once i realized i was playing as the e-girls weird unseen boyfriend(?) and not the e-girl herself the game became 1000% less interesting to me and 1000% more weird (and not in the good way!). it immediately felt very "you are not the intended audience". seemed to be more interested in speaking to edgy NEETs that simultaneously lust after and despise female streamers, rather than the intense pressures of online creation + toxic fan culture. the failure to meaningfully critique streaming culture + the streaming industry starts with this choice.

FUCK that heartbeat puzzle. had to get that off my chest first bc it stopped me from personally experiencing the last couple mins of the game + i had to catch it on YT. most of the puzzles were really good but that shit was just impossible. i think it was mentioned in the pc patch notes so hopefully it'll be patched on switch in the next few days

anyway, gorgeous graphics, great animation, gripping story. sometimes tried too hard to be esoteric, resulting in some rather clunky/obvious visual + textual shorthands. could've done w/o the fatphobia of a Certain Section's theme + ESPECIALLY could've done without the ableism surrounding a Certain Character's fate. knocked the game down from 3 to 2 stars for me. it's 2023, grow up

if you're thinking of playing this do yourself a solid + just play flesh, blood, + concrete

i havent been able to sustain any interest in pokemon for years even though it was a massive part of my childhood/childhood gaming.... so i was apprehensive about giving this a chance. but im v glad i did! it highlighted + improved upon all the novelties that sucked me into pokemon to begin with 🥺 and it was just, genuinely unique in its framing. i wouldn't really call this a "pokemon clone" — its relationship to pokemon is more akin to the one digimon has with pokemon.

maybe my adult struggle with pokemon was just fatigue with the extreme levels of familiarity and unfamiliarity i have with it. a significant part of my enjoyment of this game was discovering a new world, discovering monsters id never seen before, yet also knowing that the number of them is small enough that i wouldn't get Lost In The Sauce, and that it is entirely possible to "catch em all" (or even just "see em all") without making a whole expedition out of it. in comparison pokemons current umpteens of increasingly similar creatures that i havent kept up with since 2009 both daunts and bores me

anyway i will probably play some of the post-game (though i ended up completing some of it already bc of level grinding/wanting to see everything + completely clear out my quest log before going for the finale, until i realizing that maybe im not supposed to do that). i might pick up the dlc too. thats not something i do for most games! but im really interested in the overarching lore and im very charmed by its aesthetic, the 2d-3d pixel art, the cute monster designs.... and idk in general the gameplay scratches the tism Just Right 🙏🏿