An Ode to More Stories I Never Finished

A few years ago, I did a list of games and shows I never finished. If you haven't read it, you can find it here. 

I have been thinking about that list again ever since my Passion of the Christ 'review.' Since then, I made a promise to be kinder to myself. That meant not forcing myself to watch or play things I don't feel compelled to finish. I haven't been perfect, but I am doing better. And lately, I've noticed my mental health getting a tad better from this one simple practice. You can imagine my laughter from my friend when I told her that I won't see Morbius in the same way an alcoholic passionately exclaims that they won't have another drop.

Still, part of me still wants to talk about them. So as a little compromise, here is a little sequel where I will talk about ten more stories I have never finished. Yes, I never finished any of the things I am going to be talking about. Yes, that means you should take my thoughts with a grain of salt. But like I said last time, sometimes why we stop investing in something can be just as interesting as someone with more complete thoughts on the story. At least, that is my excuse...

Elden Ring

Like last time, I will start with the thing that made me want to do this list. 

Now, it is not certain whether I will actually quit this game. However, I played for ten hours and haven't picked it back up in about five months. I am starting to get cynical. 

I am cynical because I am starting to accept the reality that the FromSoftware Soulsborne series has lost what made me fall in love with the series in the first place. It's sad that the reality that FromSoftware may only have had three great games in this style. Maybe four. I don't know. I haven't played Sekiro yet. 

First, you have Demon's Souls, which while janky, is immensely creative and memorable. Then you have Dark Souls. A game that's a little less creative but balances itself out with stronger level design and boss variety. Finally, you have Bloodborne. An even less creative game but again balances itself out with a more aggressive combat system and for its effective depiction of Lovecraftian horror. 

Everything else has not been up to par. Dark Souls 2 plays great, but it lacks the strong level design and boss lineup as its predecessor. Dark Souls 3 is polished but the way it shoehorns in Bloodborne's combat system makes it slog to play through. 

Elden Ring feels like a combination of the problems of Dark Souls 2 & 3. The story and boss design is so pedestrian. We are in the seventh iteration of this style, and we have another game about a dying world, giant grotesque boss fights, and all the expected tropes of bonfires/souls/Estus. We have gotten to the point where a series as widely acclaimed for its artistic quality is as formulaic as fucking Super Mario.  

You also have the return of the same fast pace combat of Bloodborne. And like Dark Souls 3, it has the same problems of boss fights being overly long reflex challenges. Level design increasingly forcing the player to rely on cheese tactics. And oh yeah, that general sinking feeling where you need to min/max your stats and equipment in order to feel like you have a sporting chance. 

Now, before the strawmen apparate telling me that I should just get better at video games, the problem isn't the difficulty per say. 

The game made me think of Bennett Foddy and his philosophy on difficulty. He made an interesting point that games often build obstacles around the player's convenience. They are challenges meant to be beaten. In a way, Elden Ring isn't built around your convenience. However, does that mean the game is good? I don't think so because a Soulsborne game already did that. It was called Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. Those games manage to do that while still being extremely engaging throughout. It's engaging without heavily relying on an onslaught of boss fights with overpowered combos and basic mobs that can one shot you. 

I just didn't have it in me this time. For its wonderful polish, open world design, and cool story moments, I have lost patience with this series. Get fucked get gud elitists. 

Kitawa Shoujo

As you may know, I try to be as well versed as I can in as many genres possible. It's why I try to seek out even the most random ass genres like Bollywood, crafting managements games, and tentacle porn. It's how I get a sense of culture. 

A genre I always wanted to get into is the dating simulator genre. It's a tough nut to get into because most of them seem terrible. But after a free afternoon, I did some sleuthing and came across this game.

The draw for me that got me playing Kitawa Shoujo, aside from the fact that it's free on their website, was that it has a unique premise. You play as a boy who was tragically diagnosed with an unfortunate heart condition. It is so debilitating that he is forced to attend a school for children with physical disabilities. It's here where not only has to readjust to his new life but also score some tail among a harem of potential love interests, all of whom have their own physical disabilities. 

Having recently watched Sound of Metal last year, I was onboard for another story of a person having to go through a sudden life change. And for the first hour, that is basically what you get. Before you are introduced to any love interest, you are given a window into him adjusting to a life he doesn't want to have, and I was really taken by how well written this opening was. 

However, that was where my enjoyment for the game ended for me. What follows is hours where not much happens. It is not so much they take too long introducing the characters. The problem is that there is a lot of faffing about afterwards with no sense that we are going anywhere. As a fan of Shojo, this shouldn't be a problem for me. That's just the nature of these types of stories. However, Shojos typically remain interesting despite not having a lot of movement in the plot. There is funny dialogue, great animation, or an engaging set piece. As a visual novel, it doesn't have much to carry you along other than writing alone. And unfortunately, the writing was not great enough to hook me after the opening chapter. 

It doesn't help that the game has very little interactivity. At least, it didn't to the part that I played before I stopped. Consider me spoiled, because I played a bunch of visual novels at this point that are both well written and provide a lot of interactivity. In Kitawa Shoujo, I was lucky to get a dialogue option every thirty minutes. And from what I can tell, the dialogue options didn't cause much in changing the story. Maybe if I endured further into the story, the problems would have sorted itself out. But honestly, I was too indifferent to see it through. 

Maybe there is another dating sim out there. Ironic, that I have trouble finding compatibility in the dating sim genre. That's...yeah that's depressing....

Our Flag Means Death 

I just didn't find it funny...

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.....

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Alright, I'll elaborate. 

I have a genuine admiration for Taika Waititi (or rather the comedic circle he is apart of). Not that I love everything he's done, but I appreciate the fact that we have a modern cinematic comedic voice that isn't a test of irritation or insincere political Oscar bait. He's the closest we have to a modern Mel Brooks where he doesn't take his movies seriously, but he also provides a layer of intelligence that elevates it beyond the average comedy. 

Now from my understanding, Waititi didn't necessarily make Our Flag Means Death beyond some creative involvement. However, you see a lot of his DNA in this show. And, I don't know what it is about this one, but I wasn't grabbed by it. 

If I had a few theories, maybe I didn't care for how predictable everything played itself out. Maybe it is because the show uses the same type of humor which is "modern passive talk used in an unmodern context" with no hint that it was going to evolve past that. Maybe it was because I felt like I got everything I need to get out of this show. 

I definitely felt bad that this show didn't grab me. Its depiction of pirates felt fresh. Well, fresh if you exclude Aardman's The Pirates! and that one Veggie Tales movie. Overall, the characters are endearing. It's a very safe comfortable show, and it pains me that it didn't do much for me. At the end of the day, it was a comedy that didn't make me laugh once during my viewing of the first handful of episodes, and I knew it wasn't going to miraculously get funnier. I had to pack it in. 

Nier: Reincarnation

I love Nier, so I was looking forward to this game ever since its announcement in 2020. Sure, it was a mobile game, but mobile games can be great. Some of them to the point I would consider some of my favorites. Plus, it's Yoko Taro, and I love that crazy bastard. 

The game opens with a lot of what I like about the Nier series. Atmosphere is thick as blubber. The story is intriguing and has a twinge of nihilistic sarcasm. 

It's all good until you get to the gameplay which is your typical gacha RPG. It's dull, grindy, and unintuitive. Not even the great Yoko Taro could make me persist through this bullshit. 

I was really hoping this would reignite my love for mobile games. I love games like Planet Diver, Year Walk, and Device 6. This isn't anywhere close to the worst mobile games have to offer, but this game killed the idea that mobile games can bring an unique charm that no other game platform can. And if this game killed it, then Diablo Immortal stabbed the corpse, set it on fire, and threw the body into a pool of wet cement.  

RIP mobile games. You were fun while it lasted. 

Wolf's Rain

Probably the entry I had felt the most bad about dropping. I really have no legitimate reason for stopping this show other personal indifference, so this entry isn't going to be as insightful as the others. 

It is definitely a show I want to like. The premise is solid. The show is about a group of handsome twinks who are also wolves. And in this dystopian future, they must go on an adventure and find the promise land. 

I believe the slow pace of the story was what killed my interest. Although, it didn't kill my interest immediately like most shows with slow pacing. For some reason, I barely inched along. It kept me engaged just enough to keep going. It felt like it was a slow burn terminal patient that refused to die. I think its slight but ever present draw was its atmosphere which is phenomenal. Everything from the music and art style bring this soft comfy nature. A rather grim show was also immensely meditative and peaceful.  

But at the end of the day, it just wasn't engaging enough. Maybe in another time, I will finish it. But as of right now, it lives in the limbo of the unfinished. 

 

Dead Estate and Enter the Gungeon

These next two games are on here for similar reasons, so I am putting them together in a package.  

To put it simply, both of these games had the potential to take over my life, but it didn't quite do it. I tried to play a lot of rogue likes this year. It easily overtook Soulsborne as one of my most played genre lately. However, I had a tough time getting into these two. 

The thing with rogue likes is that there are a lot to do in them. Unless they have a story mode like Going Under or Dicey Dungeons, they are usually long stretches of repeating the same run but doing it slightly different ways, different characters, different loadouts, etc. It can also be intimidating to have to learn optimal play strategies and build muscle memory. I recall my Binding of Isaac skills taking months before I got proficient at the game. I don't know if I have it in me to do that for games that ask for that same investment. It's a shame because another similarity is that both games are quite good. 

In terms of differences, they both have little things that pushed me away. In Enter the Gungeon's case, the game is very hard. One of the hardest games I've ever played. This year was my third attempt at trying to crack the game, and I still didn't get far enough to make a successful run. 

I do like the game a lot. The reason I was drawn to play was there is a lot of depth and room for player expression. The bosses are exciting. They're long, but it isn't the detriment of the pacing. In ways, it supersedes Isaac in terms of balancing the power level of your character and the fairness of boss fights. I wish there was a easier way to memorize the guns since the types of guns all bleed together. They aren't as memory friendly as the power ups in Isaac or the boons in Hades. However, I will admit that may be a personal problem. 

As for Dead Estate, I played it for the witch boobies. 

With this and Atelier Ryza, I feel you can develop a profile on the types of girls I like. Yeah, this is another game where I bought it for the fan service. It helps that this game is fun. Other than the controls not being the most ergonomic, I really like how this game is laid out. There is nothing ground breaking about the game, but it is solidly done. I imagine another part of my why I didn't get far into it is that I was more drawn to the game's style (boobies aside). I like the art style. The music is great. The premise is cute and fun. However, the gameplay is lacking that slight je ne sais quoi that made Binding of Isaac or Slay the Spire so addicting. I guess mommy milkers can only do so much. 

Ouran High School Host Club

Is there like a German word for a show that's generally good but has some unsavory elements that just makes it harder to parse, like sifting olives out a salad or whatever food analogy fits your tastes?

Anyway, anime has a complicated relationship with transgender people. At best, the language is always not the most affirming. Even in shows I really love, the depiction of non conforming gender identity is quite sloppy. It's an issue that makes me roll me eyes because I know I have to weigh the morality of it in a case by case issue. Some anime is more forgivable than others. 

In the case of this show, I have certainly seen worse. But as funny the Ouran Host Club can be at times, it seems the premise of most episodes is subtle denial of the main character's gender identity, the weird fetishizing from other characters, and other cheap jokes that don't sit right with me. 

Even ignoring that stuff, I got the sense it was the same rhythms over and over again. The jokes were more samey than comfortable, more predictable than cozy sitcom watching. I don't know. It didn't do enough to keep me interested, and I stopped after eleven episodes. I'll stick with my School Rumble thank you very much. 

 

Wordle

Yeah....my cookies got erased, so I lost all my progress. Yeah, I got myself a few five letter words for that happening. Oh well, it was a nice distraction while it lasted, and it's not like I was going to finish it considering it is never ending. 

This game doesn't even have a story. I guess that's it. Gosh, I thought I would have more to say on this, but I think I just needed to complain. 

The Witness

I had a bunch of other ones I could've used to where I can list another ten. But for now, I will end this one with the Witness. The only reason this game even came to mind was because of this great parody game called The Looker released this year, and I feel like playing the Looker does more to explain why I never finished the Witness better than I ever could. 

Now, I am no stranger to Jonathan Blow. His most famous project, Braid, while heady and showboating, was well designed throughout. And to be fair, he deserves some credit for some brilliantly executed scenes in that game. 

This game is similar to Braid in that it is a stripped down version of its influences. But unlike Braid, it doesn't manage to replace what it stripped out with anything worth sitting through. I get what the game is trying to do. I can practically picture the pitch meeting at the hipsters gala. It's a puzzle game set in a Myst like world that has fully minimalist introduction to tutorials and game rules. That said, what Blow probably didn't mention at the pitch meeting was the slew of caveats attached to every single sentiment of that sentence. Yeah, it is a puzzle game but the literal puzzle book kind of sense. It's set in a Myst like world but don't expect a captivating story or worldbuilding. It's very minimalist but that often leads to situations where rules aren't convey properly or outright contradict the previous set of rules with no real indication that they're being contradicted in the first place. 

All in all, what kills me about the game is its seemingly vibe of self-importance despite having no bloody personality. This is why the Looker become such a therapeutic breath of fresh air. It's a fine example of the class clown taking down the stuffy valedictorian down a peg. Unlike the Witness, the Looker has a point. And the point is that the Witness is dumb. To put it more academically, it shows that no amount of philosophical postulating can have any kind of meaning if the connection to your audience is complete guff. And as a bonus, the Looker manages to say all of that while being one of the funniest games I've played in years. 

I hate this type of art game. The type of art where I get the feeling the creator is getting this undeserved sense of satisfaction at the idea that people don't like this game. It makes me angry just thinking about it. Man, my therapist is going to have quite the tangent tomorrow.