Ib is a really cool game and you should go download it immediately!
Category: Video Games
Mad Father
Mad Father isn’t that great, so feel free to read the review without playing the game.
Immortal Defense – Guest review
Immortal Defense is a tower defense game. Normally those don’t hold my interest for very long, but for some reason I ended up finding this one fairly engaging. One reason is probably because it has a plot, but it also used some interesting an innovative gameplay mechanics that I believe alleviated some of my misgivings about the genre.
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Defender’s Quest – Guest review
The simply-named Defender’s Quest is a tower defense game with RPG elements. Your “towers” are party members that level up and can get upgraded equipment and all the standard RPG stuff. Typical for the RPG genre, there is also a strong story element, even moreso than in Immortal Defense. Before and after every battle, you’re treated to an extensive cutscene where multiple characters interact.
Unfortunately, however, though the early game is excellent, the whole experience falls apart around the halfway mark and never really gets better.
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Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue – Guest review
I was so excited to try this game out, to see more of what the surely-lovely Zoombinis franchise had to put out after the first game.
I was very disappointed. Mountain Rescue feels like a cheap knock-off version of the original game with everything that made it fun and engaging stripped out.
Misao
Misao is the first game by the same person who did Mad Father. The graphics are a lot cruder but otherwise I found it enjoyable, if hard to take quite seriously. Also, the backstory reveal involves unnecessarily nasty abuse, down to including rape, so avoid if you’re bothered by that.
It opens with a nine minute cutscene, but unlike Mad Father, the rest of the game has very little of this.
The Void – Guest review
The Void, also known as Tension or Turgor, is an adventure…horror…survival…thing made by Ice-Pick Lodge, the same people who made Pathologic, which you’ve probably never played either. Unfortunately, though it improves on almost all of Pathologic’s faults, I do not have nearly as high of an opinion of it. (Also, naked women herein.)
To start with: the presentation of this game is gorgeous.
The Mirror Lied
The Mirror Lied is a very short game that’s intriguing while it lasts, but fumbles terribly at the end. I strongly recommend the experience but don’t expect much of an ending.
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Telepath RPG – Guest review
The Telepath RPG series is comprised of story-heavy western-style RPGs with tactics-based battle systems. There are currently three games in the series (though two of them can really be counted as part of the same game), as well as two spin-off games focused on gameplay over plot. Another entry to the main series is currently in development, as well. This review will focus on Telepath RPG Chapter 1 & Chapter 2, the first two games in the series.
Telepath RPG: Servants of God – Guest review
Last time, I looked at the first entry into the Telepath RPG series. This is the next game in the series, Servants of God. It’s clear that this is where the developer started seriously pursuing game design as a career. It’s bigger, more professional-looking, and it has a price tag.
I remember being so hyped about this game when it first came out, and it is certainly a solid piece of work, but it’s not without its flaws. I think it definitely shows the lessons the developer learned from his earlier games and is an overall improvement, but it’s actually remarkably different from the first Telepath RPG in a number of ways.
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The Witch’s House
I was somewhat underwhelmed by The Witch’s House – it’s got a lot of cool ideas and isn’t overly difficult, but it has a bunch of fast reflex bits that annoyed me, especially when a lot of them were at the end of a sequence with no save point.
Pokemon X&Y Aside
God dammit I just saw the player characters for the new Pokemon games and I think you all should have your days made more miserable too.
The Crooked Man
The Crooked Man is a pretty amazing game with a couple issues in execution, but you can use a walkthrough to sidestep most of those. (more…)
Mermaid Swamp
Like the Crooked Man, this contains a content warning. Unlike that one, it is well and truly deserved. While not excessively gory, it has detailed images of bloated bodies. I also found it overall to be much creepier and I spent much of the game on edge. Go play it! (more…)
Pokemon X Prologue
Okay, stood in line with the rest to get my shiny new pokegame, yay! Also, Gamestop apparently didn’t keep track of who got a preorder poster and who didn’t, because they gave me another one, also yay! Actually this was a good move on their part, I actually really wanted two since they’re double-sided and the possibility they might accidentally double their bonus means I’ll probably preorder from them again.
Pokemon X requires my 3ds do a system update. Last time I did this, my PS3 stopped working. Also, this system update appears to just be to prevent me from doing “unauthorized” anything. Luckily, the 3ds seems to be more robust.
Now it’s not reading my game.