A bit slower than January, but six games in February still takes me up to a total of 15 games now, which I'm pretty happy with.
Main post here
10.
Röki (Switch) | 6 February 2021
Completed with all loot collected and all badges earned.
Röki is a puzzle-based adventure game set amidst Scandinavian folklore, telling a touching story that explores the bond between our protagonist, a young girl named Tove, and her brother who she must seek out after he goes missing as they escape from a monster attacking their home. The story here is really quite impactful, and especially in its final chapter, family bonds are developed in a touching way. Puzzle design is for the most part good, with solutions that are fairly logical with a little thought, though at times there's a little too great a distance between connected items across the game world - more of an issue in the game's earlier stages.
Technically,
Röki does the job, but doesn't stand out - animations are perhaps the strongest achievement here - and there are occasional bugs that see the character's movement disrupted, though only once was this an issue for more than a couple of seconds (when getting stuck on scenery required reloading a - fortunately very frequent - autosave). These fairly minor issues aside, I'd give
Röki a strong recommendation to any adventure/puzzle game fan, or anyone with any interest in the folklore themes that surround it.
11.
The Lion's Song (PC - Steam) | 7 February 2021
Completed all four episodes, with 100% of achievements unlocked. A narrative-based point-and-click adventure,
The Lion's Song spans four episodes, each following a different character in pre-First World War Austria, united by their personal struggles for inspiration and acceptance - starting with a musician seeking inspiration for a concert, we move to an artist and a female mathematician (the focus of the final episode may be a slight spoiler so I'll avoid mention). Presented using well-drawn pixel art with a sepia colour scheme, there's an effective historical feel here.
With only very limited 'puzzles', the game is very much focused on its narrative, which fortunately is engrossing and I find myself drawn in by each of the character's stories, coming to know each of them across the 2-3 hours that each episode lasts. Especially well done are the various links between the stories, which take place concurrently - the best of these really are best experienced without spoilers, but as a gentle example, a person discussed briefly in episode 1's dialogue becomes a vital confidant of one of the later protagonists.
Broadly the story is is linear, but a few key choices in each episode *are* meaningful in shaping the nuances of events, both within and between chapters. Some longevity is afforded by the game's achievements, some of which can be puzzles in themselves to work out - but these go a little too far on occasions, requiring extensive episode replays. A 'connections gallery' accessible from the main menu expands nicely on the inter-episode call-backs that I mentioned earlier, awarding statues and paintings as you experience certain sets of events.
12.
Return of the Obra Dinn (Switch) | 11 February 2021
Completed with all fates solved. A impressive achievement by developer Lucas Pope,
Return of the Obra Dinn is a detective/investigation game built out to a extensive level of detail. Playing as an insurance investigator, the game tasks players to discern the fates of each of the 60 crew of the abandoned East India Company ship Obra Dinn - after locating corpses around the ship, who were they, how did they die and who (or what!) was responsible. To achieve this, the player uses a magic compass that reveals the the scene of each body's last moments before death and a brief accompanying audio clip. The details of each of these scenes then need to be examined - at times down to quite fine details and in combination with other scenes (a distinctive tattoo, for example) - to establish the facts of the death.
There's a real sense of satisfaction in 'solving' each of these, and the game cleverly minimises the effectiveness of trial-and-error guesswork by only confirming that identity/cause of death/culprit combinations are correct in groups of three. You're also informed, by means of unblurring of faces in two sketches of the crew, when each should be soluble - though often, these can still be very challenging. It's here that I could crticise the game to an extent, as the level of nuance that seems to be expected in some cases feels arguably a little excessive - but equally, that could just be aimed at me for not being able to see it. Certainly, the succeeded at making me feel less clever than it demanded at times! However, the reward in satisfaction from successful detective-work mostly prevailed over such feelings of frustration.
Return of the Obra Dinn uses a surprisingly attractive monochromatic graphical style, which effectively captures the antique feel of the setting while still allowing sufficient clarity of detail for effective investigation, and catchy musical sequences accompany each death scene. A few additional quality of life features could certainly be added, most notably, an easier way to navigate between these scenes (replaying each requires you to locate the relevant body again), but on the whole this is a polished package.
13.
Wide Ocean Big Jacket (Switch) | 13 February 2021
Complete playthrough, plus bonus chapters. A short story following a group of two adults and two children on a camping trip,
Wide Ocean Big Jacket certainly has a certain charm. Don't expect any big revelations or plot twists here, but for a relaxing experience over the course of an hour or so, there's some enjoyment to be had here. While the game uses a deliberately primitive polygonal graphical style, its strength comes in its writing, with dialog at times amusing and other times poignant. The game didn't hit for me as strongly as it seems to have done for many others, but I can see why it has its fans.
14.
Super Mario 3D World (Switch) | 22 February 2021
Completed with a four-starred save file (all green stars, stamps and flagpoles except for Champion's Road). While
Super Mario 3D World may be a Wii U report, it's not lost any of its edge in the eight years since original release, retaining a real sense of joy pretty much throughout. There's a nice balance here between the linearity of Mario's 2D outings with some more explorative elements - a few of the green stars which are the game's main collectible are deviously hidden! The core platforming gameplay is as tight as ever, of course, though perhaps just a little too reliant on the new catsuit power-up, which can at times over-simplify some sections with its climbing ability.
I played entirely single-player, but I should note that there's clearly great multi-player potential here... though I do wish that overall completion didn't require playing through ever stage with every character!
15.
Bowser's Fury (Switch) | 27 February 2021
Completed with all 100 cat shines collected.
Bowser's Fury offers an interesting development on the explorative approach of many of the 3D Mario platformers, taking place in an entirely open world, expanding in scope as you progress towards collecting all 100 shines. As an experiment it's largely successful, with an empowering sense of freedom, though the world being largely waterlogged, with inter-island travel aimed by Mario's swimming companion Plessie, feels like it limits the potential somewhat, with each individual island being a little smaller than I'd like, and I'd have liked to see some more variation in objectives. The late-game ability to warp between islands is certainly greatly appreciated! Similar to
3D World, the catsuit power-up again feels over-powered in many scenarios.
The use of Fury Bowser as a recurring boss encounter is again an interesting experiment, particularly with the way that each encounter transforms the world, with a handful of shines only available in this state. Again, though, the repetition feels a somewhat limiting to the game's overall potential, and these sequences come to feel more of an annoyance after playing through a few of them. Regardless, though, the core platforming is very solid and I enjoyed my time with
Bowser's Fury - it'll be interesting to see what Nintendo takes from this experiment in future instalments.
