What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?

I've played Call of the Sea. It's a problem solving game in which you play Nora, an early 20th century american who travels alone to a polynesian island in search for her missing husband Harry, who vanished on an expedition meant to find a cure for a disease afflicting Nora herself. There, she finds remains of the expedition that preceded her as well as ruins left behind by a cult of eldritch fish god worshipers.

The island is full of puzzle elements as well as plenty of writings and sketches that you can use to piece together what happened to the others. Nora keeps a nice handwritten journal with drawings and notes on puzzle elements that's filled in as you examine/encounter things. I quite liked it! The sets all look pretty decent too. There is some voice acting (including well-known industry names). These aspects of the game approximate it to Myst and other such games.

However, compared to that genre, this game is more confined by a linear narrative. Explorable areas are small and only accessible in order as the story progresses. Puzzles aren't all that basic (ie not all the garbage horror game "here's the safe code, right next to the safe") but they are still simpler than a fan of the more complex puzzle solving games would prefer, and the narrow scope of each area means the challenge is a little lacking. Most areas have a vaguely cartoonish/colorful/"styrofoam prop" aesthetic that doesn't quite fit the supposed Lovecraftian theme. As such, I liked the dark and stormy shipwreck area best, and wish the whole game had had that kind of mood.

Finally, the game was quite short. It's fully solvable in about 6 hours. I guess it doesn't overstay its welcome! Overall I'd say it was a decent game, a bit lacking but perhaps perfect for puzzle solving game beginners who don't want anything too challenging.

I've also been playing Escape from Ever After, a much longer game. This is a fantastic narrative RPG with an aesthetic that (I'm told) is reminiscent of Super Mario RPG (turn-based combat) and Paper Mario games (2D characters on 3D sets) alike. I also feel some A Hat In Time vibes from the goofy humor, although there's only limited platforming. Maybe another good reference for those who played it is South Park: The Stick of Truth, which combines similar elements.

You play as Flynt, a good-natured fairytale protagonist tasked with defeating a dragon. When he reaches the dragon's castle, however, he finds that it has been taken over by Ever After Inc, an evil real world corporation hell-bent on monetizing every fairy tale. Flynt has to join forces with the dragon (and, later, other not-quite-villains) and attempt to take out a much greater foe: Capitalism! In the course of the game, you go inside several storybooks and meet many familiar fictional characters, some of which will help you, others which must be fought. All the stories have a twist on the originals.

Party members all come with their own unique environment-traversal skill, as well as a distinct set of abilities that makes them useful in combat against specific parties of enemies. You can only use two characters at a time, but you can swap party members mid-combat, so a lot of the strategy has to do with picking the best fighters to deal with any status effects, shields, enemies stacked on top of each other Vincent Adultman style and various other shenanigans. Add to that synchronized moves, items and timing-based parries and you get a combat system that, while deceptively simple, turns each fight into a short puzzle unlocked by making the right choices and using resources wisely during the fight (or you can always grind a little, I guess, but you shouldn't have to!)

Gear is all equipped on a common pool of slots ("trinket points") and some has party-wide effects (mana is shared, for example). This is nice in a way, but also means gear can have a disproportionate impact on certain fights and that the difficulty curve may not always be injective, if you know what I mean. Despite the hub-and-spokes level graph, and the fact that new levels are unlocked one at a time, gear acquisition can be fairly non-linear. I'm well into the game and so far I only found a single boss annoying (before I found the right gear for fighting him), so I'd say this isn't too much of a problem.

In all, I'm having fun playing this. I like the characters, who are fairly distinctive, despite their sometimes being pushovers, and finding the various secrets and items. It's not a super demanding game as long as you don't have too much trouble timing the parries. Other than your party member's hilariously terrible pathfinding (which doesn't matter, as they teleport to you when you need their ability), the game is very polished. I'm looking forward to finding out what other storybooks I'll be visiting!

Previous

Finally getting around to playing Monster Train 2's new DLC; I put about 120 hours into the base game last year and it was great. I bought the DLC on release to support it and am glad to finally be getting around to it.

Besides two new clans (technically one returning from MT1 and one brand new), the big feature of the DLC is the new Soul Saviour game mode. That's right folks, they added a roguelike mode to this roguelike game! It's an interesting new take, very much more non-linear, and while I haven't broken the game with any of the souls yet I can feel the potential. It is also much harder than the base game, which is a nice little challenge.