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Metaphor ReFantazio (PS5): COMPLETED!

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I seem to have really gotten back into long RPGs again in the last year or so. Sometimes they can seem daunting to start as you know you’ve 75 or 100 hours ahead to invest, and usually they’re a slow burn getting used to the mechanics. But, Metaphor came highly recommended and once Xenoblade 2 was out of the way I gave it a go.

I wrote a bit about it the other day already, so I don’t have a lot more to add now I’ve finished it except to say it continued to entertain, and there were plenty of plot twists along the way. Also, I was worried that going into the final area would lock off both the remaining time in the game (all events have deadlines, time passes each time you do anything, and you’ve a finite number of days to complete the game) and the ability to grind to level up, but luckily the game deals with that do you need not be concerned.

Overall, I’m not sure it’s a good as Persona 4, but then, very little is. It improves on the mechanics of that game, but as intriguing as the characters and world in Metaphor are, those in Persona 4 just beat it. It’s still amazing though.

Half-Life: the soldiers have left

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I have continued to play through this very slowly, with many, many uses of the quick save function. My hazard suit doesn’t seem to have much of a protective element, especially against soldiers and annoying big aliens with buzzy guns, so I find myself reloading having lost half my health very regularly. There are, thankfully, a large number of dead humans around who weren’t able to use the health pack they were carrying before dying, so as I make my way through the levels I can top up my health regularly. Ammo is more of a concern, especially given my ineptitude with aiming.

I have continued through waves of soldiers, and have noted over time that they are less concerned with the cleanup operation they were tasked with than they are with just getting out alive. Sure, if they see me they will fight, but in the last few levels of the game they’ve been getting fewer and fewer in number, with most of the evidence of their existence being trip mines and dead bodies. There have been a few sections set outside, including on a cliffside, where the helicopters have been buzzing around, and I’ve taken shelter from them incredibly quickly.

Instead the aliens are back, in greater numbers and variety. I have tackled a large shark-type thing swimming around in green water, using a handy crossbow that was dangling above. I have accidentally set free a big brute who I initially thought was a boss character, but who I have gone on to encounter many more times. I have run away from an even bigger brute, the same as the one I encountered in the rail cart, and then used airstrikes to take him out.

This remains a very pretty game, and its use of colour is top-notch.

Having traversed the outside, I’m now in Lambda Core, trying to get a nuclear power plant to do something. Bits of it have been flooded and I need to clear them out. The platforming is the weakest part of this game, and unfortunately I’m having to do a fair bit of it now. I am dying a lot more as well, and saving is becoming more and more frequent, not just because of me missing platforms but because the enemies are doing so much damage.

In 2007 I said that maybe one day I’ll turn god mode on – I’m not there yet, but very close. It’s taken a long time to play through this so far, and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll enjoy it for …

Lonely Mountains Snow Riders: how do you get there?

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On Friday I met John and Kieron online for an evening of gaming.

We have a great many games that we have played through, and even a few we have completed, most notably Human Fall Flat multiple times (since they keep adding new levels, so we have to complete it again). We haven’t completed Borderlands 2, since sometimes the intensity of the shooting just means it feels too much effort. We have completed Overcooked 2 other than one level where we’ve only got two stars (and the score for three stars seems unreachable). We have completed Halos 3, ODST, Reach and 4, but haven’t really started 5 yet. We’ve started Moving Out 2, Star Wars Squadrons, Astroneer, Plate Up!, and Powerwash Simulator, among others. We regularly play Peggle 2, and Golf With Your Friends.

With so many games left hanging, obviously Friday was all about new ones.

We played All You Need is Help for a bit. It is horrendously confusing on how to start a game, particularly since you can’t start with only three players and one of us needed to control two characters. I accidentally discovered this while we were all pressing random things to try to start a game, which meant I spent most of my time getting very confused over which stick was controlling which character.

All You Need is Help: all you need are better instructions on how to start the game

We got a notification that we had completed the first set of levels, but couldn’t work out how to unlock any others. So we didn’t, and we moved on.

The surprise hit of the evening was Lonely Mountains Snow Riders, a follow-up to Lonely Mountains Downhill. The Downhill game saw you getting a bike down dangerously thin and steep paths, avoiding trees and bushes and cliffs and sudden jumps. Snow Riders loses the bike, gives you skis, and adds in online multiplayer which immediately makes the mountains a bit less lonely. It seems to control much better than Downhill, from what I remember, and paths are wider and more forgiving. That’s not to say it’s easy; working out how to hit a jump at the right angle and speed so you can clear a river or gully took multiple deaths in almost all cases. On one of the courses we had all died a minimum of 23 times.

The mode we played was a race, but it wasn’t as easy as just holding the crouch button and steering. Getting down the mountain had multiple paths between each checkpoint, some of which may have been faster but which required skill that I certainly didn’t have. When you die you reset to the last checkpoint passed, meaning that each waypoint down the mountain gave a feeling of relief; there were occasions when one of us crashed just before crossing the checkpoint, at which point the silence on the microphone was noticeable.

Lonely Mountains Snow Riders: I found it far too stressful to play and take screenshots while navigating down the mountain.

I may well go back to Snow Riders by myself at some point, but there’s a lot of content there and I can foresee us trying that game again on a future gaming evening.

The Good Time Garden (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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This was a quick play after Thank Goodness You’re Here!, and it’s sort of a prototype for what that game ended up being. It’s more abstract, but still very silly.

This time, you’re a sort of naked onionman thing who has to find food for a creature in order to progress. There’s not a lot to it, but it was enjoyable enough – and free on Steam! Bargain.

Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Sometimes, a game comes along which is properly hilarious. Sure, there are funny games, and games with funny events or “player made” hilarity, but it’s rare for a funny game to be this funny.

Thank Goodness You’re Here! is what we used to call an arcade adventure game. I suppose, in some ways, it’s the spiritual successor to such British 8-bit computer games as Everyone’s A Wally and Jack the Nipper. You, as a little (although his size randomly changes somehow) yellow man have arrived at the mayor’s office only to find you’ve some time to kill so wander outside. Then begins a ridiculous chain of events across this northern town where you’re expected to help out in various stupid and nonsensical ways.

For example, one of your first tasks involves freeing a portly gentleman who has reached into a drain to reach a tuppence and got his arm stuck. Off you go to the bakery to nick a load of butter with which to lubricate the arm, which frees him and reveals it to actually be a thruppence, not a tuppence. What joy!

Other tasks include arranging smoking fish in a fishmongers, repeatedly annoying a quiet old man by plopping through his chimney sooting up his living room, and fetching meat to make pies. There’s a huge number of proper Northern people who populate this town, ably voiced by Matt Berry and Jon Blyth, amongst others, who add even more silliness to the proceedings. Events that just happen around you, like the singing rats in bins, the Sausage Man, and the chap who sells bricks, as well as a few romances and rivalries (there’s a near war in the Big Pie vs Little Pie side story). Every few seconds there’s a funny event, new character, or bit of dialogue, and it all feels a bit Python-y and a bit On The Buses-y in the best possible way. There’s also a load of adverts for in-universe products which are hilarious.

The gameplay is pretty simple, mostly involving some minor platforming and fetch and carry requests punctuated with a bit of exploration and pathfinding as various areas are revisited in different ways as routes open up or close. That’s not a criticism like it might be with a “straight” game, as the point here is to enjoy the people and the setting (and the accents) more than the gameplay itself which is mostly just the vehicle to progress the story and events.

It’s a really unique game, and I wish I could forget all about it so I can play it again and re-discover it all.