rikutomysora
2021
A very fun riff on Antichamber that explores various different gender identities with fun, conflicting geometries! Does a great job at capturing the confusion that comes with transness. I do find it strange that the BIPOC gender identities were kinda just tucked away in a spiral staircase with little fanfare, but it's still good that they were there at all I guess. The pronoun room was very swag.
There is little that feels concrete in Kid A Mnesia Exhibition. The abstraction is so... er... abstracted that it alienates the senses entirely. It's like staring at an AI-generated image of various vaguely-familiar kind-of shapes, even though there are no actual recognizable objects in the frame. Images break apart into dust, papers swirl around, words coalesce as graffiti on walls, but it is never altogether clear what the shape of this world truly is, only that it is extra-human. Impossible.
Then, tucked away in a small room on a tiny projector screen, you see Radiohead making music in a studio. A moment of calm in a chaos of free-associative viscera. The true, honest-to-god end-state of "music that you can listen to" is so deeply, fundamentally buried within the confines of Kid A Mnesia Exhibition that it almost doesn't exist. Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is, in a word, consciousness. It is the brain, the cathedral of creativity artists conjure to store all their ideas, the illusion of order that must be made out of the chaos so that mania does not take hold. There is a method to the madness, but it is, at the end of the day, still madness.
As an artist, I tend to lose myself in my creative vision. I get so strung up about what could be; the phenomenal shape of the unmade. I create grand tapestries in my mind, stories so grand that they contend with the infinite, unknowable emptiness of the void itself... but if I never put pen to paper, it means nothing. It's just thoughts. You have to do the thing so that the thing can be a thing. That's what Kid A Mnesia Exhibition feels like to me. The grand horror of the writer's-blocked mind made manifest.
Then, tucked away in a small room on a tiny projector screen, you see Radiohead making music in a studio. A moment of calm in a chaos of free-associative viscera. The true, honest-to-god end-state of "music that you can listen to" is so deeply, fundamentally buried within the confines of Kid A Mnesia Exhibition that it almost doesn't exist. Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is, in a word, consciousness. It is the brain, the cathedral of creativity artists conjure to store all their ideas, the illusion of order that must be made out of the chaos so that mania does not take hold. There is a method to the madness, but it is, at the end of the day, still madness.
As an artist, I tend to lose myself in my creative vision. I get so strung up about what could be; the phenomenal shape of the unmade. I create grand tapestries in my mind, stories so grand that they contend with the infinite, unknowable emptiness of the void itself... but if I never put pen to paper, it means nothing. It's just thoughts. You have to do the thing so that the thing can be a thing. That's what Kid A Mnesia Exhibition feels like to me. The grand horror of the writer's-blocked mind made manifest.
Incredibly fun concept! I love seeing the world grow more and more out of order as the game progresses. It's an interesting insight into game development that I don't normally get.
This review contains spoilers
(Dragon's Homecoming & Immortal Severance endings)
I used save-scumming to get the last two endings I hadn't seen yet. The first was the "good" ending, the second was the default ending. I think Dragon's Homecoming works incredibly well thematically--the source of all immortality in Ashina, from the Dragon's Heritage to its oathsworn to the Rejuvenating Waters, leads back to the Divine Dragon. The homecoming is more metaphorical than literal: these three individuals will travel away from these lands, taking immortality with them, to bring it where it belongs. It is incredibly worth the investment of the side quest.
For my money, though, the best ending by far was the default ending: Immortal Severance. A much bleaker ending, IS shows Sekiro killing Kuro, then taking the place of the Sculptor, waiting for another shinobi to come along seeking power. So long as immortality remains in this land, the cycle will continue. Everything repeats itself for eternity, Shura begetting Shura, until eventually nothing is left. It is, essentially, the same as the bad ending of Demon's Souls. And I love that. It works so well as a bleak statement on the futility of the characters' quest and begs them to try harder on their next cycle. The design of the game even intends for you to do multiple cycles, as you cannot unlock every boss gauntlet and every prosthetic tool without at least TWO NG+es under your belt. The cycle continues and continues and continues--until, eventually, you finish it. Shadows Die Twice, but the player dies until they realize they are the only ones keeping this dying world alive.
I used save-scumming to get the last two endings I hadn't seen yet. The first was the "good" ending, the second was the default ending. I think Dragon's Homecoming works incredibly well thematically--the source of all immortality in Ashina, from the Dragon's Heritage to its oathsworn to the Rejuvenating Waters, leads back to the Divine Dragon. The homecoming is more metaphorical than literal: these three individuals will travel away from these lands, taking immortality with them, to bring it where it belongs. It is incredibly worth the investment of the side quest.
For my money, though, the best ending by far was the default ending: Immortal Severance. A much bleaker ending, IS shows Sekiro killing Kuro, then taking the place of the Sculptor, waiting for another shinobi to come along seeking power. So long as immortality remains in this land, the cycle will continue. Everything repeats itself for eternity, Shura begetting Shura, until eventually nothing is left. It is, essentially, the same as the bad ending of Demon's Souls. And I love that. It works so well as a bleak statement on the futility of the characters' quest and begs them to try harder on their next cycle. The design of the game even intends for you to do multiple cycles, as you cannot unlock every boss gauntlet and every prosthetic tool without at least TWO NG+es under your belt. The cycle continues and continues and continues--until, eventually, you finish it. Shadows Die Twice, but the player dies until they realize they are the only ones keeping this dying world alive.
(Shura Ending)
This is definitely the better of the two endings I've seen thus far. It's such a good bad ending. Becoming a demon has never looked so cool.
This is definitely the better of the two endings I've seen thus far. It's such a good bad ending. Becoming a demon has never looked so cool.
2022
I have over 500 hours in Overwatch 2, so I am now legally allowed to say that it sucks ass. The new characters are fun, and they're welcome additions to the roster, but other than that everything is worse. They took out 2CP (which was fine, sue me) and replaced it with Push, which is a mode that sucks and is bad. They changed games from 6 players to 5, destroying the off-tank role and forcing players to adapt their entire strategies. The balance changes made Doomfist a fucking nightmare to play, and I don't think they plan on changing him any time soon. Every game is a roll now, which sucks. Every once in a while, you pull off a sick move, or you get a POTG, which keeps you going for a while, but eventually, you just get burnt out or angry and stop playing altogether. And none of this even begins to touch on the colossal failures of ActiBlizz to do anything good with this game. Seriously, it's like a witch cursed them for 1000 years to make the worst decisions possible. No skill trees or hero missions, the thing you said you were working on for 4 years, and you STILL abandoned Overwatch 1 for all that time? What the hell were you even doing, twiddling your thumbs? Fuck this game.
Holy fuck. Holy fucking fuck. This is what I desperately needed. This game is absurd levels of batshit difficulty, but if you're willing to take yourself to task and master its systems, its combat is the most satisfying and rewarding of any combat system in any game, period. There's such a high skill ceiling, and because of that, it's incredibly satisfying to become more skilled and overcome a scumbag boss. Every single boss fight in this game is a fucking masterpiece, straight up.
The storytelling is another standout. Most FromSoft action RPGs keep their stories mostly in the background as lore, and only show a bit of their hand in the actual gameplay. They also have nameless, customizable protagonists that the player can map onto. But in Sekiro, you play as one very specific guy with a very specific goal. This sense of internal motivation, a drive to do stuff that isn't merely "I wanna get to the next cool boss fight," makes Sekiro so special. You don't just learn about the characters in the world, you advance Sekiro's relationships with them. If you procure one of the several sake bottles in the game, you can even treat yourself to a hearty sit-down with your favorite character and learn more about them. There's a more tactile sense of character, setting, and plot that makes the world of Sekiro feel so much more special than the other titles. The fact that it is set in Japan (the real, actual island) during a specific time period (circa 1570) and features loads of enemies and worldbuilding lifted directly from Japanese mythology also serves to this end. Fighting a cool boss in Dark Souls is one thing, but fighting my own foster father TWICE in Sekiro cuts really fucking deep. This game is emotional, in many ways that the other titles rarely ever measure up to. Sword Saint Isshin is the most masterfully-realized boss encounter in FromSoft history, straight up.
From the start all the way to the bitter end, Sekiro is non-stop emotional heft and beautiful, effortless challenging combat. It is, far and away, my favorite game ever made.
The storytelling is another standout. Most FromSoft action RPGs keep their stories mostly in the background as lore, and only show a bit of their hand in the actual gameplay. They also have nameless, customizable protagonists that the player can map onto. But in Sekiro, you play as one very specific guy with a very specific goal. This sense of internal motivation, a drive to do stuff that isn't merely "I wanna get to the next cool boss fight," makes Sekiro so special. You don't just learn about the characters in the world, you advance Sekiro's relationships with them. If you procure one of the several sake bottles in the game, you can even treat yourself to a hearty sit-down with your favorite character and learn more about them. There's a more tactile sense of character, setting, and plot that makes the world of Sekiro feel so much more special than the other titles. The fact that it is set in Japan (the real, actual island) during a specific time period (circa 1570) and features loads of enemies and worldbuilding lifted directly from Japanese mythology also serves to this end. Fighting a cool boss in Dark Souls is one thing, but fighting my own foster father TWICE in Sekiro cuts really fucking deep. This game is emotional, in many ways that the other titles rarely ever measure up to. Sword Saint Isshin is the most masterfully-realized boss encounter in FromSoft history, straight up.
From the start all the way to the bitter end, Sekiro is non-stop emotional heft and beautiful, effortless challenging combat. It is, far and away, my favorite game ever made.
2020
Visually, this game is stellar. It's probably one of the best-looking games ever made. Bluepoint already knocked it out of the park in the visual department with their Metal Gear remasters and the Shadow of the Colossus remake, but good god are they on another level with this one. It is phenomenally detailed and absolutely gorgeous. Did it necessarily need to be on PS5? No, I don't think so. Sekiro and Elden Ring run just fine on PS4 and have very similar graphic fidelity. Still, though, this is probably the best FromSoft's games have ever looked.
Gameplay-wise, though, it's still the same game from 2009, and so it has the same quirks and annoyances that would be ironed out in later SoulsBorne-Kiro-Ring titles. The bosses aren't anything to scoff at, as most of them are puzzle or gimmick-based. The true, no-holds-barred combat bosses are fun, but... I don't know. I feel like coming back to this game after thoroughly mastering Elden Ring and Dark Souls 1 kinda squandered the difficulty. Don't get me wrong, bosses like the Flamelurker are fun to fight and still a bit challenging, but I eventually got over it when I started dispatching it regularly as a common chore while assisting other players. The world tendency system does do a lot to make the bosses and regular enemies hit like a motherfucker, but not to the level of insanity of other titles. And the difficulty is completely quashed once you realize you can keep over a hundred healing items on you at once if you know how to farm well enough.
There are some QoL things that irk me, like the item burden system and having to kill myself in the Nexus to preserve World Tendency (thank god Sekiro has an item that just kills you instantly), and they're ultimately minor complaints, but they build up to an ultimately flawed experience. I can't even say in good confidence that the game is great, even though I want to love it as much as its antecedents. I hopped off of Demon's Souls faster than any of the soulsborne games thus far, which is sad! I usually come crawling back to beat them again and again, but I just can't see myself doing that with Demon's Souls. It's just... not all the way there for me.
Gameplay-wise, though, it's still the same game from 2009, and so it has the same quirks and annoyances that would be ironed out in later SoulsBorne-Kiro-Ring titles. The bosses aren't anything to scoff at, as most of them are puzzle or gimmick-based. The true, no-holds-barred combat bosses are fun, but... I don't know. I feel like coming back to this game after thoroughly mastering Elden Ring and Dark Souls 1 kinda squandered the difficulty. Don't get me wrong, bosses like the Flamelurker are fun to fight and still a bit challenging, but I eventually got over it when I started dispatching it regularly as a common chore while assisting other players. The world tendency system does do a lot to make the bosses and regular enemies hit like a motherfucker, but not to the level of insanity of other titles. And the difficulty is completely quashed once you realize you can keep over a hundred healing items on you at once if you know how to farm well enough.
There are some QoL things that irk me, like the item burden system and having to kill myself in the Nexus to preserve World Tendency (thank god Sekiro has an item that just kills you instantly), and they're ultimately minor complaints, but they build up to an ultimately flawed experience. I can't even say in good confidence that the game is great, even though I want to love it as much as its antecedents. I hopped off of Demon's Souls faster than any of the soulsborne games thus far, which is sad! I usually come crawling back to beat them again and again, but I just can't see myself doing that with Demon's Souls. It's just... not all the way there for me.
Can't really say anything that hasn't already been said, but I will say that this game whips ass
2022
sonic
2015
Absolutely wild experience. Still the most complicated emotions I've ever felt from a video game in a long while.
2020
Remember, kids: capitalism kills.
2014
A game about exploration. Nothing is told to you outright through the physical game world-- even the controls and exposition are contained in text files extant to the game itself. You must rely on the translations of the Arcanodex to infer meaning. You arrive in a crater, where a city has mysteriously appeared. What is this place? Who used to live here? What is behind the doors? The entire experience is lyrical and surreal, and offers few, if any, answers to your questions. And yet... is that not exactly enough? Some scattered bits of information, and an impression of the world that came before?
Made me cry, would recommend!
Children die