#could be more puzzley

[naancydrew]

can we gather a mass list of clue crew mysteryish/thriller/nancyish media recommendations? i'll start:

shows: columbo, murder she wrote, psych, x-files

video games: ace attorney, pentiment, return of the obra dinn, ghost trick

books: the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle, omniscient reader's viewpoint, (honestly that's it other than nancys I need to read more mystery novels)

movies: knives out series of course, the handmaiden

board games: (idk any I'm sorry just thinking of media categories)

trrpgs: monster of the week, city of mist

[jatlokgwo]

im so bad at making horror stuff every time i try i reinvent capitalism with diffrent world rules and why would i make this when i can go online or outside and see the exact same thing

[yorkscoffee]

persona 3 reload is pretty good aside from an apparent lack of proofreading, but i cannot get over them just telling you the answer to the love hotel puzzle

WHY are you taking game out of my game? it's not even a difficult puzzle???

[jimmyandthepulsatingmass]

The God of Crawling Eyes

Just in time for Halloween, I've added The God of Crawling Eyes to itch.io:

From the itch page:

The God of Crawling Eyes was a game I made in the early 2010s for a game jam on rpgmaker.net.  The game took around 20-25 days to make, mostly because of its short play time and minimalist aesthetic.  

I kind of made it just as a segue into the RPG Maker community, as I was going to upload A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky and thought I could get more eyes on the project if I won the game jam.  I don't think I won, but I did get a lot of eyes on this one--I was completely unaware at the time of the huge RPG Maker horror scene and the many people who were ravenous for games that fit that mold.  It ended up being my most-downloaded game on rpgmaker.net by far.

The story's about Max, a high school kid taking some experimental medication for his color blindness.  But, the medication is making him see...OtHeR tHiNgS...

Features:

-Genuine spooks! -Surprisingly good atmosphere for MIDI music tracks! -Adventure gamey, puzzley stuff--some of which isn't even that obtuse! -4 different endings! -Little secrets!

[just7frogsinapeoplesuit]

Finished reading Harrow the Ninth last week! It was a lot smoother than the previous book, and another fun read. Thoughts (spoiler free):

- This may be the only book I've ever read where 2nd person narration didn't make me want to pull my hair out, because it's the only time I've seen it done for a clear reason! The narration switching between chapters helps set a discordant tone and creates mystery in a unique way, and the bit where it switches to first person for just a few words 3/4 of the way through the book hits like a truck.

- Continuing to love how puzzley this series is. Piecing together stories from scraps is soo fun and satisfying. The pacing at which we receive information is (again) perfect and (again) we never get the entire picture so there's always something extra during a reveal.

- I felt this in Gideon but it's more relevant now: 10,000 years is way too long a timescale for the setting and characters, and the absurdity of it makes it feel less real. It should be 1,000 years maximum given how little it seems humanity has evolved since the resurrection, and nearly every length of time stated by a lyctor should be about 1/10 of what it is. The single reason I would accept for it really being 10k years is if it's a setup for an "over 9000" joke which, to be fair, is extremely plausible.

- Every new character has a name that's 3 syllables or less! I could actually remember who everyone was!

- It's even clearer in this book how unique and complex the characters' relationships are. I don't often encounter series where I genuinely couldn't give a concise answer for how anyone feels about anyone else. I'm so glad there's more.

- The one alien planet with substantial life we encounter is almost exactly like earth, down to Harrow assuming there are mammals and annelids. Unless these planets were purposely set up with Earth flora/fauna (despite being supposedly almost inaccessible) this feels like a cop-out to not have to make up alien biology and frankly it was disappointing. Really hoping this was done for a reason.

- Having a narrator we know is unreliable adds so much depth to the mystery of the story, especially the 3rd person segments. I said this before but I really wish more people wrote from the perspective of deeply flawed or ignorant characters.

- The visuals are detailed and often stunning, but sometimes they're just redundant. We do not need to be reminded what the lyctor robes look like every time someone is wearing one, I am going to assume they are still the same two pages later. The constant focus on the color of people's eyes could be considered an exception since it's a very plot-relevant detail, but even that was a little much at times.

- The lyctors and God read like an office drama where everyone involved is an objectively shitty person and I enjoyed every moment of it.

- I thought I was prepared to encounter none pizza with left beef. I was not prepared to encounter none pizza with left beef.

- The prose has been smoothed out a lot. The voice feels consistent even across chapters (and even near the end!), and the number of unnecessarily long and/or obscure words is slightly less but still got irritating at times. Muir definitely has a handful of favorites she overuses, namely:

Tessellate: Fair for the setting but unnecessary when telling us the wallpaper has a pattern

Scintillating: We see synonyms for this maybe once, it's used every single time something sparkles or is shiny

Deliquesce: Again great for the setting, but again it is used every single time something is melty (and a few times metaphorically). She even uses it to describe a soggy biscuit once. I don't know how to express just how much biscuits cannot deliquesce without going on an unhinged rant about the mechanics of rot.

- There are also still instances of clear thesaurus overuse, such as fog being described as "lubricious". I am assuming this was because in context it's supposed to be contrasting cold weather and that's a listed antonym for "frigid" but explicitly in a metaphorical sense. Did Muir know she was telling us the fog was horny? I want to believe there was some hidden joke but I couldn't find one, and it's far from the only time a college-level vocab word is used instead of a simpler synonym in a context that just doesn't quite work (because it adds connotations that don't make sense).

- On the other end of vocab things, there are a few obscure words she uses only once that are so vividly relevant to the setting it's almost weird they never come back. "Flense", for example, is probably the most necromancy-friendly 19th century word imaginable and using it metaphorically is a brilliant choice, but Muir has given priority to other less grotesque (but higher in syllable count) 19th century words and it only appears a single time. Yes, my irritation is showing. Unnecessary syllables irritate me.

- None pizza with left beef aside, my personal favorite meme was the Miette reference, but "wake me up inside" was a close second.

- Overall, similar in enjoyment to Gideon but easier to read. Excited to start Nona when I get the chance!

(Gideon the Ninth review here)

[the-meme-monarch]

If they remade Balan wonderworld but good what changes do you think would be most important

ohh ive had this stewing for a while so it's not just gonna be "what changes would be most important" it will also be some nitpicking

-i think. you could make it a game with no dialogue. i think that'd be novel and cool. but the weird thing is the actual game doesn't really commit to that? balan talks in-game. anyway they need to like. Actually tell the story bc as it stands w all the context being in the book isn't really great. more comprehensive cutscenes. and also I'm no game dev but like. it doesn't play well. i feel like it could stand to be more puzzley and maybe they can use that to help portray each residents stories more/better?

-i think the wonderworld should just abide by real time bc w it originally existing outside time and space kinda. Doesn't make complete sense to me. It being 'these twelve guys are having issues at the moment" makes more sense to me. therefore. dropping the cass attilio romance. It was weird anyway. princess merry is cass' older sister

-instead of the illusions of themselves that lead you to their negati boss form, it's a shadow that you see on the walls/ground(bc they're a shadow of their former selves haha). maybe your shadow is replaced w theirs?

-im thinking their backstory cutscenes are each told through different creative mediums:

-Fiona through sand animation, Eis through oil pastel on glass animation(like mob psycho 100 has) , Lucy through like a series of paintings? Cass maybe something similar to the mechanical puppets that hers is already, have Sana’s commit with wooden carved sets in stop motion (wouldn’t have to actually be Real stop motion, just make it look like it)

-either Balan just doesn’t have a ���true form’ or his true form still reads as black bc i will continue to be 😐 over that for-absolutely-ever

-Cass’ cat has to die. I’m sorry. or at least get hit and nearly die. also I’m thinking the accident also caused Iben’s parents deaths bc i heard somebody suggest that in frankenbugs’ playthrough of it and that sounded cool to make it connected. and Cass shutting out her grief like it never happened while Iben let her grief consume her bc of the same accident also sounds cool

-also abt frankenbugs i agree w them that I don’t think Lucy’s stage needs any changing i think hers is the best structured. i think everyone else’s stages need to be changed to match

-also maybe reorder the levels so they're in like. have the more intense problems at the end. like Bruce's being the last level seems kinda Whatever after cass and iben's levels literally involve death

-i think have their ‘why they’re in wonderworld’ cutscene play at the beginning of their stage when you first get there, and the ‘what happens after they leave’ play after their boss fight like normal bc idk where to put it otherwise

-I think it'd be neat if the hub world was the theatre instead of the isle of tims. what little we actually see of the theatre in the opening cutscene looks GREAT and i think that'd make for a cooler hub to get to all the stages w the character posters. i honestly don't really care for the tims (i like them in theory not really in practice) and much less the tower

and that's all i got rn but i might come back to this I'm watching the 1993 mario movie rn

[unrestrainedbalderdash]

Played Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League for a bit over 3 hours. It's not really my cup of tea (could be because I'm not very good at videogames), the experience was kind of like me playing Sonic Frontiers on the day before returning to college and feeling very lost and confused and feeling "this isn't the games I know and love". I'm not very good at the combat system, my Arkham brain keeps just spamming the melee. As time passes I am feeling a bit less disoriented? (I think the Batman encounter was the turning point from "I don't like this" to "I think I could get into this") It's also a bit buggy? The biggest example is that sometimes the audio keeps cutting out then coming back then cutting out.

Riddler appears 3 hours in (there are references to him beforehand though, including a big cardboard cutout of him that I stared at for a while). It's Arkhamverse Riddler, they haven't butchered his characterisation! (was kind of terrified that they'd look at the popularity of The Batman 2022 and go and ruin him, in which case I would have probably cried at having wasted my time and money on this). Only completed one Riddler challenge at the moment - it was a generic "run through the checkpoints in time" sort of thing. I hope they have more puzzley challenges but I guess the gameplay isn't really suited for that (no gadgets, mostly combat based which is really not my thing).

I think maybe the biggest problem is, returning to the first point - it's a skill issue from me, I am very bad at videogames if I'm not really used to the style. It breaks the formula of the Arkham games - which could be positive or negative depending on your perspective. For me it's a big negative, but I can see why people might love the gameplay.

Definitely still gonna persist because I'm desperate for good Riddler content :)

[warpaiint]

⌜ @singofus ⌟ ―― K a s s a n d r a & F e n y x ❝ "I always thought Tartarus was going to be all fire and screaming and laughter of the Furies but...well it was more puzzley? Maybe that's the real torture. Those light beams did hurt...It was actually kind of beautiful. In a torn up, vast kind of way. Not that I recommend going there!" Fenyx was too tired for her story to be too coherent for once. Now that she was actually sitting down, the emotional weight of her situation began to settle. She was doing okay physically somehow though. ❞

Kassandra carried a bottle of wine, as she settled down on a set of pillows listening to the tired immortal. "That is… not what I expected," Kassandra admitted, as she listened to her story but she did not sound up to doing much more than sleeping. She reached over to grab a bit of cloth to drape over Fenyx so that if she fell asleep she would be comfortable. Til then, her golden eyes focused on the younger woman and grinned. "Trust me, I'm in no eager interest in traversing Tartarus. However, it sounds like you could do with some sleep," Kassandra set the bottle down to the side as she brushed her fingers along her hair and touched her forehead. Did immortals even get sick? She felt physically fine but perhaps it was her mind that needed time to rest.

"If the gods do not need you, how about you rest here for the night?"

[binarystargames]

Dungeon23/ANOINTED23, March and April roundup (oops)

Updating has been pretty spotty for reasons of "I wrote basically 150 pages of Game in these two months"! But as I had time to catch up on Month 4 and finalize it, here's my two.

The Tower of Godfrey

A prison that was originally built to house Godfrey, a rune sorcerer who did something egregious that was lost to time. Over time, it expanded to house other inhabitants. Legend has it that Godfrey knows a long-buried path to enter Volinn, the shadow-torn kingdom where the dead king who calls you to his side lies. But the prison has been untended for years, and its inhabitants and wardens are both twisted beyond recognition.

The Region Clocks here are Time and Alert: as time goes on and as you do things that raise alarms, more enemies swarm. There are two entry points: the "left" side is a jailbroken cell in the new section of the prison (6 on the left, which soon became 13 because oops but I don't feel like updating the picture), while (1) is the main entrance. You can get a key for the Warden area (4-5-6) in that new section by defeating a miniboss (a nasty prisoner) or just pick/kick down the Warden area's lock; you do need a key to get to (10-11-12), however, which is in that Warden area. There's also a second miniboss (the warden) guarding a prison control that makes fighting Godfrey easier.

Godfrey is a very dodge-heavy enemy who sets "trap" inscriptions all over. The prison control decreases the traps' range, and you can set them with an Inscription you get from beating him.

The question asked of you is: What did you learn or do during your life that could inspire someone to lock you away forever if they found out?

The Village of Plainswall

A small village, curiously empty save for a few soldiers and knights. But nightfall betrays a hideous secret...

The Region Clock here is Night. It's a 4-segment clock that, when it fills, doesn't un-fill until you die or rest, and changes encounters and items you can retrieve.

This is intended to be another interstitial region, and one that leads to The Battlefield of Karus - so the soldiers and knights here are deserters from that region's 5th Regiment. This is the first appearance of Captial-SE Shadow Enemies - the villagers here did a ritual to protect themselves that got compromised and got them Shadow-tainted, but the ritual holds enough to keep it contained until night-time.

This one's built to be a lot more "puzzley" - you can escape at (8) in the daytime as soon as you open the gate at (4), which you can get the key for at night at (3), but you can only open the gate during the day. However, there's optional things you can do: a slightly nastier encounter at (7) night reveals what you need to complete the ritual fully and stop the clock finally, which allows you to return to (7) during the day (which is normally not reachable due to the clock being 4 segments) and get a new weapon.

The question asked of you is: What have you done for power or protection that you regret?

I'll settle on one for this month sometime today.

[doorplays]

Door Reviews: Chicory: A Colorful Tale (2021)

PREAMBLE

Hello, folks! Doors here again with another Gaming Review for y’alls! I forgot how I heard of this game, but all I remember is that one day I saw it on my Twitter feed, then I wishlisted it! It went on a sale sometime last year, so I bought it, and well, here we are!

What’s it about? I’d describe Chicory: A Colorful Tale as a Metroidvania Platformer involving a dog-turned-artist and their journey as a budding artist. It is a very cute game with a good story, and I’m eager to talk about it, so let’s get to it!

STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)

Chicory: A Colorful Tale presents itself as a coloring book turned into a game. Early on in the game, you get The Brush, the main way you interact with the game’s environment. Everything in the world is in black and white, just waiting to be colored in. Even the NPC’s can be colored in to your preference! I find this very unique and fun. It’s nice to try and find the right color for everything and just unleash my creativity through this game, even though I’m not a trained artist.

There are certain objects that, when colored in with your Brush, transform into a different form. A small mushroom can grow into a mushroom big enough to jump from, and this big-ish tree that blocks your way can be shrunk into an anemone-looking plant, opening up the way. This is how the game’s Platformer gameplay manifests: you interact with the environment with your Brush, and see how you can get from one screen to another with it. As you progress through the story, your Brush grows in power, and you will be able to access more areas.

Navigating through the game definitely felt like a puzzley platformer. It was just the right amount of hard for me: difficult enough to be interesting, but not too difficult that I’d wrack my brain too much and consult a guide. And if there were things that did end up being too hard for me, I could just use the in-game hint system, which, in itself, can be vague enough to point you in the right direction, or detailed enough to give you the right answer, while ALSO being framed as a very cute call to your parents for help! Like literally, the hint system is you going to a payphone and calling your mom, explaining your situation, and then your mom giving you advice, with your dad excitedly wanting to talk to you as well. You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to spoil the puzzle, though!

There are other aspects to the game. Aside from the platformer parts and the coloring/painting parts, there’s also a bunch of collectibles lying around! There are a lot of them, like gift boxes containing clothes for your character, bigger gift boxes containing Brush Styles for more varied brush strokes when coloring and painting, litter lying around that you can exchange for decoration items in-game, and... lost kittens. Yes, you can find kittens stuck up trees in this game. There are so many of them. Every time I saw a shaking tree I was like WHY ARE YOU IN THERE CAT??? HOW DID YOU GET STUCK IN THERE???

You can also dress up your character and decorate certain areas. There’s a lot of clothes to choose from, though you have to collect them from gift boxes first. I had fun wearing the first few hats and shirts that I found, and as I found more I started experimenting on how I wanted my character to look like. It’s fun mixing and matching stuff! As for decoration, you find them either in exchange for litter or as a reward for finding lost kittens. I didn’t explore the decoration aspect of the game much, but I nonetheless do find it interesting. It reminds me of how I am currently decorating my room with all the art prints I bought over the years. Interior design!!

The art is very cute! And the coloring mechanic is simple enough, yet also allows for a measure of variety in some places. I find it very refreshing, though at times I wish I could have a smaller brush size available for mouse and keyboard, as I can only cycle through three brush sizes. My favorite character design is Marzipan. She’s just so cute!!!

The music is very cute, with it getting serious when the situation demands it. There’s a surprising amount of music in this game, 2.5 hours of it according to Spotify! I could get lost in the music honestly, it’s such a nice vibe.

All in all, I enjoyed how the game presented itself! Very lovely and cute, is how I would describe it.

SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)

The plot centers around a dog janitor (whom you control) and their boss Chicory, the current Wielder of The Brush. The Wielder is crucial to the world of Picnic. It is a long and storied role passed down from generation to generation, with each Wielder choosing a successor and handing them The Brush. Their job is to give color to Picnic, each Wielder building on those that came before, and painting Picnic in their own way, building on their legacy while making their own.

Your character ends up having to wield the brush through circumstances, as Picnic inexplicably loses all color! They have to talk to various NPC’s and explore the world in order to find the cause of the problem and to fix this right and proper mess y’all have found yourselves in.

The game’s story has a lot of moments of levity. At the start of the game, the NPC’s ask you for favors, which the game uses as an opportunity to teach you the game controls. They also manage to show the various personalities of these NPC’s. One of my favorite NPC’s is this one squirrel who likes to embody toughness. I loved his little story! There are a lot of characters who ask you for help with things and talk to you about themselves, and all of them have this personable charm to them that I like.

The story has a lot to say about the process of making art, about being an artist and the accompanying insecurities it comes with, and about finding your place in the world. For a cute-seeming game, it talks about deep topics with a depth and ease that I didn’t expect! Even though I’m not an artist, I found myself relating to the characters’ struggles. When they succeed, I found myself cheering for them. I was very much invested in this little dog’s life and adventures.

I enjoyed the story a lot! It really draws you in if you just let it. This is one of the stories that I will be thinking about for a long time. I will talk about it more in a more spoilery review I plan to write soon! I feel like I will do the spoilery reviews on games that really left an impact on me, as it is difficult to talk about these games without giving spoilers.

VERDICT

Chicory: A Colorful Tale has been a lovely experience for me. I probably used the word “cute” a lot in this review, but that’s because the game just oozes with cuteness! There’s a certain serenity to playing this game, just coloring places at your own pace. It set out to be a coloring book game of sorts, and I think it’s successful in that regard and then some! More people need to play this game, and frankly I think it’s criminal that this game doesn’t seem to be that well known! So go and play it!!!!

Door Rates Chicory: A Colorful Tale: 5/5!

[guyrowlinsonfmp]

More ideas

Puzzley aspects such as utilising the difference in camera angles to make it so that the top down player could only see specific things in that angle or vice versa. this could make the game much more co-op focused and add an emphasis to communication between the players in order to progress the game.

another thing would be to take advantage of how the top down player can see on the other sides of walls that the side on player cant. because of the camera angle. and try to make scenarios that play into the topdown players role as more of a reconnaissance type player

[minor-locrian]

i really appreciate this super thoughtful and insightful addition to the post. "interesting and exciting experimentation" is exactly what celeste modding should be.

unscripted linear gameplay:

i thought of your height contest map as soon as you said "overhaul madeline's movement". i honestly didn't feel like it worked well for me, and the i think the reason for that is that madeline's movement has already been super fine-tuned to create a good experience playing. fiddling with that is inherently gonna make it feel somewhat more frustrating.

your observation about unscripted linear gameplay being more prevalent in older mods is definitely accurate. i wouldn't attribute this to ch9 releasing or to in-game updating - i think it's just that more people joined the celeste modding community, and the community was able to develop a particular vernacular unrooted in the base game. i might specifically credit part of this change to the influence of geometry dash level design, which appears to be around 100% spectacle-style gameplay.

pseudo-puzzle gameplay: i think this category could be split into a few more.

first of all, there's gameplay which is functionally linear and scripted, but where you need to figure out to do; i'd say flavors of pi is a good example, as well as liero's maps, and ttxvi on the more puzzley side. maps like this are generally described as focusing on "routing".

secondly, there's unscripted linear gameplay with puzzle elements or design principles. i think azure caverns falls into this category (or at least, that was its goal). while its puzzle elements are extremely limited, it uses puzzle design principles in that most rooms teach a particular idea or center around a certain concept. you could maybe describe it as unscripted linear flesh on a pure puzzle skeleton, with both elements being very simple. (i would've liked to focus more on the puzzle element, but i just didn't have the room ideas)

third, there's puzzle maps that integrate the rules of platforming into the puzzles. agfts is a great example of this. things like how far madeline can jump or dash are important elements of the puzzle logic and solutions. i'd say that stamina puzzle maps also mostly belong in this category. if you're asking yourself "how can i get from over here to over there without dashing", you may be playing a map like this.

i'd say the third kind is perhaps closer to pure puzzle maps, but it doesn't involve ignoring aspects of the platforming engine, which i appreciate.

open-ended gameplay:

i think this is of a kind with reactive gameplay in that the player is improvising, and my favorite example of this type is "attack of the clone", which alternates between this style and a more "routing-focused" style. i don't have much to say about it, but it is fun.

overall, though, i think that rather than categories, it makes sense to view gameplay styles as the combination of a bunch of individual factors: room length, intuitivity, scriptedness, target player audience, intended difficulty for the target audience, input density, and many more. for example, i think the distinctive thing about the undergrowth/climb/white style is the abundance of on-ground downtime, large rooms, and low intuitivity and scriptedness. i've been working on refining this system for analyzing gameplay styles.

maybe controversial celeste modding opinion: i don't actually like that gameplay style which is all set up and indicated and you know 100% of what you need to do as soon as you look. it's not immersive to me. i mean, it's definitely satisfying, but it's not at all what i come to celeste for. now. you may say "cellularautomaton aka minor-locrian you are just being pointlessly negative" and to that i would say fair enough. but also just imagine how cool midnight spire would have been if it wasn't so readable, or the tower (sj int lobby), or so many of those other sj maps that were broadly received as just kinda forgettable. more undergrowths/the climbs please (and yes i am doing my part stay tuned for surreal ravine in the beginner collab)

[cunked]

i always like to bring shepard's romantic interest with them on missions but i downloaded the javik dlc for this playthrough so i also want to bring javik along for extra dialogue, so every outing is shepard, shepard's boyfriend, and the rude alien third-wheel from a 50,000-year-dead civilization

[earthdeep]

got pokemon shield a couple days ago, have now played it for a ridiculous portion of my waking hours and completed the main campaign n become champion heck ye

and man this game is so... Comfortable

I admit I have a soft spot for a nice loving pastiche of my country so all the slang and apostrophes made me smile and I had fun picking out what monuments were based on and the fact that motostoke's theme is a fucking big ben remix is absolute class. but also I felt the whole adventure was a nice amount of challenge for a pokemon game. even tho I was being p thorough in catching pokemon as I discovered them, I never ended up vastly overlevelled and the champion battle actually put me into a corner for a while (until I got to a point where I could use my gd eldegoss as a tank and spam max revives to get the rest of my team back hehe). tho the Bad Guys posed no threat whatsoever but that's what u get when u theme all ur teams around steel types and I have a cinderace as my lead pokemon. get fucking rekt son.

for the most part I liked how the gimmicky stuff was handled too. having the weird little puzzley minigame things as challenges before the gyms made them feel much more in place and deserved than like... usum's mantine surfing or whatever. and I think of the temporary in-battle pokemon power up mcguffins so far, I like how dynamax is contained to certain locations. makes it feel Bigger and more special. the wild area I like as a thing, but I just wish it didn't drop off entirely at the halfway point of the game? I only went there post-hammerlocke to get my curry dex checked. but speaking of which, camping is fun. I like that. I have made a lot of curry bc I'm not gonna spend excess money on potions when I could be saving up for clothes. those leather jackets ain't cheap u know.

tbh I really surprised myself with the pokemon that ended up on my team. I went into the finals with cinderace, corviknight, boltund, eldegoss, golurk and frosmoth. not a single fairy type or even MOVE in sight. like I at least planned the first two, but I didn't like yamper's design and eldegoss was looking p weak at one point and golurk was SO far along the attempts of "HOW DO I COUNTER FIRE FFS" and snom just stayed there bc heehee squishy. her name is (fuit) gumi and she is an adequate dragon counter.

the story (so far..?) is honestly refreshing in how it's focussed. being the very best is the primary motivation of ur character. the only time u stray from ur path is when the imminent apocalypse is getting in the way. but mostly it's just a side story u check in with every now and then. and I honestly prefer that to needlessly putting off saving the world to go get a gym badge which won't do u any good when the planet's destroyed. also like, true story, my first pokemon game was x and when I'd done the world saving bit and gone through all those moving cutscenes, I didn't realise I hadn't completed the game. I stood in geosenge, looking at the pit with a sense of ennui (bc this is x after all which means the fucker trapped down there is PROBABLY CURSED WITH ETERNAL LIFE) before I bumped into trevor and decided to fill out my pokedex a bit and oh, there's a bit of the map I didn't get to explore! in the end I stumbled on victory road by complete fucking accident and had no idea why other characters seemed so hyped abt this league thing. I had completely forgotten abt it.

but yeah shield is tight and slick and very well done imo.

[miloscat]

[Review] Donald Duck: Quack Attack (GBC)

My friend Tonya, lifelong duck aficionado, chose this for our little game club this month. Well, they picked the console game specifically but I duked and went for the handheld tie-in, and I don’t regret it.

Quack Attack has a release hostory I’d call a “saga”. It’s basically a Crash Bandicoot clone by Ubisfot on the Rayman 2 engine, and much like Rayman 2 many of its console ports have a bunch of differences despite being more or less the same game. Also like Rayman 2, it had a 2D “version” on the GBC (plus a later GBA game, but don’t worry about that for now). I was drawn to the GBC one since I loved Rayman 1 & 2 on GBC, with their lovely little sprites, and this is also in the same engine as those.

Tonya informs me that this particular release is more faithful to the Italian duck comics world in terms of character designs, which fits with it being made by an Italian branch of Ubisoft. Much like my experience with Ducktales Remastered, my ignorance of that universe didn’t really stop me enjoying the game.

On first glance, this is a fairly straightforward 2D platformer. Our hero Donald can jump and double jump (woo!), and that’s about it. He can take two hits, the first changing his posture from a cheerful gait to an upset state, as well as muting the melody line of the soundtrack in a nice touch. His other ability, to get mad and smash things, is contextually activated by powerups placed strategically in the levels. In this mode he gets his health restored, is invincible, runs faster, can break down doors, and smash through certain floors. This is, I understand, thematically true to the character, and as the game progresses it’s used more and more for clever puzzle-platforming opportunities.

Indeed the complexity of the design changes by world. The forest is a pleasant romp; the city (Duckburg) becomes quite inventive at using the environs in its challenges; Magica’s manor gets quite puzzley indeed; and the jungley temple ruins are a brutal gauntlet of traps. There’s even a bonus world for getting all the hidden blueprints in each level: a crystal-filled alien dimension, recalling Phaaze or Xen.

The game’s not long and throws plenty of lives at you, but does get quite difficult at times and the hitboxes can be tricky. The final boss especially is a real pain in the tuckus. But using my handy-dandy emulator features I was able to clock it in a couple of evenings. I was particularly impressed by the level designs. Although two of the themes were reminiscent of the aforementioned Ducktales, Quack Attack GBC goes a lot further with making intricate and interesting interactive stages, and is utterly charming to boot. You could say it’s... quacktacular.

[lonely-eluret]

I have officially survived Christmas and get to be back home with my puppy again. I’m kind of sad that my aunt’s left now, but at the same time, there are no words strong enough to express how glad I am to not have to exist in the same house as my two very small and extremely screechy nieces. (Christmas was bad for them, especially the three year old, who spent the past week pretty much constantly overwhelmed and overstimulated and it was a horrible situation for her but also for everyone else, and there was near constant almost-too-high-pitched-to-hear-but-unfortunately-very-audible screaming...)

My gifts to the nieces went over about as well as expected (they could not give less of a shit), so that was... annoying, and hurtful, but they’re toddlers, whatever, I knew it was unlikely they’d be that interested in the stuffed animals I made them. Everyone else in my family, on the other hand, were very impressed with my work, which I was not expecting, and long story short I’m apparently going to try to sell crocheted stuff now, so maybe that won’t go horribly? Who knows. (My brother liked the pig I made for the three-year-old way more than she did, and he named it and kept finding it and playing with it, so at least somebody got enjoyment out of the stuffed animals.)

Also! I have maybe found a way to actually stick to a schedule. No guarantees and it’ll be a few days before I can even start, but... since I suspect I have ADHD, I am basically trying to turn scheduling things into a fun, puzzley activity, and I think having a plan for things to do in every block of the day will help me actually do things other than idly scrolling through Tumblr because I get stuck. I am hopeful! And trying not to be cynical! Because every time I get all ~inspired~ to Do Better it inevitably blows up in my face! But I want this time to be different!! And this time I know I might have ADHD! Which I think is a big contributor to past failures! And now I can find ways to work with the way my brain works instead of against it!