Tag: steam

Moonglow Bay – Fishing for EMOTION

Posted on by in Gaming

During the occasional lulls in my chaotic life, where work and personal projects are running smoothly (what an insane concept, I know), I like to scroll through the games lists on Xbox Game Pass or the Nintendo Shop on my Switch to find something new to play. A lot of the random indie gems that I’ve played and/or talked about on this site have come from those scrolling sessions, rather than keeping track of review listings or release schedules. I mean, my life is frantic enough without adding something else to keep track of!

One such game that I found was Moonglow Bay. Like many others, the fishing element of many popular games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and even Final Fantasy XV has a rather addictive quality to it. Relaxing, satisfying and technically contributing to in-game progress, players have lost hours of their time plundering the ocean’s depths for its treasures (and various bits of trash). So, an entire game based around fishing, exploring, and cooking seafood for your hungry customers seemed like a fabulous idea.

I’m fishing for my sanity – no luck thus far.

Yet, Moonglow Bay is so much more than just a fishing game. It’s a tale of loss, grief, and hope, of community and restoration, of building relationships and keeping promises, of making new memories and treasuring old ones.

Immediately off the bat, the game asks you to choose who you wish to play as, what you wish to be called, your pronouns as well as the identity of your partner. The fact I could choose they/them as my pronouns and the fact I was not restricted in choosing the opposite gender partner to that of my player character, brought a massive smile to my face. Representation is important and the developers of Moonglow Bay, Bunnyhug, have clearly thought about it – with the pronouns you choose being used throughout the game, rather than as a one-off thing.

TFW I’m better at cooking in a fictional game than IRL

Personally, I want everyone to play this game – available on PC and Xbox, but I know not everyone has the time nor access to their system of choice, so I’m going to talk a bit more in-depth here about the game. There may be spoilers ahead, so if you want to remain wholly blind going into this game then uh… close this tab immediately?

Anyone still here? Let’s chat.

Based in the seaside town of Moonglow Bay on the Eastern Canadian shoreline in the 1980’s, your character (whether you’ve called them an actual name like I did or called them Sir Bootylicious) and their partner (Robin, in my game!) are learning to fish. Your partner talks about their dream of settling down in the bay and setting up a business selling various meals made from the wide variety of local fish in the area. They give you a present to celebrate the pair of you starting this new milestone and you promise to open it when they get back from their fishing trip tomorrow night.

Sadly, they never come home.

The developers are hilarious. Also, this guy will forever be called Dave.

Three years pass and you’re living alone, comforted by your ramen and your precious pup Waffles (and yes, you can always pet the dog). Your daughter, River, drags you out the house to go fishing and to show you how run-down Moonglow Bay has become. Trash on the beach, brickwork crumbling, homes and businesses boarded up – the town is fading away. As the town fades, so does your lost partner’s dream. So, what will you do about it? Roll up your sleeves, get fishing and restore the bay to its former glory through the power of your bloody brilliant cooking skills.

As you explore the bay, catching all kinds of sea creatures and cooking them up into delectable dishes, you begin to rejuvenate the town and unravel some of the truths behind the various superstitions that seem to haunt the bay. Tales of monsters in the deep, creatures that destroy ships and terrorise sailors, rumours that have only grown stronger as the fishing industry dwindled during your grief. As you move forward with fulfilling your lost partner’s dream and pour your heart and soul into the town you both loved, you find mysteries and secrets that intrigue you, monstrous creatures that send other anglers running in fear and a trail of breadcrumbs that might give you a way to soothe the raging void in your heart where your partner once resided.

Thankfully, our ship is not called the Titanic.

Each chapter of this story finds you facing off against massive creatures of the deep and you need to quell their rage before anyone gets hurt. Yet, these monsters aren’t out for revenge. They’re just creatures in need of help, much like the player is. Much like the town of Moonglow Bay. Maybe, just maybe, helping these wounded creatures will help you start to heal the gaping wound in your heart.

Anyways, please try this game. It has a heartfelt storyline, a beautiful world, fun mechanics, and soothing music. Do it.

CaitlinRC.

Röki – Walking In A Winter Wonderland (With a troll):

Posted on by in Gaming

Back in October, which seems like it happened a decade ago, I was at EGX in London. After being lucky enough to get a Press Pass for the event, I spent quite a few hours scrolling through my emails, searching for games that I found interesting or ones that I thought deserved a little more love in the indie section. One such game was Röki, an adventure game that follows a young girl named Tove, who is trying to rescue her brother from the claws of the monster that kidnapped him.

In the short demo that I got to play, I was immediately immersed in a fairy-tale world. So, when the full version of the game was released on Steam a few days ago, I immediately threw myself into it. Over the course of a weekend, I completed each chapter of the story, trying my hardest to appreciate and discover every corner of my surroundings. Though I will say that spider is horrifying, I nearly threw my laptop across the room when I first saw it and the NOISES IT MADE WERE TERRIFYING OK.

Look at these gorgeous woods, it reminds me of the woods near where I was born.

Point and click adventures tend to be an experience of trial and error. For games with less well-thought out puzzles, it becomes a rage game, where you try combining anything and everything in a desperate attempt to progress the story. Röki, thankfully, has managed to avoid the puzzle pitfall. The puzzles were instinctive, cleverly interwoven into your interactions with the world. It didn’t feel like the plot was being held hostage until you finished collecting several shiny stones; it instead feels like a genuine obstacle standing between Tove and her brother.

From a technical standpoint, Röki is a masterpiece. Upon opening the game, you are greeted with sweeping vistas of a snowy mountain range. The forest stands out on the snowy background, managing to seem inviting and ominous at the same time. You’re greeted with icy lakes, towering trees, and crumbling castles – the likes of which we associate to the stories that we read to our kids at bedtime. These gorgeous landscapes are enhanced by the lighting engine that Röki implements. When you’re working with the sheer white snow of a mountain landscape like that of Tove’s home, it can be hard to make each explorable area unique enough to interest the player. In fact, arctic explorers must contend with a type of mirage, in which the snow makes it look like there is land on the horizon.

A lovely idyllic house, perfect for a fairy tale to take a dark turn.

Every aspect of Röki has an incredible amount of thought put into it, from the character designs, to the ambient sounds of the forest that you are exploring. The world of Röki is a living, breathing organism that deserves your utmost respect and from my time with the game, I am more than willing to give it that. Footprints will trail behind you in the snow, the wind blows through the trees, ravens will spook if you get too close. The birds sing and the trolls grumble as you walk past. It feels alive and bustling, yet you feel alone. Tove is on her own, in a world that she has only experienced in bed-time stories. Whenever I closed my eyes in Röki, every sound cue and background noise painted an elaborate picture of the world around Tove, a beautiful canvas forged through song.

Although beautiful, Röki is a remarkably dark game when you start to look below the surface. Littered across the forest are trolls that have been petrified by the sun, left frozen and alone until the end of time. A nearby church is filled with gravestones, that on closer inspection are those of children, taken at a young age and never recovered. A tortured soul who drowned in a lake now dwells there, dragging unfortunate souls to meet the same fate. Tove’s journey is not an easy one, it is more than a simple adventure to rescue her brother. It is about forgiveness, empathy, and hope where sometimes we find none.

LOOK AT THOSE MOUNTAINS AND FORESTS. SERIOUSLY. ITS SO PRETTY. SO SO PRETTY.

Personally, the plot hit close to home. It is a layered tale of loss and redemption, told through the eyes of a young girl who has been forced to grow up too quickly. Through exploring a magical forest, filled with whacky and wonderful creatures (plus a few of the more… deadly variety), you begin to uncover the story of a family in distress, whose dispute has had serious ramifications for the forest’s ecosystem and wellbeing. In her quest to rescue her brother and reunite with her father, Tove manages to piece back together the broken shards of a family of powerful beings – the Guardians of the forest.

If you don’t want any spoilers from the main story, then I’d recommend stepping away from this article now, purchasing the game on Steam, playing it through, eating a large amount of chocolate to recover emotionally and then come back to continue reading! I’m going to talk about a big spoiler from later in the game, because I feel it’s well worth talking about.

God I love mythology. And their gods. Ehehe.

So, SPOILERS AHEAD:

At the start of the game, your brother Lars, is taken by a monster through magic portal. Your father was last seen under a pile of rubble and wooden beams, begging you to take your brother and run.  Although not explicitly stated at the start of the game, its clear that Tove’s mother has died – as well as that the loss is recent. Since the loss of her mother, Tove has had to take on the role of caregiver in her household. From caring for her little brother, to stoking the fire, to cooking for the family, this little girl can do it all. Yet, she shouldn’t have to. Her father is deep in grief over the loss of his beloved wife, leaving Tove alone in her own grief and pain.

As the game progresses, you are tasked with waking the three guardians of the forest – the wolf, the stag, and the bear. You learn that there was a fourth guardian, the raven, but she was outcast into another dimension with her son, a result of her falling in love with a human. Each of the guardians were responsible for a season in the year, as well as working with one another to keep the forest in balance. When the family fell apart, so did the forest they protected. Now the raven, seeks her revenge.

Get thee back satan, THIS IS MY BEDROOM. MINE.

With each of the guardians you wake, Tove is forced to walk through memories that she tried so hard to suppress. These memories are about her mother – key days that they spent together and the days that followed her loss. Facing the past, is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Whenever I think back on the people that I’ve lost, the memories that I’ve desperately tried to forget, it brings a tightness to my chest and a pain to my heart that is hard to describe. So, for Tove to face those memories, to battle through them, all to save her little brother from a mythical creature that is most definitely beyond her abilities to win a fight against, is incredible.

This becomes prominent in the climax of the game, where Tove faces off against the creature that took her brother. It turns out that Röki is the son of the raven guardian, who is desperate to have her son accepted by the world that cast them out. She is merely a mother that wants her son to have a normal life, though she really needs to work on her methods because child sacrifice through dark magic is not the best approach. In our eyes, she is the villain of this piece but from where she stands, she’s doing what she must. To her, a random human child’s life is nothing in comparison to the happiness of her own offspring.

Aw sweetheart. Back when you thought it would all be ok.

It is in the finale that one of the most emotional sequences in gaming makes its appearance. I’ve spoken before about games like What Remains of Edith Finch and Drawn to Life, with their powerful plots. However, Röki rockets to the top of that list in my minds eye, because it feels so heartfully genuine and real, that it is remarkably similar to some of the nightmares that I have had due to my ongoing battle with PTS. Tove is forced to relive the day of her mother’s death, which depressingly, is also her baby brother’s birthday. You sprint around a forest, desperately trying to track down the ringing phone that could bring medical help to save your mother. Yet every time that you have it in your grasp, you are teleported back to your parents’ side who beg you to do something, that only you can save her. It’s a harrowing but powerful moment.

Anyways, this review has gone on much longer than normal. If you haven’t played Röki, please do check it out, the folks at Polygon Treehouse are talented and extremely lovely. Have a good week everyone, remember to wash your hands and wear a mask. Remember to follow the site, follow my twitter @OurMindGames and like/comment!

CaitlinRC.

Broken Age – Cuddle Dungeons of Doom:

Posted on by in Gaming

In storytelling, there is rarely such a thing as a coincidence. Every background detail and line of dialogue has been put there for a reason. My tabletop roleplaying group have caught onto this concept quickly. If I mention a seemingly insignificant character or detail about the weather, for example, my players will aggressively theorise until the cows come home. It does make it quite hard to hook them in for a storyline, I must admit. This detail-oriented approach can really lend itself to powerful storytelling in video games, especially of more story driven games like the topic of this week’s article – Broken Age.

Broken Age has two main characters – a young woman named Vella and a young man named Shay. As the sun and moon motifs from the game’s opening indicate, the worlds that Shay and Vella occupy are complete opposites. Although, as we find out at the end of Broken Age’s first act, they are in fact, related, much like the floating space rock and ball of gas that we see in the sky each day. However, what these two have in common is a desire to break free from their lives, from the traditions and ideals that they are expected to maintain. Which is something I think a lot of us can relate to in an ever-changing world.

Dammit, now I want cake.

Shay is an outer space explorer, living a mind-numbing routine, accompanied by his “parents” – a pair of Artificial Intelligence programs that are tasked with keeping him safe. This “safe” lifestyle has become restrictive and suffocating to Shay, leading to him searching for a change. Shay wants to break free. Meanwhile Vella, has been chosen to represent her village in a ceremony called “The Maiden’s Feast”. The feast in question is for a horrific creature called Mog Chothra, who chooses some of the women to be his sacrifices. This feast is treated as a celebration by the villages, rather than you know, a barbaric waste of human life. Vella wants to fight back.

As a point and click game, Broken Age focuses more on dialogue and puzzle solving, rather than any intense combat features or stealth mechanics. Want to avoid being eaten by Mog Chothra? Convince a nearby bird to give you a lift by using a corset as a makeshift saddle (obviously). Need to rescue some helpless yarn creatures from an avalanche? Eat the avalanche with your spoon because it is made of ice cream (why?). Some of the puzzles can be a bit complex to wrap your head around, especially when people in Meriloft KEEP TALKING ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING LIGHT INSTEAD OF HELPING YOU OUT.

I wish my missions in life were this easy.

Taking a page out of the theatre approach to storytelling, Broken Age is broken (cue evil laugh) into two acts. The first act introduces you to Shay and Vella in their own worlds and you get to see them react to surroundings they are comfortable in, as well as newer situations. You get a glimpse of how they react in times of trouble, their morals, and their ingenuity. You’d think there wouldn’t be many places that Broken Age could go to when it comes to storytelling, considering one of it’s two protagonists is in outer space but it throws you a curveball at the end of Act One.

Spoiler Alert:

It is revealed that Shay was never in space at all. He was inside Mog Chothra, a mechanical monster that is a part of something called “Project Dandelion”. In her attempts to take down the beast, Vella awakens Alex, a previous pilot of an ancient spaceship called the Malrouna, who helps her rig a laser trap for the beast. The trap works, bringing Mog Chothra down and allowing Shay to crawl out. Vella and Shay briefly see one another, before Vella falls into Mog Chothra and Shay becomes trapped on the outside. The two switch worlds and the player realise that these two stories are more deeply connected than they first appeared. Shay, for example, had a series of “secret rescue missions” that had him saving various critters using his ship’s mechanical arm. This little minigame directly mirrors the Maiden’s Feasts in Vella’s story, where the maidens are plucked from their podiums by a large arm. Suspicious.

You’ve heard of the big bad wolf right?

It is during Act Two that Broken Age takes a step from the mildly sinister undertones of it is opening act, to a much darker tale. You do not expect point and click adventure games to undertake such drastic tonal changes, but Broken Age achieves this, dragging you along for the ride. Marek, a stowaway on Shay’s ship from Act One, reveals the true purpose of Operation Dandelion. It is not to find a new home planet for Shay, who is supposedly the last of his species.

The Thrush, a species that Marek (whose true name is Marekai) is a member of, believe that the rest of the planet is infected with a horrible disease. So, they trapped a subsection of humans and governed over them, using the Maiden’s Feasts as a method of removing inferior genes from the population. Vella escaping Mog Chothra on two separate occasions, was not a coincidence. Her genetic makeup is deemed “superior” and the Thrush are planning on killing her and merging their DNA with hers, to “perfect” their bloodline and assume total dominion over the planet.

This guy looks far too like Cthulhu for my comfort.

Naturally, the game has a standard happy ending with Shay and Vella finally meeting face to face and peaceful alliances being drawn between the citizens behind the Plague Dam and those beyond it. However, what really intrigued me about this game was the connections between Vella and Shay. At first glance, they seem like utter strangers to one another. Different worlds, different situations, different people surrounding them. You do not expect to find those common threads between them, yet they are there. A bit like real life.

Something that I have discovered over my years of battling my mental health issues, is that although nobody’s journey is the same, there are some defining events and attitudes that tie us all together. Whether it is coping with sensory overload or struggling to discern hallucination from reality, mental health conditions are something that we each must live with, every second of every day. That constant battle, that constant war within yourself is a part of what makes us who we are. Why we fight for justice, why we speak up when we see wrong in the world. We stand up because if we do not, nobody will.

See you soon,

CaitlinRC

West of Loathing – The Cows Came Home and They Have Beef with Us:

Posted on by in Gaming

Now that we are in the new decade, everyone is looking towards the new console generations and new instalments to long running franchises. Here at Mind Games, I am more focused on just trying to pass my degree. I don’t tend to play the latest games or the big releases the moment that they come out, partly because I’m usually busy working on a coursework and partly because I like to wait for the price to drop before I buy (#Student Life).

So, when I’m looking for a new game to play, I tend to trawl the online stores looking for weird and whacky games that pique my curiosity. This is how I came across West of Loathing a few years back. As seen with the popularity of the Red Dead Redemption series, games set in the Wild West tend to draw a big audience. Ironically, the fascination with cowboys fizzles out quickly when you investigate their history and realise their lives were nowhere near the dramatic, high-stakes action that the media portray them as.

Check the bookshelf several times. Trust me.

I’m not going to spoil any of the plot as despite it being a slapstick comedy game, the storyline is quite intriguing, especially when you start to branch off and explore the side-quests that open as the game progresses. Plus, it’s always more fun to experience the jokes first-hand.

An RPG, set in a Wild West world, featuring turn-based combat and a series of odd side quests alongside the main story? Sounds like most RPG’s, so what makes this one different? Well, first things first, the art style is simplistic – so much so that it’s a series of stickmen, wearing goofy hats and hurling snakes at their enemies. I love it. It’s a satirical look at most RPG’s, from choosing classes, to levelling up skills and solving puzzles with non-sensical items.

Always practise safe TNT storage kids.

The moment you open the game, it grips you with its sense of humour. Most of the hours that I have sunk into this game, I have spent with a massive grin on my face. Instead of choosing from the traditional “Fighter, Magic User or Rogue” class archetypes, you have the choice of “Cow Puncher, Bean Slinger or Snake Oiler”. Which serve essentially the same functions but are a hundred times more hilarious to play as. Why wouldn’t you want to carry around a briefcase full of snakes and throw them into people’s faces?

Skills and traits are upgraded using experience points, but you can also discover new abilities by reading books (like the nerd you are) or meeting certain criteria. Want to increase your defence? Walk into cacti until your skin is mostly scabs. Want better resistance to heat, stench and cold damage? Stick your hand into various disgusting spittoons scattered around the west to permanently taint your hand with the remnants of other people’s spit. Delightful.

Hmm. Nothing seems abnormal here.

From busting ghosts and getting spooked by the ever present “Boo’s” in the DLC, to facing down the demon clowns leader and trying not to wet yourself when he throws knives at you in the main game, West of Loathing has so much content that it’s impossible to find everything on just one playthrough. Your choice of class, partner and even a few plot crucial decisions will set you down unique paths filled with hilarity, unique encounters and EVEN MORE SPITOONS. Word of warning though, the game will heavily judge you for digging around the insides of these metal cesspools.

The writing in this game is excellent. Every line of dialogue, every action and every item description has had careful thought put into it. The passion the developers at Asymmetric Publications have for their game is clear to see and is a joy to experience first-hand. They are keenly aware of some of the pitfalls that games can fall into as well as common tropes and clichés that many developers put into their works and manage to tackle these with a sense of humour. Any references to other game series or media franchises, are done with care and subtlety, rather than beating you over the head with them (or a cow bone).

I relate to the guy on the left.

More than anything, I love this game because it makes me laugh. A genuine, full body laugh that hurts your chest after a while. Mental health issues and stressful times means that I don’t get to laugh like that as much as I should. Depression especially tends to sap the humour and joy out of things that would normally elicit laughter from us, replacing it with numbness and general lethargy. It’s something that I have combatted for many years, yet this is the first game that I’ve come across that can consistently bring a genuine smile to my face. Not a fake smile to avoid worrying others or a half-hearted smile to try and fit in, a genuine grin. It’s a refreshing sensation after so many years of monotony when it comes to humour.

That sign can’t stop me cause I can’t read.

Anyways, I’ve got a final-year project to work on and a production to prepare for so I’m going to end this week’s article here and I’ll be back soon! I’ve sent in an application for a press pass at EGX Rezzed in late March, so hopefully we get it and I’ll be able to provide more awesome content for you all at my favourite convention!

Much love,

CaitlinRC.