tbh only way to play this game and have fun is by not knowing what the objective is. my first few matches (this was many years ago) i played Amumu bc he looked funny, and i just piled on HP items until his health bar was basically just black lines visualizing HP segments. i would literally just run around and find enemy players, then headbutt htem until they died hahaha

then i learned what the objective was. Big Mistake....

Over time, I've drawn a line between art and content. I try not to gatekeep art, but while content may fit the technical definition of art, I find it increasingly difficult to call it that. While most (not all) games released are made partly for commercial reasons, I think it's important to acknowledge the balancing act between the commercial and the artistic.

Many games compromise a lot for the sake of sales, and some do not. Dwarf Fortress before the Steam release was the epitome of this. It was a free game with a donation system, so you could send the developer money if you liked the game. In addition, Dwarf Fortress was inaccessible to say the least. Out of all the critical darlings in the gaming space, it was (and arguably still is) the most difficult to get into. But that's what makes it unique, it's what gives the game its charm. Uncompromising in the extreme, and doing something that no other game has replicated to this day.

League is not one of those games. There is an argument to be made that the game may have started like that, and sure, the game is free, but make no mistake. The model is not the same as that of Dwarf Fortress in both philosophy and practice. The fact is, free to play makes more money than pay to play in the gaming market ever since at least the early 2010's. No, whereas a Dwarf Fortress player might drop the game due to its notoriously difficult but rewarding systems and controls, a League player will continue to play League despite hating every moment of it. This is due to the psychology of content games versus art games. If you become addicted to an art game, that's generally because you love the game and cherish it for what it does. If you get addicted to a content game like league, it's because these companies literally hire psychologists to design dark patterns into the core of their games. They are not the same.

I want to end this review with a message to the reader. Stop playing content games. Your life, physical and mental state, and general wellbeing will improve. Replace content games with art games, games that were made with passion. If you play League, you are falling into the same trap that has ensnared millions of people. The game is not free to play, the cost is in years of your lifespan, and I do not mean that lightly.

There used to be a total of 3 games that made me cry, make that 4.

Goodbye Volcano High, ignoring it's technical flaws and moments of pandering, is amazing. I want to be clear, my opinion on this game comes from a non-binary writer who struggled a lot with the same issues shown in this game so I might be a little biased. However, to me, this game perfectly encapsulated the weird phase of high school to an absolute perfect pitch from my experience, from the cringey-ness (and yes we were all like that) to the little moments. Everything from the highs, the lows, the drama, the significance felt in high school's finality, it all works perfectly in this game.

While I may have issues with a decent portion of the technical side of the game, the story and characters here are no less than amazing. The story is relatable to a LGBTQAI+ positive youth group (like generation Z and Alpha), but also has a mastery of character dialogue that, while sometimes delivered oddly, works to make every character feel real and significant. I mean, when the biggest crime a game has by the end is "being to short", you've got something special on your hands. Of course a game like this will only work for certain people both in terms of genre and story, but I think for those people, like myself and many I know, this is a masterclass. A majority of the technical issues are those that hardly effect gameplay, whether that's some visual novel staples missing (like a skip button or backtrack button) or some shoddily-made rhythm sections that do not sync up well with devices with any sort of ms (had to switch to a steam deck to actually land some of the notes). These technical flaws though are a footnote in the overall experience to me at least, as soon as you learn to ignore them, you can really enjoy the experience.

While only being ranked a 4 for, primarily, technical reasons, this is a game I did not expect I would give nearly as much praise as I do, easily one of the best games I've played this year, hands down.