![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Random Game Review Catch-Up Post
I keep getting distracted by my grand selection of games (and assorted other media). Here are some reviews of games I don’t think I ever posted about.
The 7th Guest - This is one of the granddaddies of the puzzle/exploration horror genre, and it's clear why it was a big thing when it came out, but it also really shows its age. The navigation around the mansion is crappy and slow. The video-capture animation is impressive for the time but the acting is a special kind of terrible. Because the game is very non-linear and you tend to take a lot of time solving each puzzle between cutscenes, the (clearly very detailed) plot is very hard to follow. There's very little attempt to make the puzzles make sense with the narrative, and there only two dozen of them (which is made up for by them being godawful hard), versus the 150+ stuffed into a Professor Layton game. And half of every puzzle if figuring out what the heck you're supposed to be doing, because they don't give particularly clear instructions for any of them. Really, a lot of it feels like they were more concerned about making the game really, really challenging than actually making it a fun play experience. I solved half the puzzles on my own, and most of the others with a walkthrough. The microscope one had to get skipped after much frustration (it's a head-to-head Ataxx puzzle; and apparently the CPU's play ability is based on your computer's speed--it's always playing on ultrahard difficulty on modern computers). I'm glad I played this for the experience of playing it (I played a little of it back when it first came out and hadn't had the opportunity since), but puzzle games have marched on in a good way. I got the sequel The 11th Hour in the same bundle, but I'm not going to bother playing it.
Lisa: The First - Another example of the better RPGMaker games often not being rpgs, this is an exploration horror/puzzle game about a woman trying to escape from her abuser. It’s dark and while it doesn’t explicitly spell things out, the symbolism is pretty darn clear. (This game is free and short, but there are two more games in the series, apparently much longer and deeper ones.)
Legend of Mysteria - A murder mystery done in RPGMaker. I think my biggest complaint is that--like many RPGMaker projects--it's too big and too long for what it is. The battle system (and need to fight at all) is shoehorned in. There's a large segment that takes place outside the main wizard's tower, which the game really doesn't need to feel complete. (There are also too many damn characters and factions--I couldn't keep track of all the suspects and plots.) With some tightening up and a clearer list of suspects (rather than just "every goddamn person in the tower") this could be really solid. As it is, it's still another neat example of what you can do with the RPGMaker tools besides bog-standard jrpgs.
Irisu Syndrome - This is a casual/puzzle game which involves some sort of block-matching (I never quite figured out how it works) that unlocks a horror story in the art gallery as you play, and outputs text files into the related directory with more details. Unfortunately, it sounds better than it plays because, as noted, despite plays tons of similar games, I couldn't figure out the actual gameplay mechanics.
Mystic Ark - Maboroshi Gekijou - This is the extremely obscure PS1 sequel to the SNES games The 7th Saga and Mystic Ark (the latter two never having been officially localized, and this game doesn't even have a fan translation or walkthrough). I mostly just wanted to see what it was like, despite not being able to read a word of it, and it apparently abandons the fantasy medieval world entirely for a haunted carnival mansion / exploration game. If there's a fight whoosh / rpg battle system, I never saw it. (There may be some action combat, as you can punch things, but that's unclear.) I'm definitely curious what the hell is going on, but that can wait until somebody else (who actually knows some Japanese) gets curious about it.
The 7th Guest - This is one of the granddaddies of the puzzle/exploration horror genre, and it's clear why it was a big thing when it came out, but it also really shows its age. The navigation around the mansion is crappy and slow. The video-capture animation is impressive for the time but the acting is a special kind of terrible. Because the game is very non-linear and you tend to take a lot of time solving each puzzle between cutscenes, the (clearly very detailed) plot is very hard to follow. There's very little attempt to make the puzzles make sense with the narrative, and there only two dozen of them (which is made up for by them being godawful hard), versus the 150+ stuffed into a Professor Layton game. And half of every puzzle if figuring out what the heck you're supposed to be doing, because they don't give particularly clear instructions for any of them. Really, a lot of it feels like they were more concerned about making the game really, really challenging than actually making it a fun play experience. I solved half the puzzles on my own, and most of the others with a walkthrough. The microscope one had to get skipped after much frustration (it's a head-to-head Ataxx puzzle; and apparently the CPU's play ability is based on your computer's speed--it's always playing on ultrahard difficulty on modern computers). I'm glad I played this for the experience of playing it (I played a little of it back when it first came out and hadn't had the opportunity since), but puzzle games have marched on in a good way. I got the sequel The 11th Hour in the same bundle, but I'm not going to bother playing it.
Lisa: The First - Another example of the better RPGMaker games often not being rpgs, this is an exploration horror/puzzle game about a woman trying to escape from her abuser. It’s dark and while it doesn’t explicitly spell things out, the symbolism is pretty darn clear. (This game is free and short, but there are two more games in the series, apparently much longer and deeper ones.)
Legend of Mysteria - A murder mystery done in RPGMaker. I think my biggest complaint is that--like many RPGMaker projects--it's too big and too long for what it is. The battle system (and need to fight at all) is shoehorned in. There's a large segment that takes place outside the main wizard's tower, which the game really doesn't need to feel complete. (There are also too many damn characters and factions--I couldn't keep track of all the suspects and plots.) With some tightening up and a clearer list of suspects (rather than just "every goddamn person in the tower") this could be really solid. As it is, it's still another neat example of what you can do with the RPGMaker tools besides bog-standard jrpgs.
Irisu Syndrome - This is a casual/puzzle game which involves some sort of block-matching (I never quite figured out how it works) that unlocks a horror story in the art gallery as you play, and outputs text files into the related directory with more details. Unfortunately, it sounds better than it plays because, as noted, despite plays tons of similar games, I couldn't figure out the actual gameplay mechanics.
Mystic Ark - Maboroshi Gekijou - This is the extremely obscure PS1 sequel to the SNES games The 7th Saga and Mystic Ark (the latter two never having been officially localized, and this game doesn't even have a fan translation or walkthrough). I mostly just wanted to see what it was like, despite not being able to read a word of it, and it apparently abandons the fantasy medieval world entirely for a haunted carnival mansion / exploration game. If there's a fight whoosh / rpg battle system, I never saw it. (There may be some action combat, as you can punch things, but that's unclear.) I'm definitely curious what the hell is going on, but that can wait until somebody else (who actually knows some Japanese) gets curious about it.