I’m trying to get through my Steam backlog and the countless quirky indie demos that I keep adding to my list of games to try. It doesn’t help that Steam always has some kind of sale, and right now, the sales going on are cozy games related. This is entirely my jam. Putting aside FromSoft games (with great difficulty), I have two other categories of games that I play. Roguelike/lites and cozy games. There is some crossover between the two categories, but not that much.
If you were to ask me my favorite games outside of From games, they would be:
1. Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
2. Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)
3. Cozy Grove (SpryFox)
4. Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! (David Galindo)
5. Hades (Supergiant Games)
The first two are in the right order, whereas the next three are pretty interchangeable. I really related to Mae, the main character of NitW, because she was a moody black cat (all the characters were animals) who, as the game went on, became more and more like me. Crushing self-esteem problems, severe mental health issues, and she was bisexual. The last one is something you can play through the game and never find out, depending on what the choices you make. I was so pleased when it was revealed because at that point in time (2017), there weren’t that many games with bisexual characters. Some with gay characters, but not bi.
That would be five indie games, four of which are considered cozy….well, three are for sure. The fourth (CSD!2!! is debatable) is a cooking sim, which you think should be chill, but isn’t. It’s highly addictive, though, and the reason I prefer this game to the original is because I can decorate my restaurants in addition to making recipes.
In the past few days, I have tried to sttorm through my Steam backlog/Steam demos. It’s an uphill battle, though, because I add demos to my Steam client as a way to remember games I might be interested in. I have almost two dozen demos on my Steam client, and I’ve deleted a few I’ve recently tried as well.
Here are a few things that will immediately turn me off a game–if it makes me motion sick; if it requires a dexterity that I don’t have; or if it has a confusing/lack of tutorial. I just played one that was a puzzle-solving game (putting shapes into a big rectangle squares marked off inside the rectangle), and it was cute, but too simple for me.
I know that my tastes are very weird and particular. Ian has said it’s hard to find games for me because I am so damn picky (he was more diplomatic about it, but that’s what it boils down to). That’s how I am with pop culture in general, by the way. I dislike more than I like to the point that I’m comfortable saying that I don’t like movies and TV shows in general. In other words, a TV show or movie is going to have to work hard to win me over.
I won’t even consider a movie/TV show that has no minorities, for example. It’s a little dicier when it comes to movies/TV shows from different countries. I’m talking about the US and England, basically. If an American movie does not have a person of color in it, for example, or the first PoC is sixth or seventh on the cast list, then I have no interest.
Look. I don’t like movies or TV shows in general. I have many reasons for it, but the bottom line is that it would take a lot for me to watch a TV show or movie.
Wait. That’s not what this post is about.
Video games. I have tried many different kinds of games. Really, I have. I have given it my all, and I have realized that like most other pop culture, I don’t like the preponderance of video games, either. I don’t like shooters, which cuts out a vast swathe of the games. I suck at anything tactical or twitch-based. That’s another chunk as well. I absolutely cannot do first-person anything, so we’re left with maybe 35% of games. These are wild guesstimates, obviously, but it feels about right. That’s all that matters, right?
This is what I’ve realized. I like FromSoft games. Or rather, I have trauma-bonded with them. Dark Souls was one of the first hardcore games I played, which was, in retrospect, a really bad idea. Why? Because it’s ruined me for every other game. Until I found indie games. Then that ignited a different kind of excitement.
Indie games are so hit-and-miss. Some of them are gems like Night in the Woods–which took me multiple playthroughs to fall completely in love with it. I didn’t vibe with it in the beginning because of the simple gameplay moments. As I got to know Mae, though, I really clicked with her. And her friends were so vivid, each and every one. Even when they frustrate the hell out of me, they are still endearing.
One thing I really like about the game is that all the characters are complex. And if you do certain things, people will react in predictible, but sometimes painful ways. The relationships are real as well. Like with Mae and her mother. There is friction there that I can relate to. Mae’s mother is at the end of her rope because Mae is floundering. Mae is back at home because she dropped out of college, which her mother does not like. At all. Her mother really pushed Mae to go to college because she (Mae’s mother) could not go. If I remember correctly. they argue about it and Mae yells that she is not her mother.
That’s the gist of the emotions between them, and I can feel it deep within my soul. They love each other, but at the same time, they push against each other. Mae’s relationship with her father is much more chill. Less intimacy, too, though. At least as first. Here’s one of the cool things about the game. Every time you play, you can add snippets to the lore/narrative. Just one example: The game is set in the rust belt in a dying town. That is one of the main themes of the game. There is a letter about an incident that occurred (or something like that) and depending on what you discover, the letter can be a few sentences or much longer. And it can be snipped in ways that it’ll still be complete no matter what info you discover.
If you do a certain thing for your father, for example, you will find out he had a very promiment role in the incident. If you don’t do the thing, that whole part is just excised from the letter. It’s really cool the way it’s done.
I have wanted to do a fourth playthrough for some time, but never did. Why? I’m not exactly sure. I think it’s because there was some additive content that was a bit frustrating to play. Plus, the plat requirements were something I could never do. But it’s still my favorite non-FromSoft game of all time.