#honestly I can only do actual play in speedruns or live so this tracks.

[essektheylyss]

I definitely could've watched this series at a reasonable pace but instead I watched five episodes of acoc today and have four episodes left to watch tomorrow and I will be finishing it all by 4pm, goddammit.

[bahamutgames]

Bahamutgreen’s Favorite Games of 2022!

It’s that time again! Another Game of the Year list from your favorite video game enjoyer to round out the year! I honestly kind of feel like I didn’t play that much that was insanely earth shattering this year. While at the same time I literally played a game that reinstalled faith in the medium in my heart again. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that it was a little all of the place this year in terms of my thoughts and feelings on what I played. But I still want to take some time to highlight my favorites!

Just like last year, this will be divided into 2 lists: My favorite games I played this year that released BEFORE 2022, and my favorite games I played that released DURING 2022! So a favorite old games / new games list. Each has 5 entries and 5 runner ups. They’re not organized in any ranking between each list but each list does have a #1 winner!

TOP GAMES PLAYED IN 2022

Pupperazzi (PC)

If you don’t know, I LOVE photography games. I’m a huge fan of taking pictures of video game environments within video games. So whenever I see a game where that’s the goal, I’m a little drawn to it. And so when I saw Pupperazzi on Game Pass I just had to try it. And I cannot describe just how happy this game made me. It’s super cute, super simple, and super relaxing. It’s a great time and it’s one of the few photography games I’ve played where you get rewards for not just focusing on the subject matter, and branching out a bit (something I wish Pokemon Snap did, for example.) It’s got easy controls, super cute graphics, it’s easy to pick up and play, and it has such a good OST. I loved this game I tried speedrunning it the night I 100% completed it! If that means anything.

Breath of Death VII (PC)

Found myself played a good amount of Zeboyd Games’ catalogue this year. And I think I can safely say they’re easily one of my favorite indie devs out there at the moment! I love their RPGs, and it’s just nice to see traditional JRPG games get made at all nowadays (although we do seem to be in a BIG resurgence of them!) And this game was a total treat. It’s a very classic styled RPG, but it’s the Zeboyd Games touch that makes it worth playing nowadays. Small things and very unique approaches and ideas for combat that make it flow smoother and easier than typical old school RPGs. I’m also just VERY smitten with the world idea, a war torn post apocalypse where everyone is an undead/redead. This game has a ton of potential and I would LOVE to see a Breath of Death VIII come out eventually!

Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Sega Genesis)

I know what you’re thinking: “You’ve beaten Sonic 3 before, don’t mess with me.” And you’d be partially right! I’ve actually never beaten the & Knuckles part of the game prior to this year. When I was a teen playing through the whole series I got totally walled by Sandopolis Zone and had to give up. But after Sonic 2 ended up becoming my favorite movie of all time (before Sonic 3 comes out of course) I had a huge itch to replay all the classic sonic games. And my takeaway from that? Sonic 3 & Knuckles is not only one of my favorite games I played this year, but it is without question the BEST classic Sonic game out there. And maybe one of my new favorite Sonic games. It’s got pains in it like lives and being old and stuff like that. But coming back to this and seeing it through to Doomsday Zone was so eye opening. There was such a natural evolution from this game to Adventure. Multiple player characters, a bigger story, larger set pieces, and a crazy Super Sonic final boss. It’s amazing, and it’s so cool to see the parts I ADORE about Sonic (big stories and crazy melodrama and set pieces) got their start on the Genesis.

Kaze and the Wild Masks (PC)

Here’s a game that totally blindsided me! I had my eyes on it for a while, but I finally got to play it this year and MAN was this good! It looks great, feels great to play, has a great sound track, and is just a total treat through and through! I LOVED this game! If you haven’t played it yet, and you’re a fan of Donkey Kong Country, I cannot recommend it enough! You control Kaze and get to play through lots of really well made levels and sometimes even fool around with unique masks that have different abilities. This is another one I’d LOVE to see get a sequel of some kind in the future. I’m very close to 100% completing it (just need a few more achievements). And even though it was the first game I played this year, it hasn’t left my mind as one of the best.

And my favorite old game I played in 2022 was...

Kingdom Hearts 2 (Playstation 2)

Last year Kingdom Hearts 1 managed to get onto the runner ups. But this time, nah I gotta give it up. Kingdom Hearts 2 was AWESOME! I like KH1, but KH2 has really cemented that I am a brand new obsessed Kingdom Hearts fan. Since playing this one I cannot stop thinking about it and I CANNOT wait to dive into the rest of the series. At first I thought it was a little too easy and meat headed, but no, I actually think it’s perfect. For starters, god it should never be as hard as KH1 or annoying as CoM. But also I think that meatheaded mashingness of it makes the game so good. It allows them to make every single fight a spectacle with absolutely crazy reaction commands and the moss bonkers final boss I’ve ever seen in my life! Kingdom Hearts is such a unique series and I absolutely think 2 is and will probably stay as my favorite. AMAZING visuals (huge upgrade in the already pretty good animation), fantastic music, massively improved gameplay, and all around huge polish has made this easily my favorite old game I got to experience in 2022.

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THE RUNNER UPS

And here we go, these are 5 more games that I wasn’t necessarily completely changed by or anything, but I still thought were really solid games that I wanted to give a quick shout out to! As always, if you want you can check out my list of every game I played this year when it’s uploaded here.

-Final Fantasy 1 (PS1): This year I started my journey to play through the mainline games of 4 different RPG series (FF, Pokemon, DQ, and Tales). And surprisingly enough, I think FF1 was my favorite among the first entries. It’s rough, and has aged, even the PS port I played. But I loved it, another big win for the Final Fantasy series in my eyes.

-Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox): Ah now this one may be a surprise to some of you! Did you know I’m a bit of a Halo fan? I’ve been playing the multiplayer since I was a small child. But I had never beaten any campaigns until this year when me and my little sister tackled Halo Combat Evolved. I loved it! It was a VERY impressive game with beautiful visuals and some fantastic set pieces I’m still thinking about. And the music? So good for no reason.

-Jak 3 (PS2): Hard to believe I finished the original trilogies for Sly, Jak, and Ratchet all this year! But here we are! After all is said and done, I think Jak has come out on top as my favorite of the 3. Mystic stuff? Check. Technology? Tech? Lore and ancient mysteries? Check. Edgy as FUCK? Check check check! I had a rough time with Jak 2 but I think Jak 3 managed to polish up everything wrong with it while keeping what was so charming about it’s drastic tonal shift. A strong finale to a cool trilogy.

-What the Golf? (Switch): I don’t like golf. It’s the most boring sport and it’s a horrible waste of land. Thankfully, if you’re like me, there’s a game for people like us! What the Golf is a game I played at the start of the year when I was INCREDIBLY sick, and it helped me get over that real quick. It’s so chaotic and goofy, but also weirdly comforting. Great ost, easy to play, and TONS of content to go through. The gift that keeps on giving.

-Sludge Life (PC): Living life on a polluted island might sound awful. And it is, but man Sludge Life manages to take the environment and world and make it so fun and relaxing. I love walking sims like this where you just explore and have a good time. Sludge Life is simple, but does have a goal with cute payoffs and multiple endings. And you can pee! I bought a shirt from this game! It’s really good I 100% completed it in a day!

As always there’s a TON of games that got left off. Buck Up and Drive!, Viola the Heroines Melody, there’s always so many games I play each year and I can never give each of them the time they deserve. I’ll move on now but PLEASE check out everything here if any of it catches your eye!

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Top New Games from 2022:

Splatoon 3 (Nintendo Switch)

Hey, Splatoon’s back! As I’m sure a lot of you know, I’m a bit of a Splatoon fan. I’ve been a fan since the very first one, and yeah the second one disappointed me a lot, but Octo Expansion was great. I was very hesitant about Splatoon 3, but I finally beat it on my birthday and I can safely say it’s the best in the series, easily. The story mode is REAL this time and not just a rehash of Splatoon 1 again. It feels great to play, Small Fry is a fantastic addition to the single player roster, there’s TONS to do, fantastic music, and one of my favorite final bosses from 2022! What a cool game!

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope (Nintendo Switch)

Mario RPGs are back!? In 2022 we had a genuinely cool as hell Mario RPG with genuinely good combat??? And we have the Rabbids to thank for it!? If you told me all this during the Wii U days I probably would have slapped you. But no, it’s true. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is AWESOME! It’s not perfect, but it really does feel like the best brand new Mario RPG in years. Interesting combat, a cool villain, a brand new OC teammate (who is fucking awesome by the way), playable Peach and Bowser? It’s all SO good. And the game isn’t even done yet, I cannot wait for the DLC! I was utterly blown away by how much I enjoyed this one, it’s even better than the first by a wide margin in my opinion. Can’t wait to see what the rabbids bring us in the future!

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (Xbox One)

Now here’s a game... I was expecting this game to be kinda bad. I won’t lie. I’m not really a fan of Isekais so I just steered clear of it. But I was given it on my birthday, and considering I had just played FF1 for the first time. I had to try it. And I’m SO glad I gave it a fair shake. This game was AMAZING! Genuinely, I am not usually a fan of this kind of “souls-esc” gameplay. But I actually had a GREAT time with it here. I loved the graphics, music, characters, and the insanely over the top and edgy script. There were moments where I jumped out of my chair because they were saying so much cool shit! It was such an interesting take on the simple FF1 story as well. I had an absolute blast with this game, and I’m not joking when I tell you this may have single handedly restored my faith that AAA games can be good.

Spark the Electric Jester 3 (PC)

You all saw it coming. How could I NOT include Spark the Electric Jester 3, the most anticipated indie game of all time according to 5/5 Bahamutgreens? I LOVED the first two games, they’re easily some of my favorite indies of all time. And in my opinion, Spark 3 just continues to make the series better and better! This is a fantastic end to the trilogy. With amazing gameplay, multiple ways to go through each level, tons to find and unlock, and a great story that’s really wild and takes a really crazy and drastic turn. I’m not sure what will become of the Spark series after this, but I am absolutely looking forward to anything the team puts out next!

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And my Game of the Year for 2022 is...

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Sonic Frontiers (Xbox One)

You all knew it was gonna be my game of the year. Don’t lie. Let’s not pretend here. I’ve been really excited for this game for a while now. I was cautiously excited though, after Forces I was unsure how Frontiers would go. But man. Man oh man. Frontiers was AMAZING! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for in a new Sonic! Over the top visuals, cool gameplay, awesome lyrical music, and FOR SUPER SONIC TO BE INVOLVED FUCKING HELL STOP MAKING GAMES WITHOUT SUPER SONIC I’M SICK OF IT! The amazing boss battles, the fantastic open zone gameplay, the super cool animations for all the attacks, the crazy melodramatic story. It’s all here. It reminds me of why I fell in love with Sonic. It’s not perfect, but if we continue down this path of really caring about making Sonic cool. I think we’re on the road to a perfect game soon.

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THE RUNNER UPS

-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (Xbox One): A collection of old games to start out the runner ups. I wasn’t going to include this originally but I felt the need to give it a shout out because it is a pretty amazing collection. 13 games, english and japanese versions of each, a handful of cheats built in for each, complete controller remapping for each one, and online play for some of them which is incredible. And on top of that the gallery comes with SO much junk like manuals, game boxes, design documents, it’s a BIG collection.

-Chocobo GP (Switch): This game, man... It had so much potential. By the end of its life (which is happening currently as I’m typing this) it was a genuinely solid and fun racing game. But when it launched, man. It was just not worth it. Microtransaction riddled mess. I admit I didn’t play it at the time, but it it what kept me from trying it out. It’s genuinely fun, has a lot of characters and customization, some good tracks, a cool ost. If it just hadn’t been a scam when it launched, and was released on multiple consoles (imagine making a scam and then only letting one user base take part in the scam lol) it could have been so much more. It’s sad.

-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Xbox One): When this game was announced, I was pretty convinced this was gonna be a soulless cash grab. But uh... Actually. It fucking rocks? It’s SUPER good! This is easily the best TMNT beat em up, imo. It’s REALLY fun, looks AMAZING, has a GREAT ost, has tons of moves and options for the player, lots of levels, sidequests to do, and multiple characters. I had an absolute blast playing this and now I honestly really wish the team would continue making TMNT beat em ups for the other shows. I would FLIP out if we got a TMNT 2003 inspired one next. That cover of the intro might suck, but the game itself is golden.

-Dadish 3 (PC): Another Dadish game. What can I say? I love these games. They’re all simple but fun. Dadish 3 is, hands down, the hardest of the trilogy. It’s the only one I haven’t 100% completed because of it. But damn it’s still SUCH a good time. I had a total blast playing through it and I loved The Dolphin The Dolphin. What do you think are the chances Dadish 4 will be a 3D collectathon? Regardless, I will probably buy any Dadish game day one for the rest of my life.

-This Way Madness Lies (PC)

TWO ZEBOYD GAMES TITLES ON ONE GOTY LIST!? It’s more likely than you’d think. This is the latest RPG by the team and it is a BLAST! I had a great time with this RPG. It’s smaller and more streamlined than other RPGs, but honestly that’s not a bad thing at all. It still has all the Zeboyd charm, their incredibly unique concepts for RPG gameplay. It has GREAT combat, fun characters, good music and visuals, an interesting story. And it’s without question, the best Magical Girl JRPG inspired by Shakespeare!

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And there you have it! That’s my selection of games from 2022! As always it’s a little difficult to play this many new games in a year. And it’s even more difficult to pick just a small selection of favorite games from the MASSIVE list of games I build up throughout a year. But there were a good few I played this year that I just KNEW had to be on the list. Kingdom Hearts 2, Stranger of Paradise, Sonic Frontiers, ect ect. In retrospect, it’s been a pretty good year for games. There’s been a lot of good stuff. And 2023 is only looking better. I cannot wait for the Fraymakers early access release in a few days!

And just like last year you can read a full list of everything I played right here! (x)

2022 was another rough year. Lots of stress from work, and because of that I had a little less money. But on top of that there was SO many games that were must plays for me this year. Which doesn’t usually happen. Overall I’d say it was a pretty good year for me in terms of games. Even if there were some disappointments, there were way more surprises and games that I absolutely fell in love with.

In addition to that I ended 2022 by finally taking some small steps to get my life back together after it was totaled by Covid. I’m walking more, trying to stress less, and I’m finally driving again. Which of course means I can drive to more stores to buy more video games!

I’m just being silly. But I do hope 2022 was good to you, both the year and games. And hopefully 2023 will be kinder to all of us and be filled with some AMAZING video game experiences for all of us to enjoy! Don’t let the first weeks or months of the year dictate how your whole year will go, you are in control of your life. Let’s make 2023 the best of the 2020′s so far!!

Joke for the twitter link. I GOT YOU! You thought it would actually be on the list because I didn’t use Power Stone 2 this time. I GOT YOU!!

[welcometomy20s]

June 30, 2021

Coco (and Lulu’s) Legacy

Coco wrote the book on how to be a Hololive member, from front to back. She plotted out how one can amass an audience, how to interact and build a worldwide fandom, how to integrate ideas of the audience to the grand narrative of the company, how to deal with tee-tee and pairings, how to cope when YouTube strikes you down in its impunity, and how to cope when Cancel Brigade comes to destroy your work, along with how to bring a more cohesive workplace, how to protect yourself from the unmooring of identity that is inherent in VTube, and finally how to leave when you are in a rollercoaster that is only going up. Coco wrote the book and now we follow.

AsaCoco was brilliant from its outset. Having a place to know the ins and outs of various members of Hololive was a great way to connect the rabbit hole. But there is a deeper reason for the brilliance. I talked before about how the major tension in VTube is one between the corporate back-end tradition of Japan colliding with the audience front-end tradition of YouTube. AsaCoco is something directly in line with that second tradition. The visual language of YouTube is different from those of movies. A jump cut in a movie denotes a different idea than a jump cut on YouTube. Movie critic complaining about jump cuts in vlogs is like a Spanish reader complaining about a sentence in English being awkward. Of course it is, it’s in a different language. Unlike movies, which come from theatre and literature, vlogs’ lineage comes from news broadcasts. Many of the early web successes were styled in a news format (rocketboom, Ze Frank, What the Buck and so on…) One does not complain about the jump cut between different presenters in a newscast, and so one does not complain when a similar thing happens in vlogs. But the point is that AsaCoco harkens to the audience-based tradition.

One might write off the ARK arc as an aberration, but I think ARK did add something constructive to Hololive and VTubers as a whole. I like to think of ARK as a training wheel for Minecraft. Minecraft is relatively challenging compared to ARK. Minecraft speedruns are mildly impressive, ARK speedrun less so. ARK is actually like the middle ground between Monster Hunter and Minecraft. You can play ARK like Monster Hunter, gather a bunch of friends to hunt monsters, or like Minecraft, build your own zoo or house or so on… And in that flexibility, one can easily learn how to tell a compelling narrative in an open-world setting. Pekora’s war criminal tendencies developed there, Miko’s ‘pon’ nature was crystalized there, and so on…

Holohouse was an underrated achievement. At first, the idea feels like the natural extension of their idol nature. Idols live together, so why not virtual idols? But having virtual idols living together comes with additional benefits that Nijisanji should note.

Stalking is an awful thing, I know since I experienced and have done something similar in my past, but stalking is also a desperate thing. And desperation tends to abate when people are more open about themselves. One of the articles talking about Coco’s graduation infamously notes the mystery of Coco’s identity, which is chucklesome since Coco’s identity might be the most open secret in all of Hololive. This was in line with Hololive’s more open policy, several of Hololive members do their own personal work on the side, while in many early companies, this was forbidden. Nijisanji’s background is less open than Hololive, perhaps due to the number and less mass attention, and that leads to stalking being a more adventurous one. One that livers have to deal with more alone, while for Hololive, it’s likely people would catch and perhaps even tar the perpetrator. More attention means more risk with less excitement.

Holohouse also protects aggressive fan behavior by introducing VTuber solidarity. With more offline collabs, the people would know each other more personally and therefore have a ground of contacts in which to alert suspicious behavior. Safety in numbers.

Holohouse also brought us KanaCoco, which was a lesser known pairing until the couple ring story, and now it has become one of three big couples of Hololive, the other two being NoeFlare and OkaKoro. The big three all have a different style of their tee tee. KanaCoco is the type of a longtime buddy. Both Kanata and Coco struggled with familial and economic circumstances, and they are both struggling under the same roof. And within that struggle comes comity and friendship. It’s not love in your typical sense, but it is a type that would lead to marriage and childrens… but the current LBGTQ+ status in Japan is pretty bad, so tee tee and hush hush it is.

In a sense, KanaCoco provides for an excellent cover. It is one of the most inspiring portrayals of woman-woman friendships in media and it would be one of the more enduring aspect of Coco’s legacy as it passes down through the generations.

[Note: This somehow became an apologia of the past week. Well, I do like to show my thinking with my behavior, perhaps to my detriment, so… just be warned.]

For the past week, I was hyping about the fact that Gura passed Kizuna Ai to become the most-subscribed VTuber. And I made the point, not through immaturity, but because I realized this coincided with Coco’s graduation. Without Coco, there wouldn’t be Hololive English, or Gawr Gura, and therefore this event would not have happened. This, therefore, was one of the last great accomplishments of Coco. An indelible mark of her foresight and perseverance. A realization of her plans. So, in a sense, this was one of my ways of celebrating Coco’s career, albeit in an admittedly twisted way.

But beyond Hololive English, there was the famous Meme Review, which has a weak lineage with the early meme review series from PewDiePie. Now for the digression, whoever ends up at the top gives us a flavor for that specific era, since one naturally assumes success means finesse and would try to emulate the style. Vlogbrother’s visual style and mannerism was largely lifted from Ze Frank. PBS Idea Channel famously emulated Ray William Johnson’s background to his own ends. And Kizuna Ai was famously inspired by PewDiePie at several points in her career. Which is why PewDiePie’s Congratulations felt right as a tribute. One of the big shared characteristics of the two was the lonely years at the top. PewDiePie is probably going to be longest reigning ‘King’ of YouTube for a while (of course, depends on if Cocomelon catches T-Series in due time) and at the time his reign was abnormally long. Most people hold onto the top spot for a year or two, so it felt odd that PewDiePie was untouchable for so long. Similar things must have been raised for Kizuna Ai as well. Many people must have felt that Kizuna Ai just did not represent VTubers at the current time.

So, when competition showed up, of course people were excited. It felt like it was time. I believe PewDiePie’s Congratulations was not a simple diss track, although it’s formatted like one, just due to the culture at the time. So the hypothetical Kizuna Ai version would be extremely light-hearted. The ‘diss’ would be your typical “she’s short”, “she’s hydrodynamic” and so on… it would be clear there is no actual bad blood, and the song would be welcoming of the new era. Era, as I said before, brought on by Coco.

Back to the Meme Review, meme review was great as it centered reddit as the base for the fandom, rather than twitter, which is a horrible platform to bring a sense of communal welcomeness. Reddit is probably the best functional place for stuff like this, even though we all know it has its host of problems that needs to be resolved.

What is the most important stream in Hololive? Well, some people would point to Aqua and Coco’s The Raft stream, which is a poignant encapsulation of a stream. The dramatic counterweight to the other greatest stream in Hololive, Korone’s all-english Mario stream. Aqua and Coco are always the odd pairing, but it could have worked, and it might have been beneficial. Aqua is one of the most shy people in Hololive, and Mio is already busy with Ayame and Subaru, so the best person might have been Coco.

But China. There were two big beneficiaries from China in Hololive, one was Fubuki and the other was Aqua. While Fubuki, in Coco’s last months, famously went out of her way to intertwine herself with Coco to directly redirect her audience, like the mensch she is, Aqua always struggled with her audience retention, therefore played shy with Coco.

Edit: Well, my initial final impression was… what a wonderful finish. The interview portion was well-meant, but honestly a little formal. When the 4th Gen went together, is when the stream turned into something special for me, and the final performance was actually really well-done. Coco went out like an idol, which makes sense. For whatever provocation Coco perpetuated, Coco only did them out of love. And ultimately Cover knew that. Coco’s final month was a warning and a reminder.

Can I talk about all the different tributes lately? In some sense, Usaken Summer Festival is part of this… for an organization that is immensely popular, I just adore how Cover and their talent always has this drive to throw everything and see if it works. I noticed this during Golden Week. Golden Week in Hololive was jam packed. There were great events, Mio’s morning stream was astounding, leading to one of biggest growth spurt for Mio. Miko’s drawing collab was absolutely hilarious, for such a simple and seemingly hastily put idea. One of the people in a forum commented on this and affixed something that left my mind… what did Nijisanji during the same week? Even I was surprised by how little Nijisanji did that Golden week. They barely did anything!

The innovative spirit does give them trouble, more than it is worth, but Cover never really stopped its momentum, even when most other companies would have stopped a long time ago! This is the greatest thing about Hololive and Cover, the most redeeming feature. One that would serve them well. Coco wrote the playing book, let us pray that Cover sticks to them, because the fall of Cover comes the moment they stray.

The Pre-Coco era was about a company struggling to get their idea through. The Coco era was about writing the playing book. So the Post-Coco era will be about remembrance, it’ll be a struggle to keep the memory of what the playing book is. It’ll be about them being Hololive as they become part of the global zeitgeist.

[beardycarrot]

Freedom Planet is pretty rad

I have something to confess. Despite having played video games my entire life, and being a big fan of several Sega franchises... I have never actually played a Sonic the Hedgehog game. I watched my friend Charles play the original games on the Genesis as a kid, but I was never really interested in playing them myself. That’s why I can say, with no doubt in my mind, that Freedom Planet is the best Sonic game I’ve ever played.

First of all, Freedom Planet is a very pretty game... I’m not sure why Tumblr is blurring my images, but it’s very crisp-looking in person. The pixel art is exactly what you would expect for an original IP based on the Genesis Sonic games, and works perfectly for this kind of game. The rest of the presentation, however, it a bit lacking.

It’s entirely possible that this game has good music, but in the hour or so I’ve played, the music’s made absolutely no impression on me. I know that there was music playing, but I couldn’t tell you what it sounded like. The voice acting is kinda all over the place, wildly ranging in both the quality of the voice acting and the quality of the audio itself. It’s never distractingly bad, but sometimes a character will randomly be too quiet, or give a somewhat flat delivery. There’s also a weird issue with dialog boxes, due to how it’s programmed: the text scrolls letter-by-letter, as with most games, but the system is designed to only move a word down to the next line if it’s too long for the current one. Because of this, you’ll occasionally see a word start to spell out at the end of a line, only for it to jump down to the start of the next line halfway through. Couldn’t they have played through the script, then inserted line breaks whenever this happens?

The worst part of the presentation is probably the HUD, because of its impact on gameplay. It should keep you informed of anything important, but... it doesn’t do it that well. The meter in the top-left is stamina (or something similar), and is expended when you use your dash move. The little... golden leaves with red centers (?) growing out of it is your health, but they’re integrated just a bit too well with the meter. In a situation in which knowing how much health you have is important, such as a boss battle, you have to take your eyes off the action and look directly at the health bar; there’s just no picking out how  much health you have with your peripheral vision.

I prefer games that just let you immediately retry without bothering with lives (Bit.Trip Runner 2 and Super Meat Boy are fantastic examples), but since this game is so heavily inspired by classic Sonic, I’ll give it a pass. I’m not sure why it needs to display your lives at all times though, since it just clutters up the interface with how close it is to the counter for diamonds. They really should’ve limited showing your lives to whenever you die, or at least spaced things out a bit more.

SPEAKING OF DIAMONDS, gameplay. This game... is pretty fun! The levels are big and open, with a lot of area to explore. Like the classic Sonic games, there seem to be multiple paths through levels, but from what I’ve seen nothing prevents you from going all the way back to the beginning and exploring the others. That said, sometimes the path will to all the way to the right, only for it to then give you platforms allowing you to move to the left on the different path, so it’s entirely possible that what I took for an alternate route is actually just a later part of a linear path, that you’re able to gain access to due to your character’s honestly-kinda-broken moveset.

I haven’t played as any of the other characters yet, but Lilac has what is essentially Sonic’s spin dash move... but after a second of charging, you can aim it in any direction you’d like, allowing you to pinball your way out of the path presented to you. This was probably intentional, to give speedrunners more options. I happen to like exploring everything (note the twenty-five-minute level time in the screenshot above), so for me the levels just became “randomly run around finding things to collect”.

SPEAKING OF DIAMONDS... It actually took me quite a while to figure out what they’re for. The health drops in this game looks the same as your life bar, so I thought they must be more like coins in Mario than rings in Sonic. As it turns out, your diamond counter starts out at two hundred, and counts down as you collect them. Once it reaches zero, you get an extra life. I can only assume that it was done like this purely to be different. You can also collect colored orbs, but I have absolutely no idea what they do. You only find two or three of them at a time, but there’s no counter for them, and the game hasn’t done anything to make reference to them. At first I thought they were related to the shield power-ups you can get (which, as far as I can tell, are pretty much 100% feature-for-feature identical to the shields from Sonic 3), but as far as I can tell, they do nothing and are never acknowledged. You can also collect hidden cards and little yin-yang symbols, both of which I believe unlock stuff in the gallery.

So, what’s this game actually about? Well... it’s complicated. First and foremost, you play as Lilac, who is a dragon. Apparently. I guess she has horns, but nothing else about her design or abilities is at all dragon-like. You also have the option to play as Carol the green motorcycle-riding wildcat in story mode, and Milla the... dog who struggle-jumps like Yoshi, in the speedrun mode.

The story of the game is about an evil alien conqueror who has come down to their planet, looking for something called the Kingdom Stone. He kills a king who I think might have been a panda, and has a robot squid pump the king’s son full of... mind-altering robot squid juice. Lilac and friends get involved in the plot, and the king’s other, significantly more Shadow the Hedgehog-inspired son steals the Kingdom Stone and gives it to the mayor of some city... or something.

The story takes place in surprisingly long, fully voice-acted cutscenes between levels, but it’s one of those situations where all the characters already know each other (for the most part). Since Lilac already knows who General Gong and Spade are, the game doesn’t bother introducing them, and just hopes that you’re able to keep everything clear in your mind. It’s really unfortunate, because the game does introduce a character new to this world right at the beginning, who could’ve been used as an audience surrogate. I would assume that the developers wanted to keep the pace up... buuut, in one of the five or six cutscenes that take place between levels two and three, the characters are actually lying around bored, and decide to watch a movie.

One thing I really like about the cutscenes is that when something is destroyed, diamonds pop out, and when characters touch them, they’re collected. That’s a pretty funny touch.

While the story is just on the “oh, okay, I think I get it” side of incomprehensible, the writing is... well, it ain’t Shakespeare. At one point, a fire truck train thing (possibly the aforementioned vehicle-with-robot-arm) goes barreling through an outpost or something similar, and the general says something like, “It’s an ambush!”... which is a good-sounding line, but I don’t think the writer knows what an ambush is. I can’t tell if the speech in the screenshot above is poorly-written, or if the prince is supposed to sound awkward because he’s being mind controlled. Thankfully, most of the dialog and exposition in the game is comparatively normal so far.

Due to having written this over the course of about five hours (hurray for constant interruptions), I feel like I’ve lost track of what I wanted to say when I started writing... Ah well. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it after I’ve finished the game, especially if I decide to play through with the other characters.