Update Two Hundred and Forty-Nine: 27 October 2018
the Norwood Suite
3.6 hours playtime, 17 of 17 achievements
9/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
What an enchanting, dreamlike, wonderful experience!
Cosmo D gets me. Or, rather, I get them. (Most wanted dev collab? Cosmo D and SWERY.) Each of their games hit my ‘ah yes good’ button hard as hell, blending half-remembered nostalgia with unexpected, delightful design choices. The Norwood Suite is a spiritual successor to Off-Peak, more polished and cohesive and focused, though otherwise unrelated. (There’s a handful of posters of Off-Peak and four giants near the end but that’s it. A little bit of a letdown.)
The Norwood Suite is Weird, really weird. I loved exploring the hotel, peering deep into misplaced textures, rooting around in drawers to find all different kinds of books I couldn’t read - no two the same - and exploring hidden passageways that felt like bizarro Disney waiting line walkthroughs. There’s artwork scattered on the walls or carved into the floor, half-paintings in frames, half strange graffiti, and the music changes depending on what room you’re in, pounding out of speakers and stereos embedded in the walls, in the ceiling, in tiny radios. Piecing together the different characters’ plotlines, following the themes of music, looming corporate threat, and energy drinks - there’s a lot to discover in this game.
Like most dreams, though, the ending isn’t quite satisfying - it just is: terrifying, bewildering, more questions than answers. Even so: take a trip, have a stay: get transported backward in time and forward into a future that will never be. It’s worth it.
Next up: Okay, I didn’t plan on playing this game so soon but I bought it and then my girlfriend told me to play it while she’s away today and my will crumpled like tissue paper so see you two weeks from now.
See you soon!
I absolutely loved The Norwood Suite too, great review! I especially liked your comparison to the theme park waiting lines for the hidden sections lol. I saw you’d wishlisted the soundtrack, there’s a few on there that are great to listen to out of game like Blue Moose Man, The Final Look and Muriel’s Ride.
Right? When I first got into one I was like ‘I’m definitely in line to get into Space Mountain in Disney World’. The surreal tableaus were sicknasty as well.
The soundtrack was soooo good. I loved wandering in and out of the different aura spheres of music, and in a few of them I’d make excuses to wander back in to listen more. I love ambient music held together by nice, non-obnoxious beats with dreamy waves on top.
Your review really captures Norwood Suite. It’s an amazing game, I loved how weird it was. The sequel is on my wishlist, I wasn’t aware of Off-Peak though, now it is as well :).
Oh, thank you! I’m glad! It’s nice when my stream-of-consciousness, disjointed writing style intersects with a subject that fits.
There’s a SEQUEL? I didn’t know that! Hell, now I gotta put it on my list, too! (Off-Peak is free, which is great! It’s much rougher than this, but just as weird and hard to pin down)
Sequel may be the wrong word. IIRC the developer was working on a new game that sounded very similar. I’d have to find it again to be sure, I may be completely wrong.
I disliked that game so much but I am glad that you (and everyone else in this world apparently) loved it at least :) shows you just how different tastes can be.
Oh, yeah, 80,000%. If you don’t fuck with it, then it’s going to go over like a lead balloon. Not in a ‘you don’t GET IT’ pretentious sense but in a, like… you don’t like electronic shoegaze vaporwave triphop, you’re more of a metalhead instead thing.
I can see where you’re coming from, and it’s not a game for everybody - though I think it’s one that should be tried first. My biggest pet peeve is hooooow deformed the character models would get - not because they’re meant to look ugly, but just whoever rigged, weight painted, and posed those motherfuckers just were wrenching joints at angles that shouldn’t be. On the one hand, it fits with the theme, but on the other…they only used ONE joint at the wrist. What did they do with that base neck vertebrae? Who dislocated that man’s entire ribcage?
Yep, you hit the nail right on the head. I did not like the music at all (yay for having a very very specific music taste :/ ) so at some point I had to completely mute the game (gimme separate sound setting sliders godammit efoirfgoerf) so I could actually stomach finishing it. I guess I never paid enough attention to actually notice/have a problem with the movement of the characters but the aesthetics of the game was also just a big nope from me. As stupid as it might sound I think I would have liked the game 100x better if the game would have a different, maybe more realistic artstyle. Oh and not giving me motion sickness would also help :(
Those are all valid critiques - even though I loved the aesthetic.
I’m glad you tried it, and I’m impressed you got all the way to the end - I don’t usually finish games that are such big misses for me.
I think I’ve only seen negative reviews for this game so far, I was surprised how many people REALLY didn’t like it. Like all 3/10 or less. I haven’t played it myself (or finished it), but watched a friend for a good chunk of it and was quirky and captivating enough to make for a fun experience. Can totally see how it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it makes me happy to see a few people liked it based on your comments. A wee bit more balance, like I was expecting!
Sounds like the right call to start Yakuza ASAP, can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it. :D I’m pretty much sold based on the fact it has karaoke, let alone how good the rest of it looks!
I’m going to put my review up on Steam, to just do my small part on balancing the tide. It’s definitely one of those games where if you like it, you’ll like it a lot - but if you don’t like it, you’ll really not like it.
Ohhhhhh my god it’s really very good. It is SO good. So so so so good. The facial animation, how smooth and quiet it runs, the level of quality, how much stuff there is to do - I loved the karaoke and my biggest criticism is that, right now, there’s not enough of it. I haven’t even gone dancing yet!
Haha yay I’m so dang happy for you! Feels great when a game lives up to the hype (especially a port)! Between you and LastM, making it difficult not to pick it up ASAP. :P
I’m not here to strong arm you BUT I will tell you there’s a lot of fun shit to do AND it is unbelievably well optimized. As much as I liked Norwood Suite, it ran pretty heavily on my machine. Yakuza 0, on highest settings, runs at a whisper and it is high-ass quality.
Yakuza 0 is amazing. Just a tip: Don’t forget to get some perks at the shrine and a bunch of stuff from the guy dressed as clown near it asap. It helps a lot at the start of the game.
The side missions are a lot fun too. Have you started the one where you help a Dominatrix? So funny! xD
It is so amazing. I love it love it love it. I just met Majima and he is amazing.
Hell yes the dominatrix one was hilarious. Kiryu’s a great character, too, and I like how he’s a big guy with a good heart who falls into helping all these assorted fucking weirdos. Him getting amped about pocket car racing is hilarious, too!
Honestly, I liked Majima’s story so much that I was rushing Kiryu’s part just to get back to him even though Kiryu’s story isn’t bad at all. Quite the opposite.
I absolutely went apeshit banananuts during Majima’s karoake song to the extent that Madison rushed in and went ‘oh no what’s happening!’ and I had to send her away so she could come back and watch it from the beginning, and then SHE went apeshit banananuts. Majima is a treasure.
NINE OUT OF TEN?????????????????????
YA, GORL! I spent my time with it in gleeful, childlike wonder, and was only a little put out by its kind of ‘huh???’ ending. 9/10 experience was had.