jesterkindreview

[jesterkindreview]

Pokemon Violet - Review

I WANNA BE, THE VERY BEST--

What makes a Pokemon game good? I bring that question up not to provide a clear answer for it, but to highlight that there kind of isn’t one. It’s always going to be a little subjective, and your answer is going to depend on what it is you value in a Pokemon game- and in that vein, Pokemon Violet may be either the platonic ideal of a Pokemon game for you, or the worst of the new bunch by a wide margin. For me, it’s the former.

In recent instalments, the Pokemon franchise has been taking a few swings at shaking things up and presenting different ideas for the universe, as well as bringing new and revised mechanics to the table. Alola, for instance, was a very intriguing look at a region without a gym challenge at all and our first look at what other forms the until-then ubiquitous “evil team” could take with the legendary and iconic Team Skull. Then we move to Galar, and the pendulum swings again; this time, the gym challenge is emphasised even more, televised and celebrated like some kind of team sports, with stadiums and hooligans and everything. The mechanics shift and change as well. In Sun/Moon we were introduced to a lot of little quality of life changes- no longer requiring HMs to traverse the world, and a few smaller things like your Pokedex telling the effectiveness of any move against a Pokemon you’ve fought before mid-battle, bringing a little less memory strain to the poor kids who suddenly have to remember a lot more than 151 type matchups.

Scarlet/Violet does a little with the former concept. Paldea has no evil team, instead having an organised group of school bullies (of a sort), and it puts a more freeform emphasis on the gym challenge than before. The Professor, normally a personal, direct presence to usher your character along their journey, is instead an absent hotshot celebrity who only talks to your character briefly and over the phone before the climax of the game. This game does bring back a genuine rival for your character, but instead of the jeering assholes of the series’ roots, Nemona is instead the best girl and everyone should love her; earnestly, enthusiastically, autistically interested in battling for the sake of battling and overjoyed that someone else in the region can finally step up and challenge her without giving her odd looks or trying to avoid her. Nemona ties in to another small difference this game puts forward; in Paldea, “Champion” is a rank that trainers can earn, rather than a single role held by one individual until they’re beaten. We learn this because Nemona’s the youngest to achieve it, because she’s basically just a protagonist made into an NPC.

It’s in the mechanics that this game takes its biggest swings, though, and in my opinion it’s for the better. The sense that I got while playing Violet and steadily uncovering more and more things I could just do that previously required specific NPCs being given specific items or hauling my ass over to a specific point on the map is that someone looked at all the restrictions placed on a trainer going on their journey and said “Mmh, let’s just not with those this time”.

Want to change your active party of Pokemon? Well, not only can you still choose to add newly caught Pokemon directly to your party if you want, but you access your Boxes from the same menu you’d access your Bag or your active party; no PC required. Want to change what moves a Pokemon knows? Well, if it could have learned it by levelling up already, you can just swap to that move whenever, no NPC required. Want to change your Pokemon’s nickname? Just a button press, the Name Rater is out of a job in Paldea. Want to get around the map to overcome environmental barriers? There’s no HMs in this game (as a gating mechanic, they do still exist by name), you just upgrade your faithful bike Pokemon with sidequests.

This commitment to just taking away all the limiting factors seems, in my view, to extend out towards the plot construction as well- in that, there kind of isn’t any until the very end. Rather, your character is introduced to the Pokemon Academy at the heart of the region, and after settling in, is told about a free-form self-directed study concept they employ affectionately named ‘The Treasure Hunt’. Immediately after being told that you can go do whatever the hell you want, the game applies the very lightest of brakes and, rather than plan your route for you, hands you three options to steer you, presented diagetically by three people asking you to do things if you want to.

Nemona approaches you and asks you to do the Gym Challenge, because she’s certain you’ve got what it takes to be a Champion just like her. This is an easy sell; we’re playing Pokemon, of course I want to go do the Gyms. Arven, a very angsty lad you meet out on your trip to the school, has a request too. He’s searching for rare and powerful ingredients for his culinary arts named Herba Mystica, but they’re guarded by particularly powerful Titan Pokemon. He explains that since he’s kind of not very good at battling and you’re The Protagonist, he’d appreciate your help. You’re quickly given a hook to care about this subplot if you choose to help Arven the first time; he needs these rare and powerful ingredients for their healing capability, because his big dog-like Pokemon was badly injured and never fully recovered, a fact that stresses Arven out immensely. The Herba Mystica seem to work, too-- but if you’re a heartless monster and don’t care about a sweet puppy, you also get upgrades for your faithful steed after it takes a bite of the sandwiches too. Finally, a mysterious figure named Cassiopeia contacts you via the phone, and it’s definitely not the literal only other named character you’ve met so far that isn’t accounted for, don’t worry about it. This figure wants you to tackle the Team Star bases on the logic that their leaders will step down if they’re challenged and beaten, which will help stop Team Star from being kind of annoying to people just trying to go about their school day. There’s a mechanical reason to do this too, but it’s the story hook that’s more likely to motivate- that, or completionism, since you do need to do these three subplots to their culmination before you can finish the game and actually experience its main narrative content.

Thankfully, it’s a good and fun game so that isn’t too tall a task.

Those three subplots serve as the core gameplay loop, as you catch and train Pokemon to be strong enough to tackle the next item on your self-organised list; or, in my case, stubbornly doing all the Titan Pokemon straight away to unlock the ability to drive straight up sheer cliffs like a Skyrim horse. The open world format of the game supports this pretty nicely, providing a little pacing by way of certain areas being harder to access without traversal upgrades and by simply being higher levelled, but otherwise letting you tackle things in pretty much any order you want. There’s only one place that’s off limits to you for the majority of the game: The Great Crater, covered by fog and a giant mountain range in the very centre of the map. You’re not allowed there mechanically, and multiple authority figures tell you point blank that you’re not allowed there narratively, either. It’s an intriguing question mark on an otherwise open book, and if you take the optional History lessons with Ms. Raifort, you’ll learn a little more about it; supposedly there’s a treasure of some kind at its centre, but nobody knows what it is, because no expedition ever returns. Only one man, from one expedition, ever made it back out- and his tales of what he saw were so fantastical that people came to regard him as a liar.

The Great Crater is something that the game shows you last, more or less, so I won’t focus on it and its narrative content until later. For now, we’ll take a look at how the game’s freeform concept works in its favour. This is where I expect the game is the most mixed among those who played it. I can imagine those who’ve never truly cared about the characters of previous games on any level beyond passing appreciation may struggle to find themselves invested, especially if the Herba Mystica and Team Star subplots don’t provide them much to anchor onto. Those who need a story to happen alongside their journey may find this game lacking, whereas those who find themselves irked whenever a Pokemon game tells them that they need to go do story stuff before they can proceed may find it far more of a refreshing change of pace. The Gyms are all pleasantly themed and have enjoyable characters staffing them, even if the omission of Gym Leaders using potions to heal their Pokemon was a bit odd, and the towns you wander through (+ the routes between them) all look about as good as one can expect of a Switch game.

It’s in the core gameplay loops that you’ll notice the most of this game’s unavoidable performance issues. In the course of my playthrough, I never noticed anything totally gamebreaking; the worst of it was getting somewhat trapped in terrain while attempting an off angle route over a mountain, and the game accounted for that well enough by just teleporting me out of the terrain and onto terra firma a little way away. A bit clumsy, but better than requiring a restart of the game, so... it is what it is. What’s far more noticeable is just the occasional graphical glitch. Shadows that forget to work, clipping for various objects attempting to exist together... the upside is that there’s not much in the way of framerate issues (outside of a few animations in cutscenes, which looks hilarious) with the tradeoff that there’s a pretty low render distance for things like wild Pokemon spawning in. It’s noticeable, there’s no getting around that, but it’s at least relatively easy to ignore.

(It should be noted, perhaps with an air of pointed frostiness, that perhaps these games should get a longer development cycle and bigger budget to prevent this kind of thing. Hm.)

Narratively speaking, what you’ll find during these sections is pretty light and simple. Arven’s story is compelling enough, especially with the way the Professor absolutely blanks him during video calls where he’s in the same room as you to drive home his general situation, and I’d go so far as to say that while Team Star’s narrative content is lighter than it should be, what’s there is nice. The four leaders are all compelling enough in their own right, and the steadily revealed backstory linking them all is about as straightforward and charming as you’d expect from a kid’s game. Their overall leader is a weird curveball of a character, but I can’t say I am anything but enamoured with her, so that’s hardly a complaint. Nemona may not have a story, but through her you learn a little more about how the Pokemon League and the Gyms function, and meet the game’s analogue of the Champion - Chairwoman Geeta - a few times, on top of the Elite Four members filtering in and out to observe your progress with interest. The Elite Four themselves were, for me, a mixed bag. I do not go into any Pokemon game expecting challenge, because I am easily twice the age of the game’s intended audience, but I was still a little taken aback that one member of the supposedly strongest trainers in the entire region utilised Ground type Pokemon. As excellent as Rika’s design is and as much as I may adore Clodsire, that’s an odd choice. Thankfully, the other three Elite Four are all enjoyable characters and had some slightly more robust typings, on top of the good Chairwoman using Pokemon you’ve yet to have a chance to even encounter yet to add in a little bit of extra challenge, so I come away feeling relatively positive- if a little baffled.

Briefly, while we’re on the topic of battling and its intricacies, I’d like to touch on the game’s new mechanic. Each of the more recent games, starting from X/Y, have had their own battle mechanic that hasn’t come back for future games- excepting for the sequels/remakes within their respective generations, anyway. X/Y (and by extension, Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby) had Mega Evolution, Sun/Moon (and by extension, their Ultra sequels) had Z-Moves, and Sword/Shield had Gigantamaxing. Each has their own upsides and downsides, but it is my opinion that the new mechanic, Terastallising, has the most mechanical merit. The way it functions is simple: Somewhat like Mega Evolution, your Pokemon can go through a transformation that can be used a single time per battle (or between party restores, more accurately). This transformation boosts the attack damage of its associated type by a certain amount, that stacks with Same Attack Type Bonus that Pokemon get by default- but there’s a catch. A Pokemon’s Tera Type does not have to match its main type; you may catch a Pikachu, naturally an Electric type, who would become a Water type when Terastallised. A Tera Type is always singular, too; my Skeledirge, the evolved fire starter, is dual type Fire/Ghost, but only Fire type when Terastallised, thus removing some weaknesses while at the same time removing some resistances. The game never really pushes you in a position where that matters tremendously outside of higher-level raid battles (which are, somewhat surprisingly, a thing now), but it’s a neat gimmick all the same and I like it quite a bit.

One of the game’s lesser-sung but extremely welcome changes, in my opinion, revolves around the Pokedex; on top of the actual Pokedex having some extremely charming visuals that I’d absolutely download as a real app onto my phone if offered, the fact that you can ‘lock on’ to Pokemon in the overworld proves to be a boon for those wanting to fill the pages. On top of showing you the Pokemon’s name (if you’ve encountered it before) and its level, it’ll also have a little icon next to its name if you’ve already caught it, meaning that you won’t catch two of the same thing accidentally. It’s little touches like these that elevate Pokemon Violet far above where the performance issues may have otherwise left it languishing; a lot of care and attention went into how a player would engage with a freeform Pokemon experience, removing the limitations that have become extremely arbitrary with age and trusting that the core experience of playing a Pokemon game is itself enjoyable enough to carry one’s experience without plot-gating the next Gym or pushing you towards doing something arbitrary. It’s the first game where I actually made an attempt towards completing the Pokedex in its entirety, and that is due in large part to how accessible that’s been made. Hints for where to find the missing Pokemon are found in the Pokedex itself, for instance, and you’ll know at a glance if you’ve already come across something that may seem unfamiliar in the moment, so... why not give it a try, the game asks? You’re here, we’re not making you do anything else, and we’ve given you all the tools you need... wanna catch ‘em all?

In my opinion, it works, quite nicely. The game doesn’t suffer for its lack of narrative content before the end- and when you do get to that narrative content, the game goes out with the most satisfying and compelling bang of the entire franchise. I won’t go into too deep detail to avoid spoilers, but I have not seen Pokemon take this much of a stylistic swing outside of the climax of Sun/Moon, and it works as well here as Mother Beast Lusamine did there; perhaps even better. There’s a plot twist of the earned variety, where previous clues are recontextualised, and some extremely enjoyable visual language accompanying a pretty reasonably interesting story concept. It may be brief, but the time it spends with you is easily one of the most memorable Pokemon plot climaxes I’ve personally ever seen. Suffice to say, what lurks deep in the Great Crater is worth the anticipation it builds, both in the sense that it’s compelling plot and in the sense that the character interactions that happen immediately prior to it are extremely entertaining.

All in all, the complaints I have about this game seem shockingly minor in contrast to the things I’d want to celebrate about it. This is not going to be the Pokemon game for everyone, but I personally think it does a magnificent job at filling the niche it’s actually aiming for. That is to say, it’s relaxing. Calm. Explore Paldea, take some optional tutorial classes and talk to the teachers between lessons to get a better understanding of their character, catch some Pokemon. Do some gyms, help out with the bullying problem, help a guy with his dog because he asked you to. For once, the protagonist of the game isn’t being saddled with expectations and region-threatening nightmares, or hostile Teams with ill intent... you’re just at school in a utopia, and when threat comes, you’ve had plenty of time to relax, enjoy yourself, and prepare. This was an extremely welcome breath of fresh air for this franchise... though I’m not sure they should do it more than a few times. It, too, might get stale with repetition.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some more Pokemon to catch. I’m almost at 400, and that’s a full Pokedex- if only I could find this damn Barboach...

[jesterkindreview]

Severed Steel - Review

Don’t Stop Movin’.

When I was first looking at Severed Steel’s store page to get a feel for what kind of game it is, one of the mechanics it made a big deal about in descriptions is the fact that you can destroy the environment to make your own routes through its various levels. This, in my opinion, is a mistake; that element is there, it’s not a lie and it is quite fun, but it’s not the mechanic that I would say underpins and links every other mechanic to bring the game together into a beautiful whole. Of course, this raises the question of what mechanic I would say is important enough to get top billing, and the answer to that is pretty simple. Once you understand what kind of game this is - fast paced parkour shooter - then the central mechanic you need to know about is bullet time.

Severed Steel is far from the only game to have bullet time, but the way it chooses to implement it warrants the top billing that its destructible environment claimed in certain rundowns I saw. You see, using bullet time drains a pretty short timer, that only refills again when you get a kill- the only way you can regain health, too. At first blush, it seems relatively simple; play fast and use bullet time very sparingly, chaining kills to keep yourself alive. However... there’s a catch. This is a parkour shooter, and so there are a few mechanics central to that sort of game. They are, for the most part, variations on wall running, sliding, and dolphin-diving forwards. The catch I mentioned before is that while you are performing any of those actions, bullet time is free - and works even if the meter had previously been drained.

It’s this small-seeming mechanic that really brings the whole game together into a marvellous whole. Rather than being precise and judicious with your movements, you’re allowed to get as sloppy and aggressive as you want; rather than the game being almost incomprehensibly fast-paced, it ends up at almost Superhot levels of slowness... provided that you are always moving. Cover is irrelevant; wallrunning, sliding, and diving all guarantee that enemy attacks won’t hit you and can all be extended immensely with the now-free bullet time, so you don’t have to do anything other than ensure you’re always doing some sweet stunt for your character to be functionally immortal. That’s not to say the game is absurdly easy; there are a few caveats, like not being able to chain a dive into a wallrun and your character being so flimsy that a few bullets will take care of her if you do end up caught out of position and overwhelmed with numbers, or the level design of some areas featuring bottomless pits that you’ll surely perish in if you dive in the wrong direction, that keep the game feeling challenging even as you’re shrugging off bullets in ways that would make even Neo shed a single, tubular tear.

Even the way you interact with weaponry leans into the game’s aggressive vibe; you only get weapons from enemies, and they only have limited ammunition. When they run out... you just chuck them full force at whatever enemy you’re looking at, with enough velocity that they can and often will get a killing blow. If you’re lacking a weapon and there’s nothing on the ground to automatically pick up... dive at an enemy, activate slowmo, and aim a punch at them to nab the sidearm right off their belt, with enough time left in your trajectory that you can twist in midair and blow the guy away with his own stolen pistol. The variety of weapons on offer is relatively minimal- punchy pistols, spray-and-pray SMGs, and slow but monstrously powerful shotguns are the bread and butter that you’ll be swapping between as you play, with a few different variations for each one, but there are a few odd ones out like a grenade launcher stolen from heavily armoured goons requiring more precise shots to take down or flamethrowers from even tougher enemies that can only be damaged from behind to keep things spiced up. There’s even a sniper rifle, though the game didn’t bother with the laughable notion of putting a working scope on it; you’ll not be that far away from your opponent anyway, just dive and jam the barrel right in their face. The beauty of the variety is that you honestly don’t need it: I was perfectly content with any of the weapons you start with in various levels, as all the weapons are precise enough to function at the odd angles and timings you’ll be using them at. It might be tempting to pick favourites; why use anything other than, for instance, a punchy, precise pistol? Well, because the pistol runs out and your enemies are carrying other weapons, so don’t get too attached. Cycle through what’s available and adapt to what’s on hand!

It’s clear to me, all this considered, that the intended power fantasy isn’t that of breakneck speeds and godlike reactions, but rather the kind of gratuitous slow-mo action movie bullshit that many games attempt and many games entirely fumble with. I wouldn’t call Severed Steel a masterpiece in this regard, necessarily, but I’d be immensely dishonest if I implied it wasn’t extremely fun despite that. There’s a narrative running through this game, so to speak, but I would say that it’s largely irrelevant. The campaign is the most fun of the game’s three modes on offer, the other two being variations on level gauntlets with changing modifiers, but it isn’t really because of some compelling story being told- it’s really just that those levels, in that order, with those available tools, is already kind of just the most interesting and compelling version of this game to begin with. Still, if you’re like me and got hooked enough after beating the main campaign that you went to go check those out, you’ll surely find something worthy of spending some time on. If not... well, there’s always New Game Plus, right?

Accompanying these mechanics is a relatively minimalist art style conveying a few different cyberpunk-adjacent levels, and a pretty decent (but honestly not incredible) soundtrack. Neither of these things would be the draw here; the artwork isn’t breathtaking and we’re hardly talking Hotline Miami levels of soundtrack, but they’re both perfectly serviceable and add to the game’s overall charm, so I can’t complain too heavily about it. All in all, I’d recommend this game to anyone who doesn’t mind the almost vertigo-inducing twists and turns of the game’s FPS parkour nature. I had a blast with it, at the very least; amusingly, the game’s window (and thus what it shows up as in Discord’s ‘playing: [game]’ text) calls the game “ThankYouVeryCool”, and that’s pretty much exactly how I feel about it.

Have fun, and don’t stop moving.

[jesterkindreview]

Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate - Review

Rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun...

Here’s the pitch: It’s a game of chess, but with irregular piece distribution. Your opponent, the White team, only has a handful of pawns, their King, a bishop, and a knight. You, by contrast, make that look lavish, with only your King and nothing else to fill your side of the board. However, to make up for this staggering disparity in power your King has been given a gift: a shotgun.

Otherwise, the normal rules of chess apply. You can only move one space at a time, and the same typical restrictions apply to your opponents. If they touch you, you’re dead. You, however, have the ability to keep them at range- but be careful, because if blasting one piece away opens you up to being captured, your enemies will take that opportunity immediately. Despite the wacky addition of a boomstick, this is still a strategy game. Position yourself right and pick the right targets, or you’ll be opening yourself up to instant death; brute force just isn’t going to cut it here.

This is the reality of Shotgun King. There is truly one word I keep coming back to when I try to describe this game, and that’s charming. It’s legitimately fun, it’s relatively polished, it does a lot with its admittedly somewhat shitpost-worthy premise... it’s hard not to appreciate this game on some level, even if it doesn’t end up being your cup of tea. To help extend a little longevity, the game has roguelike mechanics of a sort. After you clear a board, you advance a level, and you get to pick from two pairs of cards; one half of each pair will give you some kind of advantage, and the other half will give your opponent an advantage. You may see that coveted extra firepower or rules-bending tweak to gameplay that fits into your playstyle so neatly, but do be wary of just how you’re going to be buffing your enemies in exchange- and how those buffs can compound with multiple cards in just the same way that your own power can grow.

There are a few other bits that build out the whole, like other game modes with different rules or different unlockable shotguns with different starting stats, but the core of the game is quite simple. Blast away your competition, and claim your throne back; learning nothing about what started this rebellion in the first place, and starting the cycle all over again. Such is the story of The Final Checkmate, light as it is. Just enough to add a little whimsy, hardly the main attraction.

It’s not a particularly large game, nor a particularly complex one, but in its simplicity lays its strength. This is definitely a game that you can spend a long time messing with, learning the right rhythms and positioning of combat- though I have absolutely no idea whether knowledge of traditional chess games will carry over here. My gut says... probably not. Who needs it, though? You’ve got shells to load and pawns to blast, after all.

[jesterkindreview]

Risk of Rain 2 - Review

...and so they left, awed by what they had witnessed.

As I type this, I have successfully and very recently 100% completed Risk of Rain 2, including all Steam achievements. This culminated in the final two Mastery achievements, unlocked by beating the game with the associated characters on the game’s hardest difficulty, Monsoon. That took a while. I’m still not very good with Rex, and Bandit prompts me to make a lot of mistakes because his kit engenders a lot of aggression and ballsy moves on my part, so I was stuck on those two for a while. Yet, even as I failed for the fiftieth time to complete the challenge, dying to some random Lesser Wisp or world spawn Magma Worm instead of defeating the King of Nothing or successfully obliterating myself from existence at the obelisk, I never found myself truly frustrated with the game.

After all, the challenge it provides is - for the most part - fair. A lot more fair than some comparable games, even ones that I enjoy a lot, and everything built around that challenge is immensely compelling. To explain why requires going back to the very beginning and explaining the game from the ground up, and so that’s precisely what we shall do.

As one might expect, Risk of Rain 2 is a sequel. A sequel to a game called Risk of Rain, even more predictably. The original game is a lot more of what you would expect from a roguelike, from what I’ve played. It’s 2D, albeit in a side-scroller format as opposed to the traditional top-down, it features a compelling pixel art style, and it is punishingly difficult. It’s sequel, by contrast, picks and chooses what elements it wants to lift from the original.

It’s still a roguelike, and it is still - in my opinion - just as challenging as its predecessor, but it changed the entire gameplay style from 2D side-scroller to 3D third-person shooter, and with that change came a little shifting of what precisely is the main challenge. Still, even with that shift, Risk of Rain 2 is still challenging enough to make you stare at the death screen a few runs in and wonder just what in the fresh fuck actually did you in that time. Then you realise, and you know to dodge it next time. Or maybe you find a new, powerful item that keeps you alive long enough to study the enemies in the next stage. Or, maybe you unlocked a whole new character with shiny new abilities that you desperately want to start unloading directly into some poor unsuspecting lizard’s dopey face.

That’s the strength that all good roguelikes need, and that Risk of Rain 2 provides in spades. Progression is based one part in your own mechanical skill and breadth of knowledge increasing, and one part in the reasonable steps of unlocking shiny new things to inspect and experiment with. New items to find in your next run, new survivors to undertake that run with, even personalised challenges for each of those characters that unlocks corresponding alternate abilities to customise them with, the game has a keen grasp on the concept of rewarding perseverance and experimentation; maybe you died in a hilarious pose, maybe it was totally your fault, but chances are you have something to play around with for your next run.

This strength is reinforced by another key aspect, though I’ll grant that this one may be a little more subjective; in my opinion, this game is always fair to you. There’s the occasional moment where it falters in this - having an Elite enemy on top of you when you spawn and instakilling you, for instance, or an Elder Lemurian taking the bounce pad express right to your vulnerable, unsuspecting ass for a similar result - but for the most part, if you die to something, it’s because you missed its tell and didn’t react accordingly. There’s an encouraging heart to a game with that approach, the core appeal of the Souls game brought to life; yeah, alright, you died that time, but you could’ve avoided it. Try again, this time you know what to do! Slowly but surely, a game that challenges you fairly will be conquered, and Risk of Rain 2 gives you no shortage of tools to use in gaining an upper hand against the monsters of Petrichor V.

It helps that near every other element in this game is polished and smooth, too. The controls are responsive and intuitive, the core mechanics are satisfying as hell (especially when you’ve got enough movement speed to zip around your enemies nimbly), the aesthetics are gorgeously presented, the soundtrack is phenomenal, and the story hidden behind the game’s various item, monster, and environment logs is done beautifully well for a game that treats it as such a background element. In fact, I’d heavily recommend anyone who plays this game checks out the logbook entries as they’re unlocked. From charming little shipping manifest notes, to genuinely well done micro-stories in the game’s intriguing sci-fi world, to hilarious references to pop culture, almost all of them are worth the time it takes to click through them all and I for one found the game’s story immensely compelling once I pieced it all together.

You may be able to tell that I like this game. I make no attempt to hide it, writing this while riding the high of unlocking the very last achievement and basking in how much I enjoy a game that is very well put together- I’ve considered writing something negative about the game in pursuit of the aesthetics of balance, but truly, anything I bring up in that context is going to come across as a bigger deal than it actually is. Stacked up against everything I’ve mentioned so far, does it really matter if I find the Prismatic Trials alternate mode a little lacklustre? That I think Mercenary’s Ethereal achievement is complete bullshit and terribly designed? That some item and character balance is a little bit off? I wouldn’t say so. Those things wouldn’t stop me from recommending this game, so I don’t think I’ll be going more in-depth about any of them beyond those few sentences.

This is a game I would heartily and readily recommend to anyone who already enjoys roguelikes, anyone who likes subtle storytelling, anyone who likes a fair challenge, and truly, just... anyone. Everyone should try this game out, it deserves your attention- if it isn’t your thing, fair enough, more power to you, but it’s worth looking into. If you do get into it, good luck! Remember to break line of sight against the Stone Titan, keep an eye out for those Lesser Wisps, and kill them all before they kill you; this planet wants you dead, and it’s only fair to reciprocate.

- Jester

[jesterkindreview]

Dead Estate - Review

There’s a light, over at the Frankenstein place...

Do you ever come across a game that seems designed specifically to appeal to you? That’s where I’m at with Dead Estate. It’s a roguelike, already one of my favourite types of games, and it has a very appealing pixel-y horror aesthetic, a cute girl protagonist, fun references to other properties, and a woman with GIANT TI-

The story, such that it is, starts with our two protagonists meeting. A trucker named Jeff who picks up a college dropout hitchhiker by the name of Jules, only to have their sedate trip interrupted by the sudden appearance of demons and zombies launching an attack.  Seeing a potential safe haven in the form of an ominous building, they flee there, only to find themselves trapped in a funhouse nightmare surrounded by the very dangers they just tried to escape, now also pursued by a hulking, nigh-unkillable goliath named Chunks. It’s a roguelike, so their response is exactly what you’d expect: fight through the various floors after defeating each floor’s resident boss, using items and weaponry looted from the building itself.

This isn’t a game that takes itself especially seriously, which is something that plays very heavily into its favour. For instance, on your first playthrough, you may find yourself walking into the shop room - marked on your map with a cute little witch hat icon - and spend your time there very respectfully looking at the extremely buxom witch who runs it before forgetting to buy anything and walking out with a very warm face. After that, you might see one of the other shops; a Heart icon for a store selling full heals and stat boosts for damage, health, and movement speed, and a Gun icon for the weapon store. If you walk into those, you’ll be greeted with... that same witch, wearing a different outfit.

It’s charming! Between the character-appropriate speech bubbles on picking up an item (”What the hell is this?” grumbles the grizzled trucker man, for instance), and the gleeful absurdity of the game’s aesthetics exemplified by the grinning titty witch seemingly warping between stores in a quick-change act, the tone of the game never gets too serious and allows you to enjoy the pixelated violence to its fullest extent.  Just don’t linger on a floor for too long once you’ve found the key to the boss room. Chunks is a lot quicker than you’d expect him to be...

If I were to pick a complaint about this game, though, its movement is a little bit finnicky. This isn’t so much a problem for Jeff, specced as he is with a nice hefty health pool and a pistol with some comfortable range, but for Jules, zipping around with half the health and a close-range shotgun, the fact that hitboxes aren’t always super easy to discern and it’s easy to misjudge the depth of a swinging environmental hazard due to the tilted isometric-esque camera angle can be kind of troublesome. Still, it’s more than possible to start figuring that stuff out, and once you do the game opens up to be pretty darn fun!

At time of writing, I’ve only beaten the game once and unlocked one of the extra playable characters, but I imagine that I’ll be playing it quite a bit more before I inevitably take a break from it.  I would recommend this game for anyone who enjoys roguelikes, anyone who can enjoy a goofy horror aesthetic, and anyone with a fondness for big titty witches. If you want my tips, the safe and dependable option is Jeff. 

So pick Jules. Get up close, visit the Health store for damage upgrades, and kill them before they kill you. Maximum effort.

- Jester

[jesterkindreview]

Neon Abyss - Review

Let’s try this one more time.

Neon Abyss is a roguelike in the truest fashion; there’s a fucked up place, and your character wants to fight their way through it to confront the boss so they can... well, in this case, escape, though this is the part that tends to see the most variety. Kill your past, kill your mother and/or representations of religious extremism, approach the throne... in comparison, simply escaping seems a little bland, but Neon Abyss is not a particularly story heavy game.  Rather, its a game that seems to be putting all its eggs in the Aesthetic and Theming basket, and in fairness, they are nailing it. When you fall your way into the Abyss for the start of a run, the visuals are striking; in the opening room, two Ancient Rome style statues stand, desecrated with neon paint and glowsticks in the shape of necklaces draped around their necks, and the rest of the visuals remain pretty darn interesting the way through.

The real strength of this game’s presentation, for my money is for the boss at the end of each floor. When you find the boss room, you enter, and you face... a God. 

Specifically, a god of something that’s considered a vice or obsession of modern existence, replacing the old gods. There’s Remington, the God of Guns, or Tik and Tok, the Gods of Mobile Videos, Gods that represent Racing, Pills, Idols, Plushies...  Later bosses towards the endgame, when you start winning your runs, complete this aesthetic by having you fight the Old Gods; a Zeus refitted as the God of Electricity, or just plain old Ares. While the mechanics aren’t quite as polished as other games where you control someone on a deicide rampage, but they’re certainly competent enough to allow this excellently intriguing premise to play out without too much concern.

On the topic of the mechanics, Neon Abyss is not reinventing the wheel. In fact, it’s pretty clear the developers either took heavy inspiration from other roguelikes, mostly The Binding of Isaac, or they are on the exact same wavelength and created the same works of Shakespeare through their own infinite typewriters. In fact, there’s a clear analogue to a lot of things in Isaac in this game. Each floor has one item room and one shop, the main consumable drops are Health, Coins, Keys, and Bombs... but those things are both taken from Isaac’s inspirations. Where it gets more interesting is the equivalent of the Angel Room and Devil Room, where this game gives you consumable Crystals that you can spend to open certain locked doors and locked chests to increase your Wisdom, culminating in a free item room when you max out the bar... or you can shoot those doors and chests to increase your Violence by spending health on them afterwards, culminating in a room where you can give up a heart container for a more aggressive, attack-focused item. It’s a pretty dynamic mechanic, but it’s not the only interesting change that this game makes to its inspiration’s blueprint.

Remember the Familiars in Isaac? Little guys that cycle around you and provide different effects, gained through items? Neon Abyss has an equivalent, but they don’t pollute the item pools because you gain them by picking up Eggs that drop from chests and room clear rewards, and that have a chance to hatch into a random familiar when you complete a room. 

Not everything was taken from Isaac, mind- a few things from Enter the Gungeon have reared their head, most apparent in weapons and items being separated, and in the very welcome presence of teleport stones in cleared rooms that cut down on how much backtracking you have to do. 

Of course, not everything in this game is as phenomenal or inventive as its setting and ideas respectively. I don’t have any major gripes with the game, but I do find its movement oddly floaty and hard to intuit- it takes some active effort to learn how your character moves, and what distance you have to be from something to trigger a melee attack instead of firing your weapon. Speaking of which, a fair number of the weapons you can find I’ve found to be... not worth trading out for your main weapon? Some are strong, certainly, but some are also pretty useless. Items share this flaw, but to be fair... pretty much no game can nail having a full item pool like this, so that’s to be expected.

I’ve yet to fully unlock everything in this game- it has a rather entertaining unlock system where you spend currency dropped from slain bosses to unlock a skill-tree-esque progression of items, characters, rooms, and other aspects to add into your runs, and a nice little touch is that unlocking an item guarantees you start with it on your next run so you can try it out. What I have played, I’ve enjoyed, and I’ll be keeping this installed for as long as I have access to it, as I’m playing it via the Game Pass. 

If you’re a fan of any of the roguelikes I’ve mentioned so far - especially if you recognised the ones I merely referenced near the top - I’d certainly recommend giving this game a shot if you ever get the chance. If you don’t like roguelikes as a genre, I really doubt this one is going to change your mind; it’s not doing anything that new. Overall, I enjoy this game! A positive experience.

If you’ve got any requests, thoughts, or questions, feel free to drop me an ask! In the meantime, and until I get off my ass to write more reviews, stay safe and have a good one.

- Jester

[jesterkindreview]

An Update, and a Rebrand.

Hey, all.  There are going to be some changes to the format of this blog coming up, something that I think some folks might have sensed coming after I had to postpone or cancel so many posts. I feel pretty bad about that, and I don’t want this blog to be something I feel bad about, so clearly something must be done! Now, it’d be simple enough to simply make more of an effort to get posts out on time, and I’d considered that at first, but unfortunately most of the delaying factors were 100% out of my control, so that’s not a realistic response. So, where does that leave us?

Pretty simple, actually: I’m still going to review every game on my list, but I’m going to remove the time frame from it. I’ll play them when I can, and write up a review once I think I have enough to talk about. Additionally, I’m going to start posting other game review related things, as well as any other gaming-related concepts I think might be useful or that my mood dictates. Maybe it’ll be a guide on a video game I’m good at! Maybe I’ll share some lore thoughts on a video game I care about! Maybe I’ll highlight some mods! I’m more than open to suggestions, too. If there’s something you want to see me tackle, let me know, and I’ll consider it!

So in summation, don’t worry. This should work out to both more content, and better content, while taking stress off me. Thus, the rebrand! I hope people continue to enjoy reading the posts here, and I hope you’re all having a wonderful day. If not, hey, there’s always tomorrow.

- Jester

[jesterkindreview]

Due to health reasons, we will be postponing the next review. Apologies!

As I had a very hard time getting into it in the brief moments I was feeling up to playing it, we’ll also be skipping Cities Skylines. That game needs a better damn tutorial, that’s my review.

[jesterkindreview]

Celeste - Review

I’m game designer Will Wright, and I’d like to show you me most beautiful strawberries...

I’ve had this game for a while, and I’ve been hearing about it for even longer. I’m pretty sure it was one of the earlier games that I picked up through Epic’s free game thing, but I hadn’t sat down and given it a proper go until now.  It’s a platformer, I knew that much, but the details of the story and its mechanical draws eluded me- both of them ended up wowing me, though, so I’m really feeling as though I should’ve sat down and played this long ago. 

Still, if I’d done that, we wouldn’t have it on this list for a review, so at least there’s a silver lining here.

Mechanically, the game is quite simple; your methods of interacting with the world are limited to jumping, air-dashing, and grabbing at walls to climb up them with limited stamina. The dash is the most impactful part, to my eyes: you have to land on something solid to recharge the dash, or dash through one of the reset crystals floating in some levels, so most of the puzzles are about timing and positioning to make sure your dash carries you over the hazards and through the right portions of the level. The game is pretty well put together mechanically, especially with the assist mode features (which we’ll touch on in a moment), but I feel confident in saying that those alone aren’t what make Celeste so damn compelling. That honour goes instead to its characters, story, and aesthetic- it’s one thing to make it feel nice to zap around a level, but if you don’t care about who you’re zapping around nor where they are, the game won’t stick in your memory for as long, and Celeste is going to live in my brain forever.

The player character is a girl named Madeline, seeking out the challenge of climbing Celeste Mountain for the feeling of accomplishment it would bring to her directionless, listless life.  Madeline explicitly suffers from depression, among a host of other things; she’s panicky, paranoid, prone to lashing out, doesn’t like having her picture taken, and is generally not a very happy person whenever she lets her thoughts run too wild without distraction.  I would die for Madeline. She’s a very well written and positioned character, and I was rooting for her even before the game narrowed in on her issues by having her literal dark reflection taunt her. There are a host of other characters, most notably Theo, a fellow climber that Madeline meets early on in her climb and who she becomes fast friends with. He’s chill, and I would also die for him, but in a lesser way than Madeline.  The only other truly recurring character, with others popping up far less frequently, is the dark reflection of Madeline that I mentioned above- literally escaping from a cracked mirror, she’s positioned as a manifestation of Madeline’s worst traits at first- explicitly called Part of You in the game’s dialogue boxes, and featuring a goth-y colour swap of Madeline’s sprite, she spends the majority of the game chasing and taunting you. I won’t spoil the resolution of these setups, but rest assured that the game does have a happy and satisfying ending, so don’t feel too concerned about it being a downer despite the heavy subject matter.

That’s about all I feel comfortable saying about the story- I want anyone reading this who doesn’t already know about it to go play the game themselves, and I’d hate to spoil any of it for you. Please, my depressed trans daughter deserves your time, if you’ve any inclination, go play the game! That doesn’t mean I’m out of things to say, however: I’d quite like to touch on the “Assist Mode”, and talk about how it’s a really neat and cool way of both making the game more accessible for those who’d struggle with platformers typically, and also just letting you skip bits if you’re annoyed with one level, or simply want to experience the story.

You could, for example, choose to play the game exactly as the default controls lay it out, with the single difference that you slow everything down by increments of 10%, or you could keep everything as speedy as it is but allow yourself two dashes before you have to recharge, to give yourself a little more room to fuck up and still get through the level. On top of that, fuck it, go wild- you can turn on invincibility, or infinite dashes, so you don’t have to worry about pretty much anything and can breeze through the gorgeously designed levels to get to the next tasty morsel of story. I actually ended up utilising nearly everything on the list at least once- I’m not very good at platformers, and I wanted to get through the game for the sake of reviewing the most of it that I could. Those strawberries are yours with this one weird tip... 

This is good, in my opinion! I’m sure there are many people out there who’d scoff at the mere idea of making games more accessible, but the more people who can approach this hobby, the more of us can talk about it together.  Celeste sets an excellent precedent for any game who can do it- multiple things to tweak to ease specific issues is more likely to help those with accessibility issues than a simple difficulty selection at the start of the game.

All in all, Celeste is a beautiful game in multiple ways, and I heartily recommend it to anyone. Next time, we’ll be reviewing Cities Skylines, which... ought to be an interesting one to try and talk about, but we’ll see how well I gel with it as I start playing.

[jesterkindreview]

Cave Story - Review

Defeated with the power of friendship, and these multiple guns that I found.

Would you like me to talk about The Binding of Isaac: Repentance? A friend gifted it to me while I was under the weather, and during the time that I was supposed to be playing Cave Story. It’s really very good, and it definitely monopolised my time. Maybe I could interest you in tales of the Tainted characters, and the alternate track with its interesting origins? Nicalis were involved in it too, so it’s basically the same thing as talking about Cave Story, right? No? Fair enough.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Cave Story, I don’t want my joke at the front to misconvey my feelings- while I struggle with platformers of this type in general (something that bodes ill for Celeste, next time), I found this game to be generally very enjoyable. At its core, it’s a pretty simple to explain game- you can jump, and you have a gun. Use those two features to deal with pits and enemies respectively, and go save the day, while unravelling a plot pertaining to some rabbit people and their troubles. As stories go, too, I was engaged- it starts off with an air of mystery that makes the teasing as to what the hell is going on all the more inviting. When a strange man in a hood refers to our mysterious player character as “a soldier from the surface”, then asking if the war wasn’t already over... alright, Cave Story, I’ll bite.

Tragically, between a health scare and unexpected responsibilities to be shouldered, I didn’t get to play as much of Cave Story as I’d have liked; I got up as far as unlocking both the rocket launcher and the fireball weapons, and I took down a few bosses. The mechanics are generally simple, but fun, at least as far as I got- bosses are a matter of jumping over attacks and pouring your own damage into them, for instance, and there’s a fair amount of jumping over pits filled with spikes. Peak video games.

It’s unfortunate, really, that I don’t have much more to say about this game- it seems charming, and while I’m not really very good at timing jumps and as such suffer at the hands of its nasty little spikes, I was enjoying myself all the while. It’s got pretty generous checkpoints and not much punishment for death beyond having to start over, so performing an acrobatic pirouette off the handle and directly onto some spikes didn’t sting all that much. One day I’ll return to Cave Story and finish it, and maybe then I’ll make a followup post. Much like some other games I’ve reviewed here, this is one that I’m going to keep installed on my PC for a while, in case I need something to do for a few hours.

Next time, we’ll be reviewing Celeste, which is even more of a platformer! I’m sure this will go swimmingly. See you then!

[jesterkindreview]

Due to health issues, Blair Witch will be skipped.

I apologise for the inconvenience, I’ll see you next time for Cave Story!

[jesterkindreview]

Barony - Review

The minotaur pounded you.

We’re back at it with a genre of game that I actually kinda know shit about- it’s a good old fashioned roguelike dungeon crawler, baby, and one with a pretty fun gimmick to boot. That gimmick, to set the scene, is... it’s an old school first person dungeon crawler, complete with some blocky, retro-ish kinds of aesthetics, and with the kind of difficulty that implies.

If there’s a plot, I didn’t pick up on it much while I was playing, and I didn’t need to. Here’s what you need to know: there’s a dungeon, big spooky guy talks to you while you traverse it, and you want to clear it. Sorted.

The game offers you a few choices at character generation- gender (male or female, doesn’t seem to affect much beyond aesthetic), species (just human, unless you shell out for DLCs- which I did not, so I can’t speak to this), race (just aesthetic again), and the real meat of the choices: Class.  The range of possible experiences in Barony is pretty decent. You can play a slow, tanky Soldier with a shield and a polearm who excels in little but making sure the things in front of them stop moving, or you can play a more manoeuvrable Barbarian who is even better at making things stop being alive with the tradeoff of not being quite as durable.  Straightforward combat not your speed? Don’t worry about it; how about a Wizard, casting Fireballs at rats? Or an Arcanist with a little less magic, but more conventional weaponry as a backup should their mana fail?  Magic not for you? I get you, friend, who can be bothered with the robes and the staves and all that. How about a Ninja who starts with a few tricks to help even the playing field in a battle, or a Jester who starts with a funny little hat and a very high move speed?

As with most games of this ilk, the variety is part of the appeal- the dungeon is generated again each time, though I didn’t play enough to recognise if it’s tile-based or if it cycles through whole layouts each time, and the loot you gain within the levels themselves generates differently each time. The game also has an “appraisal” mechanic, introduced as a skill that certain classes start with a boost in, used to identify what bonuses any given item provides- and whether or not it’s cursed. You don’t have to appraise an item before you use it, of course. You can just put that pair of boots right on. They look inviting, right? There’s no way such a stunning pair of boots could be cursed, riiiiight?

As much as I did end up enjoying it - enough so that there’s a strong possibility that I’ll be continuing to play it beyond reviewing it for today - I do have some issues with the way this game plays. None of them are dealbreakers, but there are some irritations. To start with something minor: A lot of the game is pitch-black, requiring the use of either a torch or lantern in your off hand, or the use of a light spell to ensure you can actually see- but if you’re a more physically-minded combat class, you start with a shield... that you can’t use, because you have to use a torch in order to see where you’re going. Now, light spells can be found in the dungeon itself, so this isn’t the end of the world, but it is a little annoying that some classes simply can’t use part of their starting kit if they get an unlucky roll on world generation or loot placement. The game’s hard, too- combat isn’t especially forgiving, and having defence is very, very useful if you aren’t playing a class designed to either heal or evade.

Which, in turn, brings me to the biggest issue I have with this game. I won’t call it a flaw, per se- more an active decision that I personally would’ve preferred not been made. You see, this game is... hard. Most characters, at least ones designed to mix it up with actual combat, move quite slowly, and all characters are pretty severely slowed when they try to strafe or backpedal, meaning that combat isn’t so much juggling your position to strike and dodge, it’s more... hope that you can do enough damage quick enough that they don’t chunk you down. (Or use magic. Or a bear trap. Or stealth. There are options- it’s just that mixing it up physically is locked into one specific type.)

I’ll confess my ignorance and flaunt my lack of credentials here, and admit that I’ve never actually played any of the old school first person dungeon crawlers- they’re before my time, and my knowledge is far more entrenched in the games that were inspired by them. I imagine that movement being so sluggish for most classes, and strafing + backpedalling being so damn slow for everyone, is evocative of the way those games controlled- but on a personal level, I think this game would’ve been quite a bit more engaging if combat played at a much faster pace. The fluidity of movement of the first person shooters of that era, combined with the other mechanics from the dungeon crawlers. Even with that said, this game captures its intended experience pretty damn perfectly, even if I would’ve preferred a slightly different one. 

Or, hell, maybe I’m wrong. This is a game with a lot of depth, perhaps I just missed some ways of addressing all these issues- I’d be willing to believe that if someone told me. Who knows?

There’s multiplayer, too. I didn’t get the chance to try it out myself, but if you and your friends decide you’d like to take a trek into a very classic dungeon, there’s that option. Let me know how it goes for you, I’m curious.

That’s that, then. Next time, we’ll be tackling the Blair Witch game, which should be fun- never seen the movie and I’m not a big horror games fan, but I’ll give it a fair shake. See you then!

[jesterkindreview]

An Update.

Hello there! I’m sure you were expecting a review today, and I do apologise for not having one. I won’t bore any of you with specific details, but I had a rather busy and tumultuous time of it the past few weeks, and I simply didn’t have it in me to play and review the game I was supposed to-- in fact, I bounced off Aztez pretty hard, so in the spirit of easing myself back in, I’ll be skipping it instead of simply delaying its review.

So, in two weeks time, I’ll be back at it again, with the next game on the list! Stay tuned!

[jesterkindreview]

As may have been expected, inconsistent internet means we’ll be skipping ARK Survival Evolved.

The next game will be Aztez instead!

[jesterkindreview]

Ape Out - Review

Aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you just want to go ape shit?

I went into this with a personal bias, that I feel compelled to tell you all about: the moment that I saw Devolver Digital pop up, I expected this to be an excellent game, as I’ve yet to play a flop with their name attached to it. Thankfully, my bias ended up being irrelevant- this really is an excellent game. The closest comparison I can draw is Hotline Miami, and it’s not for nothing- this game follows a very similar mechanical premise, where you navigate through a top-down, stylised map, murdering very flimsy enemies while you, yourself, can’t take all that much more. There are deviations, of course- the titular Ape can grab enemies to use as human shields, as well as being able to take more shots than Jacket can before perishing, and the level structure is totally different even before factoring in the differing aesthetics, but the core of each game is remarkably similar to its neighbour.

It’s the aesthetic that sets it apart, and stands on its own merit very well- it’s modelled after music, each level positioned as a track on a record. Specifically a record, too, of the vinyl variety. On top of the scratchy visuals and audio, there’s the fact that the game splits up its ‘tracks’ into ‘sides’- complete with the “end of side A” message at the end. I’m not entirely sure how the “jazz vinyl” aesthetic relates to the game’s fiction of being an ape escaping from some kind of compound guarded by armed humans (at least before the game tosses you to a skyscraper, anyway), but I can’t deny that it’s incredibly satisfying to hear the music speed up as the action rises to a hectic pace, and the crashing cymbals that accompanies slamming an enemy into a wall are more than rewarding enough for me to just accept this game’s intentionally absurd premise immediately, and whatever choices they make for aesthetic are clearly working out.

There’s just really something to be said for games that set their sights on a simple goal and achieve it. There are few mechanics to remember in this game- the bulkier guards are wearing bulletproof vests, if you grab a guard he’ll fire his gun randomly and if you’re lucky it’ll take out another guard, what gun a guard has effects how they’ll shoot at you... and for as far as I got into the game, it was essentially just juggling these mechanics in a new level to avoid getting shot more than once. I’m not sure if I’d call this game difficult or not. I found it the most fun when I was playing it in short bursts, so as to not let the frustration of a failed execution of a plan build up, but the game doesn’t set you back that far for each death and the guards’ shooting is pretty easy to intuit, so perhaps others will be able to breeze through the whole thing in one sitting. Perhaps I’m just a grumpy old woman who gets unreasonably frustrated at mistakes in games like these, and everyone else finds the death as rewarding as the murder.

Perhaps indeed...

The fact of the matter is that I’ve exhausted what I have to say about this game, now. It’s a very simple game, it’s a very fun game, and it gets my whole hearted recommendation- go play this game! It’s a fun time, a simple premise executed in a pretty decent way.

Next time, we’ll be tackling ARK: Survival Evolved. It’ll be... interesting to see how my inconsistent and finnicky internet survives this endeavour...

[jesterkindreview]

Anodyne 2: Return to Dust - Review

Faith-No-More-Smaller-And-Smaller.mp3

It should come as no surprise that between the technical difficulties forcing me to swap games partway through the week, and my own health taking a sharp decline at the same time, I didn’t end up finishing this particular game either- though I do feel that I got enough of an introduction to feel comfortable writing about it. It’s a shame, really- I adore this game, based on what I’ve played. The story is curious, certainly, but it’s in the presentation and mechanics that this game absolutely shines.

Even from its opening section, the game proves to be a compelling mixture of familiar and unique, modelling itself around old-school RPGs with similar text boxes for the opening narration and dialogues- something it’ll drill far further down on once you get into the gameplay. You play as Nova, a newborn of sorts, whose job it is to... clean, in a sense. Not so much places, but people- those afflicted with a mind-destroying and malicious ailment known as the Dust. The skills you use to utilise this goal are... an innate ability to shrink down to a seemingly molecular level, and a seed embedded in your brain that filters some of the Dust into a more inert form, easier to transport. Your first hint that this game is a little more fucked up than its idyllic fairy tale appearance might imply at first, though one that may be easy to miss if you’re willing to accept it all at face value.

It really would be easy to be lured in by the cutesy charm of the opening section, too- the first section you play is very clearly reminiscent of some older 3D games, both graphically and even in its controls. Rest in piece, tank controls, you haven’t been missed.

The opening section is very straightforwardly the tutorial, explaining Nova’s task and the general gameplay loop for later sections- specifically, find a person in need of ‘cleaning’, strike up a conversation, and then enter their body on a nano scale to clean up the sinister Dust, to help bring people closer to their true intended selves. I found that aspect of the game somewhat uncomfortable, but that’s a personal spirituality sort of thing- and it seems as though the game was setting up part of the semi-religious angle of the setting being wrong, or at least not wholly right, so I’ll refrain from commenting any further on it here.

It’s when you shrink yourself down and hurtle into the poor sap’s form that the game truly opens it and shows it’s style- the whole aesthetic, presentation, and control scheme changes for these sections. If the overworld section of the game could fairly be compared to N64 era 3D games, then the nano-cleaner sections of the game are straightforwardly GBA inspired, with Nova having to utilise a few minor puzzles to clear away all of the Dust. Each mission inside someone’s diseased body culminates in a boss fight, where you have to use your vacuum to hoover up some boxes and toss them violently back out at an invading, coughing virus particle. 

Getting the hang of the controls took a little time, and I do suspect I’d have been better served using a controller rather than a keyboard, but once you’ve overcome that minor wall, it’s truly an enjoyable experience, with memorable and charming flavour text accentuating some truly unnerving, horror-esque setpieces.

As cute as the game is when it opens, the effects of the Dust are quickly revealed to be pretty horrific. Which of the city’s denizens you help first once you’re through with the tutorial may not be the same as mine, but for me, I came fresh from the kid-safe tutorial area and into the city, ready to help the first person I see. Who turned out to be... ...A man made entirely of tongue flesh, rasping and groaning about how much he would love to taste me. 

Thank christ I could help him, because that is a pretty unnerving state for someone to be left in.

It’s here that my time with the game drew to a close. I’d finished aiding people in the city section, I helped to upgrade the central Dust-nullifying tool, I watched the two mother figures fret over how much strain they’re putting young Nova under for this, and that’s where my week (or really, four days) ended. I may very well go back to this game someday, I certainly enjoyed it- and based on what I did play, it’s a cautious recommendation for anyone who liked the sound of what I described up there.

A delightfully weird game that strays into the horrific where appropriate, and one clearly lovingly inspired by games that came before it, Anodyne 2: Return to Dust was a game that I enjoyed my time with.

Next time, we’ll be playing Ape Out. See you then!

[jesterkindreview]

Due to technical difficulties, we will unfortunately be skipping both Amnesia games. The next game for review is Anodyne 2!