Recent reviews by jovie

i am by no means amazing at video games in general -- hollow knight and silksong were probably the first video games i've ever played and beaten that made me fully conscious of this -- but even having experienced countless hours of failure, whether through error on my part or unlucky rng, this game never made me feel utterly discouraged, disengaged, or defeated. this is without a doubt one of the most frustrating and punishing games i've ever played and it probably will always be, in some capacity. a not-so-insignificant fraction of my current ~120 hours in the game have involved completely futile attempts at striking down the individual who happened to be in my path at the time (at this rate i'll beat a steel soul run sometime this century)

most importantly though, this game not-so-surreptitiously taught me to be more resilient in the face of challenge. i say this as a person for whom it does not take much to fatigue mentally and physically, even with some of my simpler favorite games. i think silksong's magic & lovable qualities fundamentally lie within two things: its expansive world and storyline, and its ability to convert whatever twinge of disappointment i felt upon death into a remarkable amount of determination to keep pushing forward and carve out more of the world. fighting, after a while, felt more like elaborate choreography. i could sit down for hours at a time either wandering and granting wishes, or hauling my way through the most arduous runbacks of the game to fight a boss i knew i wouldn't be able to best until countless attempts and reworkings of my crests later -- i found pleasure in every second of it and always wanted more!! it made me especially happy to see hornet echo back that same sheer will to persist on several occasions during the "true" final stretch of the game :)

i'm a new-gen hollow knight/silksong fan and haven't been around for more than a few months at the time of writing this but these two games definitely have a seat in the league of my favorite games of all time and have defined 2025 for me in the context of videogaming. i don't know what chemicals team cherry put in the metaphorical waters of pharloom to turn me gay(er) keep beckoning me back to poke and prod at it over and over again despite all the trials and tribulations it threw my way, but ultimately they succeeded at their task and for that i will always be grateful!!!!!! PEAK GAME 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶 i can't wait to keep working towards 100% completion (& sea of sorrow once it's arrived) ^_^

if i had a nickel for each time i've played a game set in a universe in which it's important that a deceased person's brain be kept intact For Reasons i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

it hurts

i haven't played mouthwashing as of yet but if this is supposed to be its prequel(?) they did a banger job with it. definitely did wishlist it afterwards! anyway this is a super cool game ... surprisingly smooth and atmospheric. i wasn't expecting the controls to be so easy to work with. my favorite part was when it turned into katamari damacy Fish Edition for the last 20 minutes

unsettling yet cute game !! i was able to finish it + obtain all the achievements in one sitting (~40 mins). one little qualm i have is that the camera view-style was a little bit disorienting (especially within the main hallways of the house) but other than that i quite enjoyed it. the graphics and music/sfx are so pretty. ^_^