Slightly Obscure Games Pt.2

Due to a lack of Grade 'A' material, I decided to be lazy and do another S.O.G. feature today. I'm not too happy with the whole format I'm using, but until I rethink how I'm going to do this, we'll both just have to settle for mediocrity.



Holdover


Holdover is a bizarre mix of a Metroidvania platformer with an H-game. You play as a young girl named Marie, who after a ten year hibernation, finds herself in an abandoned underground lab teeming with booby traps. You after work your way out through several ridiculous platforming challenges and find out exactly what happened to you.

There's no combat in the game, but believe me there's plenty of challenge. Most of the Difficulty comes from instant death traps and several submerged rooms that you have to traverse before drowning. Luckily for you, there are several hearts that expand how long you can hold your breath and some suit upgrades to help you survive laser beams and spikes.

The echi part of the experience comes from how exactly your suit protects you; Whenever you take a hit, depending on whether it hits your top or bottom, that part of your swimsuit will get torn off leaving you vulnerable. While there is of course nudity, as seen in the picture above, nothing explicate is shown. Marie covers herself up in her portrait and the sprite is too boxy to be too detailed. Depending on who you are, this can be a good thing or a bad thing however. The nudity kind of adds to the feeling of vulnerability that it invokes, but at the same time, the game could have been easily done without it.

The difficulty is really out there later on in the game. There are some precise jumps that you need to make, but most of it just learning how your environment works and planning ahead through many failed attempts. The game is kind enough to permanently mark the world with your blood whenever you die, so you can know your shame while backtracking. Luckily, the author was kind enough to give you a quick save option to help make some of the more difficult jumps, a little easier.

Despite the creator of the game being Japanese, he translated it to English himself for us. Most, if not all the dialogue, is hilariously full of Engrish phrases like"I believe the future technology and leave you the message" or my favorite"Wait! Dad!! Please do not make me solitary!!". While all this is funny, most of the text makes the actual story indecipherable. Then again, you're playing an H-game, the story really isn't supposed to be the strong point.

Overall, it's a short and fun game, and if you can get over the nude factor, you'll enjoy yourself. And if the nudity is your thing, then atleast you get a fun game to feed your obsession.

Holdover Download


Yume Nikki


Yume Nikki has grown somewhat popular in the indie game scene, but overall, it is still relatively unknown. This game can be simply described as a wandering game. You play as Madotsuki, a young woman who is confined to her room with nothing but her balcony, a videogame system, a dream diary and her bed.

The purpose of the game is to explore Madotsuki's psyche through her dreams and traverse the odd and surreal landscape. You'll go through several areas filled with bright, neon creatures, walking lamps, 8-bit forests, fields of static, an icy fairy world and a Hellish labyrinth of massive proportions. Each area is accessed by one of twelve doors in the main hallway in the dreamworld. Each world holds a new idea and has several interlinking pathways to take you to several bizarre worlds.

There's a lot of customized sprite work, both good and bad, but oddly, I find that it actually adds to the whole dreamy world where things hardly ever make sense. Several areas can be incredibly simple looking, consisting of similar wall patterns, but there's also areas with such beautiful spritework, that you'll simple be flabbergasted. I can't help wonder if it's because of the mishmash of sprites or whether my opinion is actually valid and the sprites are impressive.

In the whole dream world, there are 24 "effects" that you can find to either use as tools like knives and stoplights, and there's also aesthetic effects like different colored hair. Once you've gathered all 24, you have to let them loose in the main hallway to get your ending. The ending itself is rather nice and really makes you think about the whole game in a slightly different way.

Getting it to work on your computer may or may not be easy depending on your computer itself. I've put it on several of my computers and found each one needing different tools. Sometimes the game will work right away, other times you'll need get your computer to recognize Japanese text before it'll run. If you can't get it going, check Google for instructions, I know you can do it.

Yume Nikki is a fantastic game for when you simply don't want to think about anything and just want to explore.

Yume Nikki Download




And there you have it, another lazy blog entry. This time I chose two freeware games to avoid any legal uncertainties. Give them a shot, I'm sure one of them will probably be an enjoyable experience for anyone.