#switch
#switch
by Amr (@siegarettes)
I love Wargroove. At least, when it isn’t seriously pissing me off. When it’s in the groove, it sets up wonderful capsule strategy scenarios. Each of these make me consider the terrain, the set of units I’m restricted to and forces me to experiment and make hard choices to overcome the enemy. The wonderful animations and lovingly rendered maps enhance every victory and mistake, making me hold my breath as I hope that I’ve made the right move.
All of this helps Wargroove perfectly capture the appeal of the old Advance Wars style strategy games. It’s a refreshing return whose capsule battles generally feel more accessible to people who aren’t strategy mavens. And yet, it isn’t the rousing success it should be, thanks to some BIG problems that soured any high points.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Sky Gamblers gets by a lot on the sheer appeal of its concept. Let me get this out of the way here–this game is a mess, with plenty of bugs, inconsistent performance, long load times, strange controls and a laughable story. Despite that, I finished it in a single day on the strength of the sheer novelty of engaging in aerial dogfights. None of the planes or weapon options felt meaningfully different, but the there’s no luster lost for the process of tracking down an enemy through the air.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Odallus is definitely the more ambitious of Joymasher’s two retro style games. In contrast to Oniken’s discrete levels and eclectic sci-fi aesthetic, Odallus brings a sprawling map, RPG elements, and a grotesque gothic art direction. The map branches into different paths, and each stage has several passages to take and items that open up new ones. The heavy atmosphere is delightful, but the sprawling approach overreaches and creates an uneven game.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
With so many retro-inspired titles out there, terms like “8-bit” or “NES style” have become muddled. Few of them attempt to match the limitations of the era’s hardware, more often using it as a shorthand for games with pixel art or bad CRT filters. Oniken definitely still has that bad CRT filter, but makes a serious effort to recapture the era’s spirit, in both art direction and combat flow. At the same time its enthusiasm for the hardcore philosophy now associated with the era blinds it to problems that undercut the overall experience.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
I’ve made it out of the seaweed forests. The new chainsaw has allowed me to cut through the thick weeds, and uncover more of the history left behind. There are more of those holograms, and even this far in there are massive screens still running news broadcasts. Did they really discover a truly sustainable energy source while I was gone?
Maybe not. At the least there seems to have been a lot of infighting here. Numerous journals describe eco-terrorists taking radical action to stop the development of these cities. What could have been so awful that it was worth fighting the last remains of humanity?
Well, maybe I’m starting to get a sense of it myself. While investigating it I stumbled into the den of the largest octopus I’ve seen. The creatures so far have been massive, but this one was beyond comprehension. The suckers on its tentacles alone dwarfed me. The sea has seemed so vast, terrifying in the way it seemed to continue on. This beast is the first being I’ve met that seems large enough to live comfortably in that vastness.
Our meeting didn’t go well.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Life in Desert Child was simple when I started. Spend the day racing, sell the extra power cells I didn’t need to make money and fund repairs, and finish the day off with some ramen. It wasn’t a great life, and if you thought the ramen at those hipster shops here were a rip off, wait until you eat this $15 ramen that doesn’t even fill you up. Still it was easygoing, and there wasn’t much to worry about.
Then I got it in my head that I was gonna make it big on Mars, and enter the Grand Prix. So things got complicated.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
I’m the last one. I’m really the last one.
I guess that’s what happens when you disappear into a wormhole. There’s no way to tell how long I’ve been gone. I came back to a planet covered in ice. Almost thought that the traces of humanity had been wiped out until I plunged beneath the ice to find where they’d retreated to. Everything is so different now. Eco-terrorism, giant sealife, the quiet rumble of the ocean floor. And the architecture, it’s beautiful. Sprawled out in interlocking capsules that’d be impossible on the surface, where gravity’s pull would snap the supports. Mystery and terror flood this underwater world–it feels like I could find anything lurking here.
Well, maybe that’s a half-truth. You see this is my second trip into The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human. It’s been three years since my last one. I can forget a lot in three years. But looming large in my memories is the wild scale of the Aquatic Adventure, and the atmosphere–carrying both a booming depth threatening to swallow me, and subdued, lonely currents carrying me away.
I’ve overdue for a revisit of this one. This time it’ll be a more relaxed trip, away from the pressure of a deadline. So join me, as I chronicle this journey through these haunted cities and sunken ruins.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
The Momodora Diaries are a chronicle through Momodora Under the Moonlight.
Turned off one of the defensive items. Mostly because I wanted one of the additional passive abilities and there’s only two slots for passive, but it’s also helped me get a better feel for the combat rhythm. Not that I didn’t before, but being forced to be more careful does change up the space a bit and makes me more aware of the arrows’ utility.
I’ve also found out that the poison clouds that my arrows now make can also poison me. Rude. Though I do appreciate when effects and environmental dangers have the same rules applied to both the player and the enemy. It doesn’t happen often, but every time I interrupt an enemy attack or knock them into spikes I get a big kick out of it.