Minecraft – A New Game Plus

Requiem for a Nightmare

Phew, it has been a busy *checks watch* several months at work, but now that our big summer State of Play is out, hopefully things will slow down a bit. Probably not, but a man can dream. We finally announced (or dived deeper on) a few games I’m working on, though, so it’s been busy but also very exciting. God of War Laufey! Until Dawn 2! MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls! Wolverine! I would be genuinely excited to play all of these, even if I wasn’t working on them in some form or another, but that certainly adds a new thrill. I was also stoked as hell to see more of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. I’ve written about my love of the series before, and this one is looking like another banger, as the kids say. Used to say. Or something. Anyway, besides work, I have also been staying busy playing as many games as I can get my grubby little hands on, so let’s walk through some of them. I am going to leave out some crappy AI games I watched my friends play, because ew, and a couple of new visual novel sequels (Sakura Succubus 8 and Nekopara After) because they were largely more of the same that I’ve already written about. As always, There Will Be Blood, er, I mean there will be [SPOILERS] in both the screenshots and text, so avoid games you don’t want spoiled. If you want. I can’t tell you what to do, I guess. Can I? Will you let me? No? FINE. I didn’t want to anyway. Jerk.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Settle down, settle down, I finally got around to playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It was another situation where I wish I’d been able to play it in a vacuum, however. I know there are people that claim they can play games and not let outside opinions color their experience at all, but unfortunately I’m not one of them. When a game is as lauded as this, winning numerous Game of the Year awards, selling millions, being called “the greatest JRPG of all time,” it seems impossible for me to play it without those claims at least occasionally pinging through my head. Every time I run into something that seems like a bad game design choice, like the lack of a map, I can’t help but think about how highly everyone regards this imperfect game. It’s unfair to the game, and with games like this and Elden Ring, it’s impossible for me to fairly assess them so close to the hype of their release (which is why I don’t envy game reviewers, even if they usually play games before the launch hype catches up with them).

It’s a me problem, I concede, but luckily this blog isn’t about me making academic or critical assessments of games. It’s just my thoughts and feelings about games, and some quibbles aside, they were still quite positive for this game. I don’t think it’s in the running for greatest JRPG of all time, personally, but it was a very beautiful world, a refreshing if depressing story, and great voice acting. I won’t actually spoil any big story beats, but the whole concept of the Paintress, the Gommage, doomed expeditions, all of that was so new and interesting. I did find myself wishing some aspects were a little more robust, like the romance options, but I’m always happy when games have romance, even if it’s not all that deep. I actually missed out on romancing my chosen partner, Lune, because I didn’t realize how close I was to the final stretch and hadn’t camped enough, but alas. Maybe next time.

The combat seemed to be a huge highlight for a lot of people. While I do appreciate the occasional active kind of turn-based battle system, where it’s turn-based but with some active elements to keep you on your toes, I didn’t love the reliance on parries. A good parry in almost any game feels great, don’t get me wrong, but there were so many enemies from the beginning that seemed designed explicitly to sike you out, with feints, double feints, weird animations, etc. And because some battles would drag on for several minutes, it was especially annoying at times. Again, I didn’t hate it, and I can understand why some people love it, but it didn’t blow my skirt up. Overall, however, I did really enjoy my time with this game, despite my gripes here, borne mostly out of the previously mentioned unfair framing. It wasn’t a favorite for me, but I would probably recommend it to some people.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park

I had such a strong urge to play a classic side-scrolling Mario game recently. Every time someone on a podcast or social media would mention Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, etc., I would find myself gazing into the middle distance, lost in the nostalgia of a simple, classic platformer. Fortuitous timing, then, that Nintendo decided to release Super Mario Bros. Wonder (I understand the branding behind it, but the “Bros.” really doesn’t sound right in this title) for Switch 2. I missed out on it on Switch because it looked a little too… new? Different? I don’t really remember why, exactly. I also missed out on New Super Mario Bros., so maybe there is something that makes me extra skeptical to try newer side-scrolling Mario games. Regardless, I played it and liked it.

It was, of course, a blast. I will say that I had to really try to like it at first. I’m not a huge fan of the smooth, muted art style, so that was an immediate hurdle I had to get over. The enemies and other characters just don’t stand out to me as much as previous designs. Maybe that’s the old man in me coming out, or maybe bold, simplified designs are just more memorable? Either way, once I got beyond my distaste for the art style, I really got into the variation of levels, the multitude of power-ups, and the classic gameplay. I love me some massive, sprawling narrative games, duh, but there is something really nice about playing a game that fits easily into busier days. Even when I wasn’t able to game until late, I could still pick up my Pro Controller, grab a snack, and play just a few short levels to feel like I’ve accomplished something before heading to sleep. And of course I immediately picked my girl Peach and stuck with her the whole game. I do love that they have a pretty lengthy roster of characters to choose from, but if you let me pick Peach, I’m pickin’ Peach. You know, I could eat a peach for hours. Wait, why am I quoting Face/Off? Moving on.

Cairn

But enough of running left to right, what about climbing bottom to top? Cairn was getting a lot of heat (the good kind) on the podcasts I listen to, so with some time between games I decided to check it out. Again, I won’t talk too much about the story, but it did have a lot more of it than I expected. What I will say about it is that they do present a morally complicated scenario with a protagonist that made me bounce back and forth between sympathy and judgement. The climbing and some of the exploration were the stars for me, though. Scaling the mountain was intuitive but not exactly easy. Well, later on, anyway. I kept hearing about how hard the game was, but so much of the early rock walls and cliffs were a breeze for me. That’s not a humble brag, but I only fell a couple of times and I was always anchored so I didn’t suffer any deadly or inconvenient falls.

Then I came to The Wall. I don’t remember if it has a unique name in-game, but I think of it simply as The Wall because it’s just a huge, sheer cliff wall that was very difficult to climb. For the first time, I really felt like I had to think carefully and far ahead to make sure I wasn’t following a bad path that would lead me to tiring out and falling. Even if I was anchored not too far, it was hugely annoying to fall multiple times, realize this route is probably not doable, then backtrack and scope out a new path. I was so relieved when I finally conquered it. And I think that’s the magic of Cairn. It’s one of those games with simple mechanics so it feels largely accessible, but then it throws these difficult but rewarding challenges at you. I also really liked the cooking aspect. It was very fun to roleplay the actual climb and to plan out my meals, scrounge what I could, and regularly pull a snack from my bag for nourishment. I wasn’t quite as hot on the inventory system. I did like that you could shake your bag to make more room at first, but by the end it grew frustrating. I’ve heard people say “but it’s so much more realistic than manually placing items,” and sure, at its core it is. But when I shake a bag to settle a bunch of gear in real life, it doesn’t then expand and float back up to fill the bag again. I hated trying to fit a small item into a full pack, because I’d shake it until it was like 15% empty space, but by the time I tried to pick it up, the gear had somehow swelled and filled the gap again. Sigh. That aside, Cairn was a fun, introspective, challenging adventure.

Starfield

In prepping for this post, I almost passed on transferring Starfield screenshots from my PS5 because I was sure I’d already written about this game back in 2023. I was very excited for it to release on Xbox Series X, pre-ordered the physical Deluxe Edition, all that good stuff. And I did indeed play it at launch, sinking around 160 hours into exploring the galaxy and visiting its many, many bathrooms (does Starfield hold the record for most bathrooms in a video game? Hmm…). Scrolling down my blog, however, I wasn’t seeing any Starfield pics. I used the search function. Nope. I DID save screenshots, though, so I actually can’t remember why I decided to not write about it, unless it was an oversight. Very weird. Anyway, I was excited when I read that it was finally coming to PS5, so even though I don’t typically replay huge, sprawling RPGs (Persona aside), I really wanted to revisit this one. If I’m being honest, part of it is that there is still a little thrill at the idea of huge (former) Xbox exclusives coming to PlayStation. And despite it not living up to the hopes and expectations of many gamers, myself included, I did have a lot of fun with it the first time around. So, here we go again: once more unto the breach.

I’m not finished with this playthrough just yet (I’m at 131 hours but there is still lots to do), but having already beaten it I feel like I can offer some thoughts before I pack it in for a second time. I wasn’t as cynical as some who played it at launch, with accusations that this game was essentially just a long chain of menus, fast travels, and loading screens. I was disappointed that it wasn’t quite as epic and freeroaming as it seemed like it would be early on, but I ended up having a great time zipping around the galaxy, doing as many of the faction missions as I could, romancing Andreja, and generally just acting out some form of my space-faring dreams. I did fiddle with the combat settings a bit this time around, turning up my damage and reducing enemy damage (not enough to affect XP, tho). Why? Well, first because I’d already played it and wasn’t interested in the challenge of combat as much as I was the story and exploration. And, second…

…I’m the motherfucking Galactic Batman, babyyyyy. One of my favorite quests in the game is the Mantis quest line, where you find a random note about a hidden base on a dead Spacer. When you travel to the base, you find that it’s the expansive underground Lair of the Mantis, a vigilante that strikes fear into Spacers, Pirates, and more. Holy shit. It’s Galactic Batman. As you continue to explore the base, you discover that the Mantis is, sadly, dead, and she (Galactic Batwoman!) is trying to pass the mantle on to her son, who has lived a life of privilege thanks to his mom’s fortune, and, well… he’s also dead, seemingly at the hands of the Spacers who are attempting to gut the base (if they would have survived the many booby traps… or me). So who will take the mantle of the Mantis and become the galaxy’s most feared vigilante? Fine, fine, twist my arm, I GUESS I’ll do it. Becoming the Mantis comes with a badass suit (unfortunately I didn’t get the invisibility perk that came with my first playthrough), a killer ship (my mod of it pictured below), and a reputation that far precedes you. Becoming the Mantis was honestly the biggest reason I decided to play this game again, and it’s been a blast being the cause of so many Spacer nightmares once more.

God Bless or Goddess

Are FMV games making a comeback? In China, they sure seem to be. A handful of Chinese FMV games have made their way to PS5 from Steam, and as someone who occasionally likes to partake in those kinds of games, I decided to give a couple of them a shot. First up was God Bless or Goddess, a… well, I don’t know quite how to describe it. It tells the story of a young man born into a sect of beautiful mystic arts practitioners who all seem to want you. It’s not a dating sim in the way we’re used to, but you can romance any of the ladies as you grow and realize your true powers. I went through all of the paths to see their stories, but my top pick was the adorable, mischievous Wenren Lanke.

There is something very charming and fun about playing a game that is a direct and unrestrained cultural product from another country. It was easy enough to click through dialog choices, so I even tried to get the platinum… I say “tried” because as fun as playing this very Chinese game was, I had a hell of a time navigating and understanding some of the text options. The localization is quite bad, and some of the menu/on-screen text buttons either don’t make sense or just don’t work (some aren’t even translated). So I hit a point where I literally couldn’t progress one of the story lines. Alas. I do want to point out one of my favorite parts of the game, though. At one point, you’re told you have to meet with a demon. In the west, we have a sad history of representing evil or moral impurity in our stories with the “other,” often someone who doesn’t look like us (foreign, disfigured, etc.). In this game? The demon is a woman with blond hair and blue eyes. I can’t tell if it’s a Chinese woman with a lot of makeup/cosmetic work, but it’s clear that her look is specifically manufactured. So, in the face of a lineup of beautiful Chinese women, the representation of evil is western-coded blond woman. It tickled me to no end seeing the standard reversed, in a way.

Sweetheart Empire (Sovereign Brain Empire)

Sweetheart Empire was the next Chinese FMV game I tried. I think many of these games are made by the same company or small group of companies, but this one is from a different developer than God Bless or Goddess. And it was… a weird one, in terms of narrative, and it also had very poor localization. You play a baby. Well, not really. You’re quickly told you are a grown man who has just been adopted by two women. Why would two women adopt a grown man? Get your mind out of the gutter, pervert (“P-p-pervert? Who you calling pervert?” “It’s on the bill!”), it’s obviously because they think you’re a baby. Do you look like a baby? Well, you never see your character’s face, but no. He is as confused as we are, but soon we discover that the the State has introduced an automated AI system that dictates what role or function people serve in society, and the system (which is thought of as foolproof and its determinations final) has wrongly set your age at one or two years old. It has also set one of your parent’s gender as “male,” despite her being female, so she plays the “dad” in the relationship she has with her wife.

So… yeah, a bizarre premise to start. As the story progresses, you eventually start to confront the strangeness of the situation and begin to decide whether you want to continue this existence or find a way to correct the record for you and/or your parents. There’s a conversation with one of them where you ask if they want the situation to be fixed, since they seem to love each other despite their same gender, and she says they would love each other even without being legally married (if I understood it correctly, anyway). Hell yeah marriage equality? Kind of? Another example of the strange localization is the title: The key art and name in storefronts is Sweetheart Empire, but when you install it, it shows the title as “Sovereign Brain Empire” – what? Like God Bless or Goddess, there are certainly some lightly suggestive scenes, but it’s not at all explicit or overly sexual. There are a couple of strange scenes where you have to poke your adoptive mom’s buttcheeks (a hell of a sentence), but that’s about as racy as it gets. Still, it was another fun, weird Chinese FMV experience.

Nintendo Switch 2 Virtual Boy (Mario’s Tennis and Galactic Pinball)

I wanted a Virtual Boy so bad when they came out. Well, before they came out, technically, when I was invested in Nintendo Power and would pore through every issue, dreaming about having enough money to buy whatever games and consoles I wanted (I made it, twelve-year-old me!). The Virtual Boy sounded so cool. Games that exist on multiple planes? That feel like they have depth? Okay, so everything was in red, but Nintendo said they would eventually add support for yellow and green, and-and-and could you really put a price on being on the cutting edge of high tech video game technology? This device was going to be HUGE! At least this is argument I used on my parents in 1995, trying to get them to slap down $180 for what I was sure was going to be The Next Big Thing. Being the middle of the summer, not quite close enough to my birthday or Xmas, they unsurprisingly refused my request. We did rent one from Blockbuster, though, so I was able to play Mario’s Tennis, Red Alarm, and Galactic Pinball (for a few days, anyway).

I was a spry young lad at the time, so I didn’t suffer the neck pain and eye strain that beset others, but I was mostly cured of my once-ravenous desire for this headset. I did still want one, but other than Mario’s Tennis, I didn’t really get too into it. I went on to buy a used Virtual Boy with a defective power adapter later in life, but it wasn’t until Nintendo shocked the hell out of me by releasing a Virtual Boy adapter for the Switch 2 that I was able to revisit some of those crimson classics. Mario’s Tennis is still fun, though it is very basic and doesn’t offer much to pull me back. Similarly, it was fun to revisit Galactic Pinball but after a handful of games I was ready to move on. I’m still thrilled Nintendo did this, as they have all but ignored the Virtual Boy as part of their legacy for the last 30 years. I’ll report back when I try more of the titles they’ve offered. One minor complaint before I go… was no thought put into what happens when you take a screenshot in Virtual Boy mode? I understand that it’s a pretty standard screen capture function that just grabs everything on the screen but… come on, man.

Mario Tennis Fever

Speaking of coming on men (this segue, despite not having anything to do with Mario Tennis Fever, is brought to you by Pride Month; support your queer friends), I decided to make Mario Tennis Fever my work trip game on a recent week-long trek to the office. I played EarthBound on the plane, as it really is a perfect travel game for me, but once I got to my hotel I spent most evenings playing through the story mode of this game, which was a lot longer than I’d expected.

I have a mixed history with Mario Tennis games. As mentioned, I really liked Mario’s Tennis when I played it on Virtual Boy and I had a ton of fun with my friends playing Mario Tennis for the N64. I also played a lot of Mario Power Tennis, but Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Mario Tennis Aces failed to keep my attention for long. I enjoy some of the wacky twists on regular tennis, but it’s a delicate balance for me, it seems. I think I favor tight, responsive tennis to over-the-top power-ups, but I do enjoy the mix – if the ratio is right. It was pretty right in Mario Tennis Fever, I think, so I had a lot of fun serving both aces and… well, you know… *whispers* the C word… as my beloved Princess Peach, but also Rosalina and Pauline. It didn’t knock my knickers off, but it was a fun distraction to the loud, uh, “party” that was happening above me a couple of nights at the hotel.

Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted

I haven’t played very many mobile games, and I’m not even sure I had much interest in the original Plants vs. Zombies outside of the urge to play it for historical/educational purposes… until I discovered the incredible soundtrack by Lauren Shigihara as I was making a playlist of video game music to listen to while I work/write. Tracks like “Zombies on Your Lawn,” “Braniac Maniac,” and “Watery Graves (Slow Version)” have been on regular rotation for at least the last few years, and I ended up buying the soundtrack on vinyl recently along with the new “Bad Zombies” 7” single. So when Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted came to PS5, I decided it was probably finally time for me to plant some sunflowers and see what the hype is all about.

I wouldn’t say it was a transformative experience, but it was kind of nostalgic to play such a finely polished game from what seems like a bygone era of mobile game design. The gameplay is simple, you’re constantly being introduced to new power-ups and enemy types, and the art style is charmingly simplistic. And, of course, there is the upbeat, catchy soundtrack. I wouldn’t say it was the most challenging game, aside from the last couple of levels, but I had a lot of fun with it and am happy to say I’ve finally played it after all these years.

Jaws: Retro Edition

I loved Jaws for the NES when I was a kid. It seems to be the butt of jokes when it’s brought up in conversations about retro games. One of the many examples of the kinds of bad movie tie-in games that were regularly released at that point. And, sure, there was no conch shell collecting or jellyfish bombing in the movie Jaws, nor did the intrepid shark hunters blast the shark with a submarine or stab it with the point of their ship. But I loved Jaws, sharks, the oceans… and this game, damn it. Besides playing it as a kid, I remember cleaning my room once as a teenager and plugging in a small, old CRT TV I’d gotten for Xmas. It was too small for my N64 and PlayStation, but it seemed like a good opportunity to plug in my retro consoles and revisit some of my childhood favorites. I had just started collecting NES games at that point, to rebuild the small library my dad had pressured me into selling years earlier. Jaws was one of the games I sought out, and I was playing for the first time since my childhood. Would I remember it?

Of course I did. I played games into the ground growing up, partly because I got so few of them, so I’d beat Jaws many, many times. It was fused into my DNA, and when I fired it up on that small CRT years later, I beat it within 30 minutes. Jaws: Retro Edition has a longer, more involved story mode where you have to basically beat the same game five times but with new, more challenging enemies in each section. The jellyfish that somehow dart around, up and down, are the bane of my existence. I’d somehow forgotten that the game also had a rewind feature, so I did end up dying a few times in the last area, but overall it was still a breeze thanks to my retro-coded mutated genetics. I got the platinum, enjoyed every second of cheesy 8-bit music, and for a few brief moments returned to a simpler, less dystopian time.

Jurassic World Evolution 3

I loved Jaws as a kid, but I loved Jurassic Park. I’ve seen it eight times in theaters, the most I’ve seen any movie. I’ve written about my love for the previous two Jurassic World Evolution games, but I don’t exactly see these games in many game conversations on social media. The sales must be healthy enough, but they’re not the kind of games that generate a lot of buzz, so I was happily shocked when a third entry was announced. I didn’t mind that Evolution 2 mostly just refined features from the first game, and though adding babies and breeding to this one is a pretty major feature, it’s still mostly the same old park-building formula. Which is why I love it.

As with the previous games, I played through the story and got every trophy outside of those that required me to play on the hardest difficulty. I do enjoy the challenge of the default campaigns in these games, but I’m always more interested in the dinosaurs. I love making big, roomy pens with thoughtfully placed trees, water, sand, etc., and taking care of the dinos even to the detriment of the park visitors. Adding babies to the mix brought a whole new element, where I’m ever-conscious about population numbers, the age of my dinos, and how comfortable and safe they are. And the babies are so, so cute. I do wish we could add more things to the water enclosures, like reefs, surface plants, stone features, etc., but maybe that will be in Jurassic World Evolution 4, which I’m kind of now hoping is an inevitability.

Minecraft

I don’t often write about games that I revisit unless it’s been a very long time or I have some kind of new revelation, but Minecraft is kind of an exception because with each new server comes new projects, new experiences, new memories. My friend Amy invited me to play on a new server with her recently, and I immediately said yes… but I have to admit there was a part of me that was like “another new server? What will I even do? Make yet another Wayne Manor?” The answer is, as it always seems to be with Minecraft, “I’ll figure it out.” And I did. Besides going on lots of fun adventures with Amy and her husband Russell, including our combined efforts to revitalize, build up, and ultimately exploit a village, I built a long rail system between our starting point and our town project, built a Wayne Tower (kind of?) that reaches to the upper build limit, and of course had to make a new Batcave for it.

We also had fun getting specific trophies, like the one where we had to fall from the upper build limit all the way to the bottom of the world, and Amy led efforts to get us a fully enchanted set of diamond armor, which has made exploration and solo journeys much less stressful. I have yet to fully fill all of the floors of Wayne Tower with furniture and such, but Amy has her own floor, Russell made a Thomas and Martha Wayne Memorial Activity Center, and I built the lobby around a Nether portal, made an expansive storage floor, and have a nice little penthouse at the top of the tower. There’s something so nostalgic and lovely about returning to Minecraft every now and then.

Resident Evil Requiem

Oh, Resident Evil. In the darkest of times, you are a beacon of biohazard-fused zombies, mutated monsters, and spooky hallways. As you may have guessed if you’ve read any of my previous posts about Resident Evil, it’s in contention for my favorite game franchise of all time. The first two games were the main reasons I wanted to betray my beloved Nintendo and get a PlayStation, and I’ve been popping heads and chomping herbs ever since. And the RE games have had a real Renaissance lately. Resident Evil Biohazard is probably the scariest game in the series, returning the games to the slower, more atmospheric entries fans like myself loved, the remakes of Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4 have all been stellar, and Resident Evil Village brought us my beloved Lady Dimitrescu. I was a bit nervous when Capcom said Requiem would be a split between first-person horror segments (Grace) and over-the-shoulder action segments (Leon), but both proved successful recently so I trusted them. And it paid off. Resident Evil Requiem is one of my favorite entries in the series.

Let’s go back to the spooky hallways I mentioned, though. Carefully crafted environments have always been such a huge part of Resident Evil games, and moody, atmospheric hallways with moonlight shining through billowing curtains or starkly lit futuristic lab halls have always stood out to me. They seem to be a staple, and I love them. Capcom’s attention to detail in character and environmental design is amongst the best out there, and my initial playthroughs of their games are often long because I legitimately find myself pausing to marvel and appreciate subtle details of texture, lighting, environmental storytelling, and graphical fidelity.

As soon as I turned the corner and saw these windows, I knew…

Like many, I was very happy to have Mr. Kennedy back in play, but Grace surprised me by how likeable she is and how naturally she feels woven into the RE universe. Angela Sant’Albano should be nominated for some kind of award, because her VO is top-notch, and I am obsessed with Grace in the Lady D costume. Some people complained that it was a cheap cash-in on Lady D’s popularity, but I don’t care. I want to see every RE character in that dress and big hat. If we don’t see Chris Redfield stuffing his bulging biceps in it in future games, I will be sorely disappointed. But, yes, I really liked the division between slower, scarier Grace sections and faster, freakier Leon sections.

I also ate up the fan service, like returning to the Raccoon City Police Department, one of the most memorable and iconic settings in the series. Between the original game, the DualShock Version, and the remake, I’ve been to this police station many, many times, so seeing things like Leon’s desk, the S.T.A.R.S. office, library, and specific details (like the cop with the missing jaw) was so fun and nostalgic. And then Mr. X drops in to complete our little reunion? Perfection.

I could have done without Zeno as a character, I guess. Having a Wesker there does seem important at first, but he didn’t really add much to the story or plot. I did like Victor Gideon, though, and The Girl was a very scary and cool new Big Bad. I played through Requiem multiple times at launch, earning the platinum trophy, but I still think about it now, after I’ve moved on to other games. I love it so much. I started writing this post after the PlayStation State of Play, but I’m finishing it after watching the big Summer Game Fest stream, which included a killer Resident Evil Veronica trailer to open. Fuck yeah. I was ready for a remake of the first game or the heavily rumored Resident Evil 5 remake, but (Code) Veronica is in the most need of a rebuild, in my opinion. And it looks like they are fully overhauling it, as they have done with the other remakes, which is rad as hell. I can’t wait for 2027. Maybe I’ll revisit Grace in that Lady D dress a few more times before then, too.

Diving Into 2022

The weather here in sleepy Sycamore, Illinois, is cold and dreary. It’s a grey and snowy day… and it’s April. You know what’s not cold and grey, though? My love of video games. That was the absolute worst segue anyone’s ever written but I am tired, and I’d like to get back to playing the new Chrono Cross remaster, so let’s just let that one slide. It seems a fact that time works differently during a pandemic, so I’m not sure if I should say “it’s already April” or “it’s only April,” but I wanted to jot down some thoughts about the games I’ve played recently, regardless, because I feel like Chrono Cross will get a post of its own soon. I’m still playing Halo Infinite online, but I don’t have much to add other than I am absolutely styling in my cat ears and sparkly purple armor. They keep adding new armor components and accessories but, no. Get out of my face. I just want sparkly purple kitty time.

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim

I do have more thoughts on 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, though, since I’ve finished it. I’ll keep it short, since I’ve already talked a bit about it, but I ended up really loving it and getting the platinum trophy for it. Admittedly, much of my love remains centered on the aesthetic. The water-color inspired character and background art is just gorgeous, and I never lost my sense of awe and appreciation for it as the game went on. The music and voice acting are also stellar, making the game feel as close to a 1980s-isnpired anime as you can get. The story was very hard to follow, but at a certain point I gave up trying to untwist the knotted narrative because more twists would inevitably pop up. I feel like I was rewarded for that, in a way, because everything became clear in the end. Well, most things. Look, if you asked me to recount the story I’d probably get lost in my own attempt, but I think the gist of this multi-layered story is get-able.

The combat sections were alright. I’m not a huge RTS player, so I was more than happy to set the difficulty to easy and handily hand the enemies their ass time and time again. There is yet another character that deals with gender issues in an annoyingly indirect way. I’ve written previously on characters in Japanese games that flirt with trans-ness or gender fluidity, but yet again the developers fail to commit. Tsukasa Okino is a “male” character that chooses to dress up as (and embody) a woman, flirts openly with a male character, and [SPOILERS] in the epilogue, when “he” embraces living in a simulation, he makes a comment about switching genders, saying “It’s not just the clothes. I can be whatever I want here.” While I applaud Japanese developers for dealing with things like gender and sexuality more often and openly in their games, I wish they wouldn’t dance around it as much. This character’s gender is such a big part of their story – why not just use clear language instead of talking around it?

What I won’t talk around (aren’t you loving this terrible transitions?) is my adoration of Yuki Takamiya. What a badass cutie. I didn’t love who she ended up with, but I looked forward to playing her story segments every time. She’s a delinquent and a detective, which is not a common combo in Japanese media, in my experience. Young detectives are usually virtuous, working with police or other agencies to bust the bad guy (or that’s used as a ploy to hide the villain, ala Persona 5). Yuki does work with law enforcement, but only because she’s forced to, essentially. But, yeah, I just wanted to shout out my favorite character. Carry on.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Have I mentioned that I love Persona games ? They are, for me, the types of games where I feel a sadness when I’m close to completing them. I get so invested in the worlds that P-Studio makes that I want to live in them forever and rub shoulders (or eat beef bowls) with the wonderful characters that inhabit them. After each Persona game, I attempted to fill the new Persona-shaped hole in my soul by buying merch or other Persona games. It’s how I ended up with Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, which I was honestly not very sure I’d like. It’s a dungeon crawler and the character models are chibi – two things I’m not much of a fan of. I hadn’t played my handheld systems in a while, but since I’d busted out my cool SNES 3DS to play Metroid games, I figured I’d finally give Persona Q a shot. If I didn’t like it, I could just stop playing it, right?

Well, I’m probably 50-60 hours in so far and you couldn’t make me stop playing this game. I say “probably” because I ordered a new, sealed copy from Amazon and it came with save files, meaning someone obviously owned this “new” copy before. If you owned a copy and had a P4 protagonist save file named “Mike” or a P3 protagonist file named “Minato,” I have your game. Well, it’s mine now. But thank you for the save file because I used it to start a new game plus and got your personas and weapons (and impressive playtime), which helped a lot. While it’s true that I prefer to see my characters (and enemies) as I run around dungeons, the first-person dungeon crawling is pretty fun, and I can’t deny that I quickly came to like drawing in the map on the 3DS screen. What I love about this game is, of course, the characters and story. Yes, they’re in chibi form, which is unfortunate, but when I realized that all of the original voice actors from both Persona 3 and Persona 4 were back and delivering tons of lines, I was so in. The writing, too, is just as good as the core games, and I’ve found myself legitimately laughing out loud a few times. Add in an amazing soundtrack of P3 and P4 tracks, and I am in love. I’m not yet finished with it (I’m on the last dungeon) but I’m also in no rush to beat it, despite looking forward to Persona Q2 with much excitement now.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

As further evidenced above, every Persona game I’ve played so far has been a hit. Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 and Royal, Persona 5 Strikers, all three dancing games, and Persona Q have all won me over in one way or another. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is the first game in the series that I haven’t loved. Please, don’t get me wrong: it’s a solid game. As with Persona Q, the full cast of P3 and P4 voice actors return, which is always a big deal for me. They do stellar work and it brings so much to the games when they’re present. I also really liked seeing big, high definition art assets for the characters. There are lots of great, classic Persona settings and expressions to enjoy, and I will never shun more time with super bae Mitsuru.

The writing doesn’t seem quite as good as the other Persona games, though there is a ton of it. This is a fighting game, yes, but there is a lot of story. Fighting games usually foreground the gameplay and the story (if there is one) takes a definite backseat. Not so here. Not only can you play through the story mode from three different perspectives, each character also has a very healthy story that you can play through separate from the main story. There are some great moments and exchanges here, but overall the writing was much weaker than what I’m used to in Persona media. Ultimately, though, the kind of fighting in this game (think Guilty Gear) is not really my thing. I am no fighting game expert so I am ill-equipped to explain why I don’t vibe with the feel of this kind of game, but I mostly button-mashed my way through the first half of the game and turned on auto-play for the rest. The sprite work is great, though, and I was charmed by new (to me) character Labrys. I beat the three story runs and Chie’s segment (she’s my favorite fighter, I think) but I think I’m okay with putting it aside now.

Hitman 2 and Hitman 3

I played bits of the first Hitman trilogy back in the day, but I don’t think I ever finished any of them. I really liked the gameplay and, more to the point, the concept of a world of possibilities. The assassination part was fun and fulfilled some boyhood James Bond/The Professional fantasy, sure – but I have always dreamed of a video game that allows for ultimate realism. A fully rendered world where I can do the same things I can in real life – pick up a random can from the ground, enter any closet or room, turn on faucets for no reason, etc. The Hitman games aren’t fully realized in that sense, but they were moving in that direction, even with the early entries. The idea of having choice in how you complete levels wasn’t new, but the number of choices you had in these games seemed staggering. It wasn’t just “go in stealthy or go in loud.” It was “go in stealthy or go in disguise or snipe from far away or don’t go in at all and rig an explosive that will catch them on the way out or poison a drink that will be carried to them or go in loud or…” you get the idea.

I’d heard so many good things about this latest Hitman trilogy, and after Tab listed Hitman 3 as their game of the year for 2021, I decided to pick it up. I’d also nabbed Hitman 2 on PSN, so I started with that game and played them back-to-back. Generally, it was the same great concept from the early games but with a lot more style and attention to detail. The story was very good but my favorite thing about these new games is the level design. So much thought and care seem to have gone into considering the many ways players might approach a level. Yes, there are specific ways in which the game seems to want you to tackle it, but it doesn’t restrict you too much. I will say that I felt like a very lazy assassin the first few missions. I would sneak in, very stealthily, just trying to scope out the scene and find access to the target. But as soon as I was close, I would just find a dark corner, pew pew them with my silenced pistol, and slip into the shadows. It sounds kind of cool but in practice it was pretty dull and uninspired.

I knew it was on me, though, so with the “Ark Society” mission, where you attend an elaborate secret society party and have to eliminate two socialites and, if possible, extract someone without being detected, I decided to take my time, listen to conversations, and establish a plan. I found out that one of the socialites was planning to hold a ceremony where she faked burning herself alive in a huge effigy, Wicker Man-style, so I sneakily sabotaged the escape hatch below the effigy, dressed as the master of ceremonies, lit her on fire and walked away as everyone cheered, thinking it was a part of the show. For the other socialite, I followed an old fling of hers, knocked him out and took his clothes, stole a very expensive artifact/necklace they were both after, and got her alone before offering to put the necklace on her – and choking her with it. I then found the extraction target and walked right out the front door. Pew pewing people from the shadows is all well and good, but there is a far more rewarding thrill when a level unfolds like that. I didn’t have the same experience with the oft-discussed Knives Out-like mansion level (I didn’t steal the detective’s outfit and was in the middle of scoping things out when I saw an opportunity for a quick, easy kill), but I did have similar experiences with the mission set during a ritzy party at a vineyard. I took the winemaker’s outfit and acted as him as I took one of the targets on a tour of the winery. At each stop, Agent 47 described a way in which someone might accidentally perish, so I knew I was probably able to eliminate this target any number of ways here. When we got to a grape pressing station with a massive hydraulic press, which she stepped under, I deactivated the safety mechanism and turned on the press. The target disappeared into a squishy red puddle and everyone in the area just thought it was a terrible accident, so I walked away with no consequence.

That was probably my most outrageous kill, but my favorite level overall was the nightclub level in Germany. A trope in some espionage stories is when the agent is betrayed by their own agency and other agents of equal(ish) skill and ability are hunting them. This level lets you live out that scenario in a loud, thumping night club, and there was something so thrilling about weaving in and out of large crowds, hunting these agents who are becoming increasingly nervous as their partners on comms stop responding, one by one. It was a far more active level than most, but it still required a lot of legwork and intel gathering, making it so rewarding in the end. I also had a moment where I really appreciated the depth of the DualSense’s vibration feature. I was several minutes into the mission, very focused, when I had a moment of realization that maybe my TV was too loud. I could feel the loud bass in the controller, and it legitimately felt like speakers pumping. My TV, it turns out, was not that loud. That’s not what really impressed me, though. After realizing how subtle and realistic the vibrations were, I paid closer attention to them and found that it’s also directional. When Agent 47’s right side was toward the speaker, the right side of the controller vibrated. As I rotated, the vibration shifted to the front of the controller (when facing the speaker), then the left side (when that side was facing it). And it was dynamic, too, of course – the closer I was to the speaker, the more pronounced the vibration was, and all that. A small detail, yes, but it made me appreciate the artists who probably put a lot of time into things like it.

Metroid Fusion

After playing and loving Super Metroid, Metroid Dread, and Samus Returns, I wasn’t done with Metroid games. All three of those games were bangers, as the kids say, so I ready for more baddie-bopping and spooky-scanning as Samus, and I turned to one of the two remaining games that I own: Metroid Fusion. A version of the “Title” theme plays over the intro cutscene, which portrays a critical part of the Metroid lore (the, well, fusion of Samus’ DNA with Metroid DNA), so I was all ready to delve into another atmospheric environment. And then I started playing and the music was more action-suspense than eerie horror. It was also a bit jolting to go from those previous games, which had very tight, intuitive controls, to controls which felt a little trickier to master. I’m sure they felt great on a GBA back in 2002, but let’s just say I was not spinning and grappling with the greatest of ease. There was also an incredibly annoying end sequence, where I was forced to traverse my way to a very hard boss, defeat them, then traverse my way to another boss that I had to defeat. That sounds reasonable, but they purposefully block off a save room between fights (and there is no auto-save), so having to re-do that segment several times was infuriating and time-consuming.

Source: https://www.polygon.com/22715304/metroid-dread-fusion-recap-story-lore-samus-aran-chozo

I’m starting with my complaints, but my experience overall was positive. Those are some notable grievances, but I loved the corrupted Samus chasing you [SPOILER] and I especially liked that they pulled the ol’ enemies to allies twist at the end, where the “bad” Samus attacks the final boss with you. I still loved the core gameplay of puzzling out each new area and frequently obtaining new powers, and I am always down for new suit color combos. Yes, there were a few annoyances with this experience, but overall I was still very into it and I’m ready to move onto the original Metroid soon.

Find Love or Die Trying!

This is an indie visual novel by Auden Jin that I played for an episode of the podcast. For Valentine’s Day, we chose a romance visual novel or dating sim from itch.io to play and discuss. The premise of this game seemed like silly fun and the art looked good, so this was my choice. I wasn’t expecting much (the quality of games on itch.io varies wildly, which is not a bad thing but is a reality), but I was totally charmed by this game. There are so many twists and turns in the story, some of them very goofy, but I was fully on board. The characters were fun takes on existing tropes, there were some genuinely funny moments, and I legitimately found myself invested in the story. This was a nice surprise.

Minecraft

I’ve written about Minecraft before, but somehow I keep coming back to it. Tab and I jumped back in recently and we built a very, very long railway to a jungle biome we had scoped out last year. We started building a new town there, so I decided to make a Wayne Manor/Batcave. I have on almost every server I’ve played on, save this one, so it was time. As I was digging out and shaping the Batcave, guess what appeared? Bats! I was so excited. It was a little embarrassing. But I am nearing the end of construction and I can’t wait.

Horizon Forbidden West

What was not a surprise (this is the last game so you no longer have to suffer these terrible segues) was how much I loved Horizon Forbidden West. Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favorite games of last gen, so I made sure to get my collector’s edition of Forbidden West pre-ordered as soon as I was able. I think, as I did with Zero Dawn, I’ll mostly let the screenshot dump do the talking here, but there are some things I want to say about my time with the game. If you follow gaming news or know/follow people who’ve played this game, you’ve likely heard about how gorgeous it is by now. And, well, it is. I would say I don’t think these screenshots do it justice, but they come pretty close. The game is gorgeous in screenshots and in motion. You can pause the game at almost any point, go into photo mode, and find a cool or beautiful picture to take. The environment, the character models, the enemies, even the small animals scurrying about, all look amazing. I even found myself staring up at the night sky several times, looking for unique features or constellations. And, you know what? There are constellations! None that I recognized as real, but I can tell that there are clusters of stars that some environmental artist went to the trouble of making look like little constellations. I really appreciate little things like that.

Speaking of little things, there was that whole, dumb controversy (if you can call it that) about Aloy having facial fuzz. First of all, how is it a bad thing that we now have video game consoles powerful enough to render such a minute detail? Second, you can actually see it in the game. It wasn’t some highly rendered cut scene or piece of promo art. Character models are so highly rendered and beautiful in this game. As with the first game, I frequently found myself stopping to marvel at graphical details big and small. Hair! Look at Aloy’s hair!

Amazing. One of the things I love most about these games is the combat, though, and I loved it just as much here. I didn’t find myself using as many gadgets as I did in Zero Dawn, but I also didn’t really mind that. I was perfectly happy rolling out of the way of a charging thunderjaw at the very last second, spinning, notching an arrow, then releasing it to strike a tiny component on its back and running for cover. I played over 150 hours of this game and never got tired of the combat. Some of the new dinos were challenging, but I still love the thunderjaws and tallnecks. I have some thoughts on spoiler-y things, so I’ll add a [SPOILER WARNING] here, which includes screenshots that show spoilers. They begin after these next two pictures.

The story didn’t pleasantly surprise me like the first game’s did (how could it, though, since I had no idea what to expect from the first one?), but I did end up really liking it. As soon as I saw the primary villains floating down from the sky, I was like “is this a Superman movie?” And it kind of was. The villains in this game are absolutely Kryptonians. Advanced civilization hailing from an exploding planet, impermeable to damage (save one key weakness!), flight, Lex Luthor-looking-ass as the leader… But I dug it! They were campy and fun, and it was very rewarding to take them down. Celebrity performances aren’t always great in games, but I also thought Carrie-Anne Moss was excellent.

The other spoiler-y thing I want to talk about is the sunwing travel mechanic, unlocked later in the story. It was vaguely spoiled for me by the kind of people who are like “I won’t spoil it but” and then proceed to drop specific “hints” that then actually spoil it. I wasn’t terribly mad about it, though, because it allowed me to push through the story early enough to have plenty of time with my beloved sunwing. I wasn’t sure I would use it much because I don’t use the other mounts in the game and I generally like travelling in open-world games on foot, but I almost instantly fell in love with it. It felt very good to control, it looked and sounded amazing (the dino sound design needs more credit in this game, too), and it was so useful. One of my favorite things to do was call the sunwing just before jumping off a high ledge and having it swoop down and snatch me out of the air. So fucking cool. I do agree that they waited a little long to introduce the option of flight, but I was able to get a ton of flying time in and I loved it.

I also loved the swimming in the game. Well, after obtaining the breathing apparatus. Before then, I would try and explore deep, scary caverns and start to feel a bit of real panic when I’d get turned around or stuck on something. Once I got the device, I was free to explore submerged ruins, deep caverns, oceanic wrecks and more to my heart’s content. And I did, and it felt great. The swimming controls in this game are like most others, but they do feel slightly refined and very responsive, making cutting through the water feel more natural and smoother than I’m used to. I should wrap this up, but I’ll add a few more minor thoughts. I loved some of Aloy’s outfits. The Carja Shadow was by far my favorite aesthetically, so I rocked that for a big chunk of the game. Once I started nearing end-game stuff I decided to take the time to earn and upgrade the Nora Thunder Warrior ‘fit, which doesn’t look as cool but has pretty great stats. The glider was very cool but I’m glad they kept climbing mostly the same. It seems like a lot of people want to climb everything in games post-Breath of the Wild, but I really like the minor challenge of having to think about where I’m climbing, how I’ll get from one place to another, if there is a best route, etc. It reminds me of Tomb Raider in that sense, and I like it. Okay, I’d meant to let the screenshots speak for themselves, but I ended up doing plenty of yapping myself. I’ll shut up now, though I could go on and on about this beautiful, amazing game. Thanks for reading.

Comfort Food Games (and Coffee. And Killing)

In the final months of 2020, I found myself keeping up with new games unlike most other times in my life. While I would love to play all new games as they’re released, I usually can’t for various reasons. One is that I am definitely the type to finish games. I don’t like bouncing between narrative games especially, so if I’m playing some big, story-driven game, I have to finish that one before I move onto the next. Another reason is that I don’t rush through games, particularly when I’m really into them. I wouldn’t call myself a completionist, but when I love a game I will find any and every excuse to extend my time with it (including getting every achievement/trophy). But between quarantine, new consoles, and just a general desire to play more video games, I really burned through some of the big, new games of 2020 these last few months, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Astro’s Playroom, Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars: Squadrons, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope, and Phasmophobia. I liked or loved all of these games, so it’s not that the deluge of glorious gaming was oppressive or taxing, but when it was all said and done, there was a part of me that yearned for the familiar or forgotten. Without realizing it, I found myself playing older games that I had either bought and forgotten, or had already played and loved. This is just a scattershot post to cover my thoughts on these games, but one of them – Resident Evil 7 – will get its own post, because my playing of that is tied into my hype for Resident Evil Village, and I have plenty of thoughts about that game.

Let’s begin with an oldie. Please, take a trip down memory lane with me. The year is 1999. I am sixteen years old and newly into my Star Wars fandom. The Phantom Menace is set to release in May and the hype among myself and others is indescribable. Alongside the movie, Star Wars Episode I: Racer is coming to the N64, and it takes advantage of the new Expansion Pak, which expands the console’s memory and allows for more detailed textures and prettier graphics. I am stoked. I play the demo at a kiosk in some store and the game looks incredible. I am amazed at how fast the pods zip through the courses. I am ready to absolutely wreck Sebulba’s shit. And then I don’t buy it. I was sixteen, after all, and I’m pretty sure I had yet to land my first job. Oh well.

Fast forward to the present, and the retitled Star Wars Racer is on sale in the PlayStation Store for something like $4. I did end up buying a copy of it for the N64 at some point, but I don’t exactly bust that old beauty out very often. So I bought it and figured I would play for a bit, the nostalgia would wane quickly, and I would push it aside and move on. The startup screen and the very hitch-y CG intro movie did little to challenge these expectations. The game is ugly. Don’t get me wrong! It was very impressive… 22 years ago. But time is rarely kind to early 3D games, and the murky and muddy textures were both nostalgically quaint and, well, bleh.

Then, however, I started playing. Immediately I was impressed by how fast and smooth the racing was. Remember when Anakin was testing his podracer and his face was all

Well that’s how I felt playing this game. I was constantly stunned with how fast I felt like I was moving, and I kept wondering if the old game was this fast or if the remastering included a speed boost. I do remember it being pretty fast back in ’99, but this fast? On an N64? After I finished the first circuit and nabbed a comfortable first place, I quit for the night, content with my experience. It was fun! Time to move on. The next night I began looking for my next game but couldn’t put Racer out of my mind. One more circuit, I told myself. As soon as it starts feeling too challenging I’ll be done. Nope. I played the whole. Damn. Game. Did it get challenging? Yes. Did I have to try a few tracks several times? Also yes. Did I want to punch Sebulba in his seballsba? Again, yes. But I did it. The speed, the tracks, the music… it just felt like the right game at the right time. And now I think the prequel trilogy is ripe for a revisit. Meesa gonna watchen it. I’m sorry for that. Why am I like this?

Aside from revisiting such an old gem, I was also in the mood to tie up loose ends, so I finished my playthrough of The Last of Us Part II, finally. [Some light spoilers ahead, particularly in images] While I could certainly spend an entire post breaking the game down, as many have, I’ll just focus on a few things that stood out to me. Overall, I really liked the game. I didn’t love the ending and I think they were a little heavy-handed with some elements of the story, but there is so much that works well in this game. I think it’s easy to zoom out and critique the broad strokes of the narrative, but this game’s greatest strengths are revealed when you zoom in, literally and figuratively. I was in constant awe of some of the smallest of details. In most games, when you pick up an item there is a generic swiping or grabbing animation. In this game, there are specific animations for every item. The upgrade currency in this game comes in the form of pills, and sometimes you will find both a pill bottle and individual, loose pills. If you mash the action button to grab all of them quickly, the items don’t just disappear from the world and appear in your inventory with a cursory swipe. Your character will wrap one hand around the bottle, and as they reach back to slip it into their pack, their other hand will be pinching one individual pill with their fingers. They’ll then drop that into a pocket while the other hand, now free, pinches the last pill and does the same. And you can either stand still and do this, which is one animation, or begin to walk away, and your character will look natural as they tuck the items into their pack and trot away. This is just one very specific example, but the game is filled with little details like this. Every melee weapon slots onto your pack in a different way. Every firearm has unique, detailed reload and upgrade animations. The game was so thorough in its attention to detail that I found myself shocked when I’d catch some missed little thing that I would never have questioned with another game. The best example of this is when you upgrade a firearm. You clear the weapon before working on it, which means you eject the round that’s in the chamber, which pops out and flies off screen. Where does it go? Your character never grabs it and loads it back in the magazine or weapon, and with ammo so incredibly scarce in the game I found myself flinching every time a precious piece of ammo popped out of my gun.

The small interactions between characters and moment-to-moment story beats were some of the best I’ve seen in games. Naughty Dog is known for these kinds of interactions, but this game really outdid their previous work, in my opinion. The banter between characters sounds natural and not forced, yet it always reveals something new about the story or the characters. Writing casual dialog that somehow seems unnecessary but is secretly vital to character and plot development is rare and impressive. Among my favorite of these sequences is Ellie and Dina’s trip to the synagogue, Abby and Owen’s first trip to the aquarium, and Ellie and Joel’s trip to the museum. The last one is easily at the top of my list, and not just because of the overt references to Jurassic Park, one of my favorite movies of all time. Thematically, the idea of visiting a natural history museum in a post-apocalypse is always fun and thought-provoking. We take museums for granted today, because we have years of compulsory school and the internet that readily remind of us where we and other creatures have been in the long history of our world. When that goes away, however, what do we have? Word-of-mouth stories about dinosaurs and trips to the moon? Rumors about seals that have spots? Beyond themes, there were just so many small moments that were cute on their own, but also complicated the relationship between Joel and Ellie. This scene more than any other breaks my heart when I think about where it fits in the dynamic between these two characters. I would 100% take an entire game filled with scenes like this.

As I said, I spent a lot of time with this game and the narrative is very rich, but those are some of my impressions. I do think they missed an opportunity for a more satisfying resolution, and I agree with the sentiment that, despite the subtlety of the interpersonal interactions, they were decidedly less subtle with some of the major themes involving violence and revenge, but overall I found a lot to like and appreciate about this game.

Speaking of interpersonal interactions (Segue King 2021 babayyyy), I also played through the charming Coffee Talk recently. I remember hearing about this retro-looking indie game a year ago, when it was released, but I quickly forgot about it. The curse of the quaint indie game, sadly. I just happened to see it while scrolling through sale titles on the PlayStation Store, though, and it seemed like such a perfect game for this wintry time of year. Serving coffee and other hot drinks and listening to strangers share the details of their lives? Yes, please.

While I was somewhat disappointed in the lack of dialog choices and inability to form relationships with the characters that come into your shop, I did find the game relaxing and engaging. The drink making mechanics are simple, the stakes are rarely ever high, and I enjoyed the slight challenge of figuring out what kind of drink my patrons were asking for. The Seattle setting seems like a no-brainer for a game about a coffee shop, but I also think the choice to have the shop only be open at night and the constant rainy weather were perfect. They created a mood and ambiance that truly made me want to curl up with a cup of hot chocolate or coffee and just chat or read a book. Like a tasty, warm beverage, this game was a comfort and joy to play.

But, as I said, I did go into the game thinking the social mechanics would be a bit more… well, existent. As much as I like visual novels/narrative experiences, I always find myself wanting to be a part of the story that’s unfolding. I was hoping to form my own relationships with these characters, and when I saw how colorful and varied the cast was, I immediately thought there would be dating sim aspects to the story. Sadly, there are not, which is a real bummer because the game seems so perfect for it. When the latte art mechanic was introduced, I thought (not knowing there were no romance elements yet) it would be so fun if one of the ways you could flirt or reveal your feelings for a crush was by making a heart in the foam (if the game set it up as not unsolicited and creepy, of course). I am always curious about who people would romance in games, so if that also sounds like you, I think I probably would have gone for Aqua. Lua would probably also be a contender, but I feel comfortable saying Aqua is my… cup of tea. Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all night. Anyway, while I did find the game a fun, soothing distraction for what continues to be a historically messed up timeline, I do have my fingers crossed for a sequel with more options for interactivity and immersive storytelling. And smooches.

Lastly, my friends and I have gotten back into Minecraft in the last week or so, and in a big way. We are obsessed. Just today I tweeted that I have been having creeper-related dreams almost every night this past week. On the one hand, it’s annoying and frustrating, but I can definitely see the humor in it. And it makes sense. Creepers are the perfect embodiment of anxiety. You work so hard to build something and spend time thinking carefully about how to execute your plans. You spend hours mining, collecting the necessary materials, laying block by block, tweaking the details as needed. Then, out of nowhere, boom. Your blocky dreams are shattered. After the first time, you can never rest easy. Every time you let your guard down, there he is. His little green face tilted toward you, wanting with every ounce of his hissy being to explode and take your beautiful creations with him to what I imagine is a very pixelated hell. Fucking assholes.

Those dipshits aside, we’ve been having a blast (why did I do that to myself? I could have used any other word to describe our shared experience, but no. I went with blast. *shivers in creeper-related stress disorder). Other than the semester I played the game with my students, I’ve never played with this many people before (there are six of us so far), so it’s very rewarding knowing that I can at one moment contribute something to the collective group, and at another go off and work on something on my own that someone else might run across and think is neat. Just yesterday I crossed over Russell’s impressive bridge that connects our mainland with the lands to the East, Amy recently showed me her massive hole (yes, I think she knew what she was doing when she referred to it as such), Tab and Tirzah have cultivated an expansive farm, and I have been sailing to distant lands to both leave markers for exploration and, as a bonus, import wolves (which our lands are sadly lacking). We’ve been very chill and loose about it, and there are no expectations or ultimatums. We help out, we do our own thing, we are basically just having fun. It’s such a welcome change of pace in light of the big, AAA gauntlet I put myself through (willingly and with much fun to be had, of course) in the fall and early winter.

It’s also been so long since I last played that I am frequently both delighted and horrified at some of the changes they’ve made in the many updates to the game. Llamas? Cute! There are water zombies now? Ugh. Cats!? Dolphins!? Yessss. Aggressive merpeople and deadly undercurrents? Get out of my face. But I will take all of the bats and pandas and polar bears, thanks. We may get tired of the game eventually, but I love what we’re doing in the world so far. Check out Amy and Russell’s giant in-home aquarium:

And Tab and Tirzah’s elaborate farmhouse:

For my house, I was somewhat inspired by the massive mansion/castle in the Resident Evil: Maiden demo, and also by the many iterations of Dracula’s castle in the Castlevania games. I’m not exactly the most creative and skilled designer, but I like how my house has turned out so far. The façade is a little bland:

But I’m very happy with the interior. I built my house into the side of the mountain in our town, so I keep digging further into the mountain to create secret rooms and a full-sized Satanic house of worship, including a pastor’s office with a hidden door that leads to a portal to Hell.

I also have a dungeon where I keep zombies, skeletons, spiders, and creepers, a forbidden cauldron room, a dedicated Nether portal chamber, and a couple of other secrets.

I don’t imagine these pictures are all that riveting to most, but there is something I really love about sharing Minecraft creations. Maybe it has something to do with the impermanent nature of games like this. When the servers are shut down, these worlds will go away forever. But in my small way, I can document the exploits of my friends and me. Maybe, if we continue to play for a long time, I’ll do so again in the future. For now, though, I have some diamonds to mine. If you’ll excuse me.