I really like Barbie Fashionista 107’s silver hair and side cut, but what I do not like is that her outfit is peak chud. Luckily some new clothes arrived in the mail today and going with the theme ‘if you can’t be fashionable, be bold’ I did a switch. Results varied photo wise, but in person she’s now a desk display barbie until the next turn over instead of in the box of shame.
This session was aborted early on account of migraine (unrelated, existing medical issue) so it may be a little coloured in review by the pain/nausea I was going through.
So I mentioned previously that game technology was going to start leaping ahead and it has but I’m not sure I like how it has. Instead of a single room view I now have to swish back and forth to look around which is hard to remember to do and has glitched out on me at least once. Also the ‘repair the item!’ mechanic is still ongoing, this time with added ‘unlock the features in the hidden object section before you can click the hidden objects!’ which made me fussy but again, I was in a lot of pain.
The art’s really nice, as usual. And I like seeing the protagonist puzzle out the crime.
As for the motive of the villain in this, if he talked like this before he was put away I’m surprised he lasted that long before they tried to find him professional help.
I dig that this is a reunion episode game with… Brandon Gray absent with a ‘see you some other time!’ note.
But John Gray’s here and he IS in peril.
The bonus chapter! I was wondering what it would address and guessed sort of right that it would be the family story of the Maxwells and the sudden appearance of the magic amulet near the end of the original game.
I undid MANY deaths and uh, may have prevented an entire life. Yet somehow the guy’s son still happened? I don’t know. Time wimey travel.
The important thing is that a bunch of zombies only SORT of looked like they were going to eat me and I saw a minotaur that actually looked like part cow part man.
So! Now I’m back in chronological order and I’m on The Vengeance! The plot is my nephew who is not Brandon Gray (DESPITE A PHOTO) but James MCGRAY ( who is… part of the same family! Also I am somehow also a Gray, despite my sister Luisa marrying John Gray?) has murdered (so they say) his sister Elizabeth.
Also there’s a third branch of the family now, the Maxwells. So let that be clear, this family bush is the Grays, McGrays, and the Maxwells. No O’Maxwells yet. I shouldn’t be so harsh, I actually name things like I was built to do the opposite. Hurling boulders at glass houses.
Most important: This was a fun game. It wasn’t as all out ‘constant creep out moments’ as Bloody Mary but definitely was a ghost story unlike The Stone Queen which was a straight adventure story.
The scenery art is really good and the hidden object sections are looking excellent. Genuinely fun to see how they’re put together. I especially liked Elizabeth McGray’s character design too.
We finally get it confirmed that the protagonist’s deal is that she’s psychometric and not only that, kind of famous for it! Which is cool. She’s certainly done enough interesting things.
The end of this game with Elizabeth manifesting alive was very satisfying. I look forward to playing the bonus chapter soon.
We’re in 2014 now, gamewise? So game tech is gonna start leaping forward pretty soon. Unfortunately there’s that one game that just straight up got zapped from existence so I won’t be able to play that one.
I was so relieved when I found what I was actually going to be shooting from my crossbow to stop the dogs. I wasn’t really signing up to impale puppies.
I don’t know what I’m doing, what’s going on, or what my goals are but man this game looks neat and is atmospheric as heck.
20 minutes of flailing and hoping I’m correctly citing the right killer.
Nubia: Real One, written by L.L. McKinney, art by Robyn Smith.
I saw this advertised on twitter with some character design art and a ‘It’s Wonder Woman’s twin sister Nubia in high school!’ and I bought it and read it immediately.
Well! I think that about sums it up, really. Saw it, wanted it, read it, loved it. The character designs were great, the story drew me in, and it hit a lot of intense emotional beats. I was supposed to be saving money, but no regrets.
Feeling fidgety and you know what THAT means.
Finished the game + Bonus chapter.
In the last bit capitalism has led to mystical elemental creatures you must defeat in various ways to get at their precious precious power cores. Petals. They were petals. I really liked the design of the ice wolf and I totally did not snap a screenshot of that, sorry. But a wolf made of crystal ice is pretty.
I DID get a screen capture of the last one but first let’s talk about how this game was mostly an adventure game and not a horror game like the others I’ve played in the series at all (and the one that followed it, Bloody Mary, which as I’ve said I played out of order by accident).
So you know. Adventure! Magic! Love!
AND THEN THERE WAS THIS THING.
I had to wind it up to make… to make that jaw open and the teeth were QUITE THE SURPRISE and the eyes sure as hell weren’t looking at me before. The thing in its mouth is a motorcycle amulet which opened a locker that had been closed since the start of the game. I assume the doll ate the previous owner holy crap.
Okay so the final elemental beast was fire! Specifically a phoenix! And the phoenix had a DELICIOUS surprise inside! The horrifically calcified body of the villain!
Oh also with great delight I got to say the words ‘I have upgraded my goblin’.
So the bonus chapter wasn’t as easy to infer the use of tools as the main game and it turned out a lot of my frustration joke guesses were… what I was supposed to use! Huh. The hammer was VERY useful. And in a surprise twist, ice turned out to be the answer, not fire.
So the plot for the bonus chapter is as Brandon Gray (my nephew, son of John Gray off in a dungeon somewhere and Luisa my sister probably horrifically cursed somehow right now) embraced his true love, her EVIL BROTHER came and kidnapped her and Brandon was all ‘we have to save her! I guess you can help!’ and then I never see him again.
Not even at the end of the game after I’ve saved everyone.
RIP Brandon Gray, your bloodline was fucking cursed.
‘Well I guess I’ll just log on for a bit and do a few things while I screw around’ I said before hyperfocusing for fifty minutes and neglecting all the people I had previously been speaking to. Augh.
It’s sort of disappointing how this one hits the sweet spot of not exactly easy but engaging puzzles that keep me going from moment to moment that’s pretty much not there in Bloody Mary which I played out of order by accident. I felt like I didn’t know wtf I was meant to do for most of Bloody Mary, even though I loved the visuals.
Anyway, this is a fantasy love story too!
I may have had a little too much ‘what will WORK’ on this little molerat goblin who wanted to be warmed up that at some point after trying fire failed, I pulled a scalpel on him.
‘That won’t do anything’
YES IT WILL. Just not what you want it to do.
Anyway the true monster isn’t the woman turning a town to stone, it’s capitalism. As always.
Still not done. But probably soon.
I’m intrigued by the (human) servant who lives in the water tower with an evil clown claw machine and I’m hoping that gets elaborated on before the end of the game. I forgot to take a screencap before the cave in.
In which Hetty learns a very valuable lesson about paying attention to what’s going on.
Otherwise, I was denied someone being burnt in a wickerman. The end mystery turned out to make a lot of sense but as I’ve noticed with this series so far, the end result is rarely any sort of clear ‘punishment’.
Also elder abuse is bad. And Robert’s grief was pretty darn well written/acted which was a nice bit to this episode.