Update Three Hundred and Eight: 19 May 2019
Tokyo Dark
32 hours playtime, ~7 hrs actual, 39 of 44 achievements
7.5/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Hovering just shy of greatness, Tokyo Dark is a point and click-lite/visual novel about one woman’s descent into Darkness—proper noun and all.
Surprising no one, this is a heavy game—the few spots of levity are soon quickly subsumed by the unrelenting gloom. It works, though I’m glad the game is pretty short; it would’ve been insufferable if it had gone on much longer. Suitably, there’s vanishingly few good ways out, and while I didn’t get all the endings (this time) I got the majority of them, ranging from really bad to bittersweet.
There’s some truly affecting moments in the game, particularly revolving around Detective Ayami and her missing partner (in all senses of the word) Tanaka. The story of the main ‘antagonist’ of the game, Reina, is also interesting, and the two women play off each other well. It’s nice to see different parts of Tokyo in Ayami’s travels, even though it’s definitely not meant to make you want to visit. Tokyo Dark’s Tokyo is… …. … (okay, it’s too easy, I can’t not) dark. You even get to visit Kabukicho, which I was jazzed about, and meet a yakuza boss, which I was even more ecstatic about, and she is really cool and a HUGE cat lover, which I was over the moon about.
The game doesn’t play as well as I would have liked—moving around the screen doesn’t feel great, and it’s very easy to walk into and out of proximity of hot spots without realizing it. The game’s text is also WAY messier than I was expecting, seeing how polished the art and UI is. There were more than a few errors like missing punctuation, missing dialogue tags, or the wrong name/icon coming up for who is speaking. The writing overall could’ve used another pass, too, to tighten things up here and there.
I ended up replaying the game in full THREE times, which is a lot of times. The game isn’t terribly long, but there’s only intermittent skip opportunities, and you don’t get access to save points until your New Game+. Even then, there’s only 6 slots and you don’t pick where those points are. It hampers the replayability that the game is looking for.
… god, that sounded much more negative than I actually feel about the game. I liked it enough to replay it three times in, like, three days! I’m just not having a very good one today. My anxiety’s been spiking a lot this past week. It’s not fun.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a good showing! Give Tokyo Dark a chance.
Next up: It’s about time I play this one, huh? (I’m glad there’s an in-game shop where you can buy achievements bc I’m sure as fuck not looking up that poor girl’s skirt, yoko taro’s a fuckin creep for that one)
See you soon!
What kinda game barely lets you skip and save? That’s not even being mean (as this isn’t meant to be a rage game), that’s just awful game design.
And oh wow, Nier: Automata has an achievement shop? On one hand… cheating. And on the other hand, lord knows I’d use it if I were missing any uptight achievements. Not for peeking up the skirt though. That’s delicious. I like me some easy and funny achievements.
Mmm, this ain’t it, Amitte. It’s not funny or cute. :/
It ain’t cute cause it’s not a cute setting, but I mean, meh. It’s a fictional character. I wouldn’t actually do this in real life, it’s sexual harrassment. Besides, it’s only because this kind of thing exists with fictional girls that I get to enjoy guy counterparts at time, too.
Unrelated, but how do you pick your next game to play?
Oh, Traqie. Are you sure you wanna know? This is gonna get real convoluted/stupid (convol-stupid, one might say) real fast.
Short answer: RNGesus or my girlfriend chooses for me.
Medium answer: I sort my library into three categories: actively want to play, kind of want to play, don’t actually super want to play, and pick alternating from those categories. This has the benefit of… me having games I really want to play sit in my library for months and months and months so I’m not being too ‘unfair’ to other games, AND also having games I kind of don’t want to play too much fester at the bottom of my library forever.
Long answer: I ALSO categorize games by genre, and if I have a particular hankerin for a certain genre I pick from that genre pool with RNGesus
Longerer answer: I ALSO ALSO categorize games by how long I’ve had them, and pick at random from my top ten oldest games in a given category
Galaxy brain answer: ALL OF THOSE THINGS plus factoring in what games I have that fit the monthly theme, if I feel like participating.
Universal galaxy brain answer: I close my eyes, flail my hand around, pick a game and pray.
I’m pretty sure it is impossible not looking up 2B’s skirt as short as it is. Also, technically this isn’t the worst you can do as there is a very easy way to remove the skirt completely …. not sure if that counts for the achievement though.
Yeap, u get panny flashes pretty regularly (and her skirt goes haywire when she like sits and lays down in her bed to go to sleep, which is genuinely funny).
Oh yeah I’ve seen the whole she like blows her systems AND CONVENIENTLY her dress goes with it. I know it also happens to 9S but FUNNILY ENOUGH his ass isn’t lovingly rendered in a teeny little bananahammock. Like, that’s so funny how only Two Bee’s Two Cheekz are hangin out. So funny.
It doesn’t count, bc you have to make 2B uncomfortable. Apparently you know the peek ‘counted’ when she like jumps away from the camera… bc her not wanting you to look is part of the appeal.
Oh thats worse I thought maybe you could accidently get it. That game is getting more perverted every message I see from you
You know me, the Sour Angry Feminist No Fun Police c;
It’s aggravating bc the game otherwise APPARENTLY has some real shit to say about stuff, and fans actually get rill pisst when people just discard it as a tittygame.
But. Then. Like…. you can’t have your cake and eat it also. I’m going to like the game DESPITE the goofy lingerie costumes and 2b’s 2cheeks etc etc. Though apparently there’s some hot shirtless male androids later on? As long as there’s REAL equal opportunity cheesecake I’m for it, it just almost never shakes out that way.
Wait wait okay I like how 2B is taller than 9S bc of her heels, that’s a cute detail.
I would have to re-check if you detonate 9S he will wear a skirt afterwards. It is another form of embarassing. But yea, nobody wants to see 9S’s buttocks. And to answer a comment below, there are shirtless male … um …. not androids. But something like … um …. that.
What do you mean with haywire? Some kind of graphical glitches? Because I never noticed them. Then again, I think I never used the bed in the android base.
There was probably some reason beside PR for 2B’s appearance. Most likely they “no emotion” stuff which would work differently if she would look like a knight bot. The designer probably wanted to go for the visual contrast of the robotic post-acopalyptic world to one of the main characters.
He’s a cute boy like 2B’s a cute girl - if ass oggling is on the table, I want to look at a cute boy’s ass! I see that kind of sentiment regarding him a lot when I look for information about him. Why is 9S seen as so much younger than 2B when they look almost the same? Why is 2B so sexualized by the game and the fans, but he (to a much much much much smaller extent) isn’t? (These questions are rhetorical; I know why.)
The cloth physics on 2B’s skirt freak out when she sits or lays down - the collisions aren’t right or something so they like flip out and jitter and jump like they shouldn’t.
….. I…. am entirely certain it’s just for her to be in almost-lingerie bc of horny game design. One can be striking and visually distinctive without one’s ass hanging out - it happens every day and all the time. There’s a continuum between ‘knight in full plate armor’ (which, like… is gotten wrong all the time for women anyway) and ‘literally in an assless one piece bathing suit with a detachable skirt and thigh high stockings’. It doesn’t fit for her personality OR for her role. It’s pretty, yes, but it works against the points the game seems to/will end up trying to make, from my understanding.
We’ll see where this all goes, though! I’m ready to be done talking about this game.
Hope your anxiety eases up soon. <3
Enjoy Nier, I’ll be interested to hear what you experience with the port is like.
It has! I had some good talks with my friends and my girlfriend was right as always.
The port so far has been perfect - I installed the FAR mod to help smooth and fix some shit and otherwise it’s ran absolutely lovely.
I’ve been really tempted to get Nier but I have so many games to play… Guess I’ll wait for your review and see if it pushes me over the edge.
That’s a 100% valid reaction - Nier isn’t going anywhere. I’m incredibly flattered to help contribute to whether you’ll get it or not!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Tokyo Dark!
Next up: It’s about time I play this one, huh? (I’m glad there’s an in-game shop where you can buy achievements bc I’m sure as fuck not looking up that poor girl’s skirt, yoko taro’s a fuckin creep for that one)
Also, wow… I had no idea that was a thing at all, even googled it just now… That’s one of the games that I thought seemed so amazing, but honestly, that’s so gross and disappointing. Like, really? No words. 😑
Anyway, I hope this week is going well for you. :) Anxiety is a real [insert swear word here].
Aw, dreadgal, thank you! I’m feeling a lot better - shit is just tough sometimes.
It’s not WILDLY out of the box, but it does make me roll my eyes. At least I can just buy the achievement without having to be a creep!
Still playing tokyo dark, kept seeing you play it and reminding me I have to suffer through all the playthrough (i know I spelt it right but this looks so wrong). Oh I see you didn’t get all the endings. Why does this game need so many endings and so many options
I saw you open it as I was playing! I was smiling at the camaraderie!
I wouldn’t mind the many ending options if it were just easier to get them in one go. You have to play throughout the game in differing ways to unlock some of them. I’ll have to replay three more times to get the last three endings, though I THINK I can pick a branching point so they’re not FULL playthroughs…
it is a little aggravating, though. Wish it were easier to navigate.
yeah it’s why i’m not excited to play it. I like the style and I like the story I have read so far but repeating the same stuff isn’t fun especially when I could easily mess up and fail to get that ending without even realising it. I looked at the guide for how they got the endings and each option ends up looking the same
Oh I see you got to look up the skirt 10 times, thats 9 times more then lollipop chainsaw so I kinda get the whole not funny bit. There’s plenty of people who try to look once and while I’ve not actively tried myself before I have accidently done it while adjusting stuff and my camera decides to get close up staring up while i’m trying to look out for monsters. 10 times though is a bit excessive and yeah you are a big pervert if you look up her skirt that many times. Also do they really need you not to wear pants for an hour.
There’s like… three… main branches you can do - unprofessional, professional, and cat. That guide is kind of poorly written but I ended up getting the hang of it… it’s just so tedious. If you need any help, let me know! The new game+ playthrough is slightly different, too, and if you just speed click-through it’s REALLY easy to miss the new stuff, though it’s not that much.
Wait, REALLY? Ha, is that about blowing off 9s’s pants or is it abt 2b freecheekin’ it in the wind? This is why u don’t be horny while game designing.
Welp, I’ll just buy them.
Wait there’s more then just the not wear pants for an hour. yeah they mightve been horny deciding on the achievements for this game