Is it close to the Silent Hills of old? No not particularly.

Does it absolutely stumble on getting across some of its ideas and concepts? Yeah.

Are the chase sequences a bit rough? Yeah.

I still really fucked with this and everything it was doing. It gave me a dose of what I've wanted from Silent Hill for a long time, it had a vision and it sees that vision all the way through while trying to mix things up a bit.

I think it handles its themes of trauma and abuse trapping someone emotionally within cycles of self destructive and self distancing behaviors causing lashing out at anything that harms the ego and whatever normalcy one can cling onto fairly well.

I feel like even if it was a bit heavy handed at times (the beginning really tries to hammer home how depressed Anita is in ways that feel really corny) I cannot ignore the earnestness and the willingness to just fuckin try something here. The art direction, the atmosphere, the music, the tones.

No it's not Silent Hill 3 but it worked for me and captured me in ways that I really didn't expect. That last chunk of the game really fuckin hit me.

It's not Silent Hill 2, it's not PT, therefore it is worthless I guess. Sure, the writing can be a little clunky but I think it is trying to explore horrific themes in a way that is not at all out of place for the series. The atmosphere, sound design, and score are pretty great and the story loop is legitimately enticing. Even for how short it is, it does lack some focus but it definitely lands on its feet and is ultimately a game with a positive message that's actually about something. I think it is fine to not like this for its execution, but to criticize it for daring to tackle difficult topics is kind of ridiculous.

The sentiment towards the game has seemed to have turned towards negativity, and it makes me pretty sad, because I really really enjoyed my time in Starfield. Maybe it's because it was my first time diving into a Bethesda RPG, so the commonplace issue others had might not have been as prevelant to me?

I loved building my own ship up, and working to discover the artifacts, and joining space pirates, and becoming a space sheriff afterwards, and on and on and on. I feel like I did so much in this game, and that was without touching anything that was procedurally generated.

Back when I was a kid my older brother got this game after seeing me struggle so much trying to play BoF IV. He didn't really like it that much, we were big JRPG heads and anything that didn't look or play like Final Fantasy was discarded as a waste of time. I thought it looked pretty cool tho so it always hovered somewhere in the back of my mind.

Over the years i've only heard this game mentioned as the "bad one", "the one that's plays badly", etc etc.

After my BoF IV replay I was willing to give it a shot cause I was always fascinated by the concept of "you're stuck underground and your journey is to make it to the outside world." Turns out I shouldn't ever trust other people's opinion on video games because it was one of the most enjoyable game I've played in the recent years. The combat system is phenomenal, and the constant anxiety of trying to outrun the constantly ticking time limit is something I've never seen in a game before, nor since.

I'm a big sucker for metanarratives, and I get what they were shooting for here. Stumbling through these longs dungeons that have no checkpoints, that constant doomsday clock ticking over your head, the lack of safe area where you can just relax and heal up. You get none of that, you have to spend every little ressources trying to move forward and get no chance to catch your breath. Why would you anyway? The air is disgustingly polluted so there is no reason to stop until the end of your journey.

But by far the best part about this game is those extremely hard and unfair boss fights at the end of each dungeons. I was annoyed at first, but then Bosch said "Protect your friends or save yourself, you can't do both !" and suddenly I understood. They are meant to be unfair because the game gives you a choice every single time: will you start over from a previous save so you can be stronger and more efficient (saving your friends by hurting yourself), or will your be selfish and summon the Dragon to make the boss easy? (Saving yourself by hurting Nina). After struggling for so long I decided Nina shouldn't be the one to suffer for my dumb mistakes, and I replayed the entire game without using the Dragon form until the very end, and I'm so glad I did.

I want to save Nina. TO THE SKY!

A fantastic remake of one of my favorite games. It's a fun return to a simpler time when RPGs didn't bloat themselves out with a pointlessly large map and needless side quests to slow down your progress in order to justify their existence. This is not a long game, I beat it in less than 15 hours and did plenty of the optional side quests. This game is endlessly charming and absolutely worth a revisit if you had played the original, or if you missed out on the original, then this is a great opportunity to play a classic game for the first time.

Buena parte de los que escribimos estas reseñas venimos de una posición de privilegio que necesita autoflagelarse de lo mundano de nuestras vidas, mientras en muchos otros lugares del mundo no pueden permitirse una fracción de todo lo que hay a nuestro alcance. Es una realidad obvia e incómoda de recordar, la cual tiende a negarse porque ciertamente, los problemas de primer mundo siguen siendo problemas y afectan principalmente a la salud mental de las personas. Como un acto mecánico o escudo de protección, muchos anteponen sus flaquezas buscando el ejercicio de superarlas o evitar que puedan dañar a otras personas. La verdad sigue ahí presente empero, y la deriva estoicista que ciertos energúmenos difunden en redes sociales invita a menospreciar todo aquello que no nos incumbe directamente ("los menas"). Pero con ello obviamos el arma más poderosa que tenemos como seres humanos: mostrar nuestro apoyo a quién lo necesita. Levantar la voz por una causa justa y dialogar con otras personas para encontrar puntos en común. Por muy simple que sea el gesto, aunque falte la valentía para hacer campaña o tomar acción, todo cuenta.

'Liyla y las sombras de la guerra' casi no es un videojuego, pero ese casi es necesario dada la naturaleza en la que Rasheed Abueideh desarrolló (y otras dos personas colaboraron) este software durante 2 años, en evidentes condiciones de pobreza y bajo el estado de vigilancia al que su pueblo se ve sometido asidualmente. En apenas 10 minutos somos testigos de las penurias de los palestinos en su día a día, concentrados en una tira de escenas protagonizadas por el padre de Liyla y sus esfuerzos banales por proteger a su hija de la tragedia. Es muy simple, muy tosco, y los controles parecen programados a pelo entre el código mientras aparenten funcionar bien. Pero no es importante para entender la función protesta que busca su creador, enfocada principalmente en los 51 días de conflicto (oficiales) entre Israel y Hamas durante 2014, con escenificaciones basadas en hechos reales, verificadas por organismos internacionales y Naciones Unidas. Pasadas por un filtro oscuro propio de 'LIMBO' y una imagen cruda, sólo colorida por el despliegue armamentístico de las fuerzas sobre las cuales intentan esconderse.

En 2023, su mensaje es más relevante que nunca dado el protagonismo que ha recibido el conflicto en los medios de comunicación, tras la ofensiva más contundente y genocida que se recuerda del estado israelí en tiempo. Algún sionista ofendido clamará ante el uso que se hace de los niños de este software para provocar al llanto y el sentimentalismo barato, obviando que casi el 40% de la población palestina no llega a los 12 años, y apenas el 2% puede contar su historia al alcanzar la tercera edad. Difícil calificarlo como capcioso o reducirlo a propaganda de una organización terrorista que los emplea como escudos humanos (¡la osadía de construir edificios en sus propios terrenos!). También resulta absurdo relegarlo a la categoría de "videojuego político", cuando básicamente todos los son. Todo videojuego manifiesta posturas e intenciones según lo que enseña en pantalla y lo que no; todo lo que obvia es precisamente todo lo que no quiere que hablemos o dejemos aparcado por lo que considera irrelevante. Querer evadirse del problema no lo hará menos real si cabe, aunque están en su derecho de ignorarlo si así lo consideran.

En 'Liyla y las sombras de la guerra' habrá momentos que debas tomar decisiones para evitar un destino trágico, pero a la larga (corta, vista la duración del juego) se tornan inútiles puesto que el final parece establecido de antemano, y se juega día a día en sus calles. Fuera del alcance de cualquier civil amparado a su suerte, representados en la figura principal de la niña muerta en brazos, sus sueños rotos e inocencia desquebrajada. Visto que la solución a "un conflicto complejo" para identificar dos naciones no tiene visos de llegar pronto, y visto que Joe Biden prefiere jugarse sus ambiciones para ser re-elegido en 2024 descontentando ambas partes (suerte que tendrá un capullo integral como oponente), el videojuego político seguirá siendo necesario para concienciar al público de una parte de la guerra todavía muy desconocida e ignorada. Y aunque todo pueda no ser tan blanco o negro como lo cuenten, obviar la humanidad detrás de esta masacre no es óbice para justificar las atrocidades que se cometen y el impacto que dejan en sus ciudadanos. Los verdaderos olvidados de todo conflicto bélico.

PD: el juego está sorprendentemente traducido al español (el único idioma occidental además del inglés por defecto) y formó parte de un megabundle de itch.io en 2021 cuyos fondos fueron destinados a víctimas del pueblo palestino.

This game is a let down. There is a lot to like about it, but the game feels all over the place. Some levels are fun, others are a chore. A lot of the wonder flower parts were genuinely a delight and put a big smile on my face, but the rest of the game felt so painfully average for a Mario game. The difficulty is also randomized. The hardest levels were in the earliest parts of the game and the final levels felt like a breeze. The final level, Bowser's Castle, had a 5-star difficulty rating, and it was by far one of the easiest levels. I had higher hopes for this one and just didn't care for it. I don't hate it, but I have no desire to replay it. I have never not wanted to go back and get all the things I missed in a Mario game, until now.