BigBlueWolf

Batch 22 Completed and September Wrap-Up!

I managed to knock out four games in the monthly challenge “Otterly Cute” and two of those were SG Wins!

Click the down arrows for my thoughts and reviews of these games. Hope everyone’s had a great month :D

Animal Lover

Animal Lover

Sept '18 Theme
24/24 (100%) │ 6 hours │ 7.5/10
Five guys, an intern, and a curse
Beaten: 14-Sept-2018

This is the first dating sim/visual novel since I played Hatoful Boyfriend back in mid-2016 (Batch 6). While the tone of both appear light -- human girl in a high school for pigeons versus young woman caring for guys who suffer from turning into animals -- Animal Lover takes itself much more seriously. This was a bit unexpected, and the tone worked really well in some places, but it ultimately couldn't overcome the fantastical silliness of its situation and resolution.

The non-spoiler setup: as a young female veterinary intern (pick your name) you accidentally release a guy from his cursed animal form. After tracking down a few others like him, you have five guys in desperate need of your help because they periodically change back and (for a variety of reasons) can't go back to living their normal lives. Lots of dialogue, hanging out and some "crushing" commences as the game puts you on the path to making sure the curse is really broken and you end up with one of the guys (or none). BTW, the plot has nothing to do with "furries".

A big part of the reason the game falters is because it's REALLY long doing a single play-through during which very little actually happens. I finished the game in just under 6 hours, and that was speed reading through most of the last half of the game.

A huge amount of the dialogue contributes to drawn-out character moments of little value to the overall story. There's a lot of filler text that is either hearing "your" thoughts and mental reaction in monologue-like detail before responding, or the audible reactions of others where there's a lot of "hmm", "uhs", and other interjections that cause the plot to stall while we wait for the "realistic dialogue" to play out. I got so impatient having to read this that I just kept hitting the spacebar as fast as I could through many scenes and don't think I missed much as a result. I also used an achievement guide so I could find the canonical ending and be able to backtrack to pick the guy I liked best. That being said there were some really GOOD scenes sprinkled pretty evenly throughout the story, and that's what kept me intrigued enough to play through the entire thing.

This is not a genre I usually play, but I'm trying it out simply because it seems like it could have a cool premise if a talented writing team was behind it. I'd say this story was between fair and good and could have benefited from being about one-third shorter in length to bump that rating a little higher.

If you are trying to choose between this and Hatoful Boyfriend, go with the latter if you want shorter and funnier!
Botanicula

Botanicula

Sept '18 Theme
53/53 (100%) │ 4.7 hours │ 9.5/10
Bing, hum, whooo!
Beaten: 27-Sept-2018

The most charming game of this batch, Botanicula is a point-and-click adventure that sets five companions on a quest to defeat an invading force of life-sucking spider-like creatures that are encroaching on their idyllic biome that is teaming with other critters. Great visual humor, wonderful sound effects, and not-terribly-hard puzzles encourage exploration and rooting for the little group on their journey. A good portion of game is discovering all the different local wildlife. There are 123 cards to unlock throughout the game, and while the cards themselves are not achievements, getting the first, second and final third will unlock some bonus animation content after the credits. Only a few places where controls felt a little wonky, and it would have been great to have true full screen play area. But lots of smiles and several laugh-out-loud moments playing this one. Fun for all ages without being strictly for kids.
Epistory - Typing Chronicles

Epistory - Typing Chronicles

Won on SteamGifts Sept '18 Theme
47/55 (85%) │ 12.1 hours │ 7.5/10
Is it your type of game?
Beaten: 8-Sept-2018

Epistory is a typing game where you adventure through a pop-up paper mache world on a quest to figure out who you are and what has happened to the familiar world. It's got a cool aesthetic and can be genuinely fun. However the repetitive nature of the challenges gets a bit boring at times. Fortunately the game isn't overly long. The story is pretty thin, too. But the game is still worth playing because it's gorgeous to behold and stands out because it's game play is challenging (adapts to your typing speed) and so different from anything else.
Hook

Hook


1/1 (100%) │ 1.5 hours │ 10/10
Go on, press the button!
Beaten: 23-Sept-2018

A short, but fun puzzler! Untangle your way through 50 levels of interlocking pins, routers, circuits and release buttons. There are no hidden tricks or strategy, just the ability to follow paths and deduce the order needed to solve the puzzle. Very enjoyable with low/medium challenge. A easy 100% for achievement hunters. Just finish the game.
The LEGO Movie - Videogame

The LEGO Movie - Videogame

Won on SteamGifts Sept '18 Theme
44/48 (92%) │ 16.5 hours │ 7.5/10
Everything is awesome!
Beaten: 21-Sept-2018

This is my fourth LEGO game, and so far I have to say it was the most fun. The variety to the levels and the amount of things you get to do is pretty cool and the story is cute. There were a lot of fun characters, but Unikitty was awesome playing in rage mode. On the downside the controls were annoyingly imprecise and the camera control pretty flaky in a lot of spots. The game also has a lot of lag problems where the screen would repeatedly freeze for a few seconds. It didn't cause any missions to fail, but it was super annoying. Given that my system has a GTX 1080 in it, I chalk this up to bad optimization when porting the game to PC.
Tyranny

Tyranny


32/70 (46%) │ 58 hours │ 8/10
Conquest ... Sauron style
Beaten: 9-Sep-2018

I almost decided not to play this game. I got it shortly after finishing Pillars of Eternity so I wanted to try other kinds of games. But life happened and I kept putting off playing it. So around the beginning of summer with PoE2: Deadfire coming out and a new relationship starting up, I initially moved Tyranny into the "maybe some day" pile.

Then a few weeks ago I said screw it and plunged in. I'm glad I did!

First and foremost, Tyranny is a great game because a) you get to play the bad guy, and b) there's a ton of world-building in this game that completely immerses you in the role. As one of Kyros' Fatebinders, it's your job to enforce the law and keep his top lieutenants (called Archons) on task. The effect you have on The Tiers -- Kyros' last area to conquer on the continent -- can be just as monstrous as the others who hold power, but even if you try to do good there's still a lot of bloodshed and disturbing decisions to be made. The game is fairly unique in that regard. The recruitable NPCs are also varied and quite fun with a lot of background to delve into and multiple skill-trees to specialize according to your wants or needs. I don't think there's a weak link among them, though admittedly I stuck mostly with the first three you meet in-game. There's a loyalty/fear system that plays heavily into how people react to you, but that's not the same as morality. In fact, inspiring loyalty sometimes means doing awful things, and fear can occasionally be the result of trying to do the right thing. Tyranny forces you to think like a ruler who applies power rather than appealing to peoples' better angels. You're not even really an anti-hero; the moral grays are too thick to be the villain people can't help but love. It makes the game a phenomenal departure from all the "I'm here to save the world" tropes.

The true strength of this game comes out in its player choices. There are four possible major endings -- but those are arcs and not nearly as dramatic as the tons of small decisions that make one player's experience very different from the next. Choices really do matter here, making re-playability a huge bonus. It's largely about the flavor and tone of each situation and person and how you interact with them that carries forward in the evolution of the major plot fork that you've chosen.

But it's far from perfect. There are still bugs in the game that are quite maddening (lost saves) or frustrating (really quirky AI) in combat. But as a game that is built on the same engine as Pillars of Eternity it is definitely worth playing if CRPGs and wanting to give Sauron's style of rule a chance sounds like your kind of thing. And since it's around 60% of the run-length of PoE, a second or third playthough is do-able in a reasonable amount of time. I'm going to give it another go myself at some point. :)
What Remains of Edith Finch

What Remains of Edith Finch


9/9 (100%) │ 2.5 hours │ 9/10
Death runs in the family
Beaten: 15-Sep-2018

The folks at Giant Sparrow have created a marvelous game that certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but as far as walking simulators go this one is among the very best, offering an intimate if morbid short story about the Finch family and it's tendency to find death early. Since the game's focus is completely on the story I'm not going to discuss the plot because it clocks in at 2-3 hours, so it's not terribly long. But the ingenuity of the designers to take different chapters and present them in a variety of narrative and mini-game formats is the stuff of masterful design. There's also a great bit toward the end that canonically ties WRoEF with another game Giant Sparrow made for the Playstation. I was completely delighted by the inclusion! From a purely aesthetic point of view, the Finch house is so wonderfully detailed that it's cool to just wander around and look all the things in it's rooms, halls and hidden places. The audio narration and sound ties it all together. If you are a fan of this type of game, it's a must play!
Trent

Congrats on the progress and thank you for the write-ups. I agree that Botanicula is the best of their bunch. Loved it. I’m still playing Epistory now (in the background, on an alt account)– I’m impressed with your achievements compared the playtime! I turned off adaptive difficulty and and have been just short of getting past a couple of the levels on Normal difficulty, so I turned adaptive back on so I can progress. I also enjoyed Hook; I specifically remember playing it during last year’s World Series (US Major League Baseball). I’ve played and enjoyed several LEGO games (Harry Potter 1&2, Hobbit, original Star Wars Complete) and have LotR in my backlog. If I were to play another, it would probably be LEGO Movie, as I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I think I would like Tyranny, but it’s not a game I would make time for. And Edith Finch has been on my wishlist for a long time. I’m waiting for it to get bundled.

Thanks again, and game on! :)

BigBlueWolf

Thanks for commenting! LotR was my first LEGO game. It was a lot of fun, though in hindsight I would have approached it differently if I had had the experience of several LEGO games prior to playing it. Didn’t like the Harry Potter ones as much (played SG wins). I think the next one I’m going to try is Marvel Superheroes, which seems to be the highest-rated LEGO game on Steam.

Trent

So this begs the question– how would you have LotR differently if you had had the experience of several LEGO games prior to playing it?

BigBlueWolf

I wasn’t familiar with the unlockables and alternate character system enough to understand how useful it is. I played more or less straight through the story mode and was flummoxed by all the things I couldn’t do in a hub or story level.

Trent

Gotcha…yeah, I had a similar experience with my first LEGO game. Even when I went to Free Play mode, I didn’t know I could switch characters…I thought I had to choose the right characters when I started the level.

That said, I’m thinking when I start LotR I’ll focus on pushing the story further and not spending so much time with the overworld until I’ve pretty much finished the story. Exception would be if I can get a multiplier or two easily enough.

tsupertsundere

I loved reading this wrap-up! You and I share opinions on the games we’ve both played (Botanicula, Animal Lover (though you liked it a little more than I did), and Edith Finch) and you gave me a good perspective to know better what I’m getting into when I eventually get around to playing Epistory.

I’m glad you forayed into a genre you don’t typically play much (visual novels) - I try to do that, too, when I can, just to see if there’s something really good that I don’t miss.