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Door Plays!
Hey! This is Doors. I play stuff! Profile pic by https://twitter.com/calemonsi
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Door Reviews: Kentucky Route Zero (2020)
I have recently gotten a new job, which gave me access to a steady income, but has cut down on my gaming time due to the commutes. I looked for games to play on my cellphone since I am in the train around two hours each day, and what better way to kill time than to play games on the go? I found Kentucky Route Zero free on mobile (only free if you have a Netflix subscription), so I found myself downloading it and giving it a whirl.
It was a ride. I wanna talk about this game. So I decided to write a review. Let’s get to it.
What’s it about? Kentucky Route Zero is about Conway, a delivery man charged with one last job. It becomes harder than anticipated to finish. He meets various people along the way who help him and point him in the right direction. Through his journey, we experience this game’s world and all it holds.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Gameplay typically has you exploring the game area by area, scene by scene. You would be in control of one character, navigating the area via point-and-click (or for my case, press-and-click via touchscreen). You interact with objects and talk to people, choosing dialogue options in response.
Transitioning between scenes and areas happens when the game throws you into the overworld map, encouraging you to navigate towards the next destination. I say “encourage” because you are still free to explore the map and discover other places. You are a lone deliveryman plying the Kentucky highways, you are bound to see some unique sights in your travels!
The game has five acts and five interludes. I felt like I should mention this because the gameplay varies in the interludes as well. While it still feels like a visual novel in a sense, it experiments with how the player perceives it. Changes in perspective, changes in characters, even changes in gameplay. One of the interludes is just you using the telephone! I find all of it strange, yet compelling. Maybe even a bit dreamlike, in some ways.
The art is gorgeous. Solid colors, good backgrounds. The places feel dark at times, due to the lighting, yet there’s a familiarity to them. The animations are subtle, yet deliberate. The characters are distinct yet nondescript, like they’re from editorials or something. Faceless, yet you feel like you’ve met them before, or at least someone similar.
The music is phenomenal. Bluegrass/country music abound and are very much at home in the setting. The sound design itself is well made, sounds coming at the right moments. The songs are well timed, sung during scenes where they are very much apt, feelings of wistfulness and longing just rolling across the dirt road landscape of Kentucky.
All of these combined lends to a rather avant-garde experience. It feels like I’m walking through a specialty museum. Despite its weirdness, it feels familiar, cozy even. The gas station with the friendly owner, the dinghy bar with the struggling barkeep, the office building with the bureaucratic clerks… The game can feel imposing in its ambition, but it never lets you forget that it’s a game about going through the country, finding the feeling of home wherever you go.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
It creeps up on you, this game.
The story starts out in a gas station, with you controlling Conway. You get Conway to get out of his truck, maybe petting your dog, whose name is either Homer or Blue. You have him talk to the owner, maybe you two talk about some random stuff, but you ultimately ask: how do you get to the Zero? This is what drives Conway: the act of completing his last delivery.
This game’s story feels like a long drive. I haven’t really done one. But this game evokes images of driving through long stretches of road across wide open expanses. You don’t really know where you’re going. You don’t know where the road will take you. But you feel the wind on your face. The rocks bumping against the tires. The vast stretches of sky. You get so absorbed in the journey that you almost forget why Conway is going to the Zero in the first place.
And well, the destination doesn’t really matter as much for this game, at least for me. I liked my experience just seeing the visuals, reading the words and the things they evoke. I like that the people in this game feel real, their presence reinforced by the stories they give. I liked steering them from one chapter to another, choosing my answers in a way that feels right for the characters at the time.
I like how this game plays with the medium, in a way. I mentioned earlier that the interludes have changes in gameplay. They feel like their own experiences, vignettes in between acts. It feels like they’re distilling a particular moment or feeling, and stretching it wide enough for you to luxuriate in.
This applies in the acts themselves too. There are some magical moments in this game. Hearing of peoples’ stories, exploring a parking lot after a rainy day, driving across the Kentucky highways… these all sound so simple, and yet this game makes them so magical and fraught with meaning. It feels artsy in a down-to-earth way, if that makes sense.
Overall, I really like this game’s story. It meanders in a way that doesn’t drag on. It celebrates its own mundanity, making it magical. And it discusses serious themes with the necessary gravity they need.
VERDICT
This game feels experimental in a way that I like. It discusses some serious themes in a way that isn’t heavy handed. It plays with how it presents the narrative in interesting ways. And it made me feel a lot of things!
I didn’t expect to feel a lot of feelings from an unassuming game. But here we are. And I wish to have you experience it too! I hope you enjoy your own journey with this game as much as I enjoyed mine!
Door Rates Kentucky Route Zero: 5/5!
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Door Reviews: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2001)
So! The Ace Attorney series. Iconic games, known by many. So many people have recommended this game series to me already. SO MANY PEOPLE. I got the first trilogy on the PC years ago, but it sat in my library unplayed for so long. And I have finally found the time to start it. And now, reader, I am so excited to tell you all about the first game!!! Let’s go!
What’s it about?
It’s about new lawyer, Phoenix Wright, and his foray into the world of Japanese courtrooms. We meet clients and assist them in getting a Not Guilty verdict. We see him learn the ropes, investigate crime scenes, endure his own trials, and persevere against all odds.
Disclaimer: In this review, I will mostly be talking about the first four cases. The fifth case will have its own section and its own rating at the end of this review.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Gameplay feels like a visual novel with investigative elements. You navigate areas, talk to people, and take note of evidence to present to people and at trials. The gameplay isn’t really anything to write home about, but the cases themselves are interesting to unravel.
To present evidence during, you have to select the right dialogue that the witness said, then present said evidence using the assigned hotkey (E for keyboard). It becomes a game of carefully reading what the witness said and cross-referencing it with the facts of the case, catching the lie using the evidence at your disposal.
It can get grating trying to find the exact dialogue to present evidence against. The cases can get roundabout at times, so you really have to make sure you understand what the witness said. I found that I have to double, even triple-check what the witness was saying, and check the whole transcript against my stack of evidence one by one.
Outside of the trials, it’s a visual novel-esque game where you go places and interact with items, making sure to talk to NPCs as well.
The gameplay itself is simple, but the game itself uses this simplicity to good effect in terms of storytelling, which I’ll discuss more on in the next section. All in all, I think the gameplay itself passes muster for me: good enough to play with, but not bad enough that I’d get too distracted by it.
The art looks sleek and expressive. The sprites look very anime. I like their exaggerated movements at times. Makes it feel like a wacky courtroom drama. The backgrounds are nice, too.
In terms of art, I think the best part are the character designs. The characters can be so zany and distinctive! And their animations reflect this, too.
The music, I think, stands out among all of these. They set the tone for various stages of the game, giving it whimsy, an air of caution, and an intensity too. I love the Turnabout music a lot! It is very iconic.
All in all, the style of this game is something I find charming. It’s simple, but because of that simplicity the game can use it to tell better stories.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
This game’s story is fun. It has a lot of wacky hijinks in it! Even the names of characters are so wacky: Lotta Hart. Sal Manella. April May. Redd White, CEO of Bluecorp. It’s such a silly game!
It has a lot of sassiness too. The banter between Phoenix Wright and a bunch of the other characters can be so funny. He can become the butt of the joke a lot but in the courtroom he WILL sass you to hell and back if he can press the advantage!
The dialogue of this game is soooooo silly. It feels like a Saturday morning cartoon in a way! It feels cheesy at times, yet I can’t help but crack a smile.
What I like most, though, is that this game’s story has a lot of heart (heh) and earnestness! It does character relationships so well, having a good balance between lightheartedness and seriousness. It presents character struggles seriously. And most of all, it emphasizes how difficult it is to be a defense attorney in one of the countries with the highest conviction rate.
We root for Phoenix Wright not just because he’s a silly defense attorney, you root for him because he tries despite insurmountable obstacles. He tries despite a legal system that can be cartoonish but is nonetheless still based on reality, where an accusation is practically a prison sentence. He tries because it’s the right thing to do.
That’s why I like this game’s story so much. At its heart, it’s a story about doing the right thing against all odds. It tells its story with such whimsy and silliness, yet is just so earnest when it comes to things that matter.
VERDICT
Ace Attorney is a gem of a game. I enjoyed playing it after work. It became something to look forward to after my day-to-day. I was rather bemused with the story, and slowly ended up loving it. I absolutely LOVE Edgeworth as a character and he is now one of my top 5 faves of all time (maybe even top 1…… he is my blorbo of the month). With such a strong first game, I am very much excited to play the rest of the trilogy. Play this game!!!
Door Rates Game: 5/5!
REVIEW: RISE FROM THE ASHES
SO! Rise from the Ashes is the 5th case in this game. This case here is an addition to the game after it got a Nintendo DS remaster. And it makes full use of the DS capabilities, with more expressive sprites, 3D evidence, and other gameplay quirks. Too bad we’re experiencing this on the PC!! Nonetheless, we push on with this review.
Case 5 is a fresh new case with a LOT of content. It’s like… maybe two, 2.5 cases in one? There are a lot of twists and turns to the story, and the devs introduced new gameplay, chief among which is the way you can now inspect each evidence you get. You go to the court record, press Enter, and you can look at it in 3D!!! You can get to inspect engravings, blood, and most importantly, you can now look at the back of receipts! Technology…
There are other new gameplay things they introduced, but they’re mostly just small things that try to tie you better into the game and also showcase the capabilities of the DS. Well, less that and more taking advantage of the new things the DS could do. With new technology means new ways you can make your game, and new ways to tell your story.
In my opinion though, these new things introduced in gameplay feel like they were thrown in for the sake of it, as if telling the player “oh, look at me! I can do this now!” Too experimental in a way… which makes sense, since this is in a way the first AA case on the DS. I haven’t played the other DS games, but I would hope that they found a way to integrate the capabilities of the DS better and in a way that makes sense for the story.
I found the story of case 5 to be amazing!! It had a bit of a slow start for me, but when it got going I was on the edge of my seat. It was thrilling, funny, and had heart, which is what I feel is classic Ace Attorney.
I liked it!! I would give this additional content a 4/5, if only because the new gameplay stuff hassled me a bit. They tried some new things, and some of them annoyed me, but I’m sure these new things would play out better in future installments. So far, I very much enjoy the series, and I’m excited to play more of its games!
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Door Reviews: Off-Peak (2015)
I played Betrayal at Club Low (2022) last year. It was a wonderful experience with quirky dialogue, fun mechanics, and a great soundtrack. It made me want to check more of Cosmo D’s work. And I saw that this game was free on Steam! Thus, I downloaded it and played it today. And now, I’m ready to review this avant-garde art piece of a game. Let’s get to it!
What’s it about?
Off-Peak (2015) has you exploring a sort of train station city. Your character needs to find a ticket, but the only ticket you can find has been torn into tatters. Your mission is to look for all the pieces of the ticket so that you can leave. While you do this, you find out more about the city featured in this game and the people in it, as if you were exploring an urban museum.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
The gameplay is simple enough. You talk to NPCs and you interact with buttons and objects. Nothing really unique gameplay-wise. What catches my eye is this game’s art. The whole game looks so urban. I feel like I’m a tourist just passing by a busy intersection while seeing the sights. There are a lot of cool places to see and nice art to look at. I’m in love with all of it. It makes me wish the place is bigger so I can explore more.
The music is phenomenal. I find myself just going through the place, then the music would change into a different banger. The jazz themes are nice. I’m enjoying the tracks!
This game is filled to the brim with art. Though the graphics itself isn’t on par with AAA games, the art design is great. It feels very unique. Overall, I am very much enjoying the game’s style.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
There are a lot of stories-within-stories in this game, in a way. You see the layout of the place and it makes you ask why things are laid out that way. You see someone who has cookies laid out underground and you find out their own story. You see various art pieces and a lot of them just make you think. It’s a lot of little pieces of worldbuilding working together to make an interesting city.
There are a lot of people selling various things, each of them with their own story. There are a lot of people there too just being consumers, buying sheet music, eating pizza, playing board games. And even your character has their own story. It makes me want to find out more.
VERDICT
Off-Peak is an off-beat little game. I like the world, I like the vibes, I like the art. I want to have a longer game dedicated to this kind of world! Cosmo D has a fair amount of games in his portfolio, and I’m excited to get through more if I can. I recommend this game especially since it’s free on Steam!
Door Rates Off-Peak: 4/5!
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Door Reviews: TOEM (2021)
There were a bunch of recommendations given to me by a friend, and I have been slowly playing some of them. This is one such recommendation: TOEM. I was fascinated by it because it markets itself as a Photo Adventure, and I liked taking photos in games like No Man’s Sky (2016). It also looks very cute! So I proceeded to finish the base game, and now I am ready to give my Thoughts. Let’s get to it!
What’s it about?
You control a small little photographer charged by their Nana to take a picture of the phenomenon called Toem. Nana describes it as a beautiful thing that you should experience for yourself. So you endeavor to do so by taking the bus, inching through the countryside by filling your bus pass with stickers from strangers in need. You take pictures to help people, to catalogue little creatures, and to just look at cool things! It is very cozy.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
The art style is very cute! The whole world is filled with cutesy little creatures and nice little people. The settings vary, from a forest park looking place to a mountain, and all are depicted in a nice way. Another thing to note is that the game is depicted in black and white. Personally, I would have preferred it to be in color, but I enjoyed the style nonetheless.
The music is very soothing. There were times when I’d just sit there and listen to the tunes with the in-game music player. Very nice and cozy!
The game itself revolves around completing quests via taking pictures with your camera. The camera itself can zoom in and has a way to identify notable objects. You can take pictures of specific creatures and the camera itself would log them in your album, as if you were a wildlife photographer. There are also times you are rewarded for taking pictures of interesting sights. As you play more you get some other features to your camera, like having filters. Mostly though, you point and shoot your camera at various sights.
The gameplay is cute! A lot of this game is pretty cute. I kinda feel strange at having nothing else to say about this game other than it being cute and cozy. But there we are.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
The story is that you are charged by your nana to see the phenomenon called the Toem. It is treated as a very special thing, so you go forth and try and take a picture of it. While you do so, you go around and help people with your trusty camera!
Each location has its own quaint little feel. The forest has a wilderness park feel to it. The town has a suburbian vibe. The mountains feel like a ski resort. There are a lot of interesting characters within those towns as well, most with their own quests you need to do.
The quests themselves range from the simple to the quirky. You are charged with tailing a suspicious character, told of cryptids that you can try and take pictures of, inspiring a fashion show to go on, and other various quests. You explore this little whimsical world that has its own thing going for it, helping various people on the way.
There’s not an overarching story, but it’s just little moments of cute whimsy interspersed between exploring the various places. The whole game reminds me of A Short Hike (2019), wherein you had to go to the top of a mountain, and encounter various people along the way. TOEM feels like a somewhat bigger version of that.
Overall, I found the story cute and whimsical and cozy.
VERDICT
I like the feeling that this cozy game gave me. A little peace after a long work day. But here right now, writing this review, I find myself wanting something deeper. Something more substantial. It feels personally conflicting, because I nonetheless enjoyed my time with it, especially the music. But I guess I want games with more depth. I like cozy, but I would love the cozy to also be deep, if that makes sense? I dunno.
Anyway, I still recommend this game. It is a nice experience, cute and chill, good to play after a long day. As much as I want deep games, sometimes you just want to cozy up in bed after a long day, and this is something cozy to play for those times.
Thanks for reading this review!
Door Rates TOEM: 3.5/5!
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Door Reviews: Delicious in Dungeon (2014)
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the new Delicious in Dungeon (2024) anime. At the recommendation of some friends, I decided to watch it. And I enjoyed it very much! It’s a great cooking anime and unexpectedly adorable and funny. I found myself craving more of it, so I decided to read the manga it was based on. Two days later, I finished the entire thing!! And now I am here to talk about this amazing manga!!!
But Doors, you may find yourself saying, this isn’t a game! Why are you reviewing this? And to that, reader, I say: I have decided to review whatever kinda thing I wanna review now! So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!!
What’s it about?
An adventuring group gets pitted against a dragon that overwhelms them. Their cleric saves them by teleporting them out of the dungeon. Laios, the party leader, now seeks to save the cleric Falin, his sister, before it’s too late. Without much coin and resources, Laios decided to make do by cooking and eating the monsters of the dungeon, much to the chagrin of the remaining party members Marcille and Chilchuck. With the timely assistance of Senshi, an expert on monster cuisine, they will eat their way through the dungeon in an effort to save Falin!
STYLE (Art, Character Design, Backgrounds)
The art is nice. It has this cuteness to it. It also gets so expansive, being that it is a fantasy setting with its fair share of fantasy races. You see forests, castles, caves, and other areas. A lot of variety to see!
Coming from the anime, it is nice to see the panels and enjoy them properly. There are a fair amount of wide shots to see, and it feels so nice to take them in.
I like the variety of monsters. Ranging from the cute to the deadly, the designs are all very interesting and are given much thought so that they make sense within the world. There is a lot of thought given to the various designs and I appreciate that.
The characters are all so distinctive as well. They have varying designs and their profiles are easy to recognize, even silhouetted. I especially love Senshi’s design. His mouth isn’t drawn, but his expressions can be seen in his eyes. In general, there are a lot of amusing expressions in the manga. It’s fun seeing Laios’s wacky hijinks and Marcille’s protestations!
All the foods look SO GOOD. It’s also fun to see how Senshi and the party cook the monsters. The similarities to real world food, the way they extract the ingredients from the monsters, it tickles me to see their processes. And I love seeing the party enjoy the food!
Overall, I love this manga’s art. It looks great, is understandable, and tells what it wants to tell really well.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
This manga starts out as a typical DnD story. You have your party leader, your rogue, your mage, and your dungeon. You even see a dragon first thing! As the manga goes on though, its world unfurls before you, as if a flower blossoming.
Delicious in Dungeon may have monster cuisine as its main draw, but where it shines is its worldbuilding. It builds upon its DnD base and introduces various things and concepts to make its world be its own unique thing. From monster biology to racial politics, this manga makes a lot of things matter for effective storytelling.
The main party characters all have different personalities. All of them shine through at different points. They all have their roles, and you see them play these roles in various chapters. And as time goes on, you see how their journey changes them. It feels natural, seeing them go through the dungeon.
It’s nice seeing Laios’s comprehensive knowledge of monsters. Seeing Senshi talking about cooking is nice to see too. Chilchuck is serious, but you can see he really cares about his job. And it’s fun seeing Marcille trying to help in her own way.
Delicious in Dungeon is a cooking manga, and its themes center more around food and consumption more deeply than I expected. Food is something that we tend to take for granted, but it really is something we need to survive. The manga makes a point of malnutrition being dangerous in dungeon delving, so you have to make sure you have a balanced diet. And there’s also the act of enjoying said food, savoring them and enjoying them with others.
I have a newfound appreciation for food because of this manga, and I am thankful that it gave me that. I enjoyed the journey of reading this very much!
VERDICT
Delicious in Dungeon is a wonderful manga that goes surprisingly deep. It is funny, exciting, sad, and hopeful. I encourage you all to read it when you can! And go and watch the anime too while you’re at it!!
Door Rates Delicious in Dungeon: 5/5!
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My Top Ten Games That I Played in 2023
Hello! 2023 has come and gone. I’ve played a decent amount of games across the year. Now that it’s 2024, I want to look back at the games I played and how they affected me. A retrospective! Now that some time has passed between my playing of a game and now, how has that time aged my opinion? I want to know! And I have decided to do it in the form of a top ten list!
This top ten list is NOT the best games released in the year 2023, but rather, the games that I’ve enjoyed the most when I played them during the year of 2023. Most of these games were released during earlier years. What matters more to me really is discovering how these games have left their mark on me.
So thus! Let’s find out!
10: The Forgotten City (2021)
Read my review here!
I liked its premise. The many shall suffer for the sins of the one. You explore this forgotten city, find out more about its inhabitants, and discover that you’ll have to crack open mysteries upon mysteries. There’s a fair amount of philosophical discussion here, and the characters are well-written. My main qualm about the game back then was its horror elements, as I was and still am averse to jump scares. Surprisingly though, I realized while writing this review that I completely forgot about that aspect of the game! Funny, that. This is considering the fact that I had to get a friend to go on voice chat with me so that I have company playing this game…
While I liked the game, I found it difficult to remember specifics about it other than the feeling of philosophy and mystery. So I guess those were my lasting impressions of this game specifically!
9: PRODUCER 2021 (2022)
Read my review here!
The gameplay of this game is some standard Visual Novel stuff, but what left an impression on me is its commentary on the artistic process. It is a rather cynical game with a lot to say. I related at points even if I don’t really consider myself an artist. I like its discussions about compost, of all things. What I liked most about this game, I think, was its soundtrack. A lot of bops! The soundtrack is the one that left the most lasting impression on me, though it’s somewhat easy to do that with soundtracks as I can just save them on my Spotify playlists if they’re on there. A nice two hours of gaming, in my opinion!
8: Mask of the Rose (2023)
Read my review here!
It is rare that I get ensnared by romance stories. I backed this game on Kickstarter cos I am fond of Failbetter’s games. I played it because I enjoy their stories. I didn’t expect to fall in love with so many characters! Rachel, with her sense of self and her writing. Archie, with his good nature. Harjit, with his watchful eyes. Griz, with her determination. There are just so many people to romance and know more of.
I still think of Rachel from time to time. She’s hot and is a person who knows what she wants. I like that sense of certitude in a person.
It’s nice as well to revisit the Fallen London universe. A relatively modern world with an eldritch vibe… it feels unique to me even years later. Re-experiencing it with a dating sim is not how I expected to do it but it is nonetheless very welcome.
7: Forklift Load (2020)
Read my review here!
Do NOT play this game on mouse and keyboard. Play this with controller!!!
This game really made me feel like I am an utter newbie forced to pilot a forklift. It is a zany concept, but I actually had fun with it. It feels somewhat like a puzzle game, trying to figure out how to go from point A to point B while lifting whatever with your forklift.
What I didn’t expect was for the story to be as cerebral as it was. It goes into some philosophical stuff, and the vibes of the game was unexpectedly calming, even if the gameplay itself was frustrating. I… am uncomfortable with regards to this game’s ending, but overall this game was an interesting experience. The concept was fun enough, and seeing it applied in practice was fun enough for me.
6: Betrayal at Club Low (2022)
Read my review here!
This was SUCH a fun game. The bombastic music, the fun visuals, the wacky humor, it combines into a world that’s fun to explore. And the gameplay is very fun! Rolling the dice against various challenges makes for interesting decision making, as you also have to manipulate your own stats to stack the odds in your favor. And the pizza dice are a fun mechanic, while also being a funny concept in and of itself. This is just a very creative game from top to bottom, and it makes me wanna experience more games from the dev in the same vein. It just feels so nonstandard yet so fun, which is why it left such an impression on me.
5: Elsinore (2019)
Read my review here!
Turning Hamlet into a timeloop game was a very inspired choice in my opinion. And it works! Though I guess it worked more for me because this is my first time actually experiencing Hamlet. I enjoyed the characters, their stories, the varied endings, and the unique take on the age-old story.
This game added a lot of stories that didn’t exist in the original, and I think I appreciated that decision a lot. It’s like updating a story for modern audiences. Though I’d argue that this is a wildly different story once you play enough of it. Nonetheless, when I think Hamlet, I will think of this game, and that is pretty much as lasting of an impression as you can get.
4: Hypnospace Outlaw (2019)
Read my review here!
The 1990’s were 30 years ago!!! I still can’t believe it! And yet here I am, feeling nostalgic for the computer era of the late 90’s. The forums, the pop-ups, the wacky wallpapers, the music. This is such a good game with well-crafted vibes.
And the story!! It feels so real. I think nowadays we rarely think about the simple fact that there is an actual person behind an online persona, but this game can make you confront that reality really well. It’s nice seeing the little quirks people have with designing their own sites, making their own posts, and dealing with their version of the internet. It makes the story hit harder. I’ll think of this game fondly as the perfect time capsule of the past and as a reminder that even the little things matter.
3: The Case of the Golden Idol (2022)
Read my review here!
I’ve been looking for a game that scratched the same itch as Return of the Obra Dinn (2018) and this game fit the bill perfectly. I really enjoyed the way I had to discover all the evidence, and then having to piece them together to find out what actually happened. And the fact that solving the mystery was ALSO the way the story was told was something I enjoyed a lot. Storytelling AND gameplay neatly folded in together! I’m sure the formula could be improved upon further, but I’m very much excited for more games like this from the devs. I still have a couple of DLC’s from this game to play too!
2: IMMORTALITY (2022)
Read my review here!
This is such a gripping game. I played this with a bunch of other friends, and watching the movies, experiencing the twists and turns… The simple act of making us interface with the game via the match cut mechanic gives the game a certain mystery, as clicking objects to do the match cut with lead you to random clips. Simple gameplay, but leads to a great experience.
The story is very thrilling, and piecing it together was very fun. It’s like a puzzle game where you have to find each puzzle piece, only that you didn’t know what the overall puzzle picture was and discovering each puzzle piece led you to an existential crisis.
This game made me think about the creative process more deeply than the other games I mentioned here. It made me think of the ways each of us want to leave a mark on this world, to live beyond our own mortality. It made me think of the costs of such ways… This game will be on my mind for a while.
1: Chicory: A Colorful Tale (2021)
Read my review here!
When I started writing for this game in this article, I just… stopped. Not because I have nothing to say, but because I feel like the effect of this game on me feels… bigger than I thought. This is a game about art, about the artistic process, and also about… depression, burnout, and trauma. I did not expect that getting into the game the first time, but it was good timing for me in a way, as I was dealing with these things in varying measure. It was a therapeutic experience, playing this coloring book of the game while dealing with these topics.
What’s more, it was actually nice getting to color stuff and draw stuff with my brush! Just coloring the various areas in was soothing. And in game, there are actual art classes where you are shown various artpieces that you have to recreate. I enjoyed making my own spin of some art shown in the classes.
Playing this game was an unexpectedly deep experience for me. I feel like it helped me with my own journey to getting better. I initially chalked this up as my #2 game of 2023, but I had to make it my #1 after I realized how big of a mark it left on me. I am glad I played this game.
FINAL THOUGHTS
One thing I noticed with my games last year is a fair amount of them are detective games. I love mysteries, and would love this genre to be explored further like in Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol. Another thing I noticed is that a surprising amount of games involve the artistic process. I like seeing games as art, and would love to see this space explored further. All in all, I love a lot of the games that I managed to play last year, and am excited for what this year holds for me! Thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to read my little review blog :)
#door reviews#door talks#the forgotten city#PRODUCER 2021#mask of the rose#forklift load#betrayal at club low#elsinore#hypnospace outlaw#the case of the golden idol#IMMORTALITY#immortality game#chicory#chicory: a colorful tale#top ten 2023
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Door Reviews: Soul of Sovereignty Prelude (2023)
There was a time when I was very much into webcomics. Don’t get me wrong, I still am into them in theory, but I have not had energy to read as voraciously as I did before. I haven’t had time to get into new ones either. I am still fond of them, however, and keep up with a couple webcomics.
It is during my webcomics phase that I discovered the works of ggdg. I found myself reading Cucumber Quest and enjoyed it a lot! When the comic went on indefinite hiatus, I kind of lost track of what they were up to, though I have faint memories of reading Lady of the Shard.
Years later, a friend of mine told me about this game. When they linked it, I realized that wait, this is from ggdg! And the memories came flooding back. It made me so excited to play this game. Well, now I have! I’m excited to talk about it :)
What’s it about?
“Soul of Sovereignty is a tale of deadly kindness and selfish virtue in a world of magic and ruin,” says the game’s itch.io page. It is a visual novel about two souls whose fates become intertwined. They go on a journey that will be of more importance than they would expect.
It should be noted that this game is just a prelude to the whole story. Not all of the questions you will find yourself asking will end up being answered here. Also! I’ll just call it SoulSov from this point on because that’s shorter lmao
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
SoulSov is a visual novel. It shows background art with characters in the foreground, displaying text to tell the story itself. As far as gameplay goes, it is pretty simple… but I think ggdg does some subtle things here. The layout, the way the movement of the text flows with the art, there’s a few things that help with the conveyance of the story itself. I don’t really know how common it is in the genre, as I haven’t played enough visual novels, but I appreciate these small things.
The art is beautiful. Downright ethereal at some points even! I loved seeing the old yet homey inn and the snowy woods. I loved seeing these wonderfully designed characters. They look so solid, yet soft at times.
The music, I find, is pretty good and apt. It’s nice and gentle in some places, and intense when it needs to be. The sound design is also good, shifts in the snow can be heard, creaking floorboards, the howling of the wind.
The UI is good. I like how there’s a History tab so that I can easily backtrack when I feel like I missed some words. I also like how there’s a Cast section so I can easily see descriptions of the characters. I like that the Glossary section is an external way to provide more lore to the world.
Overall, I definitely like the style of this game. Beautiful art, wonderful prose, it all combines well and lets me experience a story in a nice way.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
I loved the story. I loved how the world unfolded before me, from a cold, sleepy hamlet to a sprawling empire of a city. I loved seeing all the characters, their quirks, how they interacted with each other. Most of all, I loved how the worldbuilding revealed itself. The importance of flowers, the history of certain sites, the pantheon of the world… ggdg discusses just enough to paint a picture but leaves out enough to make me want to know more.
The story takes its time. It wants you to feel the weight of each sentence, to understand each brushstroke of a painting. ggdg makes sure that each click of the mouse moves the story in an efficient and economical way, which makes for a tight story that still expresses itself well.
I have not played much graphic novels, but what I find interesting is how you can “turn the page” so to speak. When I say turn the page, I talk of how certain forms of media dictate the flow of stories. With books, you turn the page. With comics, you go from panel to panel and turn the page. With film, you frame the story with your camera and dictate the very story itself with what you choose to record with it. With games? It’s different with each genre. But for this game, each click of the mouse (or press of the spacebar) turns the page. At some points, turning the page here means it reveals each sentence when you’re ready, showing accompanying art and changes in character sprites. At other points, it reveals each block of text, revealing changes in background and introducing new areas. While describing it this way feels a bit granular, it didn’t feel too slow when I moved through the story. And I think this approach makes the important moments hit better.
Overall, the story fucks. I enjoyed it a lot!
VERDICT
I haven’t played enough graphic novels to judge this as a graphic novel, but as a game I enjoyed SoulSov immensely. The art is great. The story is great. I’m excited to experience more installments of this game and find out more about this world! I am glad to have this game be the first game I finished in 2024. I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone!
Door Rates Soul of Sovereignty Prelude: 5/5!
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Door Reviews: Assemble With Care (2019)
Hello! I played this one game a while ago, but only got to reviewing it now. I decided I wanted a cozy game to try, and settled on this one. It looked like it had nice aesthetics, and it caught my eye. Now that I’ve played it, it is time for me to write a review! Let’s get to it.
What’s it about?
Maria, an antique restorer, arrives at the small town of Bellariva in search of work. She manages to find some jobs to fix various items. As time goes on though, it seems like she’s finding herself fixing people’s lives as well…
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
The game looks very neat. Polished, even. As if it belongs in a graphic design class or something? Font looks neat, art looks nice and well placed. I see that the game itself has a lot of chapters, and so I begin.
The game itself is a sort of puzzle game. Fiddle with the item until it is fixed. Unscrew bolts, open up caps, remove and replace the broken parts, etc. You get to fix a different item each chapter.
It reminds me of Unpacking (2021). It feels kinda therapeutic, fiddling with stuff and fixing them. The gameplay itself is very simple, but the vibes it gives off are rather calming.
I… honestly don’t really have much comments on the style. It’s neat. It’s clean. But by itself… it doesn’t really speak to me? I like fiddling with the objects though, but I do experience some moments of immersion breaking when I find that the object itself isn’t mechanically consistent, like when a screw hole doesn’t exist for the second layer of an object.
The art is nice, music calming, and overall vibes very chill!
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
The story introduces us to Maria, the main character. She is a trusty fixer who can fix anything! We get a look into her life and as the game goes on, we see how she influences the community of Bellariva.
The way the story was told felt run-of-the-mill, and even felt like... a PowerPoint maybe? It kinda put me off when I realized it, but for the resources put into this, it felt okay enough.
I’m amazed with the full voice acting! Did not expect such scale of it, but I like it.
The story itself was somewhat touching. It’s a simple enough story, but it is nonetheless moving. I liked the journey and how the gameplay itself relates to the struggles the characters go through.
VERDICT
Ultimately I found this game nice for the time I spent on it, but I left it wanting more in like, a general way. The game told its story well enough for a game that started out as a mobile game. I can see how it’d play decently on mobile. But… I want better innovations in terms of storytelling. I want more complex stories. I feel like I ate fried chicken when I really crave is a steak. The chicken is still delicious and filling, but I’m still gonna chase the satisfaction that the ideal steak as shaped by my mind can provide.
I’m rambling at this point. Assemble with Care on its own is a nice game to play when you have a free afternoon. It’s zen enough in vibes, and it’s nice to fiddle with the objects. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s a nice enough experience.
Door Rates Game: 3.5/5!
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Door Talks: Tilt and its Effects in Gaming
This article was made with some help from monocots! She helped beta read this article for readability.
After a long and stressful day, a certain gamer turns to one of the hobbies that give them joy: gaming. They turn on the computer and boot up their game of choice. They play a few games, but they find a certain irritation growing in them. Maybe it’s because of the constant losses, maybe it’s because of unsatisfactory games, but their frustration just grows and grows. They find themselves even blaming their teammates at some points, or worse, even throwing expletives at them!
How could their hobby betray them like this? A hobby that was supposed to give them joy is instead giving them rage!
They come to discover, later on, that they’re actually tilted after all that gaming. And so, they realize that they should take a break and do something else.
Fellow gamers, that gamer is me. That gamer has been me multiple times across the years. And let me tell you, it is so annoying to be tilted when you want to be the opposite of that! So now, I want to talk about the concept of tilt, my experiences with it, and how I try to manage it.
WHAT IS TILT?
Tilt in gaming doesn’t seem to have a set definition, but the way I define it is that it is this feeling of frustration and anger people sometimes get while playing games. Usually, it arises after trying and failing to beat a boss, getting unlucky with rolls, or after a string of losses. It’s a sort of boiling anger that slowly bubbles over, affecting one’s enjoyment of a game.
People react differently when under this state. Some people spiral into self-pity, thinking if only they were better players they could just claw themselves out of this rut. Some people blame their teammates, cursing their fortune that they ended up getting queued with people who don’t match their energy. And some even end up throwing their controllers in rage!
Being tilted is a rough situation to be in. I’ve experienced it many times, more often than not only realizing I was tilted when I’m already deep into the feeling. Interestingly, the feeling manifests somewhat differently with different games. I find that interesting, and it makes me want to see if there is a common point where tilt can manifest. So thus, I’ve decided to explore my own feelings with this article! I’m now going to talk about the different games I’ve played where these feelings of tilt often manifest.
MAGIC THE GATHERING, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE HEART OF THE CARDS
So, Magic: the Gathering. A game that’s been going since 1993. It’s a two-player card game wherein you build a deck out of cards you collect from packs. You put lands that you draw from your deck on the battlefield so you can cast the spells that you also draw from your deck. Some spells deal damage directly to the opponent, some let you summon minions that can deal damage to the opponent via combat, and others do a wide array of other tricks. You win when you put the opponent’s life down from 20 to 0. The card game has been playable in digital form since 2002 by way of MTG Online, and has once again gotten another digital client with the release of MTG Arena last 2019. The latter digital client is how I got into the game.
The nature of this card game now having a digital client has made it more accessible. It has also given an unexpected replayability to it. Whereas before to find matches you need to find local game stores, now you can just queue up and wait for the game to find you a match. It’s also easier to make decks since the economy in-game is different from in real life as long as you play consistently. You can easily play with cards that in actuality cost $60 or so.
I enjoy the game a fair bit. I enjoy the deck-building aspect, where you can choose a wide variety of cards to play and various ways to win. When you win, especially when you win from what seems to be a bad position, it feels really good. But the losses feel invariably bad. Some of my losses are due to me misplaying and sequencing my plays incorrectly, wherein I should have cast this spell first instead of the other one. Even fewer I feel are the losses that feel good, where both players slung spells and weathered each others’ storms, only for the opponent to draw their winning card. But a lot of my losses are due to plain bad draws, typically where I either draw too few lands to play my spells or too many lands and not enough spells. And losing due to RNG just feels bad.
What’s more, in order to maintain your collection, the game encourages you to win more. The more you win, the more gold you get. Though there are daily quests that don’t rely on wins, there’s still the optional 15 dailys wins AND optional 15 weekly wins. And it gets tiring, chasing those wins when you get loss after loss. With how easy it is to get into a new match, it can be so easy to get yourself into a tilting spiral of a lose streak.
There’s also the limited form of communication MTG Arena has. You can’t chat with other players directly, but you have set phrases you can say to them, like “Hello,” “Good game,” “Oops,” etc. More often than not, however, these phrases are used by players to annoy other players, with them saying “Oops” when the opponent makes a misplay, or right before they win. This is why most players just mute the other player so they prevent the tilt they might cause. Part of me wishes that we can freely chat with other players, but it’s difficult when there’s still the risk of players being toxic just because they can be.
The game itself can be fun, but the way the digital client gives you the opportunity to play more games and reward you for wins and sort of punish you for losses… it feels rather bad.
OVERWATCH 2 (DEAD GAME BTW)
I got into Overwatch around 2016 or 2017. I enjoyed it a lot, and I found some good friends because of it. Then I stopped playing because I disagreed with Blizzard’s politics. I found myself playing it again earlier this year however, and played it more when some friends invited me to play with them.
I can describe it as like… a MOBA, but in FPS form. You play as your hero of choice, and each hero has abilities unique to them. You work with 4 other players so that your team can achieve victory.
I like the variety of heroes. I like how explosive some fights can be. It can be exhilarating to play with how fast it is. However, it is somewhat reliant on you and your teammates being in sync with each other. You can’t just go off on your own and save the day (though there are times you can if you’re good enough).
Blizzard implemented team chat and all chat in this game so that you are able to communicate with not just your team, but everyone in the match. You can use just team chat to coordinate strategies, and use all chat to, well, chat with the opponents. There’s also voice chat so that you can freely talk without having to type, since it’s hard to shoot and type at the same time. While this kind of setup lends to more robust chats, it also allows for more toxicity.
Playing this game, I realize that not only do I need to be in a sharp mindset to be able to frag out and deal with the opponents, but I also need to have a positive mental attitude, lifting the spirits of my fellow teammates when needed. Because when they get tilted, it affects their play, and affects our team’s overall chances of winning. What’s more, they can take their tilt out on the whole team, which would then tilt us too! A sort of vicious cycle…
Let’s pretend to get into a game. So here we are, you go queue up in the night on Quick Play queue. You get matched with 4 people against 5 other people and you brawl out. Your side gets annihilated. No matter, you all respawn, but end up losing again. What’s happening? You think you’re playing okay, so maybe it’s because of the other players! How dare they affect your fun with their sub-optimal play!
But why is it such a crime to be sub-optimal?
I’ve been in this situation a fair amount of times wherein I know in myself that I’m doing good, but if only the other players can just capitalize on the openings I give them, or if they were just able to confirm the kills… This is unfair though. I’ve just met these randoms, I can’t expect them to read my mind. I can only control what I myself can do.
And it’s easy to forget, but I play this game to have fun, not to win. Those are two different things!
Nonetheless… why does losing in itself feel bad? Maybe I should play a game that isn’t competitive…
FINAL FANTASY XIV (WHICH IS FREE UNTIL LVL 70 AND STORMBLOOD)
Which leads us to this game! FFXIV is a game I’ve been playing more of recently. It’s really fun to play with friends and experience the world! I’m done with the main story, so I’m just levelling my classes right now, since with this MMO, you can become every class and level them all up to the level cap instead of just being stuck to one class.
Fights and content in FFXIV are typically done via duties. The term “duty” is what FFXIV uses for most content wherein you explore a different area, fight bosses, etc. Duties are instanced content, meaning that the game whisks you away from the overworld and into unique areas so that you can do certain fights, dungeons, and other quests. There are many unique duties in FFXIV, which speaks to the volume of content its team has managed to churn out over the years!
While I’ve been having a lot of fun recently, there are still points where I’d get tilted. More often it’s while I’m doing hard content like EXs, Unreals, and Savages. These are the terms FFXIV uses to denote duties that are more difficult than usual. The rewards for completing them are 1. the satisfaction of clearing the fight itself, 2. better equipment, 3. better fashion items, and sometimes 4. miscellaneous collectibles like mounts and minions.
The way tilt manifests in this game for me is in these difficult duties. It’s either I try to learn the fights and invariably make mistakes, or when I’ve mastered the fight and am in the farming phase, and for some reason, keep being beaten by the boss. The former feels bad even though I should be kind to myself: I’m still learning! I should cut myself some slack! But there’s always this nagging feeling that I’m not good enough, that I need to be better than I currently am. It’s a terrible feeling.
The latter, however, is just plain RNG sometimes. It’s another case of me cooperating with other random people, though this time it’s 7 other people who should have an idea of the fight itself. In FFXIV, you have the option of making in-game lobbies inviting other people to beat a fight, then have everyone roll for the loot fairly. It’s just, in some cases, you all just plain don’t beat the fight. It feels bad because of lost time, but that really is part of what you sign up for in some cases, and you just have to take the L and move on.
There’s also the in-game PVP mode. FFXIV has a fair amount of PVP duties you can do. There’s a game mode called Crystalline Conflict (CC), with similar gameplay to Overwatch except that you’re still using your class skills. A game of CC feels immensely shorter than a game of Overwatch, though, which is probably a reason why I experience less tilt with this game. Communications in this game mode are similar to MTGA, so there’s also less opportunity for toxicity. I do get annoyed when people spam “Good match!” even if the match isn’t finished, as I usually interpret this as them already thinking the game is lost. There’s also another game mode called Frontlines, where 3 teams, each team comprising of 24 players, fight for victory. The utter chaos and utter volume of players is a bit overwhelming, but once I got used to it I have lots of fun. It does get annoying sometimes though when stuff doesn’t go my way, but there’s something about this game that is rather… chill?
While I rarely get tilted by the casual duties, there are times when I do experience getting tilted, though usually because other players decide to be toxic. In FFXIV, there are daily duties you can do to level up your character and get other benefits. Early on in my playthrough, I had this party in this dungeon. I decided to queue in as a healer since I wanted to practice the role. But there was this player who kept criticizing my choices without giving suggestions. Why am I doing this, why am I doing that? In the end, I accidentally got disconnected, and while I was still willing to continue when I got reconnected, I found they already kicked me out of the dungeon. It was very disheartening.
Ultimately, though, FFXIV in my opinion isn’t as tilting as the other games I’ve listed, but there are some instances of tilt nonetheless.
SO WHAT DO I THINK OF TILT?
Now that I’ve examined these games and how they tilt me, I found some commonalities.
While competitive games can be fun, their competitive nature really incentivizes winning. Even in sports, games have always had winners and losers. So much so that when other players see you aren’t playing optimally, they may accuse you of “throwing,” or intentionally losing a game. It makes me want to ask: is winning really the goal, or is it to have fun? Would the effort you made in a game only matter if you win? Would the fun you had be poisoned if you lose?
This win-lose dichotomy is interesting because as much as I hate to admit it, it matters to most people. Wins feel good, and losses feel bad. I think it would be good game design to make it so that winning doesn’t matter as much, and that players still get to be satisfied even when they lose. But it’s hard to write this when the very DNA of competitive games rewards winning.
And what of the games that aren’t competitive? People still tilt when they farm for hours and they still don’t get that item they want. They tilt when RNG does not favor them in some fights. This leads me to think that tilt is less a win-lose thing and more an expectation thing: when despite all odds, what you want to happen does not happen, you get disappointed. When it stops happening over and over, you get tilted. It seems as though tilt is a factor of patience: how much time are you willing to spend to try and get what you want?
Tilt is also something that can be caused by other people. When people intentionally anger you and troll you, your own emotions can rise against them. Being tilted is an emotional state brought about not just by the misalignment of expectations, but also by unexpected factors like this. It feels like tilt is exacerbated by a loss of control in one’s games.
I think, with all of this, I would define Tilt as an emotional state brought about by the stress of both unmet expectations and unexpected outcomes in games.
HOW DO I DEAL WITH TILT?
Now that we’ve defined Tilt, I think now I want to talk about how I manage it.
I certainly think that when playing games, I want to have fun most of all. I’d like to think winning doesn’t matter as much for me, but on some level, it still does. I’ve realized all the more that your mindset is important when it comes to your games and even your hobbies. You have to be aware of your own mental state and you have to know what you are aiming for when it comes to your games. Are you out here to farm specific items. Do you just want to relax? Do you want to get wins? Know your goals and expectations. Try not to let things get to you too much.
In the course of playing games, there will be some bad apples who sow discord for the sake of it. They’ll try to tilt everyone they could just because it’s fun for them. When I encounter these people, I try to discourage them from doing their thing. Sometimes they’ll still continue being disturbances, however. It is an annoying part of gaming, but you can’t control everything. You can influence your team's strategy, but you can't control their aim and shooting. You can build your deck, but you can't control the cards you draw. While you can try and influence your surroundings, you can’t force the outcome you want. You can only control your own reaction to outside events.
I try to remember this, but sometimes tilt still gets to me. Maybe I played one too many games, maybe I’m chasing that one win that would give me satisfaction despite a chain of losses. Maybe I’m just in a bad mood because of the day’s events. It might take me a while to realize it, but when I see that I’m too tilted, I just stop playing and take a break. If something isn’t giving you joy, you should stop interacting with it for as long as you deem necessary. It might take days or even weeks before you get to play again, heck, maybe you need to stop entirely. In the end, you have to prioritize your own happiness.
Being tilted is difficult. But with enough emotional awareness and patience, you can combat that feeling and enjoy more of your games. Enjoy your day, gamers!!
#door talks#tilt#magic: the gathering#mtga#magic: the gathering arena#mtg arena#overwatch#overwatch 2#ow2#ow#ffxiv#final fantasy xiv#final fantasy 14#ff14
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Door Reviews: Lucifer Within Us (2020)
Hey there, I’m back with another game review for you all! A discord friend of mine recommended this on top of some other games, so I bought this when it went on sale. I just finished it today, and I kinda liked it! So now, I will talk about my thoughts on this game. Let’s get to it, then!
What’s it about?
Lucifer Within Us (2020) is an investigation game that has you playing an exorcist who is also a detective! The game has three cases for you to play, and each case has a suspect who murdered someone due to demonic influence. It is your job to find out who this person is so you can exorcise the demon possessing them. I find it very interesting, making an exorcist also an investigator.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
You interface with this game via point-and-click mechanics. You click on the ground to where you want to go, click on NPCs to talk to them, and click on interactable objects to gather evidence. Gathering evidence puts them in your inventory, where you can review their descriptions and use them to cross-reference with suspect testimonies.
Talking to the suspects will have them outline their own version of events, unfurling an interactable timeline. These timelines will have blocks that describe what a suspect was doing at a certain point in time. Reviewing these timelines, you may see inconsistencies with other evidence and other suspect testimonies. To unravel these, you can proceed to Contradict their statement by presenting the evidence or testimony that makes their own statement wrong. By doing this, not only do you make them revise their testimony, you also can get further insight into their psychology, which is important in accusing the true murderer and exorcising the demonic influence within them.
This is an interesting way to interface with the mystery itself. It feels very direct, confronting the various intricacies of the crime and having you directly contradict them with the elements at your disposal.
The art is very pretty. They nailed down their aesthetic perfectly, though I do feel like they could have improved on the UI itself a bit. The timeline viewing part could have done with a fast-forward button, and some art splashes could have done with more details to fill what I perceived as empty space. But I enjoyed the aesthetic and art very much.
The music… not much to comment on, I think. It felt apt for the game, though, but I think it wasn’t very notable. What I really liked though is the voice acting. Very good, and surprising to see in this game! There was more voice acting than I expected, and it really improved my experience.
Lastly, I enjoyed the gameplay, but I felt like it lacked… something, but I can’t place what. Maybe it’s because I wish there were more than three cases.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
The world seemed so interesting. A religious society built on cybernetics. Ritual ornaments made with robotics and engineering. Idols lifted up with aetheric manipulation. Being greeted with “Saint Walpurga’s Abbey - Cybernetics Workshop” set the tone of the game beautifully: a wonderful marriage of religion and science.
Playing as an exorcist who is also a detective is also a nice representation of this theme. Ada’s choice of profession is interesting, being an exorcist in a culture who did not need one for the past 100 years. As a character though, I found her uninteresting. She felt one dimensional, too focused on righteousness and on purging demonic influence. Which, I guess, is her job, but nonetheless, I wish there was more to her.
I found the demons very interesting. Very mecha! And loved their vibes. Though it felt weird hearing Sathanas’ name pronounced with a long A sound instead of quick ones as I’m used to in my language.
The story was too short!! It was self-contained enough, but it left me wanting more. Three cases was too few for what this game showed. Overall, I think this game had a lot of promise, but it is really hampered by its length. The worldbuilding was great, the art and voice-acting was beautiful, but the game itself is… short.
VERDICT
I enjoyed my time with this game. I just wish there was more content to experience. Interesting world and aesthetics, but the game is woefully short. Nonetheless I recommend it if you want a short investigation game experience! I always welcome these games cos it feels like there aren’t enough games in the genre itself. Anyway yeah, I had fun!
Door Rates Game: 3.5/5!
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Door Reviews: Before Your Eyes (2021)
Hello!! Been a while!!!! I’ve been busy with life stuff so I haven’t had time to play new games. I started this game in the last week of July and only got to bring myself to finish it today… very glacial pace for a 1 hour game or so but sometimes you just have to take things at your own pace y’know?
Anyway! This one game was recommended by a friend to me. He said he cried! I love crying cos of games having good story!! So thus, I tried this game. And now that I have played it, let us finally review it!
What’s it about? Before Your Eyes has you in the shoes of a lost soul fished out by a ferryman. He then asks you for your story. What’s unique about this game is that it can utilize your webcam to have your eyes interface with the game: your blinks progress the story in various ways. It’s what got me interested in the game in the first place! Let’s get to it.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
While there isn’t much gameplay to be had, the gameplay that’s there is rather unique. You look at various points in the game and blink to interface with the surroundings. There will be prompts for you to look at a phone to answer it, to drag your mouse across two points to open a book, and other game prompts. They remind me of QTE’s, only fancier.
When a metronome appears on the screen, that’s the game telling you that if you blink, the game will go to the next scene. And usually, you really don’t want to blink because the current scene won’t be finished yet by the time this metronome appears!
I find this mechanic interesting, and I see the relevance of it: you try to be present in the current moment, but you can’t control when you blink. Life just… flashes through before your eyes. There’s a sort of weight to the very mechanic itself that I find very interesting.
Unfortunately though, despite trying to calibrate it to the best of my ability, it didn’t work in my playthrough to my satisfaction. The game thinks I’m blinking when I’m not! I think it’s mainly because I’m wearing glasses… it seems like they interfere with the blinking tech. Which is a shame since I wanted to experience this game with the blinking!
Fortunately, there is an option to just use mouse and keyboard to progress the story, with mouseclicks simulating blinking. But I feel you won’t get the true experience if you do this. I feel it’s a risk making ambitious game… interfacing(?) decisions like this: you will run into edge cases where the tech just won’t work. The solution to this is to just accept that and provide accessibility options, which they did here.
As for the art, it’s very easy on the eyes. Has a sort of children’s storybook quality to it that I like. The music’s okay too. I like the ferryman’s gruff voice as well. All in all, I like the game’s style and ambition!
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
So! I cried.
The story starts out like any other, but the way it unfolds feels very real. It’s somewhat otherworldly because of the framing, but the story itself is made more weighty because of how familiar it is.
People like the fantastical because they find them as escapes from the real world, but I find merit in stories that talk about the mundane. There’s a lot to glean from something as simple as seeing how someone goes about their day. It’s why I like slice of life!
Make no mistake though: it may be somewhat mundane, but the story is still heavy. It’s a story about someone’s life, and how they lived it. You will see its twists and its turns, no matter how big or small.
Fair warning though: there is one scene there that was a bit distressing for me, so I do urge you to check Does the Dog Die for trigger warnings. I linked the specific page for that game in that link.
VERDICT
I am saddened that I did not experience this game the way it was intended. But I am still glad I got to experience it nonetheless. The story is worth telling. Despite how short it is, I still had an experience that I will remember for a while.
Door Rates Before Your Eyes: 3.5/5!
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Door Reviews: Mask of the Rose (2023)
Failbetter Games has had me on the hook since their browser game Fallen London (2009). I started it maybe 2013(?) and have fallen (heh) in love with the setting ever since. It’s so eldritch and strange yet somehow modern? Even tho it’s set in I think the late 1800’s? I love it.
My gaming blog actually started out as me blogging my experiences from one of their later games, Sunless Sea (2015). I played it a lot, but in time I moved on to other games, and so my blog evolved. I still played their games when I could, and even kickstarted their next two games. The first was Sunless Skies (2019), a sequel to Sunless Sea. And the second is this game, Mask of the Rose! And so we come here, to this review. Let’s get crackin’!
What’s it about? Mask of the Rose (2023) is about the early days of the Fallen London world. You are a Londoner who was there when the city fell down deep into the earth. And now you must adjust to the new world that has unfurled before you because of this. You start a new job as a census worker thanks to your friend, and from there you try to live your life, and perhaps even find love and/or friendship along the way, if you so choose! It is a mystery game that’s wrapped in a dating sim package, which I find interesting as I myself haven’t really played much dating sims, but have played a fair amount of investigation games, and thus my interest was piqued.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Gameplay revolves chiefly around visiting in-game locations and talking to characters. You can typically talk to 2 characters in one day, one in the Morning, and one in the Afternoon. Each character has a lot to say, and they even have quests of their own! There are a lot of them to talk to, with varying backgrounds, so there’s a lot to discover.
When talking to the characters, your wardrobe actually matters. Wearing clothes that you think would ingratiate you with the character you will talk to will make it more likely that they’ll be cooperative with you and your questions. This part of the game felt nice in theory, but felt like a bit of a hassle in practice IMO. Just felt like a hassle being asked every time if I think what I was wearing was good enough, I think?
After some time, you are introduced to the Building Stories mechanic, where you craft stories based on the needs of the characters. You have to fill in who’s who, their motives, and their actions. The game will then make a story at the side that’s based on what you filled up. These stories vary in use, but the mechanic is chiefly for solving the mystery in this game.
Gameplay for me feels kind of… basic? Though really, the gameplay is just a vehicle for us to experience the story. My main complaint really is that on first play, going through the text feels slow. I wish I can modulate the speed of the text to my liking. The Building Stories part felt like it was okay enough for the game, but I wish I had more opportunity to use it, and I wish it had more of an effect on the game world. I loved the concept of making a variety of stories for one of the characters, but they didn’t have much of a reaction to them I think.
The vibes of the game feel pretty good. It feels like there’s something strange in the air, something threatening, and yet there’s still a comfort to be had. You may be in uncharted territory, but you are still home. You are still with friends. And you may yet meet people who will be there for you.
The art is beautiful. The backgrounds are great and feel aptly lit. The characters feel solid. I love the variety of the character roster! The music… feels too sedate in my opinion. It does feel ominous, but I think it could use a bit more oomph. It might just be my own tastes though! Overall, the style is great, but the gameplay is just Okay for me.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
This is my first time really sinking my teeth into a dating sim and let me tell you, I did NOT expect to enjoy one this much! It was just great fun flirting with all of these characters as a person who hasn’t really flirted much in real life. The vibes between me and the characters felt nice, and it was nice getting to know them more.
What’s nice about this game is that you have the option to not pursue any romance. There’s a fair amount of modularity: you can go in pursuing both romance and intimacy, you can go in pursuing just one or the other, or you can even go in pursuing neither, just friendship! It cares about what the player wants, and adjusts accordingly, which is nice for this kind of game.
Beyond the romance, it’s nice to experience once more the delightful weirdness of the Fallen London world. The malevolence of devils, the industry of clay men, the ponderous nature of bats… there’s a lot to discover and experience. And in a world that, at its heart, is about love and the lengths you go for it, it’s very apt to do a dating sim game here.
The twists and turns the story takes… it really does feel true to the world. Eldritch, tragic, and yet… full of love. Unravelling the mysteries felt very rewarding, and seeing them through was very much satisfying. I loved it!
VERDICT
Mask of the Rose has a world and story that leaves you wanting for more. While it has some pacing issues with regards to the user experience, the art, story, and overall worldbuilding makes it all worthwhile. I recommend this game if you’re interested in a cool dating sim/mystery game!
Door Rates Mask of the Rose: 4/5!
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Door Reviews: Dicey Dungeons (2019)
Weeks ago, I posted on Reddit asking for cozy game recommendations. Someone recced me this game in response. And so I tried it!
Right out of the gate though, I wouldn’t really say this is cozy? Since it requires some thinking and some math. But nonetheless, I played a lot of hours of it, and now I’m comfy enough to give a review! Let’s talk about Dicey Dungeons!
What’s it about? A bunch of people decide to go dungeon diving for a chance at having their wishes come true, but soon realize that navigating the dungeon is more difficult than they anticipated! Also they got transformed into dice?? And must use the power of dice to have a chance at victory and, potentially, escape…
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Dicey Dungeons is a roguelike similar to the likes of Slay the Spire and Enter the Gungeon, in that you have to explore floors, open treasure chests, and defeat enemies to gain more advantages to get to the final boss of the dungeon and defeat them.
In combat, gameplay revolves around turn-based battle. Each turn, you get a set number of dice that you can use to slot into the equipment you start with. The value of the dice you roll usually influences the amount of damage you deal. Once you defeat an enemy, you get gold, a full heal, and experience. Getting enough experience lets you level up, which gets you dice and other advantages.
As you explore the dungeon more, you gain access to more equipment. You have a maximum of six (6) slots for equipment, and some of them can use up two slots. This manifests in you having to build up your character in a way that deals enough damage to enemies so you can progress through the floors. Typical roguelike stuff really!
There are five (5) unlockable characters, each with a unique playstyle. And as you play, you unlock more “episodes” for each character, which are really just unique rulesets that you can play around with. Some of these episodes change the mechanics of each character in a fun way, and some of them just make things more difficult.
The aesthetics of the game are rather cute! Nice art, fun music, jokey characters. I love Lady Luck’s design too, the epaulettes are a nice touch.
Overall I think the style of the game is… cute! Nice and easy on the eyes.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
There… isn’t really much of a story to speak of. Characters get in a dungeon, slowly realize they’re not gonna get their wish, and now must get out. Really, the story seems more an excuse for the game to have a leg to stand on. But it is okay enough for me not to have any glaring complaints.
The characters are mostly fun and cute. When you get achievements, you unlock their character sheet (sort of), and you get more of an insight into them. There is a certain nice humor to this game, the kind that elicits a little chuckle every time.
I liked the vibe of the final battle though, the scales are big enough, and the gameplay is very unique. I dunno, I don’t think there’s much else for me to say here, really. I find the story and the whole game just okay? Yeah.
VERDICT
Dicey Dungeons is, I would say, a decent game to play on your phone to pass the time. It is a fairly mediocre roguelike by itself. The art is nice, the aesthetic is fun, but the gameplay itself could pop more. Though I have to admit, the characters have unique and interesting gameplay mechanics, but I didn’t really feel any lasting feeling of accomplishment playing this game.
It’s an okay game! Just… nothing to write home about. I’d give this a lukewarm recommendation if you want a game to pass the time with.
Door Rates Dicey Dungeons: 3/5!
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Door Reviews: Hypnospace Outlaw (2019)
Sometimes I find myself wanting to return to the past. In the face of a lot of troubles today, the past, by comparison, is wonderful. The climate was cooler, everything was more affordable, and the problems don’t seem as big as today. And most of all, the past is just… familiar. It’s set in stone. We know what happens, so we can relive it at will, with our own memories. Nothing can hurt us beyond how much the past already did. It’s no wonder people are fond of nostalgia.
Tendershoot harnessed that nostalgia for something rather specific: late-90’s internet culture. They’ve crafted something that is very reminiscent of the days where everyone can make their own site and make their own rules, a time before Facebook was solidified as the de facto social network. And what they’ve made, I found very charming! So: let’s review Hypnospace Outlaw!
What’s it about? In an alternate universe, Hypnospace has replaced the internet as the nascent technology that brings people together. You have enlisted as a sort of volunteer moderator for the company who made this space: Merchantsoft. You enforce their rules and note down offenses ranging from copyright infringement to extralegal commerce. It sounds boring, but at its heart Hypnospace Outlaw is an investigation game where you try and find the content that you should be removing by going through Hypnospace, bouncing from one page to another, experiencing the rich worldbuilding along the way.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Starting this game I instantly remember one thing: the Windows 98 era. You go on your computer, boot it up, turn on your internet, hear that modem sound, then visit various websites. Exploring all the websites has that funny vibe because a lot of them look so ridiculous yet still looks like it wouldn’t look out of place in the late 90’s! The style is just perfect and I find it so charming and endearing.
Gameplay revolves around you exploring sites relevant to the cases given to you by your handler. You will be given access to certain zones, each with a certain number of websites you can access from there. You have to inspect the websites to see which one of them breaks the rules of Merchantsoft, embodied by the acronym CHIME: Copyright Infringement, Harrassment, Illegal Activity, Malicious Software, and Extralegal Commerce. When a site element (text, picture, or hyperlink) falls under these categories, you will then report them to your handler and mark them as Violation Points.
Each penalty you mark gives you HypnoCoin, which you can use to buy various things. You can use them to buy wallpapers, songs, stickers, and other things you can use to decorate your Hypnospace desktop. And there are a LOT of these you can discover, ranging from silly wallpapers from hotdog companies to vaporwave-esque songs by underground artists.
The cases that you have to solve are of decent difficulty all in all. Solving them reminded me of Her Story (2015) by Sam Barlow. I made use of the in-game search functionality a fair bit, and had to root through a lot of sites to understand what I had to do next. They were fun to solve!
There’s music in most of the pages and a lot of them have different vibes. All in all, they definitely fit with the so-bad-it’s-good vibe they’re going for. Have you ever had music playing in your Friendster page or whatever social media you had back then when you were a teen? Well, that’s the vibe. Some are so over the top, some are just funny, and some are plain good.
All in all, this game’s style is perfect for what it’s going for. It really brought me back to the days of Windows 98, and all that I associate with it. It’s funny and charming! I love it a lot.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
I had a false start with this game. I understood that I ended up being a sort of moderator for Hypnospace. But I wasn’t quite prepared for what it entailed. And let me tell you, penalizing old people for small mistakes they don’t quite understand felt really bad, so bad that I stopped playing this game the first time I played it…
I picked it up again this month though, and I pushed on, and I was very much rewarded for it discovering all these in-game websites. Most of them are shitty webpages, but the fact that each one was made by a person in the game made it feel more real. Like, of course it’ll be shitty, most of these people don’t really know how to do graphic design! And there’s also the physical limitations of the hardware!
There’s the overarching story, which is pretty good, but there’s also the small stories you see browsing Hypnospace. A lady running for community leader, a widowed biker who just wants friends, some geeks just trying to protect their space, a religious child who loves this world’s version of Pokemon, there’s a lot to see!
It’s a strange mix of mocking yet earnest. It plays up the shittiness of websites of the past and puts a lot of care into how personal they can be for the people making them. The people feel real. The world felt real. I found myself getting amused at the antics played out, and caring for the highs and lows of everyone.
After I finished this game, I really had to pause and just… digest everything. I think I will remember this game for a while.
VERDICT
Y2K may have let me down, but this game has not. If you are looking to relive the nostalgia of late 90’s internet, play this game. If you’re looking for at least a decent investigation game, play this game. If you are looking for something very unique, play this game!! It’s charming, funny, and earnest. I am very fond of it and wholeheartedly recommend it.
Door Rates Hypnospace Outlaw: 4.5/5!
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Door Reviews: Betrayal at Club Low (2022)
I discovered Cosmo D’s work through a Jacob Geller video (this one called “Bad Graphics”). It looked so weird yet so cool. Maybe it even looked cool because it’s weird? The design is intentionally odd, and yet all set up in a coherent way. It interested me. A few weeks later, I saw this game, and saw the dev, and remembered the vid, so I wishlisted it. And when it went on sale, I immediately bought and played it. I had a lot of fun! Let’s now review Betrayal at Club Low!
What’s it about? Betrayal at Club Low has you infiltrating a club to save your associate who’s on an intelligence mission. You have to use your various qualities to overcome obstacles, as you roll the dice to succeed. Also, it’s weird as fuck?? Yet very fun.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Betrayal at Club Low has you assuming the role of an agent of The Circus, which, quite honestly, I’m not sure if they’re an actual circus or what, considering one of their members is an intelligence agent but ALSO someone who manages to ride a unicycle on a moving platform, but NONETHELESS, you are this person and you are part of this group. You are a simple working-class citizen trying to survive in this gig economy of a world, and now you have to get through your mission through utilizing your six skills: Cooking, Deception, Music, Observation, Physique, Wisdom, and Wit. How do you utilize them? Well, by rolling dice!
In this game, you encounter a lot of unexpected obstacles and opportunities. You can try and drink puddle water, you can try to convince a chef to Let You Cook for the club, you can try to beat up a bouncer, etc etc. To succeed in doing all these things, you have to roll your skill dice. Each skill has a dice associated with them, with each starting at their base values (the six faces having the numbers 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, and 1). This is how “combat” works in this game: roll the dice against other entities and obstacles who will also roll their own die. If you match or beat their roll, you win and get progress!
With each win you get, you get progress and some cash. You then use cash to level up your skill dice, giving you the opportunity to increase the value of each dice face thereby increasing your odds of beating enemy rolls. So not only is this a rowdy wild west of dice combat, it’s also a careful resource management game: get more cash to upgrade your stats so that you can get MORE cash. But be wary, if you fail challenges too much, you are liable to lose some Health or some Nerve. Lose all of your Health or all of your Nerve, and, well, you lose…
Whew! That was a LOT of explaining. All in all, I found the gameplay to be VERY fun. There was actual strategy involved in managing what dice faces to upgrade, and what challenges to take on. And despite me feeling like I explained a lot of it, in reality the game feels simple and organic. It really feels like a fun one-shot TTRPG campaign! I loved it.
Oh, and there’s pizza dice! They give you cash and other goodies apparently!
I want to talk about the aesthetics of this game. Seeing the world and the tones of color, it is very much a seedy nightclub vibe. The graffiti, the airs assaulting your senses, the random road puddle you can actually drink from, it’s all strangely dark yet whimsical. The world may be shit, but people are still gonna play in it.
Your character, the undercover pizzaiolo, looks like a mannequin, a statue come to life. They remind me of this one surreal artist I follow: Person918x. Cosmo D and this person probably use the same software, but they somehow evoke the same oddness, a sort of liminal space. Here are a few works of Person918x that I like. See how strange they are? Looking into these images and artpieces, I can’t help but feel a vague sense of dread. But here, in Club Low, the fact that I can move through the place makes it feel less surreal, more vibrant, more alive.
And the music! It’s absolutely BOPPING. I wanna dive in that dancefloor and just jive with the beats!
This game just OOZES with style. It’s a unique aesthetic that I really like. The game is also apparently also set in the same universe as Cosmo D’s older games, so I can’t wait to play more of his games!
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
Here’s the down low at Club Low: Your coworker, Gemini Jay, is trapped in there. You are now charged with saving him, infiltrating the club under the guise of a pizza delivery guy. With your various skills, you have to get in and out with him in tow, bringing him back to The Circus.
The premise is simple enough. It’s the wacky hi-jinks you get up to that make this game. Convincing the coat rack receptionist that the shiny blue coat in the back is actually yours, aggressively punching out the laser security measures put in place to keep out those who aren’t hipster enough, concentrating on the CCTV monitors until you merge your consciousness with the security system… these are all things you can do in this game.
Earlier, I was talking about how surreal Person918x’s works were. Still images evoking liminal spaces. But here, the images are no longer still: you move through them, inspecting, interacting, even finding out about their history. You see skulls from a century ago, left behind by peoples’ ancestors. You see an ominous mirror that wants… something, emitting a strange green aura. Even the club itself is strange: it was once a coffin factory, passed down through generations, now turned into a club. You even see the DJ set mounted on a coffin.
The sights and sounds might muffle it all, but the world will always be there, waiting for you to listen to it.
I like the world of Club Low. The story shown here is simple enough to have fun with the gameplay, but I definitely want to experience more of its worldbuilding.
VERDICT
Betrayal at Club Low is a short but fun ride into Cosmo D’s brand of games. If you are up for a unique one-shot experience, definitely get this game! It’s energetic, it’s funny, and it’s delightfully strange. Get this game!!
Door Rates Betrayal at Club Low: 4/5!
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Door Reviews: Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly (2023)
Let’s talk Third Places.
A third place is a place you hang out in that isn’t your home or your workplace. It’s a location you can breathe in when you just want some variety, when things at home or at work are a little tense, or when you wanna meet more people. It’s a much needed place that is… kind of in a weird position in a way due to 1. the increased commodification of space, what with malls and real estate constantly being built, and 2. the recent pandemic. Nonetheless, they are still important places where people can just chill. Common third places are parks, malls, libraries, and, well, cafes.
Which leads us to Coffee Talk 2. The first game was basically Third Place: The Visual Novel. I saw how customers poured their hearts out to me, the barista, and how they became more comfortable in the vibes of the cafe as they let themselves become regulars. I loved Coffee Talk. And now it’s time to review Coffee Talk 2!
What’s it about? Coffee Talk 2 is a visual novel that takes place a couple years or so after the first Coffee Talk. It continues to explore the lives of some of the previous game’s characters and introduces a couple of new ones. You are still the barista of this nocturnal cafe, ever at the ready to serve customers drinks and listen to their stories.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Gameplay is somewhat minimal. You are a barista and you make drinks for customers. Sometimes they tell you exactly what they want, and sometimes they only give you vague descriptions, so you have to make the drink that they would like most using the ingredients you have on hand. There are taste meters on the drink making UI that can help with that. Honey makes drinks sweeter, mint makes drinks cooler, and so on. After you make the drink, you have the option to make latte art. Sometimes the customers even require it. You don’t have to make it special, but it is nonetheless something you could do.
Lastly, there is a new gameplay mechanic where you have the option to give an object from your drawer with someone’s drink. Across the game there will sometimes be objects left behind or given to you by customers. Most of the time these customers will direct you to give them to other customers, so you’ll have to remember to do that when you have the chance.
I think the gameplay, while simple, is perfect for this game. It’s nice to make drinks and hear about peoples’ stories after while they enjoy sipping them. And it’s nice trying to find out and discover the combinations that make certain drinks. I’ve learned a lot of new drinks from this game!
The art is gorgeous. It has this certain um. 8-bit vibe to it, I wanna say? I’m pretty sure there’s a better way to describe it, but whatever it is, it adds to the charm. The character design is stellar. I love Riona’s design!! And I loved seeing all the other characters. Seeing centaurs, banshees, vampires, werewolves, humans, and other species in one place is pretty cool. The world feels alive. Also, all the drinks look very tasty!! I’d want to drink them all if I weren’t so acidic.
The music is definitely one of the highlights of this game. Perfectly chill! I have it on right now as I write this review (it’s on Spotify!!), and it’s nice. Very apt for cafe music. I did try to listen to it too while jogging, but some songs felt a bit too long at points. The songs are very much fine to have while working, or while serving drinks to customers and listening to their stories.
Overall, the style of the game is rather cozy and peaceful. I like it a lot!
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
As I’ve described earlier, this game is about you hearing other peoples’ stories. It’s like an anthology of sorts in that sense! Though their stories do interconnect with each other at times, and the customers sometimes end up interacting with each other, the common thing really is that they’re all there at your cafe, enjoying the vibes.
A lot of topics get discussed. The difficulty in finding inspiration, discrimination faced by various species, the predatory ways companies abuse young talent, all of these and others get touched on in a rather fluid way. It’s nice to see the characters’ thoughts on all these, seeing their struggles and how to overcome them.
The characters themselves are all very fun. Seeing them talk and manifest their personality is interesting, much more so when seeing them bounce off each other when they interact. There are new characters and returning characters, and all of them offer good stories.
My only real issue with this game is with unlocking the true ending. It requires getting all the achievements. I personally think this is too much work to get a little bit of story, and it kind of irks me that story is being gated this way. It puts me off of 100%-ing this game, which I try to do for games I like.
Overall, I very much liked the story of Coffee Talk 2. It’s not too heavy, not too light, just perfectly served to my taste!
VERDICT
Coffee Talk 2 is a nice, cozy game to play on a rainy evening. It has very chill vibes, has a nice story, and has good characters. And best of all, the music is very good! Get it if you’re looking for something nice and easy to play.
Door Rates Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly: 4/5!
#door reviews#coffee talk episode 2: hibiscus & butterfly#coffee talk 2#coffee talk episode 2#coffee talk
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Door Reviews: Divination (2019)
Writer's note: This article will be talking about a game that has themes of suicide and self-harm. These topics may be triggering for some. Please be advised before reading.
There’s a lot of discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) nowadays. A lot of it centers on its potential for profit, copyright issues, concerns regarding the future of art and music, and a lot of other things. AI has come so far from its beginnings in science fiction, now slowly being manifested into reality.
When DALL-E mini, a prototype of an AI used to make art, came out a year or so ago, I played around with it a bit, finding interest in how the AI perceives certain prompts. It gave out some rather interesting art pieces, if a bit unrefined. I had my fun and called it a day. Months later, AI art has become leaps and bounds more sophisticated. It has a sleek style and a canny ability to copy art styles with enough data fed into it. It is rather concerning at times, not because of any science fiction worries that may have been put forth in the past, but rather the… ethical ramifications of it all. People fed their AIs thousands of pieces art without the artists’ permission, all so that it may learn how to draw. Other people then use these AIs to make new art pieces, all based on the amalgamation of other artists’ stolen work. Shouldn’t these artists then be able to sue the AI owners for copyright? And that’s not even getting into how people would rather use AI for art than commission actual artists.
I’m not really going to go too deep into AI itself. I just find it interesting how, between all the worry of AI becoming sentient, of thinking about AI rights, speculating about AI ethics, it seems that we did not expect the debate to arrive at this strange juncture, arguing about AI legislation and copyright.
Let us go back a few years ago, then, to when AI art didn’t quite exist yet as it is right now, to a game released in 2019 about robots who did not wish to be born…
(once again: TW: suicide, self-harm)
What’s it about? Divination (2019) is about a city with an all-powerful AI search engine. You can ask her anything and she will give you very correct results.
She killed herself three years ago.
With her death, she sent the message that life was not worth living. This started a suicide wave which continues to claim countless of lives, both living and robotic.
You are a Diviner. A mysterious robot diviner that patrons can ask questions to, and with your runes, you answer them with 100% accuracy.
Your job now is to read the city’s fate, one person at a time.
STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)
Gameplay is simple: you are given some runes by your client from your rune bowl. Then you have to slot them into your divining table in the configuration of your choice to predict the answer to your clients’ questions. Different configurations give different results, so the challenge is to arrange the runes in the way that feels right for you.
There isn’t really much nuance to the gameplay, which seems intentional as it is mostly a vehicle to carry the story. I think it really makes you feel like a diviner, the way you have to read the runes. What futures may you read in such a dystopia?
I find the art style pretty good. It sells the cyberpunk vibe while being slick. The UI could use a bit of work, but it’s serviceable enough. And the music has that tenseness that makes you feel that the story is important. Sci-fi feeling and makes you think that there’s more to the game to investigate.
Overall, I like the game’s style. It’s focused, and presents itself well. I wish the gameplay was more complex though.
SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)
Before I proceed, please be mindful of the trigger warnings I put up at the start of this article. The game has overarching themes of suicide and self-harm.
I was thrown off guard by the themes of the game to be honest. I didn’t expect it’d be about the suicide of the smartest AI in the world triggering a years-long wave of copycat suicides. If the all-powerful AI who knows all thinks that life is not worth living, why should we continue living as well? It’s a scary premise, and this game follows the thread through its many branches.
I found it interesting that even robots want to self-terminate in this game, to the point that their manufacturers installed anti-suicide software in them to prevent this. It puts forth the sentiment of people being brought into the world without their permission, except this time it’s robots. What then is the difference between a robot and a human?
It is rather interesting and edgy, the concept. It is nonetheless too short, and what they show is rather grim. Which is par for the course for cyberpunk, but I am a person who rather likes hopeful media, and the propositions this game puts forth feels rather too cynical for me.
I very much like the concept of a robot diviner though. With massive computational power, one gains the ability to see all possibilities. Is that not awe-inducing in itself? Will sufficiently advanced technology be at one point be indistinguishable from the divine?
There’s more to the story that I’m not explaining here, but after experiencing all of the story I am left wondering about the premise the game put forth. The central question of the game I think is thus: Is life worth living? I’m an optimist at heart, which was why it was a bit difficult for me to go through this game, but I am nonetheless fascinated by it. The game crafts a world so grim that it makes you want to answer No to the said question, what with the corruption of the government and the ennui even robots feel.
What interests me the most though is how dated this all feels. The discussion on AI feels so different now. We aren’t focusing on their rights anymore, but rather, what they are used for, and how they are actually taking away from the work of actual artists and writers. It’s a rather interesting contrast, and I personally hope there will be more legislation with AI and the internet at large, as it feels like a big Wild West situation even if the internet is decades old at this point.
Overall, I liked my experience with the story, though I am left wanting more due to its short length.
VERDICT
For the length and the price, Divination is an interesting 1-hour experience. It will make you think about AI for a bit. I myself found my time with it enjoyable, though I wish gameplay were more complex and that they played around with the concept more. It’s interesting to me, but I think this game isn’t gonna be for everyone. If you wanna see cool art and be edgy for a bit, I’d get this game.
Door Rates Divination: 3.5/5!
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