crow_witch
2023
Relaxing and unique. I love dipping in and out of this game.
2023
A flawed game that I loved with my whole big heart. Totally understand why some people would jump off with the repetitive parts, but this one worked for me. I'll be thinking about it for awhile.
2022
Rewrote my brain chemistry.
No, genuinely. This is my first Fromsoft game. I had always thought I was "too bad" at reflex-based games to ever enjoy them. I bought ER on a whim, on sale, and said fuck it. I'm going to die a lot, but if I hate it, I can stop playing.
On some good advice, I played astrologer, and relied heavily on my girlfriend (Lhutel the headless) at the start. I died. A lot.
But I wasn't angry about dying, because, well, it's a Fromsoft game, legendary for their difficulty. Where in other games I may have given up while beating myself up for being bad at games or turned the difficulty down, I kept playing ER. I began to confront my own minor self-esteem issues: my tendency to give up and blame myself right as a new skill gets difficult instead of embracing the challenges ahead. By the time I got through Stormveil Castle, I was anticipating every challenge with nerves and, strangely, excitement.
By the time I put the game down, it had become one of my most treasured gaming experiences, ever. I have played games differently ever since. In the past, I sometimes would start a game on easy before trying it, assuming that I would never be good enough at games to get through it on normal. Now, I always start on normal, no matter the genre, with no judgement if I need to turn it down later. Before, if I couldn't beat a boss on the third try, I would blame myself for trying and give up. Now, the first five times are basically just reconnaissance, and I can see with good humor, that I was being really mean to myself for no reason.
This is not going to be everyone's experience, far from it, but if you're on the fence about ER because you don't think you're a good enough gamer: come, join me in dying a lot and having so much fun that you won't particularly mind.
This game has some flaws: some of the caves can be repetitive, I can't kiss Malenia, but it changed the way I game. Forever. Can't wait to play Dark Souls next year.
(Important note: Fromsoft should have accessibility options. And a pause button. That is a conversation for another time, but I recommend the blog "Can I Play that?" for discussions of gaming and disability).
No, genuinely. This is my first Fromsoft game. I had always thought I was "too bad" at reflex-based games to ever enjoy them. I bought ER on a whim, on sale, and said fuck it. I'm going to die a lot, but if I hate it, I can stop playing.
On some good advice, I played astrologer, and relied heavily on my girlfriend (Lhutel the headless) at the start. I died. A lot.
But I wasn't angry about dying, because, well, it's a Fromsoft game, legendary for their difficulty. Where in other games I may have given up while beating myself up for being bad at games or turned the difficulty down, I kept playing ER. I began to confront my own minor self-esteem issues: my tendency to give up and blame myself right as a new skill gets difficult instead of embracing the challenges ahead. By the time I got through Stormveil Castle, I was anticipating every challenge with nerves and, strangely, excitement.
By the time I put the game down, it had become one of my most treasured gaming experiences, ever. I have played games differently ever since. In the past, I sometimes would start a game on easy before trying it, assuming that I would never be good enough at games to get through it on normal. Now, I always start on normal, no matter the genre, with no judgement if I need to turn it down later. Before, if I couldn't beat a boss on the third try, I would blame myself for trying and give up. Now, the first five times are basically just reconnaissance, and I can see with good humor, that I was being really mean to myself for no reason.
This is not going to be everyone's experience, far from it, but if you're on the fence about ER because you don't think you're a good enough gamer: come, join me in dying a lot and having so much fun that you won't particularly mind.
This game has some flaws: some of the caves can be repetitive, I can't kiss Malenia, but it changed the way I game. Forever. Can't wait to play Dark Souls next year.
(Important note: Fromsoft should have accessibility options. And a pause button. That is a conversation for another time, but I recommend the blog "Can I Play that?" for discussions of gaming and disability).
You know, looking back, I have played so many games that write women so poorly. Playing this back to back with Dave the Diver was the impetus for me realizing just how much in Dave the Diver was rubbing me the wrong way because of the covert sexism in that game. Misericorde's cast is (for now, I'm expecting some gender stuff in volume 2) primarily women. Flawed, silly, heroic, villanous, and so so human. The art design helps capture that, utilizing presentation that gets across the uniformity of their nuns' habits to strike fear into the reader and then seamlessly showing through posture and gesture how they each wear it a little differently.
I believed in every single character in the game, even the ones I didn't like, and Hedwig is a perfect protagonist. I admit, at the start, I expected Hedwig's fish-out-of-water story to be background, but it is the foreground. We are hearing Hedwig's story with all the biases and missing moments you would expect of a profoundly self-loathing and self-righteous woman who has been isolated all of her life.
The music is an absolute gift. Over 100 tracks for a game a tenth of that length, and I have listened to it often while writing or working.
I cannot wait for volume 2 and all future volumes!
I believed in every single character in the game, even the ones I didn't like, and Hedwig is a perfect protagonist. I admit, at the start, I expected Hedwig's fish-out-of-water story to be background, but it is the foreground. We are hearing Hedwig's story with all the biases and missing moments you would expect of a profoundly self-loathing and self-righteous woman who has been isolated all of her life.
The music is an absolute gift. Over 100 tracks for a game a tenth of that length, and I have listened to it often while writing or working.
I cannot wait for volume 2 and all future volumes!
I can't rate this game because I have so many mixed feelings about it.
VNs are hard from me, because I read a lot more than I game, so I am PICKY when it comes to writing.
The Good: the music is incredible, the women are written with complexity and depth, Beatrice is here. I had to skim the gore/violence sections because they were so viscerally written. Up there with McCarthy in terms of being able to turn my stomach.
The Mediocre: every scene is like 20-30% too long, in my opinion. Ryukishi07 has this habit of telling me 10 times what I read and learned just fine when I read it the first time. Please, trust me, Ryukishi07 I promise I understood Shannon's character development in this volume. It's better here than in Higurashi though.
The bad: the tea party scenes are so self-indulgent and are so so so long.
Will I keep reading? Maybe. Maybe.
VNs are hard from me, because I read a lot more than I game, so I am PICKY when it comes to writing.
The Good: the music is incredible, the women are written with complexity and depth, Beatrice is here. I had to skim the gore/violence sections because they were so viscerally written. Up there with McCarthy in terms of being able to turn my stomach.
The Mediocre: every scene is like 20-30% too long, in my opinion. Ryukishi07 has this habit of telling me 10 times what I read and learned just fine when I read it the first time. Please, trust me, Ryukishi07 I promise I understood Shannon's character development in this volume. It's better here than in Higurashi though.
The bad: the tea party scenes are so self-indulgent and are so so so long.
Will I keep reading? Maybe. Maybe.
There was so so much I loved about this game.
To start, Ichiban is one of the most wonderful AAA protagonists I have ever seen. It was so refreshing not to be in the mindset of a grizzled and cynical man, but instead with a character who is enthusiastic and so openly feels joy, love, rage, and grief.
All of the party members won me over too, and the dynamics in party chats and table talks delighted me from start to finish.
I am a self-professed minigame ignorer, but I had so much fun trying out all the minigames and sinking probably 10 hours into the management sim alone.
My nitpicks have to do with the finicky combat movement, the chapter 12 difficulty spike, and general turn-based rpg fussiness. I was so happy to hear that most (if not all) of these problems have been solved in Infinite Wealth and I cannot wait to play it.
To start, Ichiban is one of the most wonderful AAA protagonists I have ever seen. It was so refreshing not to be in the mindset of a grizzled and cynical man, but instead with a character who is enthusiastic and so openly feels joy, love, rage, and grief.
All of the party members won me over too, and the dynamics in party chats and table talks delighted me from start to finish.
I am a self-professed minigame ignorer, but I had so much fun trying out all the minigames and sinking probably 10 hours into the management sim alone.
My nitpicks have to do with the finicky combat movement, the chapter 12 difficulty spike, and general turn-based rpg fussiness. I was so happy to hear that most (if not all) of these problems have been solved in Infinite Wealth and I cannot wait to play it.