I finished Wanderstop yesterday. I really liked it. A solid game.
The way the story interwove with the mechanics was very overt, but also very good. There's obvious friction in the mechanics, which is intentional; when you do the same task over and over again, you notice the small inefficiencies, like how long something takes or that your garbage can is right in front of your fridge so it turns on when you open the fridge (true story). But that's all part of it! Was it the most innovative game I've ever played? No. Did I get tired of some of those inefficiencies by the end? Yeah. But that's pretty typical!
The story is the real standout here. A lot of posts I see say that Wanderstop is about burnout, which is like saying Celeste is about overcoming difficulty. It's not... wrong. But it's not telling the full picture.
[Full game spoilers ahead!]
Wanderstop is about hating yourself. It's about hating something you have done or someone you have been so much that you wish you were a different person. This is much more obvious by the end of the game, and I suspect most of those reviews saying the game is about burnout had not reached this point. Still, that is what this game is about. Alta doesn't burn out solely because she worked too hard. She is deeply lethargic because she carries around the burden of being a failure and a monster.
There's so much that Wanderstop gets right about this experience that it makes me glad. Way back in the day, I used to talk about how much I loved empathetic portrayals of downright unpleasant and especially violently mentally ill people. Alta is never redeemed for her violence. The game does not ask you to overlook what she did or move past it. But the narrative gives space for Alta to comprehend her own actions, that she (not some spirit possessing her) did try to kill someone who was just trying to help, and says, "You still carry in you the capacity for good. Whether you do good is up to you." Not to sound like a therapy enjoyer, but there's space for both of these things - just like there's space for the synthesis of both Altas.
On that note - I loved the concept of the forest creating "space" between the two fragments of Alta (and doing the same later with Monster), because that is exactly what it was like for me. I used to fight with myself all the time, and that's what those conversations with myself were like - like two different people, with two completely different mindsets and perspectives, existing just a few centimeters apart from one another. It also represents the way that people overcome (violent) impulses - by creating just a small space to pause and think. That space starts so incredibly small, but just a tiny wedge allows you to slowly wedge in more time until you can really take a good 30 seconds to think before you chunk your phone across the room. (True story.) (I'm very lucky that I never broke a phone doing that.) (This happened many times.)
I wonder what a story like this would have meant to me shortly after making peace with myself - or even moreso, before then. I don't know if I would have liked this game as much! I might have even liked it more, but also sobbed like a baby during it. It's definitely a very emotional story, even by the end, and I quite liked it. There's a lot you can unpack from that game. I definitely recommend it.
I don't know if it's a hot take but I think out of Modern Monster Hunter (World onwards), World looks the best but has the worst combat out of the 3, Rise definitively has the worst graphics due to being held back by the Switch, but Wilds has the best combat by far (at least in terms of what the player is capable of)
I can't say anything about Generations Ultimate or anything earlier, GU looks fun though
This has been a very good year for me, personally.
Like, the world at large? No. Horrible. Awful. The dregs of humanity sinking deeper down all around us.
But for me? This is the first year where I've really felt alive. There's not even a "since [this year]". I think this might be the first year I've felt alive ever.
CPAP/treating my sleep apnea has given me energy I didn't know I was capable of having. And in its wake, I see the gaping maw of time that exhaustion used to require of me. It has been an adjustment to try to fill the time, to say the least. But I'm learning.
I also discovered that... I actually enjoy fitness? Kind of??? On my terms, of course, and with plenty of rest. (Turns out I am like the rest of the family on this, now that I'm not suffocating in my sleep.)
I've cooked a week's worth of dinner every week since June. I've been making sure I have breakfast ready for myself in the morning for even longer. I don't want to nap at work. I don't want to nap once I get home! I'm trying to date again! I'm not saying this is what defines a life - far from it. But this is me starting to fill that space that was blocked off to me before.
I don't know. This isn't super poetic or anything. I feel a lot of anger and grief, too. I've had sleep apnea my entire life. (I'm the 1% of tonsils, I assure you.) This went undiagnosed for almost 30 years. I see the time lost, the pleas to doctors about exhaustion ignored, and I feel so frustrated and outraged.
But I also see the 13 year old girl who couldn't sleep at night with her retainer who has learned how to sleep with a mask on her face all the way through.
And I see that there is room for learning how to interface with the world around me, on my terms, with recognition of my own limits, and how that can open so many doors. And I feel hope.
...
Also I passed 100 birds on my life list. So. You know. Here's to even more birds next year!!!!
