longdongmonger
Recent Activity
IceNinja
finished
Pac-Man Museum+
I normally only write reviews for games that I have a satisfying understanding of. This one will be an exception, I spent a solid evening trying out the various games in this collection and am going to drop some impressions. Let it be stated that I gave some of these games barely any chance. I have nothing that could be mistaken for mastery in any of them, and no interest in pursing it.
Anyway, I enjoyed checking out this collection. It didn't sell me on Pac-Man as a franchise, but it was quite interesting to try each game. I love game compilations, they're a treat to explore as a game designer. Trying new games is my favorite part of gaming, so compilations like this appeal to me quite strongly.
The first thing to talk about here is the framing that Pac-Man Musuem+ presents. You have a little arcade that you can customize, each game exists on a machine that both costs coins to play & rewards coins from play, and you can spend coins on a gacha for new decorations. I'm pretty narrowly split between "I sure don't care" & "this is actually a pretty neat idea and I can respect it". If this was a game I had any intention of ever revisiting I could start to see the value add, meanwhile it's hard not to get annoyed at the unlock popups after exiting a game.
I love the idea of creating a system that gives meaning to inserting new credits into games, although this implementation doesn't have enough punch to meaningfully succeed at recreating the context of spending coins in an arcade. I don't think that experience is something the developers needed to have tried for here, but I've definitely gained an interest in playing a game that does successfully emulate that context.
The first open of the game is a little rough. You're bombarded with pac-man-machine sounds and have like a dozen popups to go through. The arcade tutorials are reasonable, the "you've unlocked some holiday wallpaper" ones shouldn't be allowed to appear literally right after you've read through the tutorial.
I was excited that each game had a history blurb. Unfortunately they didn't put anything interesting in there. They're all pretty much rehashes of the game description. This was an awesome opportunity on the museum side of the experience, so that feels like a bit of a shame. Video game history is so interesting, I'm sure there's plenty of cool stuff to learn about all these games.
Now I'll go through my impressions of each game included in the collection
PAC-MAN
I've never really found PAC-MAN fun, I'm pretty apathetic to it. It's probably some before my time "you had to be there" thing. I dislike how the game incentivizes camping power pellets so that you can bait some ghosts and gobble them up. Yeah the ghost AI is cool, but it's not enough to make the game feel dynamic to me.
SUPER PAC-MAN
I don't like the zoom-zoom-invincibility-power-pellets. The gates & keys are interesting. It's especially funny how they set up situations to trap yourself. There's probably some potential here, I can imagine a pac-man where the state of the maze is a huge component of what the player has to keep track of. This is not that hypothetical pac-man, and super pac-man is only hypothetically fun
PAC & PAL
This one was a pleasant surprise! I quite like the card mechanic that directs you to a random objective on the maze. This is a step closer to some of the dynamism that I feel is missing in PAC-MAN. Then they play to PAC-MAN's strengths by introducing another AI agent for you to keep track off. Unfortunately PAC & PAL lacks the depth that would make me want to keep playing it, but this is a solid start to reaching pac-gameplay that's more my style. I'd happily take a galaxian blaster over a power pellet any day.
PAC-LAND
Got filtered by that lake jump. I actually have no idea how to get past it. I do like the troll level design (like the log bridge), but that feels like going a step too far.
Not a fan of repeatedly slamming the stick right to buildup speed, but that would probably feel better on a arcade machine joystick. Otherwise it's neat idea.
PAC-MANIA
"Let's give Pac-Man a jump" - a statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged. Maybe Pac Mania ends up using this jump well, but from what I played this drains the little game essence pac-man had. This is basically the equivalent of the parry plague that many modern action games suffer from. Who cares about positioning when you just have to time your answer to enemies correctly?
PAC-ATTACK
Awesome to see a puzzle arcade game here. This is a pretty interesting take on the genre, especially since it doesn't have a concept of color groups. I am intrigued by the nuances of ghost placement and consumption, if i were to return to any game in the collection it would be this one.
PAC-IN-TIME
I got softlocked in the first level. Didn't give it any more chance, and thus don't really have any thoughts on it. I like how this collection added English translation subtitles. One of the items made me question why I was playing this when i could have been continuing my Saint playthrough in Rainworld.
PAC-MAN ARRANGEMENT Arcade version
This could have been the best one, but the ghosts are a menance to society. They move so fast that it doesn't really feel fun to avoid them or fair when you get caught. That's a huge shame, because the presentation, vibes, and variety are excellent. They do a great job of both staying true to pac-man and remixing it cool ways. In theory the BS ghosts are counterbalanced by the helpful stage gimmicks, but in practice my deaths didn't feel enough like skill issue.
PAC-MAN ARRANGMENT Console Version
This is like PAC-MAN Arrange, but they violently ripped out its soul. The ghosts aren't frustrating anymore, but the presentation isn't nearly as charming. This one just isn't very interesting, despite changing the one thing that ruined the former game
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION
The fruit and pellet reveal system is nifty, but the game felt pretty boring.
PAC Motos
...
PAC 'N ROLL REMIX
Kinda fun, although it's too fast for my tastes. I'm fairly certain the ludicrous speed is the point, but it doesn't stick the landing for the experience to feel good.
PAC-MAN BATTLE ROYALE
I've actually played this before in an arcade. Too bad I don't remember how that experience went, must not have been very memorable. It's a decent setup for an arena experience. The escalating speed, bounces and ghosts that drift in & out of the forefront of your attention all work together well. That said, this game is smoked by its competition in the same genre. I don't know why I would want to play this if I'm in a scenario where I have nearby friends to fight.
PAC-MAN 256
Huh i didn't know the Crossy Road developer made a Pac Man game. I'm sure this game has caused a lot of money to change hands. It's pretty cool to experience the game without the monetization being the central parasite on your attention. It seems well designed for what it is, but i don't find what it is very interesting
-
The cool part of playing a compilation is that many of these game I would have never otherwise tried, even if a game misses for me I can still enjoy the process of quickly checking it out
Anyway, I enjoyed checking out this collection. It didn't sell me on Pac-Man as a franchise, but it was quite interesting to try each game. I love game compilations, they're a treat to explore as a game designer. Trying new games is my favorite part of gaming, so compilations like this appeal to me quite strongly.
The first thing to talk about here is the framing that Pac-Man Musuem+ presents. You have a little arcade that you can customize, each game exists on a machine that both costs coins to play & rewards coins from play, and you can spend coins on a gacha for new decorations. I'm pretty narrowly split between "I sure don't care" & "this is actually a pretty neat idea and I can respect it". If this was a game I had any intention of ever revisiting I could start to see the value add, meanwhile it's hard not to get annoyed at the unlock popups after exiting a game.
I love the idea of creating a system that gives meaning to inserting new credits into games, although this implementation doesn't have enough punch to meaningfully succeed at recreating the context of spending coins in an arcade. I don't think that experience is something the developers needed to have tried for here, but I've definitely gained an interest in playing a game that does successfully emulate that context.
The first open of the game is a little rough. You're bombarded with pac-man-machine sounds and have like a dozen popups to go through. The arcade tutorials are reasonable, the "you've unlocked some holiday wallpaper" ones shouldn't be allowed to appear literally right after you've read through the tutorial.
I was excited that each game had a history blurb. Unfortunately they didn't put anything interesting in there. They're all pretty much rehashes of the game description. This was an awesome opportunity on the museum side of the experience, so that feels like a bit of a shame. Video game history is so interesting, I'm sure there's plenty of cool stuff to learn about all these games.
Now I'll go through my impressions of each game included in the collection
PAC-MAN
I've never really found PAC-MAN fun, I'm pretty apathetic to it. It's probably some before my time "you had to be there" thing. I dislike how the game incentivizes camping power pellets so that you can bait some ghosts and gobble them up. Yeah the ghost AI is cool, but it's not enough to make the game feel dynamic to me.
SUPER PAC-MAN
I don't like the zoom-zoom-invincibility-power-pellets. The gates & keys are interesting. It's especially funny how they set up situations to trap yourself. There's probably some potential here, I can imagine a pac-man where the state of the maze is a huge component of what the player has to keep track of. This is not that hypothetical pac-man, and super pac-man is only hypothetically fun
PAC & PAL
This one was a pleasant surprise! I quite like the card mechanic that directs you to a random objective on the maze. This is a step closer to some of the dynamism that I feel is missing in PAC-MAN. Then they play to PAC-MAN's strengths by introducing another AI agent for you to keep track off. Unfortunately PAC & PAL lacks the depth that would make me want to keep playing it, but this is a solid start to reaching pac-gameplay that's more my style. I'd happily take a galaxian blaster over a power pellet any day.
PAC-LAND
Got filtered by that lake jump. I actually have no idea how to get past it. I do like the troll level design (like the log bridge), but that feels like going a step too far.
Not a fan of repeatedly slamming the stick right to buildup speed, but that would probably feel better on a arcade machine joystick. Otherwise it's neat idea.
PAC-MANIA
"Let's give Pac-Man a jump" - a statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged. Maybe Pac Mania ends up using this jump well, but from what I played this drains the little game essence pac-man had. This is basically the equivalent of the parry plague that many modern action games suffer from. Who cares about positioning when you just have to time your answer to enemies correctly?
PAC-ATTACK
Awesome to see a puzzle arcade game here. This is a pretty interesting take on the genre, especially since it doesn't have a concept of color groups. I am intrigued by the nuances of ghost placement and consumption, if i were to return to any game in the collection it would be this one.
PAC-IN-TIME
I got softlocked in the first level. Didn't give it any more chance, and thus don't really have any thoughts on it. I like how this collection added English translation subtitles. One of the items made me question why I was playing this when i could have been continuing my Saint playthrough in Rainworld.
PAC-MAN ARRANGEMENT Arcade version
This could have been the best one, but the ghosts are a menance to society. They move so fast that it doesn't really feel fun to avoid them or fair when you get caught. That's a huge shame, because the presentation, vibes, and variety are excellent. They do a great job of both staying true to pac-man and remixing it cool ways. In theory the BS ghosts are counterbalanced by the helpful stage gimmicks, but in practice my deaths didn't feel enough like skill issue.
PAC-MAN ARRANGMENT Console Version
This is like PAC-MAN Arrange, but they violently ripped out its soul. The ghosts aren't frustrating anymore, but the presentation isn't nearly as charming. This one just isn't very interesting, despite changing the one thing that ruined the former game
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION
The fruit and pellet reveal system is nifty, but the game felt pretty boring.
PAC Motos
...
PAC 'N ROLL REMIX
Kinda fun, although it's too fast for my tastes. I'm fairly certain the ludicrous speed is the point, but it doesn't stick the landing for the experience to feel good.
PAC-MAN BATTLE ROYALE
I've actually played this before in an arcade. Too bad I don't remember how that experience went, must not have been very memorable. It's a decent setup for an arena experience. The escalating speed, bounces and ghosts that drift in & out of the forefront of your attention all work together well. That said, this game is smoked by its competition in the same genre. I don't know why I would want to play this if I'm in a scenario where I have nearby friends to fight.
PAC-MAN 256
Huh i didn't know the Crossy Road developer made a Pac Man game. I'm sure this game has caused a lot of money to change hands. It's pretty cool to experience the game without the monetization being the central parasite on your attention. It seems well designed for what it is, but i don't find what it is very interesting
-
The cool part of playing a compilation is that many of these game I would have never otherwise tried, even if a game misses for me I can still enjoy the process of quickly checking it out
17 hrs ago
IceNinja
finished
Lorgeban
This review contains spoilers
Another banger covemount-like. At the time of writing there's 17 more of these waiting for us to play. Watching my best friend playthrough this series continues to be an absolute treat
First this game makes you appreciate the unique properties and geometry of these sprawling multiblocks. I would sum up many levels in this game with the phrase "You must assemble the contraption." (where the contraption is a multi-structure that allows you to accomplish specific pushing goals.) There's one level that makes you disassemble the contraption instead, and it feels a lot like unpicking a lock.
So that's all well & good... I was not ready for the twist {even though that's like the entire modus operandi of the series}. It turns out this game takes contraption assembly a step further, and tells you to design your own parts.
In the three previous games, the big twist felt like an elegant reveal that the game was building up too. Here it has a bit of a different texture, it's less elegant- more jarring and out-of-left-field. Yet that doesn't stop it from being a fascinating central gimmick quickly explored over the next ~hour.
Drawing pieces invites the player to fall into a prototype-iterate cycle, a core loop that's normally reserved for a vastly different style of puzzle (engineering) games. Lorgeban never lets you forget that there will be sokoban involved- the constraints of not being able to draw over existing elements and accounting for covemonty's position on the screen consistently keep the game rooted in the type of puzzle it starts out as. {the possibility space has been cracked open with a sledgehammer though...there's something terrifying about getting to the first level that allows 2 draws}
There's a few lategame levels that focus on drawing a valid path that creates enough objects. I personally think these are the weakest portion of the game, although I still think they justify their inclusion as puzzles.
The final level is trivially solvable, i suppose the point is to teach you that you could draw the whole time- even on levels before the cursor counter is introduced. That's a reasonable and amusing note to end on- although we actually didn't realize this fact until we looked at the itch io comments and connected some dots.
First this game makes you appreciate the unique properties and geometry of these sprawling multiblocks. I would sum up many levels in this game with the phrase "You must assemble the contraption." (where the contraption is a multi-structure that allows you to accomplish specific pushing goals.) There's one level that makes you disassemble the contraption instead, and it feels a lot like unpicking a lock.
So that's all well & good... I was not ready for the twist {even though that's like the entire modus operandi of the series}. It turns out this game takes contraption assembly a step further, and tells you to design your own parts.
In the three previous games, the big twist felt like an elegant reveal that the game was building up too. Here it has a bit of a different texture, it's less elegant- more jarring and out-of-left-field. Yet that doesn't stop it from being a fascinating central gimmick quickly explored over the next ~hour.
Drawing pieces invites the player to fall into a prototype-iterate cycle, a core loop that's normally reserved for a vastly different style of puzzle (engineering) games. Lorgeban never lets you forget that there will be sokoban involved- the constraints of not being able to draw over existing elements and accounting for covemonty's position on the screen consistently keep the game rooted in the type of puzzle it starts out as. {the possibility space has been cracked open with a sledgehammer though...there's something terrifying about getting to the first level that allows 2 draws}
There's a few lategame levels that focus on drawing a valid path that creates enough objects. I personally think these are the weakest portion of the game, although I still think they justify their inclusion as puzzles.
The final level is trivially solvable, i suppose the point is to teach you that you could draw the whole time- even on levels before the cursor counter is introduced. That's a reasonable and amusing note to end on- although we actually didn't realize this fact until we looked at the itch io comments and connected some dots.
3 days ago
3 days ago
IceNinja
finished
Peter Talisman: Lord of the Harvest
This review contains spoilers
A cool little experience that nails its vibes and feels wonderfully distinct.
The idea of matching a simple crop harvesting idle game with the explicit framing of an accompanying music album is great. These 2 halves really synergize well with each other.
The only sticking point is that the album tracks are coupled to clicking on waystones. To me, this was easily solved by explicitly waiting for a track to end before advancing. This seems like the intended experience, and watching the gameplay supports this waiting well. It is worth noting that somebody could utterly ruin their experience by rushing waystones and always clicking on them once the path is open, but I think most players will realize that's not how they want to engage with the experience.
[Also the first few waystones are quite well placed to match gameplay pacing with album pacing, this is only an issue that appears after the first zoomed out one]
The track progress visualization is an incredible touch and looks quite cool.
Seeing the field get cleared is pretty satisfying. There's not really any depth to your purchases, but there doesn't need to be for the gameplay to fulfill it's intent here. [Shoutout to the way they replace the verb on "purchase" each time, that's a pretty great gag]
The beacon is a great mechanic, giving the player a sense of agency over how the field gets cleared. Pair that with the murals that get revealed as you clear space, and the player is left with a satisfying and intriguing object to interact with as they listen to the album.
My favorite component is definitely the waystone dialog scenes. I quite like the writing for them and they excelled at leaning into that surreal "music video" style of storytelling. I give the writing a lot of credit for how memorable I found this game.
The idea of matching a simple crop harvesting idle game with the explicit framing of an accompanying music album is great. These 2 halves really synergize well with each other.
The only sticking point is that the album tracks are coupled to clicking on waystones. To me, this was easily solved by explicitly waiting for a track to end before advancing. This seems like the intended experience, and watching the gameplay supports this waiting well. It is worth noting that somebody could utterly ruin their experience by rushing waystones and always clicking on them once the path is open, but I think most players will realize that's not how they want to engage with the experience.
[Also the first few waystones are quite well placed to match gameplay pacing with album pacing, this is only an issue that appears after the first zoomed out one]
The track progress visualization is an incredible touch and looks quite cool.
Seeing the field get cleared is pretty satisfying. There's not really any depth to your purchases, but there doesn't need to be for the gameplay to fulfill it's intent here. [Shoutout to the way they replace the verb on "purchase" each time, that's a pretty great gag]
The beacon is a great mechanic, giving the player a sense of agency over how the field gets cleared. Pair that with the murals that get revealed as you clear space, and the player is left with a satisfying and intriguing object to interact with as they listen to the album.
My favorite component is definitely the waystone dialog scenes. I quite like the writing for them and they excelled at leaning into that surreal "music video" style of storytelling. I give the writing a lot of credit for how memorable I found this game.
3 days ago
6 days ago
IceNinja
finished
Norco
This review contains spoilers
I've read plenty of reviews for games where people complain about a story going off the rails. I like to think that I can appreciate a proper rollercoaster of a game, even if it's unexpected.... and I did really enjoy Norco- but ok fine I understand where these types of people are coming from now.
There's so much that I find compelling in Norco... they just spent too much attention on the Gaerett Cult; pawpaw and his jesus bloodline stuff should be violently escorted out by a bouncer; and the moment i read dialog in the shield masquerade ball I knew this game would lose me by the end.
If the game choose what it focused on differently, i would have really loved it, instead i'll just have to settle for saying it was pretty cool.
Anyway, they really nailed the tone, writing and setting here, wow it is all so evocative. Norco is blunt and murky ,heartfelt and amusing, grounded and absurd, strange and mundane, morose and striking - all of those words that come to mind are contradicting, that's how you know they did a good job of capturing life. I'm very impressed that I was able to vibe with it so much, since the game is operating in a genre that I would normally consider not my style. Maybe i'm just an easy fish to bait by putting in cool sci-fi elements
Shoutout to superduck! That sure is a concept! The phrase "internet of flesh" still lives in my mind. This unique fusion of AI and organic life is quite interesting, especially with the nuance of being a virus that mutated from a sketchy memory backup. The Quack jobs app is a neat idea on top of that.
The setting of Norco doesn't take that many steps away from the present- which is weird to say given the inclusion of Robots and AI. The writers obviously wanted to write about reality, and just take a few sci-fi concepts along for the ride. To be clear, that's not a complaint- they pulled it off great. It's super cool how they mixed diet cyberpunk elements into a place that's both burdened by its past and cynical on its future.
I was on board for the game's storytelling starting from the very beginning. I adore the intro to this game. The first imagery defining the setting is incredible and the way they catch you up on Kay's life story are incredible. They use the classic game thing of occasionally giving you text choices between the walls of text, but the ones here game really come out swinging in a way that strongly contributes to the setup of tone and characterization. (A great example is the description of kay deciding to leave despite bleak's pleading and being able to choose "I didn't care" or "I knew he'd get over it"). I've been playing a lot of narrative games that open with an interactive fiction inspired sequence like this lately- that's a trend i will continue to enjoy with great enthusiasm. Always a pleasure to see such a strong use of 2nd person.
As soon as I woke up in the bedroom i began reading the mindmap- and found it quite cool. I'm a bit disappointed that past that point it became a glorified "information learned so far" tracker. It had a lot of potential as a source for cool writing, but generally didn't live up to that beyond the family entries that you see initially. I was excited to check it every time the new notification appeared, and that was rarely worthwhile.
My favorite scene in the game is the retelling of the 3 floods the house has been through, with the addition of the 4th flood that will occur. Shoutout to all the bits in this game that remind me of the shivers writing in Disco Elysium, i adore them.
My 2nd favorite scene is the spaceship-dream-trek through the rooms of the house (with each one dedicated to a specific family member). Even amid an ending sequence filled with narrative elements I cared little for, this stood out as a very satisfying component of the finale. The game really succeeds with its storytelling centered around the family.
I love the structural gimmick of alternating between Kay and Catherine's adventure. I don't think the switching to optimize cliffhangers was really necessary though. I can respect cliffhangers in media that actually has a reason for the audience to wait, but here it feels like cowardly backing away from the current scene. Aside from that timing complaint, I like what these switches do for the pacing. I can't decide whose segments I prefer.
The memory clinic scene that Catherine starts with is fantastic. I also love all the mileage they get out of Catherine's phone. The apps are a neat idea and they are surprisingly effective given their simplicity. Having to pay to travel to locations is a cool touch, even if it's never an actual stressor. The voice memos is a cool idea for a mechanic- both for puzzles and for player note-taking.[In practice the voice memo puzzles aren't that interesting, but i still stand by it being a solid mechanic] I like the added friction of having limited memory. That seems like something that would be a quality of life hit, and it is slightly, but the way it forces you to remove irrelevant memos actually makes it a net positive in QoL. [and removing them automatically would hurt the diagetic nature of the voice memo app. The Aprocypha AR app sets up a really funny jumpscare with ditch man. Giving the phone to Kay in the present after Catherine's story concludes is cool.
Overall the Point & Click Adventure gameplay neither appeals to me nor annoys me. It's not really that involved and never had me questioning what to do next. The combat feels quite pointless. The boating in the lake section is rad, both from the writing of the dive scenes and the actual gameplay of navigating around the map. The drone puzzle has potential in its ruleset, but the actual setup is too simple.
The pixel art in this game is really pretty. The looming background Industry and Infrastructure looks especially cool. These artists have a way with lights (both natural and artificial) that just packs the game with awesome screens.
The music has some nice tracks and fits well, but otherwise didn't feel like a memorable component
There's more to be said about the writing in Norco, but it's ~7am so I'm just going to stop writing my thoughts here. There's some solid humour, characters, and descriptions spread throughout this game.
There's so much that I find compelling in Norco... they just spent too much attention on the Gaerett Cult; pawpaw and his jesus bloodline stuff should be violently escorted out by a bouncer; and the moment i read dialog in the shield masquerade ball I knew this game would lose me by the end.
If the game choose what it focused on differently, i would have really loved it, instead i'll just have to settle for saying it was pretty cool.
Anyway, they really nailed the tone, writing and setting here, wow it is all so evocative. Norco is blunt and murky ,heartfelt and amusing, grounded and absurd, strange and mundane, morose and striking - all of those words that come to mind are contradicting, that's how you know they did a good job of capturing life. I'm very impressed that I was able to vibe with it so much, since the game is operating in a genre that I would normally consider not my style. Maybe i'm just an easy fish to bait by putting in cool sci-fi elements
Shoutout to superduck! That sure is a concept! The phrase "internet of flesh" still lives in my mind. This unique fusion of AI and organic life is quite interesting, especially with the nuance of being a virus that mutated from a sketchy memory backup. The Quack jobs app is a neat idea on top of that.
The setting of Norco doesn't take that many steps away from the present- which is weird to say given the inclusion of Robots and AI. The writers obviously wanted to write about reality, and just take a few sci-fi concepts along for the ride. To be clear, that's not a complaint- they pulled it off great. It's super cool how they mixed diet cyberpunk elements into a place that's both burdened by its past and cynical on its future.
I was on board for the game's storytelling starting from the very beginning. I adore the intro to this game. The first imagery defining the setting is incredible and the way they catch you up on Kay's life story are incredible. They use the classic game thing of occasionally giving you text choices between the walls of text, but the ones here game really come out swinging in a way that strongly contributes to the setup of tone and characterization. (A great example is the description of kay deciding to leave despite bleak's pleading and being able to choose "I didn't care" or "I knew he'd get over it"). I've been playing a lot of narrative games that open with an interactive fiction inspired sequence like this lately- that's a trend i will continue to enjoy with great enthusiasm. Always a pleasure to see such a strong use of 2nd person.
As soon as I woke up in the bedroom i began reading the mindmap- and found it quite cool. I'm a bit disappointed that past that point it became a glorified "information learned so far" tracker. It had a lot of potential as a source for cool writing, but generally didn't live up to that beyond the family entries that you see initially. I was excited to check it every time the new notification appeared, and that was rarely worthwhile.
My favorite scene in the game is the retelling of the 3 floods the house has been through, with the addition of the 4th flood that will occur. Shoutout to all the bits in this game that remind me of the shivers writing in Disco Elysium, i adore them.
My 2nd favorite scene is the spaceship-dream-trek through the rooms of the house (with each one dedicated to a specific family member). Even amid an ending sequence filled with narrative elements I cared little for, this stood out as a very satisfying component of the finale. The game really succeeds with its storytelling centered around the family.
I love the structural gimmick of alternating between Kay and Catherine's adventure. I don't think the switching to optimize cliffhangers was really necessary though. I can respect cliffhangers in media that actually has a reason for the audience to wait, but here it feels like cowardly backing away from the current scene. Aside from that timing complaint, I like what these switches do for the pacing. I can't decide whose segments I prefer.
The memory clinic scene that Catherine starts with is fantastic. I also love all the mileage they get out of Catherine's phone. The apps are a neat idea and they are surprisingly effective given their simplicity. Having to pay to travel to locations is a cool touch, even if it's never an actual stressor. The voice memos is a cool idea for a mechanic- both for puzzles and for player note-taking.[In practice the voice memo puzzles aren't that interesting, but i still stand by it being a solid mechanic] I like the added friction of having limited memory. That seems like something that would be a quality of life hit, and it is slightly, but the way it forces you to remove irrelevant memos actually makes it a net positive in QoL. [and removing them automatically would hurt the diagetic nature of the voice memo app. The Aprocypha AR app sets up a really funny jumpscare with ditch man. Giving the phone to Kay in the present after Catherine's story concludes is cool.
Overall the Point & Click Adventure gameplay neither appeals to me nor annoys me. It's not really that involved and never had me questioning what to do next. The combat feels quite pointless. The boating in the lake section is rad, both from the writing of the dive scenes and the actual gameplay of navigating around the map. The drone puzzle has potential in its ruleset, but the actual setup is too simple.
The pixel art in this game is really pretty. The looming background Industry and Infrastructure looks especially cool. These artists have a way with lights (both natural and artificial) that just packs the game with awesome screens.
The music has some nice tracks and fits well, but otherwise didn't feel like a memorable component
There's more to be said about the writing in Norco, but it's ~7am so I'm just going to stop writing my thoughts here. There's some solid humour, characters, and descriptions spread throughout this game.
9 days ago