LogFAQs > #968681870

i was on a couple flights and some things happened:

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (Switch, originally NES)

Okay, this ended up being a lot more playable than I expected, despite the complete lack of any kind of quality of life feature. Hey, did you know you can't trade items in FE1, only give them? If two units both have full inventories, too bad! No battle prep either. Really I was surprised there was even a convoy. I honestly just eyeballed my way through this without really doing the math on if my attacks would work or not, luckily enemy quality is VERY low (at least until the last few chapters). I rolled with Cain, Abel, Caeda, Catria, Palla, Minerva, Navarre, Merric, Linde, Castor, Wendell, Boah, Ogma, and Barst because movement and staff use are king. Also magic. Also flight. And uh Barst was moral support. I don't think I'd play this again but I had a weird sort of fun!

Titan Souls (Steam)

What if Shadow of the Colossus was made for the SNES? Titan Souls is a pretty interesting boss rush type game where all you have is a single arrow. You die in one hit. The bosses die in one hit (sorta). They really don't have particularly difficult patterns or gimmicks, but there is very little room for error. Given that this game is all about bosses I do wish the bosses were somewhat more interesting (they're mostly bog standard), and given the high difficulty I wish the hit-boxes felt more exact (they look much smaller than they actually are, so give anything threatening a very wide berth). I killed all the titans and the secret final boss.

Escape from Tethys (Steam)

This game feels a lot like if Metroid 1 had gotten the Mario 3 treatment -- a late NES game that really iterates on the original and pushes the hardware more. It isn't like a top 5 Metroidvania, but it has solid retro sci-fi vibes if that's what you're craving, and it plays well too. There are lots of secrets so it's worthwhile to really explore the entire game world. Achievements don't pop in offline mode so I have the achievement for killing the final boss but not the one for the first boss.

Blooming Nightshade (Steam)

i'm gay

There are six routes in this VN and each corresponds to one potential girlfriend (there's also a prologue and some bad - more like neutral/platonic - endings). The first two I did - Nanami and Shiori - had me feeling kind of down on the game, because for those two routes the main character has a bad case of Extremely Malleable VN Main Character syndrome. They just sort of float along, with no initiative or strong opinions or, seemingly, even any likes or dislikes. However, the other four character routes are much, much stronger, and the ending of the Kiku route deserves particular praise.

I can see the writing style being very hit or miss for some people. Each route is made up of a bunch of very, very short scenes, which can usually be summarized as:
I found [girlfriend] at [place] and decided to say hello.
*girlfriend suggests doing [thing]*
*they do [thing]*
I don't know if I'd ever do [thing] myself, but it was fun to do it with [girlfriend].
I went back to my room thinking I understood [girlfriend] a little better.

It's this, over and over for about 4 hours. But while the scenes never have as much time to breathe as I'd like and while the internal monologue is stilted, the dialogue is pretty breezy and the characters genuinely are cute together. Don't expect much action or even much drama. It's slice of life (which I like) at an all-girls boarding high school (barf, but you can pretend they're in college pretty easily -- it certainly reminded me of my college days more than anything).

Catmaze (Steam)

Kind of like a less depressing Momodora + Slavic folklore + a little sprinkling of Cave Story, specifically leveling up from killing enemies but losing your levels as you get hit. Very solid Metroidvania and I obsessively played it to 100% completion, as is my wont. The ending is a little saccharine for my tastes and I wish there were more unique upgrades to go with the unique setting, but it's still great even if it doesn't break the mould. Character art is amateurish at best, which is weird because the sprite-work is very good.

Westerado: Double-Barreled (Steam)

I marathoned this open-world retro Western revenge story on my flight today. It's pretty interesting! You're trying to hunt down the person who killed your family, by doing tasks for people so they'll trust you with information. The game keeps track of your clues and you can accuse anyone in the game when you think you have them pinned down. You can also just... murder everyone, or help the local Native Americans take their land back, or whatever. It's very freeing, but in a way where it's easy to fuck things up by not considering the consequences of your actions. The combat is pretty nerve-racking too, though the lack of real consequences for death peel away the veneer of high stakes as soon as you realize. I feel like I'll probably come back to this one to try the other characters.