Reflecting on Reflection

My writing output as of late has been one of a satisfying nature. I’m usually of the mind to better source old adages and or provide anecdote involving idioms of relevant worth in context, but as of this moment, my historical frame of reference fails me entirely. However, I feel as if my return to creative form reminds me of the notion that one may begin, but that does not mean one has truly started yet.


Always have an inside horse

With all of that said, while the creative faucet is certainly turned on, that does not mean it is always flowing full blast. To that point, since my writing is so heavily contingent on the games I play or the ideas I may have of those experiences there after, I am always on the hunt for worthy contenders of conceptual consequence, as not all games are created equally on the battlefield of intellectual endeavor. A further addendum to such an acknowledgment involves the generated excitement I may have when I’m able to get a little more mileage out of already played titles, as I may take another look back at what has been, in possibly new and interesting ways.


Probably for the best I keep putting off my replay of Desert Bus

I will now take a moment to reflect upon my reflecting, as I look back at the past week or so of gaming engagement, and see what distance and time has done in the name of my own attentive efforts. I’ll start off by apologizing for immediately lying to you, as I am reaching back as far as late July instead of just the past week, as I took a lengthy hiatus between my Pokémon “museum and paradox” article pairings, and returned with a non-technical review of a game named Wallachia: Reign Of Dracula. Which, as I felt the need to emphatically remind the reading audience of, was not in fact, a Castlevania game.


And if you can’t fashion your own pikes for mass impalement, store bought is fine

All in good humor of course, as I ended up enjoying the title quite a lot, inspite of Wallachia having very little to do in terms of gameplay feel with it’s apparent inspirations. Overall, a weird myriad of glitches, lack of QoL features, and a shallow variety of gameplay hurt the title, but not to the point of being irredeemable. I also find it very bizarre after the fact, and still randomly think about how you can’t quit to the title screen from the pause menu in Wallachia, you kind of just have to lie down and…slowly die to do so.


No worries guys, this is the fastest way home, I swear.

I was curious what the developer of Wallachia (Migami Games) was up to, and according to the platform formerly known as Twitter, they have a trailer for a new game coming out called Chronicles of the Wolf. The trailer looks decidedly way more Castlevaniaey, and one which you can view here:

We invite you to try a little demo of our upcoming game Chronicles of the Wolf on steam! Please try it and wishlist! Thank you so much! 🐺♥️

Download here:https://t.co/G1BxaYWL5h

We really appreciate it!#steamnextfest #Steam #SteamDeck #metroidvania #indiegame #RETROGAMING pic.twitter.com/wzxTGv79s3

— Migami Games (@Migami_Games) October 13, 2023

I also put forth the notion of whether or not in the wake of the whole Wallachia affair, in which the game doesn’t involve any actual vampiring to speak of, whether or not the vampire genre as a whole hasn’t at this point just fallen into the same stylistic trappings of either needing to be camp or parody in order to survive. Think in the vein of the B-movie paradox, where the more idealized a B-movie in quality becomes the worse it gets which makes it better?


I’m smiling just considering the absurdity

I happened upon Alisa next, and was quite happy with the luck in doing so, as I remember thinking just the day prior I should perhaps mosey on back to Raccoon City for some good old fashioned ADA, WAIT!-ing, which was the style back in the day. Alisa was a died in the wool Resident Evil clone full stop, and I loved every minute of it. Unlike Wallachia, which I did end up loving enough to get all trophies for just recently, I have yet to pick up the full copy of Alisa after my psuedo-preview of sorts, but that is solely a financial issue, and not one of resistance to the game itself, despite some fairly fucking horrific faux pas in voice acting.


Alisa’s VA work being a truly strong reminder that god is dead

The games tongue and cheek awareness is nothing short of divinity, truth be told. Looks like the developer, Casper Croes, is still releasing updates to the title via Steam, and generally has an energetic online presence in discussing the development process. Perhaps when I finally get my hands on the full game, I’ll write a follow up. If nothing else, I’m positively psyched we have arrived at the moment where 90’s era titles fall comfortably into the camp of nostalgia, and continue to do their due diligence in reminding the new generation of what games were like way back in the 20th century.


Seen here: The average age of one of my readers, likely sharing
an old story about an ancient piece of tech called the N64

Next up I stumbled upon the star-studded crossover known as Multiversus, in all of it’s unfortunate fixation on a financially fueled foundation. While I will defend the title in being of the more attractive outings during Sony’s “Free to play Festival”, the title at it’s core is a bog standard GaaS experience, and the grind wall that comes with it. I won’t go on too much more about the game, as my post from yesterday (which dlightly of inspired this one, actually), kind of broke down the nitty gritty of how you can have a fun game, but if you’re forcing your players to endlessly grind to unlock or purchase even the most basic of elements of said game, you’re going to make the player base feel like they’re choking down on what has been served to them.


Not unlike the gagging that goes on between Scooby and Shaggy
when they share a deep throat together

Shaggy is a playable character in Multiversus, by the way.

Overall, it seems as if the game has received a mostly positive response, which I tended to lean towards as well, so I feel as if everyone is kind of on the same page; not totally in love with the story beats, but has kept reading along anyways. Player First Games is still doing regular news updates over on their site as well as with new content for the game, and with it’s free to play nature, it would be very easy to pass your own judgements with no money down…just don’t expect much of an easy, bump free ride thereafter.

It’s going to be a real grind.


They really screwed the pooch on the financial aspects of Multiversus

This will now be the second time I’ve had to apologize for lying to you. Not for the attempts at implicit softcore Scooby Doo porn mind you, but in reference to my own machinations involving leaving the audience desiring more and the delightfully impactful contrast that an abrupt ending brings with it.

To be continued.

~Pashford

Fancifully Frolicking Through The Doll House

In my quest to continue practicing the fine art of game appreciation, I continue to scour the most unlikely spots to forge forward in my tirelessly Herculean crusade of intense effort.


I may have been being a bit dramatic in my previous declaration

When one is lacking but wanting, one makes due with whatever one can, which is just another flowery way of alluding to being completely broke but having the creative juices to spare. I’ve been attempting to play around with discount titles (see: free) in recent days, and I was searching for something of value in which to speak to. The task of writing about video games in an interesting manner has been a challenge for me as of late, as there are only so many ways to write something a long the lines of: graphics bad, gameplay fun without sounding derivative in a sense, which is one of the reasons I took such a long hiatus from writing within the medium in the first place. Enthusiast press just doesn’t deliver the same pomp and circumstance without the whole enthusiasm bit.


My energy levels channeling Wonka’s when another GaaS title is launched

Time away gave me a little bit of a buffer to all the inanity of the gaming everyday, so I am starting to cozy back up to the idea of the familiar. To that point, I recently downloaded a demo called Alisa, which feels as familiar as they come.


Pictured: An example of an American’s profile pic on a far right leaning dating app showcasing the range of their various interests

Imagine my delight when I was able to find a trial that was reminiscent of a late 90’s survival horror game, fixed camera angle and tanks controls in tow. Alisa is very much born out of the love of experiences such as Silent Hill and Resident evil, and just about any moment wandering around the bleak environments the game has to offer will be a constant reminder of the ever palpable tension the games of yore always inspired with.


To quote a profound wisdom: Garbage day, is a very dangerous day

The premise of Alisa is most certainly a super flimsy one, as the game launches directly into a cutscene interrupting some official meeting with an unnamed task force being debriefed on a matter of great importance. The matter at hand turns out to be a manhunt, as a spy has stolen blueprints and has escaped with them. Which organization is this? Why do these blueprints matter? Who is this spy endangering with these actions? All of these questions and more seem to be of absolutely no consequence, as our leading lady Alisa is already on the case! I’m not actually miffed the game doesn’t dive into these seemingly important details anymore than a surface level throwaway motivation to set the action in motion, as the game seems extraordinarily self-aware of what it is paying homage to, and realizes the bread and butter of the experience needs not the garnish of reason to compliment the sustenance at hand.


Barry Burton, of Resident Evil fame, starts wondering if having no official training will impact his performance whatsoever after being sent out on his first mission

And so Alisa and her compatriots, definitely *not the S*T*A*R*S team (we will refer to them as the N^E^B^U^L^A^S) grab the first train to Frightsville to unknowingly but predictably seek their untimely fates. At least, that’s what the opening cinematic would suggest, but the team scatters nearly immediately amongst different train stops, leaving you to work with only Jean-Francois, a competent and even keeled individual who will persevere with you through thick and thin as the sturdy professional he will unrelentingly be till the bitter end.


Or not

Yes indeed, just like the infamous S*T*A*R*S team of Resident Evil fame, the N^E^B^U^L^A^S are in short order entirely scattered (and possibly eviscerated) almost immediately upon dispatch. If the Captain at the beginning were wearing sunglasses during his discussion of the stolen plans, I would mention the feeling of being already spoiled to the possible twist ending…but we never catch up with any of the other characters in the force, as the demo knowingly teases much but leaves even more to the imagination.


Fun you say? I just adore playful surprises!

As I lightly rag on Alisa for some of the absurdity to the games approach in storytelling, it is spawned more so out of endearment than anything negative, as the game hits the notes it’s suppose to in paying tribute to the titles that set the stage for it to perform upon. Part of the fun of both RE and SH as they reigned supreme of the survival horror genre in their heyday was this strange mix of off-putting and abstract, elements that paired with the backdrop of the macabre and slathered in over the top B-movie cheesiness, helped in making those games a fetching package wrapped in bizarre glory.


…I knew I should have taken that left on Sesame Street

Alisa follows suit as she attempts to escape from her fate of being trapped within the walls of The Doll House, and the game does well in making you feel right at home with all of the staples of old school survival horror shenanigans present. As already mentioned, the game boasts both fixed camera angles and tank controls, and comes packing with the kind of combat you can expect from such a setup. Alisa even takes a page out of the book of old school with both the pause menu, inventory, and even the saving methodology from titles that have inspired it. To that point, the graphics are peak 90’s, in all of their jagged polygonal quaintness, and perfectly lock step with the atrocious voice acting you’ll be laughably confronted with. It’s not only that the lines are being delivered in the same fashion as some kind of first take of an answering machine recording, but the main character Alisa borders on the Tommy Wiseau levels of ridiculous when it comes to delivery.


YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, ALISA!

With both a richness of liminal spaces and a creepy ambience that the audio design just drips with, Alisa checks all of the boxes in terms of it’s concerted efforts as a throw back title to a golden era of survival horror. It unapologetically sticks to its guns…and puzzles in this regard, so I’m looking forward to downloading the full game when I’m not so broke. Until then, I’ll just let visions of creatures ala Nemesis and Pyramid Head dance through my mind as I dream curiously as to what horrors await for me within The Doll House.

~Pashford