It would be remiss of me to start writing any post at this point in the year without acknowledging the fact that it's been over two months since my last piece. Turns out that no matter how many times you try to bury your head in the sand like a stubborn ostrich, life still comes knocking sometimes and there's no avoiding your responsibilities forever.
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| (Image from Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) |
In that time, I've still been gaming plenty but I feel as though I've fallen out of touch with gaming discourse, which judging by the knuckle-dragging attitude of some commentators around the Silent Hill 2 Remake might not be such a bad thing. That said, it is very hard to feel connected to gaming discourse when you don't play any new games. We're nine and a half months into 2024 now and the only newly-released game that I've actually played this year has been Balatro. Something has gone awry in my priorities, I feel.
However, rather than languishing in my perpetually aloof disconnection from the rest of this community, I've decided to embrace it. Fuck new releases, they're all buggy and overpriced anyway. I'll see you all on the Star Wars: Outlaws hype train in six months when it's £10 and includes half a year's worth of DLC and bug fixes. In the mean time, I'm going to tell you all about some completely irrelevant games that I've whiled away the hours with during my sixty day hiatus because I think that, regardless of their immediate relevance, they still demand any sensible reader's attention.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Remake)
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| (Image from Grezzo and Nintendo) |
I picked up the Link's Awakening remake a month or so ago because I was worried that, if I didn't buy it, it might disappear from store shelves forever because I couldn't seem to find a copy of it this side of the Atlantic for love nor money. If I hadn't found it in a second hand gaming shop on a grey British high-street, I might've had to resort to dangling Shuntaro Furukawa upside-down and shaking him until all of Nintendo's classic remakes and emulator blood money fell out of his pockets. I also intended to play it in the run-up to Echoes of Wisdom coming out, a game which, almost a month later, I still haven't so much as purchased.
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| (Image from Grezzo and Nintendo) |
Motivations aside however, I have to say that Link's Awakening is incredibly good. A hot take, I know, saying that a polished remake of a beloved classic is good, but sometimes it really is just that simple. It felt like a refreshingly low-stakes experience after getting so used to the Breath of the Wild style of Zelda game. Despite the obvious differences though, there was still a clear through-line between this classic Zelda gameplay and its newer counterparts. It's still fun just getting to explore a cutesy fantasy world while have no clue what the fuck you're supposed to be doing half the time.
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| (Image from Grezzo and Nintendo) |
Link's Awakening might be one of my favourite games that I've played this year which, if I ever remember to do an end-of-year wrap-up, should come as high praise. It is almost offensively cute at all times and the underlying theme of needing to let go of a safe and comfortable existence in order to return to reality did hit me squarely in the feels. I'd highly recommend it to anyone with easy access to a copy or to Mr Furukawa's pockets.
Yakuza Kiwami
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| (Image from Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) |
I don't follow the patterns of the Chinese New Year. As you can tell from my publishing schedule, I barely have the decency to follow my own calendar. Regardless of what it is in Chinese culture though, this year will, for me, always be remembered as the Year of the Dragon, when I finally scuba-dived head-first into the Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchise.
Yakuza Kiwami was the fourth Like a Dragon game that I've played this year and it came directly off the back of finishing Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Are these titles confusing enough yet? I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time, perhaps I was hypnotised by a haze of shirtless Japanese men and over-designed tattoos. Regardless, I felt a desire to stick with the series while also going back to the more action-focused days of earlier entries, hence my arriving back at Kiwami.
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| (Image from Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) |
While I had played the game before, I'd never finished it and, now that I have, I can say that this was a mistake. Yakuza Kiwami is, characteristically, great. I haven't found a Yakuza game that I don't like yet so that was hardly a surprise though. That said, it has some really interesting and unique elements that help it stand out, even within an already stacked series. The 'Majima Everywhere' system in particular was a constantly chaotic highlight.
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| (Image from Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) |
Despite this, the game doesn't quite make it into the upper-echelons of the Yakuza series for me. The story is excellent and far less sprawlingly-convoluted than some of the series's later entries and yet, it felt like it lacked some of the character that the later games have. I think this is probably attributable to the game being a remake of Yakuza 1, back when they weren't fully committed to the hearty, sillier tone of some of the modern games. As such, Kiryu and other characters sometimes seem to have slightly inconsistent personalities where the older writing clashes with the new material.
Overall though, the game is still a must-play for fans of the series and has more than enough to keep even seasoned Yakuza veterans entertained.
Bloodborne
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| (Image from FromSoftware and Sony) |
Before anyone tries to bite whatever screen they're reading this on out of frustration, I have played Bloodborne before. I have the platinum trophy for it, in fact, so this latest playthrough was, if anything, simply a routine reminder of the game's quality rather than a learning experience.
For a game with such a high profile and a rabid fanbase, I'm surprised that, upon reflection, I've never written about Bloodborne before. Then again, I think that it's my lack of the aforementioned rabid enthusiasm that might explain why. You see, I've always really liked Bloodborne. Its grim atmosphere and Lovecraftian twist on the Dark Souls formula make it a unique entity in the FromSoftware library. However, I've never loved the game either. It's never been a game that I have strong enough feelings for to lavish it with praise but I've never had enough complaints to call my opinions a hot take either. My feelings on it have always been a little lukewarm.
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| (Image from FromSoftware and Sony) |
It's the combination of many small gripes that hold the game back in my eyes. The exploration never felt as rewarding as other FromSoft titles meaning that I usually end up playing the game in the exact same order every time I return to Yarnham. Equally, the game's healing and bullet mechanics feel like a very strange choice to me as a FromSoft veteran. Tying your healing and magic to checkpoints always felt so elegant and efficient in Dark Souls, and so to go back to having to grind for or buy healing items in Bloodborne has always felt like a regression in my eyes.
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| (Image from FromSoftware and Sony) |
Despite my griping and nitpicking, I still think that the game is good though. The rock-solid atmosphere and non-medieval fantasy setting go a long way to making the game replayable for FromSoft fans looking for a change of scenery. Just so long as you love scenery that is capped at 30 fps on console and covered in what looks like raspberry jam.
Baldur's Gate 3
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| (Image from Larian Studios) |
Playing Baldur's Gate 3 is a little like trying premium cocaine for the first time. It's a high quality product to be enjoyed in moderation because you know that, once it's gone, you won't get anything like it again any time soon. Much like premium cocaine, I could very much see myself getting hooked on Baldur's Gate 3 if I gave it enough time.
As it stands, I haven't finished it which, usually, would preclude me from offering any sort of review for a game on this blog but, for last year's game of the year, I'm happy to make an exception. Unsurprisingly, the game is very good. The writing is full of life and character, the world has deep and interesting exploration and the game is able to make good on its promise of branching paths and far-reaching consequences for your actions.
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| (Image from Larian Studios) |
While all of these things are a matter of public record though, I also wanted to offer my perspective as someone who has never really been into D&D trying the game for the first time. At first, there does seem to be a bit of a learning curve with the game throwing lots of extraneous letters and numbers at you like an intro to Microsoft Excel course written by J.R.R Tolkien. However, if you adopt the attitude of a neglectful babysitter and ignore these finer details until later on, you'll probably find that, like me, things start to make sense and fit together more as time goes on.
As it stands, my time with the game has been overwhelmingly positive and, with the vast majority of it still the play, I'm excited to see where the narrative and the world take me next. Don't hold out for a full review though, unless of course you think you'll still care about my opinion in 2032.
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| (Image from Larian Studios) |
Conclusion
It's very easy to be sucked into the grind of the weekly gaming hype machine. If you scour through the desolate wasteland of social media on a regular basis like I do then you'll find that conversation always revolves around the same Triple-A upcoming releases. People produce their ill-informed opinions before a game comes out, they argue, then the game comes out, then people dunk on each other for being right or wrong in their initial blind judgements. Rinse, then repeat.
While I do still intend to comment on the tidal movements of the games industry going forward, I'm also reluctant to dive back into that cycle again. For me, gaming as an art form has rarely hinged upon when a game releases. If a game is good, it should hold up well no matter how soon after release you play it and that is still very much my feeling when it comes to the games listed above.
As such, if you do keep up with my irregularly-scheduled ramblings, don't be surprised if you see me falling back on talking about games that I enjoy from the past moreso than games that are immediately relevant in the present. After all, if I ever was invested in being relevant, I'd have been shitting myself on stream playing Silent Hill 2 by now, wouldn't I?
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