Mento's Month: June

It feels like I didn't get a whole lot done in June for several reasons: It was hot as hell, I spent every morning playing about 30 minutes to an hour of frickin' Warframe, and I spent a similar amount of time reviewing 5-10 E3 trailers. June's always a madhouse between E3 and SGDQ, or a madsauna with how the humidity's been around these parts, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Actually, I would probably trade anything to skip ahead to September so I don't have to melt-waddle my way through July and August. How are we doing with stasis pod technology? Just Walt Disney's frozen head so far? Rats. Or cartoon mice, as the case may be.

Moving on to what I did in my summer non-holiday:

Indie Games of the Month

June comprised the 123-126 entries of Indie Game of the Week, outlined below:

Figment (IGotW 123) was the follow-up of sorts to Back to Bed, a charming and surreal isometric puzzle game set inside the dreamscape of a somnambulist who needed a little help getting back to his cosy sleeping apparatus. Figment's a little more involved than that, building a whole Bastion-like environment and dramatic story to match, with more fights, puzzles, and occasional lines of dialogue. I might not say the overall package was quite as uniformly solid this time around, but I can always admire the ambition of (spiritual) sequels like these.

Holy Potatoes! We're in Space?! (IGotW 124) was sadly a game I bounced off almost immediately. I did not anticipate that every Holy Potatoes game would be wildly different, barring some mild sim elements as you watch its vaguely familiar potato people wander around doing stuff. Rather than the plate-spinning of the original A Weapon Shop?!, We're In Space overtly takes after Faster Than Light with its semi-randomized encounters and strategic ship-to-ship warfare. Not terrible, but not something I wanted to play for more than a few hours.

Goetia (IGotW 125) was not quite how I imagined it, having read the synopsis of the player being a ghost seeking to thwart some demons who had taken over your ancestral estate. Rather, it was a probing and thoughtful look at a family torn apart by loss and fear, especially as those emotions relate to the encroaching World War 2 in 1940s England. Piecing together the fate of your kin, and the nearby villagers, was often a somber affair but one well-presented in its epistolary format, some occasionally trippy level design, and an unsettling but not overly tense atmosphere.

Golf Story (IGotW 126) is a clever and original game I'm still not entirely sure I like, though there's certainly enough about it that appeals. It has a sharp script and some great character work, presenting your quest to turn pro for some rundown golf club and its eccentric rivals into a series of RPG-style side-quests and minor challenges on top of the usual 9-hole tournaments. Alas, actually playing the game can frequently feel like a hassle, and it's not getting any easier to beat its challenges with the legion of minor issues dragging it down. Conceptually great, fantastically written, maybe lacking in the execution - like getting a higher than desired scorecard because all your putts kept missing by an inch.

Hey Everybody, It's the Tuesday Slot

Hoo boy, was this a productive month. I'm going to have to drop the name of this section of Mento's Month, because so few of these actually ever land on a Tuesday.

Seeking Warframe & Fortune (Part 6/June '19)

We'll start with one of my ongoing features. Warframe continues to be a harsh mistress, growing harsher by the day. If you've played a F2P game you're probably familiar with "the hump": well, Warframe has two. The early one we discussed in a prior entry: the way it takes a long time for you to have access to enough planets and their unique resources to craft any additional warframes, becoming stuck with whichever one you picked at the start unless you're ready to fork out some actual cash on the warframe store.

The second hump is one related to the game's difficulty. You effectively have a warframe, three weapons (primary, like rifles and shotguns; secondary, like pistols and throwing knives; and melee, like swords and hammers), and a companion. All of these can level up to 30, at which point they become "maxed" and - while still powerful - are now letting experience go to waste, as your overall game "mastery" is raised by levelling as many warframes and weapons as possible. In regular play, you're almost always using relatively weak warframes or weapons, because it would not be productive to stick with maxed equipment.

However! As you get further along the game's progression, enemies continue to level up: they're around 20-23 where I'm at on Europa, and they'll get to the 30s and eventually 40s by the time I reach the last planet, Sedna. There's no real way to beat these levels without exceptional warframes and equipment, at least around 25 or above. Sometimes it seems like it'd be prudent to just bring along a maxed weapon for security; use the lesser stuff while exploring, but fall back to the max level gear when the chips are down. It's also where the relative lack of inventory space that new players - or cheapskates that don't spend money - suffer from becomes that much more of a problem. Suffice it to say, I'm not sure how much further I can go without investing a lot more time or looking for alternative ways to boost my chances. Fortunately, I've found at least one of those since writing this week's entry: Aura Mods, which I'll discuss more next time. I think I might be on the cusp of another too, so that'll have to wait until the July update.

For the record, the June update mostly discussed the planets of Ceres and Jupiter, the warframe Oberon, the weapons Fragor and Boltor, and the "A Man of Few Words" quest (i.e. the one that gets you the NPC Clem).

A Thousand Roads: Modern Adventure Games

I opened the month with this one-off feature looking at the many ways the adventure game genre has evolved and grown since it was adopted by the Indie market, and the talented if unorthodox storytellers such a genre attracts. In addition to conventional western styles, like interactive fiction, graphic adventures (i.e. point-and-clicks) and FMV, as well as similarly rote Japanese models like visual novels, I tried to define the broader spectrum of adventure game experiences that Indie developers have been debuting and modifying in recent years.

While at some point we're simply arguing semantics - and tiptoeing around the tacit acknowledge that video game genres are busted and poorly defined at the best of times regardless - I feel this piece helps make the case that this particular genre has continued to seek new horizons from inventive, and dare I say heretical, new talents in the scene. Check it out, as it's a piece I'm relatively proud to stick my name on. Unlike all the rest of this rabble.

Anyhoo, here comes more rabble:

Mento's Alternative to E3: My Passing Interest in Falcom-ry (Day -1: Ys)

Mento's Alternative to E3: My Passing Interest in Falcom-ry (Day 0: The Legend of Heroes)

Mento's Alternative to E3: My Passing Interest in Falcom-ry (Day 1: Zwei)

Mento's Alternative to E3: My Passing Interest in Falcom-ry (Day 2: Xanadu)

Mento's Alternative to E3: My Passing Interest in Falcom-ry (Day 3: Everything Else)

Grouping these together, as a five-part look at Falcom's oeuvre published across E3. Falcom is a developer I've been planning to get more serious about following, so this little guide to what they're best known for was really to encourage my own peregrinations in their back catalogue as much as it was to sell anyone else on trying them.

In order of their appearance, we looked at: Ys, the fast-paced, hard-rocking action-RPG that helped put Falcom on the map as far back as the late '80s and continues to be a compelling flagship franchise; The Legend of Heroes, Falcom's most story-heavy series and one that - through the Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel multi-part sagas - have sold to Falcom's cause a lot of RPG fans who prioritize solid narrative and characterization above all else; Zwei, one of Falcom's more lighthearted series, and a bit like Recettear in both tone and appearance; Xanadu, one of Falcom's earliest games that continues to see new adaptations and re-imaginings every decade; and a miscellaneous round-up of every other significant Falcom title past and present.

I squeezed in a lot of self-elucidation (hey, no law against it) and gave myself plenty of games to consider for later, as well as an excuse to start playthroughs for Xanadu Next (which I completed later the same month) and Zwei: The Arges Adventure. Over the next few years I'm hoping to also try out the second Zwei, all the Trails games besides the first Trails in the Sky (which is as far as I got), Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, Ys: Memories of Celceta, and the upcoming Ys IX: Monstrum Nox.

Wiki Project: Summer Games Wiki'd Quick 2019

Another bi-annual tradition is making sure we have pages for all the games featured in the GDQ speedrunning events that occur twice a year. The primary, and only really crucial goal, is to ensure that the pages exist at all; this is for the sake of the Twitch engineers that use our wiki API for their "now playing" widget. My secondary goal, if I have time, is to clean up and fix any pages that need the work, though I neglected my duties this time due to the workload (and, if I'm being honest, sneaking in watches of the speedruns themselves - I'll still be checking out the VODs of what I missed for weeks yet).

Thankfully, no missing pages this time, even for the terrible obscurities found in the recurring "Awful Games Done Quick" block. Having similar games pop up GDQ after GDQ makes this project a little easier every year, but I still appreciate it as a semi-legit excuse to thoroughly study the schedule for anything intriguing. That's what I attempted to do with this round-up blog: as well as kvetch about the pages in rough states, I put together a small list of the speedruns I was looking forward to most (and they didn't disappoint).

Bucketlog June: Mother 3

The June pick for the bucketlog is one that's been in my periphery for well over a decade: Mother 3, otherwise known as EarthBound 2. The late-era GBA RPG had its share of problems, with developing stopping and restarting at least once in the journey from N64 game (as a platform with exactly one good RPG, it could've used another EarthBound) to its eventual GBA home. Troubled doesn't even begin to describe the plot either, though at least in this case it's deliberate; the tranquil isles is suddenly brought to the modern age through duplicity and tragedy, and it's up to a small group of the less susceptible islanders to thwart this encroachment and save their homeland.

Even with the linear vignette style of its narrative in the early chapters, as well as a newly introduced and unusual emphasis on rhythm and fighting to the beat for bonus damage, Mother 3 still has every bit of its predecessor's surreal sense of contemporary style and gift for humorous dialogue and I've enjoyed my time with it, perhaps excepting the parts where it can get a bit grindy and repetitive with the random encounters. But hey, that's old JRPGs for you.

List: Trailer Blazer: E3 2019 (Part One)

List: Trailer Blazer: E3 2019 (Part Two)

Since E3 ended around mid-June I've been working feverishly on reviewing every E3 trailer uploaded to the site while the expo was in full swing, and it's of no surprise (more like bitter resignation, really) that the number of trailers has once again peaked past the 200 figure. Releasing this list of E3 reviews in groups of 50 for easier readability, the two I have so far can be viewed above and you can expect two more in July before I'm finally done with this Herculean and entirely self-inflicted task.

That said, I rarely get the chance to flex my sarcasm muscles quite as much as I do with the less impressive E3 trailers every year, and I hope you all take a read because it's some of my funniest work. Not that I'm really known as the "good jokes guy" around these parts, but anything can change with time.

The Games of June

Despite all, I did manage to tick off two more items from this year's backlog. They were, granted, two of the smaller games on my list of ridiculously-sized RPGs but I'm still taking the win.

Marvel's Spider-Man

Marvel's Spider-Man has Insomniac take what they learned from the inFamous franchise and apply it to a pre-existing superhero, in this case the slippery and quippery Spider-Man. Taking place in a fictional timeline that might be considered eight years in the future of the current MCU, Peter Parker is now a post-grad working as a scientific research assistant after years of photography freelance work for the Daily Bugle, effectively bridging Parker's past and present. Some villains have long since been established - Spider-Man has histories with Vulture, Shocker, Rhino, Scorpion, Electro, and Kingpin - while others in the game are new (to him, at least). The game also brings in future Spider-Man successor Miles Morales and an intrepid reporter version of MJ (with whom Parker's had a tumultuous past relationship) to round out the cast, along with present boss and mentor/future archvillain Dr. Otto "Octopus" Octavius.

Part of what made the story of this game appeal to me was the steps it took to present Parker as an adult, albeit one who still doesn't have his life sorted out quite yet despite living with his crime-fighting alter-ego for almost a decade. The regular young person problems of finding somewhere to crash after being evicted, of choosing a career that is more rewarding than it is financially stable, of running into problems with your significant other that causes long-standing disagreements that neither wants to back down from, to even realizing that the costumed superheroics are maybe less of a solution to rampant crime than socially progressive initiatives like feeding and housing the poor; a charity project that this game's Aunt May is passionate about and Peter tries to help out with whenever he can. I didn't need to see Uncle Ben take another shot to the gut to sympathize with this older Peter Parker, and I'm thankful Insomniac chose to go with a slightly more relatable model.

The gameplay feels tweaked to the nth degree also, taking valuable lessons from the prior Spider-Man games that figured out how best to employ Spider-Man's combination of strength and speed for rapid, non-lethal takedowns, using every gadget and web-slinging technique in the book to establish that Parker's not only an exceptional brawler but a resourceful guy who regularly lands on his feet: far more a Batman than a Superman, to draw an analogy from another universe. Levelling up the Spider also means prioritizing technique over brawn, or on suits over gadgets - suits make it worth your while with the special mods they bring with them, though there were a few gadgets I found I couldn't live without, especially the web grenade.

Everything else - the collectibles, the side-missions, the radiant crimes to prevent - were fine if not exceptional. Hitting some of the bonus conditions for the crimes and hideouts, useful for some extra XP, were some real nasty fuckers, especially anything that involved not taking damage or keeping a high combo streak going. The backpacks were fun: each contained an item from Spider-Man's past, often referencing events from the movies or famous comic book arcs, and so too were the various NYC landmarks distinct to this particular version of the Big Apple, like Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, the Wakandan Embassy, or the Avengers Tower. Others just seemed like busywork a lot of the time, though the versatile fun of the combat never flagged even after the twentieth time taking down a group of Silver Sable's mercs or the sharp suited Demons. In many respects a very standard superhero open-world game, but a superhero open-world game that got all its disparate parts right and bound it all together with one of the better stories to come from this genre.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Odd for me to say, but I was almost dreading playing this just because I knew I'd hit a wall eventually with the amount of tactical acumen that would be needed for its final levels. I'd heard plenty about how the game drops off the deep end once you get far enough in for the truly diabolical maps and enemy types to appear, and throughout the entire game's story I was sweating this moment finally arriving. To the game's ultimate credit, that moment never happened: sure, there's some post-game "ultimate" challenges that I want nothing to do with, but for the most part every map was on the right side of approachable and I quickly fell into a groove with my preferred team of Mario (who is the only compulsory team member), Rabbid Mario, and Rabbid Luigi.

For those unaware, Kingdom Battle sees the universes of Nintendo's Mario and Ubisoft's manic Rabbids collide violently and awkwardly after a wayward accident causes some experimental merging technology to fall into the arms of the Rabbids, who quickly misuse it to create legions of mutated foes who run amok across the peaceful lands of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario is quickly joined by two of the still-friendly Rabbids, whom for whatever reason decided to dress like his brother and love interest respectively, and they take off after the sole Rabbid responsible for these "hostile mergers". The whole game takes place across a series of chapters, each of which involves one or two turn-based fights on a grid map in much the same style as an XCOM: especially as taking cover is of paramount importance to survival.

Where Kingdom Battles differs from XCOM is in its maneuverability. Rather than hunkering down behind a big rock and exchanging shots that have a 35% chance to hit, team members on both sides of the struggle move around for better angles and get in "dash" attacks: free hits that you can land on any enemy in movement range before committing to a relatively protected spot upon which to finish the turn. As you improve your characters, you can unlock new attacks, stronger versions of the dash, more quotidian upgrades like health and movement range, and special abilities unique to each of the game's eight characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and their four Rabbid doppelgangers). Even between a Mario character and their specific Rabbid ersatz there are significant differences, though both occupy a generally similar role: for instance, Mario is an all-rounder with high offense whose special abilities include a version of XCOM's "oversight" (that is, waiting until an opponent moves out of cover and blasting them) and an AoE buff that improves everyone's damage output; Rabbid Mario, meanwhile, is a close-quarters specialist whose abilities include a shield that prevents almost all dash damage (since he'll be close enough to enemies to accrue a lot of it) and a "magnetic dance" that draws enemies towards him for his devastating melee attacks. My favorite was Rabbid Luigi: his dash can be upgraded so much that it will eventually do remarkable damage with a leech effect, allowing him to heal himself by constantly shoulder checking others. Every member of your party has their own distinct advantages, so you can either choose to pick the ones you're most comfortable with or elect to pick the ones best suited to the immediate map - it's worth cycling your guys around anyway, because you often can't heal between maps (within the same chapter at least - there's a full heal for everyone once a chapter's over).

What you're left with is a game that, while it isn't always fair with its challenging scenarios, at least gives you every break you could want or need and never puts you in a scenario where you levelled up the wrong characters the wrong way or don't have the means to progress. Some characters are definitely more useful in some maps than others: Luigi doesn't have a whole lot of HP, making him less effective in boss fights or massive battle royales, but he does have a great movement buff that helps in courses where you have to escort a non-combatant to the finish line in as few turns as possible. Similarly, Peach is a veritable tank with a convenient means to heal others, so she's useful in maps where the goal is long-term survival (likewise Rabbid Luigi, who can endlessly heal himself with leech dashes, would be also a good pick there as he would be for most situations).

I'd liken Mario + Rabbids as being to strategy RPGs of the XCOM/Fire Emblem variety as Super Mario RPG or Paper Mario are to traditional turn-based RPGS: simplified in some ways, more versatile in others, and doing its best to ensure that Mario (or Rabbid) diehards are never too put out by the difficulty level or all these new systems to learn. For as often as it could kick my ass on occasion, sometimes snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I can't say I had a disagreeable time or an insurmountable struggle with this unlikely crossover.

Looking Ahead

Here's where I usually wax lyrical about what's coming up this following month, but July's looking a little... bereft. Probably for the best, as June was plenty busy between Super Mario Maker 2, Judgment, and all the E3 surprises like Cadence of Hyrule. September's going to be even more packed to the gills, so until then we have a couple months of relative peace with which to catch up on the first half of 2019 and anything pressing left over from the not-insubstantial release schedules of 2017 and 2018.

• The first significant blip on my radar looms into view this Friday the 5th: Sea of Solitude, the much ballyhooed EA Original from Jo-Mei Games concerning the spooky adventures of a sooty stowaway. The devs are looking to use the game as a metaphor for mental illness, following the example set by Ninja Theory's Hellblade, so I don't expect to it to be exceptionally cheerful...
• A few distant maybe games later, and we come to the following Friday - July the 12th - with Dragon Quest Builders 2. The bigger and better sequel, we've been told, addresses some of the shortcomings of the first of these Dragon Quest/Minecraft hybrids and adds plenty of new features and items and monsters besides, so it's definitely one to watch. It might also be the excuse I need to finally play the first game, which has been sitting on my shelf unplayed for a while now.
• We're bouncing ahead another week to Friday the 19th, which is when Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order hits its exclusive home of the Switch. The MUA games have always been fun if superficial brawlers with plenty of Marvel fanservice, and by setting itself apart from the MCU with its brightly colored cel-shaded visuals it's probably the more attractive of the two upcoming Marvel games right now.
• Finally (I told you it was a scant month) we have the Wolfenstein II follow-up of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, set in a Nazi-occupied France of the 1980s with all the synth jams and antifa violence we've come to love from this franchise. Early impressions paint a game with a co-op factor - the AI can take over if you don't have a buddy to play the other of BJ Blazkowicz's twin daughters - and a non-linear mission structure that has you tackling the game's content in an order of one's own choosing. I've been excited about this ever since I heard Arkane Studios was involved, but like so many other games out this year I can't help but feel I should probably play their predecessor (in this case Wolfenstein II) first.

That will have to do it for this month o' Mento. July promises to be quiet in more ways than one, and I hope to use this quiet before the storm to finally tackle some of the more pressing items still lingering on my backlog; Divinity: Original Sin 2 being a major white whale, though there's also the aforementioned Dragon Quest Builders and the final part of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy left to contend with. We're also getting close to the annual summer Yakuza playthrough, which this year will be the exceptional (if somewhat divisive?) Yakuza 0. See ya when I see ya.

(And if you've just skimmed to the end looking for highlights, try the Thousand Roads adventure game blog or the E3 2019 Trailer Blazer lists. S'all good, but those were my favorites to write this month.)