HurrJackal1

MARCH 2025

  • Beyond Blue: Meditative diving game – zero threat, and definitely not simulationist (you have some magic breathing apparatus/suit that eliminates any IRL worries one might have about bends, oxygen use, etc) 6.5/10
  • Open Roads: Adventure/object-exploration game. Surprised me in a good way. 8/10
  • Wanderlust: Travel Stories: Writing-language is good fluent English, though can be a little preachy - I though it was an Inkle game (80 Days) but it’s from a Polish group. Writing-plotting is very mixed in quality depending on the chapter - one has pretty much half locked away from an early choice. Another is more or less linear and very much feels it. 6/10-7.5/10
  • Boxes: Toybox puzzler, slightly more complex than Doors: Paradox overall. Enjoyed it for what it is. 8/10
  • A Tale of Paper: 2.5D-ish puzzle-platformer (there must be a more specific genre term for games like this, Limbo, Little Orpheus, Little Nightmares, A Juggler’s Tale, etc where the character is on a journey) - puzzles were pretty good with the mechanics giving a unique experience; platforming/movement was slightly awkward at times. 8/10
  • Neversong: Another puzzle-platformer with some lackluster combat. Atmosphere very good. Everything else, mediocre. 6.5
  • The Norwood Suite: Surreal mystery/exploration game. In some ways this is nothing like Paradise Killer, in others it is/ 8.5/10
  • Old Man’s Journey: Short-but-sweet walker-puzzle game, with more or less extensions of a single mechanic for much of the game. 7/10
  • Serial Cleaner: 3/4-down stealth-puzzler. Reasonably good, and deliberately forgiving with most enemies having the memory and intelligence of goldfish (hide in a box in full view of one? no idea where I’ve gone). 7.5/10

Games I will not finish

  • Tales of Kenzera: ZAU

    2.66 hours playtime

    4/19 achievements

Metroidvanias are one of my favourite genres, but this game is in no way close to a favourite metroidvania after a couple of hours’ play, despite advertising some high ratings in its trailer, having some potentially interesting mechanics, and liking the creator (actor Abubakar Selim). There are three sins I’d like to highlight:

  1. In general, unlocking abilities in Metroidvanias unlocks routes. Three of the most common ones are the double jump, the air dash, and the wall jump. Zau starts out with all three of these already. This is not a game-stopper, but it does reduce the design space available, and a rule of thumb for metroidvanias is that double-jump should not be one of the first abilities obtained.
  2. Games – and particularly Metroidvanias (with their backtracking) – need a certain density of experience to be/remain interesting. This can be challenging traversal, new routes (including currently inaccessible ones, and unlockable shortcuts), combat (to be accepted or avoided), etc. There’s a one-time forced-combat encounter every so often, but overall I found Zau’s density of experience to be generally incredibly light, even on an initial traversal.
  3. The worst of the sins: Zau is an unpleasant dickhead. He might become less of one later on, but I don’t care. It helps if a metroidvania protagonist has some level of likability/sympathy/player-identification but it’s not essential. I can’t think of another Metroidvania, however, where I’ve actively disliked the character (in wrestling terms, this is go-away heat and not heel heat).
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