For the “new”, hopefully less formal Brainscraps, I’m going to do a different format for my end of year games roundup. Everything here is a game I beat and/or completed in 2024 (the full list of those games is here). Other than that, this should be pretty self-explanatory, so let’s get to it!
Category: video games
Yesterday, I beat 3D Dot Game Heroes, a Silicon Studio/From Software joint filled with lots of love for the 8-bit era, and the baffling design decisions that accompany it. A brief list:
– The plot of the game is basically the same as A Link to the Past‘s, minus the alternate world. However, the design takes very little else from that classic. One excellent example: in LttP and many other Zelda games, acquiring a new piece of equipment tends to be closely followed by a section—maybe even in the same room—where you have to use it. This is basically a micro-tutorial for the player, getting them accustomed to using the new gear. There’s few, if any, such scenes in 3D Dot Game Heroes. There was even one special item that I had accidentally missed and had to go back and get later on when I became stuck elsewhere.
– On a related note, the vast majority of bosses can, and probably should, be beaten without the use of any special equipment or magic.
– The dungeon designs range from all right to boring, especially when the room layouts start to repeat between temples. A particular cave passage specifically reminded me of the largest, most tedious dungeon in Final Fantasy—not a good thing.
– Many hidden caves abound, some of them with goodies, which can be opened with bombs. However, there’s more than one where talking to the NPC will reveal their anger at you blowing up their front door and extract compensation from you, typically 20 gold. Just one of these caves would’ve gotten the point across, thanks.
– There are lots of little sidequests that require obtaining items/information and delivering them to the right people. However, much like in the NES era, most people look the same, and those giving you the info offer very little else, text-wise, in the way of identifying information.
– On a similar note, there is at least one special area in the game which would’ve been much easier to find if there had been more differentiation. Also, some rocks can be blown up, but are only very slightly different, color-wise, from the indestructible ones.
– An item called the Bestiary can be obtained and used in battle to add monsters to it. You would think that whapping a monster once would be good enough for an addition, but most require multiple hits with the thing, some needing dozens.
– The loading screens are homages to old games, and, similar to the Bestiary, there’s an in-game gallery where they can be viewed. However, not a single one will unlock there unless you’ve turned on the right setting.
The game does have its charms. Along with the chunky pixels, there’s a slight tilt-shift photographic effect at work throughout, and said pixel chunks scatter nicely when various objects are destroyed. The soundtrack is pleasant and reminiscent of old games—I particularly liked the Dragon Quest-esque save-loading music—while mostly utilizing modern sounds. Some of the writing is witty. The Producer and Developer Rooms are cute.
However, if I put some more thought into it, I could likely come up with more annoying things to add to the list that makes up most of this post. 3D Dot Game Heroes is slavish in its devotion to the 8-bit era, good and bad.
This past Saturday, I played through the walking sim Tacoma. As in other walking sims, and many other games besides, one of the things I could do as the player was browse bookshelves. Tacoma takes place aboard a space station where something had gone wrong, and there are six crew members, each with their own quarters and set of shelves. Given how much one does or doesn’t know about the books on offer can tell the player—or not—a little bit more about these characters. I found novels, nonfiction books about a wide range of subjects, and a handful of names and titles I was familiar with. My favorite find was a set of Alice Munro titles, including the short story collection Too Much Happiness; I read the title story when it first appeared in Harper’s and it’s remarkable.
While examining all these shelves, I began to wonder: if I was a character on a video game spaceship, what books would be in my quarters? I decided to come up with a few books that I’d bring along on my video game space voyage. My current reading habits lean heavily toward multi-volume manga, so with one exception (in a nod to that Alice Munro set), each of these is a single book.
- Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo – the exception. Six thick volumes of shouty young men, political intrigue, metaphysics, and gorgeous architectural disaster. One of my two favorite manga of all time.
- Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma – this would have to be the single-volume omnibus edition, though I personally own it broken up into its original four volumes. A lighthearted and cozy school comedy, highly influential “moe” work, and my other favorite manga of all time.
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – I’ve read this three times: once as assigned reading in high school, again in college, and the third for my own enjoyment. A true “Great American Novel”, and just a good read.
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – my favorite book when I was a kid. Would be especially fitting for a sci-fi bookshelf like those in Tacoma, given that the title character resides on an asteroid.
- Add Toner by Aaron Cometbus – a collection of excerpts from the beloved punk/memoir/essay zine Cometbus, which I’ve been following on and off for roughly thirty years now. It’s either this, Despite Everything (the first Cometbus compilation), or a pile of Cometbus back issues, including the ones that contain “Double Duce” and “In China with Green Day”.
Are there other books I’d bring along? Probably, but I’d have to think on those a bit more. These five, however, are my must-haves.
I had been looking forward to Below for several years and promptly bought it when it launched on Steam in December 2018. However, I did not touch it at all until this past October, roughly five years after said launch and three years after its most significant post-launch update, which added the easier Explore mode. A large part of why I had held off of playing it for so long was because the conditions had to be right. I had to be in the right mood, it had to be the right time, before I started it. When this year’s spooky season started, I finally decided that it was time.
During those past few days, I sent some goodbye messages to a handful of co-op buddies who were still around, thanked my wonderful guildmates, and continued saving what I could for posterity. The final chapter was a straightforward affair, with Alice being the only possible playable character, and wrapped up the story in a very Yoko Taro fashion. In the JellicleCats Discord, microtia wondered if JP will get the same ending; after playing it, I could see where he was coming from.
Anyway, I promised odds and ends in the title of this post, so here they are. Spoiler warnings for everything:
SINoALICE is a predatory gacha game. Heavily built around drop-in co-op and guild vs. guild PVP, it is laden with power creep, with many of the strongest units and summons paywalled. If you wanted to be the best, you had to pay up, to the potential tune of thousands of dollars over the course of the game’s lifetime.
However, for those who were a bit more casual—in other words, the vast majority of the playerbase—SINoALICE could be a good, even great time. The story was decent, the characters were varying degrees of fun, the music wonderful, and the in-game community reasonably friendly. I loved it. I did dump somewhere north of $500, including gift card funds, into the Global version of the game these past three years, but it was out of love for the game and its characters. Even though I wish I could have spent more time with them, I don’t regret my purchases.
That’s right, SINoALICE is shutting down. Starting from today, the final chapter is available, and the game’s servers close for good in the wee hours of November 15th. We first heard about the impending closure two months ago, when crystal sales abruptly ended and a final roadmap was posted. We were shocked and saddened, but made peace with Pokelabo’s decision, being well aware of the dire straits the game had been in over the past year. Unfortunately, our story is ending with the fifth act, Act of Elimination; Japan was able to get the three which followed, and many more timed events and collaborations to boot.
The in-game world of the Library is one in which fairy tale characters come to life, battling and eliminate Nightmares and, eventually, each other. There are a ton of stories for all the characters and many Nightmares, and even more weapon tales, those being a tradition in Yoko Taro’s games. That said, here are some of my own stories of playing SINoALICE. Some of these memories are imperfect, but they are all things I hope stay with me as this game fades away into obscurity.
(And while you’re here, click on the image at the top to scroll through a gallery of three years’ worth of SINoALICE Global screenshots! )