Because of my current condition I am pretty limited in the type of gaming that I can do. I’ve been limiting myself to games that require minimal input, so visual novels mostly. A silver lining is that I’ve been finally playing a couple things I’ve long wanted to.
House in Fata Morgana
I like this but I don’t love it yet. I just started the third door story and I think toward the end of the second door and the small story that followed it has been getting more interesting. Everyone I know who has played it says it’s an incredible game so I’m hoping it continues to get better.
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim
I’ve started this game twice before but both times stopped before the two hour mark. No particular reason, just drifted away because of various things. I’m locked in this time though and really enjoying my time with the game so far. It’s obviously gorgeous but this time around for whatever reason I’m geling with the general tone of the game more than I did before. It feels less like I’m onboarding to a visual novel or adventure game and more like I’m watching anew late night anime on a CRT back in day. Everything is mysterious and intriguing and the character writing feels like it’s purposely evoking that kind of thing as well.
If my thumb wasn’t inflamed I would be enjoying the Romancing SaGa 2 remake and a bunch of fighting games but getting into these two has been nice as well.
One of the things I like about 13 Sentinels is the way it doesn’t always present plot twists at specific times but you discover some of them whenever you happen to advance specific character stories in a particular sequence.
By the end you could argue that there are almost too many twists, but it’s a great game either way.
I also found this to be the case. I liked it from the beginning but it kept surprising me with its creativity and depth as I progressed.
Been getting into Bakeru lately. Boy it sure feels like it was heavily subsidized by the Japanese Tourism Board. I really like it. I’ve gathered it’s like the Goemon games? Looks like get in on that.
I played Mouthwashing after Ash’s endorsement, which was not really my jam. The story was appropriately depressing and bleak, but I like my depressing games as black comedies more than open-mouthed horrors. I only played it once, but I think I can piece together what happened pretty well.
I played The Dark Queen of Mortholme, which is a great 20-minute deconstruction of the life of a Souls boss. It doesn’t do anything that say, Shadow of the Colossus doesn’t do, but it does it a sight more succintly!
I played Threshold, which was more my kind of dark and depressing. I did have to turn up the FOV to avoid motion-sickness, which I’m a bit prone to in low-FOV games. Thankfully, there is a built in slider in the settings, which isn’t always the case, even with big budget titles (I’m looking at you, Resident Evil Village, but not for too long because then I might hurl). Anyway, it’s pretty good, especially as a vegetarian. I unknowingly picked a very hard origin country, but it still wasn’t too bad once I got the hang of the systems.
I played Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk which is another 20-minute game. I didn’t gel with it too well, but I absolutely see what it going for, and how this would be an important game for many.
I started Neva which is just gorgeous. I loved GRIS, but this is everything I loved about that, plus characters I care about, and some combat (and even boss fights) to make it into a “proper” game. It’s so beautiful. I’m sure it’s going to get very sad though (well, the opening was already very sad) so I hope it earns that.
Tales of Arise was on an incredible sale, so I picked it up and I’ve been giving it a go. I should clarify: I’ve been a Tales fan in the past but it’s been since Tales of Vesparia that I’ve played a new game so it been wild seeing how the series can do a big fancy new game. I’m sure I’ll get annoyed with it eventually but I’m having some fun for the time being.
Having a similar experience with Persona 3 Reload which I just started. The only one of these I’ve played extensively is Persona 5, and I love that game, so this is the first time I’ve really gone into anything else in the atlus mega ten subgenre. It’s fun! It seems like a quicker start than Persona 5, and it’s clearly more limited in some respects, but there’s almost a surreal feeling to diving back into one of these games. Their energy is so unique and you can really get swept up in it quickly if you’re into this sort of thing
I played The Dark Queen of Mortholme and absolutely loved it!
Once again, it’s wild that many of the “Best of 2024” video game things have already happened. Something similar happened last year with Buckshot Roulette, which came out December 28th.
150 hours into Pokémon silver.
I have fully explored mt. Silver for the first time and acquired misdreavus. I’m going to legitimately raise a tyrannitar for the first time. I still have not fought red or captured the secondary legendary bird (in this case it is ho-oh). I filled up the entire Pokémon storage system and have resorted to releasing (aka euthenasia)
Finally started up You Are Peter Shorts yesterday, it’s a fun romp. The weird, slippery platforming and combat feel kinda right given the world you’re in. I think I kinda veered off the intended path and found myself in a section with a lot of missile-based platforming (and instant-death spikes).
Been playing this year’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Picked it up second hand as I tend to avoid buying Ubisoft games. I’m conflicted as I don’t want to support Ubisoft as a company, and particularly put money in Yves Guillemot’s pockets - I don’t want to condone the gross corporate culture they have/had there and a lack of accountability for the conduct of their employees and what happened under their “management”.
On the other hand, this game is really great. This style of game is a fantastic fit for the Prince of Persia franchise. It’s a wonderful metroidvania, essentially incorporating all the best ideas and lessons learned in the genre in recent years. The setting and overall presentation is beautiful, and it really evokes the early PoP games for me - particularly The Shadow and the Flame.
Nearing the end of The House in Fata Morgana and it’s thrown a lot of twists that I really didn’t expect, but still left little hints to things that they weren’t too surprising. Spoiler for the roughly last quarter of the game regarding a certain character’s identity: The reveal that Michel is intersex immediately made my stomach sink thinking that this was going to turn into a transphobia story, but I figured Jaffe wouldn’t recommend it if that were the case and that’s what helped me keep moving forward. I mean, it is a story about transphobia but that’s wildly different from a story that is transphobic like a lot of 2000s. It’s a hard read for sure. Everything in this story seems to be a tragedy, but it doesn’t feel totally nihilistic yet.
I was the same with House In Fata Morgana. I liked the 1st door, but not the 2nd very much. It’s just The Beauty and The Beast but edgy.
I think the most interesting thing about this game is that it constantly recontextualizes previous stories and that adds depth to what you already read. There’s a lot of care put into leaving seeds that don’t bear fruit for hours.
I just wish the art was more consistent. The art used for the regular talking head characters is incredible. There’s some wonky anatomy for sure, like Mell’s tiny arm, the maid’s super long arms, or Jacopo’s wonky side mouth, but that’s forgivable. It’s the paintings for one off scenes that were obviously done by someone else and to a much lower standard that sort of pull me out. Some of them are very muddy. Or the blending looks way too much like someone new to painting in Photoshop (Dangonronpa is a good example of that.)
Been spending the last week or so properly playing Rare Replay, going through the games in order and fully getting into them. I’ve briefly fiddled around with some of their ZX Spectrum games before, but only under scrutiny have I realized how lovely they are. Warts and all. Once I understood how Atic Atac actually works it quickly became one of my new favorite games. What a simple little gem!
