Game 8 of 2023 - Season: A Letter to the Future (2023)

Season

Developer: Scavengers Studio
Publisher: Scavengers Studio
Platform: PC
Genre: Adventure, Casual, Meditative

Difficulty: Easy
Date Started: Mar 23th 2023
Date Ended: Mar 31st 2023
Hours: 6

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8/10

Another game, another banger. But this isn't a banger in the traditional sense, this is a slow, meditative banger that explores themes of remembering (or forgetting), spirituality, and loss.

You take control of Estelle, a child of prophecy who is tasked with leaving her village to chronicle the end of a Season. A Season is something like an age, or era; past Seasons were sometimes grand (like the Golden Season) or were times of war, like the Season that proceeds the current one.

Estelle gets some worldly advice from her departed father.

Estelle's mission is to go forth and record anything she can for future generations to study. She is armed with a camera, a sketchbook, and an audio recorder. Each area you explore gets its own page in the sketchbook, and you can fill it with pictures you take, sounds you record, and quotes you read.

God, what a shithole.

Season does a remarkable job of letting you discover the world at your own pace. You can take your time and mosey around an area, taking in the sights and filling your sketchbook with pictures and sketches as you like. As you explore the world recording the current era for future generations, you begin to piece together the events of the previous eras through contextual clues and conversations with NPCs. Estelle's world is familiar yet alien; taking place in what at first seems like a near future Earth after some grave conflict, but beneath the surface lies an ancient, magical place where prayers to weathered stone gods go answered in desperate times.

Season is a joy to explore. Mostly.

Season excels in atmosphere. The lovely, cell-shaded art, epic landscapes, and ambient soundtrack help enhance the mystery of Estelle's realm, and I felt the same sense of discovery she felt as she uncovered more and more of the past.

You get a bicycle at the beginning of the game which definitely helps you get around. If I had a criticism, it's that the game has some collision issues. So many collision issues that the menu has an 'unstuck' option in case you get caught in the world geometry. Which is going to happen, I guarantee. Also, navigating around Estelle's sketchbook took a little getting used to.

My playthrough of Season only lasted six hours are so, but they were a satisfying six hours. This is definitely getting a recommendation out of me!

Book 2 of 2023 - The Buried Giant (2015)

The Buried Giant 

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Genre: Fantasy/Historical Fiction

Pages: 317

Date Started: March 5th, 2023
Date Ended: March 22nd, 2023

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

The Buried Giant is Japanese-British (and Nobel Prize winning) author Kazuo Ishiguro's seventh novel. Ishiguro's most famous work is probably the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day, which was adapted into a film in 1993. The Buried Giant follows Axl and Beatrice, and old Briton couple, as they undertake a journey to reunite with their son in a post-Arthurian Britain plagued with a strange mist that causes selective memory loss.

The Britain Axl and Beatrice call home is a fantasy realm, in which King Arthur and his knights were very real, and ogres, pixies, and dragons lurk in dark places ready to carry off the unwary. Journeying beyond your village is a perilous task indeed, and doubly so for an elderly couple. Kazuo's prose has an almost misty, dreamlike quality to match the setting, with characters quarreling in one moment and forgetting what they were even mad about in the next. 

Along the way, we meet Saxon warrior Wistan and his young protégé Edwin and an elderly Sir Gawain, still carrying out his mission to the long dead King Arthur. As the companions spend more time together, memories come to light and they begin to realize there are segments of their past that are intertwined and rather unpleasant.

The Buried Giant is an incredibly moving story with a haymaker of an ending. Ishiguro does such a remarkable job of bringing to life a murky, treacherous Britain, complete with engaging characters, monsters, and its fair share of creepy bogs, fens, copses, and mountains. It explores a life where we're free to forget our traumas, and suggests that maybe we have a duty to ourselves to remember no matter how difficult it might be. Also the consequences of war crimes, can't forget the war crimes.

tl;dr: book good check it out

Game 7 of 2023 - Salamander County Public Television (2022)

Salamander County Public Television

Developer: Tinzone Games
Publisher: Tinzone Games
Platform: PC
Genre: Minigame, Action, Casual

Difficulty: Easy
Date Started: Mar 20th 2023
Date Ended: Mar 21st 2023
Hours: 1.5

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 7/10

I'm glad this exists. I'm a big fan of WarioWare, and this game is kind like that, I guess?

SCPT nails the public TV aesthetic.

As far as I can tell, SCPT uses stock videos and photographs to tell its story. You, the player, known only as player, are hired by the public television network as a "doer of things." Unfortunately, your ratings are bottom of the barrel because the residents of Salamander county have all disappeared. You need to figure that shit out by the end of the month or the boss is gonna, you know, *makes throat cutting motion*.

Thank God for Ember.

Your job is to film assignments, which are silly minigames for each day of July. Find one too hard? Just skip it, you'll be fine.

I guess mushrooms ARE wheels.

Some of the minigames are hilarious, there are a few that are annoying, and several are just plain confusing.

"That's beans."

I finished SCPT in a lean 90 minutes and had a few laughs. I'm going to give this a recommendation and a score of 7/10.

Game 6 of 2023 - Jalopy (2018)

Jalopy

Developer: MinskWorks
Publisher: Excalibur Publishing Ltd
Platform: PC
Genre: Simulation, Driving, Adventure

Difficulty: Moderate/Annoying
Date Started: Mar 18th 2023
Date Ended: Mar 20th 2023
Hours: 2

Finished: No
Final Rating: 5/10

You know how in most driving games you can acquire and upgrade the most amazing cars? Bugattis, McLarens, Ferraris, Grand Nationals, etc etc etc etc.

Well, not in Jalopy. No siree.

Jalopy follows the journey of Splat and his Uncle Lütfi as they make their way from East Berlin to Istanbul. When the game starts, your uncle gifts you a Laika, which is a fictional car based on the Trabant 601, often considered the worst car ever made. You don't so much as upgrade your car as keep it alive throughout your journey. Parts can (and do) erode quickly, forcing you to buy new ones from vendors, or if luck permits, scavenge them from abandoned cars you find along the way.

That smoke is good, right?

The world is a dreary low poly representation of post-Soviet eastern Europe. The roads are mostly empty (save the occasional traffic jam and fender bender) and the only people you meet are at the gas stations and hotels you find along the way. Gas stations are where you can usually buy parts and gas, along with sell some of the stuff you find along the road. Sometimes you have to make some tough choices, like sell your car jack or that spare part for precious fuel.

Gee, thanks, Uncle.

As you progress, you learn a bit more about the new world you live in from short conversations with your uncle. Your roots are in Turkey, he explains, and the new world you find yourself in after the Berlin Wall fell is rife with uncertainty. The story you uncover while talking with your uncle and going through his belongings is intriguing and bittersweet and Jalopy's strongest trait.

So I'm listing a bunch of points in Jalopy's favor; that must mean I recommend it, right?

Well, no.

Jalopy is rough. It's not for the impatient. It was made by a single developer over the course of a few years, and while the passion in the project really shines through, it has not been updated since release. There are several bugs, the most annoying being a soft crash where you just can't interact with the world anymore and you are forced to reload. Saving your game doesn't really seem to do much, as when you restart, you just end up back in the garage where you woke up which is an especially frustrating experience after a bug ends your journey. Interacting with things is often a huge pain in the ass, and don't even get me started on shopping. A reviewer on Steam suggested that the developer wanted to spend more time on the game, but the publisher wanted it released before it was truly ready. I couldn't corroborate that, but I guess it's not hard to believe.

That's not to say that the game is bad. There is a fantastic idea here, and I actually find it inspiring that developers are exploring these overlooked and interesting eras of history. I feel the game is trying to evoke a meditative feeling where you reflect upon yourself and your place in the new post-Soviet society, perhaps seeking some comfort and familiarity in the land of your family's birth (at least until the filter fucking breaks again in the middle of, god where the fuck are we, Bulgaria?).

I spent around two hours on Jalopy before I uninstalled. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this to anyone but the most patient of gamers.

Game 5 of 2023: Hi-Fi Rush (2022)

  Hi-Fi Rush

Developer: Tango Gameworks
Publisher: Bethesda
Platform: PC
Genre: Action, Rhythm

Difficulty: Moderate
Date Started: Mar 5th 2023
Date Ended: Mar 17th 2023
Hours: 10.5

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

Well damn, this just came out of nowhere and absolutely floored me.

I tried this on the recommendation from a friend, and I was hooked in the first five minutes. You play as Chai, a complete doofus that accidentally has an iPod thingy implanted in his chest during what is supposed to be a routine cybernetic arm installation. Chai is charming, overconfident, and... kinda on the dim side. He has an alarming capacity for physical punishment that's going to come in handy during his adventure.

Pictured - hapless dipshit Chai, the hero of the tale.

Hi-Fi Rush takes place on the campus of Vandelay Industries, and what starts out as an attempt to escape turns into a quest to overthrow the villainous Kale Vandelay, son of company founder Roxanne Vandelay. The world is vibrant and colorful and is so much fun to explore between combat encounters (called choruses). The environment syncs to the beat along with Chai: trees bounce, gears turn, and pistons pump to a lively 160 BPM.

Hi-Fi Rush assembles one of the liveliest and charismatic supporting casts of any game, ever. Friends and villains alike are creatively realized, from your hacker buddy Peppermint to R&D head honcho Zanzo (whom you defund in order to defeat). The voice actors do a superb job, bringing the razor-sharp dialog to life with with and laser-precise timing. 

Pack your shit, Zanzo, I think you just got fired.

Roquefort - head of finance, robot werewolf

Obviously, the main draw here is going to be the combat. Action and rhythm are melded effortlessly (mostly) and stringing together combos and parries is gratifying.  My few minor gripes include the camera occasionally losing sight of Chai when swarmed by enemies, and the sometimes wonky aiming of your companions. (Peppermint, your ability specifically destroys enemy shields, why the shit would you shoot the enemies without them?!)

After the main campaign is done(which took me around 10.5 hours), there are more challenges to take on, and you can go back and play previous levels, so if you still have the itch to tap your foot while whaling on some robots, you've got plenty to do.

You sure can!

Anyway, I guess the TL;DR of it all is that Hi-Fi Rush is great and you should try it. It's impossible to feel sad while playing.

Game 4 of 2023: Chained Echoes

 Chained Echoes - A Substantial Slice of JRPG Sentimentality

Developer: Matthias Linda
Publisher: Deck13
Platform: PC
Genre: JRPG

Difficulty: Difficult
Date Started: Feb 2nd 2023
Date Ended: Mar 4th 2023
Hours: 37

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8/10

Chained Echoes looks a lot like something I would have played in middle school. Made by mostly one person, Chained Echoes is a love letter to the classic JRPGs of yesteryear that proudly wears its influences on its sleeve. Allusions to those classic RPGs abound, some subtle, some not. The game's incredibly well-done, charming pixel art graphics belie a fairly mature story and rather sophisticated combat.

The broad strokes of the story are pretty standard JRPG fare (motley group of friends must band together and defeat world-ending superbeings), but the best parts are the details, the little moments between characters that kept me mostly interested in seeing it through to the end. There are 12 characters you can get in total but some you can miss if you don't do all the side quests. Most of the important characters get pretty satisfactory arcs, particularly Robb, who begins as a callous asshole whose only redeeming quality is that he can poison enemies. There's definitely some cringe dialog, though.

The fantasy world we're given to explore is pretty interesting, filled with colorful and visually striking locations. You'll visit breathtaking mountaintops, sewers (there must be a law requiring games of this type to have a sewer level), island resorts and floating castles. The setting is a neat mix of the sort of generic RPG fantasy world many of these games have in common, with some science fiction elements (flying mechs and airships). Despite the cliches, the world feels well done because special attention has been given to the details, and the details are what make the world interesting and engaging.

The combat, while engaging, kind of dragged for me sometimes. The game does away with random encounters, but the encounters you face on the map are more challenging; if you just spam your standard attack, you'll quickly fail. Your party completely heals between each encounter, so Chained Echoes expects you to be at your best during each fight, taking advantage of enemy weakness and swapping out characters on the fly(which is a pretty cool feature) in order to win. I found enemies in the first area that were capable of completely wiping out my party. Despite the difficulty of some combats, the game is quite forgiving, allowing you to just replay the battle upon defeat if you so wish. I liked the idea of fewer but more rewarding encounters, but I felt that the enemies were often just damage sponges which made battles take some time. But hey, I'm old with precious little free time so to each their own.

There's a satisfying equipment upgrade system that often has you making a tough decision about equipping the cool new sword you just got in the dungeon, or upgrading the current one that already has some useful power ups. Rather than getting money after battles, you get items and 'loot.' A lot of the items you get after fights can be used to upgrade your equipment, while the loot is vendor trash. I certainly appreciate the efficiency of just getting money after a fight, but why the heck would a crab carry around a bunch of gold?

Exactly, it wouldn't. That crab would not carry gold around.

Anyway, this took me a little shy of 40 hours to beat. I got all the characters and did all the side quests and learned tons of skills for each character. 40 hours is a little bit longer than I would normally spend on a game like this (again, old, little free time, etc) but it was worth it in this case. This is getting a recommendation out of me.

Game 3 of 2023 - Producer 2021 (2022)

 PRODUCER 2021

Developer: Stuffed Wombat, ThorHighHeels
Publisher: Stuffed Wombat
Platform: PC
Genre: Graphic Adventure Novella

Difficulty: Easy
Date Started: Jan 21 2023
Date Ended: Jan 21 2023
Hours: ~2

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 10/10

I'm not a smart man and I don't necessarily know what art is, but this is art and I loved it. 10/5 stars, A++++++, etc.

The game starts with you being woken up by a phone you never bought and getting hired for a job you never applied for. The job is producer, and you might ask, "what exactly does a producer do?" Well, in this case, it's your responsibility to save humanity from, um, being digested by an alien mushroom? I think?

I'm not even sure I succeeded at the end.

There's a simple leveling system and you have an enthusiasm score that is increased by selecting enthusiastic responses.

The game is short and sweet and I'm not sure what else I can say about it.

It's great, just buy it. You'll be done in two hours.

The Boss.

Game 2 of 2023: The Case of the Golden Idol (2022)

 The Case of the Golden Idol

Developer: Color Gray Games
Publisher: Playstack
Platform: PC
Genre: Mystery, Puzzle

Difficulty: Moderate
Date Started: Jan 19th 2023
Date Ended: Jan 21st 2023
Hours: ~5

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

I'm told this is a lot like Return of the Obra Dinn. If that's the case, I'm going to need to play it. 

The Case of the Golden Idol is a detective puzzle game, where you need to solve the mystery of twelve strange deaths over 40 years. Despite the premise, this game is lean and mean and no character or plot point is wasted.

It's fucking awesome.

In Exploration Mode, you can explore the environment and characters to gather keywords.

The Case of the Golden Idol lets you take your time with each case, and they are all re-playable in case you want to go back and refresh your memory. There is an overarching story and each case reveals a little bit more of the plot, with well developed characters and motivations. 

Oh, you would. You would spontaneously combust during an important meeting, wouldn't you?

The story centers around the aforementioned Golden Idol and various groups that desire to possess it. It takes place in a fictionalized 18th century England with a sort of supernatural element. As I played it, I really felt a connection to the story and characters, probably because each scenario requires you to closely examine each and every detail at the scene of death.

This is one of the most engrossing mystery games I've played in a while. 

Pros

• The graphics. They're rendered in a charming old-school adventure game aesthetic that I really liked. 
• It's relatively short. This is always a plus in my book. Great characters and an interesting story that doesn't overstay it's welcome makes this guy with limited free time happy!
• The challenge. The cases remain challenging enough without ever seeming overwhelming or making extreme leaps of logic.
• The story: Not only is the deduction part of the game fun, but the story you uncover just hooks you in with just the right amount of mysteries and plot hooks.

Cons

• Also the graphics: Many have referred to the characters as 'fugly,' and yeah, they're not exactly lookers. I felt it contributed to the game, but this might be an acquired taste.
• I honestly can't think of anything else.

Book 1 of 2023: Dragons of Deceit - Dragonlance Destinies: Volume 1

Dragons of Deceit - Here There Be But A Single Dragon Despite What The Title Says

Author(s): Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 400

Date Started: I don't know, end of 2022?
Date Ended: March 4th, 2023

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 4/10

Imagine my delight when I discovered that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman had returned to their beloved Dragonlance series to write a new trilogy featuring old faces and new. They even hired a Dragonlance expert to help out since it had been like 30-some years since they had even touched the setting. 

I bought this as soon as I heard about it and holy shit, couldn't wait! I was 12 again! Reading about the adventures of Tanis and crew (and imagining myself accompanying them) got me through some rough years and the series will always have a special place in my heart. The Dragonlance Chronicles were like a gateway drug to other, more 'grown up' novels; looking back, I feel they're almost as much a romance story as they are heroic fantasy. Maybe the characters aren't super deep and the story isn't super original, but it was a ton of fun and meant a lot to adolescent dorks like myself.

Dragons of Deceit is not a good book.

Our hero is Destina Rosethorn, named so because her mother is a seer of some sort and believes she is destined for great things. Destina has a pretty sweet life being the daughter of a wealthy Solamnic knight who has his own castle, a decent amount of gp, and an impressive library. She's betrothed to the scion of a wealthy family. Life is good, at least up until the War of the Lance.

Destina's dad goes off to war and is killed in action which is a huge bummer. Because Solamnia's laws of inheritance are super chauvinistic, the land goes to her cousin which is bad, mostly because he's a colossal dickhead. Soon her mother moves back with her people and Destina finds herself out on the streets. Her fiancée, having nothing to gain by marrying her now, drops her like a sack of dirt. He sucks, too.

The whole book revolves around Destina's quest to find the Device of Time Journeying so she can go back in time and save her dad so none of this bad stuff ever happens. The most interesting thing about the novel is that Destina, the daughter of a knight and generally a good and honorable person, accomplishes her goals via subterfuge, a decidedly un-knightly trait. I kinda liked how her desperation to go back to her old life leads her to actions her father, whom she adores, would strongly disapprove of. She doesn't care that saving him from death would make him a coward in his eyes; the only thing that matters is getting back to the life she knew.

This book is a major slog. Like horrifically slow. The action doesn't really pick up until the last 50 pages or so, which is a major problem in a 400 page book.

Yeah, you'll see some old familiar faces and some less familiar ones as well. Caramon is just as dumb as you remember (probably dumber, actually) and Tas is even more brick-brained (was he stupid in the original novels? I don't remember him being that dumb.) I really can't recommend this book to anyone but the superfan, and I think a lot of superfans might come away a bit disappointed.

Playthrough Start: Hi-Fi Rush (2023)

 Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi Rush

In Hi-Fi Rush, you take on the role of hapless dipshit Chai in a rhythm-based action game.

This guy just oozes unearned confidence.

After a routing procedure to get a metal arm goes wrong, Chai's iPod thingy gets grafted into his chest. This gets him labeled a defect, and he needs to escape from the evil Vandelay Corporation before they scrap his ass.

Vandelay boxes

I'm only a couple hours in, but so far this is a complete blast. The platforming sections can be a bit frustrating (Chai has a lot of lift when he jumps, not so much thrust) and targeting enemies can be a pain where there's a bunch of them, but for the most part the mechanics are solid. Timing your attacks to the beat is just so satisfying.

Aftermath of the first boss fight.

The characters are a complete hoot and well voice-acted. The world is well realized and fun, with everything from platforms to exhaust pipes moving to the beat. 

I've still got a ways to go, but this is shaping up to be a crapload of fun.

Game 1 of 2023: Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (2020)

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade - a Thorough and Fair Review

Developer: Squeenix
Publisher: Squeenix
Platform: PC
Genre: Action RPG

Difficulty: Not Sure
Date Started: Jan 1st 2023
Date Ended: Jan 3rd 2023
Hours: 1 (Refunded)

Finished: No
Final Rating: 2/10

I adored Final Fantasy VII for the PS1 back when it came out in 1997 or so. I put something like a billion hours in and when a friend of mine accidentally erased my save when I was grinding materia in the downed Shinra plane I cut him out of my life. I dont talk to him anymore. Fuck that guy.

The title screen of a better game.

I spent hours breeding chocobos and grinding Materia and when I was able to one shot the last boss with a fully-powered Knights of the Round, it was all worth it. I fought all the stupid Weapons and I got all the gimmick weapons for the characters. I'd find excuses to call out of work so I could play more Final Fantasy. On my third or fourth playthrough, I hooked the audio cables on my PS1 to my tape deck so I could record the ending music.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I liked it.

Absolute unit.

26 years later, my memories of this game are still vivid. If I was forced to list my top 10 games of all time this would almost certainly make the list. I haven't really enjoyed any of the Final Fantasy games since then (I guess IX was ok) but man, VII? Formative gaming experience for sure.

It's been a zillion years but these backgrounds still bring up some strong feelings.

Also, Avalanche are just straight up fucking terrorists.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade fucking sucks though and I wanted to die every time a character spoke. Refunded after an hour. That's my review.

Oh well. On to something else.