As is tradition with all of my Pokemon reviews now, I will share the nice little team that helped me through this playthrough. Given that Mismagius and Lilligant are my first and third favorite Pokemon respectively, it was a lot of fun getting the rare opportunity to use both of them in one team. Hell, Mismagius being available at all was the number one reason I wanted to replay Pokemon Moon in the first place, given how irritatingly rare that tends to be. Outside of that, it was also fun researching all the different moons of each planet in order to find appropriate nicknames for all of my team members. This playthrough was a bit of an astronomy lesson for me, I suppose.

That's it, though. While I did remember enjoying Pokemon Sun & Moon back when they first released, this replay was a bit of a better look into just how much of a slog the entire game is. I already knew what I wasn't looking forward to, so with each step closer I took to that god forsaken Aether Paradise, I only felt an ever growing sense of dread and just... I dunno, reluctance? I really didn't wanna play it! Only halfway through my run, I had several instances of just complete demotivation, whether it be my 3DS crashing at poor times (which, my fault, I realize now) or the multiple things I tried looking up only to find out just how far away it was, (Move Reminder is in the Pokemon Center directly before the Elite Four fuck you), I was so willing to just drop the game at any given moment.

I pushed through it all despite the fact. I genuinely cannot say a single good thing about any of the islands spread across Alola. I don't even remember a 3/4 of their names.
- Island 1 is notable for being nothing but a tutorial, and a remarkably slow one at that. I yearn for the day Game Freak makes tutorials completely optional.
- Island 2 is notable for, uh... it has... three trials. Instead of one, or two. Real good one. I did, at the very least, enjoy the pacing of it, shockingly enough. Even if I had to do the water trial twice due to the aforementioned 3DS crashes. This was the only time where I felt like I was making steady progress.
- Island 3 has Po Town. I like Po Town. I've always held a strong opinion against evil team hideouts, yet somehow this is one of the only times where I can say it's actually pretty nice. Though it might have to do with the fact that it's also pretty short... Other than that, I'll also remember it as the dreadful step just before reaching the Aether Paradise, which is probably more of an evil hideout section than Po Town because it's fucking boring!
- Poni Island (I remember this one) is notable for being the last one. It has one town, and one trial. The entirety of Poni Island genuinely feels rushed, half of its purpose is locked behind postgame, the caves just before the dragon trial feel like more of a Victory Road than whatever Mt. Lanakila was supposed to be, there's just nothing here! Even in the Ultra games with its additional trial, they couldn't be bothered to utilize the actual area, instead making the player fly to every other island on a scavenger hunt.

What sucks is that I actually do like everything else! The selection of Pokemon is great, the entire cast is made up of colorful designs and personalities (give or take that random golf girl), and there genuinely is an interesting story being told between Lillie and that whole family ordeal. What's not fun, is seeing that story move at an absolutely mind numbing pace, the worst offender being (take a guess) in the Aether Paradise. Throughout this completely barren and colorless structure, you will explore unnecessarily large rooms, read some dialogue, suddenly broken up by nameless (sometimes faceless) grunts with annoyingly tanky Pokemon. Watch as their health bar slowly drains because we decided we need them to decrease in a specific amount of time, instead of just moving naturally. I did enjoy watching that sliver of health sit idle for a solid few seconds before vanishing the very next.

God, it's just so slow... it is nothing but slow. All of it. Gameplay wise, story wise, I was not enjoying sitting through it all, waiting patiently for my next opportunity to move. A fantastic setting mixed with a fantastic cast, I just wish I actually enjoyed seeing what they did.

i just don't think i like modern pokemon.

Very, very strong Coffee Talk vibes on this one. Concocting different teas in order to unlock new scenarios and use your newly gained information to go back and mix them into different blends. That, and one other detail that I don't quite want to get into to try and remain spoiler free for both games.

Just like Coffee Talk, it's a very cozy experience. Not a very extensive one, but cozy nonetheless. You can only do so much with a few minutes of dialogue between three characters, and I like what they did.

I did have to look up a guide for that final ending, I'll admit. I'm not sure if it was purely my fault or just something that felt a little too vague, but I had tried mixing three of the same ingredient earlier to no avail, so I had assumed that it wasn't possible for any of the ingredients. Not the case, and unfortunately, I had no access to saves of any sort, so after a few failed attempts, I decided I wasn't really willing to trial and error my way into the correct drink. I think given more opportunities to make the drinks, I'd find it a little easier to experiment and find new recipes.

Not bad, though. I'm starting to become a fan of this developer already, and I'll absolutely consider trying the rest of their games. Especially looking forward to the rest of the Year of Springs games whenever I get that opportunity.

i guess i should also thank good buddy Lemonstrade for trying to urge me into playing this game so adamantly lol

So I do think that the game genuinely does have its issues. The graphics are very RPG Maker esc, the fights are genuinely annoying to play through, some of the puzzles can get a little tiring, there's one part of the game that unfairly soft locks you if you forget something, and there are times when the Crooked Man himself starts to lose his actual scare factor.
Though despite this, The Crooked Man has an absolutely excellent story. Not one that I think takes full advantage of the medium that it's set in (with some exceptions), however still an emotional trip nonetheless. The main character while seeming boring at first glance has a surprising amount of depth to him, with the entire game's story revolving around his struggles specifically, with a conclusion to his arc that is incredibly bittersweet.
Imo it's less so meant to be played as a horror game and more so as a psychological drama, so if that seems interesting, I recommend it :D

I keep asking myself why i play these free indie games with retro graphics. There are a ton of revered titles sitting in my backlog untouched. None of them have been particularly worth my time, despite the fact that they are so short. My Eyes Deceive is no different. The only compliment i can give is that the visuals were interesting at times. While the gameplay is appropriate for the topic, it is still entirely lifeless. The worst bit is the use of CSA as a literal punchline in a horror mystery, with no suitable warning. Maybe someday i'll find one of these free games thats actually worth a damn, but i don't see myself playing any more until then.

A classic game that can be accused of pretentiousness, and I don't blame people who might do so. However, I find it to be a good experiment in giving shape to escapism in its representation between the virtual and the alien.

Like more conventional exploration-based games (or walking sims, if you prefer), this one has no inventory and no NPCs to interact with. Furthermore, it doesn't have real objectives that don't self-exhaust in exploration itself. The only thing to do is to progress through a series of enormous rooms that convey a sense of the alien, find a door, and cross it to reach the next room/world. I had the distinct feeling of being on alien worlds inhabited by other forms of life (due to some urban-like scenarios and some audio cues), but it's not important, and the game doesn't aim for interpretative commitment, as these are true dreamlike scenes (a mix of memories or information) to traverse and take refuge from the boredom and noise of everyday life

For want of not completely exposing my messy mental health escapades on a public review site / sort-of game blogging microcosm, I'll leave my review at me feeling some personal attachment to the story of this game. I suppose playing out the toxic and positive aspects of the inner voice, the proverbial "voice in your head", does something to personify the inherent discomfort and fear of having some indistinct audience to your life.

Of course, I'm not that player, and as much as I want to embrace the story the game wants to tell, there's really no... reason, to treat the protagonist with anything other than care. Maybe that's part of the message: Of the intrinsic disorder of negative thoughts , the uncontrollable nature of intrusive thoughts. Wish it was done through deeper prose, relying less on trite scares ingrained into the visual novel landscape.

I relate, but it doesn't really... say anything, that isn't already deeply well known to those who suffer from mental issues, or the wider landscape of "people with a normal amount of empathy". Wish there was more to it!

If you got a body like an Arch-Vile, get in my DMs.

It's strictly a personal observation, but it seems like I see Doom II in people's top five games almost as much as Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Having absolutely loved the first game, the promise of something even better following it up had me pretty excited. Unfortunately, while I did have a great time with Doom II overall, it does suffer from a number of design flaws that hold it back from ascending to the same heights as the original.

Doom II's opening levels are primarily designed by American McGee, who got his start at Id working on Wolfenstein 3D and would later be known for directing American McGee's Alice, Alice: Madness Returns, and uh... uhhh... buhhhhh... Anyway, McGee shows off his strength for creating small puzzle box levels early on, and they're pretty enjoyable! Perfect for reacclimating to Doom's controls and falling into a comfortable rhythm with the central loop of flipping switches, grabbing keycards, and backtracking through ever-changing halls and arenas as you rip and tear (I did it, I said it!! Applaud me!) your way towards the exit. Aaaand then Sandy Petersen steps in, and he's like "whoa check this out, what if there was pits EVERYWHERE?"

To pull a quote from Masters of Doom regarding Petersen, "His levels were not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as Romero's; in fact, some of the id guys thought they were downright ugly," and boy is that the truth. Petersen contributed the most to Doom II's design, and while I don't want to knock the guy's style, a lot of this game looks drab and uninteresting. Every now and then you hit a Romero level and the shift is made very clear just based on how much more aesthetically minded he is. I think this is neat. The fact that each designer has their own well-defined style helps give levels their own mechanical and visual identities. If McGee is a fan of puzzle-driven small-scale levels then Petersen's affinity is for creating labyrinths full of hazards and monster closets, whereas Romero loves to steep you in atmosphere. There's some good stuff borne from each designer's own unique approach, but just as much as they have their own identifiable strengths, so too do they have weaknesses. These typically manifest in an over-reliance on pitch black rooms filled with demons, narrow ledges over pits of acid, and - what I found to be the most frustrating - key points of interest hidden behind invisible walls.

A common complaint of the original Doom was how easy it was to get lost in some of its larger levels, and while I personally didn't have as much of an issue with this, it 100% became a problem in Doom II. The whole red/blue/yellow key loop is made more complicated this time around, often requiring multiple steps between each key before you can access them or the doors they unlock. You'll find yourself flipping a whole lot of switches to lower platforms or open doors, but sometimes what a switch does isn't communicated clearly, requiring you to run around the level trying to see what changed. The Citadel and The Spirit World gave me trouble in particular, and it turns out what I was missing was behind a few doors that were disguised as walls. I guess that's on me for not running Doom Guy up against every texture, making him go "uh! uh! uh!" until a new path opened up.

Doom II also introduces the super shotgun, arguably the greatest shotgun in any FPS game. This thing feels like a monster. It packs a serious punch and has a good spread, making it ideal against some of Doom II's beefier enemies and weaker mobs alike. However, to balance its power the super shotgun has to be reloaded between shots and uses twice as many bullets as your standard shotgun. Ammo feels like it's in shorter supply across the entire game, a consequence of having to blast through a much larger quantity of demons than before, but this only helps ratchet up the tension and feels satisfying in a similar way to Resident Evil. It also forces you to think a bit more strategically about what weapon you're going to use. Sure, the super shotgun feels great, but if you're dealing with a bunch of zombies that are spread out then you're really just throwing ammo away. You want to save that stuff for some of the new demons, all of whom are certifiable bastards. I hate the Pain Elemental, and I get mad as hell whenever I'm being shot from behind by a Heavy Weapon Dude, but it's the kind of hate you want to feel from a game like this. If you show me a picture of a Mancubus I will get actually pissed, and I think that's great.

This review may seem a bit harsh overall and certainly not reflective of a 4/5, and that's because despite how additive the super shotgun and new demons are, much of Doom II's strengths are shared with its predecessor. I don't want to tread old ground here, and that unfortunately leaves me with more to say about what the game doesn't get right, even if I think its weakest moments never add up enough to drag the experience below the point of being a "great" game.

I rented this game back in the day when it came out and had fun with it for a few hours before I felt the game got repetitive. This was not a bad effort considering it was an early-gen title with limitations but I thought the use of the Simpsons license was well done and driving around Springfield was fun and interesting despite early hardware limitations.

One things I appreciated over the obvious Crazy Taxi comparison is that this game allowed for more breathing room and thus it was easier to explore the surroundings.