The Backbloggery

I don't know why this game exists and I don't know that it knows either. it's weirdly solid despite that!

despite playing this twice before, once on ps2 and once on ps3, about ten and eight years ago, respectively, I didn't remember much about this game.

this is a pretty fun little vignette of a game. I don't know that I've got a whole lot of deep thoughts about it.

this was a perfectly serviceable 2d zelda playing off some of the ideas from a link to the past! nothing more complicated than that, I think.

  I got into danganronpa what feels like a lifetime ago. I watched it progress from "wow neat screenshot LP translating it" to a whole-ass axis of Fandom Discourse over the years. I'm fond of the series, but I know it's got its problems.

I think it's a shame that typically there is so much more to say about media you don't enjoy, but... when one element slips, it's often then a cascade of problems caused by losing patience with existing issues that you were willing to let slide for the sake of a whole experience that hadn't yet lost you.

I've kinda had a soft spot for crafting in games for a while, but games that make a point of centering crafting of equipment are kinda few and far between. it's often viewed as tedious, or detracting from The Good Bit of the game, where you actually use the gear you're making. frankly, I think this is both a failure on the part of the designer to make interesting crafting systems in the bigger games where this opinion is born, and at least a slight failure on the part of the average player to find value in things that aren't The Main Gameplay Loop the writing in this game is really loose, leaving it feeling like it's not really too concerned with being taken 100% seriously, but still uses the light-hearted beats to have some meaningful character moments... despite the localization feeling stiff. diving into the dungeon and finding scrap to repurpose as generic raw material to make weapons was a lot of fun! some of the respite pacing was a little janky, and there wer...

[archived from a cohost post, originally made on june 30, 2024] none of the rest of my games are going to be bad. none of them are going to be bad! none of them are going to be harsh disappointments failing my optimistic vibe checks! I'm going to play 13 more games and I'm going to enjoy them over the rest of this year! RIGHT? RIGHT?! shining resonance refrain was a video game that seemed charming in a sort of knock-off Tales way, but didn't get localized on its home platform of the PS3, and instead it took until it got a then-current-generation port for the ps4, xbox one, and windows before it got an english release. I kinda wish it stayed japan-only. it's a slog of a video game with writing that would appeal more to me, a lover of mediocre light novel adaptations, as a 13-episode anime than it did as a video game they had to space out with a horrendous experience curve. by the time I hit the 1.5 hour mark, the game expected about 45 minutes of grinding...

[archived from a cohost post, originally made on july 12, 2024] this one was played in a blitz of like two days because I knew it would be relatively quick, I would enjoy it, and by getting all its achievements I'd hit precisely the 34 achievements I'd need to have 8,000 achievements on my steam profile with 69 perfect games anyway, irrespective of that weird itch of mine, this was a really enjoyable time! it has a few meta mechanical gimmicks that made me laugh when they came up, and the worst of the jumpscare/thriller horror sections are pretty frontloaded before it becomes more of a horrific mystery adventure game; the weaving of multiple protagonists' timelines and priorities together works really well. there's quite a few solid reveals and the ending was pretty satisfying for me, even having predicted it. it's a fun exploration of the way history and historical tragedies are turned into urban legends, as well!

[archived from a cohost post, originally made on july 8, 2024] little kitty, big city is one of those cute short wholesome games (that inexplicably takes place in a japanese city (for the purposes of aesthetic I presume but it's still weird from an american indie team, as the discussion around "wholesome games" borrowing bits of japanese culture points out)) and it's one of those! it's cute, it's short, it's wholesome, there's a few quests to follow instead of just going directly for all the stamina upgrades you need to get back home. not a whole lot to talk about here, to be honest, but I had a good time with it nonetheless