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« on: August 26, 2023, 09:10:22 AM »
I’ve been posting more regular updates in the discord but to give proper rundowns here I have finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps, The League of Enthusiastic Losers and Florence.
So let’s do some mini recaps. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is very special. Some of the Metroidvania purists dislike aspects of Ori, like the semi-on rails chases and perhaps switching abilities too often to progress but I think it’s overall brilliant. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is just such a beautifully presented game. It looks good, it sounds better and the gameplay is challenging and fun and interesting. I can’t believe Microsoft jsut let us have this game and don’t lock it up on the Xbox, where it’s no doubt completely unappreciated by the shooter and sports crowd.
As for my progress in it, I had previously played one long session in bed a couple of years ago and when I came back to it I didn’t really know where I was or what the controls were so I just started a fresh save and within 3 hours I was up to where I was. In the end it took 15 hours to clear.
League of Enthusiastic Losers… well, an attempt was made, by the developer to tell a story, you couldn’t not finish this game, it’s an interactive story. I played through it over two train rides to work and back. There’s a story about a couple of mates (who are definitely not gay) that didn’t quite make it in life and how they’re uncomfortable around their more successful friends and their slumlord is trying to kick them out and they reminisce about their childhood when things were good under communism. The kids in teh tenements really like them though and not to spoil it but everything works out in the end. The art style is actually really nice and the sounds do the job but the story is whatever, and that’s crucial because the gameplay when it exists is unclear, buggy and unsatisfying. There’s no real player agency but maybe that’s part of the point? 🤔
And then there’s Florence, which i jsut played through on my iPad on the couch right then. Compared to League of Enthusiastic Losers, Florence is a masterclass on how to do an interactive story. text is minimal because the story is told through the pictures and music and the screen orientation and when the way you piece together the little mini games to progress the story add weight and impact. Like you go ona. Date with a guy and you can tell Florence is becoming more relaxed and conversation is easier because the little puzzles to put together the speach bubbles becomes more relaxed. It’s wonderful and I think everyone would enjoy the 40 minutes it takes to see it through.
What has caused huge damage though to my Backlaugust is Project Highrise. A game I have comprehensively mastered, back to front, reviewed and recommended. And all this talk about the housing crisis in Australia while I was working forum home inspired me to download it again, for iPad this time and play it while “”””working”””” from home. ScreenTiem says I’ve wasted over 25 hours on it in the past fortnight. I have literally 100% achievemented this game on Steam, where I own on teh DLC and it’s more playable than the weirdly cut down iPad version.