SuperHarman’s June Journal

A note on my rating system. If something is bad, I feel there’s not much room to move there so I came up with a simple 5 star rating system where there only “bad” rating is 1 star. Here are how you should take any rating below:

= Bad, * = Okay, *** = Good, **** = Great, ***** = Exceptional

Solving the sequel puzzle: No Sleep for Kaname Date and Call of The Elder Gods

You couldn’t have had a bigger difference in reaction when I’d heard about the announcement of both of these games, from the genuine enthusiasm for another journey into the world from Call of the Sea to the rather tepid, “Oh, we’re doing that again” reaction when I heard about the latest game in the AI: The Somnium Files series. It’s pure coincidence that I ended up playing both games in the same month, I had other games in my sights for June but a quick pivot to playing No Sleep for Kaname Date on the Switch 2 while on a weekend trip to then deciding I didn’t want to continue playing First Light leading me to Call of the Elder Gods.

I imagine I found the AI: The Somnium Files series the same way a lot of people did, they were fans of Kotaro Uchikoshi’s work from the Zero Escape series and despite some elements that I was less that fond of (porno mags are funny for…reasons I guess) I enjoyed the first game. I thought Nirvana Initiative did stumble a little though despite having some strong character work, after it was over, I just had zero expectation of returning to this world. So when the latest entry was released, while I picked it up straight away, I wasn’t overly driven to play it, particularly because I’d just come off another Too Kyo game in The Hundred Line (ranked 2nd on my game of the year list last year).

No Sleep for Kaname Date is a weird game, in a way it’s a bit of a readjustment for the series but also a sort of return to the roots of the Zero Escape games in that, more than just the Somnium puzzles, there are also escape rooms and they’re presented straight up front and a large part of the basis for the overall plot. Importantly though, the escape rooms are good, while I never had to look up anything, I did have to use a notebook at times and take some photos of the screen and I love that. Where the game falls flat for me a little is its story, while the premise is fine, ultimately everything just felt a little…small. The first two games were ambitious, sometimes to a fault, here, while there are alternate endings, they’re more just there for a bit of a laugh and there are no diverging paths in the Somniums which I’d argue was one of their draws. It feels like this was a way to do a quick sequel, reuse assets, tell a smaller story and introduce the escape room aspect, and I don’t have a problem with any of that, it’s just that the series had previously set expectations on the ways it played with story structure, the more basic linear structure here likely speaks to the lack of involvement of Uchikoshi who was probably busy with The Hundred Line.

On the other hand, we have Call of the Elder Gods which isn’t too much of a diversion from the first game, there’s more diversity in the locations and character interactions bring the story alive a bit more. I remember the sense of wonder I had when I played Call of the Sea from the beautiful painterly graphics and then encountering the often wildly challenging puzzles, this was before I was deep into my puzzle game playing too, in fact it can largely be attributed to my becoming a fan of the genre.

The sense of wonder and beauty is back in Call of the Elder Gods but as I said above, there is so much more diversity in the locations, one of my favourite puzzle area combos in the game takes place in a sort of secret society building where you need to search offices for clues to the areas major puzzles. This is an aspect from the first game that hasn’t changed, the levels largely center around the solving of one large puzzle and some of these are pretty tough, similar to No Sleep, I didn’t have to look up any hints here, but I have pages of notes in solving these and that’s just such a great tactile aspect to both games that makes my memories of them fonder.

It’s been a bit of bummer time for the games industry if you follow the news so immersing myself in these two games which build and explore aspects of worlds that I have some familiarity and fondness for has been just the correct dose for that dourness. I don’t think No Sleep for Kaname Date is overly successful, but you know, coming back to some of these characters was fun, even if some felt overly shoehorned in, if you want to continue to give me some short stories set in this world and put this much effort into the puzzles, I’ll be back. For Call of the Elder Gods, I think this one is a real triumph and honestly, probably my favourite game of the year so far and while I get the impression from the ending this is sort of the end of the line for the story, I’m more than happy to go on another journey with the team at Out of the Blue.

No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: The Somnium Files: ***

Call of the Elder Gods: *****

Other Games:

Metro 2033 Redux: I played Metro 2033 when it first came out in 2010 after a lot of recommendations. I also picked up Last Light but never actually played it and, in the years since, it’s felt like I’ve just had people constantly convincing me that these games are bad, at least based on the podcasts I listen to I guess. Well the announcement of a new game energised me to revisit the series and I enjoyed working my way through this game again. It’s very much a 2010 shooter but there were moments here where I was completely drawn in, it’s just when it turned into a horde survival, the wheels came off a little. I’m planning to play the rest of the series but first, well, I want to read at least the first book. ***

Pointing and clicking is on hold, trying to decide on the next game, so we remain on 13.

Other Media:

Masters of the Universe (Film): It was funny going to see this film with my brother and nephew who we had to drag along, it’s almost the exact opposite of my brother and I dragging my Dad along to see the original in the 80s. Sometimes a bit too on the nose, this film meets its aim to be just a fun romp through this very silly universe. One of the key things here is the soundtrack, it’s fantastic and the way the score builds to the first moment we see He-Man is pretty great. ***

Disclosure Day (Film): I was a bit up and down on this one but the ups are just so damn high it kind of pushed some issues aside…at least until the film was over and I gave it some thought. The Spielberg magic is here though and combined with a Williams score, maybe the last, it hits the right notes. I’ll be fascinated to revisit this one in about 10 years as, similar to his other UFO films, they’re products of their time and this one feels of the moment, I just wonder if the message will resonate when I go back to it. ***

Return to Silent Hill (Film): What a mess. While visually the film can often be impressive this is a total fumble of the story it’s attempting to adapt. It’s dumb, there are some real rough make up flubs and some of the more ambiguous aspects of the game are made less so. I don’t think anyone will have any issues avoiding this, but if you get a chance to see it, just don’t bother. *

Supergirl (Film): This is a tough one, I was a big fan of the graphic novel on which this is “based” I put that in inverted commas because as an adaptation, it really only takes the basic story setup/structure and then says, screw your often quiet and reflective comic, we’ve got a blockbuster to make. Unfortunately that blockbuster is a real mishmash including some poor action sequences that make me feel like they just flat out chose the wrong director. That all being said, there is still a bit to like here including a strong performance from Milly Alcock and as a long time Superman fan, seeing both that character and Argo City went a long way to giving me something to hold on to. I’ll revisit this one when it hits home and we’ll see where I land then. ***

Fallout Season 2 (TV Series): It took me a while to get to this one, I’m not sure why because as soon as I put on the first episode of season two, it went by in a breeze, it was good to be back. There are story threads here that aren’t quite as compelling as some of the others, Maximus’ story here is a bit all over the place but the main drive here is strong and Kyle MacLachlan is here to remind you that he's a damn fine actor. The appearance of a Super Mutant was a bit off for me, but I imagine that was more a hint at what’s to come in season 3 more than anything else, hopefully that’ll be a season I jump into straight away. ****

Dr Stone (TV Series): Realising that I was coming to the end of Dr Stone was a bit of a bizarre moment. I primarily got a Crunchroll subscription to watch Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai and realising that I had this subscription, I should probably make more use of it so I just chose Dr Stone. While the show would often fall into some anime tropes I’m not a fan of including a lot of shouting, the overall optimism on display in the show along with some profound moments showing how incredible science is worked on me. While the ending was a bit of a mishmash, I think overall the show stayed true to itself right to the end and I can’t help but love it for that even if the latest season often meandered. ****

Witch Hat Atelier (TV Series): Sometimes you just gotta listen to the crowd. Coming into the latest season, this was the show getting the most buzz, 3 episodes in, it became night of viewing, that being that I normally compact anime viewing into Sunday night but this one, I needed my fix when it came out. There are a few what felt like filler episodes here, but when this show is on, it’s really on and the end of season cliffhanger is oh so cruel. A show that really turns the witch/magic school concept on its head and subverts expectations, even when it’s setting up something that might seem obvious. *****

Dorohedoro (TV Series): Like I imagine a lot of people, I thought we were done with this one, hearing there was going to be a second season, I was in a bit of a panic because my memory of the first season was very vague, so what the hell, I just decided to binge the first season again and remembered a series that I had a real fondness for, it’s a good thing I did it too because Season 2 makes no concessions, it picks up right where the first left off. Unfortunately, in advancing the story, a lot of what I loved about that first season is lost but it’s all such a wild world that falling back into the craziness was all too easy and I really hope they don’t leave us waiting as long for another season. ****

A Hundred Scenes of Awajima (TV Series): When the latest announcement of new shows anime comes out, I’ll often dig pretty deep to see if there is something different to give a chance to and for some reason, this story about a girl’s dance school stood out, probably because of the really beautiful animation on display in the trailer. It was a show that worked for me in a lot of ways even if the constant jumping around to different story lines would often make things a bit confusing but overall, I found myself drawn in and the way the threads are strung together ultimately worked for me. ****

Snowball Earth (TV Series): There were more than a few episodes of this one where I regretted my choice, the main character didn’t work for me and the key villain of the first series was the very definition of generic and yet there I was on a train watching an episode on my phone completely enthralled by the action despite it leaning on anime tropes I’ve seen played out ad nauseum at this point. It remains a mixed back overall though and if there is a second season, I’ll have to weigh up going back. **

On The Calculation of Volume 4 (Novel): This continues to be just a wonderful piece of literature that is easy to read but complex. I remain fully immersed in Tara’s world but at this point there’s not much more I can say or do, I just need to wait patiently for the next volume. *****

July Plans:

I don’t know why I write these, I always end up not doing what I say I’m going to do…alas, I write this and we’re already 11 days into July, I’m a bit late as I was planning my upcoming trip to Japan and South Korea last week but knowing I was going back to Japan led me to playing Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. We’ll see if there is much that I go into beyond that. Bond is on the back burner for now as it just didn't grab me but I do intend to get back to it before the craziness of August and September.