Demo Time: Ebenezer and the Invisible World (SD)

 

Ebenezer and the Invisible World Demo

Systems: PC/Steam

Release Date: TBA

Publisher: Play on Worlds

Developer: Orbit Studio, Play on Worlds

Time Spent: 1.9 Hours

If I were to tell you that there was a Metroidvania game centered around Ebenezer Scrooge that where you play as Ebenezer himself whacking tortured ghosts and goons of a corrupt businessman of London with his cane as if he were Edward Hyde attacking a homeless destitute, you might not likely believe me.  What if I told you that he was assisted in traversing London with the help of appreciative spirits along with an 11.75-foot vertical leap (and on a single jump too, none of this double-jump nonsense)*?  Well, have I a rebuttal for you in the form of Ebenezer and the Invisible World.  Or at least in the form of a demo for the game.

Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a little bit of a strange Metroidvania.  The story is set in London sometime shortly after the events of "A Christmas Carol" (think the mid-1840s), although visually it is a very idealized vision of London, kind of what you might expect from The Muppets Christmas Carol with a bit of PG Blasphemous design thrown in for some of the enemy ghosts and their respective descriptions.  Granted, I have never read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens and my knowledge of the depicted 1840s London stems from the aforementioned Muppets adaptation as well as Disney's adaptation, Mickey's Christmas Carol.  So I cannot say for sure if Oscar Thimblestich or Wilhelm Williams Ph.D. are characters referenced or passing in Charles Dickens' work.  I do appreciate and like the design of a lot of the enemy ghosts along with their character description as something out of Dante's Inferno regarding their individualized punishments.

Enemy spirits aside, there are times when they seem rather sparse, with multiple sections of the map that are void of anything but background and foreground characters populating the map.  Maybe this is to help have the map make sense so that locations are not crossing over onto each other on the map screen or maybe some areas are still in development because this is only a demo.  That being said, I was thankful that the areas were not overpopulated with enemies because it often felt that there was little incentive to kill the ghosts except to get by them.  Sure, they would sometimes drop money (which, at least in the demo) could only be used at one vendor, while others would drop items to be used in crafting (not accessible in the demo) and there was no level progression or experience earned from killing ghosts.  

Speaking of killing ghosts, spirits were not the only enemies to populate the map, as there were henchmen/goons of one Caspar Mathus who owns/operates some kind of factory situation and is attempting to quell a workers' uprising.  These enemies are fully living humans, but there are some spraying green noxious gas while others are lobbing explosive-like grenades here and there.  This is in downtown London, which I would think would not go unnoticed, but since this is a fictionalized video game vision of London with a protagonist leaping nearly 12ft into the air, so I guess I can suspend my disbelief in places.  But the story involving Caspar Mathus seems to be the primary story here but was only partially touched on in the demo with side quests being split between living NPCs and ghosts.  The spirit NPC quests I found to be pretty beneficial as they ended up granting Ebenezer either additional magic-based attacks or gave him context-specific abilities such as being able to jump on floating orbs and learning a downward-based attack.

I did experience one hiccup with the demo, which was that my progress was not always saved even after going to a Save Room.  I noticed this after returning to the game for the first time and found that several map areas were now unexplored, and I had to redo an NPC quest and defeat again a mini-boss.  I did read on the discussions page on the Steam Page that some people experienced having their save files erased after patches for the demo so it sounds like save files being finicky is a known issue?  Maybe?  Thankfully the game was fun to play for the most part and I was able to finish it the third time I played it.

Even though I technically reached the end of the demo, I know that there were a couple of areas I had finished exploring and possibly additional friendly NPCs I had not helped.  There was one item from the (one) merchant that I had wanted to purchase as it was a piece of equipment. Still, I instead decided to spend the money to buy a dress for a woman who was down on her luck (there is more to it than that, but that is the short of it) and earned an attacking shield summoning spell which was pretty cool.  I do not think I will go back to explore more areas of the map because I did do a fair amount of exploring right before I finished the demo and the thought of doing that all over again for some kind of completionist feeling is daunting.  I do not know if that says anything about the game and my overall feelings if I do not want to jump back in to play more for the sake of being in that world, or that I just value my time and I already have a pretty good idea of what the game has to offer when it releases in the coming months.

I guess we will have to wait and see.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

Game EXP: Tukoni (PC)

Tukoni

Systems: PC/Steam, Android, iOS

Release Date: November 19, 2020

Publisher: Oksana Bula & Alexey Furman

Developer: Oksana Bula, Alexey Furman, & Alexey Sysoiev
Time Spent: ~30 minutes

I am admittedly a sucker for a free game (my catalog of games from Epic and Amazon is a testament to that) and since my phone got wind of that bit of information, I now get semi-regular non-notification notifications from sites such as GAMINGbible, thegamer, and occasionally PCGamer announcing various free games; typically on Steam since the Epic Games Store and Amazon actually advertise themselves the games that they are giving away for free.  This was how I found out about Tukoni and what jumped out at me was the description that it is a point-and-click game based on the art and stories of Ukrainian children's book author Oksana Bula, and would you just look at that character art!

Tukoni is just that.  It is a point-and-click game about a fantastical woodland creature who is small enough to have an acorn for its backpack, but at the same time, interacts with wild boar and squirrels that are of a similar size.  Realism is not the point of this game as Tukoni uses a single dew droplet to make tea and uses a rotary dial phone to call other woodland creatures.  You find objects to pick up and interact with by moving the cursor over the screen and when Tukoni's paw appears, you can perform an action such as move a leaf or pick a mushroom.  There is a "talk" button that allows Tukoni to either talk to themselves or other creatures to help them parse what the solution to the puzzle is supposed to be.  Tukoni even has a hint book that shows you how to proceed through the puzzle after you have collected all of the necessary pieces to that puzzle.  The beautiful part about the speech in this game is that it is all done through illustrations with no words, so there is no need to have various language translations, and literally, anyone can play this game regardless of their native language.

This game is very short, taking me about 30 minutes, with maybe 5 minutes spent trying to figure out why a solution to a puzzle was not working and a lot of it ended up being that I again was overthinking things.  There are, maybe, about four to five puzzles in the game, although I know that there was an optional puzzle I did not complete because I was not expecting to finish the game when I did.  One of those, "Let me do this solution and I will see where I can use this bird in the next area" and the game was over.  That the game was so short was probably the most disappointing thing about the game.  I loved the puzzles, some as simple as combining two objects and putting combined objects from your inventory on an object on the screen.  Some of the puzzles auto-completed themselves after completing the first of a three-step process with the game essentially taking over

I loved the story-book aesthetic which matches the art from Oksana Bula's books and the music was wonderfully fitting with the colored pencil/watercolor fae-woodland-inspired artwork.  Had this game been three hours longer with no change to the format, I would have happily paid money for it and loved every minute of it.  Because the puzzles were not complicated, it offered a point-and-click adventure experience that was not marred by overly full inventory screens, constant clicking trying to find anything new to interact with or backtracking to/from locations to artificially draw out the length of the game.  Steam only has this one game attributed to everyone listed as a developer and producer and I could not find anything else by way of a video game to play further and throw my money at.  There is Oksana's Etsy shop which does offer an English translation companion to one of her graphic novels as well as other forms of physicalized art.  I did reach out to Oksana Bula through her webpage but have not received a response, possibly because Ukraine is still in a war defending their country from Russia's unfounded aggression and her city was attacked as recently as July 6th.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
流れた 心

MIDI Week Singles: "Wood Man's Stage" - Mega Man II (NGB)

 

"Wood Man's Stage" from Mega Man II on the Game Boy (1991)
Composer: Kenji Yamazaki
Album:  No Official Release that I could find.
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Thinking Rabbit

I was a little leary about this music for Mega Man II because I had read that the music ended up being really tinny and grating on the ears. Still, if you happen to listen to a lot of music from the Game Boy sound chip, you become accustomed to what you can expect from that little 8-bit chip.  Although, when you take the music along with the sound effects in the game and the game needs to cut out certain parts of the music to make way for the sounds of Mega Man's blaster fire, jumping/landing sound effects, and hitting enemy robots, I do admit that the music suffers far more than it deserves.  I was also worried that I was going to have a negatively biased opinion towards the theme from Wood Man's stage because the theme originally written by Takashi Tateishi and Manami Matsuemae for the 1998 release of Mega Man 2 is not only one of my favorite themes from Mega Man 2, but the entire Mega Man series, and for music composed on the NES.

It ended up being a tossup between this and Top Man's Stage, but Wood Man won in the end if only to show myself that I can like a completely different take on music for a stage that I absolutely love.  Like a lot of the music Kenji Yamazaki wrote for this portable iteration of Mega Man II, this track fits very much within the pantheon of Mega Man music.  It has a driving drum beat, it has a bouncy that is also very catchy, all the while not drawing inspiration from the original Wood Man Stage theme.  It is just a good stage theme from a Mega Man game, presented to you here without any of the environmental blips, purely for your listening enjoyment.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
My Captain's On His Way

Elminster, Ed Greenwood, and the Forgotten Realms

After finishing Elminster in Hell, the fourth book in the Sage of Shadowdale series about Elminster Aumar, I figured I would take a little bit of a break from reading books by Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.  Not that I did not enjoy the four books I have read that were written by Ed Greenwood, but his writing style is, unique?  I think that is a good way of putting it.  It is a little hard to describe, let alone to write about.  The first Elminster book, Elminster, the Making of a Mage was, so far, probably the easiest read of the books I have read by Ed Greenwood.  It also had, from what I recall, probably the fewest number of characters that I needed to keep track of, likely because Elminster was not the centuries-old mage and just a "simple" boy who was looking to avenge the death of his family by taking on the corrupt magelords of Athalantar.  In subsequent books, after Elminster had become an Avatar of Mystra and began wandering/exploring the world, his stories became more and more complex, sometimes jumping to brand new characters with next to no introduction who would only go on to interact with Elminster a third of the book later.

The jumps between books were at times also a little jarring.  Between books two and three (Elminster in Myth Drannor, and The Temptation of Elminster) there was a gap of 498 years with very little explanation as to what happened during those years that last saw Elminster assisting with the fortifications of Myth Drannor after opening it up to the potential of other non-Elven races (so much more happened, but this was where the book ended).  In The Temptation of Elminster, 495 years have passed and Elminster is woken up from having fallen prey to a trap while in a dungeon, and is later revealed that at some point before the book started, Myth Drannor fell and is now a corrupt place inhabited by demons.  In the fourth book, Elminster in Hell, there is again a 613-year jump to comprehend, along with what happened to the seven orphaned girls that he takes it upon himself to care for, likely from a not-so-subtle hint from Mystra, all of which seemed rather important.  On top of that, Elminster is already in the Forgotten Realms' iteration of Hell and that story jumps all around between memories from Elminster, memories that may not have been Elminster's, and character plots involving previously unintroduced characters throughout different points in history as well as the present.

But!  Because of course, there is a but.  In all of these books, by the end, I had a significantly better grasp of the story as a whole and had a very favorable opinion of them all.  Elminster in Myth Drannor showed more of Elminster's sense of humor while coming to terms with what it meant to be an Avatar of Mystra.  In The Temptation of Elminster, there was an amazing scene of him placing magical objects in a ruined tower enticing future adventuring parties in the exploration and research of magic as well as an incredibly sweet scene between him and the undead inhabitant of said tower.  In Elminster in Hell, there was more humanizing of the old mage, all the while coming to terms with his own mortality and the question of how memories affect us and to what extent memories make up us as individuals.  There were also some great and truly disgusting descriptions of what Devils are capable of and the absurdities of the Nine Hells.

So it is with a little trepidation that I now start a new trilogy by Ed Greenwood that all take place in the same year, although this one does not involve Elminster, but a group of adventurers known as the Knights of Myth Drannor.  Yeah, I too have some questions.  I know that Myth Drannor fell sometime between 261 DR and 759 DR, but maybe the city was reclaimed in this book, or prior to 1348 DR when Swords of Eveningstar takes place.  Swords of Eveningstar is the first in the Knights of Myth Drannor series and for whatever reason, all three books take place in 1348, which is eight years after the last book I finished, Pool of Radiance; although there are several books like the Moonshae Trilogy and Sojourn that occur between 1340 and 1348 (as well as several short stories that I do not have access to yet) and I do not plan on rereading the Moonshae Trilogy to start this new trilogy.  And then there is The Lost Library of Cormanthyr (Cormanthyr being the original name of the Elven city before it was changed to Myth Drannor), which starts in 714 DR, but the book ends in 1368 DR, so I might wait to read that once I reach other books that take place 1368.

I am hoping that with Ed Greenwood now focusing on a group of adventurers and not a single person, the story might be a little more focused, but at the same time, fully expect the story to go off rails in a way that makes sense in the end.  Also, because this trilogy takes place over the course of just one year, I am almost tempted to say that the story itself cannot be too convoluted, but I know if I actually make that declaration, I am going to be in for a bad time.  And that too, that this is a back-to-back-to-back series by Ed Greenwood, with no other authors in between as a palette cleanser that has me just a little bit anxious, that I am going to be reading this trilogy for the next six months.  But!  (there it is again)  I know that when I finish this trilogy, I will likely love the time I spent with these new characters and want to know more about them, assuming that they do not all die off one-by-one.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
And Occasionally a Strawberry yoo-hoo

P.S.  Although, Escape from Undermountain does have a bit of Halaster Blackcloak, the creator of Undermountain as he did have a couple scenes in Elminster in Hell that made me go, "Awww, buddy."  And it does take place in 1325 DR, so maybe I will read that before this next trilogy?  

P.P.S.  Sometimes I love and hate that my brain works this way.

P.P.P.S.  Between starting this article, finishing this article, and posting this article, I have decided to start the Knights of Myth Drannor series, but I will read Escape from Undermountain between books 1 and 2, and then maybe read Blackstaff between 2 and 3.  Or maybe I'll start the Netheril Trilogy, which takes place around -700 DR so that I can know more about the lost kingdom of Netheril.

P.P.P.P.S.  Sometimes I love and hate that my brain works this way. 

MIDI Week Singles: "Main Theme" - Ninja Gaiden (SGG)

 

"Main Theme" from Ninja Gaiden on the SEGA Game Gear (1991)

Composer: Kenji Yamazaki

Album: No Official Release

Publisher: SEGA

Developer: Japan System House

I was highly considering starting something a little different with this MIDI Week Single.  I thought about not listing any of the information about the song title or the game and do a "guess what game and/or genre this song is from?"  But then I remembered that this is just an article online and even if I listed the above information in a following article or just at the bottom, it will be available and the reveal would only be for the person reading.  So instead I decided to just do this article like we have previously done here and just introduce this strange piece of ninja-related music as the main theme from Ninja Gaiden released on the SEGA Game Gear in 1991.

This music plays during the opening title cards for the game, the title card for the first stage, and then during the end credits.  The first six seconds sound like it could be from a Ninja Gaiden game, thinking about the music from the NES versions of Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II.  There is a hint of mystery and intrigue in those first six seconds, but that is all that can be conveyed in five seconds.  The rest of the song takes a haaaaard left turn into the realm of Mega Man*, which is not a dig at either the music from the Mega Man series or this song, just that I do not get Ninja Gaiden at all from the remaining 26 seconds of music before it repeats back to 0:06; the whole song does end up repeating from the very beginning at 0:45.

This is a catchy song, I like it.  I even like the fake that Kenji Yamazaki did in those first six seconds, but I have a hard time watching the Game Gear version of Ninja Gaiden with this music playing and finding some coherence happening between the two.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Let There Be Songs To Fill The Air

*P.S.  I kid you not when I tell you that I did not know that Kenji Yamazaki wrote the music to Mega Man 2, released on the Game Boy in December 1991, just a month after Ninja Gaiden was released on the Game Gear.  I only just found that out while pulling the links for the article.

MIDI Week Singles: "Title Theme" - Pool of Radiance (Amiga)

 

"Title Theme" from Pool of Radiance on the Amiga (1990)

Composer: Wally Beben

Album: No Official Release

Publisher: Strategic Simulations

Developer: Strategic Simulations

I am finishing up the novelization of Pool of Radiance, which is surprisingly well-written for being an adaptation of a 1988 computer game.  The Amiga version of the game was released in 1990, two years after the original Commodore 64 and DOS version, and has more music than those releases (although still less than the NES version released in 1992).  The highlight of the music in the Amiga version is the title theme which is what I would describe as an excellent all-around fantasy theme.  I wish there was more music composed for this version of the game as there are only six tracks, one of which is only 16 seconds and the other three are only 8 seconds.  There are so many elements in this opening title that hint at possible motifs for a larger score.

I guess if you were about to jump into a brilliantly colorized first-person exploration game with overhead tactical combat, hearing this song when the game started would be a pretty great way to begin an adventure in the Forgotten Realms.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Lift My Remains from Water Violent

First Impressions: Poochy & Yoshi's Wooly World (3DS)

Poochy & Yoshi's Wooly World

Systems: Nintendo 3DS*

Release Date: January 19, 2017

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Good-Feel

I have another much longer and much more complicated article, which is rather amusing considering the target audience for this game in 2017 would not be looking for a think piece about the history of the Yoshi's Island series and the differences and sameness between the games leading up to this 3DS bonus featured port of the 2015 Wii U game of nearly the same name.

In short, Poochy & Yoshi's Wooly World is a 2.5D platformer similar to previous entries in the Yoshi's Island series where levels are designed more like the Ghost House in Super Mario World than older platforming stages in Super Mario Bros.  My biggest gripe with the Yoshi's Island series continues with this game, in that the stages can be too long, especially on your first playthrough and if you are trying to collect all of the collectibles.  For reference, I replayed Level 1-1, which took me 6m 37s, while playing Level 3-5 for the first time took me 18m 57s (although I did get stuck retrying a section trying to figure out how to get one particular collectible).  On average, I am usually done after playing two levels and want to move on to something else.  And on top of that, there is the completionist element (thankfully you are not given a letter grade like in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island) to collect everything in each stage (and have full health at the end of the stage because of course that is a thing too) which often means replaying a stage multiple times.  It is a fine line between saying, "Hell with it, I'm done with this stage" and "I want to collect all the Smiley Flowers so that I can unlock a super difficult bonus level at the end of this world."

Feeling this way makes me a little sad because the biggest draw for this game is the visual aesthetic.  Yes, the graphics are quite a big downgrade from those on the Wii U, but the trade-off is that the 3D effect when cranked up to 100% is what the 3DS is all about.  Characters in the foreground are appropriately blurry while Yoshi in the playable-ground (whatever the word for that is) is crisp and then you have additional background elements quite a ways off which are also blurry (but a different kind of blurry if they are small enough).  It is one of those types of comparisons that, on its own, the game looks fine as you can still tell, for the most part, what each of the characters is and what the backgrounds are made out of, but side-by-side, the 3DS version does look a bit like a blurry mess.

Basically, I love the look of the game and the purchasable badges that modify your playthrough for that level using in-game currency (although I never use them on my first run) and I love that there is a "Mellow" mode to be more accessible for younger or less experienced players (or those having a hard time).  Had the levels been 50% shorter, I would likely find myself playing the game for longer than 20-30 minute stretches and I probably would have finished the game months ago instead of playing the game 1-2 times per week for the last five months.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Don't Know What I'm After

Thoughts on Meta's VR Subscription Service

I first heard about Meta offering a subscription service for games on their VR platforms, Meta Quest+, the other night while looking through the games on my Meta Quest 2 wishlist that were currently on sale.  The announcement notification stated that I could sign up for the subscription service for $1 which would offer two games per month and would be set to automatically renew at the end of each billing cycle.  I could not find any additional pricing information as far as how much the monthly subscription would cost after the introductory period if it would jump from $1 the first month to $29.99 each month after, and honestly that would not surprise me as a lot of games on the platform run between $14.99 - $39.99.

I would say that maybe 50% of the games available on the OQ2/MQ2 are games like Vader: Immortal, Virtual Virtual Reality, and Accounting+ that last a couple of hours and that is it, although there is some replayability, but sometimes that just feels like an afterthought.  Maybe 40% are forever games like Beat Saber, The Climb 2, and Walkabout Minigolf, designed to be played over and over to either beat your high score or play online co-op against other players.  I feel like the remaining 10% are a combination of "experiences," both free and paid for like Ann Frank House VR, or  Virtual Desktop.  There was no indication if the service would only pull games or other paid apps/experiences.

I had other questions that the notification did not seem to answer.  Are the games you receive from this subscription program games you keep or do you only have access to them for the month?  Is there a backup game(s) if the games offered up that particular month are games that I already purchased before the games were announced or is that subscription fee just eaten up by Meta?  If I end my subscription, do I keep the games (see question number 1) or do they immediately disappear once I cancel the subscription?  How difficult is it to cancel the subscription?  Are we talking Comcast levels of difficulty, and Amazon Prime Subscription levels of confusion, or can it be done with a simple click?  I had questions.  Questions that needed answers.  Thank you, Gandalf.

The Terms of Service from Meta answered a couple of these questions, such as game "ownership" and apparent ease of canceling, but not the all-important question of how much the monthly subscription would cost after the introductory rate.  It did say that you could keep access to the games for the life of the subscription and that any games received between the start of the billing cycle and when you cancel are kept in your account "until" the end of that billing cycle.  So if you pay for the subscription on July 1st and then cancel on July 5th, you keep the two games for July, Pixel Ripped 1995 and Pistol Whip through the end of the month.  Then I wondered if you wanted to buy the games that were included as part of the subscription to keep, would you receive a discount on the full price of the game?  I actually would be surprised if that ended up being the case, but it would be really nice if that were to happen.  I really don't think it will though.

On Tuesday (June 27th), I read a CNBC article stating the ongoing subscription would be $7.99 a month and very little else in terms of helpful information, although that was the burning question.  They did also add though that the two games announced as part of the subscription for August were "Walkabout Mini Golf" and "Mothergunship: Forge" which again brings up my question about what was Meta's plan for games already purchased?  And because "Walkabout Minigolf" has several DLC packs containing new courses not part of the base game, if I did not previously own "Walkabout Minigolf" and I buy DLC, what happens after I end my subscription and lose access to those games?

The FAQS on the Meta Quest+ website also answers additional questions like if you already own games on the service.  Although even their answer is a little vague in that the service "... was designed to make it valuable for users who may own one of the titles in a specific month of the program."  What that means exactly I cannot say, but it comes across as an attempt at diplomatically saying, "Tough."

Honestly, this is a pretty decent deal and one that I am tempted to actually consider.  There are a couple of things holding me back.  The first is that I really only have time to play the Oculus Quest 2 (Meta Quest 2) a few times a month, being the times I am at home while The Squire is either taking his afternoon nap or after he has gone to bed for the night, which recently has been between 8:45 - 9:45 PM; he doesn't like going to bed when the sun is still up.  I guess I could bring the OQ2 to the office and play it there now that I have a new larger office space, I would just have to move a couple chairs and computer screens and then close my door so that no one could see me flailing around like an idiot as I try to saber beats or apparently whip with pistols.  The second is the sunk cost fallacy, that whenever I inevitably cancel the subscription, I will lose access to all of the games that I had given money for.  I know I could think of it like renting a movie (because I grew up during that era), but I like having access to games that I enjoy playing and this would definitely incentivize me to not buy games because I would already be paying money for VR games, in a sense anyway.  It really isn't any different though than the retro games Nintendo makes available through their Nintendo Online subscription because you lose access to those games after you cancel your subscription. More thinking.

The last piece is questioning if I really want to sign up for another subscription service, even if it is only $7.99 a month ($59.99 once annually) after the first introductory month.  That, I think, is ultimately what is going to lead me against signing up for the Meta+ service, oddly enough.  Not that I currently have a whole lot of time for VR games, but that I could do with one fewer subscriptions to have to worry about.  I think.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Quiet and Falling" - Celeste (PC)

 

"Quiet and Falling" from Celeste on Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, Google Stadia (2018)
Composer: Lena Raine
Album: Celeste Original Soundtrack
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: Maddy Makes Games
Developer: Maddy Makes Games

I do not have a lot of analysis on "Quiet and Falling" as I have only played through Chapter 5: Mirror Temple once.  The music throughout the stages progresses through all of "Quiet and Falling" with the first half playing during the first quarter of the stage (depending on how much exploring and how frequently you die) and then transitions into the second half of the song.  But this music, or at least the first half of the song really struck me as calming and soothing in a game where the gameplay is nearly the opposite.  It is vaguely reminiscent of "Save Haven" from Resident Evil, and maybe that was playing a bit into why I was immediately drawn to this piece.  In a game where I die between 70 - 525 times a level, having a nice bit of calming music was exactly what I needed after the stressfulness that was the wind-sweptness of Chapter 4: Golden Ridge and the death chasm that was Chapter 3: Celestial Resort.

Just a calming piece of music that we all sometimes need to keep that feather aloft.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
He Made Their Horrid Wings

Monthly Update: July, 2023

I have now been playing five games for the entirety of June, not including theHunter: Call of the Wild.  Well, that is not entirely true.  There are the games I play and then there are games that I play with The Squire, although there is a little bit of overlap.  Break out the lists!

Games I am playing:

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)
• Signalis (Switch)
• Celeste (Steam Deck)
• Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition (PC)
• Poochy & Yoshi's Wooly World (3DS)

Games I play with The Squire:

• Peggle Extreme ["New Horse Game"] (PC)
• Plants vs. Zombies ["Zombies"] (PC)
• Portal 2 ["GlaDOS Game"] (PC)
• Boomerang Fu ["Watermelon Game"] (PC)

Peggle Extreme is "New Horse Game" because I played the original Peggle with The Squire thinking that it would be an easy game for him to track me playing and there was not anything overly complicated about the mechanics.  Plus the various animal mascots in each world were nice.  So Peggle became "Old Horse Game" but then Peggle Nights became "New Horse Game" for a while, until Peggle Extreme came onto the scene (when I couldn't beat the Challenge levels in either of the first two Peggle games) and then those first two games morphed into "Old Horse Game."  Plus "New Horse Game" (aka Peggle Extreme) has "the funny looking sun and the logos covered in "mud."  "He's happy?"  Peggle Extreme uses various Valve properties for their stages, using sound effects and vocal quibs from GMan, Heavy, and GlaDOS and I felt that Portal 2 would be the best way for The Squire to experience GlaDOS and for me to not be stressed by being shot at every-other second (in the case of Half-Life and Team Fortress 2).

The Squire has also recently gotten into watching me play parts of Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, but he primarily likes the dungeon delving and combat, which there is thankfully a lot of in this game.  I think he also likes my reactions when I turn the corner in a crypt and find myself faced with a horde of skeletons and sprinting ghasts.  He was also very amused when I walked into a cave and found four giant beetles.  He will also ask to see the mouse, being a mouse that scurries across the floor of the inn during the resting animations.  At first he liked to ask the names of each of the PCs, but has since memorized all of the fictional made-up names I've given my band of misfits.  He also likes repeating the things the characters say when you click on them, which thankfully so far is all PG rated.  I will introduce him to Minsc when I get around to replaying Baldur's Gate (when I get there after reading another 15 books in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting that get me through the Time of Troubles, which is when Bhal goes on his campaign of procreation to save himself from being killed off to herald his return.  So sayeth the wise Alaundo.)

Recently though, The Squire has sat on my lap while I play Tears of the Kingdom, which he calls "Link Game" but that usually only lasts a couple of minutes because watching Link the way I play him running around Hyrule and exploring caves is far less interesting than the idea of "Link Game."

Celeste, I have already briefly talked about and I mentioned a little bit last Wednesday about restarting Icewind Dale.  I do not think I have talked much at all about playing Poochy & Yoshi's Wooly World on the 3DS, although I have been trying to find a happy medium for my First Impressions article, which at this point is likely to turn into a Game EXP article in a month or so.  I did try to show that game to The Squire, being the main reason why I purchased it, but his fingers get really happy when there is a touchscreen, and having him tap on the bottom screen while I try to play a platformer on the top screen can be a little challenging, so I have been playing that game during my breaks at work.  I also briefly mentioned starting Signalis over on the Twitterz and I really should jump back into that because I do love me some abstract survival horror.  I think I just hit a wall where I could not figure out what to do next and then a couple of the enemies I had previously killed came back to life (or were reanimated in some way) and I was dreading having to run away from them all over again.  You know, surviving in a horror game.

I do not know if I will be buying anything during Steam/GOG/Fanatical/Green Man Gaming's Summer Sales because unless there is a game that I absolutely need to play right at this moment, there is no reason to buy a game, even if it is 90% off for the next week.  It is all very likely that the game will go on sale again during a future seasonal sale.  Although I did buy the soundtrack to Celeste, which is what I am listening to right now, so stay tuned for Wednesday. 

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental