crow_witch
2022
Enjoyed the hell out of this game. Maybe it's because I'm a librarian, but a game where the mechanics involve looking things up, organizing, labeling, and understanding clues are right up my alley. So excited to see what this team puts out next!
Played via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, Minish Cap was so much fun! The dungeons were a fun level of challenge although not as complex as Link's Awakening or A Link to the Past. This game seems aimed at a younger audience than other top-down Zelda titles, but it was a joy to play. I was so charmed by the pixel art, especially when Link becomes Minish-sized and is surrounded by a vast, lush world. Definitely worth playing for any zelda fans!
Knights of the Old Republic was my high school game. The Dragon Age Series were my college games. It feels good to be back on my Bioware bullshit, and I'm so glad I waited until the Legendary Edition to do it.
Possibly the cutest Zelda game with some of the best storytelling in the whole series. I had some issues with it, but those final moments in the game more than made up for them.
I played Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, AND Majora's Mask last year, so I was happy to finally get around to beating Skyward Sword.
Not my favorite of the 3d Zeldas. I missed towns, though Skyloft was so memorable, and I wish the overworld had a little more variety than three areas.
Lanayru was the standout dungeon and area of the overworld, just so fun. And this game does have an amazing establishment of Zelda and Link's relationship. I also loved the collectibles and all the side quests.
But compared to the other 3d Zeldas? I wasn't quite as invested. Definitely worth playing, I had a lot of fun, just not personally as meaningful as the others for me.
Not my favorite of the 3d Zeldas. I missed towns, though Skyloft was so memorable, and I wish the overworld had a little more variety than three areas.
Lanayru was the standout dungeon and area of the overworld, just so fun. And this game does have an amazing establishment of Zelda and Link's relationship. I also loved the collectibles and all the side quests.
But compared to the other 3d Zeldas? I wasn't quite as invested. Definitely worth playing, I had a lot of fun, just not personally as meaningful as the others for me.
2011
Honestly, this game is a mess mechanically, and the environments and combat encounters are a mess. But. The characters and narrative are the strongest of the dragon age series. Origins is best overall, but DA2, in all its mess, has my heart.
i resonated with a lot of the story's emphasis on accepting and embracing difficult emotions rather than suppressing/avoiding them, which carries the whole game for me, thematically. The voice acting performances were incredible, the setting beautiful, and all of that made up for some of the more mediocre plot elements. Controversial take here, I personally think this is a better game than LiS 1.
I enjoyed so much of this game, but the copaganda was off the charts.
Suspects are MORE suspicious because they don't want to talk to the cops. Oh no, suspects who know their rights must be guilty. Paperwork and processes meant to protect people from overzealous cops just get in the way of cops catching the Real bad guys.
Not to mention, just like, the way that the big bad is written.
Crossing my fingers that I'll enjoy Nirvana Initiative more.
Suspects are MORE suspicious because they don't want to talk to the cops. Oh no, suspects who know their rights must be guilty. Paperwork and processes meant to protect people from overzealous cops just get in the way of cops catching the Real bad guys.
Not to mention, just like, the way that the big bad is written.
Crossing my fingers that I'll enjoy Nirvana Initiative more.
2021
Genuinely enjoyed the hell out of this game. The puzzle aspects really worked for me, and I took so many pictures that were just for me. While the game can be goofy, it knows when it needs to be sincere. I never wanted this game to end.
Genuinely reminded me of being a young kid wandering around in the forest near my home growing up.
There is so much to love about this game from the low-poly art style to the unobtrusive but delightful sound design. The story is simple, and the mechanics easily grasped. This is not a game about your reflexes or mechanical skill, it's about your wonder and curiosity.
A great game for everyone, but I think especially of how much I would've adored this game when I was younger, and how much kids need games like this.
There is so much to love about this game from the low-poly art style to the unobtrusive but delightful sound design. The story is simple, and the mechanics easily grasped. This is not a game about your reflexes or mechanical skill, it's about your wonder and curiosity.
A great game for everyone, but I think especially of how much I would've adored this game when I was younger, and how much kids need games like this.
2022
Truly such a well-designed narrative game, with a perfect amount of spooky for me (a big horror baby).
While occasionally the writing of the narrator got a little repetitive, that is a minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things. The music, art design, and character writing all are genre-perfect for this kind of tale (think E.T. or Stranger Things), and I genuinely was surprised by most the of the twists!
Definitely recommend as a perfect cozy, Halloween game!
While occasionally the writing of the narrator got a little repetitive, that is a minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things. The music, art design, and character writing all are genre-perfect for this kind of tale (think E.T. or Stranger Things), and I genuinely was surprised by most the of the twists!
Definitely recommend as a perfect cozy, Halloween game!
A genuine delight that I wasn't expecting.
2022
You know, it's probably for the best that this game gave me motion sickness because otherwise it would've eaten up hundreds of hours of my life. Recommended as a great stress-reliever, unless you, like me, get motion sickness from 1st-person games.
2023
This is the kind of game that is normally catnip for me, with its emphasis on emotional storytelling, but it just fell flat. The music and art design were gorgeous but the writing was overly saccharine and didn't add anything beyond the tropes I already enjoyed. I am looking forward to what this studio puts out next, though!
2023
I enjoyed so much about this game, but some of the writing problems took away from my overall enjoyment.
First, the positives. The loop from fishing to restaurant management was a time suck. The fishing controls were appropriately tricky to master and the restaurant brought the kind of adrenaline I haven't felt since playing Diner dash. Those two elements are only the start of all the content in this game, which is both blessing and curse.
The benefit of so much content is that the game is bursting with ways to express yourself as a player. Want to invest in farming? In restaurant staff? In minigames? All of it is here and so much more that would be a spoiler to discuss. On the other hand, there is so much content that I felt like I barely had a moment to breathe. I often wanted a button I could push that would push deadlines for special events back a couple of days, not because they weren't interesting, but because I wanted to chill with this game rather than rush.
The problems in the writing is where I got stuck. Dave is an atypical protagonist as a fat, middle-aged man who is not macho. I loved that about this game from the start. However, the writers see him as a joke. At least, that's how it feels. Every character has to comment on his weight and emasculate him for being a relatively timid fat man. At first, I assumed that the side characters who mocked Dave would learn that they were wrong, and that this non-traditional game protagonist would be respected. This never happened. He was consistently the butt of the joke.
The other criticism of the writing that I personally have is how the few female characters are written. I noticed that every woman are characterized as nagging or foolish, with perhaps the exception of the recruiter, who still has to learn a lesson. All major sympathetic characters are men.
After a dozen or so hours (I got to chapter 6), these flaws got to me, and I shelved the game for the time being. It's a fun and generous game, but I wish it was more generous with its women and with Dave himself.
First, the positives. The loop from fishing to restaurant management was a time suck. The fishing controls were appropriately tricky to master and the restaurant brought the kind of adrenaline I haven't felt since playing Diner dash. Those two elements are only the start of all the content in this game, which is both blessing and curse.
The benefit of so much content is that the game is bursting with ways to express yourself as a player. Want to invest in farming? In restaurant staff? In minigames? All of it is here and so much more that would be a spoiler to discuss. On the other hand, there is so much content that I felt like I barely had a moment to breathe. I often wanted a button I could push that would push deadlines for special events back a couple of days, not because they weren't interesting, but because I wanted to chill with this game rather than rush.
The problems in the writing is where I got stuck. Dave is an atypical protagonist as a fat, middle-aged man who is not macho. I loved that about this game from the start. However, the writers see him as a joke. At least, that's how it feels. Every character has to comment on his weight and emasculate him for being a relatively timid fat man. At first, I assumed that the side characters who mocked Dave would learn that they were wrong, and that this non-traditional game protagonist would be respected. This never happened. He was consistently the butt of the joke.
The other criticism of the writing that I personally have is how the few female characters are written. I noticed that every woman are characterized as nagging or foolish, with perhaps the exception of the recruiter, who still has to learn a lesson. All major sympathetic characters are men.
After a dozen or so hours (I got to chapter 6), these flaws got to me, and I shelved the game for the time being. It's a fun and generous game, but I wish it was more generous with its women and with Dave himself.