-game for girls who keep their anxiety meds in a macaron pill container so that when they inevitably have an anxiety attack while out they can feel cute even though they’re mentally ill lol
-literally just kept thinking lol it would be so funny if someone did fancam for this game but it was set to that awful one republic oh this is gonna be the good life song
-I think this is like a masterpiece about being delusional and the power of like repression. like idk I’m lucky to be able to trick myself into thinking the things that happened to me in my adolescence didn’t actually happen. or at least lucky enough to be able to shove it to some far off corner of my brain where it can’t hurt me. but of course it always does and ur just kind of delaying the inevitable, still though probably better than the alternative! I think the ending does a fantastic job of conveying that, lock all ur trauma away and hope and pray you don’t have to think about it too often lmao
-this is like a top five game of all time tbh, very rare that I actively seek out what a creator of a piece of media that I love has said about their work and this made me do that despite the fact that there is very little in terms of behind the scenes info on it
-theres a very funny european (?) newspaper from around this games release w a screenshot of jennifer and brown on the front page and off to the side it says in big text THE ARMY APPROVED ABUSE OF PRISONERS and above it FOOD FRAUD
-Hi, Emily, you don't have to play
You are not her, and he is not me
Emily, you don't have to play
You are not her, and he is not me :)))

-wypipo game
-got me thinking about the inherent secrets that come with like multi-story houses. like I kept weed that I bought and never smoked in a guitar case in my room that I kept bolted shut. idk why I did this it’s not like my family really would’ve cared but they did care of who I talked to and who I brought over. made me think of how even though no one in my household smoked cigarettes (besides me for one eventful winter) there was this unopened pack that were older than me buried underneath a bunch of junk in a cabinet. and even though I haven’t seen my house in over a half decade now I assume those cigarettes are still there.
-also lots of cool stuff about like generational abuse that’s slowly peeled away at much like the hidden rooms in the house. though I much prefer last years barbarian or the mountain goats’ tallahassee and sunset tree
-weezer jumpscare😵‍💫
-actually a lot of the cultural artifacts that are presented here are really cool, nice little snapshot of a specific time. very interested for in like 5-10 years to see my generations equivalent of this.
-best parts of this are how it leans so far into pretending to be a horror game. like the bathtub coated w blood red hair dye and the curtains and windows being illuminated with thunder cracks to look like an intruder in the house. like yaas play little tricks on me pls
-damn would like this a lot more if it wasn’t made by a fucking creep. but also how did it take so long for him to be outed as a shitty person. idk don’t trust any cis male this interested in queer relationship dynamics, y’all weird. also would be infinitely better if not so much so a neoliberal new sincerity game, get out of here w ur “last of us made me cry 🤓” ass takes like brooooo u posted cringe u posted lesbian fanfic cringe and that’s sus

early 20s ass game. something I’m always stupidly amazed at with games is how much u can get out of a game emotionally out of how it plays. idk my media background is film where everything is up front and most ppl get the same thing out of each project, everyone picks up on the same themes and the movie plays out the same and means the same for most people. film is inherently unsubtle. games are not. mostly just wanted to play this bc it looked cute and fun, a good easy time with a cute little open world and I did get that but I also got a really touching experience. there’s not really a story here but just from the game handles, how sloppily kat handles, I got lots out of it. how chaotic and messy this part of someone’s life feels, being tug at in every way, redoing the same tasks every day, fucking up at the simplest things and realizing how easy they are once u can complete them. Idk I’m a crazy emotional girl and have finally started to attempt to go back to school and do something with my life and this meant a lot to me. I’d like to make a difference in this world even if just a small one :-)

I’m a poor girl so didn’t actually play this bc I don’t own a laptop but watched the video essay for it that’s going around. pretty fucking lame stuff tbh, it’s new sincerity through the lens of traumacore or horrorcore, adult swim aesthetics. feels weird and feels gross not in the way it’s intended to, just feels like a weird bastardization and exploitation of real trauma and real experiences real ppl go through all in the name of the game that is get updoot on reddit dot com. shrek and good doggo and picture of wholesome kitteh and unexpected yaoi, shit is genuinely evil and I think I don’t fuck with it for the same reason I think ari aster’s body of work is kind of soulless and dead eyed and fucking mean spirited. just exploitation by the everyman. cool architecture and like it looks good but idk dude put ur talents to something worthwhile. my bf made skyline chili bc we both have never tried it but have always wanted to and we had that while we watched the vid, very yummy even though it looked nasty lol

-do u guys think dasha actually has played any of the sh games?? or like did online ceramics just cut her a check ?? much to think about idk fuck dasha or whatever I just think she’s aesthetic and vibes you know ?
-also speaking of the online ceramics drop I thought there was a bunch of pretty cute stuff but literally what the fuck do I look like spending that much
-unlike 3 and shattered memories I don’t find this to be all that smart and complex. the peak of the story here in terms of like writing/dialogue is nurse garland saying that all the young ppl disappeared from the town like I think that fits really well for where and what silent hill means geographically. I come from a similar rust belt town and my hs was tiny asf and malls weren’t populated with teens or even younger ppl and on Halloween kids progressively as time passed stopped going door to door. towns like that are receding from view and less people are staying there than previous generations, so what happens when all is left of a town is bureaucratic and oppressive organizations and groups of ppl. think that little exchange between garland and harry works even better considering that 3 serves as a sort of direct follow up to this and everyone Heather comes in contact w is even older than her father. the mall is the first place u visit in game but unlike any other sh game ur not meeting anyone of a like mind to u or even in ur same demographic. being a teenager in towns like that is sad and rlly awful and depressing and specifically 3 nails that vibe and that exchange in this game makes it all the better.
-in the same way shattered memories heightens and expands on 3 I feel like this does too. making it mean more in a grand sense, fleshing out this world and these 2 characters connections to each other.
-sometimes I remember there was supposed to be a silent hill gta style game and my head hurts
-lighting in this game fucking owns, especially the lens flare hitting the camera whenever harry with the light on faces the camera
-I think it’s really funny how genuinely jaw dropping gorgeous and breathtaking those fmvs are and then it cuts to the goofy looking actual graphics, fucking pixelated Minecraft ass looking trees and rusty floors, I love it.
-lisa is genuinely such a cool sad character, nurse bendy ahh. I think it’s rlly impressive that the voice actress was able to do all the lines in an hour and basically wasn’t paid anything esp when considering the fact that her voice work is the only noteworthy acting here
-yamaoka asleep at the mfn wheel, someone wake him up. jokes aside I like the score here it’s good and all the stuff in the final chapters is rlly great but it’s rlly subtle here and I think it being mostly absent in this first sh does kinda detract from the atmosphere at play here and doesn’t make it as eerie as future entries where he would lean further into haunting trip hop and dreampop lullabies where characters are coaxed farther and farther into silent hill by the beautiful music. instead harry is kind of just running around while industrial beats play and it does work, fits the geographical setting rlly well. this is seemingly the only sh that leans full into the whole rust belt dead town whereas future installments are a town on the verge of death but not quite dead yet. the music lulling the characters into a final rest, this one is so like hopeless and bleak and it does make sense that the music reflects that and mostly stays in the background only being present at all for when ur supposed to feel tense and unnerved.
-idk why this isn’t the one being rebooted and instead 2 is. I mean I do get it, 2 is the only truly iconic game in the series, at least in a widespread and mainstream way but damn this one rlly did need the remake. the story here is so vague and abstract which I like enough but it’s kind of presented as these loosely connected vignettes tying everything together and then the ending just happens. characters just show up whenever is convenient and there’s not that much flavor text as there would be later down the line. it does just seem like creating this very real world and environment and atmosphere came first and then everything else after. it’s like genuinely very difficult to play and truly get absorbed into and I do think a remake could smooth lots of things over and make it into a better experience and also ppl wouldn’t be that mad in comp lol.
-so many striking visuals though, the flying demon guy busting in through the window, the ghost version of alessa running through the halls, lisa having blood run down her face and harry shutting her out, the glowing white version of alessa at the final boss battle (a literal ray of light in Harry’s final moments as he begins to accept and understand the version of the truth he’s told) the spiral staircase and all of the dutch angles at the beginning of the game. rlly great stuff and the cutscene direction and environments are so stellar and got as much as they could out of the ugly ahh ps1.
-I also just rlly love the ending(s) and think they enhance what I already love about 3 and shattered memories. that bond that someone has with their absent parent, how ur able to create and craft this legend of who they were and contort the facts to best suit urself and ur needs to kinda deal w the very real experiences of being an orphan or having absent parent(s). like that’s by far my fave thing about shattered memories is cheryl kind of reliving and reshaping the events of this game, it’s all a lie but it’s a lie she needs to tell herself. and can it rlly be a lie to her if she never actually got to know him or what happened in silent hill. the actual in game story here is similarly fractured and fragmented and it’s ultimately up to u to contort and twist it to best suit ur needs to give urself the closure and satisfaction u need. no matter who harry was and no matter what actually happened in silent hill he still tried for heather and I think that’s genuinely really beautiful.

so so so glad I waited so long to play this one. any earlier and I was def not emotionally mature/stable enough to play something this meditative and slow and dark as this.

u can def tell this was made by a musician, stuff like how tiles make up the score for that worlds music is rlly rlly neat and I love it. found myself clanging the bell on the bicycle in tune w the music a lot. also very shocking how many of the songs I knew just through cultural osmosis, it makes smth as dark as this feel more comforting than it actually is and less otherworldly than it tries to be but in like a positive way. there’s an interview w one of the kinsella brothers where he mentions not even rlly being into emo/90s math rock/other stuff like capn jazz and yet ended up being a trendsetter for a whole sub genre of emo. it’s how I feel about this. obv the earthbound influence is front and center and also kind of lulls you into this sense of tranquility bc it’s smth familiar. like I never played earthbound for myself, it’s just not a kind of game that I can devote time to, but I did watch my boyfriend play the entirety of it on our modded wii when we originally moved in together and so seeing stuff like the mall looking area where u get the flute or the nes styled worlds or even the designs of the neon ghosts reminds me of half-watching him play that. it’s cute I love it. but I think more than anything this is def inspired by silent hill and other survival horror of its era.

kinda sucks that any kind of art that’s like vague or mysterious or doesn’t spell itself out for u now needs a BLANK EXPLAINED article or video for everyone that felt somewhat confused by the newest a24 horror film. idk no shame if smth leaves u feeling confused, I just watched blade runner 2049 w my bf this week and I literally kept asking him to explain it to me bc I don’t get get it. and I don’t understand all the imagery here and that’s okay, I don’t need to. the search for answers w smth like this is kinda idk dumb and redundant. this says everything it means to say, it can mean anything u want it to bc it’s so open ended and cryptic and vague and no one would technically be wrong bc the creator of the game has never said what it’s actually about, and even if they did and even if this meant smth super specific and personal to them like it most likely did doesn’t mean it can’t mean smth else entirely to u.

v relaxing, have played this for an hour or two each night after coming home from work and it felt good like it felt rewarding and also comforting.

reminds me of just in a general way of the feeling of being vulnerable and exposed, not many games, not even many horror games or other pieces of media make me feel so strongly like this. it reminds me of watching the 2001 horror movie pulse w some guy I barely knew in my basement as a teenager or when me and my boyfriend were taking a bus w a transfer on it back from a festival late at night and this very old very big drunk guy kept following us around and harassing/hitting on me. obv nothing happened in either situation but it’s like the feeling that it might and how that kind of sticks w u for a while after. scary stuff imo

kind of this weird point of middling jank and very half baked story beats and gameplay mechanics. both of which could’ve been so much more interesting if not glorified jerk off simulator for horny millennials in Europe and Japan. like if this was a two hour long arcade cabinet that you’d find in like a speciality arcade I would vibe w it a lot more. instead it’s like this very middle of the road weird piece of obscure ps2 history that rlly should’ve never been a console game. shame too bc I rlly do like the aesthetics the game is trying to go for w such an intensely low budget, I like the fog and I like the closed in cramped corridors. Chicago has such a cool rich history to it wnd so many very vibey and yeah scary iconography and landmarks that it’s a bit of a shame it just uses all interiors that look like they could be in anywhere in America or the rest of the world. I do like the fog and I do like the anime girls puking up blood and slug monsters, I like the zaka tv logo and I like the flavor text ur rewarded w for finding random items in each level. I do think it takes advantage of the fact that ur a cameraman too, like there’s rlly cool mise en scene going on, stages are almost set up like a diorama for a horror house and I think it’s cool they rlly do allow u to frame other characters in cool and interesting ways, the boom mic guy appearing out from behind a palm tree as he drunkenly rants. it looks good and u get to make it look better if u want. idk how can u not love low texture fast food bag in the style of like in n out that just says FOOD on it and which u can interact w. reminds me of those insurance ads that are poking fun at horror movies, like anything that can go wrong does. but also end of day it’s way too boring for how short it is and also v casually misogynistic which yeah is expected in the genre but just bc it’s expected doesn’t mean it’s excusable. one of my favorite boxarts ever though, both for europe and japan tbh and it sucks that the game doesn’t at all deliver the aesthetics that it promises.

-dude it’s so wild how edgy things could be in the mid 00s in a way that didn’t seem tasteless or needlessly provocative but instead was just edgy to further the plot n characters. like I think this was rated teen but there’s some v dark themes here that I wasn’t expecting for a game that looks and feels so childlike on the ds.
-love ds 3d graphics sm, chunky and blocky little polygons. flower sun and rain, style savvy and this are all very fucking cute and unmatched in terms of aesthetic. running around on this cute little beachy island that’s like totally abandoned and the dusty af mansion, the caves at the end w the blocky trees hanging over the characters. also just rlly love the designs for all these characters and rlly enjoyed seeing beautiful 2d drawings of the characters turned into blocky chibified rough caricatures.
-tbh when this comes out on switch I will probably pick it up bc I don’t know if my broke bitch laptop can play wii games well (I think it can but idk) but I also don’t know if I’ll replay this unless it’s majorly diff in terms of the story. like they rlly could’ve either cut out a lot of fat/backtracking or made this a lot longer adding in lots of characterization and motivation for the characters, but instead it’s a weird middle length for a game where by the end I was kinda idk bored??? idk I think the switch vers. looks rlly cute, love how switch games look for the most part.
-the two blonde dudes are kinda yaoi idkkkkk…
-the story is soooo cute, mostly why I wanted to play this even though I barely knew anything about the story I just always thought ashley’s design was so slay. but yeah def connected w this and w ashley and her search for family she doesn’t even rlly know if they want her around or who they are. it’s why shattered memories is one of my fave stories the more I think about, this isn’t totally comparable and not nearly as good for a variety of reasons but I still found ashley’s relationship w her dad rlly cute and sweet. also liked all the parallels between her and d and how so many adolescents feel like lost and lonely and invisible. heavy important stuff for what is basically a kids game, wish I played as a kid but tbh I was a dumb kid and would’ve gotten stuck on puzzles early on especially if played before I had iphone.

death stranding but for the ds…
which is cool!! more games should go about emulating the ds/3ds and psp/vita rather than another game that looks like if u squint it could be on the n64 or ps1. love how abstract and hostile this games world is, everything wants to kill u and more importantly everyone wants to kill each other. while exploring the world you’ll find randos shooting each other, too caught up in their own drama too care about someone as small as you are unless you care enough to shoot them first. it’s smart and it makes the world feel so much more lively despite the fact that it’s past death. it’s post the post-apocalypse. gameplay v clever despite how it’s barely a thing, lots of cool and tense stuff in terms of time management, makes it actually feel like some weird obscure ds survival horror game that never was. also yas just rlly love how brutally harsh and sudden the changes from day to night and back again are and how well that kind of fits the tone the game is going for.

so cute AND quirky in a very real and genuine way. reminded me a lot of three separate times in my life. being like 9 and playing the genesis sonic games in my father's room w him. being like 15 and working under the table for this video game/dvd/music store where i mostly just priced items, it was dirty and dusty and the pay was basically nonexistent, the owner was like hella sexist and racist but to my 15 yo brain that just wanted to learn about everything in regards to media it didn't matter in the moment bc i just got to gawk at rlly rare stuff every couple weeks. and then like playing automata near its release date and it was the first new game i picked up since like 2013 and just being so amazed at what games could actually be when made w passion and love and not just for profits/to be consumed. all rlly important moments in my life when it comes to actually understanding what matters to me in terms of art. literal perfect length for a game like this too. usually i get sooo bored of 2d side scroller stuff bc it just never rlly ends and it's all just variations/reskins of the same layout, this is like different and special. it never gets the chance to be boring or to outstay its welcome bc it uses its time in such a smart way. and all the worlds are so cute and colorful and lively and most importantly diff from each other. there's like a weirdo carnival stage and a jungle stage and haunted castle one, one of the stages ends w a boss fight in front of a drive in theater, it's so gorgeous. and there's so many interesting characters, ice skating faeries and the flatwoods monster and frankenstein, so much life and detail is happening in the backgrounds of scenes that u go through so fast, love this <3

haven’t seen skinamarink but I assume it’s just like this tbh.
rlly uncomfortable and disconcerning.. the fact this runs so badly and barely functions as designed makes it more disturbing. very fascinated by its usage of overlaying different animations and scenes over one other, reminds me a lot of various experimental video work and short films I’ve seen and it’s not smth usually present in games. the scenes where ur navigating the house are so like disorienting and nauseating. def unique and probably very novel in 09 but now seems quaint and well intentioned but still problematic. like idk I think gameifying assault and abuse is incredibly fucking iffy, I don’t mean like making a game out of these concept but including more arcade-y elements of game design like collectibles and ranks I find a bit gross. of course drakengard 3 and rule of rose are very game-like games w big boss fights and similar themes and both were trying to be marketable but also both are so dense in terms of both written text and implied text. and this simply isn’t, it’s incredibly visual which I do like but sometimes the shocking image is just that, it’s just shocking and a little toothless, they can be powerful images but still seemingly only there to push boundaries of accepted good taste.

also pls listen to the ost it’s seriously so beautiful
will prob draw some fanart of the girls bc in love w their designs

tbh very surprising. was worried going into this one bc from what i've played of similar games like bayonetta and lollipop chainsaw i don't fuck w them. both seemingly coast by on sex appeal and mindless gameplay rather than do anything actually interesting w thematics or level design. idk lots of the character action games seem a little too coombrained for me and my specific aesthetic preferences. this is rlly interesting though and honestly not that male gaze-y/cumbrained like yeahh it def still is a bit but mostly she's just an interestingly enough designed character. not too sexually provocative ig is what i'm trying to say, and i don't mean to sound like a prude and i don't think i am, i just think the aforementioned two games are a little bit too porn sick in their designs of the main characters. bayonetta is like mean mommy british tall woman w librarian glasses and juliet(?) is like bimbo jail bait core, idk maybe none of this makes sense and maybe no one will agree w this but i personally find both designs a bit gross in terms of what they mean societally. but idk bullet witch is just some foid, it's like they came up with the name for the project and the gameplay mechanics first and then designed a mildly attractive player character. idk i like her and i like the cavia text on the back of one of the alt outfits, that's fucking cute. she has a tiny mole under her eye it's a good design i like it.

that opening cinematic is so fucking dark and weird and kind of upsetting??? it's doing that thing where it's the future and a bunch of horrible events are all happening at once and i think it does that remarkably well. there's a moment in that opening where it says something like "2011. DEATHS: UNCOUNTABLE" which is like such a scary and ominous phrase. this is like a very small game probably made by a pretty small team for a small budget so there's not much of a story or world present here but i think it does get across its central themes well and def seems to be coming from a place of extreme paranoia for and about the future. the cutscenes are shot like a war movie and the majority of enemies are just demons in army fatigues, def some stuff here about governments turning civilians into killing machines w propaganda esp once the actual npc characters start turning into weirdo j horror monsters and you have to turn your gun on them. very cool and creepy designs. something very powerful and striking seeing military men gun down innocents caught up in gunfire while they cower in fear. there's this documentary on youtube called hypernormalisation and there's this one segment i've thought about at least once a month since i saw it when it first came out and bullet witch reminds me sm of that.
https://youtu.be/vlxGtKw2KAA?si=z5tedUZ01pLwzaCN
there's lots of images in this game that are def influenced by what was happening in the world back in '06 and plenty of stuff here that's honestly really prescient. bombed out abandoned malls are turned into large scale battles as civilians run away in fear and ultimately get turned into monsters themselves. there's big sprawling cities with large bridges and you have to realize that yeah people lived here and you being there is only adding to the destruction. in that city there's this big toy store at the end of a block in the middle of all this destruction but still somehow standing and when you return in the last chapter it's been reduced to nothing but rubble. mostly very impressed with the fact this is able to show lots of dark and dreary and honestly kind of sad images and landscapes while still being a very fun AND funny game. it's not trying to be anything immersive but it somehow manages to be consistently. idk it's funny and quirky while still sometimes taking itself seriously and manages to be very politically charged even though there's not much of a story here just because the environmental storytelling is just so good.