Another update : it’s “almost Christmas” update ! (part 1)

I plead guilty for not writing very often these times. But I managed to play some games since my last post 3 months ago and even finish quite a few of them !

• BattleBlock Theater
  

  8 hours playtime

  10 of 30 achievements

• Saints Row: The Third
  

  27 hours playtime

  40 of 83 achievements

• Pyre
  

  13 hours playtime

  34 of 51 achievements

• Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
  

  12 hours playtime

  30 of 57 achievements

Battleblock Theater : overall a good game, that was assigned to me as part of a monthly challenge. From BbT, I will remember 2 main things : the catchy jazzy-electronic menu music and the completely nutty narrator, telling you an equally nutty plot. If I were brave, I would commit to go on playing those handcrafted levels so that I can win more stamps and heads for the character but I’m weak and my backlog is still huge, so I will just give myself a pat on the back for finishing BbT.

Saints Row : the Third : I had been challenged to finish this game a while back (was it… in July maybe ?) and I finally succeeded in… November ! I had trouble with the main quest : for a moment, the missions that I was proposed to accomplish through the in-game phone seemed to be only side-quests, which rapidly became less and less fun and more and more grinding. But someday, I finally managed to trigger again the main quest and from then, I quickly completed the missions till the end(s). It was an enjoyable trip, to go always further in the WTF like this. Good memories.

Pyre : maybe my GOTY. I wrote a review in Steam (in French) that sums up what I thought of it, namely very few flaws and many great accomplishments by Supergiant team. I had played their 2 previous games (Bastion and Transistor) : the first one was attractive but dodgy, I had liked the second one for its gameplay more than for its story, but this 3rd one is a success on every level.
Let’s quickly brush aside the flaw : the game is a bit repetitive mainly because of those repeated rides in wagon, from star to star. BTW, the rendering of those wagon phases is a bit cheap compared to how splendid the rest of the graphics are.
Here comes the pros :

• the music. I woke up the other morning with the ending theme (Bound Together) in mind and that’s generally a very good sign my subconscious really liked a song. It’s also very rare I consider an OST worthy of being listened for itself, outside of the game : for Pyre, it’s the case and Darren Korb is a composer name you should remember.
• the graphic part, especially the lights effects and the chara-design, is outstanding. If you’ve read the comic book Saga, maybe like me you’ll find some analogies between the universe, with horned and winged people hating each other, star travels, very imaginative races, etc.
• the story counts among the things that gives you the motive to try “just another rite” (as are called the 3-against-3 games), in order to learn more about the characters and the global plot. Yeah, like this good ol’ Civilization syndrome : “just another turn and I go to bed”. As a side note, the game is only in English at the time (not my native language obviously) and I found the required level higher than usual, because of the old-fashion vocabulary and turn of phrase : if you don’t like reading, you might be repelled by such a chatty game.
• the almost perfect balance between VN and sport phases, and the learning curve very progressive and well imbricated with the story progression. It was a very daring bet from the devs to mix VN and sport : those who like VN might not like the sporty parts and vice versa. For my person, it works remarkably well and the 2 sides are perfectly assembled. For example, at the beginning, the story justifies the way you learn to practice the rites, and this sort of untold tutorial doesn’t feel artificial like it sometimes does in other games, because the fourth wall is never broken. Or you could say it is broken but within the story itself so the ludonarrative dissonance passes unnoticed. Play it and you’ll understand ! :)
  

Ori and the Blind Forest : I usually love metroidvania and platformer. This one, I struggled to love it but in the end, I’d say I spent a good time. If I struggled at first, it’s because I played for too long without improving my character with facultative abilities, and therefore, the more I advanced in the stages, the more difficult it was with my poor 3 life points and save slots. The saving system itself gave me a hard time because in this game, you choose when to save your progression, with a cost that prevents you to save too often : it’s a peculiar system and so many times I just forgot to save even though I could afford it ; other times, I couldn’t afford to save even if it was really needed, because after a difficulty peak that I wanted to be sure to pass. Some platform phases are really tricky and towards the end, I succumbed to watching some YouTube walkthroughs.
The story is average, so is the music. The graphics are above the average.
I have the Definitive Edition, with 2 extra levels, but I managed to miss those 2 levels in the maze-shaped map. It’s a shame that when you beat the game, there’s no way to come back to the world, nor New Game +.

To be continued…