GAMES I PLAYED IN 2023, PT. 1 of 2

My favorite games of the year

Finished Fall of Porcupine yesterday and hoo boy what a game.

There's a free demo available this week.

Fall of Porcupine was a textbook example of why a climax =/= the ending of a story. Stories need a falling action.

All the bugs, glitches, and graphical errors aside, the characters and story did seem really interesting. The story was fantastic, with a very clear catalyst for something going wrong, tensions rising, and then disaster striking, but like...

Well, spoilers under the cut I guess?

You start as a junior doctor in an underfunded hospital. You work on patients, developing a rapport with some of them. One elderly patient, beloved by the town, passes away. The town, already fed up with the hospital’s failing, starts to protest. Then a terrible bacterial illness infects the majority of the town, culminating in the hospital becoming over-capacity. The main character and his companion try to fix up the top floor, which has been out of use for awhile, but a fire starts. You end up running around saving who you can, and then dawn comes, your coworkers look back at the destroyed hospital... And credits roll.

I get that it’s supposed to be a massive thank you to workers in healthcare who are overworked and underappreciated, often working in environments that don’t give them the resources they need. But... They could have still made a better story out of it. 

We don’t get any answer for the infection, which I assumed had something to do with the fountain water. It’s implied that the hospital fell into disarray because of an embezzlement scam, and while one of the partners to this crime ultimately dies trying to make it right, the other gets away scot free. 

I was hoping I’d get to spend more time with the characters. Goof off in the woods with Pina, get a new plant, maybe play a mini-game where Finley gets to help build a memorial statue for a patient he couldn’t save. Mia plays basketball and is in an improv troupe, but each of these hobbies is mentioned only once and there’s no arc to her character. Mr. Glendower sort of just disappears after the funeral, except the weird, goofy scene where the main characters steal his key.

There was so much story and so much potential left in this game, but it ended immediately after the climax. I can’t say the story was bittersweet or hopeful. The only message it had was pretty much, “To healthcare workers. We see you.” Which would be fine, except that the story could have. A moral? A happy ending? A suggestion of a solution? No. It ends with the hospital burning down, the main characters exhausted, many people dead to an illness that was neither explained nor explored, and all those prophetic dreams and deep mysteries and selfish scams unsolved.

So uh. Yeah. Do not recommend. 3/10. If you want a story about caring for the sick or deceased, play Spiritfarer. If you want a game with an art style similar to Fall of Porcupine’s, play Night in the Woods.

DOES THIS GAME MIND?

i’m heart broken and i knew this game would be sad but JESUS CHRIST

I'm slowly working on a thing that'll highlight some of the games I've played in 2023. So far we've got Beeman and Harvey from Edna and Harvey, Finley from Fall of Porcupine, the boat from Dredge, Alucard from Castlevania, Wraith from the DbD dating game and Hollow Knight. I hate everything about it but we'll see what else I'll add!

You! Looking for a new game to play?

Well let me introduce you to Fall of Porcupine! A beautiful game, taking place in the town of Porcupine, where Finley, a new doctor, just started his new job at the town's hospital.

We follow Finley, play minigames that can be tricky (but there's an option to make them easier, as well as options for other disabilities, such as visual ones), and make friends with people from the town.... and become ennemies with others.

It's on Switch, Xbox I think, and PC as well. There's a demo (which I downloaded without thinking much about it and from there I ended up buying the game).

I cannot recommend it enough, it is dedicated to people working in healthcare, and really, the game is visually amazing.

(and it's available in German, French, and English!)

A-Z Challenge GAME 6

F. Yall don't listen to propaganda. Anyway, here's the next set of games!

As always, details on the games under the cut, including trailers and descriptions.

1. Fall of Porcupine (2023)

"Fall of Porcupine is a unique story adventure. The collision of work and daily life – an exciting reflection of an unhealthy healthcare-system. Experience the exciting story of Finley and his friends in a lovingly illustrated world and uncover the darkest secrets of Porcupine and its residents." Steam tags: story rich, atmospheric, indie, cute, interactive fiction, emotional, choices matter, narration, adventure

2. Fate of Kai (2021) (I have 2/12 achievements after 14min of play, hltb estimates an average 1 hr completionist)

"Fate of Kai is a new kind of adventure. Explore different storylines, solve complex puzzles, travel through time and manipulate characters ideas to help Kai reach the castle. The game is set in a magical illustrated book, which you will have to master to reach the end of the story." Steam tags: adventure, puzzle, visual novel, point & click, choose your own adventure, time management, hand-drawn, casual

3. Five Dates (2020)

"Five Dates is an interactive rom-com about the unpredictable world of digital dating. With five potential female matches, Vinny explores whether compatibility, chemistry and connection is still possible in a world where physical touch is no longer an option." Steam tags: fmv, dating sim, choose your own adventure, adventure, choices matter, point & click, visual novel, interactive fiction

4. Four Last Things (2017)

"Four Last Things is a point-and-click adventure game made from Renaissance-era paintings and public domain recordings of classical music. It is about sin, and the Four Last Things – Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell – and strives to be intelligent and ridiculous in equal measures." Steam tags: adventure, indie, point & click, historical, funny, medieval, dark comedy, comedy, 2d, surreal, puzzle

The ending IS actually explained, they left clues in the aftermath and some dialog in the game

Heidrich the badger was being arrested, which is imo who I think tried to kill Finley and the one sabotaging the hospital... heidrich tried to kill him because of his financial fraud and the destruction of the hospital as a cheap, careless, selfish bastard that he is. He used blackmail on Theobald... ugh Roman Heidrich... Theobald well he really wanted to be able to actively help St. Ursula Hospital in the best way possible he could.. He was appointed chief physician with the help of heidrich, who had alot of influence over the hospital and made him chief as part of the restructuring but was used and pressured and blackmailed into taking money from the hospital for his own crappy bs reasons and if they got caught Theobald would have taken all of the blame as chief so that's why he fled... but he came back to try to help more people, in the end he met his end and tbh I saw it more as a form of suicide from guilt.

The deer brothers who are dumb and drank Shigella nearly killing em which also causes vomiting are used as an example of being poisoned, the town suffers from something similar meaning they also drank something that had some kind of bacterial infection/poison, okay so Finley actually talks to the statue and talks of a dirt not even rain washes away and also the bever man said hes going to fix the fountain for the festival, he mentioned the old pipes from the fountain....that they have seen better days and that the pipes needed proper cleaning/needed to be replaced Ideally but said its not his problem, so we know the pipes are old dirty nasty pipes 🤢....at the festival they turn the water on from the fountain which is warm/hot water which they use that water for the stew for the annual stew making competition which is actually what hurts them... people all around in that town sample the stews and guess what? The towns people get sick within the next few days... Findley and the Jaguar doctor doesn't get sick because they didn't have any stew, also a few people who were too busy making the stew didn't eat the stew either.

The fire was caused by the bad storm caving in the roof which caused damage on the fifth floor so when they tried to turn the power on it started an electrical fire. They show the repair bulldog and bever man fixing the hospital so in the end we know it'll be repaired and they will start anew with their lives and probably properly maintain keeping the building in tip top shape this time with more workers.

You can just Google what deadly bacteria can be found in nasty old dirty rusty probably moldy pipes and make a theory since we didn't get an exact diagnosis.

I honestly couldn't even guess though what bacteria or even diseases can survive warm or hot water. I cannot confirm what disease or poisoning they could have got though. ~All in all it was the fountain water that caused the downfall of the people of porcupine and the burning hospital was just another downfall which was really sad....

The game has alot of meaningful dialog on subjects that are important such as Healthcare, friendship and loneliness ect... Karl, Mia and Irma are my favorite characters.Fall of porcupine gave me tears, goosebumps, alertness, anxious, awwww, and anger feelings.

Looks like Finley got a new plant to and is doing better after all the hard times he went through and will more likely continue his job helping people once the hospital is back up :)

Also here's a link you should read up on that might help better understand some things to on pipes since it's related ->

https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/boilwater/response_information_public_health_professional.htm

FALL OF PORCUPINE (2023) ⭒ dev. Critical Rabbit

Started playing Fall of Porcupine…why did I do that to myself lol

New Emote and some Thumbnail art~

Fall of Porcupine

Rite & Blouse

Fall of Porcupine is a narrative game set in the small town of Porcupine, in which you follow Finley, a young doctor just out of medical school, as he tries to make ends meet between his professional and private lives. The game clearly seeks to denounce the health system and the difficult working conditions of medical staff, but doesn't always follow through on its ideas, in my opinion.

❤ The art direction is really charming, it's colorful and soft on the eyes, the animations are well done and the anthropomorphic characters look really cute and are all very distinct from each other. ❤ Still speaking of the characters, I found them all interesting and even really touching for some of them. You can really build up a deep relationship just by chatting to them a little every day, like a comfortable routine. The dialogues are also very human, with some characters being very direct and others much more philosophical, but their words always ring true. ❤ The visual details that enrich the narrative without having to explain everything, such as Finley's room getting messier and messier, his face getting more tired/depressed as time goes by, the town coming alive and emptying according to the circumstances etc….

+/- So let's get down to the nitty-gritty: the script. In itself, the story is pretty good, and the underlying message about the hospital situation is well conveyed. There are some good ideas, such as creating a real contrast between the calm and soothing life when you're in the city and the cold and stressful side when you enter the hospital, or making the mini-games a little more difficult depending on the pressure you're under in the hostpital ward. The game's creators also consulted real doctors to get as close as possible to their feelings and daily lives, so the situations seem plausible… but the pace of the story is too inconsistent. In fact, the game aims to evoke a certain melancholy feeling by setting a very slow pace for the first few hours, but then suddenly takes off with a series of much more eventful phases, culminating in an extremely abrupt ending. As a result, you get the impression that everything has happened at the end, and that we're barely touching on the problems of the healthcare system, which is the main subject of the game. The finale is certainly open-minded, but doesn't offer any thoughts on potential solutions to improve hospital life, or even address the direct consequences this may have on the town of Porcupine… +/- The mini-games are fairly varied and enjoyable, but oh my god, some of them are just unplayable with the controller; including a game where you have to keep pressing down on buttons at the same time and I'm asked to twist my fingers into inhuman positions, or a rhythm game where no matter how hard I press the right button, it still counts wrong… it was very frustrating. +/- The game's music is really very beautiful and helps to create a calm, melancholy atmosphere, but there are a lot of empty moments and not much in the way of other sound effects.

✖ The city isn't that big, but it's divided into 2 areas that take quite a long time to cross on foot. As a result, if you're like me and want to wander around every day to have your little routine conversations with the locals, going back and forth becomes tiring, and you would have needed a shortcut between these two districts. ✖ Quite a few bugs like dialogue bubbles that stick out of the frame, symbols that indicate an interaction but nothing happens when you click on them, characters that sometimes get stuck when they have to follow you and a game crash x')

While the game's message is entirely praiseworthy and completely in tune with current medical events, in my opinion it misses the mark because it doesn't go deeply enough into this theme. Its main strength lies in the characters and the various discussions you have with them, which are often mature and poetic. In fact, it reminded me a lot of Night in the Woods, which I highly recommend if, like Fall of Porcupine you're looking for a tranquil game that tackles very human subjects such as finding one's place in society.

➡ My Steam page

 If you loved “Night in the woods”, check out "Fall of Porcupine”. It’s a first game of new indie studio and it looks really good, so please support them by adding game to wishlist on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/1710540/Fall_of_Porcupine/