#its such a fucking masterclass in game design.

[quietwingsinthesky]

portal 2 haters dni

[felikatze]

ISAT and Ludonarrative Harmony: Combat is a Storytelling Tool

Or: How Siffrin is stuck in the endgame grind, forever

Please Note: This is primarily aimed at an audience that already played In Stars and Time, because I am bad at explaining things, and it's good to already know what the fuck I'm talking about. I tend to only bring up game elements as I want to talk about them.

Spoilers for.... all of ISAT! Especially Act 5!

(image to show how i feel posting this and as an attention grabber over my wall of text)

To pull a definition of ludonarrative harmony out of a hat, game writer Lauryn Ash defines it as follows:

Ludonarrative harmony is when gameplay and story work together to create a meaningful and immersive experience. From a design implementation perspective, it is the synchronized interactions between in-game actions (mechanics) and in-world context (story).

It is, generally speaking, how well game mechanics work hand in hand with the story. I, personally, think ISAT is an absolute masterclass of it, so I want to take a look at how ISAT specifically uses its battle system to emphasize Siffrin's character arc and create organic story moments. I want you to keep this in mind when I talk here.

So, skills, right? If you've played any turn-based RPG, you know your Fire spells, your "BACKSLASH! AIRSLASH! BACKSLASH!" and the many ways to style those.

Well, what does casting "Fire" say about your character? Not all that much, does it? Perhaps you'll have typical divisions. The smart one is the mage, the big brawny one is your tank, the petite one's the healer. And that's the barebones of ISAT's main party, but it's much more than that.

Every character's style of combat tells you something about them. Odile, the Researcher, is the most well-travelled and knowledgable of the bunch. She's the one with the expertise to keep a cool head and analyze the enemy, yet also able to use all three of the Rock-Paper-Scissors craft types.

To reflect her analytical view of things, all her skill names are just descriptive, the closest to your most bog-standard RPG. "Slow IV" or "Paper III" serve well to describe their purpose. The high number of the skills gives the impression there were three other Slow skills beforehand - fitting, considering the party starts at level 45, about to head into the final dungeon. She's also the oldest, so she's the slowest of the bunch.

Isabea, the Fighter, has all his skills in exclamation points. "YOUR TURN!!!" "SO WEAK!!!" "SMASH!!!" they're straightforward, but excited. He's a purposefully cheerfull guy, so his skills revolve around cheering on his allies. He's absolutely pumped to be here, and you see that from his skill names alone.

Mirabelle, the Housemaiden, is an interesting case. She's by all means the true protagonist of this tale - She's the one "Chosen by the Change God," the only one who survived the King's first attack, the only one immune to his ability to freeze time, the only dual-craft type of the game - just a lot of things. And her skill names reflect that facade she puts on herself - she can do this, she can win! She has to believe it, or else she starts doubting. This is how you get "Jolly Round Rondo" and "Mega Sparkle Heal" or "Adorable Moving Cure." She's styled every bit a sailor scout shojo heroine, and her moveset replicates the naming conventions of "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

Even Bonnie, the Kid, who can't be controlled in combat, has named craft skills. And they very much reflect that Bonnie is, well, a kid. "Wolf Speed Technique" or "Thousand Blows Technique" are very much the phrasings of a child who learned one complicated word and now wants to use it in everything to seem cooler than they are, which is none, because they're twelve.

Siffrin's skills are all puns.

You have an IMMEDIATE feel for personality here. Between "Knife to Meet You!" and "Too Cleaver by Half," you know Siffrin's the type to always crack a joke no matter the situation, slinging witticisms around to put Sonic the Hedgehog to shame. It's just such a clever way to establish character using a game mechanic as old as the entire history of RPGs.

This is only the baseline of the way the combat system feeds into the story, though.

The timeloop, of course, feeds into it. Siffrin is the only character who retains experience upon looping, whereas all other characters are reset to their base level and skills. And it sucks (affectionate).

You're extremely likely to battle more often the earlier in the game you are - after all, you need the experience (for now.) Every party member contributes, and Siffrin isn't all that strong on their own, since they focus on raw scissor type damage with the addition of one speed buff. (Of course it's a speed buff. They're a speedy fucker. Just look at him).

At first, the difference in level between Siffrin and the rest of the group is rather negligible. Just a level or two. Just a bit more speed and attack. And then Siffrin grows further and further apart. Siffrin keeps learning new skills. He gets a healing skill that doubles as an attack boost, taking away from both Mirabelle's and Isabeau's usefullness. He gets Craft skills of every type that even give you two jackpot points instead of one - thus obliterating Odile's niche. Siffrin turns into a one-person army capable of clearing most encounters all on their own.

Siffrin's combat progression is an exact mirror of story progression - as their experience inside the loops grows, they also grow further and further away from their party. The party seems... weaker, slower, clumsier. Always back at their starting point, just as all of their character arcs are reset each loop. Never advancing, always stagnant. And you have Siffrin as the comparison post right next to them.

I also want to point out here a change from Act 2 to Act 3 - Siffrin's battle portrait. He stops smiling.

Battles keep getting easier. This is true both for the reason that Siffrin keeps growing stronger even when all enemies stay the same, but also for the reason that you, the player, learn more about the battle system and the various encounters, until you've learned perfect boss clear strategies just from repetition. Have you ever watched a speedrunner play Pokemon? They've played this game so many times, they could do it blindfolded and sleeping. Your own knowledge and Siffrin's new strength work in tandem to trivialize the game's entire combat system as the game progresses.

(Is it still fun? Playing it over, and over, and over again? Is it?)

You and Siffrin are in sync, your experience making everything trivial.

As time goes on, Siffrin grows to care less and less about performing right for their party and more and more about going fast. A huge moment in his character is marked by the end of Act 3; because of story events I won't delve too deeply into, Siffrin has grown afraid of trying something new. And his options of escape are closing in. They need an answer, and they need it fast. He doesn't have the time or patience to dumb himself down, so you unlock one new skill.

It doesn't occur with level up, or with a quest, or anything at all. At the start of Act 4, it simply appears in Siffrin's Craft skills.

(Just attack.)

No pun. No joke. Just attack. Once you notice, the effect is immediate - here you have it, a clear sign of how jaded Siffrin has become, right at every encounter. And it's a damn good attack, too! The only available attack in the game that deals "massive" damage against all enemies. Because it doesn't add any jackpot points (at least, it's not supposed to), you set up a combo with everybody else, but Siffrin simply tears away at the enemy with wild abandon. Seperated from the rest of the party by the virtue of no longer needing to contribute to team attacks (most of the time. It's still useful if they do, though).

Once again, an aspect of the battle system enhances the degree of separation between Siffrin and the static characters of his play. You're incentivized to separate him, even.

Additionally, there are two more skills to learn. They're the only skills that replace previous skills. You only get them at extremely high levels, the latter of which I didn't even reach on both of my playthroughs.

The first, somewhere in the level 70 range, Rose Printed Glasses, a paper type craft skill, is replaced by Tear You Apart. It's still a pun about paper, but remarkedly more vicious.

The second is even more on the nose. At level 80, In A While, Rockodile!, a rock type craft skill, is replaced by the more powerful Rock Bottom.

I didn't get to level 80. If you do, you pretty much have to do it on purpose. You have to keep going much longer than necessary, as Siffrin is just done. And the last skill he learns is literally called Rock Bottom.

What do I even need to say, really.

Your party doesn't stay static forever, though.

By doing their hangout quests, side quests throughout the loops that result in Siffrin and the character having a heart to heart, all of them unlock what I'd call an "ultimate" skill. You know the type - the character achieved self-fulfillment, hit rank 10 on their confidant, maxed out their skill tree, and received a reward for their trouble.

These skills are massively useful. My favorite is Odile's - it makes one enemy weak to all Craft types for several turns, which basically allows you to invalidate the first and third boss, as well as just clown on the King, especially once Siffrin starts racking up damage.

But the thing is. In Act 3, when you first get them, yeah, they're useful. But... do you need them? After all, they're such a hassle to get. You need to do the whole character quest again, you can't loop forward in the House or you'll lose them. If you want to take these skills to the King, you need to commit. Go the full nine-yards and be nice to your friends and not die and not skip forward or skip back. Which is annoying, right?

Well, I sure did think so during Act 4. After all, a base level party can still defeat the King, just with a few more tricky pieces involved. Siffrin can oneshot almost all basic enemies by the time of Act 4. It's this exact evalutation that you, the player, go through everytime you return to Dormont. Do I want this skill, still? Would it not be faster to go on without it? I'm repeating myself, but that's the thing! That's what Siffrin is thinking, too!

I also want to take a quick moment to note, here - all skills gained from hangouts have art associated with them, which no other skills do. This feature, the nifty art, hammers home these as "special" skills, besides just how they're unlocked.

Siffrin also has one skill with associated art.

Yeah, you guessed it, it's (Just attack.)

At first, helping the characters is tied to a hefty in-game reward, but that reward loses its value, and in return devalues helping Siffrin's friends every loop. It's too tedious for a skill that'll make a boss go by one turn faster. You, the player, grow jaded with the battle system. Grinding experience isn't worth it, everybody's highest levels are already recorded. Fighting bosses isn't worth it, it's much faster to loop forward.

Isn't this what all endgame in video games looks like? You already beat the final boss, and now... what challenge is left? Is there a point to keep playing? Most games will have some post-game content. A superboss to test your skills against, but ISAT doesn't have any of that. You're forever left chasing to the post-game. That's the whole point - to escape the game.

As most games get more difficult as time passes, ISAT only gets easier. The game becomes disinterested in expanding its own mechanics just as I ran out of new things to fight after 100%-ing Kingdom Hearts 3. Every encounter becomes a simple game of "press button to win."

The final boss just takes that one up a notch.

Spoilers for Act 5 ahead boys!

In Act 5, Siffrin utterly loses it. His last possible hope for escape failed him, told him there's nothing she can do, and Siffrin is trapped for eternity. So of course, they go insane and run up the entire House without their party.

This just proves what you already knew - you dont need the party to proceed. Siffrin alone is strong enough. And here, Siffrin has entirely shed the facade of the jokester they used to be. Every single skill now follows the (Just attack.) naming conventions. Your skills are: (Paper.) (Rock.) (Scissors.) (Breathe.)

To the point. Not a moment wasted, because Siffrin can't take a moment longer of any of this. Additionally, his level is set to 99 and his equipment becomes fixed. You can't even pick up items anymore! Not that you needed them at this point anyway, right? Honestly, I never used any items besides the Salty Broth since Act 2, so I stopped picking items up a long time ago. Now you just literally can't.

Something I've not talked about until now - one of the main equipment types in this game are Memories, gained for completing subquests or specific interactions and events. They all by and large have little effects - make Odile's tonics heal more, or have Mirabelle cast a shield at the start of combat. For the hangout events, you also gain an associated memory that boosts the characters' stats by 30. It lets them keep up with Siffrin again! A fresh wind! Finally, your party members feel on par with you again!

...For a time. And just like that, they're irrelevant again, just as helping them gave Siffrin a brief moment of hope that the power of friendship could fix everything.

In Act 5, your memory is set to "Memory of Emptiness." It allows you to loop back in the middle of combat. You literally can't die anymore. Not that Siffrin could've died by this point in the first place, unless you forgot about the King's instant-kill attack. This one memory takes away the false pretense that combat ever had any stakes. Siffrin's level being set to 99 means even the scant exp you get is completely wasted on them. All stakes and benefits from combat have been removed. It has become utterly pointless.

Frustrating, right? It's an artistic frustration, though. It traps you right here in Siffrin's shoes, because he hates that all these blinding Sadnesses are still walking around just as much. It all inspires just a tiny fraction of that deep rolling anger Siffrin experiences here in the player.

And listen, it was cathartic, that one time Siffrin snapped and stabbed the tutorial Sadness, wasn't it? Because who enjoys sitting through the tutorial that often? Siffrin doesn't. I don't, either.

So, since combat is an useless obstacle now meant to inspire frustration, what do you do for a boss? You can't well make it a gameplay challenge now, no. The bosses of Act 5 are an emotional challenge: a painful wait.

First, Siffrin fights the King, alone. This is already nervewracking because of one factor - in every other run, you need Mirabelle's shield skill, or else you're scripted to die. You're actually forced to fight the King multiple times in Act 3, and have to do it at least once in Act 4, though you'll likely do it more. Point is: you know how this fight works.

You know Siffrin's fight is doomed from the outset, but all you can do is keep slinging attacks. Siffrin is enough of a powerhouse to take the King's HP down, what with the healing and buff skills they have now, not to even mention you can just go all in on damage and then loop back.

(And no matter which way you play it, whether you just loop or use strategically, it reflects on Siffrin, too. Has he grown callous enough not even death will stop their mission? Or does he still avoid pain, as much as he can?)

This fight still allows you the artifice of even that much choice, not that it matters. The other shoe drops eventually - Siffrin becomes slower, and slower. Unsettling, considering this game works on an Action Gauge system. You barely get turns anymore. The screen gets darker, and darker. Until Siffrin is frozen in time, just as you knew he had to be, because you know how this encounter works, know it can't be cleared without Mirabelle.

And, then, a void.

Siffrin awakens to nothingness. The only way to tell you've hit a wall is if Siffrin has no walking animation to match your button inputs. You walk, and walk, until you're approached by.... you. The next enemy encounter of the game, and Siffrin's absolute lowest point: Mal Du Pays.

Or, "Homesickness," in english. If you know the game, you know why it's named this, but that's not the point at the moment.

Thing is, where you could damage the King and are damaged in turn, giving you at least a proper combat experience, even if its doomed to fail, Mal Du Pays has no such thing.

You can attack. You can defend. But it is immune to all attacks. And in return, it does nothing. It's common, at least, for undefeatable enemies to be a "survive" challenge, but nope. The entire fight is "press button and wait." Except, remember the previous fight against the King? The entire time, you were waiting for the big instant death attack to drop. That feeling, at least for me, carried forward. I was incredibly on edge just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And, as is a pattern, Siffrin is, too. As Siffrin's attacks fail to connect, they start talking to Mal Du Pays.

But he gets no response, as you get no attacks to strategize around. The wait for anything to happen is utterly agonizing. You and Siffrin are both waiting for something to happen. This isn't a fight. It just pretends to be. It's an utter rugpull, because Siffrin was so undefeatable for most of Act 4 and all of Act 5 so far. It's kind of terrifying!

and it does. It finally does something. Ma Du Pays speaks, in the voice of Siffrin's friends, listing out their deepest fears. I think it's honestly fantastic. You're forced to just sit here and listen to Siffrin's deepest doubts, things you know the characters could not say because it references the timeloops they're all utterly unaware of. This is all Siffrin, talking to himself. And all you, all Siffrin, can do, is keep wailing away on the enemy to no effect whatsoever.

So of course this ends with Siffrin giving up. What else can you do?

And then Siffrin's friends show up and unfreeze them and it's all very cool yay. The pure narrative scenes aren't really the main focus but I want to point out here:

A) Mirabelle is in the first party slot here, referencing how she's the de facto protagonist, and Bonnie fills in the fourth slot left empty, which shows all characters uniting to save Siffrin

B) this is the only instance of the other party members having act specific battle icons: they're all smiling brightly, further pushed by the upbeat music

C) the reflecting shield Mirabelle uses to freeze the King uses a variation of her hangout skill cut in, marking it as her true "final" skill and giving the whole fight a more climatic feeling.

It's also a short gameplay sequence with Siffrin utterly uninvolved in the battle. You can't even see them onscreen. But... it feels warm, doesn't it? Everybody coming together. Siffrin doesn't have to fight anymore.

At last, the King is defeated. Siffrin and co. make for the Head Housemaiden, to have her look at Siffrin's sudden illness. Siffrin is utterly exhausted, famished, running a fever. And this isn't unexpected - after all, their skills in Act 5 had no cooldown. For context, instead of featuring any sort of MP system, all skills work on a cooldown basis, where a character can't use it for a certain number of turns. The lowest cooldown is actually Siffrin's Knife to Meet You, which has a cooldown of 1. In universe, this is reasoned as the characters needing a break from spamming craft in order to not exhaust themselves.

Siffrin's skills in Act 5 having no cooldown/being infinitely spammable isn't a sign of their strength - it's a sign that he refuses to let himself rest in order to rush through as fast as possible.

Moving on, Siffrin panics when seeing the Head Housemaiden, because seeing her means one thing: the end. Prior to this in the game, every single time you beat the King, the loop ends when you talk to the Head Housemaiden.

Reality breaks down, the whole shebang. It's here that Siffrin realizes - they don't want the loops to end, because the end of their journey means their family will leave, and he'll be alone again. The happiest time of his life will be over.

Siffrin goes totally ballistic, to say the least.

As it turns out (and was heavily foreshadowed narratively), Siffrin has been using Wish Craft to subconciously cause the timeloop because of their abandonment issues. It's rather predictable if you paid attention to literally anything, but it's extremely notable how heavily Siffrin is paralleled to the King, the antagonist they swore to kill by themself at the start of Act 5. The King wants to freeze Vaugarde in time because it is, in his mind, "perfect," for accepting him after he lost his home - a backstory he shares with Siffrin.

Siffrin has become the exact antagonist he swore to kill, and it's shown by how the next fight utterly flips everything on its head.

Siffrin is the final boss.

In a towering form made of stars, Siffrin looks down at their friends. His face is terrified, because of his internal conflict; he can't hurt his friends, but he can't let them go, either. The combat prompt is simply changed to "END IT!"

This fight is similar to the previous, in that you just need to wait a certain number of turns until its over. However, this time, it's not dreadful suspense. It's... confusion, and hesitance.

You have two options for combat: Attack your friends, or attack yourself.

And... you don't really want to do either, I think. I certainly don't. But what else can you do? It's Siffrin's desires clashing in full force. Attack your friends, and force them to stay? Or attack yourself, and let them go safely without you?

Worth noting, here - when you attack Siffrin's friends, you can't harm them. Isabeau will shield all attacks. And when you attack yourself, Mirabelle will heal you back to full. And the friends don't... do anything, either. How could they? Occasionally, Mirabelle heals you and Isabeau shouts words of motivation, but the main thing is...

(Your friends don't know what to do.)

None of them want to harm Siffrin. Both sides simply stare at each other, resolute in their conviction but unwilling to end it with violence. It's of note that this loop, the last one, is the only loop where the King isn't killed. Just frozen. And now here is Siffrin, clamoring for the same eternity the King was. Of course everything ends in a tearfilled conversation as Siffrin sees their friends won't leave him, even after the journey ends, but I still have to appreciate this moment.

Siffrin is directly put in the position with their friends as his enemies, forced to physically reckon that keeping them in this loop is an act of violence, against both their friends, and against himself.

It's a happy ending. But... what does it mean?

Of course, ISAT is obviously about the fear of change. Siffrin is afraid of the journey ending, and of being alone. However, ISAT is also a game about games. Siffrin is playing the same game, over and over, because it's comforting. It's familiar. It's nice, to know exactly what happens next. These characters might just be predictable lines of dialogue, but... they feel like friends. Have you ever played a game, loved it, put countless hours into it, but you never finished it? Because you just couldn't bear to see it end? For the characters to leave your life, for there to be a void in your heart where the game used to be?

After all, maybe it became part of your routine! You play the game every day, slowly chipping away at it for weeks at a time. For me, I beat ISAT in four days. It utterly consumed me during this time. I had 36 hours of playtime by the end. Yeah, in that week, I did not do much more than play ISAT.

And once i beat it, i beat it, again. I restarted the game to see the few scenes I missed, most specifically the secret boss I won't talk about here. I... couldn't let go of the game yet. I wanted to see every scrap I could. I still do. I'm writing this, in part because I still do. It's scary to let go.

Ever heard the joke term of "Postgame Depression?" It's when you just beat a game, and you're suddenly sad. Maybe because the ending affected you emotionally and you need to process the feelings it invoked, or you search for something that can now fill your time with it gone.

The game ends, for real this time, the last time you talk to the Head Housemaiden. But Siffrin gets... scared. What if everything loops back again? And so, his family offers to hold his hand. They face the end, together.

For all loops, including the ending, you never see what happens after. After they leave the loop for good. Because the loop is the game itself. It's asking you to trust that life goes on for these characters, and it holds your hand as it asks you to let go. There's a reason for Siffrin's theater metaphors. He is the actor, and the director, asking everyone to do it over one more time. He's a character within the game, and its player.

There's a reason I talked about endgame content. This, the way it all repeats, there's nothing new, difficulty and stakes bleed away as you snap the game over your knee - it's my copy of White 2 with two hundred hours in it. It's me playing Fire Emblem Awakening in under 3 hours while skipping every cutscene. Are you playing for the sake of play, for the sake of indulging in your memories, because you're afraid of the hole it'll leave when you stop?

Of note: the narrative never condemns Siffrin for unwittingly causing their own suffering. He's a victim of circumstance. It's seen as endearing, even, that Siffrin loves their friends to the point of rather seeing the world destroyed than them gone. But Siffrin is also told: we'll stay with you for now, but we'll part ways eventually. And one day, you'll have to be okay with it.

Stop draining the things you love of every ounce of enjoyment just because you're afraid of what happens next. I'm not saying to never play your favorite games again. Playing ISAT a second time, I still had a lot of fun! I saw so many new things I didn't before, and I enjoyed myself immensely, reading the same dialogue over and over. But... it makes me look at other games I love and still play, and makes me ask... is this still fun? Do I still need to play this game to enjoy it? Even writing this is an afterimage of my enjoyment, but it's a new way to interact with the game, to analyze it through this lens. Fuck, man, I write fanfiction. Look at me.

All of this, fanart, fanfic, analysis, is a way to prolong that enjoyment without making yourself suffer for it. Without just going through the motions of enjoyment without actually experiencing any. But one day, the thing you love won't be fun to talk and write and draw about. And it's okay. You'll have new things to love. I promise.

In the end.... I'm certain I'll replay ISAT one day. Between great writing, art, puzzles and unresolved mysteries, it's my shoe-in for game of the year.

But I won't replay it for quite some time. I've had enough, for now, so I let my love take other forms.

Siffrin is never condemned, because love is no evil. Be it love for another person, or for a game. And please, if you're overempathetic - it's still a game, at the end of the day. The great thing about games is that you can always boot them up again, no matter how long its been.

A circle within a circle indeed.

To summarize:

The repetitiveness of ISAT's combat, lack of new enemies, and Siffrin's ever increasing strength eventually allows you to snap the combat over your knee, rendering it irrelevant and boring. Though this may seem counterproductive at first, it perfectly mirrors how Siffrin has also grown bored with these repeated encounters and views them only as an obstacle to get past. The reflection of Siffrin's own tiredness with the player's annoyance increases the compassion the player has for Siffrin as a character.

Additionally, the endgame state of the combat system serves as commentary on the state of a favorite game played too often, much like how Siffrin has unwittingly trapped themself in the loop. Despite the game having no more challenge or content left to over, a player might return to their favorite game anyway, solely to try and recreate the early experience of actually having fun with it. This ties into ISAT's metanarrative about the fear of change and refusal to let go of comfort even when the object (here, your favorite video game) offering that comfort has become utterly bereft of any substance to actually engage with. Playing for the sake of playing, with no actual investment to keep going besides your own memories.

Later on, stripping away even the pretense of strategy for a "press button and wait" format of final bosses highlights the lack of options at Siffrin's disposal and truly forces the player into their shoes. Truly, the only way to win is to stop playing.

[katapotato55]

how to make your writing be remembered forever and possibly be well loved.

(incredibly stupid and silly fanfiction line at the end of this post) I know that title is incredibly daunting but listen, its very simple. you ready?

MAKE STRONG CHARACTERS

"but kat! surely its not that simple! " nononono listen. bear with me. I want you to think of your favorite thing. Now ask: what do you remember the most about the thing you love? I will go first:

I love team fortress 2. and guess what: this game has been around since 2007, and was in development hell since before I was even born. The game has been around for 16 fucking years. And guess what? in the strong year of 2023 team fortress 2 Is STILL getting memed about. and do you want to know the crazy part? the character designs to the naked eye are not special at all. ok sure from a designer standpoint, these are very well designed characters made so that you can easily tell who they are based on their silhouette. but from the average joe.... tf2 is iconic but overall it looks ok. it doesn't seem special to a stranger to tf2. look at this completely random and arbitrary example of a game in the same genre:

I don't know shit about the characters in overwatch. Yeah i have a BASIC idea on what their personality is like based on voice lines and some videos i guess... but in-game they just exist. these characters are brightly colored, they have beautiful unique designs, hell they have even more diversity such as robots and people from other cultures! but i don't remember shit about these characters. Maybe I remember the ice lady and tracer, but nothing else. and yeah part of overwatch struggling right now is incompetant development, BUT: The characters in team fortress 2 are SO remember-able because the characters have such a vibrant personality. I am an orange box owner, its been a decade and a half and I am still remembering this game and enjoying art about it.

"but kat! that is a comedy game! Overwatch is a very serious game! are you saying comedy is needed to make a character more noticeable?" no. though I think allowing your characters to lighten up every now and then would humanize them. Not full on goofy, just give them something that makes them likeable. and if you cant do that, you can STILL make a compelling character even though they are mostly seriousness. I have an even more awfully thought out example:

kung fu panda is a masterclass in making a serious comedic movie somehow work. Master Oogway.... he isn't a comedic character at all. Yeah we made memes about him, but ignoring that, he is a wise and resourceful person. He is at calm and has faith in this intuition. there are a lot of characters like this. What makes Oogway stand out is that he is also a little bit kooky and sassy.

this youtube clip sums up what I mean. It is a funny line, it fits the character, and It doesn't ruin the seriousness of the moment. Some of the most successful series in history have something about them that has appealed to people. In my opinion: characters with strong personality and interesting traits is always a good way to ensure your writing is successful. The second most important is the characters bouncing off of each other in terms of their chemistry with each other. There is a reason why I spent years playing the first Destiny game and all of the DLC, but I remember fuck all about the characters. I think I maybe remember the bootleg star lord robot guy.

A writing exercise

here is an exercise to get you in the spirit of character making. step 1- get a random character from a random bit of media. In this case let me bring you master Oogway. Step 2- Get a completely different character from a completely unrelated series. I am going to give you Scout from team fortress 2. step 3- write a random ass thing about them interacting. Think about how the characters would react to each other and why. Think about each characters values in life and think about how they would bond and conflict with each other. Think about characters similar to the character they met in the past and how they reacted then, and if they have never interacted, make something interesting with it. Step 4- keep experimenting. Once you get into the spirit you can apply this to any new character you could want to make anyways thats it byeee- "arent you going to do that ?" do what? "make a writing thing about oogway and scout. " ........

Scout: let's go turtle you got nothing on my speed- Oogway: The one who first resorts to violence shows that he has no more arguments. Scout: that sounds like chicken talk! come on tough guy let me have it- Oogway then proceeds to make scout eat shit before vanishing in a cloud of cherry blossoms and dust from the desert. If this post isn't popular I want you to know my dignity was lost for nothing.

[alertarchitect]

So! A new Doom game got announced!

Here's the trailer for those interested, it will help with what I'm about to go into:

As a bit of a Retro Throwback Shooter Shitter myself, I have some Thoughts. Read on if you're interested.

So, first of all I like the premise of exploring the time the Doom Slayer spent fighting demons alongside the warriors of Argent D'Nur. It's a time period that was purposefully left pretty damn vague in Doom Eternal, and the Slayer's lore before waking up again wasn't even really talked about much - if at all - in Doom 2016 from what I remember, since they were trying to play it a little safe due to Doom 2016 being a soft reboot of a series that hadn't gotten a new game in 12 years at that point, with the last title (Doom 3 and its various editions that attempted to improve it a bit) being a pretty big departure that had a wealth of issues, such as it being a Doom game with one of the worst shotguns ever put into a shooter. So it's a cool idea to explore this time frame of the Doom Slayer's history, and possibly show the events leading to the Slayer's imprisonment in Hell before he was rediscovered and subsequently awoken by Samuel Hayden in Doom 2016, including the Makyrs' fall from grace.

Second, I'm actually kinda hyped to see id Software still working on making retro throwback shooters. I was worried they'd get shuttered and their IP sold off after Rage was such a flop back in 2011, and they didn't make anything after it for 5 years until Doom 2016 came out, so it's nice to see they've found their groove again - making some of the best examples of the retro throwback shooter subgenre. Doom 2016 started the BoomShoot Renaissance, and Doom Eternal is still one of the best examples of the genre, mechanically. They are masterclasses in using an old formula while keeping the level design and visuals fresh with modern game design principles that have improved a lot since the 90s, along with new game mechanics to keep the moment-to-moment gameplay feeling fresh as well (such as the weapon / stat upgrade systems, the movement abilities you get in Doom Eternal, etc.). Seeing them pushing that even further is a treat to behold, and I'm confident it's going to be a pretty damn fun game, as long as it doesn't get forced into being $70.

Final point, though, is a bit of a downer for me personally. Why in the fuck are they making a game in the Doom series that's going for a more medieval-ish feel, when the Quake franchise is right fucking there and begging for a better modern entry than goddamn Quake Champions?? Seriously, making a Quake game calling back to the first game in the franchise - with the Lovecraftian inspirations, the more medieval-ish setting, the unique monsters like the Shambler you didn't see much of past Quake 1 - would be a fucking money printer. But no, Microsoft wants them to play it safe so they can get a guaranteed blockbuster because Quake Champions hasn't done very well since it came out of early access in 2022, which is definitely a fault of the Quake franchise not having any consumer interest and 100% for sure not because Quake Champions pivoted into being a fucking hero shooter trying to emulate the feel of old arena shooter deathmatching!! It's not like a soft reboot wouldn't be sorely needed after the goddamn disaster of a story that was the Quake 4 campaign! It's not like a modern Quake game that actually relies on having a fun weapon sandbox instead of relying on taking your opponents off guard with fucking superpowers on cooldowns is something the fanbase they're trying to pander to would nut in our fucking pants over or anything!!!!

TL;DR: This game looks really good and fun, and I like to see id is still making banger games, but I'm actually kinda angry that they'd rather make a Doom game with medieval vibes rather than using that other fantastic retro shooter IP they own to make something that kind of vibe would actually fit into better.

[pocketbelt]

Crow Country (PC/SD)

Mmmmmmm that's top-tier Resident Evil, by people who really, really get it

A very tight, very lean, highly replayable action horror game that really makes you lean on the survival side of survival horror until you feel it out, then slides perfectly to the action side. It controls fucking great, too, it hits a good balance between real good feeling guns and shots and the need to carefully space and position yourself. It rides its line well, really helped by the sound design and the at-times remarkably beautiful soundtrack (it's got that good safe room music, they're on point).

It's also an absolute masterclass in visuals. This is what I would imagine things like when I was playing PS1 games as a kid, of worlds that looked like their pre-rendered backgrounds but actually 3D places to be in. Crow Country looks the pre-rendered part when still, but it's all 'active' 3D models with a rotating camera. I can't over-state how fucking incredible it looks; PS1-esque (and more frequently, Mega Man Legends-esque) 3D visuals are in/coming into vogue in indie games now, but the decision to emulate FFVII's overworld model style with a take on pre-rendered backgrounds is truly special.

The game's just the right length for what it needs to be (a highly replayable score/time attack vehicle after the initial horror experience), and I haven't checked but I'd be surprised if the devs weren't into Resident Evil speedruns; quite a lot of the game's items and paths are optional, and if solutions don't change between runs (there's space for some to do that, based on the puzzle design) you could cut a lot of corners and speed through this.

On the Resident Evil-Silent Hill PS1-styled horror chart, Signalis is a blend of the two but with much more Silent Hill in it; Crow Country is almost pure RE, barring some elements of the story, which is also pretty good. The mystery of Crow Country and what's going on in this dodgy theme park is really compelling, and it doles it out piecemeal perfectly, with little lines for you to catch what's going on before it spells it out.

A masterwork, it comes highly recommended

[banukai]

I expressed this back when Hades came out of beta and had its full release...but it feels so good to be a long-time Supergiant fan. Watching them blow it out of the park every single time is so fucking amazing and they deserve every bit of praise and hype. Now is a great time for me to say that if you havent played their games (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and Hades) you are really missing out on masterclass storytelling, gameplay, and visual design.

[greatfay]

what kind of bad fandoms you in?

Off the top of my head? Like most of them lol. But for the things I’m currently watching/reading?

HxH. The good parts of the fandom just post fanart and memes, the bad parts post essays on reddit about how “the Chimera Ant Arc is the greatest arc in all of shounen and if you don’t think so then there’s just too much depth for you to fully comprehend, also I’m going to ignore the montage during that arc that demonstrated how capitalist greed, political corruption, police brutality, nuclear warfare, economic inequality, and propaganda demonstrate humanity’s true evil because Hurr Durr Ants Have Feelings and also I’m going to misgender all of the GNC characters introduced this arc did I mention I’m so smart?” that and the Ging apologists who think he’s this chess-master role model father sends me. If I hear someone say the word “subversive” one more time... and why is there so much cisnormative homophobic BS in this fandom? Even when I encounter the good part, I’ll see comments added on attacking the OP or saying shady shit, like what’s going on.

Berserk. I can’t with all the Donavon jokes and potato Casca jokes and, much like with the HxH fandom’s dark side, there’s a very pretentious self-important lot who love to hype out how “layered and dark and subversive” the manga is to inflate their own importance for being Manga Connoisseurs that read it and then they go on to make more child r*pe jokes and also defend every creative decision Miura makes. Like... I’m not “unable to fully appreciate and understand the tone and message that the Genius Miura is trying to invoke,” I quite understand, I’m just not a pervert fuckface who gets off on r*pe scenes. And I’m not alone, but since there are like maybe 10 other dudes in this fandom without brain rot and it’s a Hostile Fandom Space for women, and also queer dudes, and also people of color, it’s hard to get a good consensus.

AOT. There are people who have written the series off due to the author’s Imperialist Japan viewpoint and latched on to the conspiracy that he’s a holocaust denier and vilified Jewish stand-ins in his work; these people have, strangely enough, remained in the fandom to then remind everyone of this and repeatedly share that polygon article that has so much reaching you’d think Reed Richards had written it. The author of AOT is a brainwashed nationalist idiot, and it just so happens that he, whether he realizes it or not, has written his main cast (the heroes, the protagonists) to be analogues of the real-world Jewish people (specifically Ashkenazi Jews) combatting oppression and the deliberate annihilation of their people. I don’t think he did this on purpose, especially if he is indeed anti-Semitic, but that’s how it turned out, and stranger still is how he’s explored over the course of (idk the arcs I’m going by the anime) 2+ seasons how the State can lie and manipulate its people to increase nationalism and military power—the opposite of what some have claimed his manga is about (promoting imperialism and glorifying isolationist views and making the military and police seem cool). Despite writing this kind of story, he seems unable to question his own political views in the real world. Which isn’t my problem. Still, it’s complicated, we don’t have full answers, all we have is a very well-paced, well-written, mature manga with great plot twists and a masterclass of suspense and mystery, and now even reblogging an AOT gif can get you blacklisted.

Kingdom Hearts. This fandom is 90% chill people who want to cry and love it, they hear the first two notes of Dearly Beloved and already they’re like “fuck... emotions... I haven’t felt these in eons” and for that they’re valid. Great fanart, everything gif’d to hell and back (when I tell you for 15 years this fandom gif’d every possible frame out of just 12 collective minutes of the Good Graphics during the beginning and ending cinematic scenes). The bad part of the fandom is annoyingly homophobic and use shipper strawmen to spout out bigoted nonsense, and there’s another part of the fandom consisting of (some, not all) speed-runners who think the games should be designed with their play style in mind, fuck everyone else. I only encounter this bad 10% when watching Let’s Plays; even the Kingdom Hearts subreddit is a nice place and gets gay af sometimes, and everyone rolls with it.

Star Wars. The most recent SW stuff has not been consistently... good, but I enjoy Star Wars just for the feel of Star Wars. There are people who hate everything SW that’s come out recently and make their voices known but are still IN THE FANDOM. They’re still here, hating EVERYTHING. It’s just so disruptive to the normal fun fandom stuff because they’re everywhere, like if you’re not having fun you can leave. Go rant about the Wimminfolk and Blacks are Ruining Everything and whatever violent, disgusting thing you want to do to Kathleen Kennedy that definitely is an isolated feeling and not at all how you feel about women in general. Like parts of the SW fandom is the opposite of Berserk and HxH; with those, I’ve been critical of things while still enjoying the media, but any critical statement gets nitpicked and the vultures come. SW? It’s the overly hypercritical “ess jay dubba u” shit that drives me up the wall. Every flaw in the new SW stuff can be pointed to screenplay issues and contradictions but, gee, it must be cuz a Wimmin is in it. Fucking whatever.

[eggoreviews]

My Top 25 Games Advent Day 9 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (#17)

“My Lorule may remind you of your own home. But, in fact, our kingdoms are as different as night and day. Worlds apart, as they say.”

At long last, I get to cover one of my all-time favourite franchises on this list. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is my absolute favourite (2D) Zelda game and is, in my opinion, a masterclass in dungeon and world design. Taking everything that made A Link to the Past so great and changing it completely whilst also changing barely anything, A Link Between Worlds stands out from other Zelda games as something truly memorable, as well as being one of the best experiences you can have on a handheld console.

A Link Between Worlds, being a not quite sequel of ALTTP, took all its cues from its predecessor as the groundwork of an excellent game; an interesting enough narrative that kicks off straight away, two different but almost identical worlds to explore, an array of great dungeons and items to tackle them and a whole bunch of optional collectibles. Both Hyrule and Lorule are a joy to explore and just see what you can find, whether that be just some rupees, a minigame or even an item that later becomes important. It’s easy to get lost in just wandering around, as both worlds feel diverse and interesting enough to keep that from getting old too quickly. But my personal favourite aspect of this game, as well as its main reason for placing here, is the dungeons. Every single dungeon you come across in the game is intuitive, challenging, expansive and unique, and with each dungeon able to be tackled in any order, it truly customises the experience to the individual player. While admittedly a fair few of the dungeons are reskins of old favourites from ALTTP, they’ve been tweaked enough to feel fresh and brand new, at least enough so that this game doesn’t feel like a thinly veiled remaster. Where A Link Between Worlds really stands tall is in its final dungeon, Lorule Castle, which still is pretty much my favourite dungeon, purely for its atmosphere, its motif and its perfectly balanced and challenging puzzles. The dungeons in this game are absolutely phenomenal.

In another move to separate this game from its predecessor, you no longer find important items in convenient dungeon chests; you now have to buy or rent them from your new roommate Ravio. Renting is of course cheaper, but it does come with the drawback of having that item taken away if you happen to die while out in the field, which gives a genuine weight to the deaths you experience and gives you much more of a drive to avoid unnecessary deaths, which never feels unfair. It’s a system that really benefits the gameplay, as for the most part, the general experience of this game is just an upscaled ALTTP, so this type of item usage gives the game something entirely different.

Another substantial difference between ALTTP and A Link Between Worlds that makes it way better is its central focus on a running narrative and much stronger characters. While the overarching plot of the game is essentially the same as before, except this time it’s seven sage descendents with actual character that you’re rescuing rather than seven identical, nameless maidens. Most notably though, each character you come across on your journey really makes the world feel vibrant and alive. Hilda, as Lorule’s counterpart of Zelda, acts as a helpful character for the majority of the game, before revealing her intentions of stealing Hyrule’s triforce to fix her kingdom is a very interesting subplot, as it gives more depth to her character and there’s definitely an element of moral grayness to it that’s really rare for a Zelda title. You know Hilda is justified in wanting to save her kingdom from ruin, but it’s at the cost of Hyrule, which then makes the ending of Link and Zelda using their triforce to save Lorule despite Hilda’s actions even more emotional and impactful. And then there’s our main villain, Yuga, a sorcerer hell bent on perfecting the art he makes out of other people and strives for perfection by, you guessed it, resurrecting Ganon. But here’s the thing: Yuga is a much, much more compelling and memorable villain than ALTTP’s Agahnim, who time has been very kind to despite the fact he appears like twice and all he basically ever says to Link is “fuck you, dude”. Yuga is a slimy, pretentious artist who is very, very easy to hate just on his personality and his treatment of Link alone and that makes me love him as a villain even more. Plus, his design is awesome and I’m always down for a unique Zelda villain, as the likes of Zant and Ghirahim also ended up being some of the best parts of their respective games.

Now we come to one of my most important things to focus on in a game, in particular a Zelda game, the music. Of course, they nailed it. The new mixes of the Hyrule and Lorule themes based around the Overworld and Dark World themes from ALTTP are catchy and memorable, the dungeon themes are atmospheric and luckily not quite as repetitive as other previous games. In particular, I’m giving a special shoutout to the Yuga boss theme from Hyrule Castle, which blends brass instruments and deep, chanting vocals help to give this boss fight and Yuga himself a unique feel that separates him from just another one of Ganon’s goons. And last but not least, one of my all time favourite Zelda tracks, the Lorule Castle theme. The slow build, the layering, the swelling orchestra as it becomes more and more epic the higher you ascend into the castle, it’s genuinely incredible and stil constitutes as one of my favourite game finales of all time.

I know I spent a hell of a long time comparing this game to A Link to the Past in this review, but I felt it was important to drive home just how much the series has grown over the past decades, even if it does keep a lot of those old Zelda tropes we’re all too used to. A Link Between Worlds is an excellent example of modern dungeon design and, despite the fact this spot nearly went to Link’s Awakening, comes out on top as my favourite 2D Zelda.

Standout Moment Award: Lorule!! Castle!! Hnnnghg Yuga Ganon fight.

Standout Character Award: Yuga. As arguably the slimiest, most pretentious Zelda villain in the series (which is saying something, especially since Ghirahim exists) Yuga left an immediate impression on me and is still one of the series’ most enduring one-time villains.

Tomorrow: No. 16; a modern tale of prejudice and Mr. Krabs.

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

BB’s Games Of 2019

2019 as a year felt like it lasted two years, and a lot happened in my personal life. Got a new job, learned to drive, got my first car, moved out of the in-laws’ basement into our first real apartment, started my first long-term game of DnD (which in itself has involved a new relationship and an emotional breakdown)- and between it all I somehow managed to play 77 games. Backlog’s down to 35 titles, lads- at this rate, I’ll be down to zero by July 2020. (Not gonna happen.) In 2020, I’d like to explore the SNES catalogue a little more, but before that happens we have to review everything 2019 brought me, in a somewhat chronological order.

- Near A Tomato Carry-over from last year’s post since I was in the middle of playing it at the time. I definitely never quite got a handle on the combat and I think some of the themes went over my head, but I still had fun here, and the 9S hacking minigame never got old. It was a gift from an old friend who I miss. Was nice to reconnect. - SSBU With my new main Zelda, I cleared all of WoL and got every spirit on the Spirit Board. I never really used her before but she’s cute now! Really liked the attention to detail in the spirit encounters. Unfortunately, Cloud is still in the game. - Mega Mans 1 2 and 3 I actually spoke about my experiences with the Mega Men in my BBLC post for Mega Man Eggs, so you should read that right now. - Metroid Samus Returns It’s Good. Like, a solid Good. Never Great, never Bad, just Good. It’s nice to see one of the least accessible games in the series get a remaster, but it feels very disposable, if that makes sense. Like they just needed a Metroid to keep people busy while they reboot Prime 4 development. AM2R is vastly superior, go play that. One point of amusement- the game tells its story without narration, and also seems to pre-suppose you know Metroid lore. I was entertained by the thought of a newcomer to the series being completely mystified by the sudden space-dragon that comes out of nowhere to wreck you at the end of the game. - Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls You can click here to download it, ‘cos it’s free, which is almost criminal. This is one of the higher tier games I’ve played this year. A little bit Mega Man, a bit Metroid, with hints of Touhou and Undertale, it’s pretty tough at times but never to ‘precision platformer’ levels. It’s a lot of fun and the dev deserves your support. - Steve And Ollie RPG Oh, I made this one. Making something else next year? Question mark? - Prof Layton 3 Feels like these are getting weaker as they go along. The story has always been absolute boohockey, but the puzzles feel like they’re degrading in quality too. With over 200 in each game, that’s not super surprising, and I’m glad they didn’t bulk it out with a load of the awful block-slider puzzles. Still, it’s Layton, if you liked any of the other games you’ll like this cos it’s the exact same thing. - Fault Milestone Two Yo, there ain’t a damned thing I can say about Fault, so go play the first one and then play this and you’ll understand. - Full Throttle I never bothered to finish it. The obtuse old Sierra puzzlers were hard enough to deal with back in the day, and just feel kind of inexcusable now. I don’t have the patience for it. - eXceed 3rd Slick and fun bullet hell with a nigh-incomprehensible story and great music. Touhou fans will like it. Music by SSH who is relatively well known in doujin circles. - ASAMU Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Eternal Senia Everything I said in my post rings true- do your best to look past the wonky translation, because there’s a heartfelt story underneath it. Very accessible gameplay, by design. - Inivisble Inc You have never before been, nor will you ever again be, so aware of having left a door open. I fully expected to hate Invisible, but I got hooked pretty hard. Quite tempted to do another run of it once the backlog is clear. - Pyre GOTY. Supergiant’s best game so far, and that’s not an easy thing to say for this Bastion veteran. I sobbed by the end. I’m not being dramatic- literally sobbed. Please play it. Music and writing and, just, heart, are all top tier. All the Nightwings are the best, but Hedwyn is the best best. - Ellipsis Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Just Cause 2 I found myself getting bored very quickly. The main missions are all identical (really, they are) and the side missions are very uninspired. Blitzing around in a jet or grappling around a mission target is a lot of fun but it feels very shallow. There’s a lot to do but not really any reason to do any of it. I dunno, it’s a kind of hollow experience, that I nonetheless had fun with. - LiEat It went over my head a little, but that’s more on me I think. These horror-esque, eccentric japanese RPG Maker games usually do. But, it’s neat, and short. If this sort of thing usually sticks on you, I think this is a good title. - Shantae Pirates Curse These games always felt non-essential to me; I’m not sure why they never stuck. They never really go below or above Good. Entirely enjoyable but I don’t feel like I’d have really missed anything if I hadn’t played them. It is, however, absolutely worth investing in for the utterly superb sprite work. That doesn’t sell a game by itself, I know, but Shantae is a pixel art masterclass. - FF5 I’d more or less finished it by the time I wrote my BBLC post, so I don’t have much to add. It’s a refreshingly goofy entry in a series known for taking itself too seriously, even compared to its predecessor. Look forward to my entry for this game in my Games Of 2020 post, having played the Four Job Fiesta! - Touhou 17 It’s mid-tier in the touhou hierarchy, IMO. Didn’t set my soul alight but I did enjoy it. Playing as Wolf Marisa makes the final boss too chaotic to really enjoy, but playing through again with Reimu made it more fun. I beat Extra on my third run through, which gave me false confidence that after 10 years I might actually be good at these games- to then be quickly humbled by attempting Th11’s Extra. Final Boss’ theme song has one of the greatest lead-ins of all time, especially given you start the fight by running away from her! Also really loved the Stage 4 theme as you barrel head-first into Hell (the real one this time), and the haunting, calm-before-the-storm serenity of Stage 5, overlooking the City Of Beasts. - HackNet + Labyrinths GOTY. (Yes, I know I already said Pyre was GOTY; it’s my post, I can have two GOTYs. Make your own damned post!) It’s hard to say what I loved about these games without spoiling too much- just know that they play very much like investigation games, and figuring out the puzzles feels great. Labyrinths technically takes place during the events of Hacknet, with a somewhat more Black Hat approach to things- despite this, play all of Hacknet first, and then play Labyrinths. The expansion introduces a lot of new stuff and much trickier challenges, such that going back to the base game afterwards to finish that would leave it a little hollow- a disservice to how great the ending is. - Mega Man X I said everything I wanted to say in my BBLC post, and anything I didn’t cover was better said by Egoraptor. - Octodad Finished it before my BBLC post! - Chroma Squad The final mission is disappointingly poor, but everything up to that point was pretty good. Huge variance and creativity in the bosses. However, the most fun I got from it was when I realised the game allowed me to customise my team name, transformation name, and other such terminology. Dave, Dayve, Davy, Davina, and Dehve shouting “It’s time to Chromatise, Chroma Squad!” very quickly became “It’s time to shit, you bunch of fucks!” and it was funny every single time. (Personal favourite bit of dialogue- “I tried to shit! It worked!”) - Pyrite Heart Finished it before my BBLC post! - Starfox 2 Finished it before my BBLC post! - Burly Men At Sea Finished it before my BBLC post! - Disc Room Finished it before my BBLC post! - Kokurase Finished it before my BBLC post! Should have broken these ones up a bit! - Metroid Rogue Dawn Very, very impressive romhack let down by a distinctly un-fun final section. They managed to fix so many of OG Metroid’s problems, I’m surprised the gauntlet of terribleness that is Tourian escaped with only a cosmetic change. Nonetheless, it’s free, and the other 95% of the game is superb, even from a purely technical standpoint. - Wuppo I dunno what happened here! I was full of praise for Wuppo when I played it, but somehow I just couldn’t stick with it and just never felt like playing it. It’s a very aimless game, and I wonder if that might be why? It’s a shame, I feel disappointed in myself for not seeing it through, but ultimately I play games to have fun and I just wasn’t quite there with Wuppo. - Super Mario Odyssey I loved it, obviously. I wrote my BBLC post towards the end of my time with Odyssey so most of that stands- I do want to add that the controls always felt a little loose, like I wasn’t quite as in-control as I was in Galaxy. Also Mario prioritises walljumping over ledge-grabbing and it’s super-hard to unlearn that instinct after 20 years. Finally- Long Journey’s End is just bullshit. - Secret Of Mana Dropped it pretty soon after Finning it. There’s some logic to the way the game works, some kind of hidden turn-order system, that I could not at all figure out. My AI companions (useless, btw) would hit an enemy which meant I couldn’t, except sometimes the hit would still register but only actually go through 3 seconds later, without any way to tell which way it was going to go. It takes like 7 months for your character to get back up after taking a hit. It’s just, wonky, and I couldn’t solve the puzzle of how to make the game do what I wanted to do. - Pokemon Shield Still working my way through it. It’s- yeah, it’s pokemon. Get a similar vibe to Sun/Moon with it that it’s kind of unfinished- lots of small (and some not so small) parts of the game just feel like there were bigger plans that couldn’t be realised in time. I’m still enjoying it! They did a great job of making the gym battles, and the whole process of 8-badges-then-champion, feel like a spectacle. I think only the anime has managed it to this degree before. - Earthbound Man, I really, really want to like this game, but the battle system is terrible. I need to play through the game again buffing my party up with cheats or something, because it’s so unbalanced and cheap. Everything else about the game is wonderful, but I got so frustrated with the fights! - Mario Kart 8 Didn’t play any of the single player this time, it was midgi’s christmas present so I just joined a couple of multiplayer games. Absolutely baffled that the game features F-Zero style anti-gravity courses, has Mute City and Big Blue, and even has the Blue Falcon as a selectable vehicle, but they haven’t put Captain Falcon in it. Like he’s ever going to get another game of his own? Let him have this! - Carmageddon 2 It’s pretty clunky by now, being 20 years old, but still plays well enough. The physics are super loose so you slide around like your tires have been buttered. It was more fun when they were zombies instead of just normal people. Missions are brutally hard and should be skipped with cheats. - Neopets After 15 years of playing, I finally got a Ghostkersword. The site as a whole has gone through a lot, and certainly its heyday is long gone, but there’s no other game quite like it. I’m playing the Food Club every day, still. - SIF New phone can’t run the actual gameplay section well enough, so I just log in occasionally to grab free scouts. Here’s another one whose golden years are behind it, sadly, but I certainly still have a lot of affection for SIF. - FF1 Mobile version, which fixes a lot of the bugs with the NES original. This year I completed a solo run with 1 Red Mage, a 4-black belts run, a low-level run, and a 4 White Mages run (which ended up being a lower-level run than the low-level run). I’m fairly comfortable in calling myself an expert in FF1, now. There’s still not really any other games like it- build a party as balanced or imbalanced as you like, and see how they fare. I’d like to build my own game in a similar style, one day. - Re: Live Gacha games and RPG just don’t mix! Both gacha and events do not gel with core RPG mechanics of your character(s) developing in strength as the game goes. It seems impossible to balance the game well- do you cater to the whales who spend and spend until they have the strongest teams possible, meaning the free players or the terminally unlucky can’t stand a chance, or do you cater to those players and give them no reason to spend for the more powerful characters? It’s a shame, because the anime was baffling but in that enjoyable way where you just kind of go with whatever it throws at you, and exploring that in a non-freemium game with a solid beginning middle and end would be really interesting. - Tiny Thief Mobile game that’s not available any more, I think my BBLC post covered it well enough. - F-Zero One of the criticisms most commonly levied against F-Zero is that it wont hold your attention for long. While that’s true, it’s not like you have to make a purchasing decision about it any more- it comes bundled in with the other games you’re buying, so the only investment is time. Ignoring that, it’s still fun to burn around the tracks, and the sense of speed hasn’t ever diminished. The music, too, is underappreciated, with Port Town being my personal fave. - F-Zero GX I can’t believe Nintendo hasn’t done anything with this ridiculous universe for 15 years now. The cutscenes are so hilariously overwrought, and the cast of characters is huge! It could so seamlessly intersect with the Starfox universe, too. There were rumours of a Starfox Racing title some time ago, and I really hope that’s the case. It’d work so well (by which I mean, a particularly enjoyable kind of awful). Anyway, the game still plays great, Story Mode is WAY too hard, Dr Stewart’s theme is a Tune. - Stratosphere This game is from 1998! Build a flying fortress, deck it out with fortifications and weapons and power supplies, then use it to destroy other fortresses. I only ever played the demo as a kid, never got the full game. Took some cajoling to get it to work on modern hardware, but eventually I got in and it wasn’t worth it at all. Wow, that performance, apparently it was designed to run at a terrible frame rate and it wasn’t just a result of my 1998 PC not being up to the task! A shame, but I guess it put one of my ghosts to rest. - DKC 2 The best of the three SNES games, despite the inclusion (and protagonism) of Diddy Kong. Lots to love here, but the OST is top notch. - DKC 3 Not as good as 2, but IMO better than 1. There was a much heavier emphasis on gimmick levels in 3, not all of which hit their target, but does provide a great deal of variety. Consensus is that 2 is better, but if someone claimed 3 was the best DKC, I’d let them get away with it. - King Arthur’s World (SNES) Speaking of putting ghosts to rest… We somehow always managed to get this game whenever we got a SNES, and kid!Beebs most certainly didn’t have the patience for it. Adult!Beebs barely does, either. It’s a very ambitious attempt at some sort of RTS/Puzzle hybrid, somewhat comparable to Lemmings? King Arthur must make his way from his starting position to the throne elsewhere in the map to claim it as his own, using the myriad abilities of his soldiers to get him there in one piece. I decided this year that I was finally going to play through the whole damn thing, start to finish, for the first time ever. With copious use of save states and rewinds, I was finally able to slay this demon. For as fiddly and frustrating as it is, I would still say people should check it out if they have the tools to do so- there’s not really anything else like it, on SNES or otherwise; you’re guaranteed a unique experience, if nothing else. - Oscar (SNES) Terrible. - Spanky’s Quest (SNES) With a name like that, how could I refuse? It’s a weird little puzzler, aping (wahey!) Bubble Bobble and Parasol Stars a little. You’re a monkey who can blow bubbles that stun enemies, but if you bounce the bubble on your head it gets progressively larger and can be burst to send a barrage of similarly-sized sports balls at your opponents to knock them out. You know, just like real life. - Addam’s Family (SNES) This easily-dismissible movie tie-in is actually a very competent platformer with some very, very light metroidvania exploration involved. Gomez has to go through Addams Mansion and rescue the members of his family who have been kidnapped by… something. There’s hidden secrets everywhere and the family can be rescued in any order you like. Genuine recommendation. - Panel DePon/Tetris Attack The only vs puzzler I enjoy (yep. Not even puyo puyo. I know.) I played the HECK out of this in my teenage years, and got crazy good at it. Tendonitis says I’m not allowed to do that any more, but once I shook the rust off I was still pretty strong! It was released as Panel DePon in Japan and was fairy themed, but for the western release they replaced all the fairies with Yoshi characters and renamed it Tetris Attack despite having nothing to do with Tetris at all. Up to you which you prefer- language isn't too much of a barrier here. Soundtrack is killer. - Subsurface Circular Finished it before my BBLC post. Still not decided if I liked the way it ended. - Master Of Orion 2 C’mon. After playing three other pretenders to MoO2’s throne, I had to give the real deal a couple of spins too. It’s Civ 5 in space. Customisable race builds. A whole galaxy to bring peace to, by whichever means you prefer. Would love for someone else to get into it. - Touhou 8 Last minute entry I just played yesterday ‘cos I wanted some Touhou and I haven’t played this entry in a long while. A Solo Marisa Normal Final B run, if you’re interested. Kaguya beast-mode tearing apart the Spell Of Imperishable Night at the end of the game is still an awesome moment, but it’s a shame you can miss the last couple of spells if you take some unlucky hits. - And here’s the list of Bins, which are all covered in their BBLC post: No Time To Explain MoO Skyborn Jumpjet Rex StH 4 Ballistick Munch’s Oddysee Outland Project CARS RiME Magicka Waking Mars Urban Chaos Divinity: Dragon Commander Strike Suit Zero Hell Yeah! Lambda Wars Beta Stranger’s Wrath MoO 3 XCOM Lots more Fins than Bins this year! Good to see!

[miuplays]

Miu’s Games of the Decade

Hello all! Wishing you a Happy New Year wherever you are in the world! It’s already January 1st where I am, but I’m sure people are still counting down in other parts of the world. But anywho! I wanted to end the year with a celebration of some of my favorite games released this decade. The 2010’s have been an incredible year for video games, I think. With strides made in graphics, scale, and storytelling, I think this has been easily one of the most innovative eras on all fronts. I hope you enjoy this list of a few of my favorites, and hopefully some of your favorites are here as well! If not, make a list of your own and share it with me! I’d love to see some of your opinions.

But without further ado, on to the countdown…

2010 – FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS

This game, for me, set the standard for what every RPG game should be. From its worldbuilding, to character interactions and on-the-nose commentary, to the way it expands the Fallout universe both mechanically and through storytelling. Of all the Fallout games, this is the one that left the biggest impact on me, and it’s the one I still reflect on to this day.

Honorable Mentions – Bayonetta, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2

2011 – DRAGON AGE II

So I looooove Dragon Age. It’s, in my opinion, one of the best RPG franchises ever made, and this game in particular is easily my favorite in the series. The writing is at its best, and every character is so loveable that I found myself playing it multiple times just so I could romance everybody. Despite some structural issues in the overall story, I still consider it to be one of the most memorable in the franchise, and I don’t regret a single hour put into this campaign.

Honorable Mentions – Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dark Souls, Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2012 – DISHONORED

As RPG-heavy as this list is, I do wanna give some love to immersive sims. Another favorite genre of mine, and Dishonored is by and large one of the best. I found myself entangled in a number of sticky situations that I had to sleuth and stealth my way out of one too many times. Yet they somehow managed to make that the best part of the game. Player freedom and creativity are practically the foundation of this game, and it’s something that made this game not only an enjoyable and unique experience the first time around, but its replay value is through the roof. I do think that later installments in the series, as well as other immersive sim games like Prey, definitely improved upon this one in a lot of areas. But regardless, I still really enjoyed Dishonored, and I’m holding out hope for the future of the series.

Honorable Mentions – Sleeping Dogs, Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 2, The Walking Dead

2013 – THE LAST OF US

I’m sure you’re all surprised, but yes. The Last of Us is my GOTY for 2013, and possibly my favorite game of all time. Before playing this, I’ve never had a game put me in such a state of emotional duress for an extended period of time. Not even MGS3’s ending did what this game did to me. And even as I’m typing this, I realize that the technical aspects of this game—the graphics, mechanics, level design, etc.—aren’t what makes it stand out in my opinion. My favorite part of this game has to be the journey. The connection between Ellie and Joel (two characters so brilliantly portrayed by Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker). My love for these characters and my desire to see them succeed despite all of the hardships and challenging decisions they were faced with. That’s why I love this game. It is, for me, the most incredible storytelling experience I’ve ever had.

Honorable Mentions – Grand Theft Auto V, Tomb Raider, The Wolf Among Us, Injustice: Gods Among Us

2014 – BAYONETTA 2

The Queen has made it onto this list, and I have nothing but praise for the greatest hack n’ slash game ever made. Character design? Stellar. Combat system? Robust, intricate, and absolutely flaw-fucking-free. Improves upon its predecessor in every way imaginable and still remains as stylish and fun as ever? 100%.

If you haven’t played this game yet, please stop reading this and go play this game. It is… phenomenal.

Honorable Mentions – Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dark Souls II, Alien: Isolation, Tales from the Borderlands

2015 – THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT

What can I say about this game that hasn’t already been said, like, 9 million times…?

It’s legendary. Simply put. A flawless and unforgettable RPG experience that simply cannot be replicated. Also, I would die for Yennefer. And Ciri of Cintra is the love of my life.

Honorable Mentions – Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Life is Strange, Mortal Kombat X

2016 – HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER

The only indie game on this list, but its spot is well deserved. What has always set video games apart from other storytelling mediums is interactivity. Despite this, I feel like most games still rely on heavy dialogue and cinematic cutscenes in order to spin its narrative. Which is why I’m so appreciative of games like this, where art and exploration are key to understanding the world and the happenings around you. Hyper Light Drifter is a gorgeous game, with challenging combat and beautiful, stylish music and design that will have you feeling both nostalgic and mesmerized. Even in its quieter moments the game remains so rich and thoughtful, and even now it’s hard to decipher my feelings afterwards. A mixture of melancholy, delight, and solace. It’s a journey I thoroughly enjoyed taking.

Honorable Mentions – DOOM, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Titanfall 2, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

2017 – HORIZON: ZERO DAWN

This year was a solid year for games, which made this decision insanely difficult… but after a lot of deliberating, I decided to go with my gut. Aloy stole my heart the moment she came on the screen. She’s an incredible leading lady who’s strong, determined, complicated, and layered in ways that both intrigued me and that I could relate to. But beyond just my crush on the game’s protagonist, the scope of this game is just… fantastic. The way they mixed post-apocalyptic tribalism with futuristic technology, the physics of every monster you encounter being so dynamic that every battle feels viscerally intense, even just the combat mechanics and how much effort was put into designing Aloy’s bow and her diversity of combat options, I’m just so!!!! In LOVE with this game!!!!!!!

Honorable Mentions –Tekken 7, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Butterfly Soup

2018 – GOD OF WAR

Yet another game that I’ve showered in so much praise that I don’t think there’s anything left for me to say about it anymore. This game is flawless for a number of reasons. Its meticulously crafted combat system, amazing graphics, beautiful character and game design, gorgeous score, and seamless transitions from action to story that make it feel like a film taken in one single camera shot are all key selling points. But what sold me on this game, and makes it my top pick for this year, was its compelling narrative. The story is one that’s very personal to me. I felt for them and their loss at the very start of the game. I resonated with Atreus and his struggles to connect with his father. And I understood Kratos’ inner battle with coming to terms with who he is and the things he’s done, and trying to be the father his son deserves. I related to these things, as they resembled all to closely the relationship I had with my own mom. God of War moved me in more ways than one, and I’m very thankful that this game exists. I felt like it was my own story being told on that screen as well.

Also… the boss fights are just so fucking fun.

Honorable Mentions – Spider-Man (PS4), Red Dead Redemption 2, Gris, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

2019 – RESIDENT EVIL 2: REMAKE

This may be a more controversial pick considering the amount of quality games that came out this year, and I know most of my viewers were probably expecting Control or The Outer Worlds to be here considering how much I hyped those games up. But in my defense, Resident Evil 2 was already one of my all-time favorite games, and this remake nothing short of a masterpiece. To me, it’s what every horror game should be. The atmosphere is dark yet engrossing. Every aspect of design, from sounds to levels to enemies, make this one of the scariest horror games I’ve ever played, all without relying on jumpscares, or grotesque imagery (although there’s plenty of that as well, it’s not what makes the experience so horrifying imo). It’s one of the most beautifully crafted survival horrors, while manages to improve upon the original while still remaining faithful to it. I consider it a masterclass in how to approach any remake. Capcom truly earned back my trust with this one.

Honorable Mentions – Control, Katana ZERO, The Outer Worlds, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

And so concludes the list! I hope you enjoyed reading, despite how lengthy it got. I wanted to get out as much praise as I could because every game listed here deserves it. I’m in love with every single one, including so many more that weren’t mentioned. It was truly an amazing decade for gamers and game developers alike, and I’m nothing but optimistic for the future.

See you all next year.

– ミウ。

[kaneda18]

Little Nightmares: There are two words that comes to mind when I think of my time with Little Nightmares. Those two words are unsettling and irksome. One other thing that comes to mind when I think about my time with Little Nightmares is that this game is a masterclass on how to conclude a game.

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Little Nightmares is essentially a puzzle platformer with stealth sequences. Move things around to reach levers and points of egress. All the while avoiding things that, well, look at them. Its not too far away from Limbo or Inside, with more space to roam.

When scaling its peaks Little Nightmares is a horror game that is unsettling, dread inducing and fraught with tension. Sloping through its valleys its annoying, tedious and irksome. The positives come from the visuals, the characters and the story. The negatives come from the check pointing and the sometimes-finicky game play. Everything here revolves around that concept of how make a horror game scary/unsettling/visceral/psychological (Horror is such a wonderfully varied genre) and then maintaining that once the player realises the stakes for failing are just going back to the last check point.

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They are enemy characters that are in design genuinely creepy and upon first sight they have that classic “jesus, what the fuck is that?” sense about them. Their animations, mannerism and sounds are skin crawling. And that first time they chase you it elicits heart palpitations. And then they catch you. Nothing much happens. What was terrifying isn’t anymore. And future enemies aren’t scary because I know that if I do fail then eh, let’s go back to the checkpoint. And those checkpoints aren’t great. They are always right before a small but annoying to do again climbing section. Or some other section that doing again just serves to annoy you. The sort of things that help to grind the pace of the game down slowly but surely. However, the length of the game helps here. I’ll talk about that more later.

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Throughout the game there are two forms of collectables, fun little distractions to get you exploring. The first of these are gnomes, which can be hugged and statues, which can be broken. I’m not sure if they have any effects beyond being something fun to find, but they do a job.

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But then comes along the closing sequence. And throughout the game it has been teased and built up, but it’s still a genuine surprise because those story beats were done well enough not to be huge telegraphs that scream “we are going to subvert your expectations!”. It also shows how important nailing the end of a game (or anything is). If the end of something is excellent that’s what people remember. The imperfections and blemishes are forgotten. And while Little Nightmares was ending, I sat open jawed and forgot all the shoddy check points and sometimes flimsy feeling ledge grab mechanics. They faded away.

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Throughout the game, the player character (called Six) is working her (I think) through, and seemingly out of a prison ship. But after breaking out and reaching the outside, she climbs back into the ship and makes her way to the upper decks. It seems a bizarre choice, after all everything she has encountered so far has tried to kill her and she has no power to retaliate. And more dangers await in the upper decks. There’s a change here though. In one incident, a gnome offers Six food, but she devours the gnome instead. Somethings amiss. After powering through, there’s a final boss fight of sorts (its thoroughly okay) and Six devours the final bosses’ power. And there it is. Six wasn’t trying to escape. Six was actively seeking this. What follows is one of the best ending sequences, as Six wanders through a mess hall and without care or compassion effortlessly rips the life force out of her once threats, and it feels great. Then she’s out in the world around, capable of great and horrible things.

And thus, the game ends, and at the right time to. It’s one of those games that only runs for 4 or 5 hours but it’s all that it needs. The gameplay is serviceable, the story well told, and the ending executed perfectly. It doesn’t need replay value; it doesn’t need to be 20 hours long. It’s an experience that lingers but doesn’t overstay its welcome.

https://gfycat.com/ashamedhonorabledodobird

Touhou Genso Rondo: More bullet hell. Or as it is called in Japan, Danmaku.

I have previous with Touhou. That being through Doujin Music. I’ve listened to a lot of this and naturally, it bred some curiosity about the games. There’s a lot of Touhou games, and not just bullet hell. There are rouges, metroidvania’s and others in addition to the bullet hell the series is known for. In the latest PS4 sale Touhou games where on sale and I grabbed a bullet hell game. One, because I’ve recently grown to appreciate the genre and two, well, I felt I owed the Touhou franchise some money after consuming so much of it on YouTube for free. I really should have bought this game at full price, but I’m a scum sucking pile of awfulness. I’m going to buy the DLC characters though, because this game is fun.

This game has a tutorial. I would highly advise anyone to use this tutorial. This game has a lot of systems at play, it can take a little while to get used to all of them. This game is bullet hell but not like the regular bullet hell. That’s normally a side scrolling or up scrolling game with a spaceship or some sort of craft dodging bullets from various other spaceships, mechs, steam punk machines etc. Touhou Genso Rondo is a one on one fighter, with bullet hell. You control one of 8 characters from the Touhou universe and you pelt the opposition with bullets. These range from regular attacks, strong attacks and screen covering spell attacks. These can be dodged either by dashing, or simply moving out of the way. By getting close to bullets and grazing them you get a boost to a charge bar, which governs how long you can use the screen covering spell attacks for.  In addition, there is melee combat for when the distance closes. Also, upon losing all your health you enter an extend mode which lets you keep fighting or cast a last-ditch powerful spell. However, in this state you (or the opponent) is in a vulnerable state and one attack in regular mode will see a finish. In the spell mode once the charge bar or health hits zero, it’s done and dusted.  This is just the basics.

There’s a whole lot more to this game, and I’m not really the guy to explain it. I just want to talk about how much I love this bonkers light display of bullets fired by magical spirt/vampire/ghost anime women.

It can get very hectic, very colourful and utterly fun. At low levels, it’s a fun trading of brightly coloured bullets. At higher levels, well, it’s like this:

If you’ve been here before you will know that I like to make gifs. I don’t know how to gif this. I don’t know where to cut it, never mind where to start and finish. Its so frenetic, so kinetic and loaded with colour and energy that there’s barely a moment to breath. I love it. Bullets and beams whizz by yet they are all coloured well enough that I know what I should be dodging. Special attacks cover the screen yet with enough skill and bomb use these too can be navigated. There are few things like a close fight, where both combatants enter the extended mode and one hit will seal the deal. It’s tense, exciting and oh so satisfying when the win is confirmed.

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Taking part in these Danmaku battles can be done through single player modes (story, arcade and boss rush) or going online and fighting other people. While I haven’t gone online yet, I have finished the story mode and that was great. Goofy, silly and great. Each character has a story, and they are unapologetically silly, cheesy and whimsical. The game knows this and rolls with this. Characters have the silliest pretences for doing things. One character wants to put on a puppet show and so engages in Danmaku battles to get ideas. Another needs to be sent away so her mistress can throw a birthday party for her, so she is tasked to Danmaku battle so she can leave the house. Write that Shakespeare.

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And each character plays differently. Some are more direct with their attacks; others rely more on delayed projectiles and some seek to manipulate space and use attacks to kettle opponents into spaces where other attacks will connect. Learning the in and outs of each combatant has been a fun process.

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The arcade mode is a series of one on one fights for as long as you can stay alive. And boss rush is the same except all the opposition automatically enter spell mode and this mode feels like a (relatively) conventional bullet hell game. Again, like arcade mode it’s a test of endurance except unlike arcade mode health doesn’t fully replenish so you really must be skilful. I’m thoroughly okay at best, so I never make it too far.

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In short, this game has been a fantastic revelation and I learned that anime females flinging spell bullets at each other is something that my life has been missing.

Dark Souls III: Now a full time Warrior of Sunlight. I play the game now sorely to engage in jolly co-operation and that makes me perfectly happy. My invasion urges have gone, I wish I could deflect in the boss fights now but co-op, I dig co-op. And I had two firsts. One was I finally got summoned for a Crystal Sage fight. Twice in fight, back to back. I had tried for ages with no luck, and like a bus two showed up. Crystal Sage is one of my favourite fights despite how easy it can be so to get summoned was great fun.

Secondly, I was summoned for the Dragonslayer Armour fight (love that dude) and me and the host guard broke him. I’ve played this game a lot and done a whole truck load of co-op and I’ve never seen that happen. I might never see it again. Didn’t know you could do it. Magical.

Sekiro: Play through eight will happen. Before that though, I’ve been practicing with this lovely samurai who hangs about near the reservoir. He has been a wonderful sparring partner and has helped me to get back into something resembling fighting shape. It has been two months or so since I last played and I still utterly and totally love and dig this combat. I want to hug it.

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Other reasons for an eighth play through are I have some things I want to write about regarding Sekiro. I have two ideas right about now and hopefully an eighth play through will give me some more. I’ll be taking a game into NG+, and I’m excited to return to Ashina.

https://gfycat.com/jitteryrawhorseshoebat 

What I've Been Playing This Week #littlenightmares #touhougensorondo #darksoulsIII #sekiro #games #videogames #gaming #blogging #writing Little Nightmares: There are two words that comes to mind when I think of my time with Little Nightmares.

[truetgirl]

Kelly’s Top 10  Video Games of the Decade

I’ve seen a bunch of gifsets going around of people’s favorite games from the last decade. I’ve got no talent for making gifs or many other creative endeavors, but I can write. So I’m making a top 10 with a little blurb summing up what I love about each of the games on the list.

10: Splatoon 2 (2017)

No other games really bring together everything that Splatoon 2 does for me. It gives me a multiplayer experience I actually enjoy, it gives me a pleasant and colorful world to relax in, and it gives me one of my pet loves in gaming: a highly flexible and fun character and outfit customization system. This one isn’t among those that I would say everyone ever should play, but it’s a nice, solid, and downright fun game that I really enjoy. No better way to start the list.

9: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

I debated for a while whether or not to include this game but after considering how many hours I’ve played it across dozens of characters and two platforms, the fire it lit in me for high fantasy, and the sheer impact it had on me in terms of how I thought about video games? Yeah, yeah it makes the list. It’s not perfect, but it’s more than good enough to make the list. And it’s a bit of a backdoor way to mention my more recent love of Dungeons and Dragons which I might not have gotten into without skyrim awakening my inner high fantasy nerd.

8: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

This and the next entry form the core of “games/series that made me realize I really like turn based strategy” from this decade. XCOM is wonderfully well designed, phenomenally paced, and a masterclass in the use of organic tension and release through mechanics. The entry carries an honorable mention for XCOM 2, which I’ve put more overall time into, but the original I think is still a superior game on the whole.

7: Civilization VI (2016)

And the other turn based strategy epiphany. Where XCOM is nitty gritty tactical simulation and the strategic questions one faces in a war against an alien threat, Civ is a sprawling representation of the great march of history across hundreds of worlds from the ancient dawn of society to the interconnected world of today. I’m a historian with a thing for turn based strategy. How could I not love it? THis one carries an honorable mention for its predecessor, Civ V, which was my first game in the series. Between the two I have played CIvilization for 1044 hours (roughly a month and a half) over the course of the last 5 years. No other game has ever come near that sheer time investment, and I don’t even really regret it which surprises me.

6: Smite (2014)

And it’s the farthest a multiplayer focused game is gonna get on this list. Smite is a pleasing mixture between the team play and strategic thinking of MOBAs and the raw power fantasy appeal of getting to take hands-on control of gods, monsters, and heroes from real world myths. The game is nicely laid out in such a way that allows pretty much anyone to play on whatever level of personal and/or financial investment suits them. It’s a great way to bond with people too, in my experience.

5: Pokemon Shield (2019)

Take this as being the representative of pretty much the entire series in the 2010s. Ever since Black and White way back at the start of the decade Pokemon has been evolving and modernizing and this game continues a trend of my loving every main series Pokemon game more than the last that began with Black and White 2. I could go into specifics, but it all boils down to: it’s Pokemon but even better than last time. It’s a comfortable and nice place to be and while that might not be enough for everyone, it means something to me.

4: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)

This was my first Zelda game. I went in basically knowing nothing about Zelda games outside of what has come to me through cultural osmosis. And I’m sad, because I don’t think I can ever go play any Zelda game that came before it now. This is the game that made me understand the phrase “nintendo polish.” The game that made me remember what a truly satisfying single player game felt like. The game that made me feel like a kid again in a way no other pretty much ever has outside of plucking at nostalgia. I love this game, and I believe it deserves to go down in history as one of the greats of all time.

3: Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)

And now the series that took my new love of turn based strategy and said “ok that, but make it more anime.” This entry is also packing an honorable mention for Fates and Awakening (and to a lesser extent echoes), but Three Houses is the one. It’s bigger, the character interactions and hub world that started their evolution on the 3DS burst into life on the switch like never before with full voice acting and a full hub area to explore and do stuff in, and it strikes this perfect balance of gameplay and narrative focus that the other games had a bit of trouble with by incorporating the exploration into the narrative heavy parts. Combine that with my favorite cast of characters yet and multiple story paths that come together to form one whole and you’ve got yourself a winner.

2: Life is Strange (2015)

It is honestly difficult to overstate the impact Life is Strange had on me. This game starting premiering episodes right before I started questioning and it’s really hard to explain but the overall atmosphere just hit me so hard and yet also comforted me as I started to explore for the first time who I really was. To this day it’s one of those stories that has stuck with me in the bedrock of my soul both on its own merits and on its timing coming into my life. This is one of a select few games I would tell people to play if they wanted to understand me better as a person.

1: Mass Effect 2 (2010)

It barely scrapes into the decade with a release in January of 2010, but here it is. My favorite video game of all time. It’s a dozen character focused dramas, it’s an epic tale of heroic daring, it’s a deeply human (and many other species) experience among the stars, it’s a fist-pumping power fantasy, it’s a story of love and loss and triumph. It’s all of that and more. It is my golden standard of gaming, it is the narrative focused game I have played from start to finish more times than any other and whatever second place is it’s not even close. It is the apotheosis of all the things I love most in games with interactive and character focused drama, fucking sweet superpowers, a grandiose story of a hero’s great deeds, and a hero made all the more compelling by the fact that everything they do they do by choice, your choice. If I had to choose one game to play for the rest of my life, this would be it. I cannot sing its praises loudly enough or for long enough, I really can’t.