ghostiicarus
Bio
horror freak, yaoi enjoyer, and unfortunate persona fan. i try to only play games i like and drop ones i dont. i love making lists and sorting things yippee!!!!
horror freak, yaoi enjoyer, and unfortunate persona fan. i try to only play games i like and drop ones i dont. i love making lists and sorting things yippee!!!!
Badges
Full-Time
Journaled games once a day for a month straight
Popular
Gained 15+ followers
Busy Day
Journaled 5+ games in a single day
Shreked
Found the secret ogre page
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
Best Friends
Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
N00b
Played 100+ games
Favorite Games
209
Total Games Played
026
Played in 2024
167
Games Backloggd
Recently Played See More
Recently Reviewed See More
i only play this for fashion famous
this game fucking owns lol
This review contains spoilers
"I wish... I could have known you sooner."
I found out about TCM the way a lot of people did: YouTube let's plays. I've never met one of these RPG maker (ackshually this one is Wolf RPG editor 🤓) horror puzzle-y games I didn't like. But even when I was a kid watching scary YouTube videos on my 3DS or the family computer, The Crooked Man stuck with me in a way most other titles of it's ilk have not.
It's a game primarily about mental health, which isn't an uncommon topic for horror to broach no matter the medium. But the way this particular game handles it resonated with me at 11, at 15, and now as an adult less than a month a way from my 21st birthday.
See, a lot of stories about mental health go one of 2 ways. The protagonist fights and fights and eventually conquers the worst parts of their mental illness, or they lose the fight and either sink into their despair or drown in it. And I'm not trying to discount those as valid experiences to write stories about, nor am I saying they're automatically bad stories. However, it's not something that resonates with me in particular. I am not swayed by the symbolic mountain climbing of Celeste, Undertale's ideas that you're still you no matter what happens, or Doki Doki Literature Club's depressing reality bending trudge through the aftermath of suicide. Not to say these aren't compelling games, they're some of my favorites.
But TCM takes neither approach, instead settling for an attainable middle ground. It feels more realistic or at least more applicable to my own life. Like, yeah! You're a deeply flawed person, maybe you're capable or guilty of bad things, sometimes you don't get to chase your dreams for reasons entirely out of your control. But that doesn't mean your only options are continuing on an ironically depressing push through with a plastered on smile, or throwing your life away altogether. You can't just rub some dirt on your wounds or dig your own grave.
There are still things worth living for, and the person that trauma and mental illness will have a hand in making you isn't a horrible irredeemable person to be. Life won't be easy. It isn't by default, but when you're dealing with things like depression or PTSD the cards are stacked even higher against you. And maybe no one in your immediate circle will come close to understanding.
But coming to terms with the fact of ups and downs, of unrealized dreams and burnt bridges, of death's inevitability, of your own cowardice or selfishness or weak will, your inability to save everyone or stop yourself from ever being hurt, everything becomes just that little bit more bearable. And sometimes, that's all you can ask for.
It's okay not to be okay. That's a message I will always need to hear.
"However off-kilter things get, we can set them straight. If that's what we want..."
I found out about TCM the way a lot of people did: YouTube let's plays. I've never met one of these RPG maker (ackshually this one is Wolf RPG editor 🤓) horror puzzle-y games I didn't like. But even when I was a kid watching scary YouTube videos on my 3DS or the family computer, The Crooked Man stuck with me in a way most other titles of it's ilk have not.
It's a game primarily about mental health, which isn't an uncommon topic for horror to broach no matter the medium. But the way this particular game handles it resonated with me at 11, at 15, and now as an adult less than a month a way from my 21st birthday.
See, a lot of stories about mental health go one of 2 ways. The protagonist fights and fights and eventually conquers the worst parts of their mental illness, or they lose the fight and either sink into their despair or drown in it. And I'm not trying to discount those as valid experiences to write stories about, nor am I saying they're automatically bad stories. However, it's not something that resonates with me in particular. I am not swayed by the symbolic mountain climbing of Celeste, Undertale's ideas that you're still you no matter what happens, or Doki Doki Literature Club's depressing reality bending trudge through the aftermath of suicide. Not to say these aren't compelling games, they're some of my favorites.
But TCM takes neither approach, instead settling for an attainable middle ground. It feels more realistic or at least more applicable to my own life. Like, yeah! You're a deeply flawed person, maybe you're capable or guilty of bad things, sometimes you don't get to chase your dreams for reasons entirely out of your control. But that doesn't mean your only options are continuing on an ironically depressing push through with a plastered on smile, or throwing your life away altogether. You can't just rub some dirt on your wounds or dig your own grave.
There are still things worth living for, and the person that trauma and mental illness will have a hand in making you isn't a horrible irredeemable person to be. Life won't be easy. It isn't by default, but when you're dealing with things like depression or PTSD the cards are stacked even higher against you. And maybe no one in your immediate circle will come close to understanding.
But coming to terms with the fact of ups and downs, of unrealized dreams and burnt bridges, of death's inevitability, of your own cowardice or selfishness or weak will, your inability to save everyone or stop yourself from ever being hurt, everything becomes just that little bit more bearable. And sometimes, that's all you can ask for.
It's okay not to be okay. That's a message I will always need to hear.
"However off-kilter things get, we can set them straight. If that's what we want..."