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[orchidelegance]

review - ghost trick: phantom detective

app store, nintendo store; first chapters free, full game $10 playtime: ~4-5hrs rating: 8/10 replayability: 7/10

crazy characters. insane plot. twistier and turnier than a maze. character design happened while on acid probably. such an excellent game.

ghost trick: phantom detective by capcom is a game of "how many" - how many times you're willing to replay a scene before you go look up a guide, how many times sissel has to help other people in his quest to find himself, how many times you take screenshots of missile saying something only a dog would say. every chapter took me tantalizingly closer to the answer only for the ending to completely blow me away with how incomprehensible and perfectly sensible it was. there's an explanation for everything, and there are so many things that need explaining that at the very end, the explanations come in a barrage of satisfaction that leaves me wanting to replay and see where i missed the clues.

every single character is interesting and lovable, all with their own stories and motivations, from the dancing guard to the simpering henchman to the chicken chef and the waitress on rollerskates. even characters you only see in one scene have an important role to play and a life that you get a glimpse into. each design is so incredibly fun, colorful, and silly, and it echoes the game's message - that everyone is connected, and we are all a part of each other's story.

though i used a guide for most of the game (sue me - there's a great one here by fukuyasu), it's definitely not impossible to do on your own with a little more patience and brainpower. the puzzles were fun, though they can become tedious if you're committed to figuring it out on your own. for me, this game was character driven, and i wanted to complete each stage as fast as i could to see a little more of the story. honestly even with how frustrating i found some of the stages, i would still replay it if i had a few hours on my own and see if i can untangle the threads from the beginning - and to see sissel, kamila, lynne, missile, jowd, cabanela, and the others again.

spoilers below

damn! that ending! sissel-cat is too cute. and the yomiel-creature made up of junk and a cone was hilarious. i didn't like that we went back in time to erase everything, and then suddenly it happened in a way i was surprisingly very satisfied with. sissel being yomiel's cat is an ending only ghost trick could have and could make sense of. i wish we got a little more explanation about the blue people, but i did like the insights in the credits into the other characters' lives in the new future.

that gay little family photo at the end was so funny because jowd's wife is fully alive here but instead he's taking a photo with his daughter (kamila) and his adopted not-daughter (lynne) with his work husband (cabanela) who is also lynne's work dad. and their two pets...

one thing i don't understand is why there's no meetup or anything since yomiel said they would all retain the memory of the past events even if those technically didn't exist in this reality, which i liked as a continuity mechanism to deal with fuzzy time travel mechanics. technically they would all remember what had happened right? or at least jowd, yomiel, sissel, and missile would since they were the ones who went back to yomiel's death. i did like that yomiel was fully prepared to die over and over for baby lynne to atone for his crime of holding her hostage, and that we all thought he died before they revealed he was still alive. it makes him a sympathetic "antagonist" in the perfect way, and opens the road to reconciliation.

what a fun game! i love cat sissel so much.

[orchidelegance]

review - device 6

app store, $5.99 playtime: ~.5-1hrs rating: 6/10 replayability: 4/10

creative, eery, and immersive, i loved it but definitely expected more out of this one. device 6 by simogo, the company that brought us sayonara wild hearts and year walk, is an innovative side, up, down, and diagonal scroller that reimagines the way we interact with text. paired with an at-times classy, haunting, and beautiful soundtrack by daniel olsén featuring jonathan eng, device 6 has an ambiance completely unrivaled by any other text-based game (except maybe Maginary...)

the genre of device 6 somewhere between cultish spy conspiracies, scifi, 1920's jazz club, and a secret garden... whatever that means. similar experiences include the company and the bradwell conspiracy, but add in some hats and a lot of text. the game only makes sense after you finish it, and boy does it not take long to finish. my only complaint was how quickly i was done with it - i expected something a little more based on the setup. the puzzles were fairly simple and i figured the vast majority out on my own, excepting where i got lost in the text. can't reiterate enough how much of a fascinating medium and mechanic the devs chose for this story. definitely got the wheels in my head turning.

the text-based game is absolutely worth a try if you're interested in new ways of interaction and immersion - the game 100% brings you into its world (and if you've played it, you'll know i mean more than just the gameplay itself). i've never experienced anything quite like it, and i think Maginary is the only game that comes close as far as i know to having a similar mechanic. i'm also super obsessed with the graphic design (design in general), and i KNOW someone has written a medium article or something on it... i'll definitely be rewatching the intro video, not only for daniel olsén's music (i had the sayonara wild hearts soundtrack looping for months) but also the stunning animation and design.

rating a 6/10, would be an 8/10 if it wasn't so short and so sparse despite such a rich setup and plot. for $6, only a half hour to an hour of playtime...? nevertheless, an extremely innovative way of storytelling and gaming, and a premise i like very much. 4/10 replayability because it was so short that it feels like i already know everything and wouldn't really gain much by replaying it, but i would love to experience it again.

spoilers below

gosh, what an ending. i knew what was going to happen as it was happening, but the final blood splatter didn't scare me any less. i hope that final cigarette was good, anna. i want to replay it and see what would happen if i checked i agree and submitted to the device - would player249 be experiencing it the same way? i think there are a lot of missed opportunities with this game - the summary mentioned the doll as a key player, but it only appears once (twice if you count the shop at the end.) it was quite pretty. i liked the inclusion of all the art and edits, especially the venetian mask. again, the mechanics were amazing and really drew me in. having to constantly rotate my phone to read was a little annoying at times but mostly the novelty meant it was exciting rather than tedious. the mama/papa/baby bears was a little hard to figure out even with a guide, and another gripe i have is the sometime intelligible voices. i do like all the references that the devs threw in, and that they explained them in a blog post! if this was $2 or $3 i would be recommending it to everyone, but $6 is a little steep for what it is. nevertheless, i really enjoyed playing it, and the end is going to haunt me for a while. didn't think a 45minute game would trigger my psychosis but we'll see. i'll keep an eye out on my mail. good thing i have a roommate...

[orchidelegance]

review - the silent age

app store, free + $4.99 for ch2 playtime: ~2hrs with a guide rating: 8/10 replayability: 5/10

short, bittersweet, with a touch of scientific fascination. the silent age by danish studio house on fire is the perfect way to spend an hour or two, submersed in the 1969 life of a low-level janitor at an arms manufacturer dabbling in time travel technology. a trail of blood to clean up in an elevator leads to a world of science, danger, and intrigue, mediated by your average joe protagonist and a well-paced, placid point-and-click mechanism. a mostly-ambient background punctured with some violin sound effects, coupled with a few pointedly placed skeletons, lend a sense of foreboding and dread to an otherwise quite peaceful game. i wouldn't classify it as horror, but rather as the nightmare fuel that normally comes with scifi. would absolutely recommend a play - and i would definitely be interested in what comes next for joe.

overall, i'd say i enjoyed it 8/10, my only drawbacks being the sometimes slow interaction speed (having to go up and down and all around to solve one puzzle) and a few text glitches, as well as having little closure (though i guess that could be part of the game). replayability is pretty high for me (relatively), maybe at a 5/10 due to the tediousness, but i think knowing how everything is done will make it easier to look out for smaller story details i may have missed.

spoilers below

i love a good scientific intrigue plot, especially with the chicken-and-egg trope (that ends up being subverted!). joe going back in time to prevent something that ends up caused by him going back in time to prevent it? narrative masterpiece.

joe's inner dialogue is masterful as well, from the naive remarks on his workplace and job to the witty dialogue that surprises the player when you try to do something stupid. the well-meaning, not-very-smart, genuine, and stubborn character of joe is written with care and makes just your average joe into a quiet hero, unacknowledged by everyone (except frank, in a bittersweet twist.)

the placement of the skeletons, exactly where they were decades prior, made me think that something abrupt had happened, not just the flu - but maybe bodies couldn't handle the flu like that in the past? the detail of the club owner having shot himself (hole in the skull, only five bullets in the shotgun) was one of the most bone-chilling parts of the entire game, especially since you had just been speaking with him moments prior. he was definitely one of my favorite characters in the game. little details that aren't touched on in the game but rather that you have to notice are interesting, and i imagine it would take another playthrough to really get everything. the part in the far-future with frank was annoying because of what seemed like an artificial prolongation of the chapter by making you run back and forth five(?) times, but the scare of taking the mask off the skeleton kept me adequately shaken to make it through without getting too annoyed. rip frank.

it's interesting to think about what happened to everyone in the current timeline.... i don't think that security guard you killed on the way back is making it, but i wonder where frank ended up, given that his timeline no longer exists - that is, he still does travel into the future since that happened before joe followed him, but that future no longer exists because after joe returned from that future, he contained the virus... so would it be that frank just disappears? this leads to an interesting question of timelines and time loops, since joe and dr. lambert clearly come from one. it also begs the question of what happens to dr. lambert - if he came from this future to warn joe, that future no longer exists, and therefore joe wouldn't have gotten the warning.... but the future no longer existing means joe would have had to have gotten dr. lambert's warning. it also means dr. lambert would not have gotten shot on the way back to warn them, meaning he might be alive? regardless, it would be interesting to play the game from frank or dr. lambert's perspective, or how they got to this point.

the ending is very bittersweet since joe is right back to where he started with his monotonous life, with nobody knowing how he had saved the world - i can only hope that dr. lambert is still alive somehow and they can debrief. i can't imagine how painful it would be to exist in a world with all that trauma and nobody to talk to who would believe you. i hope joe has a simple, happy life with people who cherish him.

definitely a lot more to explore, with a bittersweet ending, and a plot that raises more questions than it answers. love time travel.