Quick Review: Road 96

It’s a dangerous world out there, for teens chasing freedom.

This kid's so young his voice still hasn't cracked, yet he is
already driving and building computers and coding games.

Developed by Digixart, published by THQ Nordic and released on August 16th, 2021, Road 96 is the story of Petria, a country in disarray under the iron-fisted rule of the tyrannical President Tyrak. It’s 1996, most citizens have little choice other than to obey, and rebellious teenagers risk everything to leave the godforsaken country behind. For all these young hitchhikers, it goes through Road 96, a bottleneck point that’s the only trusted way out. Those who get caught fleeing are arrested and sent to “The Iron Pits”, whatever that is… if they’re not outright killed. Just gotta make it through, whichever way possible – bribes, stealth, friends, anything. The Black Brigades, rumored to have played a part in a tragedy ten years prior when Tyrak was elected, and seen as terrorists by the regime and part of the population, could help. Then there’s that upcoming election, with candidate Florres that could rise to power and put an end to all this…

Apparently, there is only one way out of the country.
Nothing South, and no other options anywhere on that border.

Of course, this means that you have to engage with the
scenario put in front of you, and the game will force your hand
 if you don't want to. Wanna get away from the robbers? Nah,
they'll hire you whether you want to or not.

How to describe this one… Imagine a narrative-driven Telltale game à la Walking Dead, with some roguelite randomness built in. You play through your first character’s story, and when their run is over, you are given a choice between three other teens. You’ll never know what to expect… or in which order, really. You interact with the other major characters of the story, and like with Telltale, your answers can influence them one way or another – some answers will cause shifts in those characters, and perhaps even in the wider world. The closer you get to the end (with some of your teens making it through, others not), the more you see the repercussions of your choices.

Why is there a meter rising up about the cab driver's cold
anger? I dunno, how about we ask the soon-to-be-murdered
guy stuffed in the taxicab's trunk?

You’ll encounter one major character in every segment, with each one having several segments dedicated to them (as denoted in the loading screen). You never know who will be the next onemet, or which scene you’ll witness (some scenes can only happen after specific ones have been played). Will you meet the runaway teen that keeps getting herself (and others) in trouble? The well-meaning cop mom who’s unfortunately helping the tyranny? Or her son, a hacking genius? The bumbling thieves? Or the guy who wants to kill the #1 newscaster in the country? Hell, you can run into said newscaster, and she might give you jobs or pick you up as a hitchhiker, even though she’s on board with the tyranny.

No, Officer! I know I look sixteen, but I was born in...
Uh... '42! Promise!

Outside of those where the choice is made for you, after some segments, you have options as to what your next travel method will be: By foot, by taxi, by bus, hitchhiking, stealing a car… I assume that the next scenes you’ll experience are picked based on your choices.

The other element that makes this a roguelite? As a runaway teen, you must manage health and funds carefully. But there are perks!

Me? The worst cameraperson you've seen? Hey, you are
the one who asked me to sub in, lady! I don't even like Tyrak!

-You often lose health due to traveling, but it can be refilled by sleeping, eating, or drinking. Sustenace can be paid for… or dug out of the trash. You’ll often start a chapter with low health, so finding ways to refill it will be necessary.

-Your money will generally be low when you start on a new teenager. Cash is needed for bus/taxi, sometimes for food. Small amounts can be found in hidden spaces. The setting being what it is, you might take on degrading jobs (maybe pro-Tyrak, against your character’s worldview) to have anything to spend. Staying morally upright can only take you so far.

Big John, here, has gien you the gift of life! By which I
mean, the gift of two extra HP for the remainder of the
game. You just had to make, and then drink, a nasty
beverage to obtain them.

-Completing specific segments can net the player new skills, which will stick around for every subsequent chapter. These can involve better odds whenever a luck roll is made, a lockpicking ability, hacking, an easier time dealing with police forces, and a “quick wit” to have the best response in some situations. The sixth skill permanently increases your max health by two points.

Several scenes have their own associated minigame; though there are rarely any significant rewards for victory, they shake up the formula and offer some levity in a game that otherwise doesn’t have much of it. Connect 4? Trombone Hero? Pong? That’s cool.

Yes, Trombone Hero. Eh, why not.

Tension! Action! Horror! This game should be a TV show.
Just need one solid season. One teen per hour-long episode.

The game boasts an excellent soundtrack (there’s even collectibles in the form of tape cassettes that you can play on car radios), and the cel-shaded graphics give it a great style. Your choices can influence some of the details, but there’s only three possible major events that count as endings. And all of them are bittersweet at best, as even the happiest will have at least a few characters dead. Road 96’s colorful look masks its bleak story; there’s always something that goes wrong, or that you can’t make better no matter which dialog option you choose. The most horrible characters have their moments where you may empathize, but never enough to redeem them. The best characters will not always make the best decisions. And those that garner the most sympathy from you might still lose it all in the final stretch. It’s dark, but it’s inevitable considering the subject matter. All to highlight what we all should know, which is that authoritarianism fucking sucks.

But hey, there’s always people out there who need the reminder… Anyway, yeah, very good game here.

Road 96 is available on Steam for 19.99$ USD.

Quick Review: Rakuen

Hey, I know how to make that hat! It's an easy origami model.

Feels a little colorless, but then again, it's a hospital.

Created by Laura Shigihara and released on May 10th, 2017, Rakuen is a game made using RPG Maker XP. That’s my one for the year! You play as a young boy during a long hospital stay. While waiting on a visit from his mom, he is given permission to leave his room and walk around. He realizes that the book his mom reads to him, Rakuen, is missing from his room. He meets the other patients, has a chat with the personnel and any friendly visitors, and finds his book.

The next day, while exploring the hospital with his mom, the boy finds a portal that leads to the world of the storybook. The two can explore it and talk with the catlike Leebles that inhabit the forest village. Morizora, the guardian of the forest, can grant someone a wish, but he has fallen asleep due to shadowy spirits. Morizora can only be awakened with a song, of which the boy will have to learn the parts if he wants his wish granted. Many humans at the hospital have their equivalent character on the other side. As he explores both sides, the boy will discover the personal stories of the other patients on his floor, and learn the parts of the song.

We're gonna have to earn that wish.

I liked this part of the game, we were playing waiter to get
information on a robber. It was creative and fun.

Although it was designed on software intended for RPGs, this is more like a point-and-click puzzle adventure. You walk around with the arrows, interact with things with Space or Enter, and get prompted to use items from your inventory (from the pause menu, opened with Esc., which includes a save button) onto décor elements to solve puzzles. Though you will be told which item to use when you have it, instead of doing trial and error! This is combined to a complex world you can explore, and you unlock areas as you find new tools and passageways – not to mention more doors leading to the fantasy land.

Interactions you have in one world impact the other; watering a plant in the hospital creates a climbable beanstalk in the village. Vice versa, resolving the issues of a patient’s fantasy land version will have repercussions on said patient. Objects freely travel to and fro. Both halves influence each other far too much for this to be just a dream, but the truth is left ambiguous, like many other elements.

A story of love, not of loss.

Nowhere is that made more obvious than when you investigate the past of other patients on the boy’s floor. Their stories are told through the inhabitants of the forest, with the boy witnessing setting-modified versions of events that get the point across, and yet they are nonetheless brutally clear as to what happened. Stories of racism, estrangement, bullying, or loss of oneself, to name a few.

One example is Tony, the grumpy old man. He and his family are represented by bears in the Leebles’ world, showing through animals the broad strokes of what happened to make him so embittered. Through the magical doors, the boy and his mom access Tony’s old home, which allows them to discover the realistic details… and those don’t leave the player with much doubt. I am staying vague, because it is worth seeing on your own. While you are investigating, flashbacks will put away the boy and switch the playable character to one relevant to the current backstory.

Ohh, I was not looking forward to the moment we play
one of these bears. And I was right to dread. Not spoiling!

Dangit, I'm just coming back for screenshots, re-hearing the first
song... is that tears coming back?? Oh, Laura Shigihara also does
music, by the way!

The music is great (shout-out to the climactic song of every patient’s story). The maps are detailed and beautiful. And the game is programmed to include a ton of puzzles and gameplay twists that make it surpass the average game made with this software. One example is the labyrinthine cave that’s explored early on, with its own mini-puzzles; this “dungeon” provides a handy map. When the boy’s mother is somewhere with him, she can be called with the Q key for a chat or to provide a hint if you’re not sure what to do next. This can be very handy!

Such a lovely space for the child patients on this floor.
We all hope they'll get to enjoy it... No, I'm not sobbing.

My one critique would be that a few side-quests, especially those that involve gathering materials to make new tools for progression, can feel a bit like chores unless you quickly get it into your head to pick up every necessary material as soon as you see it. Another important point is that, the rare times you CAN get a Game Over, you aren’t warned beforehand (since most obstacles instead warp you back to the previous room). Thankfully, the game lets you save almost anywhere, and includes an autosave so that you don’t lose too much progress if you land a Game Over and haven’t saved in a while.

Oh, and if you play this game, keep a box of tissues nearby. This is not a joke; each story will get you teary-eyed. Or, more likely, you’ll bawl your eyes out. This game made me a crying mess, you have no idea. The storytelling is excellent, some of the best I’ve seen in gaming, period. Absolutely. In the realm of incredible RPG Maker games, it’s a little less famous than To The Moon, and yet it’s just as heartbreaking. Need I even say that I recommend this one? Because I do.

Only barely exaggerated.

Rakuen is available on Steam for 14.99$ USD.

Quick Review: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

The voices – she hears them everywhere…

Before you can enter Hel, you must find the portal to it.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was developed by Ninja Theory, published by them and Xbox Game Studios, and released to Steam on August 8th, 2017. We play as the titular Senua, a Pict warrior left traumatized after an invasion of her village by Vikings. Now on a quest to resurrect her fiancé Dillion, who died during the invasion, she lands her crude boat onto a mysterious island. This goal will force her to fight mythological Norse figures on the way to Hel, forcing her to confront her own past on the way to meeting Hela.

Everything is messing with her mind.
Including her mind itself.

When it's not voices, it's flashbacks. Reminding her of why
she is doing all this. Who, around her, actually tried to
help her with her struggles... and who didn't.

But is it even real? Senua suffers from intense psychosis, exhibiting many traits of schizophrenia. She keeps seeing faces, she keeps hearing voices, some mocking, some encouraging, some wondering what she’s doing. The voices color the entire experience. True silence is rare across this adventure. Psychiatrists didn’t exist in the 9th Century, so everyone else calls it “the darkness”, or “the curse”, as if it was something she had to overcome… The game recommends playing with headphones, as the game uses 3D Binaural sound that makes every voice feel like it comes from a specific spot around Senua.

As for seeing faces... Hellblade does something clever,
where it superimposes live-action heads onto stone faces.
It's... unsettling. The face seen this way is Senua's mother,
who encourages her. Other cutscenes use live-action instead,
which gives them an otherworldly feel in the setting.

That's one found. Now to find the other. I sure love an
environment with random sigils existing around!

Calling this game just a walking simulator does it a disservice. Yes, you’ll be walking around with WASD, exploring, looking for lore stones to hear bits and pieces of mythology. You’ll face areas with specific puzzles that require observing something by focusing with E, or interacting with something with F. Closed doors will require you to find sigils in the wild, which you’ll have to focus on from specific standing points. That part is lenient, as you don’t need to be aligned perfectly, and the game further helps by flashing the nearest sigil when you’re approaching it. Other puzzles play with your perception to make things like bridges and staircases appear.

Why yes, this is, in fact, a river of blood, with malformed
bodies making up the banks.

This is also classified as a horror game. First, you have the constant presence of the voices discussing your every move. They disorientate Senua (and, by extension, the player), and yet, the longer the game goes, the more you learn to ignore the defeatist or mocking voices, and focus on the encouraging ones. You’ll need all the determination you can find, while hunting down Surtr in a forest that catches fire every time you solve a puzzle, or encounter any of Valravn’s illusions, to give two examples. Aside from the unnerving places we visit, the game's scariest moments are often in cutscenes. There are jumpscares, but the game more often utilizes atmosphere to unsettle you.

Ugh, the shield guys. Never quite got the hang of
beating them quickly... until the very end, anyway.

Took me until AFTER a long story break without fighting
to find out I could use Focus against any enemy.
Plus, Focus makes your sword shine like a lightsaber.

Then there’s combat. I wished there had been a tutorial since those controls are more complex than the rest of the game. You slash with the left mouse button, or do a stronger slash with the right button. You can block with Crtl, block with the left Crtl, change target with C or Z, or dodge with Space and WASD. I felt unprepared when the first fight was sprung up on me, but I picked up everything else quickly by checking controls in the pause menu. Other features of the game come in handy – the voices warn you when an attack is coming from behind, and mention when an enemy is almost defeated. Although these two features make combat interesting, there aren’t many enemy types, and the repetition becomes obvious early. However, the bosses are memorable, not just where they’re fought, but all the tricks they use against you. Special mention to Garmr/Fenrir, whicks blocks your view of the arena with Senua’s own traumatic memories, forcing you to constantly dodge its attacks.

Using Focus in battle slows down time and creates a really
cool effect around the fight. It won't always save you,
but it IS a lifesaver against bosses and enemy groups.

Senua is said to have limited “lives” (represented by the rot on her arm growing towards her head when she “dies”), but a precise number, like her health, or the enemies’, is never disclosed. The uncertainty is part of the dread.

There's clearly something there. You're just not at the right
angle to focus on it and create the bridge forwards.

Honestly, for a product whose development forced its team
to cut corners, even transforming a meeting room into a
green screen mocap space,  it is still in the end one of the most
visually stunning gaming experiences I've had.

The puzzle gameplay can be a little repetitive (even if we get some interesting twists out of it sometimes); but the story is worth it. The horror ambiance is on point, and the story incorporates Nordic mythology in clever ways (including how Senua envisions those gods and monsters). The music helps the tone tremendously, and the graphics make this game possibly one of the most beautiful I've ever played. The plot has several beats of mental breakdown, with all the freaky visuals they induce, and you can never tell what’s real and what isn’t. Melina Juergens was merely the team’s video editor and had no acting experience when she was selected as a mocap actress stand-in before doing such a great job in the role that she was permanently cast in it. And that performance earned her a BAFTA Award! Impressive! And Ninja Theory went to great lengths to portray schizophrenia and traumas as accurately as possible, with experts helping on that front at every step of the way.

This game is an experience worth playing through. I know I made sure to play it all the way to the end! Oh, and there is a VR edition as well.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is available on Steam for 29.99$ USD.

Quick Review: Guacamelee! Gold Edition

Luchador life isn't for me. What would my stage name be anyway? El Tabarnaco?

Some great stories start with the hero dying. Wait, what?

A game by Drinkbox Studios published by them and Kepler Ghost and released on August 8th, 2013, Guacamelee! (specifically, the Gold Edition) is a metroidvania set in Mexican culture. Our protagonist, agave farmer Juan, is helping prepare the Dia de los Muertos festivities when tragedy strikes. El Presidente’s daughter, whom Juan had a crush on, is kidnapped by Carlos Calaca, a lich from the World of the Dead and his crew of other assorted superpowered undead. Calaca plans to unite it with the world of the living, which would cause untold chaos. Juan is killed during his rescue attempt and lands in the World of the Dead. There, he finds a magical luchador mask allowing him to return to the living, where he must use his new wrestling abilities to stop the lich’s plan.

No matter how big the monster, the Rooster Uppercut will
take them down! Or any new comes that we get afterwards.

Classic metroidvania formula; Juan starts with the basics. As we progress, however, we’ll unlock new skills allowing him to access new areas, and venture further into the world. The special moves, all color-coded can be used both offensively and for platforming; as an example, the first is a flying uppercut that can let Juan reach platforms otherwise too high for him. The colored moves are associated with colored roadblocks which Juan breaks by using the corresponding attack. These are all triggered with a specific button or key pressed while holding an arrow key or the joystick in one direction (ex. Up for the uppercut). These moves require stamina points to use, however, so you may have to wait if you spend all those points quickly.

You can beat a skeleton by throwing another skeleton into
it! They deserve it, they work for evil!

The combat system emphasizes Juan’s capacity to chain hits and rain damage. Long combos can be comprised of hits on the ground, in midair, special moves, and full-body wrestling throws, and can net you extra money! Cash can be spent at save points to gain new attacks, as well as perks relating to stamina and health. The fights get harder by throwing new ideas and challenges. Some enemies can only be fought in one of the two worlds. Later enemies are protected by color shields that must be destroyed with the corresponding special move before they can be damaged.

Come one come all, I've got exactly what each of you needs!
Two Rooster Uppercuts, and a headbutt, to go!

Quick Review: Fluffy Horde

AKA that game where you kill thousands if not millions of… bunnies? That’s dark.

A creation of Turtle Juice released on November 7th, 2018, Fluffy Horde is the story of a kingdom dealing with a dangerous shaman. This magic user has created a horde of bunnies that multiply like crazy, and he is using them to destroy crops and windmills. It’s up to the villagers to defend themselves through soldiers, farmers, decoys, and anything else they can use.

That's a lot of rabid rabbits.

This game touts itself as a mix of real-time strategy and tower defense; you can summon units, which can be upgraded to have stronger/faster attacks, more health, and so on. Economy is vital, so you need to buy farmers who’ll take care of crops for revenue. In several levels, the goal is to eliminate all the rabbits before they reach and destroy the local windmill. Your main combat units are swordsmen and archers. You can buy guys dressed in carrot costumes, who will attract the attention of bunnies (who will kill them). You can select one, or a whole group of units, and move them at the same pace; you can even double-click to select all units of the same type.

Almost there! Hm, usually it's the cows that make the milk.

In other levels, your goal changes. Sometimes, you’ll have to make a cow cross a field to reach a plant that spits out milk (don’t ask, this is a weird universe), and kill the bunnies since the cow freezes with fear when it sees them. More often though, you’ll have to move a princess dressed like a bunny girl towards a party she wants to attend… and if the lagomorphs reach her, they’ll kill her. Maybe don’t let that happen, k?

Every level comes with three medals to obtain; their tasks can include winning in a short amount of time, not letting the windmill or the princess take any damage, or working with a limited number of summoned units. There is a fourth medal, obtained by completing all three objectives at once. Before starting a level, you can look at the whole field to figure out a strategy.

They are, in fact, good at multiplication.

My biggest gripe, gameplay-wise, is that it keeps piling new mechanics on top of each other, and you must adapt to these new elements. Which isn’t terrible, except not all of them come with proper tutorials, and eventually more focus is put on the accumulation of fancy gimmicks than on the basics. Those stick around, but they eventually make way for simpler problem-solving that’s necessary to encompass all the variables. The further in we go, the less it feels like real-time strategy and tower defense, and it becomes just a puzzle game with bits of the other two genres sprinkled in. What’s the most optimal sequence of actions.

Teen Princess: "They are eating me alive! Hellooooo??"
"When killed: "Ugh. This is literally boring me to death."
Christ, can I turn the fucking voices off?

The  pixel art style is fun for the concept, but it creates an issue; the bunnies are very small. It’s easy for one to slip through without you noticing; thankfully, there are audio cues telling you when the windmill or the princess is in danger. Then, you must reassign your units to fight the tiny threat. At the end of a level, when you’ve dealt with almost every little bunny, there’s frequently the one or two that remain that you just didn’t see. Repeatedly, I didn’t get a medal for beating a level in a record time because of those few left over. They are so small, they blend in with the world! Heck, you can also lose a level if there are too many bunnies.

I would like to point out the unfortunate implications of
giving a flamboyant gay voice specifically to the units
whose entire point in the game is to get themselves killed.

The worst, though, is the voice acting. Every unit has a voice, and most of them… are okay? The soldiers, archers, farmers, and the mission control warning you about the windmill and the dangerous bunny numbers, that’s fine. The princess and the decoy carrot guys, however… The decoys are given the stereotypical “gay voice”. You know exactly what I’m talking about, I bet you’re hearing it in your head. The “accent” that stopped being funny 20 years ago and should have been left in the past. The princess voice, also done by a guy and stereotypically “modern annoyed teen”, isn’t much better; it got incredibly grating and the lines, whenever she was attacked or killed, got old fast. Even if you start off finding those voices and jokes funny, they get repeated ad nauseam and become super annoying after a while.

Oh, there’s a multiplayer mode, too. Eh. Whatever.

Would help if the teen princess didn't have the HP of a
Goomba.

Yeah, not a big fan of this one! I do think it would have fared better and been more faithful to its genres if it hadn’t been rushing to introduce so many mechanics. Though, with that said, I do have a greater issue with the game’s presentation than with its gameplay. After all, there is great challenge to be found in merely beating every level, and then hunting down every medal. It’s not godawful, but it’s in that “won’t bother to finish it” category. Those two voices were a complete turn-off.

Fluffy Horde is available on Steam for 9.99$ USD.