Helltaker (2020): All For The Nookie

"When demon girls are involved, no price is high enough"

Helltaker is a free indie puzzle/adventure game designed by Polish developer vanripper (Łukasz Piskorz), released on May 11, 2020 for PC. 

Helltaker follows the character of the same name on his quest to have a harem of demon girls from the depths of hell. 

The Helltaker has to go through a series of puzzle stages with the goal of reaching a demon girl. When you reach the demon girl you have to answer a question correctly or you restart the level. There are 10 stages, and in each one you have to push stones and skeleton soldiers, avoid traps and collect items while keeping within a set turn limit. This means that if you move too much without finishing the level you die. For some it might be challenging, but you can have a really good time with this free game, which can be beaten in less than an hour.

The characters are:

The Helltaker:

Pandemonica, the Tired Demon:

 

Modeus, the Lustful Demon:

 

Cerberus, the Triple Demon:

 

Malina, the Sour Demon:

 

Zdrada, the Bitch Demon:

 

Azazel, the Curious Angel:

 

Justice, the Awesome Demon:

 

Lucifer, the CEO of Hell:

 

Judgement, the High Prosecutor:

Beelzebub, The Great Fly:

I won't go deeper into describing them, because I think the names themselves mostly define who each character are. Moreover, what caught the attention of many people are the demon "waifus" so now that it's been a month you can expect tons of artwork of the characters.

Helltaker's level designs, visuals and music are really good, and it goes beyond me why it's for free, because there is a lot of dedication put into the video game, despite its short length. 

Moreover, the game is funny, and the situations our protagonist encounters while trying to create his own harem of demon girls it's so ridiculous that you wish you were him. No complex story, no sadness or deep stuff, just pure entertainment about a journey of lust and hedonism.

All in all, Helltaker in less than a month has become a really popular game, and I can see why. So, if you have an hour avaliable, you can spend it by playing a game about a cool dude in his lustful quest of having his harem of demon waifus. What can go wrong?

PS: And now I leave the OST composed by Mittsies for you to listen to, some cute images, gif and sprites!

VA-11 HALL-A (2016): The Price Of Pleasure

"Time to mix drinks and change lives"

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action is an indie bartender simulation video game, developed by Venezuelan studio Sukeban Games and published by Ysbryd Games. Initially released for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux on June 21, 2016, it was later ported to PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch by developer Wolfgame and Published by Limited Run Games. VA-11 HALL-A tells the story of Jill Stingray, a young female bartender and her daily life in the futuristic world of Glitch City. Your main goal in the game is to mix and serve drinks while you engage in conversations with the characters who visit the bar VA-11 HALL-A (pronounced Valhalla).

Set in the year 207X, VA-11 HALL-A presents us a dystopian cyberpunk future in which big corporations control everything and people are oppressed by corrupt law enforcement. This is very usual in dystopias and cyberpunk fiction, but the twist in the game is that the main story is set inside a bar, which means that most of the context is given by customers through dialogue like many other visual novels. The video game lasts roughly 10-14 hours (depending on how fast you read and serve of course), and has 6 different endings, which means there is a lot of replay value. How you get the endings depends on various factors such as giving a flawless service, not spending money on useless things, among others.   

As mentioned before, you play as Jill Stingray, a sarcastic and grumpy 27-year-old woman who lives to serve drinks and listen to the stories the characters who visit VA-11 HALL-A tell. The gameplay is relatively simple since you just read dialogue (you don't have dialogue choices) and advance the plot by serving fictional drinks. 

While you create the drinks you have no time limit, so you can take your time, and if you make a mistake while mixing (or blending) the ingredients, you can just reset the order and do it all, all over again. However, if you create a drink that was not requested and still serve it, you get less tip money for making the mistake at the end of your shift.

To create a drink you have five ingredients to mix (or blend):

- Adelhyde

- Bronson Extract

- Powdered Delta

- Flanergide

- Karmotrine

By mixing/blending these five ingredients in different amounts you get a variety of drinks. These drinks can have different flavors (bitter, bubbly, sour, spicy or sweet), or be different types (bland, classic, bottled, burning, classy, manly, sobering, vintage, happy, strong, girly, soft, promo). Some are really cheap, while others are very expensive. When to serve them depends on what the customer wants, of course.

Some characters of VA-11 HALL-A are:

- Julianne "Jill" Natalie Stingray: The main character of the game. She is a 27-year-old barwoman who works at VA-11 HALL-A. Jill is a grumpy, but well-intentioned woman, and very professional most of the time. She is bisexual, and has many stories which we unravel while we play.

- Dana Zane: Former wrestler and Jill's boss. She is very funny and treats his employees with a lot of respect, which they return in favor. She also has a mechanical prothesis. Jill has feelings for her.

- Gillian: The other bartender in VA-11 HALL-A. He is a very mysterious and reserved person. People often make fun of him. He is good at heart.

- Rebecca Dorothy Willow Graem aka Dorothy Haze: She is a robotic sex worker. She looks like a child, which makes the whole sex worker thing really shady. Dorothy is cheerful and very open regarding her line of work.

- Alma Armas: A hacker who goes to the bar. She is a very calm and clever person. She often teases Jill for fun, despite being straight. People often talk about her big breasts, being dubbed as "Titty Hacker".

- Donovan D. Dawnson: Chief Editor and owner of The Augmented Eye, a magazine. He's a real son of a bitch, and very rude towards people. If it were up to Jill, she would punch him in the face.

- Sei P. Asagiri: A former White Knight (a corrupt law enforcement entity). Sei is a very kind person, and Stella Hoshii's "informal" bodyguard.

- Stella Hoshii: When she was little she went through a genetic treatment to have her life saved. Due to this she looks like a "catgirl" and dubbed a "Cat Boomer". Stella is a very wealthy girl, and Sei's best friend. She is also a very caring person, but her personality greatly differs from Sei's.

- Anna Graem: Probably the most mysterious character of the game. She is an entity who appears to Jill throughout the game. Anna usually breaks the fourth wall.

VA-11 HALL-A's visuals are very "aesthetic", and it totally has the cyberpunk feel the game wants to convey. A lot of purple, magenta, and obscure colors mixed with vivid neon lights. The bar looks like something taken out of Blade Runner, which I absolutely adore. This lines up really well with the OST composed by Garoa, which ranges from fast paced industrial pieces to cheerful piano melodies. The Original Soundtrack is on Spotify and YouTube, so even if you don't play the game, you can totally enjoy the music.

Another strong point the video game has is the setting, which, as said before, is in Glitch City. Despite not leaving the bar except when going home, you get a lot of context in the conversations that take place in VA-11 HALL-A. How the city came to be, its government, law enforcement, citizens, among others. How you picture the city and the lives of the people in it is up to you, but it's not difficult to imagine a dystopia. In a way, the video game tries to mirror the reality of its creators, since they live in Venezuela and want to show in a very interesting and cheerful manner the trials and tribulations of a third world country.

Jill tries her best in the bar while serving drinks. She is a very good listener and most of the people who go to the bar have a story to tell. Whether it's Dorothy with her naughty stories or Alma with her family issues or Anna's apparitions, VA-11 HALL-A offers a very chill experience for someone who wants to feel immersed in a futuristic world without being a hero or participating in a larger-than-life mission. This bar is for listening and helping others and yourself in the process, all by serving drinks to wacky and strange characters who will make you have a good time.

Perhaps the only negative aspects of the game are the fact that for some it is a game so relaxing that there is no tension at all (you don't get a really heavy penalty for screwing up a drink or anything) and the grey area regarding the sex jokes, innuendos and specially the character of Dorothy, which is the usual anime loli. There will always be trouble when writing and presenting those types of characters, and this calls into question if these characters should be in an adult story at all. But aside that very controversial topic, I can't mention other aspects I dislike.

To sum up, VA-11 HALL-A is a very original piece of entertainment, but since simulation games and specially visual novels are still a niche genre, not everybody is going to be able to enjoy it, but those who can will find a very engaging and immersive video game, in which you do what you're best at: Serve a drink and talk about life. 

PS: In here I leave the OST so you can enjoy the awesome music by Garoad.

 

Shadow Of The Colossus (2018): Whatever It Takes

Shadow Of The Colossus is an action-adventure game developed by Bluepoint Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It is a remake of the 2006 game of the same name originally released for the PlayStation 2.

The video game focuses on a young man named Wander who wants to bring back to life a girl named Mono. To do this, Wander and his horse Agro enter a place named the Forbidden Land and makes a deal with a creature called Dormin: Wander has to kill sixteen creatures called colossi and Dormin will revive Mono. Meanwhile, a mysterious party led by someone called Lord Emon is tailing Wander. 

Regarding the gameplay, you control Wander. He can attack by using his sword or bow and arrow, he can also jump and climb obstacles and walls. As said before your main goal is to seek out and kill each colossus. You can find them by raising your sword in a sunlit area and it will show you the right direction, then you use your horse Agro to travel the Forbidden Land and explore and escalate ruins and buildings to reach them. 

When facing a colossus you have to find its weak point and kill it; every enemy has a different strategy to be defeated and has a unique weak point. You may have to scale the colossus to reach its weak point and stab it with your sword. While scaling you have to remember that Wander has limited stamina and if you do not climb fast, he falls. After you slay each colossus, you return to where Mono is laying and a cutscene appears and then Dormin tells you where the next foe is. All of these is repeated until you annihilate the sixteen colossi.

It sound simple, but finding each weak point of every boss is difficult and to win the battle you need to be strategic. All sixteen colossi are different: Some are gigantic beings made of stone, looking like moving antique constructions, while others have animal-like characteristics; some use weapons and other use elemental techniques like thunderbolts to defend themselves. Each one is unique, and require different methods to defeat them, and it's up to you to know how to triumph. 

Another interesting point is the minimalism the game presents, since you do not encounter NPCs throughout the whole game, there are no other enemies than the colossi and despite being an adventure game there are no towns, dungeons or palaces to be explored and most of the constructions are in ruins, and the only other living creatures you encounter are some animals that inhabit the land. Moreover, you don't talk to anybody, but Dormin and your horse, and that makes the game really immersive while you traverse the areas. The desolated and vast land gives you a sense of loneliness and melancholy in this emotional and larger-than-life journey to bring back a loved one back to life. 

SOTC has been regarded by many as one of the greatest video games ever made and I wholeheartedly agree. The mind behind SOTC is game designer Fumito Ueda (Ico, The Last Guardian) and his games are usually noted by having a fantasy-based setting with their own mythology and language, accompanied by mysterious and symbolic characters and plot, beautiful music and visuals, and often require a deep analysis.

To try to grasp what SOTC means as a whole implies taking every part of the game and analyze it separatedly. There are many theories and stories surrounding the plot of the game, the characters and its setting. Who or what is Dormin? Who is Wander? Why is Mono dead? What are the colossi? Why is the Forbidden land called that way? Who is Lord Emin really? Many questions arise and some have answers and some not, but I think it is for every player to discover them.

The music is simply beautiful. The bittersweet songs really add a different feeling to the battles and without them, SOTC would not have the same impact. The OST can be calm, epic, sometimes sad... Wherever you are you will remember these symphonies, because they will leave a mark.

Compared to the original game, this remake is a huge improvement; it has enhanced basically everything, except for some issues with the camera and controls, but they are not something that can completely ruin the experience. We can notice the difference by the level of detail of the landscapes, Agro and the colossi; a sight for sore eyes.

All in all, the great influence Shadow Of The Colossus has made in the gaming industry is huge, and with reason, since you will never encounter another game like this. Shadow Of The Colossus is an epic journey into the unknown, a story about love and companionship in which the only thing that makes you keep going forward is to challenge life itself in order to be reunited with a loved one once again.

PS: In here I leave some images comparing the original game and the remake.