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Saturday, July 15, 2023

The Last Campfire (PC) (2021)

Overview: Play as Ember and help save lost souls by solving puzzles.

20230715:
My first impression was that the narration in the game is not always welcome. And when compared to the use of narration in the action RPG game Bastion, the narration here is just terrible. In particular, the game sometimes has too much dialogue over gameplay. On that note, I'm not sure I understand the story. The premise hints at idea of the story, but it is ambiguous enough for a person like me to feel a mixture of anxiety and dissatisfaciton (initially it just seemed like he got left behind, and yet...). Anyways, the initial puzzles are interesting enough to encourage further gameplay.

Setup: Steam Deck.

Steam Game Time: 40 minutes

20231125 Comment:
Today I was putting together the post for this game. I thought the game was titled The Lost Campfire but it is actually The Last Campfire. I believe a source of my error is the "a" in "Last," being smaller than the "a" in "Campfire," is easy to mistake for an "o."
20230717:
This entry is for a combination of two sessions... one at around 10 PM of 20230717 and another around 12:30 AM of 20230718. Thus far, I helped about 6 of 7 forlorn in the first world and went to the second world. Unfortunately, I find the puzzles in the game less like those in the puzzle genre, and more like those in the point-and-click adventure genre.

Steam Game Time: 111 minutes (cumulative game time) / 71 minutes (session game time)


Thoughts:
Pro:
+ Potentially inpiriing story

Neutral:
~ Simple game

Cons:
- Too much narration
- Too much dialogue

Rating: 2.0/5


Summary:
None at this time
The Last Campfire (PC) (2021)

Relevant Links:
The Last Campfire (Wikipedia.org)
The Last Campfire (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
The Last Campfire (steamdb.info)
The Last Campfire (Steam Store Page)

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Hollow Knight (PC) (2017)

20230711:
While I played parts of the beginning of this game on my brother-in-law's Nintendo Switch, I don't remember where I'm supposed to go. Thus far, it seems like a straightforward Metroidvaynia game.


Steam Game Time 17 minutes (cumulative game time)

[20230712][20231022 Edit]
20230713 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 89 minutes (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20230712

20230713:
Dying and losing money sucks, especially while exploring and blindly looking for the next save or travel or mapping. Speaking of which, the map system is annoyingly different from how I'm used to mapping in the Castlevania series. My logic here is that I can technically just map out the game by hand. As such, having to spend currency to purchase incremental portions of the map feels unfriendly, especially taking into account the risk of losing one's money. I wish there was at least a way to find your ghost self.

On a positive note, the healing system adds a unique dynamic to the gameplay.


Steam Game Time: 2.6 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.1 hours (session game time)

[20230714][20231022 Edit]
20230714:
I'm not sure how I feel about the death system. It has its pros and cons I suppose.

Steam Game Time: 4.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.8 hours (session game time)


[20230717]
Rating: 4.0/5

https://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Knight