I have a bit of a history with magical girl media. Growing up, whether it was due to gender expectations or just a lack of interest, I wasn’t particularly drawn to shows like Sailor Moon, though I do recall watching occasional episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura when they came on TV. In high school, though, a friend introduced me to Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Madoka Magica for short), and everything changed. Seeing a magical girl story that delved into mature subject matter (along with having stunning animation and music) was like a cosmic shift in how I perceived a genre that I had once written off as “just those silly shows about girls in frilly outfits”. I showed it to my girlfriend at the time. Hell, I showed it to my dad. I got low-key obsessed with it for a while, and even now it stands as one of my favourite anime of all time.
Tag: Casual
A Tithe in Blood Review
It’s always challenging to go into a piece of media with preconceived notions. As a reviewer, I strive to approach each game I cover on its own merits, yet I admit it’s next to impossible to go into something truly blind. By the time I’ve looked at enough press material to determine whether or not it seems like a good fit, I’ve inevitably built up some idea in my head of what the experience will be. Plus, the very fact that I’ve determined something appears to be up my alley already means I’m going in with at least a hope – if not an expectation – that it’s something I’ll enjoy. Of course, this doesn’t preclude me from coming down hard when things don’t pan out the way I thought they might or heaping praise when they do, but at the bare minimum, it regularly puts a fear in me that I’m ill-equipped to fairly evaluate whatever game I might be looking at.
A Little to the Left Review
“A place for everything, and everything in its place,” is the unspoken motto of A Little to the Left. It’s a game full of slots that have been perfectly sized for the right object to fit in, be it a battery or a button. Colour-coordinated bookshelves and leaves with perfectly matching holes await in what is surely an organization nerd’s dream. Every level requires you to place objects so they slot together in a satisfying way, whether it’s by carefully sorting them or creating symmetrical designs. Yet it’s also a game about letting go of that desire for perfection and accepting a bit of chaos, in this case taking the form of a mischievous cat who loves to mess with your meticulous patterns. It’s an interesting dichotomy, one which saw me cursing the wretched feline to high heaven at the outset, but then gradually warming up to it by the end. It’s an odd puzzler, in that it causes reflection as much on the solution being undone as it does on the steps taken to complete it. I think it’s for the best, though, as it kept me consistently engaged and enjoying my time with it from start to finish.
Tiny Garden Review
I never got into the Polly Pocket craze as a kid, due in no small part to a fairly strict adherence to gender stereotypes. That being said, I don’t recall them ever entering our household, even in the hands of my older sister. There were several Barbies and similar toys, but Polly Pockets seem to have passed us by. However, even now I find the concept to be pretty fun: a portable capsule toy that contains a customizable world within, featuring furniture, toys, and of course, little dolls. It provides all the necessary features of a dollhouse, without the large space and financial commitment inherent in one, easing the burden on parents wanting to provide a way for their child to play house or other activities.
Spilled! Review
I love a good crowdfunding success story. Coming from a solo developer by the name of Lente, Spilled (stylized as Spilled!) blew past its funding goal when it was on Kickstarter, raising three times what it initially hoped for. From there, I followed its development as Lente documented not only the progress on the game, but also her time living on a boat in the Netherlands. It was fascinating seeing this game about a pollution-cleaning boat come to life from someone with first-hand experience of living on one, and while the actual interactions with the boat in-game are fairly limited (it’s not like you’re going inside to customize the interior or performing maintenance on it), the passion for life on the sea nonetheless shines through.
Wyrmhall: Brush and Banter Review
I find the popularity of games about work to be a bit odd. As someone with a day job that frequently drains me to the point where even fun extracurricular activities can feel like chores, it baffles me that people would want to spend their free time pretending to work at, say, a restaurant or grocery store. It makes a bit more sense for management sims; pretending to be the boss and run your own business can be an exciting and empowering glimpse into a world few will get to partake in. Yet for those where you’re a menial employee, I struggle to see the appeal of simulating the repetitive grind of a nine-to-five.
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Review
Mika desperately needs a union rep. Her boss is awful, withholding payment at the slightest slip-up, believing the customer is always right to a harmful degree, and even telling her to smile more. It’s a depressingly toxic relationship for Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, a game that’s generally whimsical and chipper, almost to a fault. What makes it even more overt is that pretty much everyone else on the island is laid-back and supportive of Mika, even when she stumbles. It’s almost as though a more community-focused solution would be an improvement over the corporate structure of big business … I’m getting ahead of myself, though.
Boxes: Lost Fragments Review
I love a good virtual puzzle box. In reality, they’re wholly impractical devices: complex, expensive mechanisms interlinked with one another that you solve once and then either discard or bestow upon someone else to see how they fare. In the gaming space, though, they allow for layered, multi-stage puzzles that stay manageable due to the simple fact that everything you need to find the solution is right in front of you. You may have to rotate the box, recall an indentation that perfectly fits an item you obtained elsewhere, or recognize that one of the box’s legs looks slightly different from the others, but at the end of the day it’s all there in a contained, isolated environment. I got some enjoyment out of a couple of games in the The Room series on mobile way back when (no relation to Tommy Wiseau’s hilariously disastrous film of the same name), but eventually they started branching out in design directions I was less keen on. So when Boxes: Lost Fragments entered my Steam library, I was particularly intrigued to check it out and see if it could offer a compelling puzzle solving experience.
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To Review
Lofi vibes have been a centrepiece of my life recently. Whether it’s booting up Spirit City: Lofi Sessions while writing, throwing on a chill playlist on Tidal while working or playing games, or just curling up on the couch with my phone and a hot beverage, I’ve been all about getting into a cozy, meditative mindset whenever possible. Perhaps it’s stress-related; working full-time as a software engineer and dealing with the current political climate isn’t exactly a recipe for low blood pressure. Or maybe it’s a general desire to feel more centred and mindful for my own well-being. Whatever the case, having Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To around to play these last few days has been a great asset, and it’s slotted itself right into my “good vibes” routine.
The Muddled Politics of Technotopia
Sometimes you play a game and can tell right away that it’s going to give you Thoughts™, but that wasn’t the case with Technotopia. My time with it started out the same as any other game, doing my best to get absorbed into the world it crafted and gameplay mechanisms it implemented, all the while taking notes on the side to prepare for the inevitable review. And then things changed. The narrative beats slowly began to go off the rails and I went from raising an eyebrow occasionally to having one permanently cocked. Futurist stories have the capacity to hold up a mirror to our current world or speculate on what tomorrow may bring, and yet Technotopia frequently feels like it gets so lost in critiquing what’s happening now that it forgets to provide that extra layer of futuristic abstraction. This is less satire, and more someone stating their beliefs directly to the player. And let me say, some of those beliefs are … questionable to say the least.
Olive's Game Garden 