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SPOILER WARNING

Depression.

Weeb RNG Mario Party

This review will be divided in two parts, one for gameplay related review and the other one describing my personal experience with Celeste. The first one I'll be doing will be the gameplay feature and will be spoiler free. As for the second part will be filled with spoilers and analysis. If you don't want to have your experience with Celeste spoiled, I suggest leaving the second part for later, and I also recommend that you experience the game blind as it is indeed a unique experience.


Celeste is a plataformer filled with puzzle-like mechanics. The game requires a certain level of patience of it's player as death is a main mechanic of the game, often leaving you at the start of a screen. The game features simple mechanics that can be further improved by the player's skills on the game and decision making at certain times, making death often frustating but not unfair. Completing a screen, while not graphically rewarding (although completing a chapter earns the player a nice artwork of Madeline), leaves the player satisfied, as each death has a purpose, like exploring possibilities, having a further knowledge of the map or mechanics, and also improving the player's reaction time and skill to complete a level, as each level is different from the last having a new mechanic and leaving the last level's behind, having the player always feeling fresh with something new to learn the first time around.

The "campaing" of the game is very forgiving, some of the levels can be hard a first but a few tries usually will do the trick, also leaving more harcore players of the game wanting a more challenging and unforgiving time. For those kinds of players, a little exploring will unlock them the "B-sides" and "C-sides", each one harder than the other respectively. DON'T BE ASHAMED OF YOUR DEATH COUNT!

The game is really worth a buy and I think it has something to offer for everyone. 10/10!

That ends the Gameplay focused part of the review. For those not wanting to be spoiled, this review should end now. For those more interested in knowing more about some gamer's experience, please, have a good read.


Celeste... Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain.
It's a game about climbing a mountain, but on a more personal level, a much more personal level.
I bought my copy under the recommendation of one of my friends who have played through it, I knew about it's gameplay, but, to me, much of the story was left aside, and part of me believes that was for the better.

I started my game simply believing the game to just be a plataformer about climbing a mountain. But I was wrong. Everything, from it's levels, to characters and soundtrack, has a certain meaning to them.
The game starts with out protagonist wanting to climb Celeste mountain, but we soon learn that not even her "knows" why she is doing it, all we know it's that she must do it at all costs, despite warnings from an old lady she encounters early in the game. Celeste mountain isn't a forgiving place, it's magical and it's a place where your worst parts come to life, as we would soon learn. But despite this warning Madeline continues her climb.
Playing this game I felt a familiar feeling during many times, sometimes from discomfort others from trying to understand what the game was telling me. After taking a look at the characters in-game I realized this all had a deeper meaning, something that could not be seen with your eyes, and only truly experienced by a few.
Celeste is a game about challenge. Not gameplay challenge, but a game about the battle we fight within ourselves everyday. Such an example is Madeline.

Madeline, as we learn later in game, suffers from deppression and anxiety. Those can be felt throught the game as the levels leave the player feeling anxious or uncomfortable most of the time. Her true challenge isn't climbing the mountain, but actually herself. Throughout the game you can notice various piano tracks within the OST, often related to Madeline as it's is actually used to represent her. The soundtack, too, is used to make the player feel uneasy as the game progresses. Madeline, by climbing this mountain, believes she can better herself. She doesn't know why she is doing it and she doesn't want to do it, but she forces herself, she feels she must do it because deep down she knows if she doesn't her situation will worsen eventually. And the mountain reinforces this feeling, as a part of Madeline comes to life.
This part of Madeline, referred in this review as "Badeline", also has her own personal problems, even being just a part of Madeline herself. While for most of the game she tries to stop Madeline in her quest you can see she suffers from a few problems herself, for example, Badeline believes that Madeline climbing the mountain to better herself isn't anything but a waste of time, often believing it won't acomplish anything and the climb itself will be her downfall, but Badeline is also afraid, afraid to be left behind, afraid Madeline will move on without her and she will be left behind, forgotten.

Madeline ends up blaming Badeline for some of her problems and some events, forgetting that Badeline is a part of her, making those problems actually problems of her own. Problems she doesn't want to have because she believes that it ain't her.

While I played the game I could see all these problems: from Theo's story to Madeline and even Mr. Oshiro's nostalgic behavior that ended being his death and leaving him as a ghost in his abandoned hotel. But Celeste also showed me that those characters could do better, even with their flaws. I learned that just the existence of Madeline was representative of determination, after every death, after every sweaty hand on the controller, after every unfortunate encounter with a spike, she was there like it was the first time, and I felt that leaving her there meant I gave up myself. Madeline then finally understood herself, as she couldn't just move on from the events of her life, and she finally learned that she could live with it, as it made her her. Teaming up with her other part was her way of saying they could live together and work together to better themselves.

I understood that Madeline didn't know why she was climbing the mountain, but she knew that climbing it would mean to her that she could do anything if she just tried. And that's when I stopped to think.

Celeste was a game about climbing a mountain, on a much more personal level than anything.
And Celeste taught me that any mountain could be climbed, no matter how hard it seemed. No matter if it was the mountain we had to climb within to better ourselves or an actual mountain.

Playing Celeste I had many hours to think with myself, about my life, how I identified with all these characters flaws and how my own flaws didn't have to be abandoned and how I shouldn't be ashamed of them, but instead I should seek to overcome my own challenges and live with myself to overcome the hardships of life, always remembering I'm not alone in this battle. Remembering that I can climb my own mountain.

Writing this review and playing I relived many of the memories I had both with the game and with my real life, some bad and some worse, but this time I felt at ease. I'd like to reserve these last few lines to say a thank you.

I'd like to personally thank the team behind the game, the people at Matt Makes Games Inc. and a personal thank you to Lena Raine for her perfect portrayal of the game's feelings with her beautifully written soundtrack.
I also would like to thank my friend (you know who you are) for recommending me this gem of a game
and lastly but not least, I'd like to thank my family and friends, for supporting me through my worse and for helping me to keep fighting this neverending battle.

It is safe to assume that my experience with DDLC has been at least interesting. I'm a simple guy, I don't usually play anime games or Visual Novels but I accept their existence, but with this game I had a different time. Keep in mind that this review will relate my experience with the game and may contain spoilers.


It all started on the 4th of December, 9:02 AM. I had just got home from a few shores I had around town and jumped on my computer. I greeted my friend, telling him I was ready to start the game.

Now, a little of backstory here: As I said I don't usually play these games, but this friend of mine is a huge anime fan. We have this little game of ours where one recommends a game to the other and that person has to play it, and after that it's that person's turn to tell the other a game. Simple. It was my turn to play something and so he told me to play this game. Innocently, I didn't think anything about it at the time. Actually, I had no problem with it, I just thought I would be getting some anime tiddies and that was about it. But how wrong I was.

Getting started with this game, it all seemed innocent enough, but I always had a feeling of otherwise. I couldn't help but feel that something was out of the ordinary. All the way, my friend, who watched my game, was silent, making a comment or another here and there, but whenever I asked him something about the game, like if my choices were correct or if they led to the ending I wanted, but he dismissed those questions or avoided them, rarely simply saying that he didn't want to answer. I tried then to keep those questions away from my head.

The game went on, I would play the game, reading out the characters voices out loud, having a voice for each one which to me made them each special in their own way. It went well, I don't usually like these clicking simulators, but making each character it's own made me like it a little more, and as it went on, I started to care more and more about these characters, which is something I did in games such a Witcher 3. The characters didn't have the same depth but they were good either way.

4 hours in I started to wonder how long this would take. It all seemed like your usual dating sim until I was handed one of the poems you get to read daily in the game, this one from Monika, if I'm correct. I was surprised when at the very bottom of the page I found the words "Load me". Instead of taking it in the childish sex joke way, I took it seriously. I had recently played games like OneShot and Pony Island at the time, which left me aware of 4th wall breaks, and in a way, left me scarred. I'm not one to take 4th wall psychological horror lightly, specially when such games tend to get information out of me without me even telling them, I feel like at such moments I stop being the player and become the game since it feels I'm being played with, and it always leaves me wondering just how much can a game know about me.

The second hint was when Monika, again, gave me the "Writing tip of the day", except this one wasn't about writing, and actually about saving my game when something was about to happen, so I could always load the game if I made a bad choice.

At that moment I started to catch about what this game was going to do to me. It wasn't your ordinary dating sim and I finally caught up to it. And the pose, the pose Monika did everytime she hinted at something, something felt off about it

The game went on normally as you would expect. You picked someone to romance with and you went on having the game play out with whoever that was. All was fine but I couldn't help that something was still off. That was when Sayori, your in-game childhood best friend, confessed to you she had a life-long depression which explained the many things she liked in your poems, her reactions and how she acted. She always dreamed of seeing you happy, except that she felt even worse when she saw you making new friends. After you share a moment, promissing to help her out with her problems being the friends you have always been you go back to where you were supposed to go.

Jumping a few minutes of gameplay, a certain dark turn of event happen. At that point my "happy go lucky" attittude was off, the voices I made for each character went silent. I was being played with and instead of the ending I had hoped now I was just watching it build up into something I wasn't going to enjoy. The innocent game I thought it was turned into a psychological horror I never thought such a game could be, and that is when I forgot what the concept of psychological horror was. It wasn't fear I felt, I was feeling manipulated. My in-game character began to be forced into certain options, and I felt he too knew something, as he began to be ever so silent. In fact, all characters in game knew something was off, as they weren't being who they were supposed to be.

8 hours in, I reached the end. An end that was broken, to a game that wasn't supposed to be. There was no happiness there. There was nothing. The antagonist I grew to despise as it messed with my choices ended up being one I felt pity for and I kept asking myself: Could have I done something differently? The short answer: Yes; The long one: No.

It was over, the game deleted itself, and so there was nothing left. But in the end something was still off, I felt like something was missing, or instead, that there was more, and that is still to be seen.





This story aside, the game, as the description suggest, is heavy on emotional themes, not so easily taken and that's why I left those out of this review. I won't try to sugar coat this, the game involve suicide themes, which is something not to be taken lightly. I think the work done by Team Salvato was great, that coming from someone who doesn't play many Visual Novels but loves to see some well done 4th wall breaking. I hope to see what Team Salvato has in store for us next. Considering they started out with the Smash Bros scene and ended up making something like this, I think it's safe to say anything is possible to come out from them.

I rate this game a 8/10 Monikas

OneShot... OneShot...
Where to start? It's a game I cared so much I spent 53 minutes writing a review for it at the sound of it's soundtrack

OneShot is one of those games you find out of nowhere and out of curiosity you play it because you bought it from a steam sale. Game looks like those games such as Undertale and Pony Island, but not as in the way it has a fan base you want as far away from you as it can. The only comparison I want to make OneShot to a game such as Undertale is that it is inovative.

This game isn't one of those combat filled rpgs, gameplay consists of puzzle solving and it's very creative at it.

Before I go into futher detail into it, consider this a spoiler alert with an extra tip added to it. Stop running wallpaper engine along with this game


OneShot is an incredible game in which I went blind into, only forcing my curious self into not looking at walkthroughs to know if I made the right decision. After coming to terms with playing it blind I started up the game and spent the next 4 hours beating in, as the title suggests, OneShot.

The game isn't very long if you know what you are doing, but as a first timer it was worth my time, trying the different interactions between items and character. One such example is a vendor in the second third of the game which you can try selling a variety of itens which the vendor reacts in many different ways to the action instead of the "I can't do that" kind of text you would get from trying to equip your bike inside a building in a pokemon game.

But what really caught my attetion playing this game was the fourth wall breaking, and oh god, does it do it well. In the game you will play as two characters: Niko, a anthropomorphic young cat, and yourself. And no I'm not joking, you do play as yourself in the game, an entity some of the NPCs would call a God. Niko will sometimes interact with certain items which will prompt a dialogue between an third entity and you as in yourself. This entity, which I will be from now on calling Bob. Bob is the entity which will acompany you and Niko throughout the entire game, breaking the fourth wall to talk to you in many, as I called in my experience, a chilling and disturbing precense, not exactly trustworthy. The fourth wall break is not only through dialogue, but in as the solution for some puzzles are hidden throught your computer.

That same disturbing feeling is continuous throughout the game sometimes noted by the change in the music tone (which I must also mention, it has an amazing soundtrack) due to the setup of the world it passes in. A dying world just waiting to end until you, a last hope, comes by and give a try at saving it. But even in a dying world you will still find some noteworthy characters, which brings me to my next point: character development.

Most npcs in game don't have a name and some others won't give you theirs. Most of the story of some character you will unfold by exploring and connecting dots with logic. One such example is an early character which won't tell you it's name and you will discover it by exploring, and it won't be much later until you meet another similar character with who you can interact with to know more about the first. But the most noteworthy got to be Niko himself. You jump to control him without knowing anything about him, but as the story progress you will get a few chances to interact with Niko and get to know each other, but the most about Niko you discover is through his dreams which both you share and prompts an interaction between you as a character and Niko.

Normally here I would discuss about the ending, but I am trying to leave this as much spoiler free as I can. I really could talk about this game for a few hours without an end because it really grew on me with it's appealing story and memorable characters and soundtrack in which I will be listening too along with many other of my favorites.


OneShot overall is a very solid game for those who never played of heard of it, getting you to think both in what is the right thing to do and how to solve puzzles with the environment you are a part of. A story with a ambiguous yet fullfilling setup and a cast of memorable characters and an well thought and fitting soundtrack.

Once you are done playing the game you will have to delete your save file if you want to try again or do something you hadn't done. There is also some post game content for those of you who are interested.

Easily one of the best games I experienced, 10/10

Sad.

next.

I can finally have Shooting Star memes as my wallpaper.


I have never felt more alive.

Screaming simulator 2017

The Moon Silver is a psychologial horror game that I can't talk much about without spoiling. Without any spoilers the story talks about the fate of four friends that lived in a island under the protection of a holy artifact that kept a Demon away. Everything was okay until one day something happened. During the entirety of the game you will be walking around a small deserted island piecing together a story and getting to know who the four friends were and what happened on the last few days on the island, and everytime the story progresses a certain amount of time passes. When night falls you must return to the mountain.

The game is to be played in one sitting and its duration is of about 1 hour long, so if you are looking for a quick piece of story with some horror added to it. The graphics aren't the best but the soundtrack and the story make it for a great game. I recommed it for people that enjoy these kind of psychological horrors.

Game given for free from my friend Luz. Thanks for it.