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Karmine
Games:
Auto Destruct
Cyberpunk 2077

Anime:
Hellsing Ultimate
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Karmine wrote:

Games:
Auto Destruct
Cyberpunk 2077

Anime:
Hellsing Ultimate
I don't think i'm doing autodestruct

I will try cyberpunk

hellsing will do, but I will take a while since i'm in the process of watching all of psycho-pass and that is going to take a little while
Yoisaki Kanade
Here's a thing to read
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Yoisaki Kanade wrote:

Here's a thing to read
sure
Achromalia

Patatitta wrote:

Cold Front

Short itch.io VN, it has a 2.5D perspective and a little bit of movement sometimes but it is a VN; at a more technical level there are some flaws, I had some lag spikes when I shouldn't have given the game is a VN and some sounds looped with the moment they looped being very apparent, howerver that didn't affect my enjoyement of the game too much

I really don't have much to say about this game, it's kinda cute which is what you expect from this type of game, the art is good (the author 100% draws yaoi), as I said very short, took me less than an hour to beat, while it has some horror elements that try to be psychological, the game isn't really about thinking, as everything is explained by the end, no room for interpretation, I think this is a good move as the game is much more focused on the feelings

not the best itch.io VN i've played but this was enjoyable

Placed in C tier
oh i remember this one...! im glad to see its still meaningful to someone, it was neat :> i think i primarily loved the artstyle and the characters and their interpersonal dynamics, this had crazy good sense of art direction honestly from everything to backgrounds and color palettes and ui, it was satisfyingly sentimental and winnie & augustine were easy enough to sympathize with as more was revealed

but i did forget most of it like i do with nearly every game or piece of media

i remember dead plate too, i have vague memories of enjoying both of them during a lot of the dialogue and cg scenes but mostly held onto the parts nearest to the end like cold front's stairs and dead plate's manager and the Room

cool ^^
Karmine

Patatitta wrote:

Karmine wrote:

Games:
Auto Destruct
Cyberpunk 2077

Anime:
Hellsing Ultimate
I don't think i'm doing autodestruct

I will try cyberpunk

hellsing will do, but I will take a while since i'm in the process of watching all of psycho-pass and that is going to take a little while
Press F for the weird car action game.
AxisPraxisMDS
Hell screen by ryunosuke Akutagawa, i not read it, but, I found a Video on yt of someone read it the whole novel, and i listen and read it, does it count read?
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Hell screen by ryunosuke Akutagawa, i not read it, but, I found a Video on yt of someone read it the whole novel, and i listen and read it, does it count read?
not at all, you must read it, watching a yt video does not count
AxisPraxisMDS
oh, but read via doc count? i had one in my desktop, and i dont have money to buy a copy
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

oh, but read via doc count? i had one in my desktop, and i dont have money to buy a copy
wdym read via doc? like reading it digital?
AxisPraxisMDS

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

oh, but read via doc count? i had one in my desktop, and i dont have money to buy a copy
wdym read via doc? like reading it digital?
yes but in pdf
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

oh, but read via doc count? i had one in my desktop, and i dont have money to buy a copy
wdym read via doc? like reading it digital?
yes but in pdf
I mean, I don't care if you've read it physical, digital, legal, or illegal, as long as you've actually read it in full and not when you were like 5yo, it works for me
AxisPraxisMDS
done, i ive read it, its really short really


Also, Can you play nfs carbon? Its a Sequel, I remember i play almost to the end, using my lil bro phone, using dolphin, but due to low fps and hard boss, i dont finished it
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

done, i ive read it, its really short really


Also, Can you play nfs carbon? Its a Sequel, I remember i play almost to the end, using my lil bro phone, using dolphin, but due to low fps and hard boss, i dont finished it
did you just read hell screen or one other?

Also I won't be playing any more NFS, I didn't like most wanted very much and I don't that opinion is going to change for the rest of the franchise
AxisPraxisMDS

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

done, i ive read it, its really short really


Also, Can you play nfs carbon? Its a Sequel, I remember i play almost to the end, using my lil bro phone, using dolphin, but due to low fps and hard boss, i dont finished it
did you just read hell screen or one other?

Also I won't be playing any more NFS, I didn't like most wanted very much and I don't that opinion is going to change for the rest of the franchise
yes, i totally read it,


theres a game called nfs prostreet, that was different from any nfs, But, I will tell about if i was finished it
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

done, i ive read it, its really short really


Also, Can you play nfs carbon? Its a Sequel, I remember i play almost to the end, using my lil bro phone, using dolphin, but due to low fps and hard boss, i dont finished it
did you just read hell screen or one other?

Also I won't be playing any more NFS, I didn't like most wanted very much and I don't that opinion is going to change for the rest of the franchise
yes, i totally read it,


theres a game called nfs prostreet, that was different from any nfs, But, I will tell about if i was finished it
... it's 224 pages long?, you've only had an hour to read it???

edit: nvm, apparently there are multiple versions, with VERY varying lengths, what edition did you read?
AxisPraxisMDS

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

done, i ive read it, its really short really


Also, Can you play nfs carbon? Its a Sequel, I remember i play almost to the end, using my lil bro phone, using dolphin, but due to low fps and hard boss, i dont finished it
did you just read hell screen or one other?

Also I won't be playing any more NFS, I didn't like most wanted very much and I don't that opinion is going to change for the rest of the franchise
yes, i totally read it,


theres a game called nfs prostreet, that was different from any nfs, But, I will tell about if i was finished it
... it's 224 pages long?, you've only had an hour to read it???

edit: nvm, apparently there are multiple versions, with VERY varying lengths, what edition did you read?
well, ive read the shorter versions, i had the pdf version, mind if i share to u?
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

done, i ive read it, its really short really


Also, Can you play nfs carbon? Its a Sequel, I remember i play almost to the end, using my lil bro phone, using dolphin, but due to low fps and hard boss, i dont finished it
did you just read hell screen or one other?

Also I won't be playing any more NFS, I didn't like most wanted very much and I don't that opinion is going to change for the rest of the franchise
yes, i totally read it,


theres a game called nfs prostreet, that was different from any nfs, But, I will tell about if i was finished it
... it's 224 pages long?, you've only had an hour to read it???

edit: nvm, apparently there are multiple versions, with VERY varying lengths, what edition did you read?
well, ive read the shorter versions, i had the pdf version, mind if i share to u?
sure
Topic Starter
Patatitta
recieved the pdf, it's 27 pages, will add to the queue
Polyspora
can you ÇPLEAP=EESE PLAY SOMA?
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Polyspora wrote:

can you ÇPLEAP=EESE PLAY SOMA?
no
AxisPraxisMDS
ok, i recently Read The little prince, so can u read it?
i borrow the book from one of the librarian in my school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

ok, i recently Read The little prince, so can u read it?
i borrow the book from one of the librarian in my school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
I don't think i'm covering that one
AxisPraxisMDS
why?
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

why?
just doesn't seem like the type of thing I would enjoy at this current moment
Winnyace

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

ok, i recently Read The little prince, so can u read it?
i borrow the book from one of the librarian in my school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
You don't need to force yourself to recommend stuff to him.
Polyspora

Winnyace wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

ok, i recently Read The little prince, so can u read it?
i borrow the book from one of the librarian in my school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
You don't need to force yourself to recommend stuff to him.
what
sametdze

Winnyace wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

ok, i recently Read The little prince, so can u read it?
i borrow the book from one of the librarian in my school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
You don't need to force yourself to recommend stuff to him.
i don't think he's forcing himself i think he just wants patatitta to review the stuff he gives out but patatitta seems to be hesitant with some of the stuff
reffty_gag

sametdze wrote:

Winnyace wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

ok, i recently Read The little prince, so can u read it?
i borrow the book from one of the librarian in my school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
You don't need to force yourself to recommend stuff to him.
i don't think he's forcing himself i think he just wants patatitta to review the stuff he gives out but patatitta seems to be hesitant with some of the stuff
yeah, he just want pata to review the book
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Touge Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times

Hard-carried by good art

This is an adventure manga where as the title suggest they meet ancient gods and other equally powerful creatures. If i'm being honest, the story is pretty weak, there is no real final goal, it doesn't try to really say anything, it's just adventure for adventure sake, which some people will undeniably enjoy

What this manga really has is good art, the art is very polished, it has a lot of visual clarity, the panel structure is also really well done, everything flows really smoothly and they also use the technique of having some drawings break out of the panel which may seem small but actually adds so much. The setting is interesting and the character designs are all very pretty, to top that of, there are some REALLY original panels, like stuff I haven't really seen ever

as an example, this pannel (box because technically is a spoiler I guess)

the panel + explanation why this panel is peak


this is actually peak and I want more mangas to do it, using two panels to form a single drawing but using the time displacement of both panels to do a really cool effect while they both share a single text bubble which is being broken away? actually fucking take notes that's INSANE and I love it so much

however this is not a shin'ichi manga where the stories are built in a way that allows him to spam full page/full spread panels too, in fact, this manga doesn't really have those moments at all, or even big panels like that. I find it impressive that the author can cram stuff so cool in panels that in many other mangas would just be filler. I still prefeer the shin'ichi style but honestly this proves something, this sets a precedent that you can make the small stuff really impressive artistically.

In many ways, this reminds me of dorohedoro. While dorohedoro is way more over the top, they both just create really unique settings to make every panel interesting, and while dorohedoro was fairly standard in it's art and paneling and mainly just created all of it's appeal with the setting, touge oni mixes in a lot of modern techniques and their own more experimental ideas to do the same thing but better. I like this more than dorohedoro

so yeah, while I didn't care about the story at all, I still really appreciate this manga. Placed in B tier,

------

started cyberpunk, have my complaints
decided not to watch the psycho-pass sequels right now and start hellsing ultimate, will watch the sequels later.
next: Hell screen
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Hell Screen

A japanese short story written in 1918, it's good. It's about an artist who gets obsessed in it's own work leading to him making awful things.

I admit it's well written and engaging from start to end, however, it didn't resonate too much with me, it doesn't really seem that there is too much meat to this short story. If anything, the most interesting thing it does is the end (not a spoiler because it's a japanese short story from 1918 you're not reading it anyways), where the guy finishes the hell screen, and well, it turns out it's like really fucking good which leads to everyone kinda forgiving him. That point of how you can be an awful person but be able to create banger art. Which i'm pretty sure was pretty interesting and groundbreaking in 1918, but nowadays, in 2024, there are many other books that explore the same topics and do it better

also, unrelated, but when I was reading the book, I searched some of the names online to see if this was based on a IRL story or if it was purely fiction, and while it is entirerily fiction, I stumbled the entire thing reuplaoded to the "Creepypasta fandom wiki"?, which like, what the fuck, this isn't even horror, yes it's a dark story, but it's not horror, it's not scary.

I'm kinda indeferent torwards this short story, placed in B rank

--------

i'm still playing cyberpunk and watching hellsing ultimate
nothing else to read
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Hellsing: Ultimate

This is an anime about people beating each other up, and it's one of the better ones.

Hellsing is about vampires and vampire-hunting organizations mixed in with churches and stuff, it's pretty sick, however, as you may expect it's not explored too deeply as the point is the action and gore and fights, something i'm not too into. So kinda the biggest exploration of it is how they adapt guns to be effective against vampires.

This is also a OVA, so it's 10 episodes, but 10 episodes of varying length, being 40+ minutes long, the artstyle is also fairly unique, it has high production value and the character designs are all very recognizable, specially alucard. This high production value really helps the anime, more here than in many other animes. A frenetic anime is going to have more complex set scenes and animation than a more calm anime, so here, the animation works really well with all of the gore and visceral scenes.

The actual plot isn't bad either, as I say it isn't exactly ambitious, the focus of hellsing is not on the plot, but what they have works.

This anime have also some fairly comedic moments, something I didn't expect, but again, it does work because of the juxtaposition

placed in B rank

-------

next: nothing

still playing cyberpunk 2077
Karmine
Alucard is iconic.
abraker
Watch Spaceballs
Topic Starter
Patatitta

abraker wrote:

Watch Spaceballs
I'm really not feeling like spaceballs
AxisPraxisMDS
mmh, Fallout: New vegas including 3 Dlcs
also, dont blame me for its crashes
abraker

Patatitta wrote:

abraker wrote:

Watch Spaceballs
I'm really not feeling like spaceballs
then The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
BluePyTheDeer_
rate the Geometry Dash Level Editor.
burgernfat
arcane
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

mmh, Fallout: New vegas including 3 Dlcs
also, dont blame me for its crashes
do you mind if I do fallout 1 and 2 first?, I don't care if you haven't played them I just want to try out those two games, will do new vegas after those two

abraker wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

abraker wrote:

Watch Spaceballs
I'm really not feeling like spaceballs
then The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
sure

BluePyTheWDeer_ wrote:

rate the Geometry Dash Level Editor.
this thread doesn't cover things like that


burgernfat wrote:

arcane
league of legends related so denied
Nuuskamuikkunen

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

mmh, Fallout: New vegas including 3 Dlcs
also, dont blame me for its crashes
do you mind if I do fallout 1 and 2 first?, I don't care if you haven't played them I just want to try out those two games, will do new vegas after those two
There's also Fallout 3 that comes right before New Vegas.
abraker

Patatitta wrote:

burgernfat wrote:

arcane
league of legends related so denied
it's pretty good tho
and I don't play legue
AxisPraxisMDS

Patatitta wrote:

[quote="AxisPraxisMDS"]
mmh, Fallout: New vegas including 3 Dlcs
also, dont blame me for its crashes
do you mind if I do fallout 1 and 2 first?, I don't care if you haven't played them I just want to try out those two games, will do new vegas after those two

well, do u want
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Nuuskamuikkunen wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

mmh, Fallout: New vegas including 3 Dlcs
also, dont blame me for its crashes
do you mind if I do fallout 1 and 2 first?, I don't care if you haven't played them I just want to try out those two games, will do new vegas after those two
There's also Fallout 3 that comes right before New Vegas.
yeah but I'm not very interested in 3 and I know you don't need to play them in order


abraker wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

burgernfat wrote:

arcane
league of legends related so denied
it's pretty good tho
and I don't play legue
still denied
Polyspora
its better to understand the lore if you play in order
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Polyspora wrote:

its better to understand the lore if you play in order
may play depending on how much I enjoy 1 and 2
Ymir

Polyspora wrote:

its better to understand the lore if you play in order
Is it really that important to play 3?
Polyspora

Ymir wrote:

Polyspora wrote:

its better to understand the lore if you play in order
Is it really that important to play 3?
no, its a great game though
Karmine

Patatitta wrote:

Polyspora wrote:

its better to understand the lore if you play in order
may play depending on how much I enjoy 1 and 2
Only played 1 but afaik 2d and 3d games are very different.
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Karmine wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

Polyspora wrote:

its better to understand the lore if you play in order
may play depending on how much I enjoy 1 and 2
Only played 1 but afaik 2d and 3d games are very different.
yeah i'm just not interested very much in 3 but idk I guess if I get really into fallout I would play it
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Cyberpunk 2077:

The anime was way better ngl

Cyberpunk is a open world shooter in a cyberpunk setting as the name implies, I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it, I think it's a pretty mediocre and messy game

The plot is about your protagonist accidently getting stuck with a chip in their head that allows her to see the spirit of johnny, a terrorist who lived 50 years ago. However, this is not sustainable as the protagonist is going to die unless they get the chip removed. The whole plot is the protagonist trying to remove the chip.

This by itself is not a bad concept, however it's not explored that much. In fact, most of the cyberpunk nature of the world isn't really explained. The game sells you on this idea of replacing parts of your body with mechanic implants, in fact the whole anime is about this, about the consequences of doing that and the biological limit. There is a lot you can do with this idea, and the game kinda hypes you up into expecting pretty crazy cybernetics. But that is really far from reality

This is really barely touched on the story, in fact, the only real thing that the story really uses is a fucking pdf viewer that everyone in the world has, you can load an usb in your head to see information and also connect to computers via your arm. The actual cybernetics are all very boring, you can't really go to any extremes, you can't just replace your hand with a fucking massive gun for example. The cybernetics in this game are just "you regen hp faster" or "you have increased movement speed after engaging in combat", and that cybernetic limit that the anime revolves around is only a gameplay mechanic, I don't think it's ever mentioned in the plot???, in fact, when you get a cybernetic that is required by the plot, guess what IT DOESN'T EVEN COUNT FOR THE FUCKING LIMIT

but well, you can hack other people's body, that's cool right?. Again, mostly a gameplay thing with very little impact on the story, hacks works as spell basically, you press tab, selet a enemy, and then choose from a menu if you want to apply a status effect or do damage.

You also have that cyberpunk arquitecture with lots of ads in buildings and stuff, but again, it's just something in the backgroud, it has no weight. The story of cyberpunk 2077 is one that really doesn't rely very hard on the setting at all which is surprising for a game called CYBERPUNK

In many ways it feels tone deaf, it feels like it's trying to do this homage to the cyberpunk genre by having a large portion of the night city population be japanese, so you have japanese writing and japanese themed zones, in fact you can get the bike from akira, but this game is nothing like akira. What makes akira akira isn't the bike or the general visuals, it's the story surrounding all of this weird tech and their consequences

in fact, it's so tone deaf that in night city, a dystopical american city, there are fucking PACHINKOS, something that would only make sense if gambling was banned but like what the fuck how would that ever fit into the setting

The game advertises itself as an choice-driven RPG, this is not the case at all. The only real choices you have in the game are just at the end mission and at the end mission of the DLC. And in fact, you often don't have much option in conversations where they give you multiple dialogue options because they're often than not very different at all. It's often like 4 different ways to say yes. There are also timed dialogue options, where you only have a very short span of time to read them and respond. What happens if you just decide not to answer?, nothing really, it either autoplays the choice that will progress the plot or the dialogue would continue as normal. For a game that markets itself as choice driven you kinda do feel a little bit powerless in what you can say.

There are also some dialogue choices that are locked behind skill points in certain skills. This make senses, for example in disco elysium your skill points don't only give you gameplay advantages but they also help you understand the game via it. In many ways, disco elysium is always rolling die to see if any of your skills activate and you get to learn more about a certain thing, maybe opening up new gameplay options. In cyberpunk this isn't really the case, not only because it doesn't matter if you choose that option or not, but because you can always see the option even if it's locked. And by reading what that dialogue option is, you learn about that part of the lore and you get that perspective even if your character shouldn't be able to know. So if an option is like "omg are you the guy that killed this other guy???" and that option is locked because your character shouldn't be able to know that, you, the player do end up learning that since you read the option and you now know that the guy that you're talking to killed the other guy, it's just that you can't get your character to say it

The game has so many gameplay systems and honestly none of them really matter at all. Like, you have like 4 different xp systems, one to unlock skill trees, one to unlock skills in those trees, one dlc one that is a separate skill tree that requires a different method of obtaining, and also "playstyle" specific XP, that gives you advantages in those playstyles, except it really doesn't matter, because when you kill enemies they often drop usbs that give you xp in the other playstyles you're not playing so like lmao. Thing is, none of the skills really impact the gameplay at all, they're not really transforming your playstyle, many of them are just stat buffs, and stat buffs don't matter when the enemies scale to your level, so if you become stronger, your enemies will also become equally as strong which means the gameplay experience at level 1 and max level isn't very drastic.

The game is very bloated in general, there are so many activities that you can do in the map but a lot of them aren't very engaging, the one I find most outrageous is the tarot cards, you just go to a place, scan a grafitti and you get a tarot card added to a menu. These don't really have an use. It feels like they just exist to pad the playtime if you want to do 100% and add more map markers to give the illusion of a city that is alive. In fact, the dlc skill system I mentioned is kinda identical to the graffitis, you go to a place, connect to a terminal, you have a new skill point, and it's just so boring

I get the vision of having A LOT to do in the city, so that you're walking along the road with no specific goal and there are so many things around you that you can get dragged into or engage with. But this isn't really how the game is played, you're not finding the activities naturally, you're opening a map, putting a marker on it and then driving to it. And in that context a lof of the activities feel very repetitive.

In fact, this also clashes with the plot. The whole plot is that you have a bomb in your brain that is about to expldoe and you need to remove it as soon as possible, in fact, during story missions your body will stop responding during scripted segments and it will show you that the protagonist is FUCKED but then the gameplay is totally different. You're killing hundreds of guys and taking billions of bullet without consequences. It's very funny that when it's a scripted segment the protagonist is dying and then you get to shoot guys and then you're in peak physical condition.

Your body is operating fine as long as you're not in the main story, it doesn't feel like you actually have a timer that you're racing against, you're not having to choose and pick what side quests you do to get you the best probabilities to survive, there is no rush or urgency at all. In fact, it's not only that the whole plot stops existing the moment you look away, it's that the game rewards you for doing things that would make no sense if you were actually playing in character, multiple endings of the base game are locked behind doing sidequests which as I said wouldn't make much sense to stop and do if you actually had a ticking bomb in your brain. This is peak ludonarrative dissonance. At least with the DLC it was framed as "this is going to help you remove the chip from your brain"

Bosses feel pretty boring, nothing much to say, in fact in the dlc, phantom liberty, they barely have bosses because I think they realized they're not the best part of the game. Also I find funny that a boss has like a helmet that disperses bullet and makes it really hard to hit them but such technology is not ever mentioned in the story at any other point

I also take issue with this game visuals. It generally doesn't look that striking, the only real segment I went like "woahhhhhhh that's cool" is like the ones where you're in like this digital world with this really weird camera effect, that part I liked, but the rest of the game just looks eh. I get that I was playing with the graphics on low but this is not a resolution problem, this is a general art direction problem.

There is also little to none graphical progression in terms of weapons and cybernetics. Often I would upgrade to a better gun only to find the model to be more rudimentary instead of cooler and more techonological. With the implants, there are characters that just have insane movespeed at times but there isn't really anything in their body that would make you instantly go like "oh this guy can do that"

Talking about the weapons, the gameplay defines that the actual damage and stats are mainly placed on the weapon, so why am I the only one with a good weapon while the other ones are carrying shit guns?, why do their guns instantly turn 20 times better when I pick them up?, I get this from a gameplay perspective but it's still peak ludonarrative dissonance.

About the DLC, probably best part of the game, the last mission was actually good, didn't like how the president of the US was pictured tho, as she was written basically the exact same way that you would write a leader of a corporation or anything, not to mention that she doesn't seem like a politician, and more like a heavily trained solider.


Played in C tier

----------

haven't seen the movie that abraker requested,

next, fallout 1
Karmine
Wanted to reply to this but too lazy lol, game is good though you should play it more :P
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Karmine wrote:

Wanted to reply to this but too lazy lol, game is good though you should play it more :P
idk if it didn't grab me by the point I had finished the game I don't think much more playing it will change my opinion

-----------

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

it's like groundhog day but without the whole sexual harassment thing

This movie is a light hearted, sweet, romance time loop story, two persons get stuck, they find each other and then the plot develops

it's not the most ambitious movie ever made, in fact I would say it's closer to the opposite, it doesn't really try very hard to be anything new, but this is a cute romance movie, so often that isn't really needed as long as the feelings are there, but I just personally didn't really feel it

(spoilers except not really if you've ever seen a romance movie) This movie pretty much follows the same formula as every other american romance movie, they meet, the guy makes the moves, girls seem kinda unwilling, not really because she doesn't want it, but because there are external factors to the romance, then there is some angst, and then everything gets fixed, they kissed and happy forever

In this movie they kinda try to tie the external factor to the time loop, it's tied to the actual reason for the exitance of the time loop and how to break it. And I just don't think they handle it well

Basically they try to go into a "time loops are actually horrifying and morally grey" type of territory, but that commentary just ends up being very shallow, they don't go far enough, when they tell you about how awful time loops are, you just go "ah yeah that kinda sucks". In many ways they try to do some of the same plot beats as in stars and time, but while that game felt like a fucking nuclear bomb being dropped in your head, this movie just feels like a small bonk with a plastic toy. Everything is WAYYYY more sanitized in this movie than in stars in time

the general time loop is poorly constructed, the idea is that they need to find every perfect moment, but the perfect moments are entirerily subjective and there wasn't really any indicator that it was what they had to do. In many ways, it's not like they're in a time loop and they just happen to fall in love, is that the whole time loop is built around the romance and I just don't think it works that well.

However, it's not like I dislike this movie, I think it was cute, and I did like it more than groundhog day (I hate groundhog day), so I guess played in C tier?

------

nothing else to watch

started fallout 1, good so far
abraker
Eh was hoping for at least B, oh well

Watch Wolf Children
Topic Starter
Patatitta

abraker wrote:

Eh was hoping for at least B, oh well

Watch Wolf Children
sure
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Fallout 1

man this game really shows it's age

I wanted to play fallout 1 and 2 because they're made by interplay and black isle games, the same people that worked on planescape torment a few years later, and planescape torment FUCKS, however, this is their first game it's kinda tough

fallout 1 is a CRPG like baldurs gate, CRPGs where actually a pretty big genre back during that era. I really see what they were trying to do in fallout 1, it's marketed as a apocalyptic RPG, and that is very much true, it very much feels like a tabletop RPG. Just running around the wasteland and doing quests for people, it's an extremely open game, which is both good and bad

first of all, they still haven't figured out that probably being able to mark your quests is a good idea, there is no such thing as a journal in fallout 1, and often you have use a guide to know where to go, as actually wasting time is penalized given that the first quest which will last for around 3/4 of the game has a timer attached to it. Since you can kinda just go anywhere from the start the balancing is really bad which makes the later parts of the game feel very overtuned

I feel all the skills don't have equal importance either, unlike planescape torment where you can beat most of the game without ever fighting, fallout 1 is very much combat oriented.

There isn't really a overarching plot, as I said you kinda just run around and do quests for people, which is a bit of a shame since the writing of this company is actually really good. But I guess it wasn't on the vision on the game which I understand

Placed in C tier, really felt hard to approach

---------

have yet to watch wolf children
next: fallout 2
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Wolf Children

this is really good

Wolf Children is about this girl who has children with this human-wolf hybrid (so human, but still have wolf instincts and can turn into a wolf), which end up also being wolf-human hybrid, the dad dies and the mother has to raise the two kids by herself

The story is really well executed, all of the characters are likeable and developed, it really emotionally hits. Seeing the sacrifices the mother had to make while the kids don't realize it's tough, the constant parallelism between the two siblings is really interesting, which then basically contrasts the difference between living as a wolf and living as a human

however, all three main characters (the mother and the two kids), while living completely different lifes and taking very distinct paths, all of them end up happy, finding meaning in their lifes. It doesn't really stop at saying that there isn't a single correct path in life, but the situation of the mother kinda tells me that it's okay to make mistakes in life, that there can be accidents or find yourself in a really shitty spot and still be able to push through, that there is always a way out and be content with yourself

The story has a lot of subtelty with a lot of it's themes and messaging, I really liked souhei, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the movie finish shortly afters yuki opens up about herself to souhei, as that kinda represents the climax of this character arc of yuki developing feelings of loneliness and finally learning how to trust people. I don't think it really matters that much that souhei could smell the yuki, I really think that the experience yuki had with souhei would really translate into later aspects in their life, it may have been very easy for her to approach souhei, but now that she has done so, it's a lot easier to approach people in general, even if they're quite different or opposed to her

The animation is really great, the actual drawings aren't that detailed but it really does feel fluid and dynamic, the scenes where some objects are in motion with like the wind moving certain objects really do look beautiful

this anime is just really good, placed in A tier

-------

nothing else to watch

started fallout 2
Topic Starter
Patatitta
[url][/url]
DM FOR MUTUAL

Patatitta wrote:

[url][/url]
[url][/url]
Topic Starter
Patatitta

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

[url][/url]
[url][/url]
okay I have no fucking clue what happened there, I don't recall doing that at all
reffty_gag

Patatitta wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

[url][/url]
[url][/url]
okay I have no fucking clue what happened there, I don't recall doing that at all
[url][/url]
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Fallout 2

it's like fallout 1 but better

Fallout 2 uses the same engine and models from fallout 1, a lot of the items are the same, a lot of the enemies are the same, the skills are the same, they're the same game except for the plot and level design, which are massively improved.

First of all, they tried making the skills outside combat more useful, which they did, charisma is actually a good skill now and it's possible to skip combat a lot of the time. The combat still sucks tho.

While it's still a obtuse game, the game is better designed so you don't get lost as much. The writing is also more ambitious in general, however, it's nowhere at the level of their next game, planescape torment

my only real complaint with this game is in the endgame, I don't like the san francisco section, while most of everything in the game could be solved in different ways here they kinda force you to go do certain quests that are just annoying and also I don't like the concept of the power armor, at least it being a requirement in order to clear the game, the difficulty spike in that sense is vertical and I just think it kinda kills a lot of the character building, I don't like having a optimal solution and build in a game like this

I enjoyed the game

placed in B tier

------

next: fallout new vegas (wont be doing 3)
Behrauder
Corne2Plum3

abraker wrote:

Watch Wolf Children
Somehow watched this one years ago and enjoyed it
mizu_chuu
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Needy Girl Overdose

this is not a game I would usually cover but I think it's interesting and I have already played it and this is my thread anyways I do whatever I want

needy girl overdose is a simulator where your girlfriend is mentally ill and she starts a youtube channel, you act as her manager, you need to choose what she should do with her free time and what streams should she do

This in many ways is very similar to the princess maker games, the only real difference is the setting. Both are wish-fullfillment games, in princess maker is raising a daughter and in needy girl overdose is dating a mentally ill girl, both share mechanics but the way they're presented is different. In the princess maker inspired game, volcano princess, you first start by acting as the parent and choosing how to raise it, but after a certain age, you do also get control over the daughter, and it's very interesting because you can make her do certain acts that will increase a corruption stat that will make her disobey your own actions when you're in the POV of the dad. The way needy girl overdose explains why you dictate her whole life is because she is needy and mentally ill and needs it

The game isn't bad as it's just princess maker, but the way it romanticizes mental illness and certain very bad life choices is what gets me. In this game, having her attend to therapy, and completely clean her insanity metter is considered a bad end. You need her to not go completely insane but also to not entirerily for her to be healthy because she is hotter if she's mentally ill

I feel this game is for the unironic audience of this meme


I was going to go into a tangent of why I think "I can fix her frfr" is so popular, but eh, honestly I don't think I really have to explain it or why I think romanticizing this is bad, just going to place it in c rank.

---------

haven't started beast tamer
still playing new vegas
Polyspora
Needy girl overdose is peak
tapperruiii
Undertale Yellow pretty good fr
reffty_gag
"Until Then" (2024, pc game)
Kobold84
Watch Lars and the real girl.
Topic Starter
Patatitta

tapperruiii wrote:

Undertale Yellow pretty good fr
already reviewed


reffty_gag wrote:

"Until Then" (2024, pc game)
already played, it's peak, I will write later


Kobold84 wrote:

Watch Lars and the real girl.
will do
Topic Starter
Patatitta

reffty_gag wrote:

"Until Then" (2024, pc game)
Until Then

Until then is a slice of life visual novel/graphical adventure from the philipines (Making it their real big success in this medium), it follows the life of mark, a kinda problematic student.

at the start this game doesn't really have much plot, as I said, it's a slice of life game, it just follows mark talking to people, the strength of the writing is directly proportional to the writing of the characters, and it just so happens that they have some of the best written characters in history. Every character is extremely charismatic (I fucking love cathy) and they also feel very natural

Until then isn't a game that is just trying to force anything to happen, a big part of the game is just talking to your friends. These friends may have problems, dramas, they may be a little bit sad today, a little bit happy today, and seeing a character sad or happy doesn't necessarily mean that they have something to tell us that will transform the plot and the story and whatever. Sometimes, characters are just sad, and given how we don't always point these things out irl, and we're playing from the eyes of mark, who is a human being, mark doesn't always point these things out.

Following the same principles, there are scenes where you are waiting on a train, so you just look at your phone, you look at social media and see the posts and retweets of your friends, these are not essential but they help develop those characters and also create a really nice atmosphere. Nothing here is vital to the plot, but they're just really neat scenes.

In many ways this game goes against chekhov's gun, it has a lot of things that could be called "unecessary" as they don't connect with the plot in any sort of way, but that really makes the game feel alive, the world isn't made for the player. It being SOL really works with this, as they never feels like these section of the games or aditional dialogue drags, the reason you're here and the reason why you're enjoying this videogame is seeing and talking with these characters, so you don't really care if that information is vital to the plot or not

The setting is also fairly smart, even if I think this was accidental. The game is set in the philippines, this is because the devs are from the philippines, but at the same time, if you're not from the pilippines, the setting is familiar yet fresh. It's still a urban area that you've seen trillion of times, but seeing the different currencies and architecture and stuff makes it feel kinda new

Now, without going into much detail, the game DOES get more plot heavy later on, but it still has that slice of life core, those later segments of the game plays like "how would they lifes be if THIS happened", it is also emotional as fuck

I swear I love cathy cathy is the best I want to protect cathy I want cathy to live a good life so you must imagine my face when they just randomly kill her at the end of the first playthrough like they fucking KNEW I was going to be hyper attached to this character and god she is just so fucking well written, constantly hinting at family problems but still being a human being so she doesn't really open up about it and when mark in the later playthroughs does try to engage her with it is just a really painful scene as they don't really fix anything

also yeah the whole paranormal stuff is amazing but as I said it earlier it's good because it's heavily based on that scene of cathy dying which is fucking amazing and it'ss still a slice of life game from start to end


this game is completely and absolutely amazing, it is my GOTY for 2024, and it is in my top 4 videogames of all time
Lapizote
tiktok has been pushing Until Then to me and it just went on sale

time to try it out, i think i may get an even greater appreciation of the game's setting since i live in it
roshan117
Games: Underhero, Beacon Pines
Topic Starter
Patatitta

roshan117 wrote:

Games: Underhero, Beacon Pines
alerady playerd beacon pines, will write later, need to play underhero
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Beacon Pines

I don't give a shit what anyone says beacon pines is peak

beacon pines is a choose your own adventure type game, the story is told via a narrator, and inside that story you will run around, do things and collect words, then the narrator will hit a blank word, and it's our duty to try to fit a word in that space, every word will completely change the plot going forward, however, there are two true endings, the rest are fail states

The art is pretty good and I generally had a blast playing it, all of the characters are very well written, all of the different routes felt interesting, in many ways it sidesteps a lot of the moral issues of time loop media having you do your best all the time, instead of making other people suffer just for your own benefit or fun.

This game honestly isn't that deep, there isn't that much to talk about, I don't have much thoughts about it, but man, I just had a lot of fun, it's cute, it's comfy, it was engaging, it was pretty, and personally, I'm giving it a S rank.

-------

haven't started beast tamer as of yet, will do now
still playing new vegas
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Beast Tamer

Also known as: The Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From His Party Meets a Cat Girl From the Superior Race

This anime follow the recent isekai trope of x class got kicked from party but turns out to be OP, it's not exactly original, or really have a message, or really tries to do anything, it's just more fantasy (/isekai) anime for people who are into that, and i'm not part of that demographic

tbf, I didn't hate this anime, it's not as agressivily bad as some other anime in this genre. I feel that is because this anime kinda turns down the power fantasy a little bit, there is still a lot of that, but the protagonist is actually likeable and in general there aren't that many fights.

This anime just consists of the protagonist walking around and slowly forming a harem. Honestly i'm impressed the way they combine the power fantasy and the sex appeal. The protagonist is a beat tamer, their skill is that they can get beasts to obey him, thing is, kemonomimis such as catgirls count as beast, so while you own the super op catgirl and that also makes you strong in fights, you also own the catgirl.

Every few episodes there is a new species of kemonomimi with of course, a new size of breasts. Like this anime has everything, the strong powerful girl with big boobs, the smaller, shy girl who is insecure about her boob size, the clueless girl who has medium boobs, and a fucking maid because they ran out of moe fantasy species

While romance in the harem is implied, it never goes anywhere, there is one scene where one girl is "omg why does my heart beat fast around him" but like that's about it. Honestly I don't think they had the story planned out from the start

Like this anime has 13 episodes, episode 12 is CLEARLY a finale but then they realized they had to make a extra episode so they made 13 which honestly teases at a second season but I don't know if that is happening, manga/ln are still ongoing so check out those I guess

Also, every character is as plain as a rock. They only have 1 personality trait each, the hero's group is so absurdly antagonistic it kinda hurts my soul

placed in D rank

-------

next: Lars and the Real Girl
I don't think I have that much of NV left
Topic Starter
Patatitta
lars and the real girl

eh

the plot of this movie is ryan gosling being lonely and developing dellusions that makes him believe a sex doll is his real girlfriend

It may have been good for it's time (2007), as it treats the actual delusion with respect instead of making it the butt of jokes, but compared to what we have nowadays, it feels like it falls short

not really a spoiler but the way ryan gosling solves the delusion is by falling in love for a actual human being, this is a fine ending but I think it's kinda boring in a way?, like, they don't really go very deep at all, a lot of people feel lonely, everyone feels lonely at some point of their life, yet developing dellusions is very, very weird. I dont' feel this movie really represents why their brain did the things that it did, what were the life experiences that led to a such a heavy response as that one

other than that, it's just a very normal romance, I like that it's respectful and the protagonist isn't an asshole (which is hard to find with hollywood romances of that era) but at the same time there are way better romances, placed at C tier

-------------

next: nothing really
still playing nv
Lapizote
i was gonna suggest Helltaker but i take that you're not very fond of puzzle games

so could you try Awaria (another super short game from the same creator as Helltaker)
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Lapizote wrote:

i was gonna suggest Helltaker but i take that you're not very fond of puzzle games

so could you try Awaria (another super short game from the same creator as Helltaker)
sure, also yeah, generally I dislike puzzle games
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Fallout New Vegas

This game is bizarre, mainly because it's a game built on top of a bethesda game and it constantly feels like it's trying to fight against it

The gameplay of fallout new vegas is jsut pretty bad, it's still more comfortable than fallout 1 and 2 (mainly because new vegas is considerably easier), but I respect the gameplay design of those fallouts more. Fallout new vegas has so many straight up unused mechanics, like the karma system, it's there because fallout 3 used it but while you may get the notification ingame it never manifests into anything, you have the limb system that fallout 1 and 2 used but I think it really kills the flow of combat. Fallout 1 and 2 were turn based so you were meant to sit down and just think about it, new vegas is real time, and not only that but a shooter, which is more often than not a adrenalinic genre, so stopping the flow of combat just to roll die is ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

there are survival elements, like crafting and food and stuff, ngl I straight up didn't interact with that part of the game at all, I never felt I needed it.

The game is still more balanced than 1 and 2 but it's very much not balanced, a lot of the skills like survival or unarmed aren't the best, and also you have some overlap in the skills like with barter and speech. However, it's way easier leveling up and getting skill points in new vegas, so putting skill points in the "wrong" skill doesn't mean you're fucked

There is a clear shift in design from fallout 1 and 2. Those were closer to tabletop campaigns, not only in gameplay, but in general how everything was built. It was just "you have a overarching goal, you're trying to reach it, and then just stuff happens on the journey". Even after the switch it was still a "figure it out by your own" type of situation, in fallout new vegas you're ordered around more often, I don't feel it really carries that fantasy as hard as 1 and 2 did.

In 1 and 2 the map was grand, you literally traveled across half the united states. Whenever you traveled across the map the calendar was front and center to just give you a perspective on how big the journey was. But new vegas is 3d, you can't make a map the size of the united states and for it to be fun and also not be 2 quadrillion hours long. Everything is smaller, not only the maps, but the actual settlements are smaller.

Still, it's admirable that the story is as good as it is given all of those problems and difficulties, I don't think they could have done a much better job than they did. They try sidestepping most of these problems. And while they're mostly successful, they still very much feel like sidesteps.

For the scale problem, they just set the entire game around one big battle that happens at the end of the game, the NCR settlements are smaller because they have yet to fully stablish. Caesar legion, while strong, they're kinda dumb and don't have much influence over that inmediate region, for other factions like the brotherhood of steal we've seen much bigger settlements in past games

The game is very much about war. Not about the consequences of war like 1 and 2, but an actual ongoing conflict. There isn't as much back and forth between the different factions because they're meant to be isolated and also enemies with everyone else. The whole game is checking out differnet factikons and kinda learning what their motivations and ideology is.

Still, new vegas kinda places the user as the role of an observer, yes, we're still VERY influential, but when compared to a game like disco elysium, it doesn't really try to explain the nuances and small intricacies of each train of thought and ideology. Instead, it tries simulating and speculating what ideologies would form in a world like the one of fallout, there are familiar ideologies but also some that aren't really that present irl, like the religious technocracy of the brotherhood of steel.

Still, I feel like if they had full control of the gameplay and the base game they would have been able to do a lot more with the plot, the story it's still very much limited by the gameplay and some of the design decisions

they did the best they could in that situation. Honestly I wish they had never done the jump to 3d. Placed in B rank, equal to fallout 2

----

next: underhero
AxisPraxisMDS
good
tapperruiii
play q.u.q very A-rankable ime44 very good composer fr (short-ish game)
Topic Starter
Patatitta

tapperruiii wrote:

play q.u.q very A-rankable ime44 very good composer fr (short-ish game)
this? https://store.steampowered.com/app/2302140/quq/
MangaGrumpy
Hylics
Topic Starter
Patatitta

MangaGrumpy wrote:

Hylics
absolutely banger game already played

---------------------

hylics

peak

hylics is a really strange indie rpgmaker game where every single texture and model in the game was created by creating clay models IRL and then digitalizing it.

This game at a graphical level is just fucking amazing, the claynimation gives everything a fairly unique look, but still, there is a lot of claynimation and like almost nothing looks like hylics, that is because hylics enemies and general setting is really abstract, no living being has a human shape, no environment looks like a landscape you would see irl, the backgrounds are surreal and the colors striking. The hand animations when you cast a spell are so surreal and cool, it's just the zenith of visuals in videogames really

now in terms of gameplay, it's surprisingly good, in hylics (technically until the very end of the game) has no xp system or levelups, which allows the dev to kinda know exactly what resources you're going to have at any given point in the game, allowing them to craft really tight fights where there are often not that many solutions to each combat, making them small puzzles that feel really good to solve.

Honestly I don't know if this is the first game to have turn based combat like this, but it for sure has become slightly more popular in recent times, in many ways the combat systems of games like fear and hunger and felvidek feel very much inspired by hylics (tbf felvidek is entirerily inspired by hylics)

There isn't as much of a plot but there are for sure some themes that the game touches. In general hylics is the complete contrary to every other rpg released prior to hylics, it's agressively avant garde and kinda criticizes and makes innovative use of a lot of the tropes of the genre (such as death/respawn or xp)

easy S rank, btw hylics 2 is even better and hylics 3 has been confirmed to be in developement.

---------

still playing underhero, will start reading q.u.q soon
Topic Starter
Patatitta
q.u.q

feels a bit aimless

q.u.q is a short renpy visual novel like the ones you would find on itch.io (not saying this as a negative), it has really cool art and sound design, but the actual story leaves a little bit to be desired

it's just tries doing too much and it isn't too consistent in what is trying to say, feels a little bit unfocused at times. The atmosphere and tone is really serious but then you also have a lot of comedy which isn't bad by itself, but honestly for me it didn't really land, the story is very abstract and confusing, if it was trying to say something (which it def was) I honestly didn't really get it

there are also a lot of endings, however, they literally manually deleted the "skip seen dialogue until choice" that literally comes defualt with this engine, I feel they just wanted to clean the UI up?, still it makes seeing all the endings really tedious

idk it's fine art is good, placed in b tier
MangaGrumpy
Super Cane Magic Zero
Topic Starter
Patatitta

MangaGrumpy wrote:

Super Cane Magic Zero
seems it's mostly an arcade focused game, I often don't really have much to say about those, so I don't think I will play it
Kobold84
Review Killer7.
However, for some reason I feel like you must've played it.
Review No More Heroes then.
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Kobold84 wrote:

Review Killer7.
However, for some reason I feel like you must've played it.
Review No More Heroes then.
yes, i've played killer7, can still do it if you want, wil note no more heroes tho
Kobold84

Patatitta wrote:

Kobold84 wrote:

Review Killer7.
However, for some reason I feel like you must've played it.
Review No More Heroes then.
yes, i've played killer7, can still do it if you want, wil note no more heroes tho
Yea, would like to hear your thoughts on k7 more so.
Topic Starter
Patatitta
killer7

this game is weird. This is the only game i've played from suda51, apparently all their games are this strange but this is the only one I have tried

killer7 is kinda like a rail shooter?, the gameplay consists of walking around corridors and then a enemy appears so you switch to this first person perspective and then you shoot the enemies like if you were playing time crisis. Unlike rail shooters you do have control on if you want to move forward or backwards, and also there are intersections

The graphics are very unique, not only in the actual very stylized, polygonal models and it's original character design. But also in the camera angles it chooses, like I don't think i've ever seen a game that shows walking from the perspective of the floor



however, this makes the game kinda disorienting and generally hard to control, it's such a unique concept for the gameplay that i'm just not used to it so it did resist me for a lot of the playthrough

Outside shooting, there is also a lot of puzzles, these are generally not too confusing or hard, but the enemies do respawn so it feels kinda punishing to not understand a puzzle first try, but look, I can't even be mad at that, anything as experimental and unique as this is bound to have a few misses

the game sounds great, and i'm not talking about the OST here (which is also cool), I mean the sound effects, they are actually REALLY good sound effects. They're so fat and noticeable, they don't fade into teh background like in many other games, but they take front stage

about the plot, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, stuff happens I guess (like really, killer7 is generally a hard videogame to understand, like, I kinda understand the gist of it and the broader strokes, but like the meaning and stuff of everything is kinda hard to get unless you REALLY stop and think about it for a few weeks, it's probably like really well crafted like everything else in the game, but I just haven't really put the effort in to really internalize it?)

hylics was also a very experimental game, and while I said that game's goal is kinda to do criticize and subvert a lot of the tropes of the genre and videogames in general, I don't think that applies to killer7. I think suda51 just doesn't care, that they just do whatever they want and feels it's right without really comparing itself to the rest of the industry, he's on a totally different path than any other developer (saying this as a positive thing)

also shoutout to susie sumner best character in the game

so basically, this game is painful to play at times, confusing, but god it's a good videogame, I feel playing killer7 is such a unique experience that I don't think I would change anything from it. I once saw a comment online of this game that said "If all games were like Killer7, video games would be horrible. 5 Stars" and honestly agree, banger game but please don't make me ever play another game like killer7

placed in A rank

-------

still playing underhero
McEndu
was balatro played here before
Topic Starter
Patatitta

McEndu wrote:

was balatro played here before
banger game out of the ones nominated in the game awards it was my goty however not the type of game I cover in this thread
mizu_chuu
epic game

Patatitta wrote:

reffty_gag wrote:

"Until Then" (2024, pc game)
Until Then

Until then is a slice of life visual novel/graphical adventure from the philipines (Making it their real big success in this medium), it follows the life of mark, a kinda problematic student.

at the start this game doesn't really have much plot, as I said, it's a slice of life game, it just follows mark talking to people, the strength of the writing is directly proportional to the writing of the characters, and it just so happens that they have some of the best written characters in history. Every character is extremely charismatic (I fucking love cathy) and they also feel very natural

Until then isn't a game that is just trying to force anything to happen, a big part of the game is just talking to your friends. These friends may have problems, dramas, they may be a little bit sad today, a little bit happy today, and seeing a character sad or happy doesn't necessarily mean that they have something to tell us that will transform the plot and the story and whatever. Sometimes, characters are just sad, and given how we don't always point these things out irl, and we're playing from the eyes of mark, who is a human being, mark doesn't always point these things out.

Following the same principles, there are scenes where you are waiting on a train, so you just look at your phone, you look at social media and see the posts and retweets of your friends, these are not essential but they help develop those characters and also create a really nice atmosphere. Nothing here is vital to the plot, but they're just really neat scenes.

In many ways this game goes against chekhov's gun, it has a lot of things that could be called "unecessary" as they don't connect with the plot in any sort of way, but that really makes the game feel alive, the world isn't made for the player. It being SOL really works with this, as they never feels like these section of the games or aditional dialogue drags, the reason you're here and the reason why you're enjoying this videogame is seeing and talking with these characters, so you don't really care if that information is vital to the plot or not

The setting is also fairly smart, even if I think this was accidental. The game is set in the philippines, this is because the devs are from the philippines, but at the same time, if you're not from the pilippines, the setting is familiar yet fresh. It's still a urban area that you've seen trillion of times, but seeing the different currencies and architecture and stuff makes it feel kinda new

Now, without going into much detail, the game DOES get more plot heavy later on, but it still has that slice of life core, those later segments of the game plays like "how would they lifes be if THIS happened", it is also emotional as fuck

I swear I love cathy cathy is the best I want to protect cathy I want cathy to live a good life so you must imagine my face when they just randomly kill her at the end of the first playthrough like they fucking KNEW I was going to be hyper attached to this character and god she is just so fucking well written, constantly hinting at family problems but still being a human being so she doesn't really open up about it and when mark in the later playthroughs does try to engage her with it is just a really painful scene as they don't really fix anything

also yeah the whole paranormal stuff is amazing but as I said it earlier it's good because it's heavily based on that scene of cathy dying which is fucking amazing and it'ss still a slice of life game from start to end


this game is completely and absolutely amazing, it is my GOTY for 2024, and it is in my top 4 videogames of all time

this game made me cry over cathy, i never wanna get attached to a character like how i did with her ever again, buuuut im pretty sure i will

the sad cycle continues and i will forever be in the spiraling grief as well as amazing feeling that this game left me with

really hope the devs come up with something like this again in the near future
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Underhero (Droppped)

This is a paper mario inspired indie RPG, problem is, I don't like paper mario. (In fact I already talked about it in this thread). I got to the jungle underwater maze before I just decided to drop this game, playing it felt like a drag

Underhero is a game where you play as a regular enemy in the last area of a videogame, except that you manage to kill the hero, which wasn't supposed to happen, so your goal is to go back to each zone and return the special badge to each boss, while leveling up and becoming stronger to do a coup. How this turns out later I do not know as I haven't finished the game

The gameplay is very much like paper mario, there is platforming, there is quirky combat and each level up you can upgrade one of three stats of your character, unlike msot rpgs where all your stats level up and you gain a skill or two. This game also operates with very low numbers, something that paper mario did (so like, doing 20 damage to a enemy is A LOT)

the combat feels convoluted, it's real time turn based combat (so think like chrono trigger or ff7) with paper mario type dodges. Also if you're low on energy you can't do any action. Combat has the following commands:

Attack (sword, melee)
Attack (Slingshot, range, you need to aim the slingshot)
Attack (Hammer, melee, slow and consumes more energy but deals more damage)
Dodge (Jump)
Dodge (Duck)
Block (Shield, can be used as a parry, however the shield has durability and you may need to repair it if it breaks)
Talk with the enemy
Bribe the enemy
Rush mode
Use potion

and again, all of that is in real time while you also read and dodge the enemy. It feels like it took the general criticism of rpgs that combat feels boring as you're just menuing all day and it took it to heart, so it's just throwing everything at the wall so you're engaged, in many ways combat feels like a tiktok video with subway surfers at the bottom, but man, I just fail to see how adding more mechanics and "complexity" to the combat really improves the experience. Combat feels very messy, and that is a feeling I dislike. Also in general I just don't like paper mario type combat please give me rpgs where you spend 20 minutes per turn just thinking shoutout to chained echoes

still, the combat is manageable. Leveling up system feels ok in this context as the progress is made by the enemies getting more complex, not necessarily by your character becoming stronger. Tho I feel the damage upgrade kinda overshadows the HP and energy upgrades.

Still, combat would not be enough for me to drop it, what really kills me is the level design. First of all, the game feels like a massive laberynth. Like the second area of the manor was already pretty annoying with all the backtracking and the occasional fetch quest, but the jungle was just awful.

The second problem I have with the general level design is how saving works in this game. First of all, you can only save at saving stations, this is fine, a lot of games do this, it's a good way to control the pace of the game. Problem is when every saving station is like 40 minutes apart from each other. Like really, this game forces you to make long play sessions because there is only like 1 or 2 savespots per zone. At least in fear and hunger it was justified due to it being a survival horror and being very cruel, but on a fucking paper mario inspired game?, let me save the game please

Also, you need to unlock the savestations with gold coins??????????????????? I never had the problem where I didn't have the money to pay a save station, but I just imagine having made like a lot of progress, finally getting a new save spot, you're ready to save and close the game and the game just forces you to keep playing because you spent all of the gold coins in other stuff, that's just AWFUL design, I don't know why even have a mechanic like this

placed in D tier

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next: Awaria

edit: Just noticed I apparently deleted the "how could you do this to me" tier??? when did this happen let me see if I can fix it
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Awaria (skipped)

turns out this is just a short itch.io style minigame and honestly I just have nothing to say about it

next: no more heroes
reffty_gag
i luv how you forgot to add Anohana in the tierlist
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