Update Two Hundred and Ninety-Two: 8 March 2019
the Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne
.7 hours playtime, 5 of 5 achievements
5.5/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
This game made me feel so old. Cryptkeeper old. Three straight years of therapy old. I graduated a little under three years ago from college, and last lived in a dorm four years ago. It doesn’t SOUND that far away when you say it out loud, but playing this game… yeesh. Feels like forever ago.
So, in this game, you help Samantha make oatmeal in a mug.
Yes, that is the game.
The challenge comes from Samantha, putting it bluntly, being a huge fuckup. There are about 9 ways for you to fail at making the oatmeal, all of which revolve around Samantha overthinking things, wrapping herself up into knots, and then fucking up something really basic because she’s panicking. It’s a little… a LOT… where at the same time, like, yes, as the kids say these days, it’s #relatable, I also just want to lay my hands on her shoulders and gently murmur, ‘hon, it really IS just oatmeal, please go to therapy, it doesn’t have to be this hard.’
There’s a lot of good art up in this bitch, each scene its own CG, and I like the touch of always having Samantha’s face obscured. Otherwise, it’s kind of just okay!
In other news: the recent spate of kind of meh-to-pretty bad games made me realize I need to crank my standards WAY up, so I took a couple of hours today (postponing this review!) to really clean out my wishlist. I can’t do anything about the state of my backlog now, mostly, but I can preserve its quality for the future. And I’m proud of the difference it made—I went from 504 games on my wishlist all the way down to 431. That’s SEVENTY-THREE whole games I saved myself from having to play one day!
Next up: Hear that, RNGesus? Get with the feckin’ program, huh?
…
Ha! Haven’t played a Dogenzaka game in a LONG ass time! This is the oldest VN in my backlog.
See you soon!
This game made me feel so old. Cryptkeeper old. Three straight years of therapy old. I graduated a little under three years ago from college, and last lived in a dorm four years ago.
Well damn, now I feel old. Like T-Rex sat behind me in homeroom old. ;)
Your reviews are always enjoyable. One day I’ll check out one of the VNs rotting in my library – there’s some gems out there, as I know from your posts.
My dad used to say something similar! That he was so old, he and Jesus went to different schools together.
Aww, shucks, thank you! I’m glad that my posts reach even the visual novel-apathetic crowd. Which ones do you have?
Oh, way too many from various bundles and as gifts. I have played a handful of VNs to 100% but they were…to put it politely, of dubious quality… haha. I was gifted the Nonary Games for last Christmas that looks promising? I also sometimes play Monster Prom with a friend in multiplayer because she’s crazy that game and likes the company.
What I should do is sort out what I have for that category and cross reference to your reviews.
EDIT: Did exactly that.
Holy shit holy shit holy shit well I ain’t never seen that before!!!
That was so nice, Traveler, I hope my tastes don’t steer you wrong! You have a good, varied spread that I think you’d DEFINITELY like at least a couple of them. The Nonary Games indeed are very promising, where it’s a VN mixed with escape the room puzzle segments.
If/when you play Higurashi, I personally recommend getting the PS3 sprite patch for it, but it’s not COMPLETELY necessary. When it comes time to play, you can find the information about the patch you need in the discussion boards/guide.
Thanks for the tip! I DL’d from the top, with Analogue. Played a tiny bit of it and was really confused as to why the letter entries were talking about a sort of dynasty era Korea going on when the game is set on a space ship. But I’ll plug away and see what happens.
Oh yeah, don’t worry, you’ll see!
Enjoy c:
Dang~That’s a bunch of good looking dudes for your next game. 10/10 would hit on all of them. xD And after checking steam store page, it’s middle-age man themed? No wonder I like all of them. lol I have a thing for older guys. Looking forward to seeing your next review. :3
I’ve seen some bad press about it, but I ALSO have a fondness for older gentlemen, and I’m nearly done the first route… and I like it! It’s certainly the Dogenzaka game with the best translation so far.
aaaaaaaaaah pub encounter my guilty purchase, money I can never get back lol
I’m envious you were able to shorten your wishlist (though 400+ is still too high a number XD). I’m really bad at trying to shorten mine, I really would like to make do with 100 games top (which is still too high for me) but then I start thinking things like ‘what if i miss a free giveaway of this game i would like to play’ or ‘what if I never find this game again???’ ughhh.
But then I don’t have time to play all those games and if I do there are other ones that take precedence arghhhh, I will find myself at 86 years old with untouched books and games in my library thinking ‘I’d like to start that one day but not right now’ and then i’ll die without doing it I DON’T WANT TO END UP LIKE THAT. it is so hard to live in the present lol
“but then I start thinking things like ‘what if i miss a free giveaway of this game i would like to play’ or ‘what if I never find this game again???’ ughhh.”
Oh yeah, that’s exactly why I put every game I was even VAGUELY interested in on my wishlist, but then I thought ‘would I actually ENJOY playing this game other than to get a 100%?’ and if the answer was no, I cut it.
” I will find myself at 86 years old with untouched books and games in my library thinking ‘I’d like to start that one day but not right now’ and then i’ll die without doing it”
OHHH MY GODDDD I KNOOOOOW there’s just SO much media out there, it’s nearly impossible to just get to engage with all the worthwhile ones. Like, I’m dealing with that right now with podcasts I listen to in the car. There are SO MANY good ones, but so many are LONG and I want to listen to Snap Judgment but there are over ONE THOUSAND EPISODES and I’ve been listening to This American Life for the past YEAR and I’m only on around episode 190 and I’m starting to watch Critical Role bc I care about DnD now and it takes me DAYS to get through ONE episode and I’m like sixty episodes behind and and and -
aaaaaaaa
yeah and while doing that, new things get created?? we’ll never catch up
I’m going to finish a couple of books first bc of reasons, but then I’m immediately moving onto big names like steins gate and mangagamer better finish the last chapters of higurashi SO I CAN START IT AT LAST
have your heard that minori (eden*, etc) have closed up? it doesn’t look good, are vns in Japan doing that bad?? :(
Oh no, I hadn’t heard that! I don’t know anything about the state of the genre there, but I certainly hope not.
Sometimes studios fold. I hope the artists found new work elsewhere.
Yeah, just wait until you’re forty-something and playing a game like Life Is Strange…talk about feeling old! But actually, what was so great about that game is that it still felt relatable and I felt like I was back in High School or something! Although I went to public school so it really seemed more like College because of dorms and stuff.
Wait, let me write that down. <writes hurriedly> Actually, maybe that would be a good epitaph for you someday?
Yes! Let’s write that on the grave! Wait, is talking about this morally okay?
Yes.
I mean, as in, are you sure tsupertsundere won’t be mad at us for considering their death so soon?
(FAINTLY IN THE DISTANCE)
LIVE BORING NEVER DIE
sweatdrops Is… Is that a reference?
whispers …I’m not sure I get it…
Not a reference! I’m just a grandma, and I plan to live forever curled up in a blanket playing video games. c;
Discussing my death doesn’t bother me because I shall nevr die
Oh, I see. …Wait! If you’re a grandma, then I’m… I’m… middle-aged? ;W;
Oh man I’m trying not even to think about it. I plan to be 25 forever until I’m abruptly 76 and I’m just as much grandma on the outside as I am on the inside.
Ha! Thank you! I’d be honored if that’s how I’m remembered. Someone jovially slaps my ash urn and goes ‘there was a lot of good art up in this bitch’.
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I had in mind.