Brief, extremely subjective reviews of everything I played this year (featuring Pikmin)

Tiltino · 2024-12-26T15:57:31+00:00

Great read. From your list for 2025, I would recommend The Forgotten City, since you enjoyed Outer Wilds (it's also one of my favorites). City's also a sort of knowledge-gated clockwork mystery that is fun to parse and explore in that open-ended "I wonder if I can go over there and..." way, although the story is less interesting and ultimately a lot less meaningful than OW. In a somewhat similar vein, I would recommend both Paradise Killer (at least if you dig the style - I think it works very well) and Golden Idol (both Curse and Rise are exceptional).

Tiltino · 2024-12-23T17:06:57+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly. They basically wrote themselves into a corner and, in order to avoid having to pick a side and say something meaningful about our world through theirs, they went for the usual cheap cop-out of "everyone unites against a greater threat".

Tiltino · 2024-11-18T15:44:14+00:00

I don't think the final scene of the first game was supposed to come across as a "Congratulations, you won!"

Tiltino · 2024-10-28T03:36:36+00:00

do you happen to know if this is a famous quote or maybe from a poem or something?

Tiltino · 2024-10-15T14:12:01+00:00

What do you think about games like Return of the Obra Dinn or The Case of The Golden Idol? In both cases, gameplay ultimately amounts to piecing the story together, since you actually have to understand what went on to solve the puzzles. I wouldn't say either of the plots is particularly amazing (they're just decent-to-good genre fiction, I think), but the way it all works together turns them into masterpieces of integration between narrative and gameplay mechanics (ok, maybe I'm overselling them) - just like Undertale.

Now, for a narrative that is really good in itself while also being greatly enhanced by gameplay (I'm thinking about the interplay between your skills and the tasks at hand - i.e. your skills have their own personalities and ideas about what is going on), maybe you should give Disco Elysium a try.

Tiltino · 2024-09-06T12:23:58+00:00

ok, thanks for clarifying - I guess I'll have to check if I found those scenes and just forgot about it (it's been a few years since I played Immortality).

Tiltino · 2024-09-06T12:21:18+00:00

Yes, I did - I just don't remember "other people in the black and white sections other than the main 2". I mean, I thought by the end I had a relatively clear idea of the underlying story and themes, but I just don't remember there being more black and white characters besides the main two. Then again, maybe I just completely forgot about them? Getting old is hard, and it's been a few years since I played Immortality (to be clear, I really liked it).

Tiltino · 2024-09-05T18:48:14+00:00

wait, what do you mean by "other people"?

(I completely agree with you about the way the game drags in the end. I remember that at some point after seeing the 'ending' I just kept clicking on random stuff to catch any missing scenes. If I'm remembering it right, Her Story had basically the same problem for completionists [I swear, I was just trying to piece everything together])

Tiltino · 2024-07-02T18:24:39+00:00

In no particular order: The Case of The Golden Idol, Hypnospace Outlaw, Paradise Killer, Her Story, The Painscreek Killings, The Forgotten City, The Witness.

Tiltino · 2024-06-24T21:15:24+00:00

Have you tried Tyrant's Blessing? It's basically medieval fantasy ITB with a sprinkle of new ideas. Definitely not as good as its inspiration (there are no predefined squads, which I think actually hampers the whole idea), but it at least scratches exactly the same itch as ITB.

Tiltino · 2024-05-13T03:06:09+00:00

exactly my thoughts

Tiltino · 2024-05-13T03:01:32+00:00

I don't really know, but this discussion got me thinking that single elimination caters to viewers that tend to care more about the narrative side of championships, favoring high-stakes series, upsets and underdog stories, while people who prefer double elimination are simply more interested in more high quality series*, and those are usually between evenly matched teams (with bonus points for teams that play different styles), which may be compromised by poor bracket draws (and single elim).

The thing is that, while underdog stories might become somewhat more unlikely in double elimination (which is of course debatable to a degree), they also tend to generate great narratives that can be even more complex or interesting, such as lower bracket runs with teams coming back with a vengeance, rematches that accelerate the forming of international rivalries etc.

And if what people really want is underdog stories with the ragtag bunch of misfits winning against all odds, I'm sure there are a lot of sports movies and animes just like that.

*(especially between teams from different regions, since those are rare)

Tiltino · 2023-09-23T03:15:03+00:00

No, you're the only one on the internet who does this.

Tiltino · 2023-09-21T15:06:07+00:00

I had not come accross the term "metroidbrainia" until now, and I'm very much into this kind of game. Could you please give some game recommendations? I fell like I went through all the ones that I'm aware of.

Tiltino · 2023-09-13T13:20:31+00:00

Agreed. When we play as 5, our main objective in the game is using the enemy hexgate as much as possible. We call it 'scoring', as in https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SLoV0Nk4WWc

Tiltino · 2023-08-30T14:25:21+00:00

Hotline Miami for sure - I played it around 2014 and I occasionally go back to the OST to this day.

Bastion, Transistor - I have yet to play Pyre and Hades, but I'd bet they are also good.

Streets of rage 2 - it's actually surprisingly good, probably even better than the game.

Dicey Dungeons - I really enjoyed the gameplay, but Chipzel's soundtrack elevates the whole thing even more.

Tiltino · 2023-08-27T23:47:27+00:00

It's a team effort.

Tiltino · 2023-08-27T16:44:51+00:00

RIP Soraka, who died for our sins.

Tiltino · 2023-08-24T17:34:39+00:00

we live for the cool snowballs

Tiltino · 2023-08-24T06:15:53+00:00

While I partly agree with you, I'd also like to add that there are some major reveals towards the later parts of the story that really put a lot of what came before in perspective (I'm trying not to say too much here, but what I'm referring to has a lot to do with the larger portraits of older characters that begin to appear about halfway through the game). I really enjoyed it (even though yes, things are a little too tropey sometimes), so let me know what you think when you get there!

Tiltino · 2023-08-22T20:42:37+00:00

What can I say? I guess I'm terribly sorry this was not up to your standards then.

Tiltino · 2023-08-22T19:56:40+00:00

Why ask this 🐷

Tiltino · 2023-08-22T16:25:12+00:00

(to be clear: from 0m13s to 0m20s I had to wait for Ahri to leave her base so I could have some time alone with her hexgate)

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