rainydaymilktea
7 reviews liked by rainydaymilktea
King of Dragon Pass
1999
King of Dragon Pass is that rare pleasure, a game that feels fresh and almost totally unique 25 years later. From a high level, it sounds like a strategy game crossed with an RPG: using a simple menu-based interface, you must lead your clan to prosperity over the course of decades, managing your people’s wealth, happiness, and relationships with your gods and other clans. Several times a year, you’re faced with a narrative event that requires you to make a decision as clan leader. Along the way, you’re helped by a group of clan nobles who offer advice and guidance.
But where most other games treat culture as something intrinsically narrative, in KoDP, culture is gameplay. Set in the rich fantasy world of Glorantha, every single one of the game’s systems is governed by the laws, customs, traditions, history and religion of your people, the Orlanthi. It’s a complex harmony of gameplay and worldbuilding where learning the game means learning about Orlanthi culture and fully inhabiting your role as a clan chieftain. In so doing it carves out its own genre, cultural roleplaying. It’s practically a crime that this game was such a commercial failure on release and has exerted such little influence on video games as a whole.
But where most other games treat culture as something intrinsically narrative, in KoDP, culture is gameplay. Set in the rich fantasy world of Glorantha, every single one of the game’s systems is governed by the laws, customs, traditions, history and religion of your people, the Orlanthi. It’s a complex harmony of gameplay and worldbuilding where learning the game means learning about Orlanthi culture and fully inhabiting your role as a clan chieftain. In so doing it carves out its own genre, cultural roleplaying. It’s practically a crime that this game was such a commercial failure on release and has exerted such little influence on video games as a whole.
For me, Ultima V is defined by a tension between the exciting ambitions of its worldbuilding and the frustrations of its approach towards the traditional strictures of the CRPG.
Ultima V is fascinating, a game that subverts the groundbreaking moral structure of its predecessor by transforming its moral principles into tools of absolutist violence. Its vision of an oppressed Britannia is dark, bleak, and more immersive than ever before, thanks to an impressive-for-1988 devotion to world simulation (there's a day-night cycle! NPCs have their own schedules! you can sit in a chair!) and more fleshed-out writing in NPC conversations.
But my favorite thing about it is its progression. The conversation system is based around keywords and a text parser - a character may have a key piece of information on how to defeat the Shadowlords and free Britannia, but you won't know to ask them about it unless you've spoken to another character halfway across the world. With a journal in hand, this turns the game into an exercise in cross-continent detective work, requiring you to gather and follow-up on clues and leads as you travel from town to town and seek out every human settlement in Britannia. This is where the game shines, requiring you to explore and forcing you to sit with the world the development team has built and see the effects Lord Blackthorn's violent rule has had on the people of Britannia.
Unfortunately Ultima V also wants to be an RPG, and this is where it's at its weakest. I've never been a big fan of the combat in this era of Ultima, and it continues to be relatively slow and tedious here. Character progression takes a frustratingly long time - an unbelievable amount of XP is required to hit the max level of 8, and only the character who deals the killing blow to an enemy gets any XP from it. To top it off, magic kills give no XP whatsoever, cutting off a lot of the tactical usefulness of combat spells, and in classic CRPG fashion, dying down-levels you and removes a significant amount of XP. None of this was much of a problem until I hit the combat-heavy dungeons, most of which are required to get many of the items needed to finish the game. Even after a full 20 hours with a smaller party of 4 characters (out of a max of 8), my Avatar was only level 6, with most of the rest of my party at levels 4 or 5. Suffice to say, getting through the final dungeon was a struggle and I nearly gave up a handful of times.
It's been a decade since I played the first four Ultimas, but I don't remember the combat grating on me so much before. Some cursory reading on the internet confirms that a lot of these problems are unique to Ultima V - combat is harder here and plays a more central role, and it's a lot less forgiving when it comes to doling out XP. While it's in keeping with the game's bleak world and atmosphere, it's also a bummer, and takes away from the game's very real strengths.
Ultima V is fascinating, a game that subverts the groundbreaking moral structure of its predecessor by transforming its moral principles into tools of absolutist violence. Its vision of an oppressed Britannia is dark, bleak, and more immersive than ever before, thanks to an impressive-for-1988 devotion to world simulation (there's a day-night cycle! NPCs have their own schedules! you can sit in a chair!) and more fleshed-out writing in NPC conversations.
But my favorite thing about it is its progression. The conversation system is based around keywords and a text parser - a character may have a key piece of information on how to defeat the Shadowlords and free Britannia, but you won't know to ask them about it unless you've spoken to another character halfway across the world. With a journal in hand, this turns the game into an exercise in cross-continent detective work, requiring you to gather and follow-up on clues and leads as you travel from town to town and seek out every human settlement in Britannia. This is where the game shines, requiring you to explore and forcing you to sit with the world the development team has built and see the effects Lord Blackthorn's violent rule has had on the people of Britannia.
Unfortunately Ultima V also wants to be an RPG, and this is where it's at its weakest. I've never been a big fan of the combat in this era of Ultima, and it continues to be relatively slow and tedious here. Character progression takes a frustratingly long time - an unbelievable amount of XP is required to hit the max level of 8, and only the character who deals the killing blow to an enemy gets any XP from it. To top it off, magic kills give no XP whatsoever, cutting off a lot of the tactical usefulness of combat spells, and in classic CRPG fashion, dying down-levels you and removes a significant amount of XP. None of this was much of a problem until I hit the combat-heavy dungeons, most of which are required to get many of the items needed to finish the game. Even after a full 20 hours with a smaller party of 4 characters (out of a max of 8), my Avatar was only level 6, with most of the rest of my party at levels 4 or 5. Suffice to say, getting through the final dungeon was a struggle and I nearly gave up a handful of times.
It's been a decade since I played the first four Ultimas, but I don't remember the combat grating on me so much before. Some cursory reading on the internet confirms that a lot of these problems are unique to Ultima V - combat is harder here and plays a more central role, and it's a lot less forgiving when it comes to doling out XP. While it's in keeping with the game's bleak world and atmosphere, it's also a bummer, and takes away from the game's very real strengths.
Misericorde is fantastic, a strange delight that builds a compelling murder mystery out of exciting historical specificity, an atmosphere of gothic dread and a great cast of likable and complex characters whose relationships are ripe for good drama.
But part of why I love Misericorde so much is the writing. Every other pure visual novel I've played, even when good, has tended towards rambly over-written prose. Misericorde is simply well-written on a moment to moment basis - the prose is atmospheric and gives everyone a distinct voice but never feels the need to overexplain itself or belabor a metaphor for five paragraphs. xeecee is simply a good writer and stylist
Anyways what an ending and I can't wait for volume two
But part of why I love Misericorde so much is the writing. Every other pure visual novel I've played, even when good, has tended towards rambly over-written prose. Misericorde is simply well-written on a moment to moment basis - the prose is atmospheric and gives everyone a distinct voice but never feels the need to overexplain itself or belabor a metaphor for five paragraphs. xeecee is simply a good writer and stylist
Anyways what an ending and I can't wait for volume two
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
This review contains spoilers
a genuinely embarrassing effort
high graphical fidelity in service of a game with no nearly no art direction, a handful of decent character designs in a game with maybe two likable characters, music that soken i guess forgot to compose because nearly 90% of the soundtrack is “prelude but fucked up” and two battle themes that outstay their welcome 15 hours into this 60 hour game, incredibly uninteresting and poorly written sidequests, and a deeply terrible handling of women throughout the entire game.
-
the slavery plot is atrocious and stupidly handled, but the ur-jrpg-story that replaces it isnt good, its just not as bad. the pacing of the story is also a complete mess, grinding to a halt regularly, and dumping hours of sidequests on you at random points.
every open area of the game is a complete void, with dead ends for sidequest battles and pick up points for unneeded crafting material and 2 gil at a time. even though every settlement looks identical, the open areas look decent enough, but are covered in cloudy skies or ugly pink light for most of the games runtime.
the npcs are so bland you’ll be baffled the entire game how the game is written as if you like any of these people, and by the time the game introduces its single decent character, he’s only around for probably 90 minutes of it.
many things could be said about the women of this game, from ridiculous hysterical caricatures, to ridiculous evil mother, to good wholesome mother, but the most offensive to me was the main “love interest”, who can’t even clear the final fantasy iv bar, and when she is told to remove herself from the plot she simply does. she will pray for the boys going to battle and cry when they perish.
my sole point of praise is the combat, which is fairly simple for most fights (even optional ones, as those are nearly always enemies you’re already familiar with) but almost always satisfying, even against waves of fodder. the summon boss fights are mostly fun too, the spectacle clearly the main focus of the game (to the detriment of the rest, clearly), but it usually hit for me. the titan fight is probably twice as long as it should’ve been but i liked the rest well enough.
less important than the rest but still worth mentioning, the gear in this game may as well be nonexistent. clive has about four stats and none of them really matter, but the game feels obligated to have gear and swords for you to pick up and craft, so every five minutes you have a new sword, before you even register what your current one looks like. as the only visual change you can make to clive, this is somewhat of a bummer (even if none of the swords look all that good), and it leads to regular moments where you’ll find a sword in a chest somewhere, do a sidequest chain, and then have a new better sword, maybe before you’ve even swung your current sword. there isn’t even a glamour function for it, despite the mmo fingerprints everywhere in this game.
all in all, the game just failed to work for me on nearly every level, it didn’t even feel like playing a final fantasy. playing this game really put the ff series into perspective to me, and i can only hope they never make one at all like this again.
high graphical fidelity in service of a game with no nearly no art direction, a handful of decent character designs in a game with maybe two likable characters, music that soken i guess forgot to compose because nearly 90% of the soundtrack is “prelude but fucked up” and two battle themes that outstay their welcome 15 hours into this 60 hour game, incredibly uninteresting and poorly written sidequests, and a deeply terrible handling of women throughout the entire game.
-
the slavery plot is atrocious and stupidly handled, but the ur-jrpg-story that replaces it isnt good, its just not as bad. the pacing of the story is also a complete mess, grinding to a halt regularly, and dumping hours of sidequests on you at random points.
every open area of the game is a complete void, with dead ends for sidequest battles and pick up points for unneeded crafting material and 2 gil at a time. even though every settlement looks identical, the open areas look decent enough, but are covered in cloudy skies or ugly pink light for most of the games runtime.
the npcs are so bland you’ll be baffled the entire game how the game is written as if you like any of these people, and by the time the game introduces its single decent character, he’s only around for probably 90 minutes of it.
many things could be said about the women of this game, from ridiculous hysterical caricatures, to ridiculous evil mother, to good wholesome mother, but the most offensive to me was the main “love interest”, who can’t even clear the final fantasy iv bar, and when she is told to remove herself from the plot she simply does. she will pray for the boys going to battle and cry when they perish.
my sole point of praise is the combat, which is fairly simple for most fights (even optional ones, as those are nearly always enemies you’re already familiar with) but almost always satisfying, even against waves of fodder. the summon boss fights are mostly fun too, the spectacle clearly the main focus of the game (to the detriment of the rest, clearly), but it usually hit for me. the titan fight is probably twice as long as it should’ve been but i liked the rest well enough.
less important than the rest but still worth mentioning, the gear in this game may as well be nonexistent. clive has about four stats and none of them really matter, but the game feels obligated to have gear and swords for you to pick up and craft, so every five minutes you have a new sword, before you even register what your current one looks like. as the only visual change you can make to clive, this is somewhat of a bummer (even if none of the swords look all that good), and it leads to regular moments where you’ll find a sword in a chest somewhere, do a sidequest chain, and then have a new better sword, maybe before you’ve even swung your current sword. there isn’t even a glamour function for it, despite the mmo fingerprints everywhere in this game.
all in all, the game just failed to work for me on nearly every level, it didn’t even feel like playing a final fantasy. playing this game really put the ff series into perspective to me, and i can only hope they never make one at all like this again.
Live A Live
2022
Now this is what RPGs are all about.
What a great game. Managing to make each campaign so distinctive, so well-paced and interesting within their short runtime is incredible. Especially when they're so experimental and all going for such different things from each other.
The Far Future chapter is especially incredible, managing to pull off that kind of pacing without any combat at all in 1994 is so ambitious. Wonder if they'd played Ihatov Monogatari.
The new stuff from the remake is generally pretty great, but I felt like the radar was a bit too aggressive in making sure players never get lost. There are moments in the Far Future and Near Future chapters where the player should feel lost and stressed, and the radar is actively getting in the way of that by always telling you where your next step is.
What a great game. Managing to make each campaign so distinctive, so well-paced and interesting within their short runtime is incredible. Especially when they're so experimental and all going for such different things from each other.
The Far Future chapter is especially incredible, managing to pull off that kind of pacing without any combat at all in 1994 is so ambitious. Wonder if they'd played Ihatov Monogatari.
The new stuff from the remake is generally pretty great, but I felt like the radar was a bit too aggressive in making sure players never get lost. There are moments in the Far Future and Near Future chapters where the player should feel lost and stressed, and the radar is actively getting in the way of that by always telling you where your next step is.
Final Fantasy VIII
1999
probably the best final fantasy ive played/seen???
fun (if underused) cast, interesting story, great setting, gorgeous backgrounds filled with a ton of detail, incredibly charming and characterful animations, great music, weird and engaging systems, and many classic moments. i was in love with this game nearly my entire time with it.
the game doesn't explain itself very well, the story is oddly told at times, and most of the party isn't used nearly as much as you'd want, but what is here is still just excellent, absolutely recommended.
(selphie's blog and the credits video are just two of the best things in final fantasy)
fun (if underused) cast, interesting story, great setting, gorgeous backgrounds filled with a ton of detail, incredibly charming and characterful animations, great music, weird and engaging systems, and many classic moments. i was in love with this game nearly my entire time with it.
the game doesn't explain itself very well, the story is oddly told at times, and most of the party isn't used nearly as much as you'd want, but what is here is still just excellent, absolutely recommended.
(selphie's blog and the credits video are just two of the best things in final fantasy)
OlliOlli World
2022
Wow, truly incredible. I've been a big fan since the first game, and somehow the 3rd game is still improving the formula by leaps and bounds. Masterful branching semi-linear level design like 2D Sonic games, great music, beautiful graphics and art direction, and incredibly tight gameplay and controls.
In short, if a rhythm game was mashed up with the wildest Tony Hawk combos.
My only real complaint is that velocity is under explained in game. It's critical but hard to grok.
I've beaten every high score challenge. Few gaming accomplishments have felt this awesome to me. A must play game.
In short, if a rhythm game was mashed up with the wildest Tony Hawk combos.
My only real complaint is that velocity is under explained in game. It's critical but hard to grok.
I've beaten every high score challenge. Few gaming accomplishments have felt this awesome to me. A must play game.