As a Midnight Scenes fan who's subbed to Manlybadasshero and as much as I enjoy his videos, I heavily disagree with his review/opinions on From The Woods because wdym Oliver's arc was regulated to his memories of the recent past and a certain character wasn’t as deep as they looked?
His arc actually was built up from when he arrived at the Center. Oliver began as being quiet and lonely (aside from having to hide his sister in her shadow demon form from everyone else) then noticing Elijah's genuine kindness/concern that didn’t come from a trained professional adult towards him in spite of the insults and avoidance from the other patients to wanting to be around him during the second dinner segment and giving him Little Tina after Elijah is gut punched by Aiden. The development eventually cumilates into chosing to trust Elijah with his story and falling for him due to his willingness to properly understand him when no one else did. It concludes with Oliver graduating (literally and figuratively) to giving his statement regarding Tina to the police and eventually starting a new life with Elijah. There’s actual nuance to Oliver’s side of the story when you look at it on a deeper scale.
As for Eric, a credited YouTube comment will be sufficient. As Cshehan put it in their analysis of Eric's character:
I feel like Eric served as a flaw in Elijah's character. It seems like their friendship was starting to fall apart before the events that take place in the game. At the beginning, before Eric is even introduced, Elijah sees Eric outside scratching out an "E hearts E" carving that had previously been on the bench. Elijah sees the carving and thinks nothing of it (even though they are the only two boys with names that start with E). Eric has had feelings for Elijah for a while at this point and he now feels like Elijah only hangs out with him as a last resort. We can tell this is true based on their conversation in the cafeteria. Elijah is so caught up in being bullied for being gay, that he doesn't even consider the possibility that Eric is too. After consoling Elijah about Ms. Murphy's demise, Eric vaguely comes out to him. Elijah is silent and Eric takes that as rejection. Eric, feeling rejected, sees Oliver and Elijah together the next night and lashes out by telling Aiden. Elijah's negligence of their friendship by no means warrants the abuse that Eric indirectly inflicts upon him, but all this considered, you can see how it gets to that point.
I haven't done a ranking list in so long either. I've played nine more games since these, which I probably finished back in like. August?
1.The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood - This was an easy number one. It quickly elbowed its way past so many others to become my favorite video game I've ever played.
2. Grapple Dog - Cute and quirky instead of gritty and bloody, this game made me fall in love with platforming again.
3. Midnight Scenes - A series of ooky-spooky point-and-click adventure games inspired by The Twilight Zone. I like that show and these games made me want to go watch it again. I didn't, but I should.
4. Strange Horticulture - A cozy shop sim in atmosphere but not in mechanics - you're solving fun puzzles, not dealing with the tedium of crafting and managing inventory and all that nonsense, and yet the game still feels like it's giving you a hug every time you boot it up.
5. Scarlet Hollow - This game is overall S-tier and should really be up in the number 2 slot, if we're talking about how it, much like Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, eventually became an all-time favorite to the point where I made a fandom sideblog for it. BUT. These rankings at their core are reflections of my personal experience with the games more than the quality of the game itself. And before it bloomed into love and obsession, what I initially felt towards this game was discomfort and dislike.
6. One Step from Eden - Similar story here, honestly! I see that it's a great game now but I tired of it a lot faster than I usually do with roguelikes. Then I had an epiphany about how it works and it made me like it again.
7. CrossCode - And here we have the opposite story. I loved this game from the very beginning until suddenly I just. Completely stopped having fun. I got the Ick from this game.
8. Promesa - A dreamlike, experimental Argentinian walking sim. I played it in Spanish and it was so refreshing to see a game with an authentic and regionally-specific Spanish version.
9. Black Book - I need my card games to be roguelike in nature I think. Quick and randomized. There were a lot of other problems I had with this game but I think the linearity and scope were the biggest thing that grated on me.
10. Verne: The Shape of Fantasy - I do not like to say that things are unequivocally, objectively bad. But this game was bad. I would not recommend it to anyone under any circumstances.
🔴✧༺ The circle opens! We're live right now with MIDNIGHT SCENES (episodes 1-4). Will pixels be able to make me jump? I mean, yes, probably. But come find out for yourself anyway ༻✧🔴
This Unity debacle doesn't affect me personally yet, or at least we don't yet know to what extent players like me will be affected. Until I have a handle on what will happen or what I can do to help, I need to keep letting myself enjoy the hobby I love in order to keep myself from going insane. It doesn't help my guilt that the latest "game" I've been playing (made in the engine from hell, of course) is actually an anthology of four games listed separately in the store, meaning they tally up to four separate downloads, but... gah, this is all so confusing and upsetting.
Midnight Scenes by Octavi Navarro was yet another spooky game I wanted to set aside for Let's Playing in October but it got picked out of the bag early. Oh well. I currently have a Scarlet Hollow replay and maybe Kaycee's Mod in mind for scary series to record. Anyway. Midnight Scenes is a series of short horror adventure games inspired by The Twilight Zone. I got the first three in a charity bundle and I am very strongly considering buying the fourth. Being the utter weenie that I am, I'm a fan of short-form and anthology horror because it makes its impact quickly and then you can just as quickly put it out of your head (unless it's especially disturbing, in which case it will burrow in there and ruin your day if not the rest of your life, for me it's that one creepypasta and that one Stephen King short story). So Midnight Scenes is just the exact level of spooky that I want in my life. My favorite of the first three is probably the third one, The Nanny, although I do wish it had stuck with the black and white color scheme for both the Twilight Zone homage and cohesion with the others.
The only reason I would hesitate to buy the fourth game is that it takes place in a mental institution, and... you know... horror associated with mental illness doesn't have the best track record? It's great when the neurodivergent character is the POV, and the horror is derived from what it's like to be in their mind and the way others treat them. It sucks when the neurodivergent characters are treated like monsters. Apparently the protagonist of From The Woods has an anxiety disorder, which gives me hope, but I still worry.