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I'm Tessa. I have interesting taste I hope, but its a bit cringe. Hope you can divine something. I know my takes can be kind of obtuse at times, but who's aren't.
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Favorite Games

Higurashi When They Cry
Higurashi When They Cry
Corruption of Champions
Corruption of Champions
Demons Roots
Demons Roots
Half-Life
Half-Life
Arknights
Arknights

263

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Recently Reviewed See More

Arkane are masters of the 7/10 stealth shooter. Somehow, skipping the live-service game they were presumably forced to make by publishers, they have only ever released 7/10 games. It's honestly impressive.

The good news, this game is jank. It's one step removed from Deus Ex in how clowny you can get with the engine, there's a fine layer of "this doesn't feel like it works right..." to basically every element of the game, in a good way. This, combined with the almost Hitman-like approach to level design makes the game actually do a good job of creating your fun as you pilot your clown of an assassin through each level.

The bad news is like, everything else. One thing I've come to truly hate in games like these is the pacifism v violence conflict. This game is basically screaming at you to be a nice guy and play pacifist stealth, but its just so dumb because in like every stealth shooter, you end up not using a solid 60% of the game mechanics, doubly so in this game because using your cool mobility in combat would be sick as hell! If you were incentivized to do so in any case.

The story is some nonsense about like revenge idk it doesn't matter--Hitman don't need a story beyond the levels either. It tries to do something slightly deep by making the non-lethal options for the bosses of each level fates worth than death, but its really hard to care when no one has any personality and they all look like shit lol.

I don't even think the setting is particularly cool, it just feels like a dingy city with mild steampunk aesthetic and a random elder god watching it. Which like, the literal last game I played was Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows and buddy--this ain't no Sona-Nyl.

idk there isn't much to talk about. Do you like 7/10 stealth shooters? That's what this is!

I was first introduced to the writing of Hikaru Sakurai via Fate/Grand Order. In that fandom, at least in the west, she's seen as something of a pariah--a very poor writer who can't rein in her otome tendencies and writes bad deus ex machina plots. I've never really agreed with that criticism, I think her arcs in that game are mostly fine if strangled a bit by early-game weirdness or being forced to do Main Plot Stuff and not asmuch use her voice. I've always wondered what her writing was like outside the context of Type-Moon.

Which leads me to Sona-Nyl. Although not the first game of hers to be translated into english, it was the one I was pointed to as being "actually good". And, well, it was!

The thing that stood out to me was the quality of the prose. Even through translation, it is immediately and clearly apparent that the writing from the moment you start Sona-Nyl comes from a different, more literary place than most of its contemporaries. It's use of rhythm and repetition, short but flowery description, and fuzzy emotions are all just really beautiful and help elevate the material throughout the game.

Like, the structure of the story means that in each chapter of the game there is a lot of repeated narration passages--like, literally word for word repeated 6+ times. In the hands of weaker writers, this would have been miserable and an obvious way to kill the pacing of the game, but here just by how the script is and how the narrative unfolds, I ended up relishing each time they'd repeat the passages and it gives them so much more meaning as you learn more of the world.

Of course, all the beautiful writing in the world wouldn't matter if the core narrative wasn't good, which is also the case here--the twin stories of Elysia exploring the ruins of New York while Lily explores the fantasy underground entwine in a way that gives the story a strong structure that both leans into the story's message and the greater meaning of the series.

Like, there's a clockwork-like precision to the narrative and prose that tie together that really make this work feel steampunk not just in setting, but in the actual words as well. It's something I've really never seen executed here and makes it a better steampunk work than most anything else I've read. But there's an inhumanity to it just as much, a certain unease that comes across that also pushes absurd ethereal world the characters live in. Its just...beautiful.

I don't really know what else to add. It's a very different take on this sort of science-fantasy than you'll find anywhere else in the visual novel field, let alone outside of it. It instantly sold me on reading as much of Sakurai's works as possible, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

These sorts of narrative games serve an important place in the economy by giving e-girls and white guys who say things like "heckin doggo" something to stream to their audience of 600 people for special occasions.

That doesn't make them good though.