Tag: Stray | A Banana Peeled

Tag Archives: Stray

Hidden disabilities are, well, hidden

Posted on September 3, 2022 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I’m on the last bit of Stray (BlueTwelve Studio), and I have mostly enjoyed my time being a cat. They have captured accurately the feeling of being a cat, I think, and I love that you can just take the time to sharpen your claws, lap water from a puddle, or curl up in a ball and snooze. You can also have a few specific NPCs pet you, which is really sweet.

I almost quit the game, though. I’ll tell you why. I mentioned in the last post about my difficulty collecting the things I needed to make progress. I finally realized I had been in both places before, but I just hadn’t looked around thoroughly enough. In one case, the item was under a mess of papers on the floor, which means I didn’t push them around enough to find it. In the second case, it was that I missed the safe that was nestled on the bookshelves. I had the keys, but I had forgotten about it when I didn’t find the safe during my first walkaround.

I could say this is my fault for not looking closely enough, but it’s not completely my fault. I have spatial issues and the camera controls aren’t terrific. Or rather, it’s easy to miss cues if you swing the camera around too quickly. In addition, it’s not always clear why you can jump on one ledge and not another. It’s frustrating and I wasted hours trying to find these two items.

It’s somewhat on me because I could have just looked it up, but I didn’t want to. My brain was like, “YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND THIS YOURSELF, YOU DOLT!” When a game is cozy, I feel extra pressure to figure it out myself. That’s just from me, though. It’s not as if anyone is saying, “Do this yourself, numbnuts.” That is what my brain is telling me, though. “Why are you finding this so hard? Anyone can do this!” I know that’s what people with disabilities are made to feel, and I have to say, it’s corrosive.

I know it’s me a lot of the time. Rather, I know it’s my issue and not the game. Just like my shitty reflexes (we’ll get to that in a second) is me. I try to keep my mouth shut about it, but it makes my enjoyment of a game really take a nosedive if I can’t find a way around it.

Small bites: Stray and Tinykin

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I am currently playing two indie games and enjoying them both. However, both also have major sticking points that I’m not sure I can get past. Let’s start with Stray (BlueTwelve Studios), which is the indie darling of the year. Some people even joke that it’s GOTY, which is pish. That’s Elden Ring. It was Elden Ring before the game came out and it’s Elden Ring now that the game has come out. It’s Elden Ring until the end of time and do not at me. It’s Elden Ring all day long. It’s not Horizon Forbidden West. It won’t be Ragnorak. It’s Elden Ring.

I was anticipating Stray for ages. I was slightly disappointed when I realized that there weren’t skins for the cat (I wanted to be a black cat, naturally), but of course there is a mod on PC in which you can change the color. I decided to leave the cat as orange, however, as that’s what the devs intended. I didn’t play it when it first came out because…I’m not sure why. I wanted to play it so badly, but I was scared it wouldn’t be what I wanted. I dove in a few nights ago, and I was charmed by it. I was slightly stressed with the beginning, but then I really got into walking around and exploring everything. I could knock things down and scratch at enticing surfaces. I could lap water from a puddle, and I could curl up into a ball and take a nap. I could jump up on surfaces I normally would not be allowed on, but not all of them. We’ll get to that in a moment.

I loved wandering around and putting my nose in everything. In the beginning, it was just getting from point A to point B as circuitously as possible (that’s not the official way to do it, but that’s how I wanted to play it). Then, there were actual objectives. And collectibles. And weird things chasing you, surrounding you, and killing you. I knew what I had to do to avoid them, but I could not jump where I needed to jump. I died to them several times, and I was ready to quit. It turns out that I just needed to tilt the camera up a bit and make the leap. Honestly, I don’t see how this adds anything to the game, but whatever.

Then, I reached the area where I needed to explore the rooftops and gather several of an item. And this is where I’ve grinded to a hard stop. Why? Because–look. I had to find someone and then get something from them. I had to find three others of this thing (that were other people’s). I thought, how hard could it be? Very hard. I fond the second one rather easily, then wasted an hour looking for the other two.