Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Midnight Scenes Series

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 052022
 

For our first spooky review this October, I’m actually going to discuss three games, a trio of short adventure games in a series called Midnight Scenes.

Midnight Scenes is framed as a fictional TV show, with each game presented as a new episode.

Each is fairly short and can be completed in a single sitting. They’re completely standalone, with no connections between them (aside from the fictional show).

Let’s go through each of them in turn.

Midnight Scenes Episode 1: The Highway

The first game is titled The Highway and follows a woman stranded along the highway. It is a fairly basic adventure game with a few simple puzzles to solve and takes about 10 minutes to complete. It has a creepy atmosphere, but I found the end to be somewhat underwhelming.

Midnight Scenes Episode 2: The Goodbye Note

Though the Steam version doesn’t list its full title, the second game is called The Goodbye Note. This one puts you in the shoes of a scientist getting on a plane, with a frame story from the perspective of a letter he’s writing, in which he apologizes to his wife for not telling her the terrible truth about his trip.

I found the suspense in this one to be much stronger. It has an interesting story and a gripping build-up. I did feel like the letter gave away a bit too much a bit too soon, which dampened some of the horror, but overall it’s my favorite of the three. It was also longer, taking me around 25 minutes.

Midnight Scenes: The Nanny

The first one without a number, probably because each game is a standalone story, the third and so far final Midnight Scenes game is titled The Nanny. It’s the longest of the three at around 30 minutes long.

While this one starts out fairly calm, it builds a creepy atmosphere quickly. It also has the strongest ending, with some truly unsettling moments. I’d hoped for more story details to build toward the conclusion, which is why the second game is my favorite, but The Nanny is quite a good little horror story nevertheless.

Conclusion

None of the three games feature complex puzzles or complicated mechanics, but they’re simple slices of horror aiming to deliver an unsettling atmosphere. Strangely, only the second game allows you to save; I’d hoped to see that carry over to the third game, but at least they’re short enough that it doesn’t matter too much.

As of now, these are the only games in the series, but due to their format, I wouldn’t be surprised if the developer makes more Midnight Scenes episodes in the future. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a bite-sized horror adventure game, the three Midnight Scenes games are worth checking out.

Now our spooky celebration is in full swing! Join in by leaving a comment below, and check the introductory post to learn more about the event and this year’s contest!

Thoughts on the Star Ocean: The Divine Force Demo

 Video Games  No Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Sep 302022
 

After playing the Harvestella demo, I moved on to the demo for another upcoming JRPG I’ve been interested in, Star Ocean: The Divine Force.

Despite having some mixed feelings about First Departure R, the only other Star Ocean game I’ve played so far, I’ve been intrigued by Divine Force (or Star Ocean 6) ever since it was announced.

And the demo… turned out to be really fun!

In the full game, you’ll be able to choose between the two lead characters, but the demo only features the first two hours of Raymond’s story. They spend most of the demo in the same party, though, so it’s not clear yet how much the two stories will diverge.

I loved the intro, when the characters are in space. Although they quickly end up on an “underdeveloped planet,” which leads to more of a fantasy approach, I hope there will be at least some space travel later in the game.

Anyway, I got used to the doll-like look of the character models quicker than I expected to. As far as their personalities go, Raymond could be slightly grating as a protagonist, but I found the other characters introduced here to be pretty entertaining.

(Especially Albaird. I love him and his grumpy complaints about everything.)

The D.U.M.A. system is a bit odd to control in the field, since what looked almost like a jetpack system in the trailers instead works by you shooting yourself a set distance into the air, after which you can climb up a short distance if you’ve hit an obstacle or use a very awkward glide to reach lower ground. You can’t aim very high, so it feels cumbersome.

In combat, I found it to be much more fun. You mix it up with your regular attacks to charge enemies from a distance and try to blindside them. Once I got into it, I had a great time doing that.

The world is beautiful, although the frame rate did struggle a bit in one of the large field areas. My biggest criticism, though, is that the party members talk way too much about where they are in the environment. I don’t mind party chatter, but this all seemed to be of the “We need to go south,” “We need to cross through this area” variety, which was an annoyance while I was having fun exploring.

It ended on a strange note, as if it was meant to be a cliffhanger cutscene, but didn’t hold any particular meaning for me. Nevertheless, I’m excited to play Star Ocean: The Divine Force!

Have you tried the new Star Ocean demo? What did you think?

Thoughts on the Harvestella Demo

 Video Games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 282022
 

We’ve talked about Harvestella a few times now, and since there’s a demo out, I decided to give it a try.

I was intrigued by Harvestella before, but now I’m more interested than ever.

Going into the demo, I expected a farming sim where I’d be going out to fight monsters and gather materials, maybe with some story details related to Quietus (the season of death).

Instead, I got a lot more JRPG than farming.

Harvestella feels like it has a fairly strong emphasis on story. The story also went in some directions I didn’t expect even this early on, since I thought it was purely a fantasy story. I also found a note that made me wonder just how involved the lore of this game might be.

The farming aspect feels like it’s mainly there to earn money, with a nice little gameplay loop of buying or finding seeds to plant and grow more crops to sell. Progressing through the dungeon felt like the more important part of the gameplay – in part because the demo has a limited number of days and spends a lot of time gradually introducing new systems, so the balance might feel different once the game fully opens up.

Time passes quickly, and you need to get back home before midnight to rest for the next day. The quick passage of time bugged me a bit, but in general I felt the dungeon had shortcuts available readily enough that it wasn’t a big deal.

The one complaint I have is that you can’t dodge in combat. Combat feels somewhat basic in general, but the lack of a dodge button bothered me the most.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with the Harvestella demo and found the emphasis on story to be a pleasant surprise. I probably won’t pick up the game at launch, but it’s one I’ll definitely want to get eventually. Have you tried the Harvestella demo?

 Older Entries  Newer Entries