is expanded on a future game); Pente feels like a level from an unfinished proyect, it basically looks pretty then it turns darker and that's it; And Cicada tells a story of a girl that can enter her VHS tapes, those representing her own memories with one of them implying some kind of trauma. Works similarly to Anatomy, though that game represents trauma in a far more interesting way while also using the video game medium to do so... Here it's through PNGs with texts in them.
Nothing much to say, still want to play other Kitty's projects after playing Anatomy, but Haunted Cities Vol. 1 was really underwhelming.
It's eerie and visually intriguing, but mostly thematically barren. Leechbowl works as a direct critique of industrialization presented in an angsty trivial way (0_abyssalSomewhere is similar to this, but created its own fantasy world that worked as a metaphor to stylize its commentary); Grandmother is just a dream that Kitty had, so there's not much to analyze here at least (I know this is expanded on a future game); Pente feels like a level from an unfinished proyect, it basically looks pretty then it turns darker and that's it; And Cicada tells a story of a girl that can enter her VHS tapes, those representing her own memories with one of them implying some kind of trauma. Works similarly to Anatomy, though that game represents trauma in a far more interesting way while also using the video game medium to do so... Here it's through PNGs with texts in them.
Nothing much to say, still want to play other Kitty's projects after playing Anatomy, but Haunted Cities Vol. 1 was really underwhelming.
2022
Powerful and deeply beautiful even if short-lived and somewhat constrained... A game about the Atuel River that flows through the provinces of Mendoza and La Pampa in Argentina, that holds significant importance to the neighboring locals not only ecologically, but spiritually.
I think this is pretty special, because it got me thinking that documentaries as a genre are found in pretty much all entertainment mediums... but not video games. This game bridges that gap by including interviews of the locals about Atuel, and the visuals functioning as a companion piece showing the region's culture, topography, and wildlife. So it's a really neat thing to exist, ended up loving it by its uniqueness.
I think this is pretty special, because it got me thinking that documentaries as a genre are found in pretty much all entertainment mediums... but not video games. This game bridges that gap by including interviews of the locals about Atuel, and the visuals functioning as a companion piece showing the region's culture, topography, and wildlife. So it's a really neat thing to exist, ended up loving it by its uniqueness.
2020
Great service though the lady beside me kept creeping me out. She just spent the whole flight looking at the TV default ambient screen, mesmerized.
A game that simulates being a passenger on a commercial flight. Yep that's it, there's no trick. You can interact with everything just as in real life. Watch stuff on the TV, use your phone, draw, play games, do puzzles, read, etc etc. The concept is pretty odd, but that doesn't make it bad by itself... What makes it bad is that it's horrible in terms of immersion and all around fidelity to a real flight, with also a good amount of clunk (awful animations, bugs, graphics). There's no small talk from your seatmate, people barely make any noise, no annoying kid, no entry/exit from the plane, airplane noises on a short loop. Pretty funny how you can also take a whole tablet of sleeping pills, which I'm pretty sure it'd kill you or cause internal bleeding. Overall really weird... you would think it'd have some sort of sponsor at least but nope. You can watch A Trip To The Moon and some Looney Tunes on it, I guess that's kind of nice (though the sound desyncs sometimes).
I don't really know why this exists. Don't ask why I played it.
A game that simulates being a passenger on a commercial flight. Yep that's it, there's no trick. You can interact with everything just as in real life. Watch stuff on the TV, use your phone, draw, play games, do puzzles, read, etc etc. The concept is pretty odd, but that doesn't make it bad by itself... What makes it bad is that it's horrible in terms of immersion and all around fidelity to a real flight, with also a good amount of clunk (awful animations, bugs, graphics). There's no small talk from your seatmate, people barely make any noise, no annoying kid, no entry/exit from the plane, airplane noises on a short loop. Pretty funny how you can also take a whole tablet of sleeping pills, which I'm pretty sure it'd kill you or cause internal bleeding. Overall really weird... you would think it'd have some sort of sponsor at least but nope. You can watch A Trip To The Moon and some Looney Tunes on it, I guess that's kind of nice (though the sound desyncs sometimes).
I don't really know why this exists. Don't ask why I played it.
2018
Presents in an interesting amorphous way a reflection of what could be a sad, purposely exaggerated and metaphorical, distant reality for at least some of us. Thanks to its world design, and somewhat derivative in places yet still authentic atmosphere, you can't but get engrossed in the game's difficult-to-understand mythos. I haven't watched Eraserhead yet, but from what I've seen if you appreciate that film you'll probably value 0_abyssalSomewhere the same.
The only negative for me apart from the obvious clunkiness given the nature of it, is the ending sequence after the last encounter that I thought was unnecessarily expository of the game's themes. Also the promo for the sequel that came after felt a little out of place. Apart from that I have nothing but praise for this. Give it a try if you don't mind the weird. Don't expect much combat though, this is a walking-sim at its core.
Looking forward to whatever this dev releases for sure.
The only negative for me apart from the obvious clunkiness given the nature of it, is the ending sequence after the last encounter that I thought was unnecessarily expository of the game's themes. Also the promo for the sequel that came after felt a little out of place. Apart from that I have nothing but praise for this. Give it a try if you don't mind the weird. Don't expect much combat though, this is a walking-sim at its core.
Looking forward to whatever this dev releases for sure.
This is for the AsylumJam 2015 version.
This dev continues to amaze me (chrstphfr / Christoph Frey, since the name it's not on backloggd). Previously I played A Space Between which was more of a philosophical endeavor that I loved and completely took me by surprise. This is much simpler obviously, since it's for a game jam, but I love the experiment. It turns an everyday situation into a really creepy sequence thanks to the vintage film look coupled with the subtraction of light that gives it an unmatched mood, managing to be never-racking within a really short runtime. It's like 10 minutes long and also free, so give it a try if it looks good to you, this dev needs more notoriety.
I'm between a 6 and a 7, I think I'll go with a 6 because I think this concept deserved to be more fleshed out. I know there's a sequel for this, so I'll probably play that in the future.
This dev continues to amaze me (chrstphfr / Christoph Frey, since the name it's not on backloggd). Previously I played A Space Between which was more of a philosophical endeavor that I loved and completely took me by surprise. This is much simpler obviously, since it's for a game jam, but I love the experiment. It turns an everyday situation into a really creepy sequence thanks to the vintage film look coupled with the subtraction of light that gives it an unmatched mood, managing to be never-racking within a really short runtime. It's like 10 minutes long and also free, so give it a try if it looks good to you, this dev needs more notoriety.
I'm between a 6 and a 7, I think I'll go with a 6 because I think this concept deserved to be more fleshed out. I know there's a sequel for this, so I'll probably play that in the future.