Category Archives: Reviews

Cyberpunk Realism – Read Only Memories Review

By playerprophet Posted in Games, Reviews

I’m a huge fan of the show Game Center CX, localized once upon a time as Retro Game Master, where I watch Shinya Arino struggle with difficult old games that I never plan to put my hands on, ever. While watching him, though, I’ve seen episodes where he’s wrangled with games that I’d never heard of; adventure and mystery games that were either rare or completely unavailable in North America. Watching Arino-san play The Portopia Serial Murderer Incident and the Jake Hunter series has left this nerd girl particularly hungry for more point-and-click mystery games neck-deep in story. I want game makers to give me more Hotel Dusk, Ace Attorney and even L.A. Noire.

Read Only Memories tapped right into that desire with such pointed direction, it’s as if MidBoss read my mind. Or maybe there was a demand out there from more people than just me. Not only did they make a story-rich mystery adventure game, they made a cyberpunk story-rich mystery adventure game, inspired by games like Kojima’s long-lost Snatcher. While I’m still waiting for more can-you-solve-the-mystery games, I enjoyed every minute of Read Only Memories and I humbly require no less than a hundred sequels.

20160612230643_1

The story starts with you, an investigative journalist living in squalor in Neo-San Francisco. After writing a review for the low low earnings of “exposure”, a small robot shows up at your house in the night. Turing is the first autonomous AI, and his creator – your friend, Hayden – has been kidnapped. Turing enlists your help because he knows you’re poor, bored, and a super sleuth. Together, you navigate Neo-San Francisco on the hunt for clues.

Read Only Memories brings forth a refreshing new brand of cyberpunk that isn’t based in the cynicism of the 90s like Snatcher or Shadowrun. ROM takes place in 2064, where heroes and villains are at work through greed, goodness or revenge in equal measure. The purest hearts have prickly exteriors, and the warm and forthcoming may have ulterior motives, and each character is a well-thought-out artefact of the world that they grew out of. The vibe of ROM is more realistic than a lot of science fiction I’ve encountered in some time, and I cannot praise the writers highly enough for that.

20160612234005_1

As an LGBT+ creator myself I also feel the need to point out to others the levels of inclusion that exists in ROM. Early in the game Turing creates a login system for you, where you identify your name, pronouns of choice, and diet preferences. There are many pronoun options, including one where you can put in custom ones not listed. Detective Lexi Rivers is your sister’s ex-girlfriend, and the two burly male bartenders are in love. One of your main contacts, Tomcat, is explicitly non-binary. Gender and sexuality are a non-issue fifty years from now, but other problems of discrimination have arisen thanks to the times. Hybrids who have adopted animal genes often to remedy disabilities are discriminated against, along with people who augment their lost sight with cyborg eyes and so forth. These things are valuable in an earth-based science fiction story for two reasons:

  1. Disabled people and LGBTQA are featured as window-dressing, which is entirely how we prefer to be featured. Our existences by this story’s 2064 has been so normalized that it is no longer an issue and is barely worth being mentioned in the narrative, except that it is there. This is smart world building as well as a responsible storytelling technique that has been executed with amazing tact.
  2. This is a perfect example of something I mentioned earlier about cyberpunk realism as opposed to cynicism: while we have won several battles, several more lie before us. There will always be struggles in life, but progress has been made. It is not a dystopia, and it is not a utopia. It’s realistic.

20160611012619_1

I don’t want to spoil too much about the fascinating measures of worldbuilding that takes place in Read Only Memories. I just have to implore you to play it for yourself, especially if you’re like me and value story in a game above all else. The point-and-click setup of an adventure game is tried and true, and you can take your time to make choices and digest all of the optional dialogue about VR Drama developers in Japan, and Turing’s favorite types of trees, or not. Make yourself a classy drink, curl up in bed with your laptop, and enjoy Read Only Memories like a good book.

In Loving Praise of Restraint in Metal Gear Solid V

By playerprophet Posted in Games, Reviews

One of the first critiques you will hear as a creative writer of any kind is this: show, don’t tell. The Metal Gear Solid franchise has never taken that piece of advice (not that I’m complaining) until we were allowed to get into the head of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The beautiful drawn cutscenes by Ashley Wood draw a wordless parallel between Naked Snake shooting The Boss in Russia in the 60’s, to the present day 1970’s where he puts down her horse in Costa Rica. The Snakes often say little about how they feel, but this scene is where Kojima really shows what he’s learned since Metal Gear Solid IV, and uses visual storytelling to say things without using words. It’s important especially in the context of Peace Walker, where Big Boss navigates a second time what The Boss taught him, or at least, what he thought she had taught him. If she had been entirely open with him in the first place, he may have not still struggled with her message.

And that leads us to the controversy of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. There is very little in the narrative that is simply told to the player. For many fans of the earlier titles in the series, The Phantom Pain was a disappointment. As a fan myself, I understand why. I, too, miss the long codec conversations about military history and characters’ personal histories. The sacrifice of these though (and adaptation into fewer, more carefully selected tape recordings) earns MGSV an A+ in game design. The medium is the message in The Phantom Pain, and the message is about silence and projection.

I feel like here I need to leave a disclaimer that 1: there are spoilers ahead and 2: I was not on board the MGSV hype train leading up to the game’s release in October 2015. I bought a playstation 3 for the sole purpose of having it for the Metal Gear Solid IV release, and after that I gave up on the Metal Gear franchise entirely. Not because I was unhappy with IV (I wasn’t! I was pleased with it, although I have some issues with it now) but because I didn’t want to encourage a franchise that Kojima no longer wanted to make. So when I came home to Canada in mid-October 2015 to find my roommates deep in Metal Gear Solid hell, I played Peace Walker, Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain in one go, without any expectations of what any of these games entailed. Considering the angst much of the fandom went through waiting, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I realize, however, that the marketing of MGSV led to certain expectations of the game that were not met, and it’s important to understand that this was not how I experienced it.

Continue reading →

The Devil is Real – We Know the Devil & Theological Terror

By playerprophet Posted in Games, Reviews

I grew up in a white Christian community with a family that were not passionate Christians. My mother would occasionally decide that yes, this week we’ll be going to church. Every Sunday. For real. She’d pick a church that looked interesting (as long as it wasn’t Catholic) and we’d attend for a few weeks until she worked on a Sunday or was too tired, and the ideal would fall apart. I had the building blocks. I had the cultural osmosis. But I did not have the real experience.

I have a degree in religious studies (sort of) which has led me into a very atypical relationship with it. I love religion, the same way that someone loves science fiction movies. Every day I am a happily non-denominational agnostic, educating people on comparative religious views and why we should say “happy holidays” instead of “merry christmas”. A former roommate has politely asked me on at least one occasion to stop talking about religion. It wasn’t until much later that I understood why. From top to bottom, We Know The Devil made me think of her.

CPsyU91WsAAvIZM

Continue reading →

Nameless ~ The One Thing You Must Recall Review

By playerprophet Posted in Games, Reviews

Perhaps one day I’ll be caught up enough on all the games I want to play that I can review things that are new? But probably not. Nameless ~ The One Thing You Must Recall was released in English in November 2013 by Cheritz. It is an Otome dating game where your five bachelors are actually the main character’s collection of ball-jointed dolls.

01

There’s an aesthetic/personality type for everyone! Unless you’re into Fifty Shades.

Nameless is a bit more visual novel than dating sim. It’s a railroad text-heavy tale that has some selections that steer your relationships in certain directions, rewarding you with different endings, both good and bad. The stats are invisible relationship points per character rather than including other stat-based requirements like in Hatoful Boyfriend or Dandelion, Cheritz’ other work. In exchange for customization and exploration, Cheritz gives us an interesting story with great characters that is remarkably long. My playthrough clocked in at over 50 hours, a number I haven’t seen outside of an RPG. (Unless you count Hato, which I’m not, since I did an LP. That’s cheating.)

Continue reading →

Doujinshi – Doubt by Moriar-tea

By playerprophet Posted in Doujinshi, Reviews

tumblr_inline_n38wqlig571qdkde1

 

Doubt is a beautiful Dangan Ronpa fanbook by denpasei, formerly known on tumblr as moriar-tea. This comic contains many spoilers for Danganronpa 2, so I’m going to put it under a readmore here for people who haven’t played the sequel yet.

Continue reading →