Gran parte del mérito de Halfquake Amen reposa en ser el primero en muchas cosas, pero también en ser el puente de otras. Es el trasvase del estilo de juego kusoge y tramposo del mundillo mod con un vestido de obra experimental, casi vanguardista. El tipo de extensión de Half-Life que no solías ver en la época, pero lo bastante lleno de referencias y chistes facilones como para reconocer de dónde viene. Al mismo tiempo, es sorprendente lo mucho que este juego se adelantó tanto a la avalancha de juegos indie basados en puzzles 3D (ya hablé de Portal en el primer Halfquake, pero aquí me acuerdo más de Antichamber) como a los Escape The Room de Flash. La existencia de Halfquake es una demostración fehaciente de lo compleja, rica, variada y, al mismo tiempo, tan inmadura y tontorrona que era esta escena en un momento tan clave de la historia del medio, y me alegro muchísimo de que pueda seguir jugándose a día de hoy.

Ni qué decir tiene que lo que peor ha envejecido no ha sido el diseño troll ni el hecho de que te hagan esperar 20 minutos literales en un momento determinado, sino el que tengas que saltar tanto en un juego de GoldSrc, lo que debería estar penado por la ley a estas alturas.

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Much of Halfquake Amen's merit lies in being the first in many things, but also in being a nexus to many others. It's the meeting of kusoge and asshole-ish game design from several mod scenes with an experimental, almost avant-garde presentation. The kind of Half-Life expansion you didn't use to see back in the day, but full enough of references and lame jokes to recognize where it's coming from. At the same time, it's surprising how far this game was ahead its time both in how it conceives of 3D puzzles (I talked about Portal in the first Halfquake, but here I'm reminded of Antichamber) and the Flash scene's Escape The Room subgenre. The existence of Halfquake is proof of how complex, rich, varied and, at the same time, so immature and silly this scene was at such a key moment in the history of the medium, and I'm really glad that it can still be played today.

Needless to say, what has aged the worst is not the troll-ish design decision to make you wait literally 20 minutes at one point, but the fact that you have to jump around so much in a GoldSrc game, which should be punishable by law by now.

En muchos aspectos, la obra cumbre de Sad3d. Su capacidad para trasladar la alienación e inutilidad del mundo contemporáneo al entorno 3D, pasando por miles de tradiciones (desde el motor Source hasta la época actual de Backrooms) y aterrizando con un mensaje sobre el mundo actual que sólo aumentará en relevancia cuanto peor vayan las cosas.

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Sad3d's crowning achievement, in several ways. Its ability to translate the alienation and futility of contemporary society on a 3D environment, going through thousands of traditions (from the Source engine to the current Backrooms era) and landing with a story about today's world that will only increase in relevance the worse things get.

una decepción considerablemente inferior al primer Vampire's Melody en todos los aspectos y eso que el primero tampoco es que fuese muy bueno... lo único en lo que podría destacar serían en los minijuegos pero es que ni siquiera considero eso como algo positivo cuando se siente algo fuera de lugar y de relleno que es castrante en vez de divertido y que vino a reemplazar el sistema de decisiones y múltiples finales que era de lo rescatable del primero.

dudo que alguien aquí me siga desde que hacía reviews en mi blog personal (el cual está abandonado desde hace años), pero una de las cosas que decía desde esa época es que AsicxArt era una desarrolladora con potencial porque aunque la calidad de sus VNs no eran las mejores, se notaba que se esforzaban en crear algo de calidad y si seguían así estaba seguro de que crearían una obra que genuinamente fuese de calidad. hace más de 3 años terminé su última VN que tenían que era el primer Vampire's Melody y sin mentir cada cierto tiempo me solía meter a la página de la desarrolladora de Steam para ver si estaban desarrollando alguna nueva obra y así estuve por unos años hasta que se me olvido de la existencia de esta desarrolladora...

no fue sino hasta que empecé a pasar las reviews de mi viejo blog a backloggd que me toco hacerla con las obras de esta desarrolladora y por curiosidad me metí a su perfil para ver si habían sacado un nuevo trabajo en este tiempo y ahí fue cuando varios meses después de que saliera Vampire's Melody 2 fue que me entere de su existencia... tal vez sea por mi manera de ver las cosas a comparación del yo de hace 4 años o tal vez sea porque tengo mucha más experiencia en el nicho de VNs y soy demasiado crítico en ese aspecto, pero retiro lo dicho que dijo el Diener de esa época, dudo que AsicxArt realmente llegue a sacar una obra competente e incluso si llegan a sacar otros trabajos dudo que sean destacables. sinceramente, ni siquiera sé si seguirán haciendo más VNs o esta será la última, ya que se demoraron demasiados años para sacar algo nuevo cuando en el pasado mínimo 1 vez al año sacaban algo.

Jajjaja mírame, leí Subahibi así que soy alguien culto. Me sentí super identificado con Takuji, ambos pensamos igual super yo amiga 😍👌

En fin, dejando ese slang (real de lado), Subahibi indudablemente es una excelente obra y si alguien logro terminar de leerlo completo tiene mis respetos ya que si pudiste leerlo (sin saltarte ninguna escena) entonces pasar la barrera que hay entre los normies que dicen que leen Visual Novels y los que de verdad nos gusta este nicho y llevamos años en él leyendo Visual Novels de verdad y no shovelware occidental o esas mierdas.

No digo que Subahibi sea la VN más cruda o algo así, pero sí que si pudiste terminarlo entonces estas preparado para prácticamente cualquier cosa en este nicho puesto que Pudiste leer +50 horas, pudiste instalar un parche que desbloquea todo el contenido, tuviste fuerza mental para ver escenas que ningún otro medio se atrevería a mostrar, pudiste ver escenas +18 con menores de edad sin ponerte a chillar, cosas que cuando lees VNs te terminaras encontrando por lo que ya con esto demuestra que eres capaz de soportar esas cosas sin problemas, cosas que muchas personas no aguantan o se ofenden.

Sobre la obra bueh, hice mi review en steam hace varios años cuando lo termine, pero me terminaron eliminando esa review y me da paja volver a escribir algo a lo que le metí esfuerzo... Pero puedo decir que no por nada Subahibi es considerada tanto una de las mejores obras del género como también una de las más sobrevaloradas. Diría que ambas son válidas, pero que lo de "Sobrevalorado" no te tire para atrás, no es "'Sobrevalorado" como DDLC, Katwa shoujo o Danganronpa, que al final son simplemente obras mediocres alabadas solo por la gente que no está dentro del género, sino que esta "Sobrevalorada" por la propia comunidad y eso significa que puede que lo odies, pero indudablemente es una obra de calidad y no es menos sabiendo quién es el autor que está detrás.

En resumen: Un must read para todo usuario de este nicho y puede que al final termines odiándolo porque a mucha gente le gusta o puede que te termine encantando, pero independientemente de cuál sea el resultado, es algo que sí o si todos los que les interesa este nicho tienen que leer al menos 1 vez en su vida.

PD: Instalen el parche de voz y el parche de restauración total (Si, total... Ninguna "censura"). Ambos son hechos por fans y tendrás la experiencia definitiva.

Salvando el cuestionable gusto de las secuencias musicales y valorando una primera partida a ciegas y no rejugadas buscando el completismo, A Highland Song presenta una estampa abierta de una Escocia llena de misterios y secretos. Lo cultural y lo mitológico a través de la naturaleza. Si Breath of the Wild mataba la magia de su mundo una vez descubierto lo artificial de su diseño, A Highland Song solventa este problema relacionando las colinas que trepas con folklore real, dándole una proyección mayor que la del microverso que se pueda inventar el videojuego. Y esta narración de leyendas autóctonas, proyectada en una exploración protagonista. Con todos los acertijos confluyendo en la interpretación y navegación del entorno y todas los cuentos e historias retornando hacia los lugares que pisas. Porque no solo va de conquistar terreno, sino de reconectar con esta tierra.

Necesitaría mucho más que unas pocas líneas para intentar describir los altibajos emocionales que Void Stranger me ha provocado. Incomprensión e incomodidad, interés y fascinación, rabia y melancolía, alegría y asombro, y finalmente, un tono agridulce al que me alegro de haber jugado. Por cada piso que pude terminar por mi cuenta, hubo tres que tuve que buscar la solución online; por cada mural que descifré, dos que no hubiera entendido jamás; y por cada escena de culpa católica enmarcada en personajes estereotípicos que me hizo apretar los dientes de la indignación, hubo tres que me hicieron sentir que estaba tocando de verdad al autore.

Decimos que los juegos son obras personales de la misma forma que decimos que detrás de cada obra de arte se sobreentiende siempre cierto esfuerzo y horas de trabajo: como una convención comodona, destinada a reafirmar nuestra decisión de dedicar el poco tiempo que tenemos de vida a un arte que seguramente no posea ni la mitad de humanidad que el poema más parco. Con Void Stranger sentí que experimentaba arte y basura a partes iguales, y en ese sentido, es un juego que me ha hecho pensar más que nunca en mi relación con este medio que me ha traído tantas alegrías y tantas, tantas decepciones.

Puedes admirar Void Stranger por la inquina mentalidad puesta a la hora de diseñar según que puzzles, y puedes detestarlo por su tendencia casi obsesiva a la ofuscación, que en más de una ocasión me hicieron querer cortar del todo. También puedes reconocer su intrincada narración, digna de cierta escuela de diseño post-Undertale que pareció tomar como única lección el accidente de Gaster. Pero para mí, lo que tiene valor de esta maraña de modos extra es el hecho de que, al final del día, el mensaje siempre es el mismo, el de la importancia de aprender a amar. En los momentos en que es así de simple, Void Stranger me agarra de verdad, y en los momentos en que deja relucir sus partes más avergonzadas, es cuando me irrita de verdad.

Así que le pongo un 4, porque supongo que un 5 quedaría reservado para los juegos que me afectan a un nivel estrictamente personal o me parecen encapsulaciones ideales de una forma que no siempre sabré explicar, puedo afirmar sin ninguna duda que hay muchas cosas en Void Stranger que no me gustan. Pero no puedo negar que me ha hecho pensar de un modo que pocas obras, irónicamente desde Undertale, lograron.

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I would need much more than a few lines to describe the emotional ups and downs that Void Stranger has provoked in me. Incomprehension and discomfort, interest and fascination, anger and melancholy, joy and wonder, and finally, a bittersweet note that I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience. For every floor I was able to finish on my own, there were three I had to look up the solution online for; for every mural I deciphered, two of them I would never have guessed on my own; and for every scene of Catholic guilt framed by stereotypical characters that made me cringe in indignation, there were three that made me feel like I was really reaching the author.

We say that games are personal works in the same way that there's always some effort put behind everything, in the sense that we use to reaffirm our life choice to devote so much of our precious time on Earth to an art form that probably doesn't have as much humanity within it as the shortest poem. With Void Stranger I felt like I was experiencing art and dreck on several occasions, and in that sense, it is a game that has made me think more about my relationship with a medium that has brought me so much joy and yet so much disappointment than many others.

You can admire Void Stranger for its devilish attitude towards puzzle design, and you can loathe it for its almost obsessive tendency to obfuscation, which made me want to quit it many times. You can also recognize its intricate storytelling, worthy of a post-Undertale school of design that took Gaster's accidental fame as its main bullet point. But for me, what's valuable about this mess of a title is the fact that, at the end of the day, the message remains the same: That of the importance of being loved. When it's that simple, is when it grabs me better. And when it's much more dishonest and shameful is when it really irritates me.

So I give it a 4, because I suppose a 5 should be reserved for games that affect me on a very personal level or encapsulate an ideal form of gaming that I'm not always good at explaining. I can state without a doubt that there are many things in Void Stranger that I don't like. But I can't deny that it has made me think in a way that few works, ironically since Undertale, managed to do.

Es increíble lo tantísimo que esto grita "soy de 2001". En muchos aspectos, Halfquake es la prueba fehaciente de que el modelo de juego que Portal hizo popular venía siendo habitual entre modders desde finales de los 90 si no antes. Aquí diría que demasiadas pruebas se basan en encuentros con enemigos y en hacerte caminar de un lado a otro del mismo pasillo mientras tratas de averiguar qué ha cambiado. Es un diseño bastante burdo y que espero que se haya refinado un poco en las siguientes entregas de la saga.

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It's amazing how much this screams "I'm from 2001". In many ways, Halfquake is proof that the gameplay model that made Portal popular had been commonplace among modders since the late 90s if not earlier. Here I'd argue that too much design is based on enemy encounters and making you walk back and forth down the same hallway while trying to figure out what's changed. It's a rather crude design and one that I hope has been refined a bit in the next instalment.

Presentándose como una transcripción aleatoria de pensamientos inconexos e imágenes descontextualizadas, Loneliest Depths sólo funciona si consigues, de algún modo, situarte en una espiral de decadencia similar a la que podría tener alguien que sufre de catastrofismo. Esta es una forma un poco rebuscada de decir que no soy capaz de encontrarle sentido a esta sucesión de imágenes, independientemente de lo que algunas me atraigan o fascinen. Puede que el trasvase de imágenes siniestras asociadas a la metáfora de la zambullida eterna funcione para algunes, pero a mí, esta exhibición de decadencia indulgente me deja indiferente.

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Presenting itself as a random transcription of disjointed thoughts and decontextualized images, Loneliest Depths only works if you somehow manage to place yourself in a spiraling process similar to catastrophism. This is a very roundabout way to say that I am not able to extract any value of this succession of images, no matter how I may find of them interesting or fascinating.Maybe the sequencing of sinister images coupled with the metaphor of an eternal dive might work for you, but for me, this exhibition of decadent indulgence leaves me in the cold.

I think it's generally easy for cis people to write off stories that center around dysphoria due to a surface-level "I won't be able to relate to it" mentality. I am saying this as a generalization, but I'm really projecting my own trepidation regarding trying this particular game stemming from lingering transmisogyny on my part. which is to say that even though I consciously accept and support trans people in my words and deeds, I still was quick to other the transness within the game and write this off after first hearing about it as "this sounds interesting, but it probably won't really hit for me." this is of course blatantly untrue: no one will ever know features a rich level of detail for a game of its scope with surprisingly engaging exploration mechanics. I have to thank my current fascination with survival horror for pushing me to plunge into this one and take a detour from my usual gaming habits, as generally I have ignored smaller, more confessional games like these on some arbitrary "quality" metric. it feels easy sometimes to avoid games with subject matter I irrationally don't think I know how to engage with. I dunno, I've been revising this paragraph over and over again trying to make it less ugly, but I guess I also feel like the context is important for my interpretation of the game.

because really a lot of my experiences do rhyme with the protagonist. I went to a small high school in the south with a generally friendly student body, all the way down to jamming with my friends in the recording studio and frequently skipping class (I once got caught by a teacher having left in the middle of The Manchurian Candidate to play through a very decent chunk of SotN in our student commons). on a smaller scale I understand the general alienation demonstrated through flavor text as the player observes the idle behavior of other students in the building. through that I began a long web of synthesizing goufygoggs's experiences to my own, and especially to those of the people around me that I observed through all my years of high school and most of my undergrad before the pandemic hit.

goufygoggs's self-depiction reminds me a lot of people I knew in engineering school specifically; technically capable and driven by passion but ultimately overwhelmed by an consistent inability to perform and intense self-loathing. everyone has a certain ambient level of anger and hate and depression that they deal with, and dysphoria drenches this resting kindling like kerosene, able to potentially spark an intense fire at any moment. in-game intrusive dysphoric thoughts are represented as unavoidable encounters that the players must engage with a resident evil-style dichotomy of options: waste precious resources mowing the monster down or run along and take the hit. in theory we optimize towards the former, but in reality we end up reluctantly accepting the damage as we play, and the game runs with this concept to demonstrate the inability to mitigate each and every dysphoric thought one experiences throughout the day. in particular one person comes to mind that I connected to these musings: a rather talented trans girl I was acquaintances with thanks to our shared interest in 6502 assembly and TIS-100. I recalled two specific instances that tied well to this game:

1) she and I were in a digital logic class together, and she completely missed our second midterm for reasons that I do not know and never asked her about. shortly after, we had a final project where we had to build a working stopwatch from scratch on an FPGA board. I remember after nearly a month of being absent she showed up with easily the most impressive stopwatch of all of us; full hour:minute:second display, the ability to save times, et cetera. as a last desperate attempt to score much needed extra credit, she far exceeded the requirements and produced something truly excellent. she did not pass the class.

2) after returning from summer vacation, I went to a meeting for a club that she had a leading role in. in the intervening time since I had last seen her it was clear she was beginning her transition, as she had visibly grown breasts and had begun wearing makeup. despite this, the team captain took the opportunity to deadname another member of the team who happened to be this girl's best friend. she protested and the captain awkwardly mumbled an apology followed by "I don't really know a lot about that stuff." when the meeting was over I went ahead and asked her what her pronouns were; she responded that no one had asked her in our department before and she didn't really know what to say, though she eventually settled on she/her "for now." I remembered this moment specifically after the in-game line about resigning one's self to using he/him around the school.

in that sense my initial excuse of "this doesn't relate to me" is wrong. many moments in this game led me to flesh out my mental depiction of people that I hadn't seen in years and had always wondered about if I had maybe gotten to know them better, or what their mental state might have been. in essence, a story this raw and unyielding about the trans experience really did reframe the way I thought about prior experiences and gave me a better theory of mind. I think this phenomenon really only could have come out of this style of game given just how it truly bares the creator's soul in a way that a fully fictional story could not approach. much like how watching documentaries in my adulthood led me to recontextualize current events I had witnessed in my past, no one will ever know reorganized my mind palace in a way. there are a lot of memories there that are too painful to bring up, ones that remind me of how much pain I dealt to people in the past. I was that friend the protagonist mentions in passing who knew people were out but didn't know how to bring it up or talk about it. in some cases, I selfishly let the flames of their dysphoria rise even higher with my actions without proper apology or consideration for what I had done. much of this is tied in with goufygoggs's owns admission of physical harm to loved ones, a stark confession of wrongdoing that fuels her self-hate in a way I can understand. that's a good deal of what I relate to here.

this is before even getting into her poignant character study of her father, in many ways the reflection of the protagonist. caught up in his own cycle of self-loathing, he has an equally dysfunctional upbringing as his daughter did, and though never spoken to, demonstrates the end result of years of refusing to properly cope with both his trauma and his failings. his infidelity mirrors the protagonist's own physical outbursts as expressions of unmitigated psychic damage, all covered by socially-acceptable addictions: the father's prescription drugs and the daughter's video game obsession. yet through this shines a muddled but unconditional love between the two, not always visibly shown but conveyed with pitiful tenderness. it's heartbreaking but absolutely a necessary component to understanding the protagonist's pain and inner turmoil from the moment she wakes up in his apartment.

as mentioned prior, the game itself draws heavily from classic survival horror. it plays with the same basic resource management scheme while imploring the player to explore every room in a claustrophobic and purposefully opaque map. each class takes place at a specific time of day, for which the player must find a certain number of time-wasting activities strewn throughout the halls of the school while also contending with the aforementioned dysphoric thoughts and the dwindling phone battery (your ammo against said thoughts) that comes with it. once time has been spent and the correct start time for class has come, the player must navigate to said classroom (which hopefully they have already found) for another chapter of the story above. outlets are selectively placed in each wing of the school for the player to recharge their phone at a single time, forcing classic routing techniques in order to wasting too many resources running from place to place. the "puzzle" here becomes more clear as the game progresses, as the player must also keep track of when certain rooms open up later in the day for the player to waste more time in. these are unavoidable as there is strictly just enough activities to take part in between each chapter (especially as the game continues) and thus not a single one can be missed without being too early for the upcoming class. outside of the story I found this action well-paced and fascinating enough with the fantastic amount of character and stinging humor goufygoggs's brings to the writing here.

one final thing to mention before I go ahead and post this so I can go to bed: the ending is absolutely hideous and made my heart twists in knots. I'm not sure if it depicts a true event (another connection, this happened to my roommate and his girlfriend just nine months ago to my shock) but it preys upon all of my worst medical fears. this is all accentuated by some truly inspired soundtrack selection, perfectly timed to increase the looming dread and eventual shock the player experiences. true survival horror.

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."

When I first started the journey, I wept when the grandmother recognized me for what she no longer had, but still loved. I didn't think too deeply on how much that would mean as the game continued, but I still accepted that love.

"Love is patient, love is kind."

When the feral kittens I cared for died, I wept when I found closure in saving the animals of the world of Moon. I saved every single one, not leaving a single life to chance to the "Hero". And a lot of it was waiting, patience is a virtue when it comes to understanding the lives of a world that walks on without you. Stories and people do not just come when called, they come around
to those who empathize and seek them out on their own time. And many of these moments are minor, small simple things that add on to something much bigger. Something that really encapsulates that feeling the adventure will call back to time and time again.

"But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."

When I finally did what accounted as a final homecoming to areas I had been, people I had touched, I wept once more. I may not remember every single individual moment, but I'll remember what I felt towards them, and they'll live on with me.

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face."

When I walked into technopolis, and so many of the earnest areas capturing the real mirrored reflections of our mundanity, I wept realizing that even in these hollowed out moments love still exists. People reflect on dystopian hells and find sorrow but there's light underneath those tunnels too. Even in its hilarious critiques of people it does not treat any of it maliciously or callously. Moon understands why we are the way we are sitting at the couch watching TV every evening.

"But the greatest of these is love."

When the game asked me to open the door, the one that mattered. With love in my heart, I went through.

(From the words of 1 Corinthians 13, thank you to a friend who showed a brighter way to see life. I hope you found love too!)

It's good to be honest.
It makes it different enough from SRB2K for not leave it obsolete.
It becomes obsolete on its own.

EN: Out of jokes, I am very mixed with this game.

To start, the tutorial is extremely long, it took me ONE FUCKING HOUR, it doesn't explain its mechanics well and too much text, it's a racing game, the first thing you want to do is get there and play, if there is going to be a tutorial it should be short and concise, but they don't even do that.

You go to the main menu, imagine you are in a group with friends who want to play online, you go to the mode and you find out that you MUST MAKE A GRANDPRIX PARTICIPATION TO PLAY ONLINE, they even block you from USING MODS, it's a decision that totally destroys what this genre does so well, get in and play, luckily they can improve all this in future updates.

My big problem is with the Gameplay, while it has very cool implementations like for example now getting Items becomes a roulette in which you can activate the skill you need at the moment, there are other very ridiculous decisions like adding quick drops, spending rings and tricks with springs, also the modification of physics and speeds, to the point that all this makes me think that it doesn't feel like I'm going full speed and I pray to stay on the road, if you run out of coins you will punish yourself enormously.

All these changes totally take away my desire to play, not even friends will want to play this game because of the many limitations this game gives you, its release leaves me quite bitter, but I am also optimistic for the future of this game.



Es bastante simpático.
Lo hace lo suficientemente diferente de SRB2K para no dejarlo obsoleto.
Se vuelve obsoleto por sí mismo.

ES: Fuera de bromas, estoy muy mixto con este juego.

Para iniciar, el tutorial es extremadamente largo, me duró UNA PUTA HORA, no explica bien sus mecánicas y demasiado texto, es un juego de carreras, lo primero que quieres hacer es llegar y jugar, si habrá un tutorial debe ser breve y consciso, pero ni eso logran.

Vas al menú principal, imagina estás en un grupo con amigos que quieren jugar online, vas al modo y te enteras que DEBES HACER UNA PARTIDA GRANDPRIX PARA JUGAR ONLINE, incluso te bloquean el USO DE MODS, es una decisión que destruye totalmente lo que este género hace tan bien, entrar y jugar, por suerte se puede mejorar todo esto en futuras actualizaciones.

Mi gran problema es con el Gameplay, si bien tiene implementaciones muy geniales como por ejemplo que ahora la obtención de Items se vuelve una ruleta en la cual puedes activar la habilidad que necesites en el momento, hay otras decisiones muy ridículas como añadir caídas rápidas, gasto de anillos y trucos con muelles, también la modificación de físicas y velocidades, al punto de que todo esto me hace pensar que no parece que esté yendo a máxima velocidad y rezo para mantenerme en la carretera, si te quedas sin monedas te castigarás enormemente.

Todos estos cambios alejan totalmente mis ganas de jugar, ni siquiera amigos querrán jugar este juego por las tantas limitaciones que te da este juego, su lanzamiento me deja bastante amargo, pero también estoy optimista por el futuro de este juego.

Years have passed since I’ve played my beloved Hyper Light Drifter. I wanna say I played this in 2016(?), a shrimple 14 year old girl who only knew it from a 20 second twitter clip that was rlly emotionally evocative. Didn’t know one thing about the gameplay, went fuck it we ball mode and played it. It was, back then, one of my favorite games ever, and over the years I began to doubt that. It’s no-dialogue story gimmick, good music, and catchy title were the only bits that stuck with me as years passed. I thought I’d been duped a bit emotionally by some easily marketable ideas, and that I wss some kinda ‘cool games poser’.

Do you know how happy I am to report that I was right in this case? I’ve been right a lot in this way recently- replaying Soul Hackers and Bastion lately showed me that I actually underrated or didn’t fully grasp how good some of these games were, and I’m really glad I hissed away my initial urge to avoid childhood joys out of embarrassment.

Here’s some history I think is an interesting little primer: I like three of the Zelda games. Played most of em. Like 15 of them probably? I genuinely hate all but three: Zelda 1, Minish Cap, and Four Swords (I’m a bit of a Game Boy Bitch it seems. Never had one growing up but I am!). Zelda 1 is like- one of the first games I recall playing. My dad’s parents sold their childhood SNES and it’s games but I did grow up using their old NES for some reason. They amassed a pretty good selection I think given the fact some weird poor kid from the middle of nowhere was making the buying decisions: Zelda 1 and 2, Blades of Steel, NES Golf, Final Fantasy 1, and Mario 2. I played the hell outta Zelda 2 the most I think. It was kinda infuriating! I wanted all the answers!

Later on in life, I really took a liking to Zelda 1. It’s simple, everything’s pretty to the point, and there ain’t many games like Just Zelda 1 made today. Like- you’ll have kinda similar things, right? But then there’ll be an extended segment that makes you go “….Oh. That’s Link To The Past, right.” and it kills the enjoyment I have, genuinely! Just think of LttP- ugh! What a- what a fucking specific and weird and unapproachable dull thing. Link to the Past.

Anyway- what I like in Z1 is it’s specificity and simultaneous lack thereof. Every time I get an item in Zelda 1, I know what it does immediately. If it’s long enough since I’ve upgraded a piece of equipment, I can feel a hankering for the eventual upgrade of it. If I ain’t seen a secret area in a bit, my mind tunes to look for them effectively.

Most importantly, though: the plot (however simple it is in Zelda 1) is a transfer of information. You don’t make a lot of active plot progress until the end of the game in Zelda 1. You have the NES game’s manual to tell you what is happening, and you have whatever story clues are contained in the individual moments. What’s happening here, though, is a structured pattern of plot-by-learning. Not exposition, really. Just other people having info, and the story forming as you’re given more context for how it all concludes. Nothing is ‘happening’, though. However, this is story a type of story I find universally compelling. Especially once you get into the nitty-gritty- who else knows that thing you just learned, and why didn’t they tell you before?

Zelda 1’s story isn’t that interesting, really. Like let’s be honest- I’m not gonna call it the masterclass in simple plot communication. But like…..I certainly remember it more fondly today than anything that happened in Ocarina looking back. Hyper Light Drifter takes the addicting and lovely parts of this structure to the extreme: information is conveyed through pure emotional connection. You see images, hear some tone-setting music, your heart does the rest of the work. You really do not need to hear words, you just need to understand at the base level what is most important in each individual scene.

Heck, it’s even got the hyperfocus on an underground dungeon world!

There’s a tendency to call this game cryptic that I really despise, though. It’s not. There’s this stupid thing where you can get the story of the game by obtaining these tablets that translate everything about the backstory and uh…you don’t need that. I’m the Hyper Light Hypewoman and I’m probably never doing it, honestly! Each part of this game is perfectly communicated. If you think there’s something missing it’s likely not that you misunderstood anything- it’s just That Simple, and your brain expects more.

What happens, as I see it- is incredibly simple. Our main character, THEE Hyper Light Drifter, awakens to find a disease they’ve had for a while worsening. They start blacking out for portions, seeing these visions of a beast killing them and sparking the end of humanity. Usually, at the end of these visions, a scary ass dog appears leading them in different directions. The Drifter trusts this dog for no good reason. Really, they shouldn’t based on the facts: these visions of the future they start getting feature the dog adjacent to themselves drowning within another creature’s maw, and civilization as a whole getting blown the fuck up.

We get context for the creature that will kill us and it’s supercomputer papaw throughout 4 episodic chapters. Universally, people are hurt by it after thinking they could approach it like any other situation. Not even the computer in some cases: just other species of lil peoples that suddenly get possessed by murderous ideology. These people have NO reason to trust others. Neither do you, kinda!

Another driftin’ sick fellow, though, dies shortly after risking life and limb to protect you. This reaffirms the Drifter’s inherent trust in others, and once the time comes, their trust is rewarded. They defeat the beast and escape alive and healthier after the scary ass dogthing leads them to safety. They’ve protected the world, but disabled their method of escape (the supercomputer that controlled the elevator system between the lower world and the surface). They will die, but alone with the dog and no one else now. Not from their painful sickness. It’s not perfect, but it could be considered better. And not to mention, life-affirming: it’s so difficult to trust others. I’ve been burned basically every time I’ve done it. It’s nice to consider this impulse still might not be worthless.

Hyper Light Drifter, overall, is a game about constant trust. It is a game full of secrets, where the artist's touches prompt you and reward you for trusting them. There's a universal Secret Symbol: you see it, you know something's there. Sometimes it's just a room with a key for ya to take. Isn't that nice? A lot of the times you land in a three-screen dungeon leading up to, you guessed it, a key. Sometimes it feels like you're being tricked. Could be a trick, even, honestly. But you always get a lil treat for your efforts. A reward for handing over your trust. There's a lot more about the game's design I think supports this philosophy but like- number one, I'm just gonna be repeating my words for like six more paragraphs if I do that, and number two: you don't want that at all. Like duh. That would blow. Not sure if what's about to follow is better, but like you'd hate it either way so I'll take those odds.

Okay, we already toyed with doing some Tim Rogers self-obsessed storytime bullshit during the Zelda Talk, but like- you either closed this review cuz of that or you’re itching for more. Ya want more? Oh, I got more.

In 2019 I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I have never told my family this, and I didnt tell a single person in my life until 2023. It's like- a fairly well known fact now. In my everyday life, things have gotten harder to manage vis-a-vis that, but y’know, back then it was simple: my inner monologue was hateful towards myself, and I would sometimes say things out loud and immediately recognize I was having a vivid memory-hallucination so strong I forgot where I was. Between then and now, we’ve got one major difference: trust issues. It’s about to get a little heavy so y’know. Trigger warnings and what not. There’s like- usually two or three things people talk about when they say that, so I hope you know to save this tab for later if that hurts right now.

In the years between then and now, I’ve lost every person I trusted for the most part. Most of my childhood friends killed themselves or were killed by their families. One of these particular suicides, which happened in 2017, I walked in on after it had happened. Which was a lot to work with as a teen. There were things I promised them I’d do I never got to, and vice versa. Obviously I dont like- blame any of them. Thats a really unfair thing to do, I think. But it really hurt my ability to trust others. Still, though, I had to actively try to trust people when I could regardless of how much it was hurting me to do so. I've always been a hopeful little soul, and people looked to me constantly for inspiration or to uplift their mood. When you're met with all that, you can't let that crack at all. You have to be this perfect emblem for others, even though it sucks. For a long ass time, I did trust like- one particular person a lot (genuinely!) and that isn’t true any more. You’ll remember when I threw out 2023 earlier? They helped me a lot starting in like- 2022 to help me get past a lot of this shit. We talked nearly every day for like a year. They were kind in the moment when I tried to talk about the symptoms of my schizophrenic disorder which was like- pretty new to me! Hadn't had much of a chance to talk about it before, but now here's someone who knows all the terminology that I'm having to use right now!

So, early 2024 rolls around and I have a crazy schizophrenia hallucination episode. I live alone with no in-person support network at this point. I try to kill myself the same way my old best friend did back in 2017, just in a public park at night instead of a house. At some point shortly after I tell them this, they just never talk to me again. I shouldn’t say never- I still text them sometimes, they might respond with a simple sentence once every month. If I try and ask how they’re doing or if we can talk soon, it’s left on read. If I say “Hey I watched that movie you mentioned.” there’s a one in five chance they say “Cool, that one’s good.”

Needless to say- much of my day now is spent grappling with trust issues. Like most of the day. It’s my fulltime job type shit. caused not exclusively by this new issue. But it's certainly not helping, right? I do not trust any one which, y’know, sucks! That used to be like- easy to do! However stupid it might be, though, if someone asks me to trust them with something I do as asked. Always.

I am a quitter in a lot of ways, and a real self-aware idiot, but let one thing be known: I try the hell outta it when I do that shit. I have crazy trust issues that make me think that every kind act done to me is part of some larger ploy. That they only intend to use and betray my trust later. Every time I’ve ever had the “oh this person’s playing nice they Actually Hate You” alarm ring, I’ve been correct.

But like- it feels stupid to let the Brain Disease Currently Putting Me Down win, right? That’s my Real Fucking Life Vow to the world right there: I will never stop trusting people no matter how hard this shit gets. That’s what the got damn game is about. #HyperLightMentality #AntiHaterLifestyle

I guess the conclusion I want you to draw from all this info is: talk to people in your life, even if it hurts or sucks to do. Ya gotta trust people, I think, maybe. And uh- Hyper Light Drifter is a really great piece on how the power of trust extends beyond logical reason sometimes. Not in a like- sometimes you just gotta have faith bullshit happy ending way. More like- you'll have these self-aware moments where you recognize your trust in something is illogical or really unfair towards yourself, but you live with it regardless. Shouts out Heart Machine, heard they're making a weird spiritual sequel roguelike to this now? Kinda weird, right? I'm super down for whatever that is.

que rayos fue eso?

yume nikki es el ejemplo perfecto de juegos que te ofrecen una experiencia única, sentimientos únicos y que te transporta a su mundo. juegos que suelo jugar de madrugada luego de venir de trabajar, con la luz apaga más que la de una lámpara de noche que da luz naranja mientras fumo o consumo sustancias. las interpretaciones que le podía dar mientras jugaba, su atmósfera y ost opresivo, pero a la vez reconfortante que me daba un sentimiento de nostalgia y familiaridad e incluso identificado...

este sentimiento solo lo he experimentado con muy pocos juegos y el cual solo me lo ha dado obras muy de nicho y japonesas que salieron en los 90s o 2000s, una época que para los que me conocen, significa demasiado para mí.