Gaming Report Q4 2024
Whaaaat I'm doing screenshots in my reports now???
Stellaris
I played this once or twice when it came out, and it was all right. Back then, I got sucked into the early game when it's largely about exploring the galaxy, finding events, and expanding your territory, that's a lot of fun. But once empires reached each other's borders and couldn't go any further, there wouldn't be a whole lot for me to do since I tend to play these kinds of games very diplomatically (read: boringly).
Before now, I'd never played any of the vast amounts of DLC for this game, because like, where do you even start? At this point, you'd spend hundreds just to get it all, which is a really bad investment if you're like me and only consider jumping in once every few years. But now Paradox is cleverly offering a monthly subscription for their content. So I can spend $10 to get everything, wrap up a game in a month, stop my subscription, and sign up again later on down the road if I want? I don't think that's a bad deal.
This time, I played a humanoid plant species whose gimmick was that space whales could carry your seed pods throughout the galaxy and form new colonies in random places. This only panned out a couple times, but it still led to some interesting choices as I had to figure out how to manage these far-away systems. But just as I was getting settled into the midgame, I discovered L-Gate technology waaay too early and opened one; every other L-gate in the galaxy opened, releasing a scourge of destructive entities that were hidden in deep space. Because it was so early in the game, nobody had anywhere close to the naval capability to fight these things—at one point I remember thinking "hm, if I combine my entire armada, it would only be one-third the strength of one of their fleets"—and whole empires were being destroyed. So much map was emptied during this time that there was a second land rush. The only small relief we'd see would come when any these things happened to get near one of the ancient civilizations that sit around with even more powerful fleets largely doing nothing. Since that was so unreliable, though, it was just a matter of hoping and praying and rebuilding for a long while.
Of course, as soon as I was finally ready to try to turn the tide and stem the blight, having built up a decent armada myself AND gained control of our federation's ships, one of those ancient civilizations that doesn't do anything decided to do something and expanded into the scourge regions, effectively wiping them out without breaking a sweat before I could even get a shot. Bastards. I wanted those systems.
Anyway I might need to turn the difficulty up on this game next time because by the time this was done I was so stupidly powerful and rich it wasn't even funny. As an example of how technologically advanced I was, other empires would come to me asking for research treaties; they would get 30-50 research from me, where I would get 1-3 from them. Uhh bad trade. Anyway so maybe I borked things, but at least I felt busy the whole time so that was definitely a good experience.
In Stars and Time
MAN what a game. I think there's a lot of risks inherent with games that use time loops as a major theme/mechanic, chiefly because you as the player have to repeat the story, interactions, and gameplay many, many times. Kind of the reason I don't like Dark Souls really, because I don't want to have to replay every single section over and over to get good at them, I ain't got that kind of time.
On the other hand, experiencing the negative emotions that come with all that repetition is... kind of the point here? And I feel like In Stars and Time does the best it can possibly do to give you this experience in as painless a manner as possible, which I recognize doesn't really make sense to type out, but it's true. As a kind of vague example, when you loop backwards, you generally have a a reason to do it, something new to find or accomplish; meanwhile, the game gives you tools to get back to that place relatively quickly, so you're still experiencing the repetitiveness of the battles and the conversations with your party, just in a less onerous and more driven way.
Anyway, good story, and amazing characters who I cherish now. And actually, as far as turn-based RPGs go, I really vibed with the combat in this one; it wasn't complex but it also had enough variety not to be boring. Just, a thoughtful game on all counts. Really worth a look.
Little Kitty Big City
Needed some fluff after those last two meaty games, and that's exactly what I got with this. Maybe a bit clunky at times—I don't think you can beat Stray when it comes to the ease and fluidity of controlling a cat—but overall a quick, cute romp.
A Highland Song
Despite essentially being a game that tasks you with getting from Point A to Point B, I feel like I could play this a dozen times and never take the same route twice. Actually, I did do a second run-through (mostly because I forgot to take a screenshot the first time around and then I just... kept going), and my path only briefly overlapped once. Anyway, makes me want to go to Scotland. Bucket list I guess.
Rogue Flight
There is a void in my heart that only Star Fox 64 can fill. Given that the game is over 25 years old at this point, you'd think we would have had a good spiritual successor or something to really recapture its essence; but if it exists, I haven't found it yet. Then I saw Rogue Flight and thought, maybe this is it?
It isn't. But it does have a similar on-rails experience with faster-paced gameplay and a high-octane soundtrack, so it still has a lot going for it. There's less of a focus on maneuvering your ship through hazard-filled levels than Star Fox had, but there is a mechanic where time slows down as you spin around and wipe out a line of enemies with the jet stream from your engines, and dear god does that feel satisfying to pull off. Not an overly complex game, but it's a cool little gem from an indie studio, maybe take a look.
Venba
For a game that I finished in an hour and a half, it's got some feels. Very cute, excellent little story-driven experience with a fresh perspective.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Man, I had this game back on the original Game Boy. I'm talking the original grayscale version, not the color re-release they did down the line. Anyway, the Switch remaster is a good remaster. Looks good, and most of it plays the same. They did made the Magic Rod a lot more underwhelming though. And changed the Trendy Game so I had to learn new timings. And the thing with Dampe was pretty pointless and out-of-place, even though I still did it all anyway. Still. Nice to revisit this title.
Battle Chef Brigade
This is a fantastic game. I just hate playing it.
It takes heavy inspiration from the Iron Chef TV series, but you also have to go hunt the creatures for your ingredients. Watching Iron Chef (the Japanese version, to be clear, not the trash-tier American version) with my mother growing up is one of my fondest childhood memories, and it is very obvious that the developers put that same love and affection into their game.
My biggest gripe is that the cooking is SO DARN STRESSFUL. I know that's the entire point of the thing and it accurately reflects how the chefs in the show must feel as they make their dishes but I HATE IT. I always ended up doing okay in the judging but it never once felt like I was going to. I always felt like I was turning in half-baked dishes that I could have been proud of if I’d just had a few more minutes. Ugh. Also I could never remember to start the goddamn oven.
On a final note, I need to point out that the voice acting in this game is WAY BETTER than it has any right to be.
Mario Kart 8
Yep. I played some Mario Kart. Gotta stay in practice so I can dominate my friends, assuming I ever have any.
Proverbs
This is... a game. It's kind of like Minesweeper. You clear out sections of tiles to reveal bits of a massive picture. You don't even have to do any guesswork; it seems like there is always one logical next step to take, you just have to find it. I've been working on this for hours and I'm only 30% done. It's chill and I'm going to be playing it for a while yet.
Cloudpunk
On its surface, you play as a delivery driver, flying packages around a big cyberpunk city. Since a cyberpunk setting in general leaves a lot of room to make commentary on the human condition, you meet a lot of interesting characters during your rounds; and while some of them are kind of duds, I also got big laughs from others. It's from a small team, so it's a little rough around the edges, but some of those kinks really should have been ironed out. Voice acting is wildly all over the place and nobody can pronounce the protagonist's name consistently (which she eventually lampshades by suggesting any pronunciation is fine). Camus is excellently cast, but Rania's voice actor feels like they're phoning it in the whole time (though it's better in the DLC). Character voices and portraits often do not match; there is a merchant whose portrait makes him look like a junior programmer in his late 20s, but his voice is reminiscent of a middle-aged plumber. And man, somebody needs to tell this team that if you take an elevator to another level with no other exit, the elevator should actually wait for the player instead of resetting to its original position, and elevators should not depart as the player is walking toward them. Good lord I was constantly fighting with those elevators. At least they made up for it by allowing conversations to continue uninterrupted through load zones.
Anyway, the city itself is gorgeous. I love it, and it's obvious a lot of work went into crafting it. It's not all custom—you'll see reused elements all over the place—but for everything appearing so uniform, it was crazy how diverse some of the locations you visit can feel despite using the same assets. I kind of just want to be able to walk around and explore more.
Funnily enough, the developer is working on a life sim game based on the city named Nivalis, scheduled for release next year. I'm a little hesitant based on the previews; I don't know that it's going to be my cup of tea, but I'll at least consider it when it releases.
Coming up for next quarter, I'm very early in on Metaphor: ReFantazio. All I can say so far is that it's not Persona 5. This is not a compliment.