Recent reviews by Nerdie

A strange little soap opera mystery, sharing a lot of DNA with Her Story and similar interrogation focused drama games. Contains some odd plot contrivances, but putting together all the information and grasping the weird nuances of what's going until you've filled out the puzzle pieces into a perfect pattern... that's gaming, baby.

An all-timer! Surreal puzzle adventure about being trapped in the arctic and forced to accept all the worst aspects of yourself. Absolutely banger game, absolutely beyond compare. The subplot with the harp girl and the beeswax she wanted destroyed me with just the feeling of "you can't fix this and its weird for you to think you can try." Hit hard.

Utterly fascinating, charming game. Very buggy and there are three points in the game you have to search around in the dark to click on the next character route to pick. But I find it so completely charming, all my issues kind of melt away. Not always perfect, but you can feel that the artist worked hard and cared deeply about what they were crafting. What a delight.

Didn't realize I had played all of Cosmic Void's (steam released) games until I played this one and needed to do research. And goodness gracious, is this a team that just gets better and better with each release. Blood Nova is a masterpiece of aesthetics, world-building, character design, character writing, and story. I was transfixed the entire game and I'd recommend to anyone who wants a stellar point and click.

My kingdom for Ramzap.

The next Paper Ghost Stories is a day one buy, this RULED. One of the most gorgeously presented horror games I've ever seen, with some surprisingly subtle character work for its protagonists in such a short amount of time. The whole thing just works! Their upcoming full game is a day one purchase absolutely. Respect on the name Paper Ghost Stories.

A game about nostalgia, the fear of being left behind, and the joys of storytelling.

Tremendous game. A poignant, heartfelt swansong to the Monkey Island series, a love letter from Gilbert and Grossman, and just a delightfully funny little game. I don't know how much a non-Monkey Island fan would get out of it, but as a long-time fan, it quickly ended up in a special place in my heart.

I wrote a more spoiler-detailed review on backloggd (https://www.backloggd.com/u/Nerdietalk/review/517817/), but I've hit the main points here. An absolute treat of a game and absolutely essential playing if you have any fondness for the series.

The manager of a book store is visited by a variety of locals that are struggling with various supernatural issues. With an aloof personality and a physical inability to leave his store, the manager does what he can to help these people in need with the resources he has around him.

Spent a month or so with this on and off and its a difficult beast to really describe. There's a risk in fantasy stories to get bogged down in details and world-building and sometimes this runs the risk of doing that. But the majority of cases ultimately work because the game is more interested in examining the personal struggles of these characters than those magical systems. The first case alone is an excellent tragedy about school bullying and the extreme emotions that drives a person towards.

What also helps is that the structure of the mysteries is entirely reliant on what the players are willing to research. Since the Store Manager can't leave his store, he can only solve cases through combing through books and reading online. The majority of clues depend on remembering which books on the shelves might be relevant to this situation. All other information requires the Store Manager's supporting cast to explore the world. This helps the other characters get show off their internal workings so we can understand where they're coming from.

Still, I think the game's major problems can be demonstrated by tracking the steam achievements. 60% of players completed the first deduction. 35% completed the first case. All remaining cases hover around 15% completion. There's a HUGE drop between all of those numbers. But that consistent 15% is interesting. People that stuck with the game past chapter 1 really committed to it. Its slow, its plodding, it takes a LONG time for the characters to show off their personalities. And this isn't helped by the somewhat flawed translation the game is dealing with. But there's something really charming waiting if you're willing to put in the effort. Me, I'm a maniac who'll commit games for way longer than I should. I can't blame anyone who chooses to bail, particularly a slow-burn like this. But an urban fantasy game dripping with that Persona 5 aesthetic is just exactly my cup of tea.

Also the climax of the final case is maybe one of the funniest ways I've ever seen heroes turn the tables on a villain I've ever seen. I've never laughed so hard at one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥'s utter confusion.

Methods: The Detective Competition is ambitious. 100 detectives solving puzzles crafted by 100 criminals, in a secret international competition. The winner gets one million dollars (or one million dollars plus parole and a clean record). When you promise a story of 100 detectives competing against each other, that offers an absurd amount of characters the story has to balance.

When the game opens with the generic, dim-witted, thinks with fists Detective Hackett, its not a very interesting start. Yet, after a few puzzles and establishing scenes, the game quickly swerves away from Hackett to establish its rotating protagonist pattern. Each protagonist is more interesting than the last. Nell, a young rookie who lucks her way into partnering with some top-ranked detectives. She's a likable and engaging underdog, understandably frustrated with the eccentric geniuses she's stuck with. Then the game switches to someone else, then someone else, than someone else, never keeping the plot static with one character for too long. Each protagonist is more interesting than the last, and that takes considerable writing effort. The final protagonist the story ends up sticking with was a delightful surprise as she gets the biggest obstacles, best puzzles, and best mechanics to unravel.

While the writing and puzzles aren't always difficult, there's a bizarre charm to them all. There's 100 chapters in the story, with 27 puzzles split up among all of them. There's no real punishment for failing puzzles: the game is extremely linear. Still, its a fun way to split up the different novel sections. Each detective has their own "ability" that changes the scope of a mystery. It tells you more about the characters and keeps the mysteries engaging.

I have mixed feelings about the final sort of thesis the game tries to make about the prison system and billionaires. Maybe could've used more reflection and time in the oven on that one. But ultimately the game is so infectious in its joy that I'm willing to ignore a failing I personally dislike in favor of a thrill ride experience. The final case is a FEAST building off the game narrative, the meta game narrative, and the narratives outside of that. Its a hoot.

Sometimes the best stories just involves throwing away all sense for an hour and having a good time. This is one of those stories, strolling through a murder landscape of crucifixion and casual brutality, combined with silly little animation jokes and gleeful stupidity. Gotta respect it.

A delightful crime simulator about the teenage struggles of trying to be taken seriously, bad friends, poor decisions, and also conning rich people. As much as its aesthetic might make it come off a little nostalgia heavy, its also willing to talk about economic issues of the era and how things only get worse for mom and pop stores from here on out. Dove into it with glee and adored every second of it.