Shadow of the Colossus was a bit of a love-hate experience for me personally, but overall, I quite loved playing through it. Mostly some amazing boss fights, with innovative and great mechanics, and breathtaking setpieces. In terms of complaints though, some of the mechanics frustrated me to no end. Besides the inherent gameplay jank that comes with the game’s age (I can excuse this), I disliked how little the game hardly conveyed information to you on the things you need to do.
I feel a bit ashamed to admit I needed to look up guides to a few of the bosses, but seriously, some of these mechanics I never would have guessed unless I was directly told of them. It made progression sometimes very frustrating. I’m not really talking about navigation and exploration either, those were some of my favorite parts of the game. Most of my complaints lie in the bosses. Besides those complaints, as I don’t really feel like getting super specific, when the bosses mechanically clicked, coming out on top at the end of a fight really did feel incredible. It felt triumphant in a way I haven’t gotten from a game in a hot minute.
On another note though, it’s really cool to think about how influential this game went on to be in the years following its release. Much of said influence went into several of my favorite games ever. Breath of the Wild of course, but besides the obvious, climbing the colossi and following set-out mechanics to come out on top, I was even reminded of my time playing things like Destiny, fighting raid bosses through epic setpieces I still think about almost three years since quitting the game. The comparison may be a bit out there, but it’s still a connection I think holds at least some merit.
To put my feelings about this game in more general terms, this is one of those touchstone-type games that people have and will continue to look back on as the start of so many exciting things in the medium. Now that I’ve played the game, I look at my catalog of everything I played and wonder how many of them wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for what this game did. Very happy I found a copy and got around to playing it. And that ending was spectacular.
I also posted this review on my Backloggd account. If you want to see the games I’ve played, am currently playing, or plan to play at some point in time, along with some smaller-scale ramblings and thoughts on things, feel free to follow me there. Thanks for reading 🙂
Sonic Rush was a childhood favorite of mine, one that I hadn’t played since I was maybe 10 years old. In all honesty, it maybe should’ve stayed that way. For years, I had been hailing this as easily being the best Sonic game, with such a focus on pure speed, an engaging enough story, and the soundtrack people still bring up pretty regularly for how hard it bangs, it was the full package of what I thought a Sonic game should be.
With that, during my most recent winter break, I had finally gotten DS emulation running on my 3DS, and Sonic Rush was the first game I wanted to play, as I never did end up finishing it during my childhood (and I couldn’t really think of any other DS games I wanted to play).
It was a smooth start, but as I played, some of the cracks (or holes, if you will) started to show, and I started to grow more and more frustrated with many of the design choices made throughout. Certain parts of this game had me feeling like I was playing some NES platformer due to how unfair things were. I felt like the AVGN as I was quite literally yelling out, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??” in response to dying for the 10th time in a row to a bottomless pit that I had no chance of predicting or reacting to. It just really pissed me off. The dissonance of having “rush” in your game’s title, then actively discouraging speeding through levels by placing so many instakills everywhere, I’m just left to wonder, why are the developers punishing you for following their own design philosophy?
And to follow that up, the frustrating thing is there are a handful of sections within the levels that have you running at Mach speeds for extended periods, combing endlessly through enemies with that super satisfying combo sound ringing in your ears, only to grind to a halt because they introduced a new stage-specific gimmick mechanic that kills you if you don’t get it right instantly. Every time they’d pull this, it practically made me want to quit the game right then and there. It’s again just a case of “What were they thinking?”
This isn’t even mentioning the boss fights. Others have talked about it before and I don’t really care enough to say what’s already been said, so I won’t. The exception is that final boss fight though. I seriously dropped the game for two months because of this shit man. I was honestly just tired of seeing Sonic Rush on my “currently playing” list so I decided to come back and downgrade the difficulty just so I could check it off the list. Didn’t regret it in the slightest. I had no interest in trying to beat it legit, and it was either downgrade the difficulty or I drop the game entirely lmao. The true final boss wasn’t any better, either. So glad I didn’t have to deal with that thing on its normal difficulty. I’d honestly rather do ANYTHING else with my time.
All in all, I did come away from a childhood favorite with a bit of a sour taste, but I am in a way happy I came back and experienced it again with a more informed lens. I’m still glad the game exists and it still holds a special place in my heart for how much I loved it back then, but by god, I’m never playing it again.
I also posted this review on my Backloggd account. If you want to see the games I’ve played, am currently playing, or plan to play at some point in time, along with some smaller-scale ramblings and thoughts on things, feel free to follow me there. Thanks for reading 🙂
Have you ever played a game, watched a show or movie, read a book or manga series, experienced any sort of fictional media, and at some point following your completion of it, had the realization that this specific piece of media came to you at the perfect time in your life to resonate with you on a very personal level? It resonated so deeply that you could hardly even get the words out to describe how much you connected with the experience besides saying something to the effect of, “That was so good man.” While I structured that first sentence as a question, I’m actually just talking about myself and my recent experience playing through a little game called VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action.
VA-11 Hall-A is a visual novel-type game where you play as Jill, a 20-something-year-old, moderately stoic yet expressive bartender living in the confines of dystopian life in Glitch City. As the player, you click dialogue boxes, manage Jill’s finances, and mix/serve drinks to whoever might walk into the bar you work. It’s a pretty simple game, but for me, it just played into the cozy feeling it gave me as I’d play it. It felt very relaxing and helped me settle into its very grounded story.
The cozy vibe and the down-to-earth story weren’t even my favorite parts of the game, however. What impressed me most about VA-11 Hall-a was how much of myself I saw in the main character Jill. While I do tend to find a lot of relatable things in many pieces of media I enjoy, Jill is the character I can say without a doubt that I relate to the most. At certain points, it was honestly a little scary how I couldn’t shake the feeling of looking at myself in a mirror as I played.
There was one moment in particular where Jill was confiding in a good friend about how much her friendship meant to her. Upon realizing how awkward she sounded, Jill apologized for ruining the mood and admitted to not always being the best at expressing herself, to which the friend in question told Jill she was fine and overthinking it. I’ve literally been in that exact same situation. I’ve almost to a T said the exact words she said to some of my closest friends and gotten her friend’s reply sent back to me. It was almost frightening to see my words repeated back to me on a screen, but it did feel very validating as well.
I believe I mentioned it before, but to put it short and blunt, this last semester of college for me was one of, if not the most busy and stressful periods of time in my life. I was balancing so many different personal emotions while already dealing with the stress of how packed my college work schedule was. At times, I really did feel like it was too much for any human to handle, and wanted to just crawl into a lonely hole populated by only myself and an internet connection. What mattered though, was that I came through, and I can brag to everyone about my persistence being especially rewarded in the long run.
A lot of self-discovery and reflection also happened during this time, and in some ways, I’ve been able to fit myself a lot more into certain descriptions. I feel a lot more defined, which one could say opens me up to possibly relating to something much more directly if it’s properly portrayed
Sure enough, it was through playing these night shifts at the bar in VA-11 Hall-A that I ended up finding such deep reliability in a fictional character. Touch-starved, externally a bit stoic yet internally very emotional, a bit lonely and frustrated, not always the best at expressing her feelings, deeply loves and appreciates her friends but doesn’t often get the chance to show it, Jill Stingray made me feel seen following a point in my life where I felt more confined than ever.
A lot of the time it’s very hard to try and put into words why one has such a deep emotional connection to a piece of art, but if I were to pin it down to anything, it would be Jill’s complacency with her own self that I found most relatable. She was just moving forward with her life and handling everything as it came in front of her. I really connected with the way she felt entirely content getting to help the people closest to her, but often not knowing a better method than simply offering her presence and leveled mindset. She knew everyone was dealing with their own shit, and that sometimes an ear is all someone might need to pull through.
I just couldn’t help but think to myself that man, this game gets it.
It wasn’t just the fact that I connected with the main character of the game’s personality and demeanor that made it so impactful, however. Without getting into specific spoilers, there is a point in the game where everything comes tragically together. Someone says the perfectly worst words to Jill at the perfectly worst time, sending her into a horrible emotional spiral.
Jill’s actions from before, acting as that leveled and caring ear to those who came to her when they needed it comes to be what pulls her back to her feet. The efforts she put in before, being there for those around her, it unknowingly created her own perfect emotional safety net. Those who she helped change the lives of in the past all happily came back to help her piece together the shattered life she was living. Jill felt the encouragement she needed to make the changes she needed. She realized what she needed to do to get back on her feet, ready to take those steps forward once again.
The mature, somewhat jaded, but now stronger and better prepared Jill knows what it’s like to be in such a devastated place. She knows what it’s like to see what she held most dear slip right through her fingers. She knew that feeling of overwhelming loneliness as what she thought she had turned out only temporary.
Jill acknowledges her past mistakes, swallows her pride, and offers herself to the one that needs someone like her the most. Someone young, weak, and without that caring safety net necessary when pulling oneself out of such bottomless emotional pits. She couldn’t stand the thought of someone she once held so close holding such a heavy burden completely alone. They were in this together.
I found this emotional vulnerability shown through the game’s characters to be so amazing, and it did honestly imbue me with a sense of hope that every one of my past troubles did lead to the place I am today. There’s a chance that I wouldn’t be able to hold myself together, be there for certain people in my life, and help those who may have needed it if I hadn’t pulled through those rough patches in my life.
Emotional maturity and personal scars don’t just benefit oneself, but also those around that may need that stronger shoulder. I hate seeing those around me struggle, and at least now I have a bit more confidence that someone like me could be exactly what someone else might need.
If anyone reading this does give VA-11 Hall-A a try, I hope you enjoy it at least a fraction as much as I did. It’s one of those experiences I can say I’m probably going to hold close to me for a long time going into the future. I thoroughly loved it, and I hope that by typing this up, it might find at least one other person that needed it just as much as I did. Thanks for reading.
Dastyy's Obsession Archive 