Update Two Hundred and Seventy-Four: 10 January 2019
Far From Noise
3.2 hours playtime, ~1.5 hrs actual, 4 of 9 achievements
5.5/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Okay okay okay okay I know I know I know I’ve been firebombing the feed recently but I’ve just had a lot of short games on my plate. Think of it like I’m making up for how little I posted in November and December! I picked two shorter games for the theme, but I didn’t really realize how short they were. Not a bug; just a feature.
Unfortunately, I didn’t love Far From Noise as much as I wanted to. There are moments of brilliance, but the glacial pacing and the meandering… events? make it an overall ehhhhh experience. It’s meant to be played multiple times - at least, the achievements encourage you to - but since I could barely make it through one run I’m shelving this for 2020 tsuper to try again with.
As much as I could relate to the unnamed, unseen protagonist and their struggles, the game felt like a bunch of pointless navel gazing, and nothing definite actually happens. It’s a thrilling setup - you’re trapped in a car teetering on the edge of a cliff, and it’s heavily implied you had the intention of driving straight off it but hit the break at the last moment. You can’t get out, you can’t do anything, the car won’t start. And then, somehow, a deer comes up and starts to talk to you.
There’s so much shit you could do with that, but it’s fairly pedestrian ‘young millennial struggles’. This game is a Great Value Night in the Woods, and unfortunately I just don’t really fuck with it. Even so, I want to give a shoutout to my kyoudai Shax for giving me this game as a gift!
Next up: Now you won’t hear from me for a long ass while (about games, anyway, that really bad VN I’m reading is blessedly decently short)
See you soon!
Ooooooh Berseriaaa, get ready for ANGER!
You have to let me know when you’re playing this, I want live blog for the first few hours!
I just feel little depressed by your posts and progress as I will probably fail all my challenges this month. XD
Keep up the good work! ;)
Ohhhh no no no no no, these games are just all really short! You can still do those challenges! I believe in you!
Sorry for the late reply! X)
Thank you for your faith in me, I will try my best! :)
And as I see it you are on warpath against your backlog. XD
You made me search for kyoudai meaning! I thought it was a misspell of kouhai haha.
Anyway, Berseria is on my backlog too but Shax’s comment just pushed it down the list! I’ll wait for your safe return before considering starting it myself now! Good luck!
Hahaha, nope! (though technically, since I’m older than him, kouhai would be accurate also)
His comment about ANGER is definitely more about the emotions the story (esp. the prologue) stokes in you, not about the difficulty or one’s meta-feeling about the game. He’s definitely right… but it’s a righteous anger to feel!
Thank you for the well wishes! Hopefully it doesn’t take me TOO too long…!
I didn’t love Far From Noise either. In fact, I couldn’t even convince myself to finish one playthrough lol.
You know? I can’t blame you.
That’s sad. That looks like a game I’d really love. To bad it’s not as good as it looks.
Good luck with Berseria! I wanted to like the game but I’m not very good with the genre so I was terrible at it. I’d love to know if it’s worth another go on an easier difficulty. Can’t wait for the review.
Yeah I played this last month, and I thought it missed out on a chance to be much better. I think even having it voice acted would have made it a lot better, instead of having to read walls of text the whole time.
Definitely. I didn’t mind the text amount, it was the pacing that did me in. That pacing would feel better and less constraining if it was voice acted.
Jaffa made a point in another comment chain that she loved the game for the zen-like aspect of it, how chill and relaxing just the sfx were, and that’s probably the angle the devs were intending.
Yeah if they had someone with a deep soothing voice, reading the parts of the deer, it would have actually been a good experience I think. But they also didn’t need to make you play it through 3 times for all the achievements, that kind of thing also makes me like games less. Respect my time dammit!
ESPECIALLY with no skip/speed up function. My brain moves too fast for that! I get antsy! Bored!