#zodi plays

[lazodiac]

A long-ish time ago, I saw someone stream a video game. This is not an uncommon occurrence I watch a number of videos game streamers. It is an enjoyable activity that I do. But this time, I saw a game that immediately hit me as like, incredibly quite good. A game good enough that I bought it for basically everyone I knew so they could play it. No one did, tragically, so I must take it into my own hands to show everyone…

JENNY LECLUE - DETECTIVU!

Video Length: 4:33:28

We are the titular Jenny LeClue, a young teenage detective genius, and she has a problem; she is getting tired of not having real actual mysteries to solve. Jenny LeClue also has another problem; it is a long-running young teenage detective genius genre mystery novel series, which has slumped in popularity due to formulaic writing and lack of any stakes or progression. The latter problem forces the hand of the author, and in doing so begins to solve the former problem… but in doing so, what new issues will occur? Arthur, the author, is conflicted about the direction the story honestly needs to take for his book series to continue- he loves his characters, his world, and the static comfort of it all. But at this point, now that the brakes are off, even Jenny seems to be fighting against him…

Jenny LeClue is a point and click adventure game, in the mystery genre. Those of you who know me may recognize that I… generally don't like that sort of game. Phoenix Wright is fantastic of course, but things like Monkey Island or Grim Fandango are games that bounce off me like one of those high-tension spring mattresses. So when I say this is one of my favorite games of all time, that's gotta mean something. As Jenny you must search your environment for scraps of post cards, concept art, and of course actual clues to help progress the story, solve the mysteries you encounter, and get to the bottom of the odd things going down in Arthurton.

This game also has a (relatively light) choose-your-own-adventure style to the dialogue, ala games like Mass Effect and the like. Your choosiness will influence the characters and the story somewhat here and there, but is ultimately not the be-all end-all deciding factor of things, which makes it a bit easier to work with. Generally, Jenny is a pretty rude and sassy girl (befitting a child detective sort) so even if you're trying to be nice, it might take a bit before she figures out how. And when you have her be mean… well, she doesn't pull punches.

In this episode, we get all the way to the actual major mystery; the death of a beloved local figure and fan-favorite character. Oh no! We're also introduced to a number of folk who'll be important in the future; Jenny's Mom, the concept of her Dad, her friend Keith, her "local older guy who she hangs out with due to genre conventions" CJ the Conspiracy Jheorist, Dean Strausberry, and of course her cousin Susan Quincy Glatz. The voice work in this game is incredible, perfectly capturing the feel of one of these child detective novels, and I love it.

Next time, join us as we escape our current predicament (trying not to spoil things TOO much in the write-up, this is a mystery after all) and begin our pursuit of the case in earnest…

[lazodiac]

Hey, what if we had more Control to talk about on today, the day I stream Control.

Video Length: 3:57:52

In this episode, Jesse makes her way through Maintenance to fix up all the problems Ahti and the head of Maintenance have asked her to help with, to ensure we don't explode horribly! Hooray! Dealing with that nasty Clog is a highlight not just because it is genuinely very gross, but also because it is just another Problem the Oldest House has, completely unrelated to the Hiss, that just serves to remind you that as big and threatening and world-ending as the Hiss seem to be, and are, that this is just a Tuesday for the FBC. A rather hectic Tuesday, with a higher employee turnover rate than most Tuesdays, but still just a Tuesday.

We also start to get some of Jesse's more useful powers. Launch may be her bread-and-butter offensive move, but sometimes you need a Dash or a Shield to maneuver some of your more tricky problems. While I devalue Shield a fair bit sometimes, it IS quite good, I just need to make sure to use it more than once every blue moon. Dash is a lot more frequent to make use of, given the utility of Go Faster is always a relevant one. We also get our hands on the X-ray Light Box this episode, giving us the power of Seize, one of my favorite utility abilities… because sometimes aggressive hiring practices are required in an environment like this one.

Jesse also starts getting access to more of the Service Weapon this episode… I mean she did a little bit last time as well but this is a good time to bring up its various forms. The regular revolver-like Grip is a powerful mainstay- unsurprisingly from the folks who brought you Mad Max, the revolver is a Good Gun. Shatter is, reasonable- a classic video game short-range high-damage shot gun. It's likely better than I give it credit for, but given how fragile Jesse is and my particular tendencies as a player it is not my immediate go-to. Spin we haven't seen yet, but as you can gather based on the name it is a rapid-fire weapon suited for mid-range with lower accuracy at a distance. It's fine. Finally, (for now) we have Pierce… an incredibly high power charged sniper shot that can, as it says, Pierce armor. This was my favorite gun to use throughout the game, due to its high damage in a game with kinda chunky enemies, and due to its extreme long range safety abilities. Because yes, even someone as flailing and weird as me understands the power of a good snipers rifle.

Plot wise, Jesse starts to slowly unveil herself and her deal to her new employees- talking about her time in Ordinary, the friend she made and the brother she lost. Likewise, as she deepens her connection to the Old House, she starts to learn more about it in turn. The OOPs, the AWEs, the AIs, and of course her staff- many of whom have died, some of whom are still around. It speaks a lot to Marshal's skills that of Trench's old guard, she is seemingly the only one still in control. Tommasi is hissed up, Darling is MIA and clearly having a VERY normal day. I don't remember who else Trench mentioned was his inner circle. It's a lot of information, drip-fed slowly to Jesse and us, but each leg of this adventure is giving us more and more…

[lazodiac]

(sorry for the delay in getting this thread up, but in my defense my internet has been bad and Dawntrail released)

Control is a game by Remedy- the first of theirs I actually played, believe it or not, which made all the stories of "Remedy made one(1) good game and the rest of their catalog sucks) feel very strange. But enough about me and my experiences with the game. All you need to know going into this is that it's one of my favorite games, it's SCP Adjacent but without all the loser edgelord stuff (and only a little bit of the trying too hard) and is really just, genuinely fantastic an experience. I hope you're ready to peer behind the poster…

Video Length: 3:58:03

We start off with a brief narration from our good friend Jesse Faden, setting up the vibe as we head into the Federal Bureau of Control. The dream-like atmosphere establishes itself immediately as we meet Ahti, the lovely Finnish janitor who is everybody's friend and not suspicious at all, as he welcomes the new hire for janitor's assistant. The way opens up for us to the head office, where Director Trench would be… and instead we find his body, and an ever shifting gun of cubes and thought. The Service Weapon, our bread-and-butter for the game. One might think a simple revolver wouldn't quite fit the aesthetic of a game like this, but the presentation of what this gun IS, like literally IS, helps push that over from simple gun to something a bit more. The fact that it doesn't need ammo helps.

Interfacing with the Service Weapon also introduces us to the Board, which I constantly call the Board of Directors because even though they aren't Directors (we're the Director) they are the Board, and in business terms the Board has to be of something and ergo they are the board OF directors. Not that they are directors on the board, but they are the board in charge of Directors. It makes sense if you think about it sideways enough. They advise us that the FBC is currently undergoing a minor hostile takeover attempt and it is up to us to put an end to this deal and politely ask the deal-maker to leave. Thanks to something unique about Jesse (or the presence she talks to) she's able to do just that, when her Service Weapon proves insufficient at negotiations at any rate.

Jesse has many tasks to do as director/janitor's assistant, and we accomplish a number of them this stream. We engage with some of our employees, we figure out how to navigate the Hotel to get to our special phone-line, we find an old floppy disc that gives us the single most satisfying telekinetic throw I have ever experience in any video game ever oh my god the sheer joy of YEETING something with such extreme speeds is to die for, and we find a funny carousel horse that lets us air dash. We also make sure to read all the documents that pass our desk, listen to voice-mails from our predecessor, and watch a few episodes of our in-house children's programming, for better or worse. All in a days work for Jesse.

So yeah. Control. Hope you enjoy, I look forward to subjecting you all to more of it. Thank you for watching and take care, we will continue this journey every Thursday… within reason, I may or may not be getting a job soon which would by necessity change my schedule. We'll see.

[lazodiac]

Onwards, ever onwards, up into the… depths(?) of space, to Sol Marta itself! My girlfriend, ever lovely and wonderful @qwertystop and I continue Ar Tonelico 2!

(internet problems caused the stream to split in half, sorry)

In this episode, we make our way into Sol Marta, the final dungeon- and the first one to have any sort of engaging mechanical THING. We need to open a locked door again, as is the norm for some of these end-game dungeons, but in this case instead of just back-tracking, we need to move around a bridge that allows us to access rooms previously inaccessible. This, plus the fact that some of the enemies in this layer (especially the Poms who have mastered the power of friendship) pack quite the punch, means this is actually a pretty real dungeon! The most dangerous threat is of course the IPDs in our way, who range from fair fights to brutal slugfests.

The end result of all this is that we end up face to face with Raki, the war-machine maid herself, assigned by whoever is currently sitting on Frelia's throne to strike down any intruders. Strike us down she will… especially me, since I have to contend with a game breaking bug! If she makes it to her third turn alive, or without taking enough damage, she'll use an attack that fully hard-locks the game, requiring a reset! This is clearly incredibly powerful a move, but not the intended gameplay experience. Luckily, with some good equipment choices, spell use, and just dogged determination, I get through it fine and dandy!

Of course, after that, we're face with the unfortunate truth… of course the door's locked from the inside. There's nothing we can do. We're stuck here, and our journey ends…

Except not, obviously. Jakuri continues to be overwhelmingly clutch in saving the day, saying she can easily hack into Raki's brain and open the door. When she DOES however… we learn that, hilariously, she's just flat out lying. She doesn't know a thing about this. Shurelia, however, does! Shurelia is the third reyvetal of the first game, a kind and stalwart religious leader… and the first game's Frelia equivalent. Talk about phoning a friend huh. It works (in a sense, Shurelia just knocks open every single door regardless of purpose) and we get what we all kinda just assumed; the person in charge of all of this is Infel herself. She siccs another of her plushie viruses at us- as weak as it was back then- and leaves us with what is very clearly a warning.

Also we unlock the ability to do an Atelier game dive on Frelia. Woo.

[lazodiac]

Lets get crackin' on that final stretch of Jenny LeClue, Detectivu!

Video Length: 4:24:21

We resume our exploration of the graveyard, in search of the biggest cross… or should I say, the tallest Cross! While the puzzle isn't as tricky as it could be, I've always liked the little twist in what the puzzle actually is- searching not for a gravestone by a body. It's fun! And thanks to that little search, we slowly but surely find our way deeper, deeper into the mysteries of Arthurton…

To be blunt, we finish the game this stream, and writing it all out would actually spoil the discussion, so lets leave it there. I'll give my non-spoilery thoughts here, and we can discuss how it goes once folk have actually watched it.

Jenny LeClue is, genuinely, a really good story, and for a game like this that above all else is paramount. Mechanically I can understand people not being super enthused by it, since it is fairly basic adventure game stuff… though without the possibility of hard-locking the game to death like certain other adventure games. It's mechanics are more a vehicle for the story, and in that they shine brightly, making you feel like the junior detective Jenny is. Her interrogations and deductions are fun, and searching around for puzzles and stuff really does feel like you're unraveling some darker secrets. The "choosiness" aspect of the story helps make Jenny feel more real as a character… AND ties into the meta narrative of this being an author trying desperately to save his series.

The only real negative I can lay on the game is, well, the ending, and that is simply because "I would like to experience the sequel please video game maker man please please please", and honestly if that's the worst thing I can say about you that's praising with faint damnations. The good news is that as of 2022 we know Jenny LeTwo is in production, but beyond that radio silence. I'll try adjusting the red, green, and blue lines to see if I can get it clearer, and when that sequel does come out we're absolutely playing it blind.

[lazodiac]

Oops got distracted writing comic and other stuff.

Video Length: 3:10:11

In this episode- after doing a quick check in on Luca's cosmosphere with a final meeting with Nenesha and Goro- we begin the grand climb up the Metafalls world tower, in pursuit of whoever has attacked and dethroned God, so WE can do that to THEM and put Frelia back on her fancy chair probably. In our way is a relatively lengthy series of dungeons- the main one we do in this video is the Tower of the Heavens itself. It, like our previous dungeon, has a weird barrier half-way through that you need to run into then back-track to undo… that was dummied out of the original release, and returned to full form by the fan translation. This one is less annoying than the previous, but also far less meaningful? It's odd.

Behind the barrier, we are once more ambushed by the least threatening "boss turned miniboss" enemies in the game, and after defeating them effortlessly are then "saved" by… the sudden appearance of Alfman, who has now has a rather meaningless heel-face turn. Ostensibly, it's not so much he's become good and more that our goals now align with his, mostly. Absolutely no statement on how he survived a pretty blatantly clear "oh he's dead" situation, beyond a "Do you really think me so pathetic to die like that?" and buddy you don't wanna know the answer to that.

However, at the end of the Tower of the Heavens, we get another character encounter that is… QUITE fun. Confronted with what seems to be Raki, the war-robot that the antagonistic force has been using to attack us, we charge in to attack… only to find that this is REKI, her sister from another transistor, one of many shrine maiden servant robots that look identical in form if not function (… alledgedly). She's in charge of the Hot Spot, the tower's lounge, spa, inn, and shopping market, and is just glad there are new customers about! This is rather delightful, and is really our last moment of rest before the grand finale ahead of us… next time, wish us luck, as we are likely to finish the game!

Or, at least, be stymied by a certain flaw in the official release of the game…

[lazodiac]

Jenny time!

In this episode, Jenny makes her way across town in search of her detective gear, wondering all the while about who actually killed the Dean and why. With so many questions surrounding his mysterious death, with so many odd happenings going on in town, it seems that even the faintest scrap of information pointing us towards the real killer simply opens up far more questions than answers. Luckily, CJ gives us a tool that'll help us in the long run- his compass, that points towards Them… and in doing so, Jenny stumbles upon something far grander than one single murder.

As Jenny begins unraveling the darkest secrets Arthurton has hidden just belong that idyllic surface, the deeper those secrets seem to run… and the deeper Arthur's cup of brandy seems to be. The despair inherent in writing a story where your beloved characters start getting hurt, scared- when they're really, truly in danger? That can be a lot. But you don't become the author of a 37 book long series that has started to decline without having once been an up-and-coming author with a number of quality books under your belt.

While Jenny's world may have devolved into more saccharine, simple stories, I think it's reasonable to assume that these books were once good. I think the core of that is Jenny's father- his death seems like such a… normal, known quantity, by the characters that it must have been in the series since the beginning. It is that emotion of loss, beyond just the standard LeClue family desire to know everything, that I think spurred Jenny into becoming the detective she is… and made people lock in to the series at the beginning. And Arthur knows that. He's a good writer, clearly, he's just been in a rut… but even as he despairs about what he's writing, even he can tell that this is some of the best work he's written in ages. The story has a mind of its own now, and wherever it is going is the right way. He just needs to direct it, one step at a time…

[lazodiac]

Time to sing a song and maybe also get married I guess??

Video Length: 4:24:14

In this episode, we resume where we last left off after having collected the Vienna hymn-crystal; actually communicating with the folk of the world to let them know what we are going to do with it and why. And we find, in the doing, that… despite our fears, everyone is in our corner. It is a gratifying moment, and leads to a reveal the game has kept hidden from us for forever; while she's cool with being the beloved pope and most famous not-sex worker in the world, what Luca really wants to do is sing for a living. Not magical explody death songs, but actual legitimate music. While it is strange that it comes out of nowhere and is given a surprising amount of weight this late in the game… the end result, of Luca and her friends getting together and singing a very lovely folk tune that resonates across the entire world, is truly heart-lifting. What a good scene!

In the wake of that, we learn that Mint's Mayor is, in fact, ready to move his folk out so we can drop Mint Block. It's tragic, and sad, but if this saves the world, well… it saves the world. Loss of home and memory is tragic, but so long as we live we can make more. They have only one request- to rescue the Boss of Mikry Forest, their guardian deity of sorts. What's fun though, is that this is a purely optional side quest. The game absolutely leads you to doing it since Luca and Cloche decide to have a heart-to-heart at Reisha's grave deep within Mikry Forest first, and that puts us quite a bit near the location of the Boss, but still. It's fully optional. The heart-to-heart is not, and is a genuinely really beautiful moment of the two sisters bonding what may be their last time before the game ends. The Boss, meanwhile, turns out to be a miniature, prototype Heart of Gaia, given to the people of Metafalls centuries ago by Infel for testing purposes. It's guarded by some Nyo?, basic creatures from the first game- an interesting thing to run into. All in all, this is a lovely little side quest.

And then… then we sing Vienna. The tower reforms, a full half of the remaining world crumbles into the Sea of Death, and we are left with no other options but to climb heavensward towards our inevitible confrontation with… whoever it is fucking with Raki's mind. Presumably Infel, which is rather tragic, but we'll see.

Also we do Luca's final cosmosphere! It's really really good but I shockingly don't have much to say about it. The little prank she pulls on Croix (and us) is funny though.