Digital Down-Low for 02/25/2022: A Treacherous Galaxy Trip

[Octopus Prime]

My favorite part of the internet are the memes. Pretty funny stuff out there with the memes.

Let's kick things off by addressing the elephant in the room (his name is Gus, he's taking dictation) Elden Ring is out this week. This is a new game from the peeps what made Otogi: Myth of Demons and Armored Core: Master of Arena, and is written (at least partly) by one of the co-authors of the Wild Cards series of novels.. That guy what likes writing about figs and whatever the hell a "rush" is.

Anyway... it's a game where you get a bunch of rings or something. Like Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sol Cresta is another game that is coasting on its pedigree as much as anything; as it's the long awaited (?) sequel to Terra Cresta, and Lunar Cresta, which, collectively, were all shmups! The neat thing about them was that you had three ships collectively and you could Voltron them together into new configurations to give your little space ship a whole whack of distinct capabilities as you engage in your artillery ballet. There's also a DRAMATIC EDITION available which includes the DL, and I have to admit, is a way more eye catching name than "Deluxe Edition"

Speaking of games with optional Deluxe Editions, we also have Monark, which, from the screenshots, I infer to a Persona game, just with a different title. The description doesn't really mention anything that disabuses me of that notion. So... let's just go ahead and assume it is. You know what level of research I put into these things.

If you're weak in the knees at the prospect of paying hard currency for a video game that is normally free, we have Puzzles and Dragons: Switch Edition, which takes one of the few Gacha games I'd consider Fun and Worth Playing, and decides to take away the free to play aspect, but make it just as monetized as ever. Fortunately, it seems to hold true to why PaD is my favorite FTP game because paying for stuff is a suckers game with it, given the sheer amount of free Gacha pulls you get just for playing normall, but still.

Also, there's a Dungeon Editor in this port, which is neat, but it's still PAD, so "dungeon" is kind of misleading. More of a pre-set list of battles.

Edge of Eternity is also a JRPG! If you're playing it on the Switch, it's Cloud Based, and if you aren't then it's... um... dirt based? It's got some cool monster designs, credit there, but precious little else makes it stand out. Looks like the combat is more stratactical.

Move your peeps around a grid and smack a guy made out of a bunch of guys in order to save the land!

And speaking of moving peeps around a grid, we also have the game I am absolutely most excited for this week, with FTW: For the Warp, which appears to be mash-up of two of my favorite indie games of the last decade; Slay the Spire and FTL (hence the title, it is not subtle). Arm a cutting edge spaceship using playing cards, and use those cards to wield the power of incredible violence and occasional diplomacy as you try to get out of the ass end of space, meeting strange new bug creatures and Chewbaccas and stuff.

You'll be saying "Make It So" to all your favorite Stargates!

Atelier Sophie 2 is another JRPG, and it's another Atelier game, and I promise I will get around to that series some day. Unlike the one I did make an effort to try (Ryza), this one seems to have a pretty straightforward and easy to understand alchemy mini-game, based on the fact that I could infer what was happening in the one screenshot the eShop elected to use.

Run around a Fantasy Land and use Pharmacutical Skills and Friendship to learn the true meaning of saving the kingdom from Dark Lords and also making a solvent fiscal plan.

And backing up the rear this week we have Motoroader MC, which is one of the rare non-Arcade Archives arcade game re-releases. In this case, it's a top-rown racer in the vein of, say, Super Sprint or Super Off-Road or the like. Zip your favorite l'il car guy through tracks that start at "conventional" and wind up "weird".

While I'm not a sports fan, I believe most regulation F1 races have fewer teleporter mazes, and four-way intersections than this game posits.

I guess that's all. That's all I'm going to walk about, certainly!

 

[q 3]

Monark apparently has the transphobia

 

[Peklo]

I played its demo too before that aspect of it broke out; did not fill me with particular confidence in the rest of it. Everything it was felt very much like the distillation of a kind of chūnibyō creative mindset and tonality, from the premise, aesthetics and dialogue. Reaching for the most tired set of iconography and semiotics imaginable (hello the seven deadly sins, hello the Goetia) and just drowning in proper nouns and a sense of self-importance without much to back it up, and which all gets explored with this pretty laborious and slow-paced tactical battle system that doesn't gel stylistically with the rest of it. A lot of other warning signs too, like: 1) you can only play as a duder, regardless of the game sticking to a silent protagonist bit 2) said protagonist has a tiny little sister present to be imperiled/act as motivation/chirp onii-chans at the player 3) a major character in the dean of the academy the game is largely set in has been there for a long time and is ostensibly happily married to a greyed-out middle-aged or bordering elderly guy--she is however Mysteriously presenting as physically being around her twenties or so for reasons that I'm sure will turn out highly relevant and narratively compelling. There's just so much off in even the little time I spent with it in all these bog-standard ways, which stands out even more when FuRyu (but an entirely separate developer) put out The Caligula Effect 2, which of course had superficially similar leanings and bearing but had its act together in all the ways this game and others appear not to be interested in.

 

[MetManMas]

Another week, another pile of games!

Over on the non-Switch platforms the big release of the week is Elden Ring! FromSoftware and George R.R. Martin have teamed up to make a much larger kill-ya-dead game world to explore.

Also on the more HD-ier consoles is Martha is Dead! This is a horror game set in World War II era Italy where the daughter of a German soldier tries to cope with the loss of her twin sister. And I know about this game at all because I heard about it when it was announced that the Sony version would be censored compared to the Xbox and PC ones.

On the one hand, I feel for the people who will be getting an incomplete version of this game if they only have their PlayStations available and wish Sony would stop being an overprotective parent.

But, on the other hand, I also feel the games industry in general has let gruesome and horrific content go way too far in this HD era we live in, and when the platform that hosts The Last of Us thinks a game goes too far, maybe the games industry in general should take a nice, long look in the mirror.

YMMV.

Sol Cresta is a Platinum Games helmed retraux-styled sequel to the arcade games Terra Cresta and Moon Cresta. Not the Platinum Games release for me, but no doubt our dedicated SHMUP crowd will enjoy it.

In Monoark your anime high school has been engulfed by a madness-inducing and monster spawning mist and you are the only one who can fix this shit.

EDIT: And I just learned that Monoark is transphobic on checking the comments post-post. Very disappointing.

EDIT PART DEUX: Removed the image as well, it doesn't deserve one.

Edge of Eternity is a French anime sci-fi-y RPG where a corrosion has spread across the land creating all kinds of horrific biohazards and you are seeking out a cure. It doesn't explicitly say it's a Cloud version on the cover, but it is definitely a Cloud version.

Oh and you can ride a giant cat as a mount.

Never Alone: Arctic Collection is the entirety of the Iñupiat-inspired tale of Nuna and Fox, as they seek to stop an eternal blizzard via puzzle platforming.

Or if you want a more murdery experience in an ice-cold world there's Antarctica 88, a survival horror game where you shoot horrible monsters what want to kill you.

An NPC's Odyssey has you as some ordinary NPC what got robbed by a typical kleptomaniac jRPG hero and you journey to get back the money what got stolen from you.

Who is Zombie is the Papers, Please of zombie games. You watch the gate of an overcrowded shelter and must figure out who is and isn't a zed.

Amazing Machines is an Incredible Machine-like game where you build Rube Goldberg devices with the goal of sending aliens back to outer space.

Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream has Sophie exploring the land and alchemising stuff in hopes of finding someone she saw in her dreams.

And Moto Roader MC is a beloved PC Engine CD (READ: Turbo Duo) game. Race cars haphazardly around all kinds of crazy single screen tracks and play various mini games!

 

[Violentvixen]

Never Alone: Arctic Collection is the entirety of the Iñupiat-inspired tale of Nuna and Fox, as they seek to stop an eternal blizzard via puzzle platforming.

This game was fun, and includes a lot of detail/interviews on the cultural background and they claim to be the first indigenous-owned video game company in the US. However I can't find anything about that company anymore so maybe they merged into something else. Still, I heard nothing but good things about the representation and accuracy to tradition in this game.

I learned a lot. It's very short (looks like I beat it in under 3 hours) but I do recommend it.

 

[WildcatJF]

Never Alone is a great game, so I'm glad to see it come to Switch.

 

[Issun]

Uh, Octo. You left out From's defining work: Playstation 2 classic The Adventures of Cookie and Cream.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I know I don’t do research, but I am still kicking myself for that oversight

 

[MetManMas]

Here's some more games!

FTW: For The Warp is a deck-building roguelike where you are trying to get to a warp gate and not die horribly and repeatedly in space.

Variable Barricade is a visual novel where you are Hibari, the sole heir to her family's fortune who must endure and try to turn away a quartet of pretty boy bachelors whom her grandpa is hoping to marry her off to one of.

Clouzy! is a game set in a colorful expansive open world where you and your animal companion will help care for clouds at cloud daycare by doing mini games and fetch quests.

An American Werewolf in L.A. casts you as a werewolf (or werewolves, 2-player is an option) who wants to run off to California to be a surfer...But the po-po of Hell's Creek don't want that to happen.

You must teach them a lesson.

SpelunKing: The Mine Match is the act of going to a mine hunting down resouces boiled down to a typical Match-3 puzzle mold.

Aeternum Quest is a game made by someone who played Quest 64 back in the day and was inspired to make their own game with some mage with elemental gems.

And our Arcade Archives game this week is High Way Race! Try and get to the end of the race without running out of gas or drowning in your automobile along the way.

 

[MetManMas]

On the more premium version of Nintendo Switch Online you can now play The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask all Nintendo 64-like! You have three days to stop an angry moon from blowing up Termina and you will collect masks with various powers to save the day!

Personally I'm cool with holding out in case Nintendo eventually decides to remaster those 3DS remakes. The odd aesthetic and mechanical stoofs and redone boss fights aside, I find that general movement just flows a little better in those remakes, and motion-assisted aiming in particular was a huge boon.

Still, it's awesome to see more additions to Switch Online and that Nintendo is working on the emulation of games both past and present.

Spoiler: WARNING: ALLUSION TO OUR HORRIBLE VIRUS