Sayonara: Wild Hearts is a musical action game by Simogo that puts the player in control of a woman with a broken heart as she explores the surreal world inside her mind. It's also the source of the prettiest migraine I have ever had.

Speaking purely in terms of presentation, Sayonara is an achievement on its own. Using the familiar motifs of tarot arcanas, the game establishes its protagonist and the antagonists in gorgeously animated 3D scenes that seamlessly merge into the gameplay. Tension builds up and releases along with the beats, which are in themselves are a treat for the synthwave enjoyers out there. There are also some fantastic designs that mesh the ideas around sound and music to the level in unexpected and mindblowing ways, the Stereo Lovers stage being my uncontested favorite.

But there is such a thing as too much color, too much flashing and too much motion. Having finished the game in a single sitting just over an hour long, I walked away with a headache so bad, the mere thought of playing the game again to attempt high scores or solve the riddles felt terrifying. I shiver to think of someone with actual epilepsy trying this game out, as even for me, as beautiful as the motorcycle ride through the Heartbreak Subspace was, it's hard to tell if it was worth it in the end.

Plus, as wondrous as the sights are, the gameplay lacks the mechanical precision that one would expect from a game tagged as rhythm. Controls feel floaty and the intense use of perspective and unusual framing leads to lots of avoidable mistakes when dodging or swaying. Plus, the intended movement rarely matches the beat, which means this is less of a musical game and more a game with music playing along the action. These are all intentional design decisions, mind you, and they work very well for what the game is trying to achieve, but it bears saying that this won't scratch the rhythm game itch nor does it have that extensive, satisfying replayability those games tend to have.

All in all, Sayonara: Wild Hearts merits a recommendation, but a very cautious one. You have to know what you’re getting into, and you should have some aspirin nearby just in case.

“Like leaves chasing the mighty ocean current. That at any moment, could find themselves plunged beneath the water. But one day… yes… if we could only wash ashore. We could sprout. Bud. Grow strong roots that burrow beneath the earth…”

We are born into this world as very little. A blank slate in which the experiences we are exposed to initially shape who we are and the trajectory of what we seek to become. These individual defining moments we reflect on become known as ‘memory’. We find this mosaic of fragments in which we are comprised is never truly cemented. We continue to experience, accumulating more of ourselves. We find pieces to cherish and deliberately seek to embody forever. Others instead we forget or choose to forsake, expelling bits of which we once were. This transient nature of self leaves our pathways through life to be ambiguous. We are never quite certain of our eventual destinations, only perhaps the direction in which we are headed. Eastward is a game that celebrates the spirit of this journey. A game about collecting memories, preserving them, and eventually letting them go.

“Ah so someone’s finally decided to learn things again, hm? Don’t you think it’s a little late for that, John?”

John, who comprises half the duology of ambivalent protagonists, is a confronting character to play as. Silent as the grave in this breathing world founded upon dialogue. The emotionless exoskeleton he embodies jarringly contrasts against the vibrant landscapes and the people contained within. You are made to feel he does not belong in this world in which he travels. This is deliberately so, the journey in which he partakes is not being driven from his own volition. He is instead a willing passenger along for the ride. This mostly blank slate known as John has been calcified over a lifetime of empty experiences accumulated prior to the start of the adventure. For a self and identity to manifest, there must be components, internalized ‘memories’, in which to build with. Due to the circumstances of John’s existence, very few of these were ever formed, and therefore he is unable to exude self nor manifest agency. The acquisition and internalization of new memories in which to do so is a slow and gradual process. Eastward is partially a game about growing the stagnant universe that is John

“Isn’t this just another dome? Higher than the one in Potcrock Isle, but still. What could be on the other side of that dome?”

Instead, this train’s driver is of the other half of the duology, Sam. This child John found by complete happenstance. Although we are born with very little it is not nothing. For a while at least, we possess an innate curiosity. A desire to experience all that we can. We seek to fill ourselves, this empty vessel, with memory. To grow and become more of ourselves. This youthful inquisitiveness that is often framed as ‘naivety’ before being supplanted by ‘experience’ is a quality of which Sam projects. While any latent desire John might have once possessed to expand past the dome that encloses him has been crushed, Sam in contrast cannot, and will not, be contained by any such dome. John, as her designated caretaker, must follow as she so casually shatters anything that seeks to bind her, and in doing so frees himself from long rusted shackles. Through a foundation built upon mutual trust, the two journey. Accumulating memory together. Building that which they are and becoming so much more.

P: “You’ve saved the world!” K: “That was only a happy byproduct.” P: ”……” K: “All I really wanted was to save you.”

The dichotomy of this relationship that is shared between these two is not an isolated case, rather instead a reoccurring theme of the work. This dynamic is further explored, mirrored, and contrasted against by a few other pairs among the cast. A codependency of which is consistently framed to be akin to the romanticized notion of a Princess with that of her Knight. A Princess whom leads, serving as a catalyst for experiences, an intoxicating fountain from which ‘memory’ freely flows. Who can conceptualize purpose to the struggle of existence, the nature of the world, and find their place within it. And a devoted Knight who willingly follows, living vicariously through their muse, enabling and accommodating her ambitions. Seeking to protect her from harm at all costs knowing that without her they are lost. While this is far from the only relationship dynamic examined, it is the one this work seeks to emphasize and elaborate extensively upon. Both reveling in its beauty and lamenting in the tragedy left in its wake.

“Every once in a while, we run into something that seems strangely familiar. Don’t question it. There’s definitely meaning behind it.”

The memories that form us so in turn are used to form the world around us. That which we are moved by motivates us to move others. Lingering memories of the past are propagated into the future through the actions of those living in a transient present. Within the imagined world of Eastward lies another imagined world, Earthborn. A game within a game. The in-game designers of Earthborn weaving their memories into their creation. This essence of themselves becoming absorbed as new memory by all those who engage in the work. A shared experience immortalizing a singular and contrived moment in time. So too the world of Eastward seeks to be perceived. A reflected and abstracted memory of the living world we exist in right now. Memories and the ideas we extrapolate from them we are made to find are as living and breathing as both you and I.

“As for me, I’ll stay here. Watching over her. Protecting her until the end of time”

There is an inevitability to the nature of memory that we must eventually confront however. That because memory is living so too must it eventually succumb and fade. In time we will forget all and in turn be forgotten. Memory is found to be a contradiction. Designed to be preserved yet fated to expire. So what good are they then? We experience, only to eventually forget? It is to find value in the journey itself, to live in these moments as they pass through you. To have memory propel you forward seeking out more in kind, which in turn propel you further. Memory, and all it entails, is both the fuel and pursuit in the journey that is life. Allow it to push you onward even as you must look back.

(Eastward is an amalgamation of experiences that have resonated with its creators, which have then been deliberately sought to be propagated. Reconstructed and reimagined memories of other works as well as our lived reality, cohesively combined into a creatively distinct journey. The work conveys a broad range of ideas and themes, very few of which are delved into deeply and none of which given a definitive conclusion. To many who play it, this has been perceived as a breach of trust, a failure of the work to satisfy the expectations of those who were enticed to engage with it. To me, this would be a complete misunderstanding of the value of the work. What it is fundamentally about and seeks to encapsulate. This is a game that seeks to show you beauty in the mundane. The value of passing moments that we so casually dismiss as inconsequential but ultimately are of unfathomable value to the journey that is our lives. It shows you the expansiveness of a world not to taunt you with your inability to comprehend it but so that you may dismiss it in pursuit of the fleeting more personal connections in which you care. I would recommend this game to absolutely everyone but from critical consensus it is clear the reality is this work is divisive. Instead, I begrudgingly suggest it should only be pursued by those who can find value in a work that asks no questions nor seeks to provide any answers.)

“…Until one day, a mighty wave comes crashing down, swallowing us once more. And then even more leaves set sail, searching for their own land in which to bloom.”

de las experiencias más bonitas que he jugado en mi vida

sin meterme en spoilers tiene personajes de 10, setting de 10, historia de 10, gameplay de 10 y así con todo lo demás; sabe meterte en su red y que tengas ganas de saber más y más sobre qué va a pasar a continuación y sobre las intenciones y las metas de los protagonistas; Roland es súper carismático desde el minuto 1 y logra que te encariñes de él súper pronto, Ángela es muy interesante como personaje y los librarians y las interacciones que tienen todos con todos son súper graciosas y tiernas

las únicas cosas que no me acaban de convencer son la gran cantidad de peleas que hay porque el juego puede hacerse un poco largo de más; algunas no aportan prácticamente nada a la historia ni al desarrollo de los personajes y, pese a que tengo en cuenta que fue un juego que fue saliendo por partes, es algo que sigue haciéndome arquear una ceja. por ese motivo, también, creo que otro inconveniente que hay es el de que algunas peleas consistan en repetir una reception que has hecho anteriormente solo que con la dificultad un poco más alta o lo repetitivas que pueden hacerse las realizations

aun así es súper bonito y por muy quemado que puedas estar no se te quitan las ganas de querer saber más; no juguéis a esto si no habéis jugado/leído Lobotomy Corporation antes o no vais a disfrutarlo de la misma forma

may you find your book in this place ♡

There's a certain power in dissatisfaction. In giving players bad choices. There are many choice-based crpgs that offer perhaps too much choice in how the world is shaped. In how to influence others. Pentiment wisely pulls back on this to build an aching, intimate yearning. A yearning to make all the right decisions. A yearning to keep everyone safe, to choose a killer that will hurt the fewest people instead of choosing a killer based on evidence. A yearning to protect, and a yearning when we've failed. Our main character is not the hero deciding the fate of the world. He's just a guy, in a place and time. How we all leave our mark on history is subject to so many factors beyond our control.

Mechanically, its hard to say every skill has all the uses it could. Skills mainly make certain investigations easier, but they're always multiple avenues to uncover all the evidence you want. But this also means that every skill choice that does provide a new dialogue path feels all the more rewarding for your commitment. The skill choices in the final act of the game, compared to the others, are much more limited in their scope, but the final act is also much more on the rails than its previous story sections. Less time for choices to matter.

Still. Just kind of a truly banger game with incredible artistic sensibilities.

Adding to the list of quality Metroidvanias lately, Animal Well is a largely vague game about a blob creature (?) that explores an atmospheric labyrinth with many secrets to find. There’s no combat save for avoiding occasional enemies and mainly focused on figuring out how to progress using the items you find throughout. The level design and platforming puzzles were well done and made clever use of all the mechanics, though were still straightforward enough that I wasn’t stuck on much for very long. The pixel art is really great too

Reaching credits took about 8 hours for me, but this also appears to be a game with a lot of hidden depth to it going off reviews and how much unexplained stuff I can still find (similar to Tunic it seems). Curious to see how much more you can get out of its postgame, but for the main content alone it’s well worth it

Overall, a pleasant experience despite some pacing issues and underutilized mechanics. Jusant basically fits every trope of the Journey-like (a solo pilgrimage from point A to B to C, heavy focus on atmospheric exploration with some environmental puzzles, rediscovering an abandoned/forgotten civilization, etc), but what separates it from most typical copycats is that the main moment-to-moment gameplay is actually pretty engaging this time around! The obvious example here is how the game forces you to tightly grip your controller’s triggers to climb and hang onto ledges for dear life, but most actions in-between such as placing pinons/swinging back and forth with your grapple/jumping across and between ledges keep the interaction flowing smoothly. Interestingly, I would say Jusant’s problem is also opposite to that of most Journey-likes, because it handles its micro well enough, but falters a bit in its execution of the macro. If I were to compare the climbing to say, that of Shadow of the Colossus, then the difference in sense of scale becomes more readily apparent. Shadow of the Colossus takes places in mostly connected and open environments (with a few in vast caverns), but a good chunk of Jusant’s climbing takes place indoors in often cramped spaces that left me wishing there was an FOV slider to compensate for the often uncomfortably close camera getting stuck on walls. I do think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity that Jusant didn’t get any opportunities to showcase its world in its entirety and instead cut off each area into its own isolated level. A part of me was hoping that it would execute this as a sort of mirror to Journey; whereas Journey tries to keep the final shining summit in view at all times outside to remind the player of their final destination, I think Jusant could have combined all the outside areas and given the player the opportunity to look back from increasing heights to remind themselves of just how far they’ve come.

Getting back to macro vs micro, I have a few quibbles and suggestions in regards to improving the overall pacing, as there were some elements that felt like occasional stumbling blocks. The environments are sometimes difficult to read (especially in indoor settings) because climbable rocks/edges often look similarly shaded to their non-interactable surroundings, which resulted in me getting lost a few times. The in-game guide (“Listen” via pressing right on the d-pad) could be improved in this aspect, since it gives you a general direction to move towards but doesn’t solve the issue of figuring out what background object is required to ascend. Speaking of background objects, the environments are often littered with so many differently-colored materials, which contributes to the above problem of figuring out the way forward and also makes the task of searching for collectibles more annoying unless you’re just focusing on the context-sensitive prompts. I sadly also have to agree with others here that the lore dumps via the letters/diary entries didn’t do much for me (resulting in a narrative that I mostly ignored), and I would have preferred emptying the surroundings somewhat to better establish a feeling of presence with a heavier emphasis on environmental storytelling. In addition, removing these excess objects would reduce the amount of 3D polygonal jank present in the game: I often found myself suddenly stagnating and getting stuck on the floor from bumpy geometry, and the same rung true while climbing because I once had to restart from the last checkpoint after getting trapped by some nearby vines.

I’m going to nitpick the climbing as well and concur regarding the lack of tension, as the game never forced me to fully leverage my capabilities: again, this is a key detail that separates this game’s climbing from the heights reached by Shadow of the Colossus. The game could have leaned more into tight timing segments that forced the player to quickly scale ledges before they crumbled; this is briefly explored in Chapter 3 with the sunlight burning off plant roots, but then gets replaced with more calculated climbing for the rest of the game. Similarly, the pinons feel underutilized: I can’t recall any instance where I felt obligated to place down more than one pinon at a time while climbing, and that was often due to needing the ability to swing back and forth rather than using it as a safety net. A possible solution here is reworking the resting mechanic so that it could only be used at a pinon: this would also solve the pacing issue of having to constantly pause to regain stamina, and force the player to more carefully place pinons to make the most out of the stamina gauge's capacity. Finally, I was surprised that I couldn’t alter the amount of slack/tension in the rope while climbing and hanging onto ledges. This ability would allow the player additional control over jumps and climbing capacity without needing to expend a pinon (since I rarely ever reached the full rope length as is), which in turn would give the player more freedom to create shortcuts by letting them go for riskier maneuvers that the restrictive mechanics would prohibit otherwise.

There’s a lot of room for improvement, but I nevertheless appreciate that Jusant doesn’t overstay its welcome. Despite being a bit rough around the edges, the core gameplay is a nice change of pace from its peers, and it further distinguishes itself from its competition with its restrained ending. Instead of going for a bombastic “victory-lap” finale, Jusant has the modesty to bring itself back to earth with a no frills back-to-basics climbing segment devoid of the previous level gimmicks and clutter. That's the game in a nutshell: it might not push the envelope of the medium, but it accomplishes its premise in the time given with solid peaks despite some shaky consistency. In a genre full of misguided and uncompelling carbon copies, I’ll gladly take it.

Sonic 2 without the 2?

This one is quite a mixed bag. Definitely a One Step Forward Three Steps Back kinda deal when you compare it to the games that came out before.

Can’t believe they had the balls to put Tails on the Title Screen even though he is effectively nowhere to be seen. You even made these cute little pictures of the two buddies together before every zone and you don’t even get to play as him at all! I did get all the chaos emeralds and I was just met with the most awkward stare down from both of the characters at the end. Talk about unsatisfying, although at least the end credits were kinda nice.

Unfortunately the overworld map is gone so we don’t see how we get from place to place. To be honest the zone structure feels really off in general. Green Hills Zone (yes, Hills, not Hill) is the fourth level for some reason?? It is by far the easiest level so I don’t know why. The first level is underground with lava pits and some very cheery music. I’ve got no problem with trying to go against platformer tropes but this just doesn’t feel like an adventure; some very stock feeling level themes just kinda slapped together.

Speaking of the music, not only do I not really care for any of the tracks (Green Hills being the exception), but they mostly feel like they could be swapped around between each zone and no one would bat an eye. Tracks don’t convey any sense of the environment you’re in (unless the environment is you sitting down staring at an 8-bit game), and hence again, remove any feeling of adventure. This might sound like a harsh criticism but I can’t really forgive it since the previous entry actually did this very well.

Playing the Game Gear version immediately allows you a free pass to use save states wherever you please because when one of the chaos emeralds is quite literally off of the screen it becomes very clear that very little testing was done for this version. And you will be punished for it, because compared to 8-Bit Sonic 1, the challenge has definitely increased. Some of the levels feel a bit more open now with multiple routes. Unfortunately the quality just isn’t quite there…

To go into detail on some of the levels, as I said, mixed bag.
Green Hills has some nice fast sections, but act 3 has horrible blind spring jumps that took me way too many tries than was fun.
Gimmick Mountain (AWFUL NAME) actually uses those spinny things from 16-Bit Scrap Brain and implements them into the level pretty well! It has some challenging platforming sections with conveyors as well. This would probably be the best zone if the Game Gear screen wasn’t cucking me every single jump.
Turns out Aqua Lake (I instinctively typed Labyrinth for a second) was actually the first Zone to introduce putting Sonic inside a bubble and moving him around in a water based stage. I think this is a fun gimmick! Unfortunately the rest of the stage is hot garbage, and I like Labyrinth Zone, both 16-bit and 8-bit. Oh no I don’t like it in Sonic 4 who tf do you think I am you sicko. Anyway it’s a very boring water level outside of the bubbles, and it also looks really ugly.
Scrambled Egg Zone has to be my new least favourite Classic Sonic Zone, it’s just pick a path. Fuck you.
Crystal Egg Zone has to be my SECOND least favourite Classic Sonic Zone! It’s not difficult or bullshit but it’s horrendously ugly and completely nonsensical gameplay wise. This is what I grabbed the emeralds for?
Other gimmicks like the minecarts and hang gliders were alright. Couldn’t figure out the hang gliders really and they seemed pointless. The minecarts were fun to try and jump out at the right time, but this was only done like, two or three times.

Bosses! Again! Mixed. Bag. A couple fun ones and a couple really god awful shit ones! Silver Sonic was by far the best and Eggman was AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WTF who tf why why why it's so bad. Starts off a little confusing and potentially challenging, but once you figure out how it works it just becomes a boring as heck waiting game. It’s also the only boss you’re likely to hear the smoke alarm segment of the boss theme. (I know this probably wasn’t made with headphones in mind but my goodness was that unpleasant to hear.)

To conclude, it’ssssss okay.. leaning towards bad really. Some good gimmicks, some underwhelming. Some good level design, some horrible. Some pretty levels, some ugly. Some fun bosses, some stupid bosses!
A mediocre time but it has its highlights... kinda.

I was already enamored with the demo, and the full version is even better. I absolutely love The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, it's a beautiful game that manages to create so much narrative intrigue through its core gameplay system of creating your own Tarot cards and then reading them. It's really fun designing your own card designs. There's also lots of lovely little moments where you are reminded of the choices you have made and cards you pulled, the game manages to really feel like a cohesive whole with a suprisingly large amount of impact the player has on the narrative - I imagine there's a relatively huge variety of ways the story can play out. I especially loved where they took the entire thing in the end, it's a really nice, explicitely political direction (although the implementation leaves some things to be desired).

There's also a lot of joy to be found in the interactions between characters and the way they develop. Some themes and moments really pulled on my heartstrings. Even though this game is about immortal witches, the way the story is told is really down to earth and focused on the small moments, it's kind. The game rules, I want to say, it absolutely rules. I played through it in one sitting (Yes, it's 5hrs long), it's that good. A lot of queer joy here, too. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood has impeccable vibes, a tight grip on its loose themes & a really fun and cleverly implemented central gameplay mechanic. It's a space I will return to, sometime in the future!

2023 is a really great year for visual novels.

I'm so glad this game came out when it did - I really, really needed it. My job makes me feel like I'm going bald from stress sometimes, and Botany Manor is the absolute best glass of wine after a long day. The puzzles are simple and keep the game from just being a total walking simulator, but are perfect at immersing the player into the environment, and falling in love with Arabella's manor. While I'm glad the puzzles add complexity to the game, I did still play Botany's Manor not too differently from a walking simulator by just walking around the house and admiring the different architecture, room decorations, and of course, the flora. There's lots of chairs to sit and enjoy the ambiance with as well... I adored it, often sitting in the chairs for longer than I originally intended and just going totally zen and letting my head go empty. It's nice, because walking around and just exploring does naturally lead to you solving a lot of the puzzles, as well.

There's no rush to beat Botany Manor, it took me around 5 hours, which for a $20 price tag I can understand not being the best deal, but for me it's something I absolutely will return to after a rough day at work, even after finishing the game, just to sit in Arabella's house and enjoy the scenary.

4/5

Within the first 5 seconds of freedom this game gave me, I immediately picked up the kitchen knife and used it in probably the worst way possible. The game didn’t stop me and it also didn't seem to care, and neither did I. But that was probably the worst way possible to start this game, because as it dragged on for hours the main thought in my head was, “We were cooking on the first route” which should have ended the game. Instead I was trapped in a torture chamber of nonsensical solutions and horrible dialogue delivery, with an ending that wasn’t even interesting enough to be worth the painful drawl. The image of Daisy Ridley’s weird polygonal feet are scarred into my brain forever.

While I find the trial and error bit of gameplay to be rather neat, it’s done in such an excruciatingly painful way here. Every do-over lacks the ability to skip the cinematics so you’ll feel your body rapidly age with every scene you’re forced to watch on repeat. The lack of options your character gets to work with are frustrating and unrealistic. The characters shamble around like zombies and there’s zero way to speed up the process to get back to a later segment in the timeline aside from some line skips. I guess had they implemented such a silly concept then the game would quite literally be 12 minutes long. Instead, you sit through hours of trying out the smallest changes, only to awkwardly miss-click something and have to redo the whole process again. With every make-out session your wife assaults you with unprompted at the beginning of every loop, the more reptilian I felt while playing this game. How icky it made me feel while I slowly became an iguana.

You’d think a game that allows you to stab the shit out of your wife in the first five seconds would have literally anything to say about violence or impatience or domestic abuse or literally anything? Maybe it’d point a finger at me and go, “You’re part of the problem!!” and question my immediate conclusion to stretch the game's choices to it’s most inhumane limits. Nope. It meant nothing, like it was just something cool you could do for the sake of it. Violence is actually the only way to siphon any useful information from any of the characters, in fact the peaceful communicative solutions don’t even open up until after you’ve murdered so it’s not like it’s not encouraged. But, it literally doesn’t acknowledge this as something awful nor does it affect your character in any real way. The game does not care, so why should you? Allowing me to start the game with the ability to do this really set itself up for failure. It never challenged my thought process, so I just simply progressed with not giving a shit. It's almost like game interactivity has a way of affecting the player if it's implemented in a meaningful way instead of just existing for "artistic" shock value.

At the end of the day, does it even matter? I went through all this effort just to land on a conclusion that I said out loud as a joke. When the twist happened and that joke ended up being the reality, oh fuck off. This is it. It’s just a game that let me murder my wife in the first 5 seconds of it and nothing else. Riveting stuff, guys.

How they got James McAvoy, Willem Dafoe, and Daisy Ridley involved in this is insanely hilarious. They sound like they’re phoning it in the whole time, like they don’t even believe in this game’s bullshit themselves. It’s artistic, I’ll give it that. But, am I buying it? No. I ate chocolate mousse while a man screamed at my wife and hogtied her to the floor right in front of me. Neat.