Recent reviews by Spencer

Oh, this is a... what is it called, a "hidden gem"? I found it in my library, probably from an itch.io bundle, and tried it out. It's nice! As the description describes, it's kind of a meditation on the processes that we go through in our everyday lives, and how that changes over the course of our lives and over the course of generations. On the surface, though, it's an adventure game, with delightfully simple sound and graphic design. It's 3D and first-person, but it uses fixed perspectives and is only controlled with your mouse, like Google Street View. I thought it was odd at first, but it actually makes a lot of sense. It's not as smooth as WASD, but more intuitive, and it's a more direct translation of the traditional point-and-click framework. Of course, since it builds from that formula, I did end up pixel-hunting for one or two puzzles, but I got through.

You know, I don't visit Proteus as often as perhaps I should. Maybe that's the best way to think of it: There is an ending, and it is wonderful, and you should spend time exploring and familiarizing yourself with the area, but you can also just consider it a relaxing place to visit from time to time.

I haven't even finished half of the game, but as my (and anyone else's) introduction to Zachtronics games, I was thoroughly engaged with the intricacy and open-ended nature of the puzzles. Plus, the mechanics make up a form of computer programming, so if you're good at the puzzles, and you haven't before, take real programming a shot!

I played some of this a while ago, and while I guess I had some fun, I could never come back to it. This game claims to recapture the feeling of precise controls from an oldschool 2D platformer. If you had grown up on things like Super Mario World, maybe this game is for you. But for anybody else, this game does not really offer much, and the (unadjustable iirc) difficulty does not make it a worthy use of your time.

Oh, and (at least one of) the creators are kinda jerks online, so maybe don't buy this if you don't want to support that.

This game seems to be marketed on its use of non-Euclidean geometry and unconventional spaces, and while those are kinda neat, the novelty wears off quickly. Regardless of that though, it is still a very well-designed and even relaxing puzzle game.

This, is Mountain.

Observe Mountain.

Experience Mountain.

Live Mountain.

Be Mountain.

You, are Mountain.

Mark of the Ninja is a really fun game. I mean, it's a really REALLY fun game. Really, though: great stuff.

It's a stealth platformer. There's not much more to it than that, really—there's a story, but it really only comes to a head at the end, and until then it has nothing to do with the gameplay. But the game is very well designed, and it is *extremely* aware of its systems. Every item, every mechanic, and every part of every level exists for a good reason. Nothing's superfluous, and nothing's missing. At the same time, it tries to be a bit flexible. From what I remember, it exposes three distinct gameplay styles, and while it lets you use any combination, it rewards you for sticking to one. In that vein, the upgrade system feels a bit tacked-on at first, and it will probably hurt you if you try to switch style partway through the game, but it gives a great feel of progression. The art is nice, and both the in-game and cutscene animations are smooth, though the voice acting is a bit flat (I guess that's ninjas for you).

The most overrated game I've ever played; probably my favorite game ever right now.

(this is going to sound a lot like my Skyrim review, and I might come back and change things later - spoiler free, though!)

It's a charmer, for sure, and I can see why. Just in the first room or two it introduces you to its cutesy retro art style, its nostalgic and catchy music, its memorable characters, its unique battle system, and its gut-wrenching twists. But it is absolutely not a perfect or flawless game.

The art is - well, I'm not really sure what it's trying to be. I think it's supposed to be reminiscent of third-generation home console games, but it's fairly sophisticated for that. The overworld art is just plain ugly: thick black outlines everywhere, no or inconsistent shading, broken perspective, no textures or detail, lines that look like they were drawn freehand with a touchpad in Microsoft Paint, usually only three frames per animation (if you're lucky! Most NPCs are actually completely static). In contrast, the backgrounds and shopkeepers have some absolutely gorgeous pixel art! Though, again, it would really fit in more with fourth-gen stuff with the expanded color palette. In between those extremes, then, is the battle screen, which is only in black and white. It's boring, but it works. The battle screen artwork has nice detailing and animations. What really irks me is its use of this pixel art in combination with liberal scaling, rotation, and transparency effects, which absolutely do not fit the aesthetic, do not always look good, and would not have been technically feasible on third- or fourth-gen consoles. Like, if you were going to do fancy stuff like that, why even bother with the fake upscaling?

The music is catchy and intelligently composed, but not really well produced. It mixes chiptune-like music with tracker-style stuff and even a bit of live instruments and faked full orchestration. Which, on the surface, I'm fine with. I love me some fakebit. But, going back to the whole retro-aesthetic thing, it doesn't match any retro console it's trying to emulate. It's also a bit annoying that the soundtrack just tries to use generic-sounding sample packs in place of real instruments. Finally, the composition makes liberal use of "leitmotifs", or repeating themes for various characters and concepts. It's a common and well-understood technique, but here it also means that the music gets repetitive very quickly. The short looping tracks and generic sample sets also add to the repetitiveness.

The characters are all memorable, but they're also all kind of plain. They all fit common stereotypes or tropes. Their personalities are all fairly one-dimensional. The choices they make are all predictable and of no consequence to you, nor can the player really influence the way they live their life.

So, a note about the story. Lots of people I'm sure will claim that this game is one where your choices matter, but it's not as cool as it sounds. Basically, the game has three endings: a "good" ending, an "evil" ending, and a "neutral" ending. The "good" and "evil" endings only happen if you make *all* of your choices one way or the other, and the "neutral" ending happens in any other case (I'm skipping over a detail here about how the neutral and good endings work together, but my point remains). That kind of "decision-making" is absolutely ham-fisted and not any better than the silly "morality" systems you'll see other, bigger RPGs do. No choices you make in the "neutral" ending really affect how other characters live their lives or judge you, there aren't any morally ambiguous choices anywhere, and you have no leeway in the other endings to make them your own (well, ok, there are some dialog options you can make, but they have no effect on the story).

One huge aspect of the game that absolutely adds to its charm is how it plays off and makes fun of common video game elements and tropes. Anybody who's played many games will see the significance of avoiding violence. Anybody who's played an oldschool RPG will get the grinding. Anybody who's opened a Word document will shiver when a character mentions your save file. But it also takes some wrong steps. The game showing you that you're allowed to "save" your game and "continue" from an earlier point, before mocking you for trying again, is cute, but it also absolutely violates the trust it has with the player. I almost gave up playing entirely when that happened to me for the first time early in the game. Yet, it doesn't go all the way either. The self-proclaimed creator called it a "niche RPG", and that adds to in-game evidence that this game was originally meant for a very specific audience - those that have played many classic RPGs, possibly specifically in an emulator. That part of the game is not going to resonate or have its full effect with very many players, but at the same time, it doesn't actually have much significance except for a few scenes and story options.

(ok, rant over, begin the gushing)

But man oh man if this isn't still an incredible piece of work! Like, the characters are stereotypical, but they all have an interesting backstory. The backstories are always only hinted at in dialog, except for maybe one or two flashback sequences, so you kind of have to piece together what happened before your character arrived, and figure out everybody's relationship to eachother. More, the most interesting details are only ever expanded on in the "evil" storyline, because the characters are in such a radically different situation. The "moral compass" system is broken, but it still really works! And you really do get to know all of the characters - by the end you will not only have had significant hang-out time with the coolest of folks, but you will have met and gotten to know the life stories of every random-encounter enemy (and each one has a dream and a future, which is revealed in the credits - how cute is that!). It's certainly a testament to the work that there is *so much* good fan art out there. I'm sure you've seen some of it. So cool! There's also a bunch of "hidden" extra stuff that is hard to get to unless you look deep into the game, which reveals a secret backstory, and is exactly how I'd want to do hidden stuff in a game if I ever did that. And then, jeez, there's that one character (you'll know who I'm talking about) - he only has like 10 minutes of screen time, but it's written well enough and has enough supporting backstory that I, and so many others, just... just love him so much. The overall plot is kind of drawn out and contrived, and really only exists to support the characters, but it's still great, it's still filled with cross-connections, and it's probably the most beautifully tragic story I've ever heard. When people say they cried when they played this game, it's no joke. Tears of joy and sorrow - they're both there. After I finished playing I went and watched a Let's Play, and when they got to a room that referenced the end of the game (the LPers totally oblivious of course), I wept for the first time since I was a child. That's some good writing (and composing).

Anyway - highly recommended. Play the game, play it twice if you want, share it with your friends, your family (it's actually pretty kid-safe. It deals with some dark themes, but there's only one swear, one tobacco reference, one alcohol reference, and one depiction of blood - all skippable, and nothing more "mature" than that), watch some LPs, partake in the fandom. Most of all, have fun - and don't have a bad time.

The Destructoid review above likens KR0 to the feeling of sitting around the campfire telling ghost stories. It's definitely that, but also, like,

Have you made friends where you thought there were none to be found?

Have you ever stared at the stars and realize how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ we all are, and, in the same moment, realize how insignificant we all are in the universe?

Have you ever gone outside, late at night, to watch the city, and just feel everything…

slow…


down…



?




That's this game.

At least, that's what the first act is like. The second one picks up the pace a little, and the third and fourth - well, they're spooky enough they might as well be a horror game. Not, like, frightening, just unsettling. Still a great atmosphere. There's no anti-aliasing so I originally forced it on in my graphics settings (MSAA, not any of the junky screen-space stuff), but apparently it was an artistic choice by the developer to leave that out. Looks amazing either way.

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