From a a singing bard to a dancing genie, it seems my month is developing a theme. Shantae is a fairly long-running franchise of metroidvania games, with Seven Sirens being the latest (and the only one i've personally played)

As a metroidvania, it's pretty good. The world is nice to explore, and each new ability is fun to play with, although only about half of them pass the test of "is-it-just-a-glorified-key?" - for extra credit, even the ones that fail will add a sort of mini-game to the unlocked "doorways", which is different at least. Enemies (and bosses) will test you in interesting ways, and controls are tight enough for you to respond. It's not as expansive as the better Castlevania's or Metroid's but it doesn't really have to be

Difficulty-wise, Seven Sirens has the odd quirk where things will get easier over time (at least if you aren't intentionally limiting yourself). The first boss was probably the hardest for me, as character upgrades are scarce at that point, but by the end of the game i was just tanking bosses while whipping them to death with my upgraded hair. I know people are divided on which way a difficulty curve should progress - i'm not even settled on an answer myself - but i found it a touch too obvious here

For aesthetic and narrative, it's (just) pretty good as well. Nicely animated style, and lots of weird characters along the journey. Story has a mild mystery to it, but nothing too wild. Soundtrack has some good bops in there. I guess it's overall well made, and nothing seems out of place.. i'm just kind of running out of things to say…

I want to make it clear though: Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a good game. I enjoyed my time with it, even it was very familiar ground. If this was my first metroidvania, i'd probably like it more

Wandersong is one of the most genuinely lovely games i've played in a long while. It's an honestly good game, in all meanings of the word

You play as a bard, and so not the hero of the story. This is made explicit at the beginning, and repeated throughout, and yet it never stops you from going out to save the world anyway. You eventually meet the actual hero, as your respective quests are directly linked, and in a fun twist, achievements are earned through her actions, not yours. This made things slightly frustrating as an achievement hunter, but is also a brilliant way to reinforce this core theme

All you can do is sing (at pretty much any time, even cut-scenes), and so that's your only option for completing quests. It's definitely being optimistic about the power of solving problems through song, but what sells it is how creatively the game gets you to engage with that simple mechanic. You end up pushing the "sing" command every time you get mildly stuck, letting you feel the same joyful surprise when it actually has a useful effect on the world around you

The visual style is very colourful, emulating paper-craft, and so gives the vibe of a children's story book. The game is easily suitable for young ones, but it also talks about its themes with a certain bravery and grace, rather than holding back or "dumbing things down". As an adult, this meant it felt like talking on the same level, but i'm sure i would've appreciated this tone as a kid. Music is of course lovely, matching the happy, enthusiastic aesthetic, but still manages to create different feelings to match different areas and story beats

Wandersong is great. It's a celebration of creativity, and the joy of existence, and centres that with the humane idea that everyone is special, simply for being themselves. Very happy this was picked for me

And so i finish my four-month sprint of the Infinity Engine games with the best one, Planescape: Torment. I did manage to finish it in December, but only after my monthly post, so i decided to roll it over to 2025

There's a few reasons why it's the best of the four, but the simplest one is the de-emphasis on combat, which was the least entertaining part of these games for my modern brain. Not only is there a lot less combat overall, but your main character is immortal, so combat deaths are just an inconvenience, rather than a game reload. He also gains the 'raise dead' ability pretty early, so companion deaths are similarly inconsequential

Replacing the missing combat is a much greater focus on writing and dialogue, which suits me nicely. The lore of the Planescape setting is so dense and strange, and the characters so rich and interesting, that i rarely got tired of reading about it all. Dialogue choices are expanded as well, with more options for persuasion, intimidation, or even sneaky logical deduction. Most conversation paths simply lead to more exploration of the world, characters, and the various themes floating around, however

For some plot setup: your character wakes up in a mortuary with no memory. Your initial goal is to find out where you are, who or what killed you, and why it didn’t stick. You find some notes tattooed on yourself as starting pointers, and following these eventually reveals your immortality and the numerous lives you've already lived – which obviously leads to a quest to resolve that mystery. Along the way, you'll meet an array of strange characters in stranger settings, attracting the strangest to be your companions

Like i said before, a lot of Planescape: Torment is reading, even if it's very good reading. I got the same feeling exploring the details of this uncanny world as i did reading fantasy novels in my younger years, and so every now and then, i wondered whether a medium like a book or movie would suit the story better. I would always quickly reject that idea, because so much of the story is centered around your narrative choices, and how you (the player) choose to present this character, when faced with the results of his past actions

Planescape: Torment is a lot more narrative and dialogue-focused than Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, which i think is a better fit for this genre – although it's easy to say that with writing this good. Be prepared for lots of reading, but also for some new existential thoughts and questions living in your head

VA-11 HALL-A (Valhalla) is a visual novel about a young lady working as a bartender in a dystopian futuristic city. Like most visual novels, a lot of the gameplay is reading; in this case talking to the interesting characters that visit the Valhalla bar, seeing how they (and you) develop over the course of a Christmas-New Year period (how fitting)

Since you're a bartender, there's a mini game about mixing drinks for the patrons you're chatting with. There's a recipe book, you can take as long as you want, and the only challenge is ingredient selection, but, drink choice is the primary way of changing narrative paths (rather than dialogue selection), so it's a good idea to do it well. I guess the right drink at the right time can change a lot

And since it's dystopian fiction, there's an extremely light side game about managing your monthly funds, juggling required bills like rent, electricity and porn, with secondary concerns like sweet posters and new video games. Doing well at your bartending job obviously directly impacts this side, but being able to buy the nice things for your apartment also helps with your mental state back at the bar

Overall, a good game to relax in bed with, a cup of tea nearby, and a good pillow at your back

The King's Bird is a momentum platformer, which if you've been reading my stuff for a while, you'll know that i don't really get along with

The more physics basis is obviously very frustrating for me, making things feel a bit more out of my control, but it is fascinating to see ghost recordings of people who've somehow managed to wrangle this beast

Personally, i'll just give some thanks to the gaming god for Assist Mode, as it basically allowed me to beat this one

Now this is a Metroid love letter. I played Axiom Verge earlier this year and it's hard to not draw direct comparisons - with Environmental Station Alpha coming out ahead (in my opinion)

ESA is basically a deconstructed, minimalist Metroid: Fusion, in visuals obviously, but also in narrative and mechanics. In spite of this paring back it manages to cut much closer to the "spirit" of a good metroidvania (or perhaps the paring back just made the spirit more visible)

The story and plot are a bit simpler than Fusion, almost as if to match the lower res graphics. Many pieces are almost directly stolen: a research space station orbiting a subject planet; different sectors of the station dedicated to different biomes; a straightforward system malfunction that slowly morphs into a malevolent sentience wreaking havoc. It's so clearly homage that i immediately forgave it, and the simple text-log presentation activated the nostalgia in my brain without pulling me into judging favourites

Mechanically it's a very traditional metroidvania, and i mean that in the good sense. Abilities are almost always fundamental changes to the way your character moves and engages with the world, rather than disguised key-cards (a small few are this though). A nice feature is the option of turning off individual upgrades in the status screen, allowing the game to have areas that require you to survive without an ability you've come to rely on - it doesn't do this as much as it should've though

One of the divergence points in ESA is over its post game content, with opinions seeming to split sharply in either direction. While everything above does technically describe both halves, it's angled more towards the main game. The post game is much more experimental, adding cryptic puzzles that require lateral thinking, hidden areas that come close to pixel hunts, instant-death dash mazes, and of course, crushing super-bosses and secret endings.

Personally, i lean more towards the less-enjoying camp with this stuff, but i will recognise that this part of the game is just not for me, but for the over-achieving secret hunters who want to squeeze every drop out. The problem (and this is definitely still a personal one), is that a bunch of achievements need me to engage with this half, and so i had to bash my skull against the deadly dash maze for a good hour or so.

Just be aware of this part of the game if you're thinking of diving in yourself, but that ends my PSA about ESA's post game

Otherwise, lovely little metroidvania. It's almost sad that i missed this gem for so long, and that it was only the (recent) achievement addition that brought me round to it

I was weirdly looking forward to Icewind Dale during the Baldur's Gate play-through. Perhaps because i imagined it as a more relaxing, Diablo-like game without the focused narrative - you know, something you can play while you listen to a podcast, or while (re)watching some internet video

Two problems: 2nd Edition D&D rules (and perhaps all editions, i'm not the expert) are not really designed for half-brained play - not without Story Mode at least, and even then you might find yourself occasionally hitting a wall. Secondly, they stripped out the advanced party AI from BG 1&2, which obviously means you need to do a lot more micro-management as a player

As a bonus third point, i really underappreciated how much the narrative brings to your motivation as a player. The entire party is created by you, so while you may feel a part ownership of them, they don't have any quests or personality beyond what you imagine yourself - so it feels more like carting a few of your toys on an adventure across your parent's garden

I'm not talking down to that childish sort of play - i did that a lot as a kid, and it's probably a primary driver of writers and game designers and dungeon masters towards creating their worlds - it's just that the companion characters lent a social element to the experience (even if it's simulated) that feels like it's missing here. Perhaps it was a mistake to play it after the Baldur's Gates, or perhaps i really am burning out a bit

You do fly through character levels like, well, a Diablo character, and the game is a lot shorter than either BG game, so at least my whole month wasn't killed again. Here's hoping i can play enough other things so that i'm fresh and ready for Planescape Torment next month