First Impressions: Sky: Children of Light

 

Sky: Children of Light

System: iOS, iPadOS, Android, Nintendo Switch

Original Release Date: July 18, 2019

Publisher: thatgamecompany

Developer: thatgamecompany

Sky: Children of Light is a beautiful game with a wonderful aesthetic similar to Journey and seeing that it was developed from thatgamecompany, it would make sense that they are visually similar even when the environments are vastly different.  When I started Sky, I did not know that it was an online multiplayer game and I also did not know that it had been out since 2019 and was a mobile game.  I pretty much knew nothing about this title before I saw the article come up on the news feed section of my Nintendo Switch.  All I saw was that it was a free-to-play game being offered by thatgamecompany and I was all in.

So I started and was slightly confused by the intro, but only in an "I'm not sure exactly what the story is telling me and how much I am going to need to know/remember for this game to make any sense" but was immediately taken in by how gorgeous the world looked.

Running over sandy windswept landscapes towards points of interest that I knew nothing about with a gilded mountain tower far away in the sky watching my every move was oddly fun.  I had only an inkling of an idea as to what I was doing and why I was seemingly collecting candlelight.  For the first 30 minutes or so though, the actual sky was more of an aspiration than a starting point, but I was okay with the title not being the first part of the game.

As I progressed through the opening areas, I was enjoying myself immensely.  Finding glimmering shades of spirits and witnessing an apparently important moment in their lives and helping them (somehow) to pass on into the sky.  This was a video game-related attainable goal I could get behind as I knew that I had to collect three before I too could venture into the sky.

It was sometime around that moment (or shortly thereafter) that I was presented with a very cut-and-dry Here is What You Are Doing and Why screen that felt a little too directiony, which I recognize is a strange statement considering my previous stance of not knowing what I was doing or why.  While I did appreciate being told what I was doing and why I was doing it, I think I really enjoy being able to uncover that through actions rather than right upfront.  I know, I can be contradictory at times.

So I saved the remaining spirits, learned three new expressions that I was still a little unsure as to why these existed but perhaps I would need to express to future spirits to help them reach the sky, and was allowed to pass into the sky and finally allowed to fly!  The flying mechanic however felt strange.  I had inverted the y-axis controls (because of course, I did) but still, the flying never felt intuitive.  I understood the in-game mechanic of the meter and being able to recharge that meter while flying through clouds but I always felt that I was either banking one direction or another or on the verge of nose-diving into nothingness.  But I eventually reached the entrance to the castle/temple at the top of the clouds and that was where I met my first other person.

The other character who looked similar to my character approached me and I was given the option of interacting with them, so I did.  I offered them a candle, they offered it back and it asked me to name them.  I really had no idea what to do as I oddly felt that I needed to come up with a name quickly, so I chose "The First Friend" as their name.  Almost immediately after, there was another character who showed up and I did the same actions, befriending this other character and named them "The Second."  But as I was doing this, I noticed that The First Friend was moving in a way that did not make sense for a computer-controlled character.  They were somewhat spastic like they were looking around the environment, like how I would do in a game that I recently started playing.  That was when I realized that these two characters were not in fact computer-controlled, but other real players like myself.  And I immediately felt awkward.  I was not sure what I was supposed to be doing with The First Friend if I was expected to now start playing the game with them, following them, or what.  Then with The Second, while looking through expressions, we ended up holding hands.  As in our characters were holding hands and The Second was leading my character around with me not able to immediately break away.  I did find out how to let go of holding hands, but it was a very uncomfortable experience, being lead around and not really wanting to, just wanting to experience this game on my own.

I was then greeted with the above screen, all about maintaining a friendship.  This made the game more awkward for me.  As far as I could tell, there was no option of voice chat, and there did not seem to be any in-game benefit to having friends.  How could I communicate that I was still going after the second spirit in an area and they were going for the last one?  How would I ever find the same friend again if either of us signed off?  If I only played for an hour and they played for two more hours, how would that friendship make any sense if we are not exploring the same area together?  And most importantly, were there areas of the game that were only accessible if you approached them with a friend or had a certain number of friends or had a specific friend emote to that you can only earn after having so many friends?  I did not like this.  This was not the game that I thought I was starting.  And to answer at least one of those questions, according to a loading screen tip, you may need to be actively playing with at least one friend to either access or make it through at least one area.

This now brings me to seasons.  At the time, I did not know that this game had already been out for almost two years and that seasons were something in the game, whatever that means in this particular game.  When you start the game, it tells you how many days are left in the current season, but no word on what happens.  Do you have to collect/save all the spirits in each area before the end of the current season or else it resets?  Are new areas opened up each season making the game run essentially forever?  I still do not have an answer for that and I have not played the game since July 6th, at the start of the current season.  

Right now, I feel like I probably will not be playing Sky: Children of Light for too much longer if at all.  In each area where you save spirits when you finish, you are told at the temple if you missed any.  Having gone through the first two areas, I discovered that I was still missing three spirits in each area and I feel that I scoured the first area pretty completely, but the game prompts you to ask friends for help/direction in finding the remaining spirits.  I even had a prompt pop up while wandering around asking if I would help to find spirits, but not knowing where they were myself, I left the prompt unanswered.  And it comes back again to interacting with other players in order to progress, or at least the impression that that is what you are supposed to do.  The game is beautiful, no doubt, and the music composed by Vincent Diamonte is equally gorgeous and even comes across as dynamic based on what you are doing within the game, but the perceived co-op aspect of the game is something that does not attract me to continue playing and to some extent is pushing me away from continuing.

So I guess maybe that is my answer?  Maybe one more play and that will lead to my ultimate decision if I have not already made up my mind.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Fixed on the Messages Unseen

MIDI Week Singles: "Manta" - Sky: Children of Light (NS)

 

"Manta" from Sky: Children of Light on iOS, iPadOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch (2019)
Composer: Vincent Diamante
Album: Sky Original Game Soundtrack Vol. 1
Label: thatgamecompany
Publisher: thatgamecompany
Developer: thatgamecompany

This is a short track, but it is one that definitely had an immediate impact on me when I was first playing Sky: Children of Light; this was also before I knew that I was playing an online multiplayer game.  In this section of the game, you are running around and prompted to jump on one of the large flying manta ray-like creatures flying through the clouds around you so that you can fly to the large temple in the sky.  When you finally do grab a hold of one (it took me a number of tries), this track starts, the music swells and you are left with this feeling of amazement and wonder.  Kind of like how you want to feel every time you step outside your door, or as Conklederp can probably attest, every time you step outside your door (room or tent) while staying in Yosemite.  It was a magical feeling in this game that I wish had pushed you through, but you can read more about that here.

For some context, here is a clip I took while playing on the Nintendo Switch, so it is only a 30-second clip but I think you might understand where I am coming from.

I first thought that this music had been composed by Austin Wintory since he composed to music to Journey, also by thatgamecompany, but I saw that it was actually by Vincent Diamante who composed the music for Flower, also by thatgamecompany.  I guess I'll need to lookup more music by Mr. Diamante now.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Probing Deep Without Detection

My Reaction to the EA Announcement of the Dead Space Remake.

 

On Thursday, July 22nd, during their EA Play Live 2021 event, EA Games announced that they will be releasing a remake for Dead Space.

I had heard rumors for a while now that following Capcom's successful remakes of Resident Evil 2 and to a lesser extent Resident Evil 3, along with EA's successful release of the Mass Effect Trilogy: Legendary Edition that the next remake that EA would/should announce would be for Dead Space.  I was very much hoping for either an announcement about either a remake or even an HD Edition with a release on current-gen consoles (is the Switch considered current or last gen?), leaning more towards the HD Edition because that seemed like the least expensive option for a company hellbent on microtransactioning everything in a video game.  I was about 80% not expecting a remake and reboot of the entire series and I have somewhat mixed, but also very high hopes for the game.  So when this trailer aired during EA's event, I was pretty excited, to say the least:

I have a lot of questions, none of which I expect answered for quite some time, as well as some hopes for how Motive Studios approaches the Dead Space universe.

• How much of the story from the first Dead Space is going to happen?
• Is the main character still going to be Isaac Clarke?
• A major part of the game and story was Isaac finding out about Nicole's fate so I'm not sure if doing the exact same thing would have the same effect.
• Is Isaac or whoever is the main character going to have a speaking role as in Dead Space 2 and 3?
• I would not be upset about a gender swap and the main character now being Ashley Clarke (also being a reference to Evil Dead).
• How much of the story will Motive take from the movies, the prequel, the sequels, the novels, and the comic?
• How will the stories/events from the aforementioned Dead Space media affect the Dead Space remake?
• B.K. Evenson wrote the only two Dead Space novels, Martyr and Catalyst.  There were some great moments in both of those books that really put the effects of the Marker on human minds and why someone slitting their throat in front of Isaac while singing a lullaby was completely rational in their own minds.  After reading those books,  I decided to go back through Dead Space with those descriptions in mind and it made the game so much creepier and sad at the same time.
• Dead Space: Mobile is an entry that I rarely hear people talk about.  This was an amazing mobile game that had some of the best sanity effects since Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.  And by sanity effects, I mean that things that would happen to the main character Vandal like seeing their reflection in a mirror moving in the opposite direction, walking from one room to another only to loop back into the same room, and having grotesque images appear on the screen of the phone around where you have your hands to distract you from aiming your weapon.
• In a similar event, at the beginning of Dead Space Extraction, there was an event where the main character was killing necromorphs, only to find out that they had been hallucinating and were actually killing P-Sec enforcement and other engineers.  This type of hallucination I felt was a lot more effective than Isaac frequently grabbing his head or seeing people who were there precipitated by a flash of light.  The hallucinations need to be seamless with their reality.
• I assume that Motive will be using a new composer for the remake, curious to know who it will be and how influenced by Jason Grave's score the music will be.
• I know a lot of the Dead Space fanbase has a hardon for Dead Space 2 and I have talked about my own reaction to the move away from survival horror to action horror, but I hope that they focus more on what made Dead Space a great survival horror game and not just make a game that is Dead Space 2 with the story from Dead Space.
• How much influence is EA Games going to have over the final product of the Dead Space remake and how often are they going to have a say as to what is put into the game and how it develops?

IGN did an interview with Motive Studios Senior Producer Philippe Ducharme and Creative Director Roman Campos-Oriola which did answer some of the questions I posted above, but a lot of the questions came across as generalized answers.  I did appreciate that they addressed the issue with microtransactions (in Dead Space 3), however EA's Chief Studio Officer Laura Miele said regarding Motive Studio that "their general expertise in the action genre made it the right studio for this project.”  This has me worried for my last bullet point, because Dead Space should not start out as an action game because Isaac Clarke is not an action hero, but an engineer looking for his girlfriend and thrust into a hellish situation using mining equipment to defend himself.   Although I do not have any issues with it eventually turning into an action-horror game by the third installment especially if the games follow the same main character because, presumably, they will become more experienced and efficient at a necromorph outbreak.

So those are my general thoughts after hearing about the Dead Space remake slated for. . .some date in the near-ish future.  It is going to be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, and Windows, so I will either need to upgrade my laptop (a la buy a new one) or buy one of the consoles that can handle it because I do not want to end up waiting another five years before I play this game like I did with the first Dead Space.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

Game EXP: The Unholy Society

 

The Unholy Society

System: Windows, Nintendo Switch

Release Date: February 25, 2020

Publisher: CAT-astrophe Games

Developer: CAT-astrophe Games

My Play Time: ~2.5-3 Hours

I have mixed feelings about The Unholy Society by CAT-astrophe Games as played on the Nintendo Switch.  Unbeknownst to me, this game is only Act I of a larger story that is, as of yet, unfinished.  The game progresses as you meet characters close to the protagonist, hints of larger events than the one you are currently investigating, then after finding out information about the Unholy Society, you board a train for Poland and the game ends.  Very unexpectedly and it put a sour taste in my mouth because up until that point (and kind of the last battle which I will get to later), I was loving nearly everything about the game.  It was just sad that it had to end this way.

The Unholy Society follows exorcist priest Bonaventura Horowitz (Bon or BonBon to everyone in the game) through an event in his life involving his sister Susan who he has been avoiding for the past year or two and is now getting married.  Bon acts like a semi-unconventional priest although I have known at least one priest who smoked, used curse words, and drank, but none who rode skateboards, and thankfully none who actively had sex with demons masquerading around as prostitutes (not to shame sex workers); I just chalk it up to Bon's coping mechanisms at having performed exorcisms on humans and animals for let us say at least a decade or more.  The game plays like a visual novel adventure game with QTE-style fights.  Similar to other adventure games like Thimbleweed Park and King's Quest, in The Unholy Society you move through locations with Bon talking with other characters and occasionally collecting items to use, but there is no real puzzle solving.  All of the items you pick up are pretty quickly given to other characters or used during battles (see below), so there thankfully was never a time when I felt that I was inundated with items and wandering around trying to use them on anything with an interact button.

The battles in this game, all scripted in that they are not random, are one of the most unique mechanics in this game, being that I have not come across this type of fight before.  Before each battle, sometimes you may not even know that a battle is starting before the equip screen pops up, you decide on which spells you equip which are displayed on your phone during the battle.  Each spell is made up of sigils that appear randomly on the battle screen and you must select each sigil in the correct order before the timer in the top-middle of the screen reaches zero and the enemy attacks.  Or you know, something like this:

As mentioned above, you also have items that you can use during battle, but I did not know until the final battle that the items have a recharge timer, I thought they were single-use consumables and as I only came upon each item once, I did not want to use them on a run-of-the-mill battle; I also often forgot about them and even after dying during battles, I would just restart a battle and still not use the items.  One frustrating thing about the battles was that I could never tell exactly how much HP I had left, which would be important knowledge if I were to use either of the two attacks that also caused Bon damage.  One would do a whopping 45 points of damage back to Bon, but I could not tell you what Bon's starting HP was.  Was it 100?  Was it 150?  I ended up never using the "Final Attack" because I knew that I would probably only use it once and I would rather have what became my default set up:

One of the highlights of the game for me was the writing, probably because I grew up in the 80s and 90s and know most of Monty Python and the Holy Grail by heart (which did come out in 1975).  The references never felt like the writers were trying to cram in lines from movies and TV shows at every given turn, and the ones that were (frequently) pulled from Monty Python happened to fit with what was happening in the game.  The interactions too between Bon and his family and friends were also well written and amusing, but then I tend to find self-deprecating humor amusing in bursts and as long as that is not the entire schtick.  I guess a lot of the dialogue felt somewhat genuine, or at least as genuine as an alcoholic emotionally handicapped exorcist can be.

Without getting into story specifics, partly because the game was so short (HowLongToBeat has an average of 1.5 hours) and any additional hints past what I have already mentioned above becomes that much larger of a spoiler considering how few story points there are overall, I will say that I was very engaged.  I liked the characters, like Bon's priest friend Baracus and his sister Susan who were only in the story for a short time and felt like they were going to be fleshed out more.  The story ended with a boss fight that took me nine attempts using a different combination of spells but I ended up just going with the ones I have pictured above, and I lowered the difficulty from Normal to Easy; this made the time between enemy attacks longer which in turn made finding sigils to cast spells easier.  When the game went from a loading screen to a "Thank you for playing" and essentially a to be continued message, I was confused.  I genuinely felt like I was seeing something that should not have been there.  I was just getting into the story, "The Unholy Society" had only recently been brought up that was on the verge of being explored, our characters were about to jump off into their grand adventure and everything ended.  It felt like the sanity fake out screen in Eternal Darkness where the game stops after a scenario and brings up a "Thank you for playing Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, the story continues in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Redemption" (or something to that effect) and for a split second, you think that you just paid $60 for a six-hour game, or in this case $6.66 for a two-hour game.

Do I recommend The Unholy Society?  Maybe?  Maybe if I went into the game knowing that it was only an Act I.  Maybe if I knew that the game would only take between 1.5 and 2 hours (or slightly longer in my case) that I could have been mentally prepared for the "Thank you for playing" tag at the end.  I genuinely think that having this information beforehand would not have made me feel as let down as I was when I reached the end of the game.  Presently, CAT-astrophe Games has only a few pictures from Episode II of The Unholy Society and it does not look like it continues with the story that was going on at the end of Act I as there was mention of going to Poland, but it could be that it starts in Poland and then ends up in Spain or South America, I could be wrong.  It also looks like Bon has gone a bit greyer around the temples which could be a result of a powerful exorcism or that more time has passed.  Or this is a completely new story unrelated to the events that happened in Silent Virginia.  But I would be lying if I said that I am not eagerly awaiting Act II/Episode II whenever it is released, so I guess you could say that I would recommend this game, but with the aforementioned knowledge that it is only Act I of a larger and as of yet uncompleted story.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Is This Not What You Expected To See?

MIDI Week Singles: "Ground BGM" - New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (NS)

 

"Ground BGM" from New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch (2019)
Composer: Koji Kondo, Shiho Fujii & Mahito Yokota
Album: The 30th Anniversary Super Mario Bros. Music
Label: Columbia
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD

Before I started this article, I was not familiar with this song outside of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and even then I could not hum to you the melody, and as it turns out, Koji Kondo wrote this theme for New Super Mario Bros. on the DS back in 2006.  It was then revamped when it was again used for the "Ground BGM" in Super Mario Bros. Wii in 2009 when it was arranged by Kenta Nagata.  This "Ground BGM" was then re-re-rearranged by Shiho Fujii for New Super Mario Bros. U in 2012 which was then just ported over to New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe released on the Switch in 2019.  It is not the exact same song that was written 13 years ago, but when you listen to the three iterations beginning with 2006, you can see where the song came from.

Oddly enough, I am not a person who finds the song to be a particularly great song.  Like I said before, I could not have hummed or sung to you the melody from this song.  Now, having listened to three different iterations of this song from four games, I now have it in my head and can (kind of) sing it, but only up until the "buh!-buh!" at 0:12.  But as it turns out, the song that I was just humming to myself was the original song written for New Super Mario Bros. in 2006, not this arrangement.  What I think it is, for me at least, is that the song is too jazzy and while the "buh!"s themselves are pretty catchy, I find that they break up the melody as opposed to being a part of it.

I guess it is semi-odd to pick a song that I am not head-over-heels for, but I wanted to justify my "eh" comment in my First Impressions article from Monday.  Maybe after playing New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe a bit more the song (and the rest of the music?) might grow on me a bit.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
It Warms My Cold Soul

First Impressions: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (NS)

 

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Systems: Nintendo Switch

Release Date: January 11, 2019

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD

I will be honest with you.  I have been disillusioned with Super Mario Bros. games for a long time.  The last game in this 35-year-old series I finished was Super Mario World on the SNES Classic a few years back with Beardsnbourbon over the course of a week.  I tried Super Mario 64 sometime after it came out when Dr. Potts brought it over, I think for my 17th birthday (yeah, we were the cool fun kids)?  That game did not stick with me and I did not like playing a 2D platformer in 3D (Conker's Bad Fur Day being the exception) I played a little bit of New Super Mario Bros. on Conklederp's DS 10+ years ago and that was actually a lot of fun, but I only played halfway through the second world.  I think I just missed playing a 2D Mario Bros. game.  Not having a Wii or a Wii U, I missed out on the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. U.  I had read a number of reviews/comments about New Super Mario Bros. U that essentially said that it was a fun, but redundant game, but from someone who was looking for something along the lines of a 2D Mario Bros. game, I decided that I would fork over the required funds to try this game out (being 33% off didn't hurt either).

I was a little taken aback when I started the game.  I think I was expecting something akin to Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where you select which game file you want to use, how many people are playing and you are off to the races!  I was not expecting a whole host of options that meant nothing to me.  Challenges?  Is the game not a challenge?  Maybe there are just short sections from various stages similar to Ultimate NES Remix where you try to beat a part of the game as quickly as possible?  Or is that Boost Rush?  Maybe that is where the game just throws various power-ups at you while enemies fill the screen trying to kill you?  Coin Battle sounds like a mini-game where you play against other players and the person who collects the most coins wins, like something in a Mario Party game?  And I am assuming that the "Play With Mii" means that you are able to import your Mii character to play with them in one of these non-story modes?  That would actually be pretty fun, assuming that they would take on Mario's stats and be middle of the road for everything rather than basing any character mechanics on the height and weight you have set your Mii at; thinking too much again.  Since I had just started the game, I knew I did not want to start in on Start New Super Luigi U because I was sure there were mechanics that had been updated over the last 30 years that I have been unaware of.

So I selected file number 1 and proceeded to start . . . nope.  Now I had to select how many players I was playing with, so just the one.  Lastly, I had to select which character I wanted to play with.  I do not know if Mario and Luigi have similar abilities to the ones established in Super Mario Bros. 2, but without an instruction booklet of any kind, I would assume that might be the case?  I have no idea about either Toad or Toadette and all I can think of is that this again is like selecting characters in SMB2.  And Nabbit?  I did not recognize Nabbit as a character from previous Super Mario games (see the first paragraph) and its rabbit-like design reminds me a bit of Rabbids but this one is purple and wearing a mask.  Believe it or not, I decided to go with run-of-the-mill Mario, because I am boring like that and it seemed like the safest choice.

Well, the game (finally) started with Bowser stealing Princess Peach and launching the brothers Mario halfway across this iteration of the Mushroom Kingdom and sent his near-immortal and never aging children to man fortresses that he presumably had built prior to his invasion of Peach's Castle.  And now Mario and company have to fight their way back through eight worlds to rescue the Princess.  Again.  And that is perfectly fine with me.  I was not looking for a new take on the Super Mario Bros. formula, I was just looking for a solid platformer from a franchise that I used to love and had stopped playing when the games were going to (mostly) 3D.  I 100% trust Nintendo EAD to develop and release (and in this case re-release but HDified) a platformer that is free from bugs, glitches, and just delivers a solid game.

After playing through the first world, I was having a great time with my only "eh" about the game being that the main theme that plays during Acorn Plains Way was alright.  I was not expecting to hear the Overworld BGM from either Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World, but something along those lines and just as catchy.  I will probably cover it in an upcoming MIDI Week Singles article now that I find myself talking about it.  The quality of the music was there, just not what I wanted to hear from a Mario game.  Maybe I just need to play it more and then maybe it can become hummable?

So if the themes in the music is going to be my only gripe (currently) then I think I can say that I am very much enjoying the port of a Wii U game that was released nine years ago.  I enjoy the flying squirrel suit that both Conklederp and I just refer to as Tanuki Mario, probably because it sounds more fun than "Flying Squirrel Mario."  Maybe Nintendo is testing the waters for another 2D Mario game for the Switch?  I hope so, but that is just me and I feel that I am not really Nintendo's target demographic and audience.  Or maybe I am because I bought the game, started playing it, and now here I am, uh talking about it.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

I've Found A World

First Impressions: Saturday Morning RPG (NS)

Saturday Morning RPG

Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, OSX, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch

Original Release Date: April 3, 2012

Publisher: Limited Run Games

Developer: Mighty Rabbit Studios

I started Saturday Morning RPG a few weeks ago and I played through the first two of five episodes somewhat quickly.  Scratch that.  I played through the first episode quickly, and the second a bit slower only because there were so many god damn battles and I had to replay a couple because I was killed.  

As the title of the game states, Saturday Morning RPG is a role-playing game using Saturday morning cartoons thematically as the basis for the overall story in the game and how the story unfolds in each of the episodes.  As stated above, as of this writing I have completed the first two of five episodes and briefly started the third episode playing only a few minutes in.  By all accounts, I should love this game.  It is primarily referencing a time in my own childhood that I would look forward to starting every Sunday morning when I was told we were going to church.  The game is full of 80s and 90s pop culture references (the main character's name is Marty for one), a lot of which I immediately recognize either by the name of an object or the art used to depict another object (although there are plenty that I have not bothered to look up).  Thankfully the game is not so chock-full of references that it comes across as Ready Player One the Video Game because that is something that would not want to play; just wanted to throw that out there.

The game does do a great job of blending 16-bit SNES/Genesis era graphics with semi-slick environmental backgrounds; as opposed to the atrocious Final Fantasy mobile remakes that have smooth character sprites over a pixelated background.  The writing is about on par with what I would expect out of a game that is playing hard on the nostalgia for the type of story that revolves around a high school kid fighting a supervillain terrorist with a magic binder (Trapper Keeper?) full of stickers that modify battles and full of abilities you can swap in and out to customize your battle style.

Once I started writing this article and discovered that the game was originally created for mobile devices, one of the more annoying mechanics makes a lot more sense.  It is also one of the reasons why I now refuse to play the game with the Pro Controller and will only play it in handheld mode.  But let us back up a little bit to put that last sentence into some context.  In SMRPG, you are given a magical binder by a semi-inept wizard and on the cover of the binder.  The binder itself you can change the cover on which gives you additional passive buffs, none of which I have found better than the one titled "Shapes" which offers a +5 to Health and a +1 to Defense.  On the cover of the binder is where you collect stickers that you can use to add buffs before every battle begins.  From your collection of stickers, you may only place five stickers on the cover of your binder at any time before a battle starts. 

When the battle starts, you have to scratch the sticker to activate that particular buff, but you only have a few seconds (five?) to scratch off as many stickers as possible before the battle starts.  Depending on the benefits of the sticker determine how difficult it is to stretch that specific sticker and how long it can take.  Stickers like Grapes that give a -5% Health to Enemies can be scratched pretty easily, but Stinky Socks which offers Immunity to Poison (which is super annoying because it seems to last for a long time when Marty is poisoned) has a difficulty scratch factor of 5 Stars and I have never managed to scratch it successfully before the battle starts.  Now the game engine will randomly select the order the stickers come in, so if you end up with a difficult sticker to start, you may only end up with one buff for the battle, or you could luck out and have all five (which I only managed using all one-star stickers).

The mechanics for scratching the stickers is where my annoyance comes in.  Because the game was developed for mobile devices, rubbing your finger across the screen like you are scratching a scratch'n sniff sticker is a pretty nifty mechanic and it works well enough on the Switch when you are playing in handheld mode.  If you are playing in docked mode (or even in handheld mode and you do not want to rub your Cheeto-dusted finger across the screen), you have to use the left joystick by either moving it back-and-forth or spinning it in a circle.  If you knew either myself or Dr. Potts back in 2000, there is a decent chance you would have witnessed our apartment playing Trick Attack in 1080 Snowboarding and a host of N64 controllers on the ground, most of which had wobbly joysticks due to us just palming the things and rotating our hands as fast as humanly possible and button-mashing the hell out of ALL THE BUTTONS trying to beat each others' score.  I estimate that we went through at least three controllers that year (one of which being the gold Nintendo Power 100th Issue controller).  Now, I could just scratch the stickers using the touch screen, but using the joysticks offers a significant advantage, and the times I used the joystick were the only times I was able to scratch all five stickers.

Another annoyance I have has nothing to do with the mechanics at all and is purely vain.  I do not buy at all, based on the character art or the pixel art for Marty that he is in high school.  Even Conklederp commented that he looked out of place.  Maybe Mighty Rabbits were going for that look from the 80s where studios would cast a 28-year-old to play a 15-year-old kid, or thereabouts.  Maybe it is just his white button-up shirt and jeans that look like he should be selling stereos in a strip mall on the weekends between college courses.  A lot of the NPCs though do seem like they fit in with the high school setting and I understand that this setting would need to be in a high school rather than a jr. high because Marty has/wants Samantha as his girlfriend, plus violence against kids is kind of frowned upon.  So, I understand the need to have the game set where it is, but just that Marty does not look the part, and maybe that is addressed somewhere in episodes three through five, but for the first two, I do not like the character design.

As of right now, I am only about 55.47% invested in Saturday Morning RPG.  The main urge driving me to continue through Episode 3 and the remaining episodes is because I want to finish a game that I bought.  I am not invested in Marty or his budding relationship with Samantha or his quest to save the world/high school from Commander Hood (I have kind of forgotten about this whole aspect of the game).  This, again, makes me sad because there is so much in this game that I enjoy like the battle mechanics (apart from the scratch), the skills/stickers system (apart from the scratch) and leveling up, the 80s and 90s references (as well as video game references like the Street Fighter II one above) but the execution has just left me feeling all sorts of meh.  I guess we will just have to wait and see if there ends up being a Game EXP at the end of this.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Won't You Let Me Walk Away This Time?

MIDI Week Singles: "BGM 1" - Silver Surfer (NES)

 

"BGM 1" from Silver Surfer on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)

Composer: Tim Follin

Album: No Official Release

Publisher: Arcadia Systems

Developer: Software Creations

Silver Surfer on the NES gets a lot of guff for being a difficult game.  I have attempted it a few times and have made it. . .oh, maybe 20 seconds or so into Reptyl's stage and then gave up.  Maybe I tried a few other stages to see what those were like but I can guarantee you though that I never made it to Section 2 in any of the stages.  "BGM 1" is really the only theme aside from the title theme that I am familiar with, and then there is only one other stage theme.  

What I like about "BGM 1" is how catchy the melody is and how manic the entire song is, which is perfectly fitting considering how manic I feel whenever I have played.  In Reptyl's stage, if you can remain calm enough to stay below water and not touch any of the walls, you will have an easier time than facing off against the turret armed Reptyls, but this music is not really the Aquatic Ambiance that you would need to temper those nerves down a bit.  This is just a fun track from an otherwise pain-in-the-ass game, so let us just enjoy the music and not worry about anything else for the time being.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Never Never Gonna Get It

Game EXP: Journey of the Broken Circle (NS)

 

Journey of the Broken Circle
Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: September 18, 2020
Publisher: nakana.io
Developer: Loveable Hat Cult

I knew nothing about Journey of the Broken Circle before purchasing it a few months back.  All I knew was that it was a game published by Nakana.io, publisher of indie games like Lydia, and EQQO and that was enough; it was also being offered at a 90% discount which is why I bought it when I did.

I will be honest with you.  I have only a 55.47% idea of how to talk about this game.  On one hand, this is a simple platformer where you roll and jump the character of Circle through various stages.  On the other hand, this is a game about the intricacies of relationships and the complexity of the self.  I am somewhat qualified to talk about the platforming aspect of this game, but I am certainly not qualified to act as interpreter and/or therapist to Circle's journey from one relationship to the next and all of the hoops that Circle jumps through both internally and metaphorically between those relationships.  I mean sure, I have been in relationships over the decades where I ended the relationship and others where it was the other person who decided to end the relationship so I guess I am remotely qualified to talk about that aspect of the game, but I do not feel comfortable talking about it in a way that would not come across as a rambling mess.

You start the game as Circle, who as a player, we are told that Circle has a longing for something, that something seemed to be missing from Circle's life.  Circle looks like Pac-Man as in a circle with a notch cut out that looks a lot like a mouth, but there is no waka waka swallowing of pellets and power pellets, just rolling and jumping.  However, due to the notch-mouth-like gap in Circle, the rolling is not 60 fps smooth (so some people might find the game unplayable).  During the initial stage, Circle does admit that because they are not a complete circle, that they do not roll as smoothly as they would like, so they are on a journey to fill that void, a hole that only a relationship can make whole.

Throughout Circle's journey, they come across several characters who Circle sees as either what they might be looking for to complete themselves or the exact opposite of what they want.  There is Sticky that sticks out from Circle's gap that gives Circle a lopsided appearance and roll, but allows them to stick to the sides of the environment.  Gameplay-wise this similar to Ryu in Ninja Gaiden clinging to a wall but unable to climb.  Like a relationship, getting used to Sticky's mechanic and gameplay took a bit of time, and while I did get used to the rolling/bounce and the sticking to surfaces to help access additional and hard to reach areas that Circle would otherwise not have been able to reach, this relationship ended when Sticky had reached the end of their journey but Circle still wanted to move on.  It was interesting from a gameplay and narrative standpoint when Sticky left because by that point, I was used to their gameplay mechanic and once they left, I felt hampered at no longer being able to stick to walls and such.  Like Circle, I now felt incomplete.

After each of Circle's relationships is over, they go through a dark and visually contrasting stage compared to the previous ones you play through.  This is where Circle faces their inner conflicts with a cloud that periodically chases them while lobbing comments of doubt and self-deprecation.  Because Circle is always again on its own during these stages, you are back again to only rolling and jumping.  No additional mechanics or abilities to help you out.  I also noticed that frequently in these stages, while you are being chased by the cloud, you end up backtracking through the level then doubling back through a passage that was previously unopen to you, or opened up because of destruction to the environment caused by the cloud.  There is probably something to be said about the way these levels are constructed in how they relate to relationships, how after a relationship you might look back at everything you felt you did wrong, but if you continue down that path you will not progress in your life and in the present.  Maybe something like that.

The next relationship Circle entered was with Balloon, who was part of a larger cluster of sentient balloons who talked a lot about I have forgotten what.  The point is Balloon needed some alone time and Circle came around at just the right time for Balloon to feel liberated.  This relationship made me a little sad because it felt like both characters were rebounding.  Circle had just been broken up with Sticky and feeling down, Balloon wanted to experience the world without being tied down to a single entity or place.  Mechanic-wise, Balloon allowed Circle to float and jumping between clouds.  In these stages, Circle and Balloon were hovering (sort of) in the sky, and only when they were in clouds would they be able to jump to help regain altitude.  There were some additional new gameplay elements that added to the move right and jump formula in these stages, with obstacles like wind (gravitational pulls really) that require you to jump towards this spinning environmental hazard to build up speed to then slingshot to another wind-swirly-thing.

The last relationship that Circle joined was with Perfect, a green pie-piece that fit perfectly within the hole in Circle.  Perfect was definitely a Type-A personality with a LetsDoEverythingAsQuicklyAsPossibleSoWeCanDoEvenMore attitude that got tiring pretty quickly.  With Perfect attached to Circle, you could now roll much faster and make long jumps across the screen.  Gameplay-wise, I did actually enjoy the abilities that Perfect gave you, but these were easily the most annoying levels in the entire game.  In this stage, there were a number of lakes that you needed to get through by building up speed to get you through to the other side, but these lakes were filled with hydra-like creatures that would pull Circle and Perfect into their gaping maws of inescapable death.  Let me show you not one, not two, but six times in the span of 30 seconds.

What made swimming difficult and difficult to swim away from the hydra-creatures was that you had little control over your direction once you entered the water.  You could move in any given direction once you entered the water, and while in the water, but it was almost as if you had to complete the move in that direction before you could move again.  Also taking cues from the environment in the above clip as to how the developers expected you to pass through the water and up the opposite side seemed confusing, to me at least.  Judging by the timestamps on the pictures/videos I took during this section, I spent 13 minutes trying to make this one jump, thinking about five minutes into it that this was where I would end up quitting the game.  Something about the size of the hitboxes (or at least the perceived size) felt ridiculous and that nothing this frustrating had happened yet in the game was troublesome.  Maybe I was just approaching the jumps and the water wrong?  Whatever the reason being for this section giving me so much trouble, I made it through.

This time around it is Circle who breaks up with Perfect which I was pretty thankful for because, by the end of those stages, the relationship with Perfect was feeling one-sided and toxic.  It was only experiencing what Perfect wanted to experience and none of how Circle wanted to see the world, which then made me feel bad because it seemed somewhat reminiscent of Circle's relationship with Sticky.  Thoughts., sending them again into the cave level for a final showdown with the self-doubt cloud.  This culminated in what felt like another situation that I was not expecting with the cloud trying to convince Circle that the only left for them to do was jump off the precipice they were rolling towards.  In a video game sense, this was kind of heavy, but thinking of this in terms of a relationship and the inner dialogue was so much more than where I thought this adorable game about a 3/4 circle looking for fulfillment was capable of going.  There was a moment when the cloud was asking questions and you had the option of giving different answers but I do not know if the cloud's reactions are predetermined or if there are other endings (I'm thinking that there is only one).

The ending of the game, I was very happy with it narratively.  It fit well within the story that was being told both in terms of gameplay and relationships.  I think that is all I am able to say after all.

There were two extra game modes, one I spent some time playing and the other only for a few minutes and stopped because it was referencing the end of the game which I had not finished at that point.  The Bad Trip is an interesting level that was based on the punishing game, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, which in turn was based on the game Sexy Hiking.  In this bonus game, you play Circle with an extending mushroom protruding from their gap and have to climb a mountain using the mushroom to grapple onto objects to pull yourself up as you roll.  Maybe playing with a mouse would have been easier, but playing with a controller was overly difficult.  I probably spent about 10 minutes in one section (around 1:10 in this playthrough), but I really dug whatever the music was that was used there that sadly was not included on the soundtrack.  I did love though that there was a text-commentary 

Lastly, I want to touch on, briefly, the music composed by scntfc, who also wrote the music for Oxenfree among other games.  Most of the music was pretty and ambient, fitting well with the art and the gameplay.  There were a couple of more energetic standout tracks like "Nine" which was used during the levels with Balloon.  The music along with the gameplay reminded me a lot of BIT.TRIP Runner, which tells me either the music was edited to be dynamic along with the player movements or the level was edited to match up with the music.  I probably should have tried playing that section again and failing to see what the music did, but I was just so exhilarated by what was happening (and I managed to snag that floating mushroom; mushrooms unlock access to bonus stages) that I just kept playing.

I guess that is just the sign of a good game (except that damn 13-minute jump section with Perfect).

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
A Golden Sun Is Shining Down On Me