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25/01 - Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
31/01 - Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
01/02 - SOMA (Safe Mode)
09/02 - Shadow Warrior
Pretty good shooter overall, but with a couple of little quirks that hold it back a bit. As I mentioned in a previous post, despite this being a decent throwback shooter it can't seem to completely avoid some modern trends. While it does have an emphasis on strafing and such, aiming down sights is still a feature that a fair few number of the guns feel like they were designed for. As the game goes on it gives you more weapons that seem like they're more focused towards the strafing style, so while nearer at the start of the game it feels like it can't quite make up its mind which side of the fence it wants to land on, by the end of it it definitely feels like it's chosen the more old school side, despite not totally discarding some slower ADS mechanics. The sword is pretty fun to use as well, for first-person melee at least. Using it in combination with the magic powers you get helps it feel a bit more varied and tactical than just spamming RT in front of an enemy, even if they were a but fiddly to pull off at times. The level design had a few problems too. While overall the layout of levels were fine, being mostly linear but with a decent level of exploration too, aesthetically they're a mixed bag. Near the start and end of the game there are some really amazing looking scenes, full of wonderfully lit Japanese castles and gardens and such. But the bulk of the game between those two points is pretty much all bland industrial settings. Not very inspiring and somewhat dull. A couple of points had really bad signposting too, where I was stuck for a while because I didn't notice the tiny thing I needed to interact with to progress, because you can only see it when you're right up on it, or it's obscured in darkness or fog or something.
The writing is also incredibly dumb. Not so bad it put me off or anything though. It just didn't really have much impact on me at all. It's a bunch of really stupid jokes and cliches that were presented like they were trying to be self-aware, but didn't really do anything with them beyond repeating the cliche. Not to mention that it's sort of... racially insensitive too. I hesitate to bring that up, since I don't want to paint the game as some kind of evil toxin that must be purged, and I don't detect any kind of malice from the game in that regard. But still, it's something that you can't really avoid. I know it's supposed to be paying homage to the original game which was also in turn replicating 80s and 90s martial arts movies cliches, in what I gather was a far more insensitive way. So in a way I suppose that's a vast improvement, but it's still full of stereotypes and mixing different cultures together as if they're just one thing. I don't think it's necessarily bad to take inspiration from different cultures though, or even necessarily mix them together when creating fiction. But this doesn't come across like it's creating some fantasy world inspired by Eastern mythology, like Avatar is. But rather recycling ideas of Eastern exoticism and placing them in a semi-realistic context, as if it's trying to point at something real. Except what it's pointing at is a generalisation that can and has been used in a harmful way. I don't think this game is particularly harmful in itself, but that's a phenomenon that it exist, and this game is intentionally playing on that. It didn't really harm my experience of playing the game personally, but I think not bringing it up would be willfully ignoring the big elephant in the room.
09/02 - Mandagon
Just played through this little thing. It's another small game I've had my eye on for a while but not got around to until now. I always knew it was short, but it turns out it was only about 30 minutes long. I first got wind of this from an Extra Credits video that mentioned it, and they called it a "narrative Metroidvania", which is rather fitting. As such I wouldn't say this is exactly a "game" per se, but it was still an enjoyable time. You have a small-ish 2D platforming level that you can explore in any direction you want, with the whole thing being aligned mostly vertically. There's no enemies, hazards, or even puzzles of any kind. You jump around collecting little totems and placing them on shrines, which then opens a big door. Go through the door, and a short cutscene plays, and the experience ends. It's got a nice atmosphere and some attractive pixel art, which was one of the things that drew me to it in the first place. It seems there's some kind of underlying message of narrative to it as well. From what I could gather it's about a father who gives up his life in order to save his sick daughter, through what is suggested to be a lung transplant. They show this through various short, cryptic messages you come across, and murals that cover the environment. So that's some neat little environmental storytelling there too. According to a post on the Steam page there's a sequel on the way too, which might be worth keeping an eye out for.