(Third Playthrough)
...April 30th?

Calling this work of art my favorite video game ever made doesn't do it justice. A lot of people say video games change their lives, but this game actually changed my life. This game isn't just my favorite video game ever, It's my favorite piece of art ever, It's my favorite piece of storytelling ever. It's been about 2 years since I played it for the first time and cemented it as my favorite. This game will always be the most personal piece of art ever created for me and I will continue to cherish this fantastic work of fiction for the rest of my life.

anyway im gonna go play as raiden in fortnite now

+ Pleasing visual style
+ Feels like the game is testing the breaking point of enemy density. You push the crowds or else you will die first.
+ Felt unfair at first because the movement felt too stiff to deal with the enemies on the screen, but still there are many tools that can be used for making your own space (like izuna drop, LLL-dash loop, get-off-me-tool that uses resources, grenades), and the dash i frame is surprisingly lenient.
+ Healing system also encourages you to be more aggressive and the meter management also plays into this process.
+ Bosses are (as long as they are functioning as 1v1 humanoids) pretty alright.
-A lot of encounters blend in too much because barely any environment plays into the combat arenas.
-Maybe way too long considering the enemy variety itself and the monotonous gameplay flow shifts. I would remove some levels in the middle.
-3D background and camera panning can make misaligned hit boxes which can make some how-did-that-hit-me situations
-Final boss sucks ass
+- Tutorial dump at the beginning can be overwhelming, but hey, if I could comprehend it, maybe you also can.
+- I think S ranking is in the unreasonable territory. It requires a no-hit run in regular encounters and bosses.. and honestly that’s…reserved for only the top 0.1% of the player base? It’s definitely not for me lol

"As a longtime fan of the Armored Core soundtracks I am tremendously underwhelmed by AC6." "seriously what happened to the driving anthems from the last 4 games?! Stargazer isn't enough, I need m o r e."
- One Eternity Later -
THE DARKEST STARLESS SKY
BEGGING FOR THE LIGHT TO SHINE
(unintelligible) SOULS BURNIN ON!
Go! We just have to move on, go!
WELL, WE JUST HAVE TO GO
ALL WE WANTED
ALL WE NEEDED
ALL WE WAITED
ALL WE'VE GOT TO
takes me anywhere, I go~

Now see? That's what I'm talking about. PATHOS! Too bad it's not actually in the game though. AC6: 7/10.

Zenozoik looks more alive now thanks to UE3, but I can't help but miss what Source brought to it. Narratively this is the more impressive game, peeling back layers of this world I hadn't foreseen. My initial pull to Zenozoik was thinking about it's place in time, whether it was of Earth or a distant planet. These secrets are (partially) revealed in a way that makes you question the order of this world. Are the Zenos worthy of existing in a world of order? Can they even respond to order? The Corwid are seen to the inhabitants of Halstedom the same way the Zenos on the whole are likely seen by the world outside, if that world even still exists. They are a people without history or the means to live in a world devoid of chaos.

Anyways, mechanically this is more complex, but I feel a bit like I miss the simplicity of the first. The introduction of combos is welcome, but there are 2 combos taught at the end of the tutorial that will carry you right through without error. The ally system is cool, but also sort of needless. You're pretty capable of taking on most enemies in the game on your own, even in groups, and the healing time on allies can mean you won't even be able to summon them when you most need them. You can level up now, but I wish this was a little more fleshed out and that maybe the XP was tied to enemies encountered rather than tokens found in the world but it does reward exploration and I was all too ready to explore.

This all may sound a tad underwhelming, but I can't speak more highly of the atmosphere these games offer. The design and mystery of Zenozoik make me want to see every corner, better understand the lives of these chimera. The score in this one is evocative of a time and place beyond ours, it's so good. A fantastic game and sequel and I'm looking forward to Clash. I'm late to the ACE party, but I'm eager to play more of their games.

Another game that don't make no sense. Mans gotta have his own assets tho. This lacks a little something called everything, and that crank SFX felt personal, but props where it's due, um, you can choose your gender. That is pretty crazy 🤯 You can also warm up in a fire and come out looking like a wendigo. That is pretty fucked up 🤯 be like going into a swamp and coming out like Shrek. I'm exercising my Amendment right to change the subject, not American but I really need that right ong, so...

This looks and sounds... otherworldly. By which I mean, this should stay in another world. This clash between unstoppable force and immovable object is exactly what we're expecting to expect from the premise, only you are an object and quite movable if I do say so myself. The rich ate the poor and you're quite to their taste 💦 they got your house and turned it into a maze of a manor just for you, how delightful! A fitting residence for your humble God of Poverty.

The Sink Gods, hallway for the Sinking man, the game that dared to ask if it's better to cum in the sink or sink in the cum. Heh. Honestly, the second one- wait nonono, I meaan the HUB yes the hub, you have an hub, you do some padding shit for 10 seconds and go to the next level to meet a divinity. Or not! Psyche! Ahah btw there's an epilogue episode with a voiced preamble and mass murder, like as soon as a head comes off the game's over, no credits or nothing. Scary asf 😨

The last straw on the camel's back is that I need to actually talk about the gameplay. The Sinking man is actually the Thinking man, against all odds! Or better yet, a woman, or NB or genderfluid but whoever you are will be thinking and solving puzzles like you're 🤓 No higher beings in the Seven Kingdoms will give you any feedback, it is pretty chill to solve everything so no worries. But remember if you get a sword: You can't put it back! You're no sword swallower unless it's an euphemism! Put it in a goofy ahh hole or its two siblings!

That's the only part that had me confused, I thought the game bugged out to not much surprise since it's built like a house of cards, except I've only come across one bug in this dog gone Earth involving a text not going away. My mark of shame. If your name's Mark, I wasn't actually talking about you. Sorry pal. One man's trash is another man's trash 😔

The Legend of Bum-bo is a fucking WEIRD game. It’s the prequel to The Binding of Isaac, but I never fully played it, and I couldn’t say I would recommend it, but I kind of liked it at the same time? It’s complicated. This one’s gonna be pretty “”quick”” because of that, so buckle up. This is my pretty brief review for The Legend of Bumbo.

Okay, so Bumbo is some guy with Mii Hands, who gets his shit stolen. And then he descends into the depths below, only to fight all of the monsters in his path. There’s not much to overarching story itself; Bum-bo kind of just goes through the motions, and upon clearing a new floor, the run ends, the next character is unlocked, and you get another new floor. It’s pretty straightforward, but The Legend of Bum-bo adds some important pieces to the story of The Legend of Bum-bo. In the 5th ending of the game, the ending is suddenly interrupted by Isaac’s mother, storming in and taking the cardboard set from Isaac. It’s revealed that The Legend of Bum-bo was made by Isaac’s father, and the Mom threw it out. It’s such a well done scene, with the voice acting and music really selling the fear that Isaac goes through. And, in the end, the cutscene points to The Binding of Isaac’s title screen. A great way to segway into the game. But, if you 100% the game, and get 10 Jackpot endings, which are endings you get at random, Bum-bo creates an underground society where he is king. Bum-bo goes on all kinds of adventures, with monsters to fight. And then, the game pans out once again to reveal that Isaac’s dad is the narrator of the game. He made The Legend of Bum-bo as a way to escape from the real world for Isaac. The Dad taught Isaac the power of his imagination, in order to make this world a reality for him. But, this very action would cause Isaac’s downfall, no matter how good it seems. Is that a good storyline, or what? I absolutely love it when Edmund reveals new elements into the storyline. It makes the story feel so open, and interpretation heavy. I’ve already explained why Isaac has a phenomenal story, so if you’d like a full explanation of why I think it’s amazing, check out the Rebirth review.


But on the game itself, does it stand up on its own? It’s a match-4 puzzle game, where each tile does something different. Activated items are the main focus of the gameplay, and they alter the board or damage enemies. Bum-bo has 3 HP, and if he dies, it’s Game Over, back to the start. Each enemy is on a grid based system, but at times battles can get pretty overwhelming. The game is simple dumb fun, but I wish there was a little more variety to each individual run, like The Binding of Isaac. Bum-bo gets a little more stale than Isaac and FAST. Sure, each individual character adds some variety, but in the end, you’re doing the same thing ad nauseam. Match, use item, repeat. What if there were passive items that added all new tiles, or items that expanded the board? Or perhaps allow the player to pick up different weapons to spice up their attacks? I feel like there’s a lot of missed potential with Bum-bo’s kit here. Oh, and the boss fights... Yeah, not the greatest to say the least. They’re just too tanky for my liking. Each boss just has too many enemies, and making one mistake too easily leads to a dead run, in my opinion. But after that, the game just kind of goes on...? It doesn’t really change up the formula much. And while it was fun for a few hours, it did get pretty stale, so I just ended up dropping the game. One thing I can praise The Legend of Bum-bo on is its PHENOMENAL presentation. Everything in the cardboard world is so animated and colorful, and the soundtrack is pretty solid to boot. A good effort all around, but the game kind of falls short for me otherwise.

The Legend of Bum-bo is fucking WEIRD. I don’t think it’s really a bad game, but it’s not all that great either. A solid effort, but not all that fun, unfortunately. It has good production values, and amazing music, but I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. Consider it on a sale, and not much else.


“"I want coin" I say / In reality I lay / in grim thoughts all day” - “Bumbo” by zeusdeegoose, Written on 4/22/24

This game is... very pretentious, but it's absolutely my kinda thing. The closest thing I could compare it to would be Scorn; you spend your time exploring this vast, uncaring and alien landscape and, while there are occasional puzzles or platforming sections, the main reason you are here is just to drink it all in. Again like Scorn there is no real story to grasp on to, it's more about vibes and a nonspecific sense of dread, and the experience comes off more as an art exhibit than a video game (see also Yume Nikki and, for a bad example, Agony). In my experience games like this can feel a little aimless or content-poor in terms of actual gameplay challenge, and I get why many would find this boring... but it turns out these kinda of game are absolutely my kind of shit.

Naissance is absolutely beautiful and, despite basically nothing happening in the whole game, utterly terrifying. The use of massive scale, harsh lighting and pitch blackness make you feel like an insignificant mote of dust drifting through a world that wasn't made for you, doesn't care about you and mostly doesn't even realise you exist. The use of darkness in particular is very bold... parts of this game are so dark that it's extremely difficult to see anything, which sounds like terrible design on paper, but it really hammers home the feeling that this is not a world that was built for you to explore. Later on in the game it feels like the world 'notices' you somehow and begins to fuck with the player character more directly and... well, it lost me a bit there, and I much preferred the feeling of loneliness and lostness that came in the earlier part of the game.

Overall, though, I did find this game weaker than Scorn. The art direction in NaissanceE is, don't get me wrong, austerely beautiful... breathtaking, in fact. But it just can't compete with the overwhelming detail of the world in Scorn. There are also a few parts of NaissanceE where it opens up into a quasi-open world, and honestly these feel pretty aimless (and not the good 'aimlessness' of the explorative parts of the game). The area I'm going to refer to as 'the Desert' is the worst example of this; just a huge area with a few random points of interest in it. Each of those landmarks is interesting in its own way, but they all come across as just randomly placed set pieces that were dumped here because the devs couldn't figure out where to put them. Also... yeah, won't lie, that ending made me roll my eyes pretty hard.

Still, the overall experience I had with NaissanceE was a strong one. I particularly liked the more maze-like areas where it felt like there were dozens of different paths you could take; I'm sure that video game magic ensures you get to where you need to go anyway, but the illusion of choice really helped sell this game as an exploration of an unfathomably large place in a way that few other games can. Definitely recommend trying it if it's your kind of thing (it's free!), but do be prepared to bounce off as this is definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

Within the first 5 seconds of freedom this game gave me, I immediately picked up the kitchen knife and used it in probably the worst way possible. The game didn’t stop me and it also didn't seem to care, and neither did I. But that was probably the worst way possible to start this game, because as it dragged on for hours the main thought in my head was, “We were cooking on the first route” which should have ended the game. Instead I was trapped in a torture chamber of nonsensical solutions and horrible dialogue delivery, with an ending that wasn’t even interesting enough to be worth the painful drawl. The image of Daisy Ridley’s weird polygonal feet are scarred into my brain forever.

While I find the trial and error bit of gameplay to be rather neat, it’s done in such an excruciatingly painful way here. Every do-over lacks the ability to skip the cinematics so you’ll feel your body rapidly age with every scene you’re forced to watch on repeat. The lack of options your character gets to work with are frustrating and unrealistic. The characters shamble around like zombies and there’s zero way to speed up the process to get back to a later segment in the timeline aside from some line skips. I guess had they implemented such a silly concept then the game would quite literally be 12 minutes long. Instead, you sit through hours of trying out the smallest changes, only to awkwardly miss-click something and have to redo the whole process again. With every make-out session your wife assaults you with unprompted at the beginning of every loop, the more reptilian I felt while playing this game. How icky it made me feel while I slowly became an iguana.

You’d think a game that allows you to stab the shit out of your wife in the first five seconds would have literally anything to say about violence or impatience or domestic abuse or literally anything? Maybe it’d point a finger at me and go, “You’re part of the problem!!” and question my immediate conclusion to stretch the game's choices to it’s most inhumane limits. Nope. It meant nothing, like it was just something cool you could do for the sake of it. Violence is actually the only way to siphon any useful information from any of the characters, in fact the peaceful communicative solutions don’t even open up until after you’ve murdered so it’s not like it’s not encouraged. But, it literally doesn’t acknowledge this as something awful nor does it affect your character in any real way. The game does not care, so why should you? Allowing me to start the game with the ability to do this really set itself up for failure. It never challenged my thought process, so I just simply progressed with not giving a shit. It's almost like game interactivity has a way of affecting the player if it's implemented in a meaningful way instead of just existing for "artistic" shock value.

At the end of the day, does it even matter? I went through all this effort just to land on a conclusion that I said out loud as a joke. When the twist happened and that joke ended up being the reality, oh fuck off. This is it. It’s just a game that let me murder my wife in the first 5 seconds of it and nothing else. Riveting stuff, guys.

How they got James McAvoy, Willem Dafoe, and Daisy Ridley involved in this is insanely hilarious. They sound like they’re phoning it in the whole time, like they don’t even believe in this game’s bullshit themselves. It’s artistic, I’ll give it that. But, am I buying it? No. I ate chocolate mousse while a man screamed at my wife and hogtied her to the floor right in front of me. Neat.

So... the story in Sheepy is an absolute trainwreck. At times it almost feels like it was written by AI; all the tropes of a classic 'cute character in a scary world' Metroidvania are here, but nothing seems to really fit together. The game puts you in one of the traditional locations for this genre (abandoned factory, ancient ruins, etc) and scatters tapes all around for you to listen to to get you interested in the lore and the world, but then just moves on to the next set piece location before anything is resolved or explained. Aside from the most basic of elemental story beats, I pretty much had no clue what was going on in the story here and I'm fairly sure no coherent story exists.

In every other way though... Sheepy is nearly perfect. The atmosphere is great throughout, the visuals and sound design are absolutely fantastic and the gameplay, while simplistic, strikes a near perfect balance between challenge and frustration. I did find the first two bosses a little bit lacklustre, but the game more than paid off for these with its final boss which was just epic in terms of scope and spectacle.

But in general yes, this game has everything you'd want from something like this. It's got a good variety of Metroidvania-style powers, hidden collectables, timed challenges, speed challenges... all within a game with a run time of ~1 hour at most. I think if the game had been longer there would have been more time to flesh out the plot and setting in a more sensical way, but aside from that it's remarkable how the game manages to cram in all its content into such a short time without feeling overcrowded. That short runtime has led to a game where everything has clearly been meticulously hand-crafted down to the pixel, and it's all just fantastic.

So yes, hearty recommend from me on this one; this is almost certainly the best free game I've ever played, and frankly I'm baffled that it is free in the first place. It is a shame about the underdeveloped setting, because in my opinion that is all that stands between this and a bite-sized Hollow Knight. But worldbuilding and lore is a big part of why I play games like this so I do have to dock some marks on that front. Still, otherwise an all-round excellent and well-polished little game, and would probably score up in my top 10 or so games in its genre.

weird ass ugly ass console exclusive mid 00s immersive sim-lite fps lol what. maybe one of the ugliest games ive ever seen?? like graphically so flat and textureless, a lot of the plot elements and character designs just rlly seem like the creative team behind this were on some nu metal type shit and I don’t rlly vibe w that era of design lol. however beyond the very cookie cutter story ripping on fuckboy movies and corporate grunge mid 00s angst designs there is some amount of palpable emotion and feeling in regards to jackie and his relationships w others and that’s kind of v surprising. v fun how many ways there are to go about fairly simplistic and rote missions and objectives,, gives u lots of powers and freedom and very well designed maps to allow u to have fun in. ultimately I think there’s too many options and abilities for how like short the game is like it introduces so many interesting things but it ends as soon as it starts. I rlly like short games but like this prob could be longer lmao. teeming w a real sense of life in it though,, like rlly fun and highly stylized posters and graffiti everywhere in this game, lots of ppl to interact w and call and obv the movies u can watch in game. makes it grounded in a sort of reality that it needs to be grounded in so u can buy into some of the bigger emotions this game is trying to get at. remedy ahhh game mechanics w rockstar ahh game writing. horribly cruel game at points and basically uses nyc as a microcosm of everything that’s wrong w america which sure?? but also I just think satires and critiques of america and it’s failings are way more interesting and true when coming from americans not to sound like uhh a patriot or whatever. also I didn’t finish this bc it’s ridiculously hard and commanding of ur attention and I don’t have either time or attention idk I got other shit to do lol so imagine this is rated four stars lol. anyhow check out this short little doc that’s available as extra content even if you don’t gaf about the game itself,, it’s nice to see ppl so passionate and creative :3
https://youtu.be/pMyEgsv-N3g?si=OLKnWMCtHjLgwZtI

A benefit to the detective mystery subgenre is that if you have a compelling lead, you can squeeze a great deal of juice from a simple formula, at least as far as entertainment is concerned. While it would be quite hard for me to find novel things to write in reviews had Frog Tec become a long running I am quite glad that Grace Bruxner has the chance to expand on the template that the first entry set before wrapping things up. Frog Tec 2 does add slightly more to keep track of, hence the addition of a journal where you can accurately label everyone, including yourself as suspicious, but the true benefit of the larger scope is the improved sense of place that is provided by Warlock Woods. It's a setting that allows for an exploration of the theme of community, and expanding on the first game’s theme of communication by focusing on how a shy new resident should introduce herself after making a mistake. It remains good-natured lighthearted fun - now if only someone would bring the dastardly Evil Guy to justice!

A dream-y odyssey of a game that I won't forget anytime soon. I've become very familiar with Analgesic Productions the past while, with Sephonie being a great little introduction to their style, Even The Ocean winning me over even more and then Anodyne 2 solidifying their presence as one of the best and original indie developers going today. You genuinely will not find other game experiences out there like what they have to offer.

There's so much here to love for the nostalgic gamer from another era, with the hazy 3D adventure platformer exploration along with 2D top down dungeon-style levels with puzzles and enemies. The liminal psychedelic world that feels like you dreamed up a video game you never played from the 90's is a sad, lonely landscape, eerie-ly deserted and devoid of most life, except for the odd bizarre being you'll come across. Most of the areas feel unique and distinguishable as you navigate the various sections, with certain landmarks keeping you aware of where you are.

Just wandering/driving around these areas gives you that strange feeling that has become so well known online nowadays - social media is full of videos and posts of liminal spaces; empty malls, toy stores, nighttime parking lots, closed businesses, places from our childhood that are warm and fuzzy in our brains, but feel cold and alien now. Warbly fuzzy synth music is playing over the videos, almost like it's playing from a distant speaker. It's a feeling we all have thinking of our childhoods, but these videos have that huge whiff of "weaponized nostalgia"; oh look how perfect life used to be as a kid. Don't you hate having bills to pay and adult responsibilities? Don't you wish you could still go to Blockbuster and rent PS1 games and have a sleepover and get Pizza Hut?

What Analgesic Productions do with their games that feels like an anomaly in these times is somehow give you that same feeling with their worlds. Yeah sure, they use graphics and art direction and music that resembles that foregone time. But they create their own original worlds with it all, while also making subtle references to the real world and emotions and struggles. Anxiety, self-worth, isolation, it's all here in spades. There's a moment here in Anodyne 2 with a specific character interaction that takes the game and places you into a completely different place that had me completely turned around - I had no idea what was happening and I did not expect it. As the sequence went on and it began exploring real world emotions and feelings, it got... strange. Things felt.. not right. And then it went to a dark and scary place that I was quickly adamant to get through so I could (hopefully) return to the other world I got to know. Even if that world didn't even feel like where I belonged.

I have said this about every Analgesic game I've reviewed so far but the music in their games is always just amazing. Melos Han-Tani knocks it out of the park with memorable song after memorable song, each one distinct enough and perfectly encapsulating the area that its featured in, music that you welcome every time you return to the region. It pulls you into the world like a warm ghostly embrace; it's a soundtrack to fall asleep to, wake up to, feel comforted by and yet also feel tense and uncertain. There's also just some great bops... the guy can write a good bop!

The writing in their games (usually primarily) by Marina Kittaka is a lot... there is a ton of dialogue in their titles, but I'm constantly impressed and taken aback by the sincerity, the train-of-thought observations (and often sometimes real thoughts or opinions a lot of us have had before that feel too personal or weird to share) that they can give to a weird ass looking creature person thing that slightly resembles what a child may endearingly design in a 3D animation program, and who just stands in one spot of the world chilling. Especially with how this game handles its main story/objective; doing an Inception-style dive into these characters' inner self and exploring the little world inside, to rid them of Dust, which is what is infecting the denizens of this world. There is a lot to read in their games (they don't feature voice acting, which is totally fine), and I'm constantly surprised by the writing style and how much thought and care was put into it. Some passages really got to me.

If you're still reading (hi!) and haven't played this and are wondering if it's for you, I want to compare this to one of my favorite games, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which is a comparison I made after completing the game:
You wander around a world (Termina) divided up into regions (north/south/east/west) with a central town type hub (Clown Town) in the middle. There's a looming apocalyptic threat (the moon). You're going around talking to NPC's and helping them with problems (Bombers Notebook), which usually results in a dungeon-type level with puzzles and sometimes a boss battle, and doing so you collect a card (mask..?) and dust, both resources you need to then go back to the central hub and deposit (rupees in the bank) before you begin each new "cycle" (there's no days in Anodyne 2 like in Majora's Mask, but you need to deposit the dust or else you cap off at a certain amount and won't get any new dust until it's deposited). Both feel light-hearted and whimsical at times but have those oppressive and sad moments... their worlds are connected, but disconnected by a threat of darkness. If I really wanted to I could probably make some more far-reaching connections but I'll leave it at that. Both are still very different games but when I suddenly made those comparions, I felt like I could see why this game clicked with me so much. On top of it just being a fantastic indie title.

Analgesic should be on so many peoples radars, I really really adore their work and I find them very influential as someone who writes fiction and would love to take a stab writing a video game some day.