the first twewy was a fruit of its age: a game about people trying to connect with each other, understating how bounds are importants and learning to accept themselves. settled in shibuya, the epicenter of japanese youth of it’s époque and pretty much adopting all of its aesthetics too: it’s emo, it’s stylish, it sounds like japanese pop, rap, it has scratches, it isn’t “clean”, it’s urban. even in a nintendo ds game, is a city that felt alive, not only for the care they had with the aesthetics but also because you could scan people’s minds and see their feelings, worries and experiences while living in such a city that shibuya was. it was also a game that could only exist on the nintendo ds: a game about utilizing the ds’ two screens to sustain its message. you played, in combat, controlling both neku and his partner of the week, utilizing your stylus and your d-pad to fight enemies on both “sides” at the same time -- basically you had to take care not only of yourself, but also of your partner, too, and when you were in sync, you could unleash an special power. it was weird, for sure, but it worked well enough to what the game was trying to say. yeah, there’s a mobile and a switch version today -- the last one being, basically, the canon one that leads to this game story -- but the original intent still is the ds one.

now, 14 years later, the context is different: people still have the same problems, but the gravity of this is changed by the internet. your presence online is more valuable than yours offline: is easier to form bounds, since you can find your own niche just searching for some keyword on twitter. is not that people are not afraid of being themselves, is more that they can be anyone today at a level that it’s true identity is messier than their own closets. today, the people you scan don’t care anymore about which CD he should buy at tower records or which clothes she should wear on a date. today they care about which CD is worth enough to be physically buyed and which boy is prettier enough on instagram to be worth a date. neo: the world ends with you is still a game about the importance of connections. not exactly about a protagonist that does not have any, but about a protagonist that must know how important they are. you now play with a whole team instead of a partner and each button of your controller represents both a pin and a player. while it seems strange, it’s actually a show of geniality: it gives the same feeling that you should adjust itself with the most comfortable and ergonomic pins, just like the DS gave, but now in a dualshock 4. you have plenty of options to customize your gameplay and it’s basically “what if control scheme was not a quality of life but instead a central game mechanic”. it is addicting too, you know? testing new pins, seeing they evolve, comparing their animation speed and which one has less friction. it feels really great, principally because you soon unlock a mechanic known as “drop the beat”, where you gain a percentage in order to do a special move. there’s a lot going on in this game’s combat and while some enemies are not That Fun, there are some great bosses at kingdom hearts 2 level of flashy-lasers-gimmicky-thing and overall quality and necessity of mastery of it’s system.

thematically, as i said, is still about the importance of connections, but more about understanding that your friends really does matter for you. instead of the fear of knowing new people, the fear now is of missing those people -- what if your best friend just gets erased? the question about accepting your true identity is still here, too. characters wearing masks to distant themselves from who they really are -- they are in fear of being genuine. what if no one likes it? sending a sticker saying “i love you” on telegram is easier than, actually, saying “i love you” in flesh and blood. you can see how those teenagers are influenced by how the internet treats relationships, in both bad and good ways, and also how the overall communication and relation-between-people have changed since the first the world ends with you released. it also talks about The System and how shit it is, where Higher Classes has shit privileges and can do whatever the shit they want to -- they are on the top, after all. having many teams fighting each other, directly and indirectly, trying to survive a game where it seems impossible to win, is pretty much how capitalism works: sometimes you just have to take care of your own group rather than help everyone in order to survive -- and this sucks. “systematic world, killing me” etc. this system, formed by old rules that doesn’t matter for the ones on top, is also what kills the chance of the youth to express themselves better and be able to have healthier relationships. you can’t just go and blame the one on top, so you just keep quiet. you can’t just go and tell how bad you feel, so you just keep quiet. you can’t just go and tell how much something matters to you, its cringe, so you just keep quiet. in the end, either die quietly or try to change things: if you could turn back time, would you do it right? and even if you don’t, would you mind doing it right, now? going against the system? trying to be yourself a little more? trying to understand others a little more? trying to show love a little more? the world ends with you, so you better change your fate.

I never thought this day would come but I guess it has.
Psychonauts 2 has finally been released, and it FUCKS HARD.

Pretty much all control problems from the first game are gone, and everything feels so smooth to play; that feeling you get when the controller just melds with your hands making you emerged with your surroundings, very few games can truly give you an experience like that.

Not only does the game look fantastic from a graphics stand but it also looks fantastic from a style aspect. Even 16 years later and it still has the charm and humor the original had and then some. Almost every character looks deformed; like someone a really crap drawing on a napkin and then used that as concept art, but it's so charming and oddly fitting with the world of this game that you just learn to accept it after a while.

The level design in the first was some of the best of that generation and it's just as good here. Not only are the levels masterfully designed from a gameplay angle but they're also outstanding in narrative and stylistic. Each mind is unique for each character, one mind might be a psychedelic Woodstock like concert, and another might be a hospital casino hybrid. The levels become character onto themselves making exploration a treat rather than an obligation.

The one aspect that really caught me off-guard was the game's story and writing. For how funny the game can be it also balances the emotional and heartwarming moments amazingly. This game also gets an award for outstanding portrayals of mental illnesses such as "PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia, and Panic Attacks" just to name a few. This game also gets the award for having a gay couple that actually acts like real-life gay people. IE regular people.

This was such an amazing surprise. Going into this I was thinking to myself "There is no way in hell this is gonna be as good as the first, at best it's gonna be a fun time with some characters I haven't seen in years"; oh how wrong I was. This game has surpassed the first game in pretty much every category and is now in my Top 5 favorite games ever. Psychonauts 1 will always have its place in my heart, but this game is just so great I just couldn't resist giving this a 10/10. (with a BADASS seal of approval)

(i only did the neutral-hero because 1) wreck farming enemies 2) it is easier 3) i was playing it with very low fps and if i continued, i would implode till i respawn in another universe. so, if you just don't consider my opinion since i've not played the entirety of the game, you can. but you could also just consider the neutral-hero route as the only one and we will be fine!)

people are very mean to this game. i can see why but honestly? is not as bad as they make it seems. first, i have to say that i really don't care about the "edginess" of this game -- to be honest, i really like it. the dark colors, the rock music, the guns! the opening is at square enix level of quality and is basically devil may cry meets sonic adventure meets linkin park. shadow, by itself, is a very curious character: he wants to know his own purpose - what is him? why is he alive? is he even "him"? is he good? is he bad? the one who decides this is the player and while i completely despise the objectives to go to another route, the idea of having multiples endings and three main routes is the way that sonic team found to translate the existential crisis of shadow the hedgehog as well the answer to who he really is.

and despising aspects of this game despite loving the whole concept is pretty much what this game is about, lol. shadow the hedgehog is a beautiful broken vase that instead of fixing it with glue or tape, sonic team just rearranged the pieces and prayed for no one dare to even look at it --- or it will broken. of course is not buggy at sonic 06 level, is very playable, but there's janky in there. it utilizes the butter-shoes gameplay from sonic heroes as the base, so shadow is very slippy. you can pretty much fall in a hole because of this + the weird level geometry. however, it is pretty interesting nonetheless: the guns are a very fun gimmick, since you are shooting while running, cleaning up your way to the end of the level. if you don't have enough ammo you will not use the gun again and it's arguably useless since you have homing attack -- but i disagree, is more of another option: homing attack is good but using guns is more safe and since this game have some weird geometry sometimes, the best way is using them.

the levels itself are very interesting, at least the ones i played in neutral-hero route: while they are very long, they change your fast-running-pace in very creative and funny ways, like the one that you pass through an acid river with a beyblade or the one that you use a mini-mecha to jump over tall platformers and this, together with the combat with guns, turns the experience to be very refreshing and not just "run". shadow can wall-jump, so you can skip some parts with that and while the levels are big i never felt REALLY tired? like, in sonic rush i felt that the levels could be 2x smaller but this one utilizes its size in a good way, imo: you run > have a new gimmick > run > battle with enemies > run > utilizes the gimmick in a more difficult way > run > battle > end of the level. its great because it seems that they knew how the gameplay would be so they just did bigger levels that Repeat Themselves But Harder in order to get players used to it. and since you probably will do another route in future playthroughs, conceptually, you “never” get tired.

it is . . . not really that good, but not really that bad. i liked, probably will not play again and if i do i will try to use some cheat to unlock levels and just appreciate this weird level design. its basically sonic - the kusoge starring shadow the hedgehog. you all like this kind of game, right? why not try it. at least its very funny, shadow just tells eggman to go to hell and he says the F-word in a cutscene. it is worth!