Gaming Report Q2 2024
Dear god I am so sick why did I make any portion of my website time sensitive. Fine let's just get this over with.
Dynasty Warriors 2
I shared a thought on my home page a few months ago that I really wanted to see a YouTube series offering a deep-dive retrospective on all the mainline Dynasty Warriors games to see how they evolved over the years. I've contemplated making it myself, although ultimately decided that I make videos for work, I'm not doing that crap in my free time, too. However, I did not reach this decision until after I booted up Dynasty Warriors 2 for the first time.
DW4 was my jumping-on point with the series, and I had heard less than favorable reviews of DW2. I get the criticism; it is really, really rough around the edges. The difficulty kind of bounces all over the place, the draw distance is genuinely awful, movesets are very limited, the story is pretty much nonexistent, and there's a grand total of like eight stages across all factions. On the other hand... I kind of liked how straightforward it played. It was simple, sure, but sometimes, simple can be good.
...I haven't 100% convinced myself not to do the video. Or something similar.
Jusant
A game that dares to ask "Hey, what if you have to actually think about what you're doing while you climb a mountain?" It plays out more like a puzzle game than anything, but it's engaging enough. And gorgeous to look at. My biggest disappointment was really that some of the climbing transitioned to the interior of the mountain about halfway through, so I couldn't look back down and peek at the landmarks I'd been keeping track of anymore. I thought that was a fun way to gauge my progress. Still, I liked it, and it was just the right length.
Thirsty Suitors
Man, you know how some games just cram in so many zany, off-the-wall ideas that shouldn't work? This is one of those. It's equal parts style and silliness, but it's never "too much" since the characters keep it grounded. I don't know what else to say, just go check it out because I really can't recommend this game enough.
Mars After Midnight
Hey, I did a full review on this one!
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
I didn't want to wait too long before diving back into Act 2, so I tackled it here. Largely the same comments as my first go-around. You know why these cases feel like they take so long? Because every time you think you're close to the end, somebody says "Objection!" and raises a small little point that you know is clearly a lie, but you still have to spend another 45 minutes or so going through witness testimony or trying to talk the jury out of handing down a verdict. It is so incredibly frustrating how often this happens.
Anyway, fine story though. I'm not convinced they set up enough in Act 1 to justify the amount of my time that got wasted there (or to clearly indicate that they had the whole thing planned out), but the twists and turns were good, and I nearly cried at the end, and really that's all I want out of an Ace Attorney game.
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
I want them to make a thousand more Duck Detective games.
Castle Tintagel
Soooo here's a Playdate game that I wrapped up a while ago and keep meaning to post a review for. I'll get around to it, but spoilers in the meantime: not good.
Open Roads
Okay so real talk, Annapurna Interactive might be my favorite publisher at the moment. Stray, Thirsty Suitors, and (of course) Sayonara Wild Hearts, to name a few. Do these people release anything that isn't gold?
So, I took a chance on Open Roads based solely on the fact that it was published by Annapurna. Plus, the set-up of going on a road trip with your mom to find out more about your grandmother's secrets (and possibly hidden treasure), I mean, that's an instant hook right there. And predictably, I liked it. I won't say it's an out-of-the-park smash, but it's small, simple, very good slice-of-life vibes. I enjoyed it for what it was, and at this rate I am going to end up buying Annapurna's whole damn catalog one of these days, I swear to god.
Unicorn Overlord
WHY IS THIS GAME SO LONG. I've been doing nothing but playing this game for over ONE MONTH and it is STILL GOING. I DON'T WANT to play this game anymore BUT I HAVE TO because FINISHING IT is the only way to GET ON WITH MY LIFE.
This should be the peak of the game, where I now have access to a full litany of tactics, moves, and items so I can really get creative with strategy, except I am SO BURNT OUT; I'm skipping watching how the battles resolve now because it's a huge time sink, even though the stylishness of the auto-battling was what drew me to the game in the first place.
Stop giving me new characters! I love characters, but I don't have enough slots in my army to keep all these people leveled up! You're not even giving me anybody interesting anymore; I rock up to a city and find I now have a FOURTH knight that I really don't need or have room for and who has no personality except for "was going to make his neighbor a sandwich I guess". And who picks these class assignments? I still only have ONE solider, ONE housecarl, ONE thief, ONE wizard; but I've got four knights, three sellswords, three duelists, three elven archers, three clerics, two gryphon riders... yeah, I could always buy generics, but then I'd be pushing out even more of my named characters.
Ugh. I do like this game, but I also can't wait until I never have to play it again.