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HP Lovecraft's Earthbound (Demo Review, Spoiler Free)

  • kumada
  • 04/26/2016 11:39 PM
  • 19226 views
And we begin on a personal note.

The very first review I ever gave was for five stars. It was immediately critiqued for being a five star review. So now when I give a five star review, a part of me flinches. In liking something that much, I've opened myself up to criticism.

And when I play a game like this, I find that I don't care.

Weird and Unfortunate Things is a gonzo modern-world RPG flavored heavily with a vast and formless spice-rack of weird fiction. It feels more Amanda Downum or Robert Bloch than HP Lovecraft, but the general trappings of his cosmic horror are all there in the fringes of the game. impossible forces are editing the reality around your characters. Without making a pact with similar powers, it is impossible to stop them.

Mechanics-wise, this means you and your buddies stand in a line facing some eldritch shug-beasties and play very violent Red Rover at each other until one side is very tired and has to all lie down for a while.

It's standard turn-based RPG fare with a few minor deviations from the formula, but those places where WaUT diverges are welcome ones. There are level-ups and skill acquisition, but powers are purchased using collectable currency off of a grid. There are battles with monsters, some of which are random, but each game area has a gauge to determine the ferocity of its monsters. Whittle the population of shoggoblins down enough and the gauge starts filling more slowly. These little nods to convenience and choice felt like a friendly handshake between the game and I. "We understand that you have things to do," it seemed to say, "so we set the walk-speed to always run. If you want to slow down for some reason, well, that's what God made the shift key for."

And in truth, the turn-based-modern-pastel-horror-rpg is really just a vehicle. It's a format to tell a story in, and that story being told is a good one. The characters are quirky and have a humor to them that melds with the hypnotic game music, but the situations they've been thrown into are often surreal, nightmarish, and deadly serious. The game balances these two extremes on the tip of a razor. Never once did I feel like grimness was entirely out of the question, but at the same time I breezed through the plot. It was fun. The gameworld was immersive and I wanted to be a part of it, even though it would likely eat me, leaving my ghost at this keyboard, unaware that its body had been devoured, composing this review as bait for when the game grew hungry again.

Anyway, there's some broader textual understanding that helps to get the most out of the game. There are some nods to weird fiction like "The Derleth Expanse" or to indie games (the main character has a "Deadly Premonition" at one point) where, if the player is in on the joke, it enriches the experience. However, I think I would recommend this to just about anyone. The Earthbound-esque feel will pull in the nostalgia crowd. The writing will draw the story-fiends. There's even a perfectly balanced Nightmare Mode available at start for the Souls/Darkest Dungeon crowd. For something so genre-specific, this has broad appeal.

And not once during my hour and a half of playtime did I feel like I was anything less than perfectly enraptured.

So: five stars. If you disagree, or if you feel there's an element of the game that this review missed, by all means use the comments section. Or, better yet, write another review.

Posts

Pages: first 123 next last
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
No, it's totally Piano's fault. Because he touches himself at night.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I don't think it's any one person's fault. The system was questioned and the rules were clarified. I'm very sorry that kumada felt pressured. I don't think us all blaming ourselves is going to help.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
This is all my fault...
iddalai
RPG Maker 2k/2k3 for life, baby!!
1194
:( sorry for adding to the drama...

kumada was indirectly pressured into asking to be removed from the testers.

You can say you weren't bothered all you want, but if people didn't talk about this, it wouldn't even cross your mind to ask to be removed from the testers.

Sucks that this happened :/
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=kumada
I am stumped. I have no way to explain that I'm not bothered.

Tone doesn't translate into forum posts, but the engineer part of my brain really wants to spend the rest of the evening trying to design and implement the perfect post that will adequately explain to everyone that I am not bothered.

It's taken me about twenty years of being bad at social protocol to finally start sometimes realizing that that is a bad idea.

unity, please do de-credit me as a tester. I am happy to continue to provide testing in the future, I just do not want to receive makerscore from it. I am asking this with full awareness that everything is fine as is, and I apologize for the inconvenience.


No inconvenience. ^_^ I just wanted to make sure it was what you really wanted, since Soli said everything was okay. You have been removed as a tester.
author=kumada
I am stumped. I have no way to explain that I'm not bothered.

Tone doesn't translate into forum posts, but the engineer part of my brain really wants to spend the rest of the evening trying to design and implement the perfect post that will adequately explain to everyone that I am not bothered.


you have no idea how hard i relate to this
my social interactions here on the forum are visibly stiff but if you see my posts from <2013 wow man its depressing
we learn though and even though sometimes we may not vocalize our thoughts the best way people will still get to know and like you and what you do ´w`)/ <3

i know this is kind of not related to the topic but w/e i had a spark of relatability
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=kumada
I am stumped. I have no way to explain that I'm not bothered.

Tone doesn't translate into forum posts, but the engineer part of my brain really wants to spend the rest of the evening trying to design and implement the perfect post that will adequately explain to everyone that I am not bothered.

It's taken me about twenty years of being bad at social protocol to finally start sometimes realizing that that is a bad idea.


Yeah, sometimes you gotta just accept a lost communication and force yourself to be OK with someone having the wrong idea about stuff. Such is social interaction. vOv
I know you're not bothered, kumada (I got that from the first time you said you're not bothered), but you're making it sound like this is a bigger problem than it really is. That's all I'm saying.

I personally think you don't have to go so far as to request to be removed as a tester or for all your makerscore to be removed permanently or whatnot so that there can be no "(in)tangible benefit" or whatever (because really, we aren't bothered ourselves either), but if that's what you really want, then full power to you.
I am stumped. I have no way to explain that I'm not bothered.

Tone doesn't translate into forum posts, but the engineer part of my brain really wants to spend the rest of the evening trying to design and implement the perfect post that will adequately explain to everyone that I am not bothered.

It's taken me about twenty years of being bad at social protocol to finally start sometimes realizing that that is a bad idea.

unity, please do de-credit me as a tester. I am happy to continue to provide testing in the future, I just do not want to receive makerscore from it. I am asking this with full awareness that everything is fine as is, and I apologize for the inconvenience.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=eplipswich
author=kumada
I just wanted to resolve this lingering drama. Those were the two most efficient ways I could think of to do that.
And I just want to say there's nothing to resolve. It's not even a major problem, man. Relax.

Also, the comic Sooz posted is just a joke, so please don't take it seriously :p

The comic was inspired by this:

author=Dragol
author=Solitayre
My verdict is everything is fine, nothing is broken, system working as intended, etc.
Isn't it yours house falling apart all the time?

ETA: In restrospect, I could probably have included the quote to make that clearer, since the comments I made that showed where I stand on stuff* went down the server drain. OH WELL, CAN'T BE BOTHERED NOW.

*That testers don't seem connected enough with a project to really merit barring them from reviews
author=kumada
I just wanted to resolve this lingering drama. Those were the two most efficient ways I could think of to do that.

And I just want to say there's nothing to resolve. It's not even a major problem, man. Relax.

Also, the comic Sooz posted is just a joke, so please don't take it seriously :p
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
HAIL UNITY

Worship unity at the church of your choice!
wow this goes on for pages and pages, I'm not sure unity is pleased with being bombarded with these notifications XD
though hey, it at least counts as buzz.

Now lets praise unity's awesome gammak skilz.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
I've seen that comic before. By itself, it's meh, but in context with this convo, it's funny as shit.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Dragol
Isn't it yours house falling apart all the time?


I would think that would make her an expert on shit being busted.
@kumada - I was just saying my personal thoughts on the possibilities as to why it could be an issue -in general-, in response to the comment above. It wasn't aimed at you. :P

If Soli says it's fine, it's fine. No need to get in a huff over it.
author=Solitayre
My verdict is everything is fine, nothing is broken, system working as intended, etc.

Isn't it yours house falling apart all the time?
author=alterego
author=Malandy
Links to copies of previous Thread. I make so I don't use up redundant bandwidth. And convos are interesting.
Haha! So the dramacore choked on the old thread and this is what it spat back, a bunch of code? Ewww! But you know, it's kind of a chore to look for the actual posts in that mess. Someone should cut them out and paste them here... My favorite comment was Pizza's. Something about agreeing with me... Aww c'mon, I'm not THAT bad! xD

... Huh. ... Download and then run it with your favorite browser, and then just scroll around.

*Needs to figure out how to quick-tutorial htm/html file use...*
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
My verdict is everything is fine, nothing is broken, system working as intended, etc.
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