silas of trees

i was originally gonna write a long post about why this is my favourite console despite (and because of) its foibles, but instead i'm just gonna be standard here and say: good damn console.

neat gimmicky experiments and solid games mixing and mingling together to form a weird era of game design that carried over the spirit of the GBA by combining 4th-7th gen game design aspects into a melange that can only be described as "nintendo ds :)"

mine is Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocketslime

Mine has to be Big Bang Mini, a weird SHMUP where you shot by swiping the touchscreen in the direction you wanted to shoot and also moved your ship separately, with it just serving the function of a hitbox. Since you couldn't shoot and move at the same time, this is a game that could only really work on a non-multitouch touchscreen

rhythm game basic bitch coming in with Rhythm Heaven and EBA

(honorable mention to Lego Rock Band for the Amplitude/Frequency-like gameplay, and bonus points to Guitar Hero World Tour for the cool peripheral, but minus points cause it was uncomfortable)

ghost trick!!!!!!!!!!!

or drawn to life?? or pokemon rangers???

TWEWY was great but only at cons, for me. The one that truly feels like a forever game for me is Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, on the original DS and DS Lite with the GBA slot for Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, because it got you extra gubbins, and also it was just cool that you could do that.

(the song lyrics to this contain spoilers for the aforementioned game)

and how they had no reason to go as hard as they did for the ending ballad "Song of Faerun"?

it's entirely possible to not watch this review, but it's also fascinating. note the incredible runtime.

how am i just now discovering this guy?

this is old news at this point but wow our standards must be low for this to be considered a good game

this game felt like it took forever to play, which is unfortunate since it does not take that long to finish with all of the endings. the emphasis on sophomore-year philosophy and history class explanations didn't really help, and i couldn't help but cringe at the obsessively western liberal perspective on history that was applied. there's not much actual game here, and there's not much story, so you end up spreading maybe 30 minutes of enjoyable content over the span of 5 hours. the game makers seem to be aware of this, because they've placed shortcuts throughout the game to make it so you can avoid playing the game as much as possible. despite this almost overbearing amount of effort to streamline the gameplay loop, it still drags! i'm glad i bought this on sale, but i'm kinda disappointed i bought it at all.

one of the best indicators that a piece of media has managed to get you to engage with it is that you seamlessly manage to suspend your disbelief. the awkwardness of traversal, dialogue, organizing plot points, getting characters to react in natural ways, and the hackneyed plot resolution all combine to make sure that disbelief came very much to the forefront. it's a silly story, a silly game, and it takes too long to get to its point. the amount of story cul-de-sacs that exist in this game confuses me as well - normally you'd only let players mess around so much if there was actually anything to gain from it!

basically, find an in-depth review if the premise interests you and spoil yourself on the story, because the actual story is not worth playing the game. i'm happy that some indie developers managed to put together something out of a skyrim mod, and i'm impressed with the amount of work they put in. i just hope they find a more interesting story and maybe create a more interesting way to engage with said story in their next endeavor.