💾 Archived View for appl.garden › play › archive › 88019.gmi captured on 2022-03-01 at 15:38:31. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

View Raw

More Information

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Oh boy.

Muse Dash

Link to image

What is this game?

Very cute and simple rhythm game. Rhythm games generally try to be "easy to learn, hard to master" and Muse Dash is known for leaning into the "easy to learn" part, requiring only 2 buttons. It's also known for its cute anime girls.

Did I enjoy playing it?

Yes! I consider myself to be "average" at games, despite playing them for my entire life. It's nice to see a rhythm game that does not immediately crush my self-confidence like Osu or Touhou. It actually started off a bit boring, but before I knew it, I was full combo-ing 7 star songs, which I initially thought were pretty difficult! And I can even kinda survive 10 or 11 star songs.

Imagine me beating this level, except really, really badly:

Youtube video

/I have fallen into the Hololive cute girl rabbit hole as well/

I'm not the biggest fan of J-Pop or Nightcore or Vocaloid or whatever you call the music in these kinds of games, but I can tolerate it. There was a decent amount of variety and you do not have to play every song. The last few levels throw some curveballs at you to make things more interesting. I don't know, maybe I just haven't played enough rhythm games to compare Muse Dash to, but *I enjoyed it a lot, 9/10*! I've played Super Hexagon (not sure if that counts) and Friday Night Funkin', Muse Dash is certainly better than FNF other than the fact that it's not free (but it literally costs like 2$), and it has way more content than Super Hexagon - so that's my reference point. Maybe I should try Osu again at some point.

Playing it on Linux, or low-spec hardware?

There is no Linux port, but Steam Play worked perfectly fine. The game has some slightly fancy 3D graphics in its main menu, which make things a tiny bit laggy, but luckily the gameplay graphics are very simple and therefore work flawlessly.

----

Little Nightmares

Link to image

What is this game?

The HowLongToBeat Forum's Official Book Club(tm)'s pick for Game of the Month for October 2021. It's also a puzzle/platformer game with emphasis on creepiness and style, a bit like Limbo.

Game of the Month for October 2021

Did I enjoy playing it?

I mentioned that this was a Game of the Month game because that means plenty of people have already discussed this. My opinion is pretty standard. The game starts out really slow (I had to do 3 sittings to complete the first hour of the game...), then it introduces proper enemies to hide from, and the game becomes fun. Yet, it's still a pretty clunky platformer: it's understandable that they'd focus more on puzzles & style than on tight platforming controls, but there have been a few frustrating moments for me nonetheless. The game looks cool but I'm not sure if it's worth it, *6/10*.

Playing it on Linux, or low-spec hardware?

Nope. It makes use of detailed 3D models and animations for its monsters, and it's not super-well optimized. T'was quite laggy for me on Linux. Windows worked fine, though.

----

The Silver Case DEMO

Link to image

What is this game?

It was recommended to me earlier in this thread.

Originally posted by Gee64:

Made by the genius and non-conventional mind that is SUDA51 known for being creator of No More Heroes
This game is a visual novel with some crazy story elements and unconventional visual tropes when it comes to displaying text and gameplay that it's just a treat for presentation. It's his debut title for his company GRASSHOPPER and in absolute cult classic when it comes to underground scenes.
A serial murder case in Tokyos 24 Wards makes detectives from all wards search for a string on multiple suspects.

I'm usually hesitant about taking recommendations from other people, but I figured I could at least check out the free demo.

Did I enjoy playing it?

Too early to tell. The game throws a lot of exposition at me, and indeed it looks pretty unconventional, so I am intrigued! But I'm not sure if I really enjoy the gameplay. Walking around and interacting with objects is extremely awkward (Seriously? Grid-based movement, with a first person perspective? Oh yeah, it was a PS1 game originally...) The puzzles in the demo were literally just "enter the letters into a decoder machine and write down the code", except you can't use the keyboard, you must use Left and Right arrow keys to select each letter.

I don't know, I will play the main game at some point, but the plot better be really freakin' good.

Playing it on Linux, or low-spec hardware?

The demo is only available on Windows, but the full game has a native Linux port. I installed it and briefly tried it out just to see if it could keep my progress from the demo.

It did, but like, the Linux version is just straight up broken. The 3D sections just do not work at all. It's kinda funny: the cutscenes play normally, but the camera is stuck and does not move at all. So instead of getting a cinematic sweeping view of a building, you kinda just stare at a building for a few seconds, then a car comes in and just stops near the corner of the screen. It's funny when you see it, trust me.

Anyway, yeah, do not install the Linux version from GOG. Maybe it works better in Steam's runtime, though.