Summer game haul (or, games I might never finish)

Since I have less and less free time. And yet the sales don’t end, and what am I supposed to do? As much as I hate Valve and want to avoid Steam (and I do whenever there’s another option, often itch.io for the indie games even when it means having to spend a few more dollars) sometimes it is the only option. But still, fuck Valve.

So here’s some sadly low-effort work this month, when a lot of other people are writing daily posts for the Blaugust posting challenge/festival. Go check it out — I took part last year and it was enjoyable, but work and life are so thoroughly draining/killing me now that I just can’t do it this time. Instead, here’s my first post of the month, a look at several games I recently bought and had the chance to play at least slightly.

Disco Elysium

Given that I’ve always heard good things about this game, I was looking forward to finally trying it out. I didn’t know much of anything about Disco Elysium going in, which seems like exactly the kind of game you wouldn’t want spoilers in (at least my impression from what I have heard.) And just a couple of hours in right now, all I can say is that it’s strange and intriguing.

After establishing my character’s strengths and weaknesses, I woke up in a dirty hotel room, hungover and in my underwear. This start to the protagonist’s day brought back so many unpleasant memories that I had to go through my own brain loading process for a minute before realizing that Disco Elysium is a classic point-and-click adventure game, only with a lot of tweaks that make it interesting, most of which I’m sure I haven’t seen yet.

I went with Sensitive because it sounded the most fun to me, but I wonder if I basically picked hard mode. But then every version of this game seems like it will probably be hard mode.

My version of the protagonist being charismatic but constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown only seemed to increase the game’s unpredictability, as I talked to either a voice in my head or a demon while looking in the bathroom mirror before gathering what clothes I could find (missing one shoe and my tie, but good enough) and leaving to do some detective work. Sure, I couldn’t remember my name, my profession, or why I was here, but I was at least able to pretend enough to my partner that he only thinks I’m an idiot, which I can probably deal with.

An idiot, but not a racist at least. Though it’s interesting that you can apparently make your character into a total asshole as well.

No big surprise, maybe, but I like Disco Elysium so far. Normally the protagonist’s hopeless situation might be a little stressful to cope with, but the guy is so completely far gone that that situation becomes absurd and fun to play along with. Even if most of my dice rolls to determine the outcomes of my actions so far have been miserable failures. This game doesn’t mess around. I’m fully prepared to die in some profoundly stupid way and will probably test out every possible way I can put the protagonist in unnecessary danger just to see what happens.

Hypnospace Outlaw

Another acclaimed unusual indie game, Hypnospace Outlaw entirely takes place in Hypnospace, a late 90s internet service that you jack into while you’re sleeping. Because fuck getting any rest at all: you need to be productive even during REM. Even more shockingly, my character apparently signed up as a volunteer mod to help flag violations of Hypnospace law on other users’ homepages (no abusive language/harassment, no use of copyrighted characters, etc.) So instead of actually sleeping, you get to spend your time digging around this primitive internet-style platform and reading about how some kid broke up with his girlfriend because he has his eye on a different girl in his band club.

For the kids who weren’t around then: yes, we had these bullshit shock ads back in the 90s too. Some things never change.

I’ve gotten through what I think is the first chapter of the game, and it is certainly something. Hypnospace Outlaw really does get the look and feel of the very early consumer internet down, when people started flooding it in the mid-90s with Geocities and Angelfire pages about their dogs and hobbies, and even with the dancing hamster gifs and embedded music files that were so common back then.

Vintage internet. For the real experience, go to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and find some late 90s versions of existing websites — even the corporate sites back then looked like shit.

However, I have a problem with this game. Though it’s not a problem with the game itself, to be fair, but with me: it feels like work. The player character is quite literally working for the Hypnospace admins, and not even for real money but rather for Disney fun buck-style platform-only currency. I already can’t relate — I would never volunteer to be a moderator, and for as much time as I spend online, I certainly wouldn’t implant a chip into my head to navigate a separate internet that you can only access while asleep. I know this may come as a shock, but I need my four or five hours of sleep so I can at least pretend to be a functional adult, and I feel using this sleep internet thing would be a detriment to me even aside from the potential for brain damage.

Imagine working as an internet copyright snitch and not even getting paid. If you’re going to be a corporate bootlicker, at least have the dignity to demand real money for it.

All that said, the premise of Hypnospace Outlaw is interesting, and there seems to be a lot more under the surface that I haven’t found yet, so I will probably keep playing to see what else I can find. It is at least funny to visit users’ pages after you’ve issued citations against them and read their complaints. Power is addictive, isn’t it?

Idol Manager

And speaking of games that feel like work, here’s Idol Manager, an idol management simulation just as the title states. After being given a brand new idol company to build from the ground up by a shady businessman with possibly questionable ethics, I got to hiring three idols and put them on a regimen of training and performing that is sure to wear them out to the point they all have mental breakdowns.

I’m kidding; of course I’ll do my best to avoid that. Can’t squeeze money out of these girls if they’re burned out, after all! And Natsuki here is a real catch despite her low stamina.

Idol Manager seems to be a pretty comprehensive simulation, coming from my clueless perspective as someone who’s barely familiar with idol stuff outside of the more idol-ish aspects of the VTuber world. Most of the game takes place on a SimTower-style 2D building screen, where you’re able to place offices and specialized facilities staffed by voice and dance coaches and staffers who work to get your idols promotional opportunities like photoshoots and variety show guest spots.

But of course the hole goes deeper than that. There looks to be a lot of opportunity for scandal in Idol Manager, with its social sim element that let you take the idols out for coffee, gossip with them, and even make advances on them. This last option seems both wildly unethical and extremely unwise, but I can’t promise my curiosity won’t get the better of me at some point.

I got Sunshower from a Taeko Ohnuki album I like, thought it would make for an even better idol group name than an album title. They only have about 60 fans as of this writing, but with Kira’s attitude, Sunshower is definitely on its way to the Budokan or wherever it is the big idol groups perform.

But once again, hell if Idol Manager doesn’t feel like work. At least I can’t complain too much about that this time, since I couldn’t have expected much else from a game titled Idol Manager, but unwinding with a game like this after my actual work can feel a little strange for that reason. Then again, I’ve always enjoyed sim games that involve at least moderate micromanagement — as long as the payoff makes the more tedious aspects of the game worth playing. I’m still not sure whether that will be true of Idol Manager, but the promise of a massive scandal is admittedly enticing.

Points for those who can correctly guess where I got our first song’s title from (hint, not the Bananarama song that comes up first in the Google search, though that song might be the ultimate origin of the title.)

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly

And finally, a game that I’m already pretty comfortable with since I’ve played the first in the series. Coffee Talk was a nice drink-brewing social sim/VN in the vein of VA-11 Hall-A, and while I preferred the latter’s futuristic dingy dive bar and its bitter, jaded protagonist Jill Stingray (speaking of a character I could relate to, sadly) I enjoyed Coffee Talk almost as much. And much to their credit, unlike Sukeban, Coffee Talk developer Toge Productions actually put out a sequel instead of maintaining a “coming soon” page for it for four years straight or however long it’s been.

Rejoining old patrons and meeting new ones at your nighttime hours-only Seattle coffee shop.

If you want more background on Coffee Talk, you can find it in my review above. Aside from the addition of a couple of new ingredients and an item safekeeping/delivery mechanic that will certainly see some use in the course of the story, Hibiscus & Butterfly feels very much like the first game, which is good, because I liked the first game. Not sure if I’ll even have much more to say about this second episode that I didn’t say about the first, but if I do, you can be sure I’ll make a post.

I’m usually just a black coffee type, but I can appreciate the artistry.

That’s all for now. I have quite a few more games in the backlog, including a couple that I should really finally finish, but I’ll just keep playing whatever happens to grab me. Until next time, happy Sunday — I’ll do my best to enjoy the rest of my meager free time until tomorrow.

• coffee talk
• disco elysium
• games
• hypnospace outlaw
• idol manager
• pc games
• video games