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[A quirky comedy set in 16th century England that fuses astrology and medicine.]

1

TalkBack / Astrologaster (Switch) Review

« on: February 16, 2021, 05:00:00 AM »

A quirky comedy set in 16th century England that fuses astrology and medicine.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/56257/astrologaster-switch-review

In a world where nothing is sure but eventual death, you look to the stars for guidance. That’s the philosophy of the main character of Astrologaster anyway. This game from developer Nyamyam focuses on a “doctor” during the Renaissance period in England. While the question of whether protagonist Simon Forman is really a doctor remains in question, the man did in fact exist, making this game a fun combination of reality and farce.

When you start, you hit the ground running. You are instantly thrown into the Renaissance atmosphere with an early music soundtrack that doubles as narration. This hit home for me, weirdly. One of my side jobs, when COVID is not ravaging the world, is as a singer in an episcopal church choir, and the music we typically sing is from this same period. It made me very nostalgic at a time where I cannot be making music in a choir. While this hits a specific note for me, maybe there will be others who at the very least are entertained by the music. It truly sets the stage for the bonkers game to come.

In the same way we hit the ground running with atmosphere, the same can be said for the gameplay. You get a brief introduction of Simon Forman and his contribution during the plague, and then soon after you have your first client. Each visit involves Simon gazing at the stars and trying to divine how to help people as they explain their maladies. No real explanation is given to guide you of what you’re looking for when you look at the stars; it relies on your best judgement to decide. You’re given two to three options to choose from, and then choose what you think is the best reading. I found it tricky at first to determine the best strategy, but it honestly comes down to attention to detail and intuition. While I’m usually decent with intuitive choices, this game focuses heavily on attention to detail. I had several of those “oh yeah they did say that, you idiot” moments when I went with the wrong reading. Because your clients come back several times, by their last visits you are expected to remember significant details, which messed me up more than once.

Another interesting peril is your interpretation of the stars versus the game’s interpretation. I had a few instances where I chose a reading and thought it would mean one thing to the client, but then Simon Forman would start explaining something to the client that was not what I had in mind. Could this be another instance of not paying enough attention to detail? Possibly. But with the nature of the game being so subjective, I have a feeling this is just a hazard of the gameplay that makes some of the astrology chicanery have a disconnect.

I’d be remiss to talk about the great humor of this game. Between the lyrics and the doctor/client interactions, amusing moments are a constant. Many times it’s the things that aren’t said that make the biggest impact. For instance the lyrics of the songs cleverly shift to “fa la la las” in place of a choice word. Another source of entertainment is the commitment to 16th century terminology. Being a doctor, you get brought a number of bodily ailments, and lots of interesting ways to pronounce butt and penis. Honestly if I tried to use a euphemism for those words, they would pale in comparison to what terms Astrologaster uses.

Overall, Astrologaster is a fun romp through 16th century England. It chose its lane and fully committed to going full farce, turning out to be a very well conceived and interesting game. I enjoyed it, even if I felt at odds with some of the conclusions the game took from dialogue choices. The gameplay was always intriguing enough to keep me going. And somehow, in a world of pandemic and astrology TikTok, this game feels relevant even while it lives in the past. If you’re looking for something a little different, with unique gameplay, and a very entertaining soundtrack, I’d definitely suggest giving Astrologaster a try.

[A cozy management game about death is a fitting companion for 2020.]

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TalkBack / Spiritfarer (Switch) Review

« on: September 17, 2020, 12:21:33 PM »

A cozy management game about death is a fitting companion for 2020.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/54959/spiritfarer-switch-review

How are you feeling about death? These days, it’s hard to avoid the subject in one way or another. While a lot of coping mechanisms may recommend finding ways to take your mind off of it, might I suggest, instead, diving headfirst into Spiritfater, a beautiful game devoted entirely to life after death?

Spiritfarer, from Jotun and Sundered developer Thunder Lotus Games, masterfully weaves the heavy topic into an immensely rich game full of beautiful visuals and three-dimensional characters. You play as Stella, a spirit guide who has just awoken with her cat Daffodil to her first day on the job. The convention here is that she is learning the job at the same time you are learning the game mechanics, and Thunder Lotus pulls it off in elegant fashion. Your job is to find spirits and travel with them across the seas until they are ready to move on to the Everdoor. Think of it as Purgatory, but where everyone is a ghost animal and everything is gorgeous. You are quickly told that your boat can and needs to be improved in order to finish your quests, and you do this by finding resources and money as you travel the ocean.

Talking to more spirits unlocks more quests for you to seek out and complete. Some of these spirits are regular background characters, but others are ones that will join you on your boat. Both kinds can offer you quests, but the spirits on your boat are the ones you’ll need to please. The happier they are, the more helpful they’ll be, plus some of them have experience with the craft shops you’ll be making on your boat, like a loom, foundry, or smithy.  Their mood does fluctuate, and you need to try and improve it day to day. Also, getting spirits on your boat allows you to learn more advanced moves, like a double jump, which are needed for new areas later on in the game.

Practically everything you encounter in Spiritfarer will come back to be useful at some point. Thunder Lotus does a great job of letting you do what you want, but also making it clear that there are some things you’ll have to do if you want to continue certain stories or complete specific quests. It’s a nice balance of “do what you want” with “do all these things” that allows you to shape the story organically based on your choices and what you prioritize.

The characters on your boat help shape this as well. You play friend, cohort, counsellor, and occasionally enforcer to the guests on your journey, and a lot of them know you from back when you were all alive. Some of them are more serious than others, and each one is dealing with their death differently. Through these characters, you are shown multiple ways of coming to terms with your mortality, and how everyone handles it differently. Sometimes people want constant support while they go through it, and others just want to be left alone. Eventually you do see your characters to the Everdoor one at a time. I found those to be some of the most impactful moments, because I could actually feel the bond between these characters.

But the other amazing thing about your boat is all the crafting you can do. Spiritfarer surprised me with how much farming and forging I found myself doing, and how much I enjoyed it. Though my personal favorite was the loom, each of the craft buildings were very intriguing. The way you operate each one is different and feels pretty intuitive to how you would actually use those machines. It much different from something like Stardew, where you stick in the raw material and get the finished product later, you actually have to operate the machines and create the products, and the better you did it, the more products you would get. I really liked this hands on approach.

One of my biggest issues was the way time passed. There is a time tracker that tells you the time of day while you are moving through the game. When you stop to either look at your inventory and quests, or buy things, time is still moving. You have to literally pause the game to freeze time. As a very indecisive person, this occasionally, and very minimally, stressed me out. The reason being that when you get to nighttime, your boat stops moving, and I would try to run around and get all the things I needed for the next quest before night hit. Sometimes it would work, but a lot of times I got stuck right before getting to the next island I needed. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a convention that makes you learn to take advantage of the time you have each day. It also helps that your character doesn’t need to sleep. While you can sleep if you want to skip right to the morning, I eventually would start crafting during the night hours to get the full use of my day. It plays into the time management aspect of this game, so I don’t think of this as a huge detriment, more so a personal pet peeve.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one last thing. While you are helping spirits move on to the Everdoor, you will occasionally find yourself in a twilight where you see memories of your past, accompanied by an Owl Spirit that seems to know you better than you know yourself. I don’t want to get delve too deep into this, but it adds a layer of mysticism to the game that I really appreciated. You get the sense that something even bigger is happening while you are on your journey, and I really enjoyed this additional layer to the game.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game and all the time I spent devouring it. I came into Spiritfarer very excited, and it did not disappoint. It even surprised me with how much I loved it. Spiritfarer has everything relevant to my interests: the afterlife, crafting, crystals, making friends, getting up in other people’s business, fixing (?) problems, and a cat best friend. If you are looking for a beautiful game with some more serious, and sometimes mystical, subject matter, I highly suggest giving Spiritfarer a try.

[Simple and sweet.]

3

TalkBack / Cake Laboratory (Switch) Review

« on: December 28, 2018, 09:23:00 AM »

Simple and sweet.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/49266/cake-laboratory-switch-review

Did you ever have the desire to make an umpteenth amount of cakes at one time? And make them with no mess whatsoever? And then stack them on top of each other at physics-defying heights? Ok, maybe this is becoming too specific of a fantasy, but if any of those things appeal to you (or even if they don’t) you’ll probably really enjoy playing Cake Laboratory.

This game gets right to business – you’re a new chef trying to get the Gold Chapeau, and you’re going to do this by stacking cakes. The challenge comes in with the actual stacking function. Disembodied arms holding the cakes move left to right and you must release them at the right moment to build your cake tower. This increases in difficulty by a variety of factors: the size of the cakes, the speed that the arms are moving, and how many cakes you need to stack. Do this fifty rounds over and that golden chef hat is all yours.

Another sweet layer of this game (don’t hurt me pun police; I’m a first time offender I swear) is when you start creating your own cakes that you’ll use to make your towers. You have a variety of sizes and flavors (aka colors) to choose from, followed by the icing layer, and lastly the topping layer. As you pass more levels, more cake stands in your little bakery become available, and you can always replace ones you’ve made if you so desire. Chocolates, fruit, whipped cream of various colors; you can let your creative side soar with these cartoon cake creations. The only downside is there’s no Willy Wonka button to push to make these cakes come to life.

Cake Laboratory is a simple concept, with delightful treats inside. The colors and animation are great to pull younger kids in, and the higher levels require some skilled coordination that will tempt older players to try and beat. While the vibe is pretty similar to a mobile game, the extra bonus of making your cakes adds a fun twist. It’s easy enough for kids to enjoy, with enough harder challenges that an adult won’t be bored. And for the price, it’s a pretty solid game. Plus, you get to live out your fantasy of making all the cakes, and that’s like, a universal desire we all have right?

[The 2011 iOS game comes to Switch, though it's really only meant for handheld mode.]

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TalkBack / Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP (Switch) Review

« on: December 10, 2018, 01:47:59 AM »

The 2011 iOS game comes to Switch, though it's really only meant for handheld mode.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/49134/superbrothers-sword-and-sworcery-ep-switch-review

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP shows you its brand right at first glance. The page site is filled with pixelated artwork, all with intriguing nature themes and muted tones. You get a sense that there is some cool, artsy stuff going on. It’s also branding itself musically, not only is EP literally in the title but Jim Guthrie composed all the music for the game. Altogether, these details set the expectations for a complete experience, both aesthetically and aurally.

The structure is set up as sessions, where you play as The Scythian: a girl who is searching for the Megatome and to reassemble the Trigon Trifecta. These sessions are introduced by The Archetype, a man with a cigar that is kind of what I imagine as a supremely chill J. Jonah Jameson. Once you acquire the Megatome, he can talk to you while you’re in the sessions, and offer help or guidance. This proves to be useful when you start wandering around trying to figure out what you need to do next.

And you should expect some aimless wandering: Sword and Sworcery walks a fine line between plot, combat, exploration, and puzzles. Some of the goals are a little formulaic, but enough of the particulars change that you have you be paying attention to everything told to you if you want to keep moving the story forward. On the other hand, the game uses real-time moon cycles and it plays a large part in achieving your goals. There are a few ways to get around this, one “legal” and one not, but if you happen to achieve some goals out of order the legal way may no longer be an option for you, and either waiting a month or “cheating” are your only options (not saying that happened to me, but it may have happened to me). So while you are helped along by the game, you are also meant to follow their rules, which sometimes means waiting.

One downside to Sword and Sworcery on Switch is ironically something that’s a big part of its brand: the artwork. While the pixelated style is very cool, it doesn’t translate well to a TV screen that is several feet away. Similar to impressionism, details start to blend together at longer distances, and all the text gets challenging to read – most so in the Megatome, but the standard narration as well. But what’s great about the Switch, as I’m sure you’ve figured out from all those great commercials, is that you can play the game in handheld form. Honestly the handheld option was the saving grace for me, because otherwise I probably would have had to sit directly in front of the television like when we pull out the NES Classic. Of course, this was originally a mobile game, so it really was intended for close-up viewing. It’s hard enough to make a good video game, let alone one that becomes the Babel fish of gaming platforms. So while I’m not blaming the creators for this flaw, you really can only play it well in handheld form.

Sword and Sorcery has some great, unique storytelling elements that give the game a chill yet mildly creepy vibe, though I assure that’s a good thing. From the quirky names (Logfella – the woodsman/farmer type, Dogfella – your dog, Gogolithic Mass – creepy antler dude) to the surreal, earthy, and dreamy atmosphere, to the utmost commitment to using second person narration, Sword and Sworcery portrays an off-the-beaten path story with intrigue galore. If you’re looking for all of this in a handheld game experience, Sword and Sworcery will be the perfect fit for you.

[Gorgeous scenery and a thoughtful, engaging story make Abzu memorable and spectacular.]

5

TalkBack / Abzu (Switch) Review

« on: December 04, 2018, 11:47:16 PM »

Gorgeous scenery and a thoughtful, engaging story make Abzu memorable and spectacular.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/49069/abzu-switch-review

Abzû advertises itself as an adventure and exploration game that takes place in a varyingly vibrant ocean. When I first checked out the listing of this game, I was immediately sucked in by the gorgeous artwork that’s realistic in detail and almost fantastical in color. You play a diver who is exploring the ocean life, and while there’s no real story or overarching goal advertised, that was all I needed to have an interest in this game. Add in the fact that it’s filled with music by Austin Wintory (someone who’s work I was not familiar with, but now plan to learn more about) and I’m completely in.

The game starts first with a cinematic intro that is very intriguing, and gives you a sense that this isn’t just an ocean-scape exploration game. Cut to meeting your character, The Diver, who is floating in the middle of the water. From here you get a quick tutorial on the the controls. Instead of moving with the joystick, you use the joystick to tilt or angle your direction and the ZR button to actually swim around. Overall it was intuitive, but I did find myself getting uncoordinated from time to time and ending up either spinning in a circle, crashing into the ocean floor, or getting stuck in tight corners where there was less space to correct any tilt error I made. There are times you get a break from this by finding jet streams, which are a fun departure from the slow world exploring and do a good job at moving you along in the story. Or you can ride some of the larger fish around the area to explore it by using the ZL button. You also can find small little diving camera buddies, that swim along with you and occasionally help you get into places. Another possible detriment to the controls is that you can only change your view by swimming in a certain direction, which makes looking around a small, confined space a little trickier that you may expect. If you’re used to games with a rotate camera, or change view button, this could be an adjustment for you.

There are also mediation spots that you can find while exploring, something I only discovered in the last “level” and then once I finished the game realized these were in every level and I blew past them. The meditation spots literally have your diver “meditate” and then shows you the aquatic life in the ocean scene that you’re at. It focuses on one animal at a time, and you can cycle through them at your leisure. It’s a cool feature that allows you to see every different animal that can be found in the current area you’re in (especially cool when some of these animals may occasionally be an extinct dinosaur, but you didn’t hear that from me).

As you explore, this game brings in a fantasy and science fiction element that wraps up a culmination of pretty much all the crap I love. If you are into some Atlantis vibes, with some cyberpunk and space mysticism thrown in, you’ll probably really get into it as well. Expect just enough story telling to pull at your heart strings and a little bit of tension that pays off in a big way at the end. As you progress, you do discover the ultimate “goal” of the game and how to achieve it. There is some agility and problem solving that you have to do as well. All of this is done with no written or spoken instruction, but the game does a great job explaining what you need you need to do in a way that’s intuitive and intriguing.

I will warn you that there was one part that made me jump, and one level of the game that had me in a pretty constant state of anxiety. However, the jump spot was humorous, and the anxiety level was manageable enough to get through – and if you suffer from fear of consequences like me, let me assure you that even if you do mess up a bunch, you never hit a Game Over point where you have to start over, and you won’t mess up the story going forward. I would say there’s just enough tension to provide great emotional payoff at the story’s end.

Overall, Abzû is a world exploring game with a lot of intrigue and heart hidden in it’s depths. The biggest flaws I would give it are the tilt controls for swimming as well as looking around, but for the most part it’s easy to sort out (unless you get stressed out and spaz the controls, but that might just be a thing I do). It’s an instinctual, go at your own pace story, with lots of time available to stop and smell some ocean roses, if you so wish. I’ll definitely be going back to find all those mediation spots I missed, and probably relive some of those beautiful story moments.