A fórmula de Life Is Strange está de volta: Jovens traumatizados descobrem que têm poderes numa cidadezinha no interior dos EUA.

Tell Me Why apresenta tudo de bom que se espera da DONTNOD. Uma construção de atmosfera com música independente ao fundo? Check. Relações interpessoais complicadas? Check. Coletáveis fofinhos? Check. Final sem canon? Check!

Há todos esses elementos, porém o mais importante pra mim não marca presença. Jogos episódicos simplesmente não podem existir sem o bom e velho cliffhanger entre eles. Tell Me Why foca em apenas um mistério, e isso acaba ficando cansativo durante a narrativa.

Por outro lado, aqui tem mais puzzles do que todas as temporadas de Life Is Strange juntas. Todos baseados no livro dos Goblins que os protagonistas criaram com a mãe, acrescentando todo um fator fantasioso na história.

O jogo não me fez ficar aflito em momento algum tendo que fazer uma decisão difícil, coisa que valorizo bastante em storytellings interativos. Apesar de tudo não nego que é uma história bem escrita.

Greatest of all time. Zenith of the medium. Hallmark of media. Gold standard of storytelling. Apogee of creativity. Vertex of invention. Crest of ingenuity. Acme of imagination. Pinnacle of innovation. Epic of epics. Legend among legends. Peak fiction.

I played this game in honor of Akira Toriyama after his passing as this game is known for having the “dream team” staff as part of its development. Compared to most games I’ve played recently, everyone around me has been hyping this game up as one of the best the video game medium has to offer so my expectations were the highest it could ever be. But this game surpassed them. Chrono Trigger is the video game that encapsulates why I love video games, from its grandiose adventure to its gameplay mechanics all serving the only purpose a video game should have; to be fun.

Easily one of the best looking SNES era games, sure it doesn’t look as technologically advanced as say Donkey Kong Country or uses mode7 graphics like Final Fantasy 6 all that often, but the art direction is just simply magnificent with how the world looks in how it fits well to the stellar Akira Toriyama character designs with the main playable characters looking as slick as hell. Monsters look like this perfect fusion of Final Fantasy eldritch horrors mixed with Dragon Quest’s charming silliness that creates a cool balance of both. Chrono Trigger also has a godly soundtrack where each music piece feels so resonant with the scene playing that I always end up humming the tunes while I play. Even if you dislike older video games, everyone owes it to themselves to at least check out this one with how amazingly well it has aged.

One thing that playing Chrono Trigger has made me learn is that every western inspired JRPG really is just trying to mimic this game and I can see why. It is THE turn-based combat JRPG for players who hate turn based combat. With the ATB system similar to Final Fantasy but with an interesting twist with positioning on the screen, Chrono Trigger’s combat really gives the illusion of being more lively and involved compared to other turn-based JRPGs in this sense. How quick the combat is against enemies also really helps the exploration, especially the fact that it has no random enemy encounters. That must certainly be a huge boon for some. But that’s just scratching the surface of what makes the exploration great as the real meat is in fact the time travel letting you explore the world in different time periods and impacting history in different ways to complete side quests and progress through the story.

It is with this gameplay element that the story truly shines as something completely unique. It starts off with Crono simply being dragged into the time travel shenanigans but it gradually escalates into this amazing time travel adventure where you meet interesting party members each very distinct to their original time periods and having a lot of character and personality. The overall main story is surprisingly short, but it makes up for it with its sheer amount of side quests available before the final boss. I like this structure to be honest, it gives a lot of content for those who want to make the most out of their games while also being a game that can be relatively quick for those who just want to see the main things of what makes this game so great, Either way, Chrono Trigger will rarely ever keep a played bored with how well it directs them to the next interesting event.

This is a pretty good game overall. Might be a new all-time favorite. I’m going to be thinking about it for a while. If you’re looking for a beautiful game that just has a comfy yet hype story that’ll keep you engaged be it through its addictive gameplay or its endearing narrative, this is the one. Don’t play the steam version though because it crashes a lot. 10/10.

"A person will experiences two deaths. The first is when a soul leaves their body. And the second is when the memories of that person fade from everyone's hearts."
- Sayoko Robbins

"Because you remember her, my mom lives on. And thanks to that, I got to see her."
- Ashley Robbins

Been thinking a lot about remakes. What is the value of a remake? What is lost in returning to an older work to "fix" things? All these meta-commentaries and adaptations are interesting in theory, but why is it so hard to simply release the old games?

Another Code is a messy example in that so much of its foundation is built on hardware that no longer exists. Cing used every aspect of the DS and the Wii to build its narratives and these clever methods of interaction are a crucial beating heart. Losing a majority of that puzzle interaction in the Recollection's format does... hurt. But there's still so much love here that its a compromise I understand.

The game undeniably provides two key features: ease and access. The game is easier to navigate, dialogue easier to skip through, backtracking and surplus content is snipped off for a more pleasant experience. Running around the mansion in Two Memories is really fun! The sensation of interacting with a tiny video game map to unravel, rather than an exhausting open world, feels like something that's been lost in a lot of modern game design. It felt amazing to return to it and even more amazing that its so easy to acquire this game. People can play and experience these games in one complete package. It'd certainly wish people to at least seek out emulators, but I'm choosing to be happy for the people experiencing this narrative for the first time.

But I think what really won me over on this game was the director's cut feel of it. Head Writer Rika Suzuki and Director Taisuke Kanasaki returned for Recollection and you can feel that sense of time permeate their approach to this game, especially in the Journey Into Lost Memories section. One character in the Wii game was a character I often found frustrating and boring to engage with. Recollection completely changes the final climax of the story and alters his journey into something full of tragedy, misunderstanding, and existentialism. It ties up loose ends and closes the book on a series that never continued. It says goodbye, but with peace and joy rather than misery.

In 2022, Rika Suzuki became an honorary member of the Game Preservation Society. Her interview after Cing's closure can be found here. Cing's closure was the first time I understood as a child that a company closing meant something could be lost that wouldn't be filled. That something would change. And from there, an understanding that when an uncaring company fires its workers, its throwing away the talents and efforts of so many dedicated people. That lesson influences how I think about... a lot of things into the present.

Games are built through the hard-work and care of many different individuals we will never know. Their names passing us by on a credits screen symbolizes days and weeks and months of work. I can feel the love pouring from the screen. I can feel the passion for creativity and joy. If you don't feel it for this game, and I would never demand that you have to, feel that passion in your own favorite games. Find a favorite moment or scene or piece of art and look up who was in charge of art design or script or lighting or any piece of visual scenery that you adored. Someone made that. Remember them, if just for a little while. And if you don't want to do that for games, do that for your fridge, your coat, your wallet. Someone made that. We're all connected by work we'll never see. Remember them.

Another Code helped teach me that a decade ago and its still reminding me that now.

Uma das maiores injustiças do mundo foi Metroid Prime não ter inspirado jogos da mesma forma que Super Metroid inspirou.

Super Metroid não criou o estilo de progressão que hoje chamados de Metroidvania, mas trabalhou ele de uma maneira fenomenal que mostrou a todos do quê esse estilo realmente é capaz - e o quão divertido ele consegue ser.
Metroid Prime fez exatamente a mesma coisa: pegou aquele estilo de progressão já conhecido da série (e que, nesse momento, já havia sido utilizado em outras séries e jogos) e trabalhou ele como sendo um jogo FPS. Lendo assim, pode não parecer grande coisa, mas a forma que o gênero Metroidvania foi adaptado para 3D em primeira pessoa no Metroid Prime foi PERFEITO!!! E dizer isso não é exagero! Parece que você tá jogando um Metroid 2D só que em um universo 3D primeira pessoa. É EXATAMENTE O MESMO JOGO, SÓ QUE EM UM FPS - O QUE É ASSUSTADORAMENTE DESCONCERTANTE, PORQUE É UMA MUDANÇA RADICAL DEMAIS E MESMO ASSIM CONSEGUIRAM ADAPTAR DE UMA MANEIRA PERFEITA DEMAIS!

E é aí que entra a parte que me entristece MUITO:
Enquanto Super Metroid se tornou uma base do gênero Metroidvania e é usado até hoje para moldar inúmeros títulos, Metroid Prime, que foi um trabalho tão revolucionário no gênero quanto foi o Super, manteve seu estilo isolado à apenas a série Metroid Prime.
Sim, é óbvio que montar um metroidvania 3D dá muuuuito mais trabalho do que um 2D (que já é bem complicado de fazer), mas não é estranho que não tenha absolutamente NENHUM outro jogo até hoje que tentou fazer o que o Metroid Prime fez? Pelo menos eu, quando pesquisei, não achei nenhum. E ISSO ME DEIXA DE CARA!!! COMO É POSSÍVEL QUE NINGUÉM TENHA TENTADO COPIAR A RECEITA DE UM JOGO TÃO BOM??? AINDA MAIS UM JOGO QUE SOUBE DEIXAR ESSA RECEITA TÃO EVIDENTE E BEM DETALHADA NA GAMEPLAY!

Parando para pensar agora, as séries Metroid e The Legend of Zelda tem muita coisa em comum, e essa é mais uma delas: Ter tido um jogo 2D que retrabalhou magnificamente um estilo e se tornou modelo para inúmeros jogos (Super Metroid e A Link to the Past) e depois ter se adaptado fantasticamente bem ao universo 3D (Metroid Prime e Ocarina of Time) mas não ter nenhum ou quase nenhum jogo feito com base nesse título 3D...

...Mas é.
Meio que eu acabei usando essa análise mais pra desabafar a minha indignação... Porém realço que toda essa minha pagação de pau com o Metroid Prime não é sem motivo: esse jogo é uma obra-prima!

Caso você queira jogar, eu recomendo usar o PrimeHack, que é um mod feito no emulador Dolphin pra jogar Metroid Prime Trilogy com mouse e teclado - e, acreditem, É MUITO BOM E FUNCIONA QUE É UMA BELEZA!

E antes de finalizar, se vocês souberem de jogos que sejam similares a vibe do Metroid Prime ou Ocarina of Time, POR FAVOR ME DIGAM!
Eu amo MUITO esses jogos véi! Então qualquer coisinha que se pareça com eles eu to aceitando!

𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘯?

I’ve taken a considerable amount of time between my experiences with each of the main Silent Hill games. I played the first entry around six-seven years ago when I was still in a mutually toxic relationship and found it excellent yet downright baffling. Containing industrial and metallic horrors beyond immediate comprehension and freaky cults and oddly touching ‘chosen family’ dynamics, it pushed the limits for what I believed a PS1 title could achieve through sheer atmosphere and symbolic prowess alone. After nabbing a decently priced copy of the second game a year post my separation from said relationship (and in the wake of the pandemic), I found myself shattered by its oppressive deconstruction of a guilty conscience and the interconnective nature of trauma- both shared and isolated. How pain binds fractured souls together, and winds them up into botched and abstracted spaces of American normality to fend for themselves on a primal level. It took everything the first entry accomplished and confidently treks into bold territories that challenged the player’s allegiance to their supposed protagonist as well as call attention to their adjacent relationships to side characters- who upon the surface don’t directly contribute much to James’ arc but rather gracefully ebb and flow with the intention of supplementing the themes of the story. These first two games were exhausting to push through, almost sadist in quality and punishing in developer motivation with how they marry deeply complicated and expressionistic narratives with deliberately stunted and claustrophobic gameplay. They are, to me, a primordial testament to what the medium can achieve as singular works of art (as well as propelling the interactive possibilities of horror).

Anyways, Backloggd word salad aside, it has been nearly four years and I have finally gotten to the trilogy capper. I have since healed from my own personal traumas from the relationship that haunted my experiences with the previous two games (but still write the inflated wordy nonsense on here for the four people that actually read my reviews). That word, “healed”, succinctly captures what it felt like to play through Silent Hill III. It is an encompassing coming of age narrative about origin and birthright and interrogates the identity that we are born with versus the one we ultimately choose for ourselves. The game also wraps itself back into the thematic backbone of the first game in a clever way, weaving in ideas of evangelic persecution that removes women’s agency from their bodies and intertwining that with emotional struggles of familial belonging. Team Silent fills the game with the adequate amount of angst, grief, and sass that any teenage girl confronts as they are exposed to the chronic realities of impending adulthood. And yes, it is also very scary; utilizing some fairly cursed sound work and utterly hideous (and frequently phallic) creature designs in addition to incorporating another deliciously brooding soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka. Everything in this game carries the instinct to exercise hostility and discomfort towards Heather. Who didn’t feel that way about the world as an insecure adolescent? At the very least the sense that nothing is quite “okay” permeates much of the game’s wildly structured first half leading up to the story’s venture to the titular town in the second. The player navigates through malls, subway stations, construction sites, office buildings, and apartment complexes with the overall goal of getting home and then from there we are thrust into the familiar spaces we’ve walked before as other characters.

Despite its messy development, this is as much an effectively bittersweet culmination of the franchise’s mythology as it a deliriously unique exploration of its own themes. While I wasn’t as taken with the characterizations here as I was with the previous entry (Douglas didn’t do much for me, sorry), that remains somewhat the only sour note to an otherwise masterful game that I imagine will smooth over with time. Just writing this I look back on my nights playing this fondly and already with slight tinges of nostalgia. Every dream-like moment is so committed to utmost immersion for the player, inducing unease within the most mundane of everyday locations- at least before they are transformed into otherworldly distortions of malice incarnate. This dynamic allows for pulpy levity that toggles self-reflexive tone shifting; registering discordant humor, occasional dramatic poignancy, but mostly unhinged beats of urban surrealism. The game’s iconic visual and thematic aesthetic teamed with Heather’s infectious presence providing a much-needed cushion for the player to fall back on for reprieve against the most ungodly of manifestations, this is truly as well-rounded as horror games can be. Now if someone out there wants to lend me Silent Hill IV..