You can call it writer’s block, but it’s more like I don’t have much to say. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, I present some pictures from Ghost of Tsushima, the game I am currently playing. And if there’s anything worthwhile I like to bring attention to this blog post is that the director’s cut version is coming to PC (May 16th, 2024). That’s exciting news for PC gamers. Do I recommend this game? Absolutely. It’s a video game for grown-ups, although like the protagonist Lord Sakai, sometimes I do forget I am all grown-up. It doesn’t hurt though to play once in a while. 🙂
I thought I would do each review for each separate book but I didn’t want to spend too much time writing essay-like reviews. So, instead, I write mini-reviews. Hope you enjoy!
Lavina
Sometimes when you are quiet, you sort of get looked over. Pretty much you’re invisible. It’s sort of like Lavina, an important character that is mentioned briefly in Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid. She is the last wife to Aeneas the Trojan hero. In this novel, the author Ursula K. Le Guin attempts to give her a voice by retelling the epic poem through her perspective. Overall, it was a lovely read with a feminist streak that doesn’t victimize femininity as a lesser role:
The chief duty of a king is to perform the rites of praise and placation as they should be performed, to observe care and ceremony and so understand and make known the will of the powers that are greater than we are. It is the king who tells the farmer when to plow…In the same way, it is the mother of the family who tells the household when to rise.
-Lavina, p. 205-206
Lord of the Flies
What a poetic read. Lord of the Flies was epically horrifying, although I can’t say I entirely agree with the author’s opinion about Indians (I don’t think they are savages). However, I do agree with the author’s point of view for the most part. The author argues that society is prone to collapse into a primitive state when we fail to think sensibly. What better way to illustrate the point by putting a group of schoolboys on an island? As I was reading this book, I wondered how different the story would be if it were a group of girls. Do you think the world would be nicer? Nah…it would be just as bad. Where there are people, there will always be politics because the true nature of humans is the beast itself. It’s scary to think a beast has so much control over the mass but what is more scarier is that we allow it. The Lord of the Flies is no different from the Lord of the Corpse.
Well, that’s it for now. These are the two books I finished in February. On top of gaming, I am currently reading Persuasion by Jane Austen and Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet but probably will drop Pillars of the Earth if I feel too uncomfortable. I haven’t gone far enough into the book, but I heard the rape scenes are quite violent and unecessary. On the other hand, if Oprah Winfrey vouched for the book then it must not be so bad because so far, I think the story is pretty interesting.
It might sound absurd, but I haven’t come across that many games that blew my mind away in terms of storytelling. Yes, there have been decent games, but there were only a handful of them I thought were masterpieces. But is that a bad thing? To the contrary, no. Sometimes I just want to play something stupid and fun because when a game tries too hard to be serious and deep, it loses its spark. Now I am not saying games can’t be thought-provoking, but they need to have a good balance of humor because as we all know, life is already as serious as it is. Don’t reflect our realities in games. The last horror game I played, Tales of Black Forest missed the entire point of a horror game and it rubbed me the wrong way.
I hope they find their freedom by making games and not the other way around.
After being annoyed with the game, I picked up a book to read instead. It’s not that there wasn’t a story to the game, it’s the way how it was put together that left me with a bad taste. I get the sense the developer was hoping to make money off of games by advertising cute girls and horror themes and called it a game. You know throw some achievements, cute cat cafes, cute monsters, and cute girls. Too many cute things make me feel as if I am biting into a sweet cake and we know that too much sugar is not good!
I am glad you figured out your destiny but it’s unnecessary to project it in your game.
By the time I reached the end, I was so unconvinced with the story with what it was trying to tell that I felt as if the game was more about showing off than actually creating a genuinely good horror game. Because like the protagonist… ” Sorry to dissapoint you, I can see monsters and ghosts since I was born, and I have seen more frightening stuff than this.”
Thank you for speaking out my mind because that’s exactly how I feel about this game.
I know cut them some slack. It’s a RPG Maker game, but you can’t improve if you think you can get away with pretty drawings. Make it less about you and more about the player because someone is paying for it. But of course, that’s just one customer’s opinion. 🙂
P.S.
For short version of my reviews and reccomendations you can find them here on my Steam account.
Even though I have over 100 games on my Wishlist and picked up a few games I want to complete this year, I will not complete video games like I am running a marathon. I like to challenge myself, but I know when to be realistic and play games only when I have the energy to play them. So, I have been switching between the following games, reducing my gaming sessions to 1 hour each day. The games I am currently playing are:
Ghost of Tsushima
I enjoy Ghost of Tsushima (2020), a Sucker Punch Production. It’s zenful compared to other samurai games. I would have never picked up this game if my partner had not recommended it. Typically, I don’t like cinematic games, but this game works. It’s beautiful and calming, but tense at certain times! I feel as if I am inside a Kurosawa film!
Can you feel the wind?I do!
Silent Hill: The Message
Far from calming, I am playing Silent Hill: The Message (2024), a Konami franchise. As a survival horror fan, I had to play this game even though I wasn’t in the mood for horror games. So that’s why there is this disconnect between me and the content of this game. The game isn’t bad though. It’s about teenage girls’ suicides and how it links to social media abuse. It’s a grim topic for entertainment, but an important topic to address. That’s why the game is free and it’s a good one too. The message in the game is clear: You’re not invisible. So, there’s no reason to take your life; and please, think before you speak. We like to think we don’t have emotions, but most of us do.
The library from the game. I thought the books were interesting…It brought me back memories of my middle school days. Bullying can really tear a person down— even the brightest ones.
Mandemon
Lastly Mandemon (2023), a visual novel game created by 致意. I picked up purely based on the illustration. So, far the story is okay. The game takes place during the post war in Japan. I didn’t expect much out of it. At $2.99, the price is reasonable for such a short game. The translation made me laugh though: “Is talking behind someone’s back like a man does?” The sentence is odd, but I get it! 😀
In general, talking behind people’s backs is a waste of time.
I can hardly recommend this game despite enjoying dark visual novels. I find the story’s execution a bit immature. Minamoto, a supernatural villain, is so violently cool for coolness’s sake that she becomes childish. And the most ironic thing is she’s been around for centuries.
What a boring school this is, filled with idiots and imbeciles. It’s hard to believe that after hundred of years, humanity still remains in such a state.”
–Minamoto Hayase
I could sense a rebel streak that I am quite familiar with. Once upon a time, I hated high school too.
Well, that’s all I have for games. I realized I left my least favorite game toward the end when the post should end on a positive note! I didn’t have a structure in mind when I started writing and I am not sure if I will write full reviews for the games mentioned above. At the moment, I am also tackling my reading list. So, stay tuned for my post about my reading goals!
What we don’t understand, we call it magic, therefore, God is a wizard.
– S. (a.k.a. Halsdoll)
I just had to quote myself because that is exactly what I got from the story in Divinity Orignal Sin and so, players shouldn’t read too deeply into the story because the game is purely for entertainment purposes. As some reviewers mentioned, it’s a “great time waster.” Is that a compliment? Surely it is because the enemy of time is the Void itself! It’s an extremely intelligent game. There is a brain behind the mastermind, although it’s not always without “error”. I have already mentioned some of the things I don’t like and the things I do like previously on this blog. So you can check them if you are inclined to do so.
For the most part, I enjoyed the battle system a lot. Being able to use elemental spells with its environment makes the whole game fun and quite addictive too. I remember it took me a few tries. Like any standard RPG, there is some strategy involved; however, it’s not one of those games where you can’t get away with button mashing with the same spell and expect a powerful result. It’s a game designed for adults to use their brains. I mean to think with their eyes. That’s what the game is all about perception. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details:
Perhaps’ you can? Of course you may, but if you’re having trouble with the whole affair, I’d suggest that perhaps it’s your perception you ought to work on first! Hah!
–Alchemist
I enjoy the puns in this game. Obviously…you have to have a sharp mind to see things thoroughly, but isn’t that what makes us human? The ability to see from different angles but is susceptible to error?
Not only do I enjoy the game’s wordplay and how it integrates well with the overall theme of the story and the gameplay (I often find myself hunting and scanning for hard-to-see items), but I also like how the game encourages the player to use items as a weapon rather than relying solely on whacking enemies with a club. Sure, deep down we are all a bit primitive, but we can always learn how to be a bit diplomatic. For example, I love the Charm Spell. It comes in quite handy when you’re dealing with a powerful opponent. I used it on a stubborn bull. As you know, bulls are quite hardheaded, but with my Charm Spell, they helped me defeat my enemies in no time with their powerful head blow! I also enjoyed freezing and knocking the enemies down so that they missed their turn; there’s nothing funnier and more satisfying than seeing your opponent slipping on ice. Of course, I didn’t like it when the table turned on me. No one does because we all like to win. I also enjoyed strategizing so much that I lost track of time. From my experience, I learned that all it took was one mistake to lose a battle. The level cap in the game is up to 20 and you can level up by exploring places, completing side quests, and defeating enemies. By the time, I reached the ending, I was already level 20, which I thought would never happen!
It may sound a bit hypocritical, but my biggest gripe about the game is the side quests that relate to the story. They sure can damper the mood. One side quest I completely failed was the Goblin Story. Well, I was quick to punish a character for sending innocent people to death, which left the quest incomplete since I needed the character alive. This game would have been more enjoyable if I had tackled each quest as it came in order. I don’t know though, I learned that I wasn’t the only one with the same issue. Anyway, after reaching the climax of the story, and spending over 100 hours in the game, I lost interest in the story altogether. I found myself rolling my eyes when I learned about the lonely sorcerer turning a cat into her lover; and that the all-motherly orc can be quite the fearmonger and a big-time gold digger. I had my laughs because I would have never come up with those creative speculations toward my female kind. I suppose I understand the meaning of perversion thoroughly now. I would have never thought that God might possibly be a wizard with glasses…the god of Rivellon that is.
So back to the question of what I have uncovered through my investigation of the murder case that brought me to this grand adventure to Cyseal: Who killed Councilor Jake?
It’s nice how the game takes you back to the original main quest.
The answer is indeed, much more complex than its direct source: It was a long story, but for what it’s worth, it sure beats the VOID!
These past few days, I was able to step away from Divinity Original Sin EE and complete shorter games mentioned recently on this blog. Now, I am back with this game, checking off my “monstrous” list of side quests. The activity can be satisfyingly rewarding as watching Dr. Pimple Popper videos or yanking weeds out from the garden. To be honest, I haven’t tried either of those activities. I just remember my co-workers telling me that’s what they do for their downtime to relax their minds. However, I am not sure if looking up how to solve quests is relaxing…these side quests aren’t so straightforward and can be quite long. I also recently learned that it might be wise to check the Tutorial Hints because certain items can be almost invisible to the naked eye. It can thwart the story progression as I learned the hard way (I always learn the hard way…).
Under Inventory, you can press hold [Left Alt] to highlight objects.
I remember earlier in the game, searching for items felt like I was trying to find a needle in a haystack and the image below could not further confirm my suspicion. It made me smile because it was part of the game design. I suppose leveling up your Perception skill is worth it.
A needle in a haystack
As much as I like the game, I am not a fan of non-linear games. Sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming when you have no idea where to start. Partially, that is why I am not so fond of open-world games because it takes a chunk of my time while other games are waiting in line to be played. Thus, my backlog (tiny compared to others) continues to grow. On top of the fact, the game is not meant for a single player (Strangely, I can hear my readers saying…”Duh…you’re not the targeted audience”). So, it made me wonder if would I have liked it more if I treated the game as a co-op; I certainly would have enjoyed the experience more than my time in Borderlands because first-person view games give me headaches. I wonder what changes were made in Divinity Original Sin 2. More importantly, I am anxious to get my hands on Balder Gate 3.
If there is one thing, I learned recently about games is that RPGs can sometimes feel like reading a fantasy/adventure book. It’s not a bad thing, but my mind can wander from time to time, drifting between lengthy dialogues when I know something important was just spoken by the characters, but the mind is too tired to absorb and appreciate its verbose theatrical lines. For example:
But my followers have done it! Ha! They have done it like I knew they would! Blood, the thick red gravy; the sauce of Source has been yielded unto star-sent stones has swept away the eternal shadows!
-Braccus Rex
Such colorful words to describe blood. I don’t know why it talks so much when it’s about to get its ass kicked! However, sometimes I do find a line that catches my attention:
A society that allows such evil to flourish is rotten at its very core, Source Hunter. I would be careful of your pouch of gold. Shiny pebbles cannot mean more than beating hearts.
-Bairdortr
Wouldn’t you say someone who is primitive tends to be more honest and noble than civilized people? The line is spoken by a barbaric woman, Bairdortr who has been raised in the wild but educated by a sorcerer. She is one out of 4 NPCs you can choose from to help assist you on your adventure earlier on in the game. She makes an excellent ranger. So far, I believe I got the source of the story down. It’s not as black and white as I thought–more like it’s about corruption. For what it’s worth, I am still enjoying the game. So, I suppose those little hiccups in games aren’t such glaring problems when you judge the whole package, but it does make me question whether I want to invest myself in another lengthy game after this. The answer is…I always do. I just wish the game was more seamless because having to constantly look up how to proceed with a quest can feel like hitting the stoplight at every intersection. Another thing I dislike about the game is how it likes to interact with the player indirectly. The image below shows a mysterious stranger asking the player a question: “Now I can’t help but wonder: Are you cut from the same batty cloth? Why’ve you come here, after all? What’s the point of it all?
Can the answer just be for boredom’s sake?
Stay tuned for my final thoughts. I believe I am getting close to the end!
If I were to play this game when it was released in December 2018, I don’t think I would enjoy it as much since I was still in the grieving process of losing my mother in September that year. I couldn’t enjoy any games until almost a year later when I picked up the Cat Lady. These days I am fine; however, I still find myself with teary eyes whenever fond memories of my mother slip into my mind. So, you might think I would be emotional playing a game like Gris, which deals with the death of a love one. On the contrary, I find the game uplifting and beautiful. I enjoyed solving light puzzles; running in the forest; feeding a creature with apples; and swimming in the cold lake. It’s a game with a certain beauty that brings out the optimism in life. You see, death is natural but you will be okay.
In each stage, the colors represent different emotional stages one goes through: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Progressively the stage gets harder ( I could elaborate but this is a review not an analysis). There are several times I try to reach the hard-to-reach items (mementos), which are items that need to be collected to reveal a hidden cutscene on why the female protagonist is grieving. Some of the mementos can be completely missed in the first playthrough. Luckily, you can backtrack by selecting a chapter in the game. Speaking of checkpoints, they can be a bit bothersome because having to redo a puzzle can be quite annoying. There is one part toward the end of the game that frustrates me. I have to be precise about where to execute the jump button while being upside down to avoid the gravity from pulling me upward. It always takes me a minute to get through. The good thing though, once you familiarize yourself with the gaming mechanics, it’s not impossible to finish the game within 3 hours or less. I can see Speedrunner having fun with this game since there are some challenging obstacles but I definitely do not recommend this game as a coping mechanism to deal with a loss. It would only make the player more frustrated unless you are one of those people who process emotions through solving problems. Then this game might just be for you.
Here I will attach some of my favorite screenshots in no particular order. Of course, the game is so much better if you play it.
Sometimes, pictures do tell a better story than words. In this case, the game is beautifully well-crafted by the folks from Nomada Studio. When I saw the trailer back in 2018, the game’s vibrant colors reminded me so much of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, a game released in 2011 on the PlayStation3 and X-Box 360, but there is a newer remastered version released on Steam in 2021. Also, it looks like the game will be getting a release for the Nintendo Switch in April 2024, according to the sources online. Like Gris, the game focuses on atmosphere and colors. But I’ll stop here because this review is about Gris!
I appreciate the spider graph from Steam and think it’s pretty cool to learn about yourself and your gaming habits, but Steam only has a portion of my gaming data. It doesn’t know that I spent a lot of time with action-adventure games on the PlayStation5. One thing it got right though is that I don’t play as many Metrovania games so when I did play Hollow Knight on the PS4 which was part of PlayStation Plus member-free games, I was pretty hooked. It’s a shame though that the PS4 controller broke. Anyway, I learned that it’s not the genre that I enjoy but who makes the game. Like with any creativity, game design is an art form, and a$$holes can’t make good games because they don’t have a heart (Okay. I paraphrase what my photojournalist teacher once said to me that a$$holes can’t take pictures because they don’t have a heart). I think you get the point and remember kids, it’s important to give people the proper credit even if it’s written by a “doll”.
Lately though, I do tend to gravitate toward games that require light reading and pretty visuals, and perhaps, I am a fan of visual novel games and I didn’t even know it! So next year, I probably will be looking into more visual novel games. The only visual novel games that I have played and written reviews for are:
So, that is why I think it’s funny when Steam thinks it knows me! I only took an interest in visual novels a couple of years ago because I was looking for something that has light gameplay. They don’t require a lot of mental energy and that is what’s so relaxing about that type of game. But I would never make a bold statement to say I love visual novel games because I have only played a handful. You see, I love gaming but there are so many types I have yet to play such as otome games. It’s my dream to play every type of games out there so that I can declare myself as the Queen of games LOL (Now, I am just poking fun at myself). I know some game developers look down on games because society thinks they are just toys. I get it. The world will be in trouble if everyone play video games. but the world will also be in trouble when there’s no more coffee, cigarettes and gasoline and of course, the ultimate villain–the internet! As the saying goes, technology is a double edge sword. That is very true. A friend of mine from Bangladesh once asked why do locals like to hike so much? Now you know why… It’s always nice to get some fresh air because if you stay inside your head too much, you will go crazy.
Someone must be going crazy to make a survival horror video game that takes place in the woods in Washington State. I am talking about Alan Wakethat is.From what I remember you just run in the woods…Now that I think about it, that some intense forest bathing.
I think ramble on too long about games and cracking jokes that only I might get. I just want to make up for the time I did not publish last week.
P.S.
I was looking through my old pictures. Around this time of year in 2019, I was at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle. I don’t consider myself a techy person, but growing up in the Greater Seattle area, like most kids, I picked up on video games because it was in front of me to play and it sure brings a smile to my face. You see, video game is a product. It doesn’t define a person’s integrity. So it’s hard for me to say, “We are what we play.”
Some may not have noticed, but for those who look forward to my blog weekly, thank you. Normally I publish weekly, but it seems like there’s always a lot going on toward the end of the year with the holiday around the corner, and I wish that was my excuse for taking a small hiatus. Honestly, I lack the motivation to blog after doing extensive research about SEO, marketing, and web design. More importantly, I took the time to contemplate what I wanted out of blogging and asked if I was still enjoying it. If I were to be honest, not so much. I enjoy blogging on WordPress but I don’t like how it penalized the blogger for not engaging with other bloggers by commenting on their blogs and hitting the like and follow button. It takes a lot of my energy to reach out to people and when it doesn’t reciprocate, you get that feeling of rejection. Too many rejections make it feel like is it even worth it.
I just love getting my heart burned, it builds resistancebut I rather do it in video games. It’s more enjoyable because I know not to take it seriously.
Blogging is becoming more like work and most sane people run away from work. That’s why I don’t work for the gaming industry. I am pretty sure I would run away from it too. All work no play is crazy. But that’s the marvelous thing about the world is that: “we are all in it together” LOL. I digress. Going back to my blog, perhaps, the audience I am trying to reach may very well be too busy gaming because gamers play games. It’s that simple. So that is why I have been hanging out at Steam, playing Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition. It’s quite entertaining and it gives me something to look forward to each day. Great story+great gameplay +great soundtracks=A+++! I believe they are an indie studio but with triple-A qualities. As mentioned in my previous blog post, I have been bewitched by the game! I also learned that the studio is accustomed to making educational and casino games, which explains a lot about my newfound addiction! I love learning and gambling with my time “recklessly”, but at least I am having fun. I enjoy uploading screenshots of my gameplay over on Steam’s account. Here, one sample of my screenshots:
The prisoner’s dialogue made me laugh hard. I suppose gaming is like prisonand I am already crazy! Thank you for bringing this awareness to me 😀
Steam makes it enjoyable to capture those fun silly moments in games. Press F12 to take pictures. I even thought of joining a Girl Gamer club on Steam to be more “social” and less “crazy” but then I looked at the comment section and I stopped. I would be walking into a trap. From what I observed, I don’t think half of the members are even legit and the way they talk is so lewd. So here I am back in my little corner. Doing my own thing. It’s a shame though, I really like Steam’s interface.
Little Shopping Video Game Haul
I took advantage of November Steam’s sale and purchased: Gris, Remothered: Porcelain, and Tales of the Black Forest. After much thought about Remothered: Porcelain, I caved in and bought it. It’s out of my mind and out of sight. The sales marketing tactic works! I shouldn’t have to make things complicated by being indecisive about a purchase, but time is valuable and I have a bad habit of finishing everything thoroughly. Also, I decided to pick up a book to read: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I read a few chapters and it feels like it’s written for a movie. One of my political science teachers once said…if you want to know what the book is about just read the introduction, and that’s what I did to the Pillars of the Earth. I learned that the author imagined his book making it into a motion picture. Is there a movie out there based on the book that I am not aware of? I might just pick up the movie but then on a second thought, nah. I discovered the book because of the game, which ironically there is no real gameplay to it. So, I said, well if I am “playing” for the story might as well… pick up the book. That was my logic! I still plan on playing the game because I like the illustration. Why is it so hard to make a decision sometimes?
Games I Am Looking Forward To
Dragon Dogma II
Death Mark II
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Granblue Fantasy Relink
Elden Ring DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree
Well, that’s all I have to say for now. Thank you to those who tuned into this blog. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and that my craziness hasn’t scared you away!
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