HaloBlues
2014
I was somewhere in the range of 11-14 when I first played this (God knows what version it was, I can't keep track of them all), which you'd think would psychologically scar me for life, but I came out of it relatively unscathed and with a vested interest in this game that has stuck with me to this day.
The translation is hilariously bad at times - what the hell was "butter up my pooper" about - and the writing verges on blatantly fetishistic in certain places; the developers really, really want you to indulge in their piss kink. Like, they really do.
Disregarding that, I don't think I'll ever stop being fond of Corpse Party. It's one of the games I go out of my way to get all the endings for, including the bad ones I'm usually too tragedy-averse to make myself experience, just because they're all so varied and horrific. The descriptions of death and the victims' notes scattered around the school are evocative and haunting, and everything about the emotion and fear experienced by characters both past and present is so visceral and palpable as you play through it.
This probably has one of the most horrifying 'afterlife' concepts in a game I've played, what with the feeling the pain of your method of death for every second of the rest of eternity while all of your loved ones completely forget you ever existed. Goddamn. And these are kids!
God. I wish more people knew about this series so I could talk about it. What an embarrassing, devastating, fascinating game.
Favourite Male Character: Kizami
Favourite Female Character: Ms. Yui
First Character I Liked: Mayu
Favourite Character Design: Kai
Favourite Moment: Escaping Heavenly Host
Least Favourite Character: The principal
The translation is hilariously bad at times - what the hell was "butter up my pooper" about - and the writing verges on blatantly fetishistic in certain places; the developers really, really want you to indulge in their piss kink. Like, they really do.
Disregarding that, I don't think I'll ever stop being fond of Corpse Party. It's one of the games I go out of my way to get all the endings for, including the bad ones I'm usually too tragedy-averse to make myself experience, just because they're all so varied and horrific. The descriptions of death and the victims' notes scattered around the school are evocative and haunting, and everything about the emotion and fear experienced by characters both past and present is so visceral and palpable as you play through it.
This probably has one of the most horrifying 'afterlife' concepts in a game I've played, what with the feeling the pain of your method of death for every second of the rest of eternity while all of your loved ones completely forget you ever existed. Goddamn. And these are kids!
God. I wish more people knew about this series so I could talk about it. What an embarrassing, devastating, fascinating game.
Favourite Male Character: Kizami
Favourite Female Character: Ms. Yui
First Character I Liked: Mayu
Favourite Character Design: Kai
Favourite Moment: Escaping Heavenly Host
Least Favourite Character: The principal
2020
I usually avoid drawing games because I'm absolutely terrible at it, doubly so when I'm working with a computer instead of my hands, but occasionally my friends will cajole me into some Gartic Phone and it always reminds me that this game is somehow ten times funnier when you suck at it. Though rounds tend to last too long to keep me from getting burnt out after a game, I very rarely come out of this without laughing to the point of tears.
Marking as abandoned because I kind of lost interest in the story and petered off around 3/4s of the way through, and I don't foresee myself going back to it. Not a slight on the game at all, it was pretty fun, graphics were gorgeous, the plot was interesting, it just for some reason hasn't hooked me enough to finish the last quarter.
I don't normally review short games I play to pass time but this was surprisingly scary, actually. Games take a lot to frighten me these days but I really enjoyed the atmosphere - the whistling getting closer to you and the group around the fire suddenly charging for you got me pretty good. It's been a long time since I was so tense during an escape sequence.
2018
Relaxing and mindless - this is the kind of game I play while listening to videos or talking to friends because I don't need to put much focus in.
I do wish there was more content; I think it's a genuine missed opportunity that there's no Community/Workshop integration for custom houses and levels, it was one of the first things I checked for when I started playing because I figured it would be a given. Without it, the game quickly becomes repetitive and runs out of content.
Still, for what it is, it's entertaining enough. Oddly satisfying, as most of these 'cleaning up/tidying' games are.
I do wish there was more content; I think it's a genuine missed opportunity that there's no Community/Workshop integration for custom houses and levels, it was one of the first things I checked for when I started playing because I figured it would be a given. Without it, the game quickly becomes repetitive and runs out of content.
Still, for what it is, it's entertaining enough. Oddly satisfying, as most of these 'cleaning up/tidying' games are.
2008
The briefest glance at my profile means you could probably have predicted how this rating was going to go, but I'll get into it anyway.
This game was probably the single most influential childhood game for me, and the amount of nostalgia I have surrounding it (and the series in general) is incredible. I played this countless times as a kid, as a teenager, and now as an adult - I go back to it every few years and love it just the same as I did back then. It's one of those worlds that transports you right back to the mindset you were in when you first experienced it, and it's one of the few games that genuinely has never gotten old for me.
The atmosphere, the setting, the characters, the music, the combat, the morality system, the gameplay... it's all perfect for me. Could have been catered to me specifically. I love the secrets, the dumb little golden breadcrumb trail, my dog companion, the town crier lines. Just recently I played through this again with my fiancee and it made me realise just how much of this game has wound itself into my inside jokes, my consciousness, my memory. Play the first five seconds of any soundtrack and I'll still know what it is; quote any character's lines and I'll still know who said it; name any location and I'll still be able to tell you how to get there. When someone asks me what my favourite game of all-time is, or for a game that encapsulates me as a person, Fable II is always my answer (occasionally listed alongside The Wolf Among Us).
Favourite Male Character: Reaver
Favourite Female Character: Rose
First Character I Liked: Rose
Favourite Character Design: Garth
Favourite Moment: There are so many I could list, but I'll say either finally escaping the Spire or getting the letter from Rose in the Love/Family ending
Favourite OST: Bowerlake, Oakfield
Least Favourite Character: None
This game was probably the single most influential childhood game for me, and the amount of nostalgia I have surrounding it (and the series in general) is incredible. I played this countless times as a kid, as a teenager, and now as an adult - I go back to it every few years and love it just the same as I did back then. It's one of those worlds that transports you right back to the mindset you were in when you first experienced it, and it's one of the few games that genuinely has never gotten old for me.
The atmosphere, the setting, the characters, the music, the combat, the morality system, the gameplay... it's all perfect for me. Could have been catered to me specifically. I love the secrets, the dumb little golden breadcrumb trail, my dog companion, the town crier lines. Just recently I played through this again with my fiancee and it made me realise just how much of this game has wound itself into my inside jokes, my consciousness, my memory. Play the first five seconds of any soundtrack and I'll still know what it is; quote any character's lines and I'll still know who said it; name any location and I'll still be able to tell you how to get there. When someone asks me what my favourite game of all-time is, or for a game that encapsulates me as a person, Fable II is always my answer (occasionally listed alongside The Wolf Among Us).
Favourite Male Character: Reaver
Favourite Female Character: Rose
First Character I Liked: Rose
Favourite Character Design: Garth
Favourite Moment: There are so many I could list, but I'll say either finally escaping the Spire or getting the letter from Rose in the Love/Family ending
Favourite OST: Bowerlake, Oakfield
Least Favourite Character: None
2018
I have a massive fear of the ocean/open water and giant creatures IN the ocean, and somehow that only accentuates my fascination with this game. I wouldn't call it horror, but if you're anything like me you'll for sure be horrified while playing anyway.
Gorgeous survival and exploration game with a storyline to uncover and varied, interesting creatures, both hostile and friendly.
Gorgeous survival and exploration game with a storyline to uncover and varied, interesting creatures, both hostile and friendly.
2017
GRAPHICS: Horrifying where they need to be, beautiful where they need to be. A genuinely unique and characteristic style that does exactly what it's meant to.
CHARACTERS: There's no spoken dialogue in this game, so you won't be getting to know characters' personalities that way, but you grow fond of them regardless. I wanted to protect Six (and then I was proud of her, and then I was a little freaked out by her), the Lady is eerily beautiful, the Chefs are perfectly revolting, and the first time I saw the Janitor was a shock to the system in the best way possible in a horror game.
GAMEPLAY: Controls can be a little finicky sometimes, but it was never enough to bother me -- only in the sense that some jumps may take a few tries to get the timing and angle right. I never found the 2.5D perspective unfair or misleading when it came to making leaps or deciphering where surfaces were, but a lot of people have complained about that so your mileage may vary; keep it in mind before you play.
MULTIPLAYER: None.
Overall, I prefer the sequel story-wise, but this game has a little place in my heart. Additionally, note that the game only takes ~3 hours to complete, so I would personally feel a little cheated paying the current Steam price of £15.99 for it. I'd advise picking it up on sale.
Favourite OST: The Death Waltz
CHARACTERS: There's no spoken dialogue in this game, so you won't be getting to know characters' personalities that way, but you grow fond of them regardless. I wanted to protect Six (and then I was proud of her, and then I was a little freaked out by her), the Lady is eerily beautiful, the Chefs are perfectly revolting, and the first time I saw the Janitor was a shock to the system in the best way possible in a horror game.
GAMEPLAY: Controls can be a little finicky sometimes, but it was never enough to bother me -- only in the sense that some jumps may take a few tries to get the timing and angle right. I never found the 2.5D perspective unfair or misleading when it came to making leaps or deciphering where surfaces were, but a lot of people have complained about that so your mileage may vary; keep it in mind before you play.
MULTIPLAYER: None.
Overall, I prefer the sequel story-wise, but this game has a little place in my heart. Additionally, note that the game only takes ~3 hours to complete, so I would personally feel a little cheated paying the current Steam price of £15.99 for it. I'd advise picking it up on sale.
Favourite OST: The Death Waltz
2014
This is another one where I don't fully get the "this is the scariest game ever!" perspective. I think it's spooky, it has a great atmosphere, but I wasn't particularly scared during it, perhaps because I went into it knowing that it was only a demo and that everything was very scripted moment-to-moment rather than depending on my actions or errors?
Aside from that, though, it's a shame this was cancelled. A Kojima and Junji Ito collab is something I've been talking about wanting for a long time, and I think the full version of this could have drawn me in lore/plot-wise pretty well too, judging by the hints we got of it here. I enjoy some of the "P.T.-likes" we ended up getting with other games, but I'll always wonder what P.T. itself would have been.
Aside from that, though, it's a shame this was cancelled. A Kojima and Junji Ito collab is something I've been talking about wanting for a long time, and I think the full version of this could have drawn me in lore/plot-wise pretty well too, judging by the hints we got of it here. I enjoy some of the "P.T.-likes" we ended up getting with other games, but I'll always wonder what P.T. itself would have been.
2016
A shorter and less serious review than usual, but I feel like this game's major sticking point to me is its potential. Even though I've long since gotten over the promise Versus XIII had, I still wonder what it would have entailed - and then there's the lost potential of what we did get, in Luna and Niflheim and Ravus and Regis, the relationships and characters and storylines that could have been so much more than they were.
But we got Ignis. And him and his relationship with Noctis, as well as his DLC, are carrying two of these three stars on their backs for me. Love you team mom.
Favourite Male Character: Ignis
Favourite Female Character: Gentiana, Crowe if we're counting Kingsglaive
First Character I Liked: Ignis
Favourite Character Design: Ignis (I'm seeing a pattern)
Favourite OST: Calling for Rain
Favourite Scene: Ignis putting on the ring in Episode Ignis
Least Favourite Character: I actually can't think of any
But we got Ignis. And him and his relationship with Noctis, as well as his DLC, are carrying two of these three stars on their backs for me. Love you team mom.
Favourite Male Character: Ignis
Favourite Female Character: Gentiana, Crowe if we're counting Kingsglaive
First Character I Liked: Ignis
Favourite Character Design: Ignis (I'm seeing a pattern)
Favourite OST: Calling for Rain
Favourite Scene: Ignis putting on the ring in Episode Ignis
Least Favourite Character: I actually can't think of any
GRAPHICS: Gorgeous and consistent visuals, realistic character designs, impressive mo-cap animation and facial expressions.
CHARACTERS: All solid, though they vary in quality. Connor's story is widely regarded as the best part of the game, while Kara's and Markus' are more divisive. Side characters are endearing when meant to be, infuriating when meant to be, and a broad range between. My personal favourites were Connor and Hank and their found family buddy cop dynamic, Simon and his quiet support, and Ralph and his zany unpredictability.
DIALOGUE/WRITING: I think it's overhated. Sure, the racism allegories are clumsy and obvious, but I'll take well-meaning in-your-face anti-racism sentiments over none at all. The branching paths are incredible, and the flowcharts after each chapter make it clear to see how much work has gone into diverging playthroughs and choices. I do think some things that were cut are a shame, though, such as the Markus/Simon relationship, especially as they left certain scenes leading up to it in which can be jarring. In the same vein, the fact that meeting North on the rooftop and being vaguely friendly to her (as in, literally any response that isn't straight-up leaving before the conversation begins) immediately shoots you to "Lovers" status even if you were rivals or mere acquaintances before was bizarre at best.
GAMEPLAY: If you're not a fan of QTE sequences and Telltale-esque gameplay loops, you probably won't be a fan of it here, but fortunately I am so I enjoyed it. The beginning of Kara's story can be quite slow (though oddly doing chores in-game is way more therapeutic than doing them in real life), but frankly the beginning of most games are slow on replays, so that's not all that surprising. Some of the QTE sequences are genuinely fast-paced and exciting -- a favourite that sticks out in my mind is a chase scene over the rooftops with Connor which was so fun to play I actually reloaded to do it again.
MULTIPLAYER: None.
I will say, though, that the plot twist with Alice was extremely stupid and completely ruined the entire point of her and Kara's story arc up to that point. No clue who thought that was a good idea.
Favourite Male Character: Connor
Favourite Female Character: Alice
First Character I Liked: Alice
Favourite Character Design: Ralph, Rose
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: The 'good ending' montage - I cried
Least Favourite Character: Perkins
CHARACTERS: All solid, though they vary in quality. Connor's story is widely regarded as the best part of the game, while Kara's and Markus' are more divisive. Side characters are endearing when meant to be, infuriating when meant to be, and a broad range between. My personal favourites were Connor and Hank and their found family buddy cop dynamic, Simon and his quiet support, and Ralph and his zany unpredictability.
DIALOGUE/WRITING: I think it's overhated. Sure, the racism allegories are clumsy and obvious, but I'll take well-meaning in-your-face anti-racism sentiments over none at all. The branching paths are incredible, and the flowcharts after each chapter make it clear to see how much work has gone into diverging playthroughs and choices. I do think some things that were cut are a shame, though, such as the Markus/Simon relationship, especially as they left certain scenes leading up to it in which can be jarring. In the same vein, the fact that meeting North on the rooftop and being vaguely friendly to her (as in, literally any response that isn't straight-up leaving before the conversation begins) immediately shoots you to "Lovers" status even if you were rivals or mere acquaintances before was bizarre at best.
GAMEPLAY: If you're not a fan of QTE sequences and Telltale-esque gameplay loops, you probably won't be a fan of it here, but fortunately I am so I enjoyed it. The beginning of Kara's story can be quite slow (though oddly doing chores in-game is way more therapeutic than doing them in real life), but frankly the beginning of most games are slow on replays, so that's not all that surprising. Some of the QTE sequences are genuinely fast-paced and exciting -- a favourite that sticks out in my mind is a chase scene over the rooftops with Connor which was so fun to play I actually reloaded to do it again.
MULTIPLAYER: None.
I will say, though, that the plot twist with Alice was extremely stupid and completely ruined the entire point of her and Kara's story arc up to that point. No clue who thought that was a good idea.
Favourite Male Character: Connor
Favourite Female Character: Alice
First Character I Liked: Alice
Favourite Character Design: Ralph, Rose
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: The 'good ending' montage - I cried
Least Favourite Character: Perkins
2010
GRAPHICS: Dated now for sure, but gorgeous when I first played in my childhood/early teens. Not so bad now that it takes away from my enjoyment of the game, but I'm fueled by nostalgia and a general preference for story > graphics anyway, so your mileage may vary.
CHARACTERS: Genuinely iconic and full of life. John is beloved in gaming history for a reason, and I've loved Bonnie since I first played. Even characters with less obvious depth, like Bill and Javier, are seen through a completely different lens if you go back to this after playing RDR2.
GAMEPLAY: Typically Rockstar - a little clunky, LR + aim to shoot, ride around on a horse. Using the clunk to throw John around on the floor when he's drunk entertained younger me for longer than it should have.
Favourite Male Character: John
Favourite Female Character: Bonnie
First Character I Liked: John
Favourite Character Design: John
Favourite OST: Far Away, Deadman's Gun
Favourite Scene: Riding into Mexico for the first time
Least Favourite Character: Ross
CHARACTERS: Genuinely iconic and full of life. John is beloved in gaming history for a reason, and I've loved Bonnie since I first played. Even characters with less obvious depth, like Bill and Javier, are seen through a completely different lens if you go back to this after playing RDR2.
GAMEPLAY: Typically Rockstar - a little clunky, LR + aim to shoot, ride around on a horse. Using the clunk to throw John around on the floor when he's drunk entertained younger me for longer than it should have.
Favourite Male Character: John
Favourite Female Character: Bonnie
First Character I Liked: John
Favourite Character Design: John
Favourite OST: Far Away, Deadman's Gun
Favourite Scene: Riding into Mexico for the first time
Least Favourite Character: Ross