An Introduction of Four More, But Different

Last week over on Twitter (there he goes, deadnaming again), there was a post from Andrew Gilmour (Slain: Back from Hell, Valfaris) with one of those "post four things about yourself" posts.  Kind of similar to the #Gamestruck post that I turned into an article. . . checks notes. . . six goddamn years ago!?  Why is that still banging around in my memory banks!?  Anyway, there wasn't a catchy hashtag with this one, just a prologue of "Introduce yourself with" and then the prompt of:

One Show

One Movie

One Album

One Book

and the person would just list a picture of each of these, presumably their favorite from each topic.  

Now, this initially intrigued me because I took the screenshot at 12:43 am when I was not sleeping, but then I thought that 12 years into this little experiment in democracy, I didn't think that I needed to introduce myself as there are nearly 1,000 semi-helpful ways to know who I am based on my interests.  You're still here after all.  So rather than do my top/favorite/most influential show/movie/album/book, I decided to be oh-so-clever and just list the last thing from each of those four categories that I consumed.

So!

The Last Show I Watched (in its entirety): Star Wars: The Acolyte

I talked a bit about The Acolyte back when it was still going through its episodes, right as incels were shitting themselves about the age of Ki-Adi-Mundi (that week, to say nothing about anything they decided to hate on: fire is space, writing, 47 years of consistent never-changing lore, a black woman, lesbian space witches, dialogue for eight-year-olds, not having a cis-white male lead, not involving anyone from the Skywalker clan, etc, take your pick).  I liked that show for a lot of the reasons that I previously mentioned.  I liked the characters (including the fact that these were all new characters), I liked the storytelling, I liked the world-building, and I enjoyed how they handled the often implied infallibleness of the Jedi.  I was greatly saddened when it was announced that Disney was not going to renew The Acolyte for a second season.

The Last Movie I Watched: Star Wars

I may not have watched the movie in a single sitting during a single day, but I did finish showing the movie to The Squire back on Sunday (September 8th).  We had started the movie twice before and the furthest we got was Luke and Obi-Wan finding the Sandcrawler shot up by stormtroopers, then we officially lost The Squire's attention; he is only four after all.  But then on Saturday, we watched from Luke meeting Obi-Wan (where we had last left off) until Luke/Han/Chewy/Leia fled from the Death Star.  Finally, on Sunday morning, we finished watching the movie.  There were times when The Squire was very much distracted and was more focused on either picking up my feet or trying to somersault off of the futon, but I still think I can say that we were there for the entire movie, and now we can watch The Empire Strikes Back because we have to watch that movie before we get to the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi.

And because it bears mentioning, I did show him the 1977 version too, so there was no "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the opening crawl, there was no Jaba (human or slug), Han shot first, and everything else that has been updated/changed/altered since the movie first came out.  I made this decision not for any high-falootin'/gatekeeping reason, I just wanted him to see this version first, in the same way that I wanted him to see A New Hope before he sees Empire Strikes Back.  This is also why I haven't shown him anything from The Clone Wars animated series beyond the pilot/movie.

Last Album I Listened To: Jurassic Park - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Earlier this month, I started taking The Squire to preschool whereas last school year, it was Conklederp who ran the shuttle service.  I knew that on the first day, there might be some hard feelings on the Squire's part what with me now being the one taking him along with taking a new route because we were going to a new preschool.  I have a selection of CDs in our car (because my formidable growing-up years was in the 90s), but the one that I thought would allow for the smoothest ride was this soundtrack.  I had played it before, so The Squire already knew some of the music, but I needed to keep the music going for the whole 15-20 drive.  So I started on track 16, "End Credits" because it's just a reprise of the "Journey to the Island" fanfare and the "Theme from Jurassic Park."  Then I let the soundtrack look back to "Opening Titles" and play through "Theme from Jurassic Park", and "Incident at Ilsa Nublar", and we get anywhere between four to eight minutes into "Journey to the Island."  This is all really just a greatest hits of the entire album, minus some of the more intense pieces, although there is "Remembering Petticoat Lane" and "My Friend, the Brachiosaurus", but those are dab smack in the middle.  But it's great, every morning for the past two weeks has been spent listening to this soundtrack and it's great to hear The Squire singing along in the back.

Last Book I Read: The Hobbit: Or There And Back Again, A Hobbit's Holiday

Again, The Squire has influenced this list.  For the last six months or so I have been reading The Hobbit to him as he goes to bed at night.  Some nights we would read eight pages, while others I would get halfway down the first page before he fell asleep.  Don't bother asking him for a synopsis about anything that happened apart from that Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf were there.  And maybe Thorin and Bombur.  But the important thing is that I read him the entire book and he would actually request that I read The Hobbit to him, so it didn't end up being a forced thing on my part.  After reading two of his own books, we would then turn off the lights and I would read from my backlit Kindle.

Getting real time.

There were a handful of passages where I actually teared up and found it difficult to read.  When the Dwarves are singing, Gandalf and Bilbo are talking about how the song makes Bilbo feel.  How he pictures the wide world outside of the Shire, how he sees himself carrying a sword instead of a walking stick.  I can't really explain fully why that hit me so hard, but it just did.  I felt it in my eyes first, then in my chest, and found it hard to finish the sentence.  Then again at the end of the book when Bilbo is escorted to see Thorin in his tent after the final battle, I knew that I was going to have trouble reading Bilbo's goodbye to Thorin and Thorin's apology to Bilbo.  This fucking part when Thorin tells Bilbo:

"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West.  Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure.  If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now.  Farewell!"

Then Bilbo turned away, and he went by himself, and sat alone wrapped in a blanket, and, whether you believe it or not, he wept until his eyes were red and his voice was hoarse.

Really that entire interaction destroyed me while I was trying to read it to The Squire, and even typing it out was difficult to accomplish.  And then it happened again when Bilbo bids farewell to the Dwarves, inviting them to tea and letting them know that they're always welcome; I lose it every time watching Martin Freeman's performance as Bilbo during this scene.  And then again when the Elves of Rivendell welcome back Bilbo and Gandalf with a reprise of their first song.  And then again when Bilbo sings "The Road Goes Ever On."  And then again when Gandalf and Balin talk to Bilbo about prophesy.  (Even now as I'm attempting to proofread).

I imagine some of this emotional response comes with having a kid that I'm reading The Hobbit to, but that's only a small part of it.  I think another part of it is the love I have for these books and the impact that this one author has had on my life in ways that aren't always clear or obvious.  I don't have any first-edition copies, but I do have copies of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings that my Grandma bought me decades ago.  And now being able to share these works with my own child, something that I had imagined since Conklederp said she was pregnant.  And also the love of friendship that permeates all of Tolkien's books.  I could go on for a while more, but that would end up turning into its own article, so we'll end it here.

So those are the last things in each of the above categories that I've finished.  Now that I think of it, I probably could have added the last video game I finished, but I've already written about both Umbral (which I did finish) and DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia (which I didn't technically finish, but I did get at least one good ending).  We'll probably do another like-minded list in the coming future when I find another one after midnight that sounds intriguing, or maybe we'll just have to wait another six years.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Dusk of a Northern Kingdom" - The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (PC)

 

"Dusk of a Northern Kingdom" from The Witcher: Enhanced Edition on Windows and Mac (2007)
Composer: Adam Skorupa
Album: The Witcher -Role Playing Game- Original Soundtrack
Label: CD Projekt RED
Publisher: CD Projekt, Atari
Developer: CD Projekt RED

What I like a lot about this piece is that it's a great snapshot of the world of The Continent and The Witcher series.  There are themes here that are present throughout the pieces that Adam Skorupa wrote for the soundtrack along with Paweł Blaszczak, but it helps to make the world feel more cohesive than a solo stand-alone theme that you only hear at the beginning of the game.  With themes comprised of and dotted throughout "Peaceful Moments," "The Princess Striga," and "Do You Remember," (among others), you really get a feel for this world and its lore.

That's really it.  Great song that captures the essence of the first Witcher game that, at least I think, carries through through The Witcher III.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

Game EXP: DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia (VSD)

 [Disclaimer:  I received a review key for DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.] 

DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia

Systems: Windows, Linux, PlayStation 4

Release Date: September 5, 2024

Publisher: Idea Factory International

Developer: Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sting

Time Spent: 10 Hours 6 Minutes

Before we get into the game, I'm going to need to preface this entire article with some context.  

I don't usually play visual novels, although I have played a couple visual novels over the years, so I am somewhat familiar with the genre, just not intimately so.  I have also not played anything developed by Idea Factory, which includes the DATE A LIVE series, the Neptunia series, and the Death end series to name a few.  I also haven't watched any anime related to any of these aforementioned series, so I didn't know any of the characters or know if there was any kind of crossover before going into DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia, which is the sequel to DATE A LIVE: Rio-Reincarnation.  The game does include a library of sorts that gives a short description of each of the principal characters in the game which gives a little backstory, but not really enough to feel like I played through DAL:RR or read a Cliff Notes copy.  I could have also watched a walkthrough or a highlights video on YouTube beforehand, so that's on me going into DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia with as little knowledge as I did.

From what I have been able to tell from playing through six different scenarios in DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia, your playable character is a guy named Shido who is able to interact with potentially destructive angelic spirits who after dating and making them "fall for him," he is then able to "seal their spirits" in the form of high-school aged girls who all live in a collective house in a small town.  The girls don't lose their angelic abilities, they're just not in the forefront.  Or something.  There's also something about spacequakes, some backstory with Shido and Kurumi who traveled back in time 30 years to prevent the Spirit of Origin, and something to do with the spacequakes.  Oh, and there's something about Shido being able to change from a biological male to a biological female named Shiori; how this happens isn't exactly as clear as it is in Ranma 1/2.  There's also an organization that oversees the girls/spirits and spirit-related occurrences in the town/region, but they're mostly in the background.  I think.

So!  Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to this dating-sim visual novel!  Below I've included the first half-hour of the game if you decide to sit through and listen to all of the voice acting, which occurs significantly slower than I am able to read it, so it will likely take you fewer than 30 minutes.

A couple of things to note about this video.  First, I recorded this to be as complete as possible leading up until Shido's first decision, which lunch he will take that's offered to him.  I'm not sure how this specific decision affects all of the other potential choices you make in the game apart from those directly dealing with either Kaygua or Yuzuru, but since this is a decision-based visual novel with nine possible storylines and up to 15 different endings, it didn't make sense for me to even attempt to record all of the possibilities.  So from here on out we'll be going into generalities with some specifics here and there.

After you make your choice of lunch options, there's a few more minutes of dialogue, before you're taken to a map of the school and the city and you get to decide where you want to go and who you want to interact with.  This is probably the earliest that having knowledge from Rio-Reincarnation would be beneficial since at this point in the game, you decide who you want to focus your story on.  You can choose side characters to interact with, and while that's entertaining to help build up the world, I don't actually know if that has any effect on any choices later in the game.  For me, it was mainly deciding based on who I had talked to yet in my previous playthroughs.  Through all of my playthroughs, I was pretty disappointed that this option never came back, to decide where you wanted to go, unless it's unlocked after picking a specific character an making specific choices.

The basic version of the story is that a malevolent entity named Ren presents herself to whomever you've decided to have Shido interact with during the after-school phase.  Ren will appear in the dream of whomever you decide on and offer them a wish each night for three straight nights.  On the third day, Ren "collects her fee" and will kill the woman you chose.  During your dates/outings with the character you chose, you have to make choices that will affect whether you get the bad ending (character dies) or the good ending (character lives and banishes Ren).  

After playing five separate times and never having reached a good ending (every girl I picked was killed), I was starting to feel weary about the whole game.  I felt that my choices were having some kind of effect on the outcome of the game, but it really came down to nuance and likely how well I knew all of the characters and how my choice in whatever decision that presented itself would be interpreted by that character through past interactions that did not exist in this game.  That put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, coupled with feeling exhausted about having to go through the entire beginning of the game each time and seeing every character fall for the same tricks and traps laid out by Ren, did not feel good as a player.

Something else that I wasn't thrilled about, and this is likely from having played Doki Doki Literature Club, is that while this game encourages replaying multiple times to either find your way to a good ending, finding the good ending for one particular character, or finding all of the good endings for everyone, there is a lot of trudging through the same repeated dialogue.  Yes, there is a fast-forward button (that I only discovered on my fourth playthrough) and you might be able to start a new story from a previous save file before you make any kind of choices, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of recognition from any of the characters that you might be going through this for the 12th time.  And while I do appreciate that a non-speedrun playthrough will only take about two hours, it does become mentally taxing not fully knowing if the choices you made will lead to a good ending.  If you make the wrong choice just one time, that will immediately lead to a bad ending, so unless you happen across a walkthrough, you are going to have to decide how much trial and error you want to sift through.

The story though, I liked well enough, and even the first two playthroughs I was becoming invested in the mystery surrounding Ren, her motivations and how everything was supposed to intertwine.  I was beginning to get a sense of who the characters were in Shido's life and more of the backstory that built upon what I'd already read in the Library.  But feeling utter helpless in my decisions having any kind of an effect on the outcome of the game, led me to look up a walkthrough for some kind of hint within the answer as to what I had been doing wrong.  As it turned out, I had made one bad choice (because of a character trait that I don't feel was adequately explained in this game) away from getting one character's good ending.  So I followed a walkthrough, got a good ending, and while the story didn't reach a satisfying conclusion, it felt like it could very well be the end for me.

I honestly don't know if I'll return to DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia either in the near or distant future, if only because I feel like I've not gone through various parts of the story six times, five of which choosing different characters to have the story focus on, and I'm kind of over the character of Ren at this point.  Maybe if I ever go back and play through any of the other DATE A LIVE games it might incentivize completing this portion of the story.  And maybe that's just my own fault for starting a series with the fourth game.  Ah well.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Tam odnajdziesz swoją śmierć

Just for shits'n'giggles, here's an in-game fast-forwarded version of the game leading up to the first decision:

Game EXP: Umbral - Chapters 5, 6, 7 & Epilogue (VSD)

   [Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Umbral through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Umbral
Systems: Windows
Release Date: August 7, 2024
Publisher: MJR Games Studio
Developer: Walter O.M. Junior
Time Spent: 2 Hours 18 Minutes

Trigger Warning:  This article covers several sensitive topics from Umbral that some might find uncomfortable and/or disturbing in nature.  Topics such as suicide, self-harm, depression, rape, domestic violence, trauma and torture.  If you find any of these topics, related or otherwise, triggering in nature, I would recommend that you skip this article and the related walkthrough videos. 

Chapter 5:

I really enjoyed Chapter 5.  I liked the village location and I liked all of the other characters/souls you could talk to.  The Blacksmith was an interesting character that again, offered a little bit more world/lore building to the world of Umbral, and I also liked that despite being given the statues to place throughout the village, you could not place one at the forge, and help this character.  I was a little amused that the animation didn't line up at all with where they were swinging the hammer and that there was no sound associated with what they were hitting.

I also liked that the second closet house, belonging to the soul who yells "Suicide!!" at you, you can't help either.  That being said, I think the yeller's AI voice is just another instance where a better voice could have been used.  Maybe something raspier and less everyday-man-on-the-street?

When you find the first altar to place the statue, I would have thought that the soul who was crouching next to the woman would have either disappeared or transitioned to a position showing it cowering.  That was my interpretation anyway, that it looked aggressive and waiting to pounce on the woman, and that placing the statue at the altar was going to have some effect on it, but I guess not.  I also would have liked it had there been an additional line of dialogue from the woman after placing the statue, but again, I guess not.

The rest of the stage placing the statue plays similar to placing the first statue.  There's someone outside their house looking forlorn and you can engage with them or not, I don't get the impression that the dialogue changes if you've placed the statue before/after you've talked to them.  They do offer additional lore about Umbral, but nothing too groundbreaking.  Then you place the statue and move on to the next person and house with an altar.

After talking with the rapist, I did think that there was an altar attached to the Blacksmith's forge, partly because it seemed like houses associated with characters who had unique designs and extended lines of dialogue had their alter, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss one before getting too far into the stage.  There wasn't.

As for the horned figure in the center of the village, I don't actually know if it is supposed to be the Devil with a capital D, or just an upper-echelon demon playing tricks with Mateus.  As for the mourning woman/soul in the graveyard, I realize I probably should have talked to her before activating the statue on the altar as I think that was the last person I needed to talk to, but I didn't realize this was the last alter and that it would trigger a cinema scene and close out the chapter.  I mean, I know there was a warning about doing too much to attract attention, but I never felt that I was in any kind of danger of ending the chapter.  But I guess that's part of the message from the beings of light, that Mateus could potentially be redeemed on some level through self-sacrifice, by helping other people in the village, and in doing so was burned alive, he earned some type of second chance.  That's my interpretation anyway.

Chapters 6, 7, & Epilogue
Chapter 6:

Again, Chapter 6 starts at the end of the Chapter 5 video because of how the game saves, but I think at least for the first bit of the chapter, there could be the real belief that Mateus was granted a second chance and returned to his real-life body.

I'm not familiar with this custom of writing letters to living family members from the perspective of the family member who recently died, and I assume that this was included for two reasons.  First to show again that Mateus could still be alive since there was no letter addressed from him, but at the same time, that because there's no note from Mateus' family, that that only feeds into his feelings of loneliness, self-loathing, and depression.  

Then there's the old white-bearded guy wearing white, who if you're thinking that Mateus is dead, is a pretty strong indicator that he's God, especially when he says "This is an offering made to spirits and lost people like you."  And then with the lights and Mateus' vision flickering throughout the conversation.  And the guy definitely doesn't look like the bum that Mateus accuses him of being.

And then Mateus returns to his apartment to see his ex-girlfriend, sister, and niece looking over his corpse, discussing what happened.  I do kind of like how Mateus progresses from confusion to anger leading to his downfall again and the end of the chapter.  It probably doesn't help that the AI voice isn't able to articulate and emote in the same way that an actual voice actor could have delivered the lines. 

Chapter 7 & Epilogue :

I like that Mateus is still seething with hatred and anger when we see him back in Umbral, that his last emotion before being taken back is what he is feeling and might even be amplified upon his return.  Even the God-figure admits that this conclusion is not at all surprising.  Then the mentioning of Mateus' niece Laura (Laurinha) connecting the Umbral and the beings of light directly to her I thought was a nice touch that could potentially set up a sequel.

I'm kinda glad though that the last shot we have of Mateus is just him seething with anger and hatred and not of him being tortured or consuming corpses, or just wallowing in a puddle of his own putrescence, we don't need to see that as we get enough of what he's going through in the written epilogue.  I know it's telling and not showing, but in this instance, I think it's the best choice.

As a walking simulator, I think Umbral did alright.  The pacing was a bit off in the middle with Chapters three and four, but I liked and appreciated the information gained.  It's far from a perfect game with the limited character animations and the emotionless AI voices.  I understand wanting and needing to do indie game development on a budget when only two primary people are involved.  My takeaway from Umbral is a game to showcase what MJR Game Studio can do, the story (stories?) that they can make narrative games from, and the potential for what they could do with a larger budget.  Since Umbral is the first and currently only game, it will be interesting to see where this developer goes in the future.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
And When You've Got No Other Choice

Game EXP: Umbral - Chapters 3 & 4 (VSD)

  [Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Umbral through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Umbral
Systems: Windows
Release Date: August 7, 2024
Publisher: MJR Games Studio
Developer: Walter O.M. Junior
Time Spent: 2 Hours 18 Minutes

Trigger Warning:  This article covers several sensitive topics from Umbral that some might find uncomfortable and/or disturbing in nature.  Topics such as suicide, self-harm, depression, rape, domestic violence, trauma and torture.  If you find any of these topics, related or otherwise, triggering in nature, I would recommend that you skip this article and the related walkthrough videos. 

Today we bring you Chapters 3 and 4 from Umbral.  Our written commentary of sorts for Chapters 1 and 2 can be viewed in Tuesday's article.

Chapter 3:

Chapter 3 was interesting in terms of both actual gameplay and world/lore building.  You essentially walk until you talk with the eye-creature and engage in an exposition-laden conversation about the purpose and function of the Umbral.  While I'm not initially against the use of an AI/voice-to-text program, I do think that a different voice could've been used for this creature, maybe something a little deeper and/or raspy and less matter-of-fact.

Once the conversation is over, you then walk into another portal and finish the stage.  With there being no puzzles or gates to unlock, this ended up being one of the two shortest stages, although I probably could have cut down my own time had I not run around the stage looking to see if I could make it past the creature and just general exploring.

It did kind of feel that the tree branches highlighted around 1:35, could have been used in a puzzle, maybe something about having the eye creature follow you until that point and the branches encircle the eye like an eyelid; especially if the creature was supposed to be aggressive.  Or having the creature be visible from a distance and somehow centering its eye with the branches to activate the portal.  But maybe that would've just ended up being unnecessary fluff if the goal of going through the portal was the same.

Chapter 4:

I liked this level despite it being fairly similar to Chapter 3 in that you just walk, hear exposition, there's an artificial panic created by the jailers which is immediately nullified by the being of light, and then the level ends; however, this time it's all just self-introspection.  I also liked the look of the level and would be surprised if the design wasn't somehow an homage to Gustave Doré's engraving of Paradise; although I could really be off base since you don't actually travel to Heaven at the end of this chapter.

Looking back at the video, I probably should have gone to see if I could interact at all with any of the black-bubbling portals (that start around 2:14), but I was of the mind that since it was a dark portal, being the opposite of the bright and shining portal, that those were somehow bad.  Video game logic.  I also feel that I should have tried to walk into or at least get as close as I could to one of the dust devils just to see if anything would happen or if Mateus had a comment on it.

I also liked the depiction of the light beings, that their faces are obscured by their radiance, but only just and in a way that feels like you might be able to make out a better image of them if you look just a little bit longer.

So that's really the end of Chapter 4.  Just Mateus walking through a visually striking desert along with other (lost?) souls with the jailers in pursuit towards the end and assisted by a being of light and finally passing along to Chapter 5.

We'll see you tomorrow for the concluding chapters.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Gotta See 'Em Pay The Price

MIDI Week Singles: "A Peaceful Town" - Ultima: Exodus (NES)

 

"A Peaceful Town" from Ultima: Exodus on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1987)
Composer: Tsugutoshi Goto
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: FCI/Pony Canyon
Developer: Origin Systems

Taking into account the series of articles we're releasing this week, I specifically wanted to choose a song with a significantly lighter tone, so "A Peaceful Town" from the NES port of Ultima: Exodus felt like the perfect reprieve.  I don't have much about this song, other than it's a great village theme, and it's not often that you hear triplets like that in an NES song.  I feel like that just classes up the entire song and bugger all to anyone who says that video game music isn't real music because there aren't real musicians playing; I don't know if that's an actual opinion these days, but it was one that I grew up hearing from various corners of life.

The point is, Tsugutoshi Goto wrote a beautiful piece of music for the NES port of Ultima: Exodus which was his first composition for a video game and last composed music for Pro Mahjong Kiwame GB II 25 years ago.  And sometimes, we just need a calming 37-year-old song to sit with for a while.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
The Wind Was Whistling

Game EXP: Umbral - Chapter 1 & 2 (VSD)

 [Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Umbral through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Umbral
Systems: Windows
Release Date: August 7, 2024
Publisher: MJR Games Studio
Developer: Walter O.M. Junior
Time Spent: 2 Hours 18 Minutes

Trigger Warning:  This article covers several sensitive topics from Umbral that some might find uncomfortable and/or disturbing in nature.  Topics such as suicide, self-harm, depression, rape, domestic violence, trauma and torture.  If you find any of these topics, related or otherwise, triggering in nature, I would recommend that you skip this article and the related walkthrough videos. 

Before we get to the actual game, I need to talk about how the game functions on the Steam Deck, since that was how I played and recorded the footage used in my Walkthrough series.  When I first started, I was prompted to install Microsoft Visual Runtime C++, which didn't feel out of place so when prompted, I downloaded and ran the game.  After the first chapter, I turned off the game and when I later came back, I was given the same pop-up notification, that I needed to install Microsoft Visual Runtime C++.  However, my only option after clicking "Yes" was to Uninstall or Close.  If I had chosen "No" when first asked, the game would close immediately.  If I selected "Close," the game would be choppy and I would be unable to record.  My apparent only course of option was to then "Uninstall" MVRC++, close the game down, and then reinstall it when I opened the game up again.  I honestly have no idea what was going on behind the scenes with this, but the Steam Deck still works fine after all of this install/uninstall/install nonsense.  So just a heads up if you're planning on playing this on the Steam Deck, that as of Wednesday, August 18th, this is a slightly annoying issue.

Now, onto the first two chapters.

Chapter 1:

I decided to leave in all of the setup at the beginning when I first started the game on the Steam Deck, mainly because that was part of the experience of playing the game.  At the time, I didn't know that it was going to become an annoyance of an issue that I didn't see anyone else mentioning on the discussion pages.  So it might be a me problem, but even it isn't, I still feel validated keeping it here.

Before Umbral, I was completely unfamiliar with Umbanda or Spiritism, although I was familiar with some of the concepts of Spiritism surrounding reincarnation.  I bring this up because while this is brought up before you start the game, I won't be able to comment on the accuracy or authenticity of the depictions of either Umbanda or Spiritism and apart from reading the Wikipedia articles on the topic, I'm not going to try to parse an entire religion or belief system after only 15 minutes of reading.

I also want to preface that all of the spoken dialogue in the game is in Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles, so I am basing my review on the translation used by the developers.  Likewise, I've never been to Brazil, so I can't comment on the look and layout of the main character Mateus' rental in this opening chapter.

For the most part, I feel like Chapter 1 did a good job as both a tutorial level and as an introduction to Mateus' life and all of the reasons that he finds himself to be depressed.  I can't really say that the character is or isn't overreacting to this apparent final straw that causes him to commit suicide.  However, it does come across as a strange feeling to have the character you're playing narrate all of the ways their life has deteriorated in the 11 minutes you've been playing and then you click a single button to commit suicide.  While not uncomfortable, it was a strange experience.

As for the unlocking/using a key mechanic, it reminded me a bit of BAISU in needing to select the item with the right click of the mouse followed by the left click on the mouse to use on the lock.  I don't know if it's an engine thing as opposed to the object unlocking if the game detects that the key is in your inventory; which is why it took me several tries after getting the bedroom key before I realized how to open the door.  Plus, on the Steam Deck, the mouse buttons are switched, so right click is with the L-Trigger and left click is with the R-Trigger, possibly because the R-Trigger is the more often dominant trigger?

Lastly, I'm not sure I fully understand how Mateus actually killed himself, or how he was able to hang himself while sitting on the ground.  Maybe he's supposed to be ever so slightly elevated off of the ground?  I'll not think too much about it and just accept that this was somehow a better option than having Mateus shoot himself or throw himself off of the roof of the building.  It's all to get us to Chapter 2 anyway.

[For whatever reason, the game doesn't immediately save before starting Chapter 2, so I sat through the Chapter II title card and the beginning intro.  I thought that the game had actually saved, which is why I quit back to the main menu after regaining control of Mateus, so when I started the game back up, I ended up having to replay through half of Chapter 1 all over again].

Chapter 2:

I have a strange relationship with this stage as I ended up having to play it three times.  The first time was due to recording difficulties on my part, and the second time was because I accidentally deleted my video file.  So this video is my third time playing while trying to make it look like my first, or at least how I would have efficiently played my first time, although here I think you can tell that I discovered how to run.  By this point, I was just getting tired of playing through this one level that contained so much background groaning and screaming that I wanted to be done with it and move on.

I found all of the screaming to be distracting, especially when talking to Thomas, and since he has a lot of dialogue, you just have to sit there for nearly three minutes.  After my first time through, I became okay with there being no speaking animation for Thomas or any of the other characters you meet in the game.  You understand that the voice is coming from the character that the camera is focused on and you never talk to more than one person at any given time, so there's no confusion about where the voice is coming from.  It could be something that bothered me, but it really doesn't.

Mateus' reaction upon turning the wheel that the soul is attached to was my actual response too.  I knew that I was likely to get a groan or a scream out of the soul on the wheel, I just didn't know that I was going to activate it.  My bad?

[This next section in the video, from 05:12 through about 07:01, contains non-graphic depictions of Mateus being tortured, all from the first-person perspective.  The imagery is violent, but in a way that does not show blood or gore, but the scene could still be disturbing to some viewers].

I did think for a moment that this was supposed to be an extended and agonizing death scene because the jailer caught me and I was hoping that I wasn't going to have to try and run to the door to try and unlock it, run back to Thomas while avoiding the Jailer to acquire another clove of garlic to retry the door in the hopes of not being caught again or I'd have to sit through this same death animation all over again.  Thankfully that was mostly not the case, but you still got another clove of garlic after Thomas let you out of the stocks.

I don't really have anything to say about the giant cannibal child thing, other than I'm thankful that it wasn't as graphic as it could have been.  I was fine with the amount of detail in the piles of partially consumed bodies.

So that was my written commentary of sorts for the first two chapters in Umbral.  I'll have similar articles up the rest of the week for Chapters 3 & 4, and Chapters 5 through the end.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

My Mind Resigns to Defeat

Monthly Update: September, 2024

 

Happy September!  Fall's almost here and Summer wasn't too scorching in our little section of the PNW, although Conklederp and I did miss the hottest week back in July, so it's all about perception.  Even Schmarschmucks has announced that it's PSL season, so it's time for everyone to dress like Han Solo I guess.

I don't know why I'm sounding like this.  I love autumn and almost everything that comes along with it, with the exception that with The Squire going back to preschool means that our collective rate of illness is going to increase significantly.  But on the upside, he'll be going back to school

Right, right.  Video games.

Well, I've finished a handful of games recently, both on the Switch and on Steam through the Steam Deck.  Last Tuesday night I finished Layers of Fear 2 which required a reading of the Plot section of the Wikipedia page.  Even though that game took me fewer than 10 hours to play, I was still lost a lot regarding the overarching story and who the characters were.  To say nothing of the final scene, which I might need to look up additional information on because, whooweee.  You'll likely find out later this month if I get around to figuring out how to write this article.

Next, I finished She Could Fly: Documentary Escape Game which I talked about towards the end of August.  I also posted individual videos from the complete (commentary-free) walkthrough I have up on the Tubes if you're at all interested.  I then finished another game I received through Keymailer, Umbral, which I will have articles up all week long because there was too much-written commentary to fit into a single article.  Today we're also releasing another series of walkthrough videos scheduled throughout the morning.  For the Umbral videos, I mostly used the in-beta native game recording feature on the Steam Deck after having several complications with OBS.  Everything from the video not showing up, to the video only showing the upper 1/3 of the screen, to the audio not being synced to the video, to just straight up not recognizing when I have a dock plugged into the capture device.  I'm not sure who to blame in any of these instances, so let's just blame Issus and the rest of the Therns.

Coming up, I have a couple of articles for games that I recently started, one of which is pretty far out of my wheelhouse, but I "signed" an NDA and can't talk about it until a certain date.

But on the musings of Keymailer and its fickle metrics for deeming someone worthy, I've apparently dropped off on my average daily YouTube views, which now means I'm only green-check-verified for our Instagram account.  This only means that when requesting a game to review, I am only able to select our Instagram account as a platform to showcase the game I'm requesting.  So I might be slowing down in the coming weeks with how many games from outside and third-party sources we'll be featuring here, but I'll still give it a try.

Bookwise, I'm nearly finished reading The Squire The Hobbit, which he has specifically asked me to read to him whereas before I was reading him only a few pages a night.  This has been a legitimate dream of mine since before Conklederp and I became parents.  The Squire has even said that, and I quote, "After we read The Hobbit, then we can read Lord of the Rings," although I don't think he knows how long of a book that one is, or that Gimli and Legolas don't feature until page X.  I honestly don't know how much he's able to follow anything that's going on, but I still love it.  I know I'm going to have a hard time reading Thorin's talk with Bilbo at the end though.  Not looking forward to that.

The book I'm currently reading, The Road to Neverwinter I talked about back on August 16th, and I've come up with another criticism related to the book not always feeling like it takes place in Faerun and that has to do with geography.  I talked to The Kid about this last week and told her that I was surprised to find out that the village that Edgin/Chris Pine is based out of is Targos, one of the ten villages in Ten Towns up in Icewind Dale.  I might be a bit forgiving on this point, but when you have characters traveling from Targos to a manor in the countryside outside of Neverwinter, or one mile away from the manor, in a single day.  One days travel from Targos to outside of Neverwinter.  That's roughly 250 miles.  And they did it on foot, without any kind of magical means.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Magical world, why complain about something as nearly meaningless as travel distances and time?  I don't know, it just bothers me.  The least the editors for Penguin and Wizards of the Coast could have done was understand a map if Jaleigh Johnson was going to be making geographical references*.

Let's cut this off now.  But that's where I'm at going into September.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

*P.S.  I guess it really should've taken between 15-16 days to travel from Targos in Ten Towns to just outside of Neverwinter, depending on weather conditions, wandering monster attacks, or any encounters with Tiamat or Venger along the way.