SuperHarman’s September 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

The Double A sequels are alright – Mortal Shell II, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy & The Sinking City 2

Last month I found myself underwhelmed by Beast of Reincarnation, it was a game which I liked for sure but wanted to love. That was the disappointing part for me, I could see the threads there that were pulling me in but I came to the conclusion that it was ultimately trying to do too much with too little, a symptom I often find in “double A” games where if the seams show too much, it can just fall apart. Yet I found myself moving immediately into another game that could be classed as double A, then another, then another and I’m thankful that coming away, I feel a lot better about what this space can do.

I was a big fan of the original Mortal Shell, it was a well contained Souls-like that had a solid gimmick and never outstayed its welcome but as with any Souls sequel, I found myself a little trepidatious going into the 2nd. There were a couple of issues I had going in, first is that the general rule for these games is instead of a natural progression from the first game, the immediate thought seems to be to increase the difficulty, the second issue is that they were going a lot bigger. At first it was an issue, when I went down an elevator into yet another mini dungeon I was wondering why they decided to go this route when the first game was so sharp in its focus, but as I continued on playing, I found myself hopelessly drawn in by the whole thing. It was a game that I genuinely struggled to put down as I worked my way through the world and the major dungeons, I found my self completely immersed in it and discovering new shells and weapons was thrilling. If I have a gripe it’s that the major dungeon design isn’t all that great with nothing overly memorable but again, I think that’s just minor and when I finally finished the game after about 30 hours, I felt really fulfilled and positive on the game. Honestly, it's probably up there for my favourite games release this year, that's how strong an impression it left on me.

Similar to Mortal Shell, I had really enjoyed the first two Plague Tale games but again, hesitation struck me on this latest release, it was a more combat focused game for one where I liked the stealth of the first two games, the other issue was that I’ve just fallen off these narrative driven action-adventure games in recent years. As I started to play Resonance, that felling that these games just weren’t for me anymore was overwhelming in my mind but once the game gets to its main location it really does start to thrive and tell a fascinating addition to the overall narrative of the series. My main issue here was the combat, coming off something so precise and tuned like Mortal Shell 2 made this feel a bit off when I got to the action, I was much more interested in the exploration here and even though the puzzles were simple, there was a great sense of adventure with and it’s a game that never outstayed it’s welcome. It also works largely because the characters and the performances are so strong but also because once it does delve into being a horror game like the first two, it thrives in ways beyond what the series has done previously.

From there I picked up The Sinking City 2 which, unlike the other two games I’ve discussed, I wasn’t as familiar to the series, I played the first game for a bit but things got in the way and I was never drawn in enough to continue on with it. However, someone said the thing I wanted to hear for this one in that I needed no knowledge of the first game, that and the fact the reviews were solid enough got me in, it also just felt like a good thing to do considering what the developers had to go through just to get this game out. As a result, of the three games I’ve talked about here, it’s the one that shows the most seams, in fact the very first enemy I fought in the game completely bugged out on me. There are also small things that just don’t quite work here like, early in the game, you go into a firehouse and activate something upstairs causing all the zombies to come to life, rather than wasting ammo, I decided to run to the fire pole which is fine, but upon pressing A, my character entered an animation state that just removed any tension from the scene, the game is full of these canned animations that don't flow and it was a bit of a pain point for my nitpicky brain. There was a lot of other minor annoyances like that, I don’t know why the game has a crafting system for example and the combat can get super frustrating at times. All that being said though, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, the story and the way it wraps up in particular are fantastic and think it occupies a pretty solid niche in the survival horror genre.

It felt pretty good burning through these three games during September and it also just made me feel good about games, these aren’t big budget studio games released by large publishers and yet they present as solid experiences, the types of experiences that I want to continue to have going into the next couple of years where reliance on big corporate games is becoming increasingly fraught.

Mortal Shell II: *****

Resonance – A Plague Tale Legacy: ****

The Sinking City 2: ***

Pointing and Clicking Update: Okay this is officially on hold, I started a game and it kind of bored me. I’ll be playing some games in the genre, especially towards the end of the year and I just picked some up in the Steam sale, but for now I’m focusing on other games.

Other Media:

Mortal Kombat Annihilation (Film): What a piece of shit. Every time I’ve watched this I keep thinking I’ll get something out of it, anything, maybe watching this 4K re-release would help. No, this film remains shit. *

Resident Evil (Film – 2026): As someone who, after becoming a fan of the series somewhat recently and sat through every film related to this series, yes, even the animated ones, it was so refreshing to come out of a film with the series name on it feeling so completely jazzed. This film was an absolute blast and one that I have no doubt I’ll continue to revisit in the coming years. *****

Transformers The Movie (1986): I remain unique in my friend group in that I am the only one who actually went to see this film in 1986, so when the 40th anniversary rerelease came up, I initially wasn’t going to go but that same friend group made the call and I couldn’t turn it down. It’s a tough one to judge on a base level because the nostalgia levels are so high and the cinema I went to screened some toy commercials prior so we were locked in. That said, I recognise this one isn’t all that good, but I still had a lot of fun at this screening and it was about as an ideal time that I could have watching this one. **

Weapons (Film): So Yeah, after watching Resident Evil and having already seen Barbarian, I decided to give this one a watch having sadly missed it last year and I can safely say I wont be missing another of Cregger’s films at the cinema ever again. An incredible piece of horror cinema with some amazing performances. *****

Metro 2033 (Novel): It was funny going into this novel, having played the game and thinking I had a good idea of what was up only to have that quickly destroyed. The game (at least the first, haven’t played the others yet) is an action game and the novel, is not that, Artoym barely even fires a gun. It’s a lot quieter, more psychological and in line with the history of Russian science fiction. It’s long and can be a challenge but I ultimately found it rewarding. ****

The Truth – Discworld Novel 25: As I work my way though the Discworld series, it becomes immediately clear to me upon reading which ones will grab me after about 50 or so pages and this was one that grabbed me. Shouldn’t be a surprise, it’s a parody of the media and that in general is something I enjoy and Pratchett remains so pointed that everything feels timeless. ****

Jaadugar – A Witch in Mongolia (Anime Series): This one was fascinating, a beautiful and lush show to look at that I occasionally felt the characters motivations jumping and changing so often was a bit distracting. That being said, I found the spot where this season ended to be a great promise of what is to come. ****

Black Torch (Anime Series): Not long into the first episode, I got the distinct impression this wasn’t for me, I did stick with it though and, yeah, still not really for me. I just don’t know why you’d watch this when Chainsaw Man is right there, maybe that’s being a bit reductive, but that’s just where I landed. **

Akudama Drive (Anime Series): I’d been meaning to watch this one for a while, not long after finishing The Hundred Line in fact and after finishing the last AI The Somnium Files game, it felt like the right time to go into this show worked on by Too-Kyo games. The elements are all there that you’d expect from them, large cast who have been trapped and given a mission that could end their lives. Where the show thrives though is its twists and turns and how everything plays out. It’s not perfect and I found a lot of issues as it went along, but it was a fun show and fits with their other work. ****

October Plans:

It’s Horror Month, I’m going to set myself a modest goal of finishing three Horror games this month, those being Hollowbody, Post Mortem and Silent Hill Townfall, actually achieving that might be a problem as I’m also playing Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave, I’m going to Pax Australia next weekend and I’m also prepping or a trip to Japan and South Korea in a months’ time. This all sounds exhausting, we’ll see how we go.