So Many Games
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Momento isn’t changing the entire landscape of the genre or anything, but it’s an incredibly well-made and well-rounded game. If you enjoy cozy games broadly, or room decorating, dioramas, light puzzles, environmental storytelling, and tracing branching paths, then you will enjoy this game. I am docking it half a point for the disappointing audio—it might be just a ‘me’ thing (read my bio to see why), but I was really stumped on that. But I’ll just throw on a little cozy gaming podcast episode (No Small Games? Geeks and Grounds? How about some Slow Burn Podcast?) and enjoy the ride? The stories are lovely, and the puzzles are pleasantly delightful.
Much like sausages and ice cream, Bubsy 4D tries to mix together two great things to make something less than the sum of its parts. A good Fabraz game hindered by Bubsy and fun Bubsy dialogue which is hindered by a game designed without much to talk about. A great experience without a doubt, but one that feels lacking in places.
Swan Song is a story told through letters and audio revolving around the actions of a small family dealing with a terminal illness. The presentation is cozy and pretty. The story chronology is disjointed, and the characters are difficult to connect with. The puzzles are simple, numerous, smartly iterative, interactively frustrating, and unrewarding. The game did not reliably engage my attention during the nearly six hours it took to complete.
Hollowbody runs the line between “inspired by” and “clone of” survival horror games of the late 90s and early 2000s. Overall, it’s a very effective game with a simple story and gameplay that anyone can pick up. With a few issues here and there, Hollowbody transitions from PC to console effectively. If you’re a fan of this genre, you’ll get a great few hours of what you like. Can you ask for more?
The console launch of Slots & Daggers brings the acclaimed bite-sized roguelike to more players, with those who play on handheld likely benefiting the most. Progress is streamlined with smart design decisions that make it a breeze to play, but in long stretches the game’s luster dulls with repetitive gameplay.
Overall, the game was a delightful romp. I think it’s a standout title, and it brings something special and particularly timely to the conversation. In this review, I avoided mentioning anything related to the final act. That said, I would have given this a 3.5/5 (meaning serviceable to the genre and even well done, but not groundbreaking) right until the final 20 minutes of the game, which tipped me firmly into a full 4/5 stars. What happened at the end of The RPG that caused me to remake my score? Well…games are meant to be played and loved, so go find out for yourself.
There is clearly so much affection for the franchise in R-Type Dimensions III – the renewed graphics give a more polished look, the soundtrack is superbly made and the quality-of-life changes make a huge difference. Sadly, the new graphics also bring a fairly drastic change to the overall visual style, which can make gameplay more challenging.
Mina the Hollower is a testament to the importance and beauty of iterative game design. While it wouldn’t exist in its current form without each of its individual inspirations, it’s able to use those familiar reference points as a launching pad into something far greater and more dense than any game that it’s inherited DNA from. Between a world stuffed to the absolute brim with discoveries to make, the absurd level of player expression, and the ways in which the game surprises (and how it’s constantly able to do so), this is a new gold standard for not just overhead Zelda-likes but action-adventure games in general.
Schrödinger’s Call took me by surprise. It tells tales that will grip you, ones you’ll need resolutions to and ones you’ll think about when away from the game. It’s a way of telling its narrative not only through its words but also through its impactful visuals and music, which created an unforgettable experience. It’s easy, slightly predictable and stretches out too much in places, but when there’s such good storytelling on show that’s accessible to all skill types, it’s an easy recommendation.
As far as narrative-driven visual novels go, there aren’t many more high-profile series than the Coffee Talk games. This sequel/spin-off serves up more of the same, but in the best of ways. Familiar and new characters meet up and get to witness the magic of this little coffee shop in Tokyo for themselves and learn some valuable life lessons from sources they might never have expected to. You’ll fall in love with each and every one of these characters and will feel the need to brew them the perfect beverage every time (although the vagueness of their queries doesn’t always help). It’s just such a shame that there’s unfulfilled potential left here.
Fail Fail Succeed is one of those games that do what they do nigh-on perfectly. The minimalist art and satisfyingly tricky puzzles are a delight. But it’s the sense of kindness and compassion at the core of its beautifully implemented ludonarrative premise that, as it lovingly taxed our brains, simultaneously stole our hearts.
Through all of its faults, Will: Follow the Light still has something to give by shining a light on father-son relationships through an intriguing and sometimes surreal story. Its strong voice cast (including Cissy Jones) aids its pluses, and each gives great performances, but it is hard to ignore its frustrations that let it down quite considerably.
House of Hikmah is a narrative-driven 3D puzzle-platformer that explores themes of grief and legacy through alchemical puzzles and conversations with luminaries of the Islamic Golden Age. Audio is a standout with its Arabic voice acting and soundtrack featuring virtuosos of the Arab world. The game had some rough edges at launch, but all serious issues have been patched at the time of writing.
Spellgarden Games are unapologetically forward with their inclusive values, and they welcome in one and all to just enjoy the vibes with them. Thrifty Business feels more like an evolution of the developer’s first game Sticky Business rather than something completely new, but in this case that’s actually a great thing. The sense of community from that debut game is multiplied here by you actually meeting the people you’re selling to and buying from, and you get to feel like an actual part of the community you’re helping to build. If only the real world could be more like the worlds Spellgarden Games build.
While it’s a short experience, Duck Side of the Moon boasts graceful movement and controls that make zipping around a friendly little galaxy immensely fun. It does not revolutionize anything you’ve seen before that carries the “cozy” tag with it but rather shows incredible promise for a new studio making games, bringing light into a currently dim moment in the industry.
Nothing in Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is going to blow your hair back (besides maybe some of its electric guitar riffs), but that’s not the goal of any Ys game, and for a largely untouched port of a 15-year-old entry, it’s actually remarkable how modern and fun it still feels. Its unique setup and world coupled with fast-paced and flashy fun action make this an extremely easy recommendation for not just any newcomers looking to get into the series (the unin-ys-iated???), but even general RPG fans that never got around to this entry like me.
Phonopolis’s driving narrative force, Felix, is a lovable everyman kind of character. A bit too trusting, maybe, but a good-hearted, bumbling person that finds his way forward through the red tape of bureaucracy and injustice, much like most players will when roadblocked by some of the game’s truly stumping puzzles. A must-play for audiophiles, Phonopolis sings a memorable melody against the backdrop of intriguing game design that moves to its own drummer’s beat.
In the end, Tides of Tomorrow is a beautiful kaleidoscope of possibilities, fractured by a clichéd script and some reductive gameplay sequences. The environmental design is vivid and evocative, revealing the majesty of the natural world prevailing over plastic waste. The story seed system was a genuinely interesting narrative experiment, and the resource management elements led to some superb tension in both the story and the multiplayer interactions. I hope this studio keeps experimenting with the unique ways video games can tell a story, because the ideas coming out of the Digixart lab are what make the future of the industry so exciting.
Echo Isle is a top-down action-adventure with dungeons and exploration, and it transparently honors its retro roots. The design successfully distills the essentials of the genre into a single sitting and is a complete and pleasing experience with bright, charming visuals and little to no gameplay friction.
Perfect Tides: Station to Station is a messy, disjointed and incredibly uncomfortable window into the life of a writer who still needs to find their way in the world, but all of this comes together to build an amazing narrative that engulfs the player, showing them to embrace discomfort and learn to be their best self. Sadly, a lack of meaningful accessibility options does lose the game half a star.