Gamer vs. Backlog
I've been playing through my Steam library with the explicit purpose of trying to catch up on all the games I've gotten through sales. It's been an adventure that's for sure. I just finished The Letter, played one route in These Nights in Cairo (which was horrifically boring), and started Tokyo Dark.
At its heart The Letter is a horror visual novel that does an amazing job of characterization. So much so that making poor decisions that endangered the characters in any way distressed me. It was worth the play-through, albeit repetitive at times. Each chapter jumps the narrative perspective from character to character. Sadly this cycles through shared events in the game's narrative. Which.. gets pretty annoying. That being said, this game sorta reminded me a lot of the recent Netflix series Haunting of Hill House in A LOT of ways.
After playing through and getting one of the endings I declined to go back for more. I feel as though I got the experience. Maybe someday I'll go back for further endings.
Annnnd, this game.
Ugh.
I went through this phase where I would just grab VN's when they went up for sale. Clearly how I got myself into the massive backlog of unplayed games that I currently entertain.
I actually tried to return this after completing only one route. Of course it's been too long since the purchase and Steam refused. Because OF COURSE.
I found myself horrifically bored. Everything took too long to unfold. By the time the story got interesting, I simply didn't care anymore. Frankly I'm lucky I made it through a single route.
But the shining gem this week has definitely been Tokyo Dark. Or as I have been affectionately referring to it "Sanity Management, The Game."
This a point-and-click mystery/horror visual novel. The seriousness of the story is often at odds with the somewhat whimsical anime art style. It's pretty gritty. Your character is literally a fallen-from-grace police detective who has had some extraordinary sh*t happen to her and is trying to remain sane while investigating aforementioned events. There is an oftentimes hilarious sanity system that you have to manage, which I am in love with. I can't wait to finish this one. I'm having a lot of fun with it despite the bugs and graphical problems.
Further updates as I complete more games. I just.. felt this need to share my experience with my backlog in some small way. So here it is. I'll try to keep updates weekly.
