Contradiction - Spot the Liar!

Baggy Cat - 2015 - PC/iOS

If you've been reading these reviews for a while now, you've likely realized that I'm a bit of a video game music nerd. I stumbled across this game when I learned that one of my all-time favorite composers, Tim Follin, had returned to the video games industry since "retiring" from it in 2005 after his amazing talents had been wasted on mostly unknown or poorly received games. It was quite to my surprise that Follin was returning to the industry to work on a game not only as a composer, but as a designer and writer as well. So how does a game made by someone with no design experience who's been absent from the industry for 10 years play? It plays about how you'd expect, for better or for worse. It's not all bad though, Contradiction is charming in a unique way that I think can only be accomplished by a first-time designer who, as far as I can tell, has been isolated from the popular design trends, progressions and philosophies that have developed in the last decade or two.

Contradiction is a full FMV murder mystery game straight out of the 90s which I admit would have been way more eye-rolling if I hadn't just played the excellent "Her Story". You play as Fredrick Jenks, a British detective who is tasked with investigating a murder in a small fictional village. All locations in the village are essentially still frames, even though some are animated, and you can move between the frames by clicking on UI arrows displayed on the screen which always triggers a short movie of Jenks strolling to where you guided him. While interviewing suspects, Jenks has a list of topics he can ask about which when selected, loads an an FMV scene where Jenks grills the suspect about whatever you selected which often then reveals more topics to ask about. The main gameplay mechanic in Contradiction is to find pieces of the suspect's story that don't quite add up or are downright contradictions, hence the title. Most of the contradictions are pretty logical, but some are a little more of a stretch or are otherwise debatable. Thankfully, this game is pretty generous with hints and gives them to you in a way that doesn't make you feel stupid or like you're cheating. Jenks can go to the phone booth and call his chief who will generally point you in the correct direction to progress the game or also may hint at contradictions suspects have made.

Follin, whose composing career work dates all the way back to the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum days, also composed the music in Contradiction. It's not quite as in-your-face as some of my other favorites of his like this or this or this. It's more appropriately subtle and blends in perfectly as Jenks traverses the village looking for clues and interviewing suspects. Aside from the music, the extremely cheesy acting is another standout in Contradiction, especially with the actor portraying Jenks who loves to smirk at his suspects with his trademark goofy deductive grin. In fact, Jenks is so excitably overanimated and the acting in general is so cheesy that it makes me wonder if it was an intentional directorial choice or if Follin actually thought his actors were delivering believable performances. In any case, I'm happy about it. The delightfully cheesy acting seems to fit the style of this game perfectly as does the music.

But in addition to the cheesy acting, there are several other strange design choices and signs of low budget production you should be at least aware of before playing this game, especially if that sort of thing bothers you. I've heard this game was riddled with UI problems at launch that have since been corrected, but one holdover is the strange combination of topics Jenks can ask about with the physical items he's carrying into one functional grouping. Your items and your topics appear together, but you can't use a topic like an item and most items you can't bring up in conversation, making this a puzzling design choice. I've also encountered a bug a few times where none of the suspect's answers were selectable as contradictions and I had to leave and re-enter the scene in order to fix it. (Minor spoilers ahead). The budgetary constraints this game was made were apparent in the poor sound quality in the FMV scenes but especially obvious in the ending to this game. The latter half of the game really seems as though its building up to something as the plot starts sprinkling in elements of the occult and mysticism. But it's all thrown away at the last second when the murderer is revealed and the game just ends quickly and unceremoniously - but not before strangely setting itself up for a sequel. I later read that this abrupt ending was apparently due to financial constraints and a sequel would only be possible with enough support of the first game

Summary
It has design problems, bugs, obvious budget problems and wonderfully cheesy acting but I really enjoyed Contradiction in spite of itself. It was a flashback to the old puzzle games I played as a kid. All things considered, Contradiction is a pretty good first attempt at making a game for someone who has no experience doing this sort of thing. At the very least, I'm glad Follin is back doing things in the games industry and I hope he gets the funding and support to make a sequel so we can see what lessons were learned and what improvements can be made

Clock Tower

Human Entertainment - 1995 - SNES

Clock Tower is a true survival horror game that actually pre-dates Resident Evil and was released on the SNES in 1995. This game is not to be confused with the 1996 PS1 game Clock Tower 2 which was released in the U.S. simply as Clock Tower because the original SNES game never made it outside of Japan. So the Clock Tower series has the old Final Fantasy numbering problem where no one really knows which game you're actually talking about until you clarify with the year or system. I think we should all just universally agree to use the Japanese numbering for these games to minimize the amount of unnecessary confusion. 

It actually surprised me that the original Clock Tower was never released outside of Japan because on the surface at least, it seems like a very American styled game. You play as the very American-sounding "Jennifer Simpson" who is a young teenage girl and an orphan. In the beginning of the game, Jennifer and a few of her friends are sent to live at the "The Clock Tower" which is a giant old mansion owned by the wealthy Barrows family. Shortly after arriving, Jennifer finds herself separated from her friends and can her distant screams from somewhere in the mansion. She eventually encounters "Scissorman" - a short boy with a deformed face who wields a gigantic pair of hedge clippers. Scissorman is a villian who is totally straight out of all of the American slasher films that gained popularity in the 80s. Even Clock Tower's opening music sounds remarkably similar to Michael Myers' theme song from Halloween. 

Mechanically, Clock Tower is a blend of Survival Horror and a Point and Click adventure game. You move a cursor around the screen with the SNES d-pad and can interact with items or objects by pressing the "A" button. Moving Jennifer around the screen is done in a similar fashion. I know Clock Tower is nearly 20 years old now, but there were a few things about this game that really felt outdated. Actually, moving Jennifer is actually one of the first things I noticed that really irked me. WHY IS HER MOVE SPEED SO SLOW????? Out of curiosity, I went back and timed how long it takes Jennifer to cross the the main lobby from one end to the other. It literally takes 36 seconds. Think about how long that is. Even once I figured out that you can double tap A to run (why would I not ALWAYS want my character to run??), it still takes 13 seconds. Too slow!! Even in 1995, players had to have gotten fed up with this.

Each encounter with Scissorman is resolved by running away from him; there is no combat in the game. Scissorman usually shows up randomly while you're exploring the mansion or trying to solve puzzles, but some of his appearances are triggered by certain actions. The puzzle solving in Clock Tower is not really a strong suit, but the game does build tension somewhat effectively. Like any good horror game, there is a fair amount of suspense when Scissorman ISN'T around, because you're not sure when he'll appear next. But when he does appear, dealing with him is really more of an annoyance than a terror. Moving Jennifer around often felt unresponsive and even when Scissorman killed me, the game just took me right back to where I was before I died. So really death in Clock Tower is just kind of a mild annoyance. I felt that this game could have benefited from knowing that the player's enemies are always the most scary when you can't see them. The best parts of Clock Tower were when Scissorman was nowhere around. Like Alfred Hitchcock said, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it". 

Summary:

I can't really whole-heartedly recommend this game unless you're a huge fan of classic horror games or classic point and click games and can overlook this game's faults. I'm afraid it really hasn't aged that well. It does suspense somewhat well, but everything else will feel very old. I could see how this game would have had its place back in 1995 with like young kids staying up late and playing this at a sleepover with the lights off or something like that. I've heard subsequent titles in this series improved on the formula of the original, so maybe I'll check one of them out eventually. If you do decide to go back to the original, I'd advise doing so on an emulator that has a "speed up" feature. Seriously, that walk animation...

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Konami - 1997 - PS1/Sega Saturn/PSP

Symphony of the Night was an important departure in gameplay for the Castlevania series. Games in the series had previously been all 2D platformers, like the ones I was referencing in the Shovel Knight review. While SotN has some platforming elements, I don't think most people would describe it as a platformer. Rather, SotN helped give birth to the term "Metroidvania", which is used to describe gameplay that is exploration focused with a large, non-linear game world, often involves a good amount of backtracking, and revolves around discovering or unlocking upgrades to your character which are then to get to previously inaccessible areas. An example of this are the red doors in Super Metroid. They're introduced early in the game, but the player can only pass through them once they unlock Samus' missile launcher and realize that the missiles will open the red doors. Recently, Konami has put out games in the Castlevania series like Lords of Shadow 1 & 2, which are 3D action games similar to God of War or Devil May Cry. But when I think "Metroidvania", Symphony of the Night comes to mind as an example of one of the best games made in this style.

In addition to including "Metroidvania" style gameplay, SotN also includes RPG elements. Each enemy killed rewards a small amount of experience points. Primary weapons and armor can also be swapped out and upgraded. Some of the weapons and armor have unique bonuses or functions which lets your character configuration be very customizable. There are giant two handed greatswords which swing slowly, but have great range. Then there's one handed rapiers which swing quickly, but have a limited hitbox. Even the armors have unique functions such as restoring HP while walking or increasing the power of the alternate weapons. Speaking of which, the Castlevania staple alt weapons like the axe, holy cross or dagger make a return in SotN, further adding to the combat customization. 

Aside from being a departure in gameplay, SotN was also notable for being the first game in the series where you play as a member of the vampire hunting family Belmont only in the short prologue to the game. For the rest of the game you'll be playing as Alucard, who is actually the half vampire son of Count Dracula himself. Yes, "Alucard" is "Dracula" spelled backward. It's so campy and silly. I love it. You might think with dumb names like this, SotN would be a little self aware and have a bit of a sense of humor. But it kind of doesn't. SotN is actually features some pretty hilariously terrible voice acting and dialogue. The writing and VO work are about the only things in the game that aren't top notch though. The rest of this game is just so solid. 

If you do end up playing this game, I would challenge you to do so without referencing a guide. Discovering one of the castle's many secret rooms for yourself is immensely satisfying. And there are a lot of secrets. A lot. This is kind of a spoiler for those who haven't played the game but if you didn't fight Dracula as the final boss, you didn't really finish the whole game. There's actually a completely different second half of SotN that can be unlocked by finding special secret items in the castle. It's nuts. And finding all of these secrets and unlocks by yourself is just so rewarding. Besides, if you get stuck, you can usually consult the in-game map and figure out where you need to go just by closely examining the layout and flow of the castle. There's so much attention to detail in SotN from the combat and secrets to the enemy design and animations. There are so, so many unique enemy sprites with unique attacks and animations in the game. There are some enemies that appear literally one time in one room and then never again for the rest of the game. The amount of polish on the gameplay in SotN is one of the most impressive things about the game. 

The excellent soundtrack to SotN compliments the game very well. When you discover a new passageway and the track changes to something new you haven't heard before, it adds to the excitement of exploration. Composed by Michiru Yamane, the SotN soundtrack demonstrates Yamane's proficiency in a wide variety of musical styles. There's the jazzy upbeat Wandering of Ghosts, the gothic epic Final Toccata, the classical Wood Carving Partitia, the horrifying Door to the Abyss, the operatic Prayer, and the rockin' electric guitars of The Tragic Prince. The soundtrack is musically kind of all over the place and I love it. It gives each area of the castle a unique feel.

Summary:

If you've never played a Metroidvania game or a Castlevania game for that matter, start with Symphony of the Night. Even though the game is 15+ years old, the excellent gameplay and sprite art style allowed SotN to age very well. I hope Konami will return the Castlevania series back to this style of gameplay rather than the silly God of War clones they're trying to make right now. That's just not what I want from the Castlevania series. I'm not sure why the transition from 2D to 3D wasn't as graceful for the Castlevania series as it was for the Metroid series, but I'd love to see the next Castlevania be a 3D exploration game similar to Metroid Prime. Exploring a 3D castle with the amount of secrets and polish as the one in SotN would be amazing. Actually as long as the next game in the series is a Metroidvania, I think I'd be happy.

Chrono Trigger

Squaresoft - 1995 - SNES/PS1/DS/Mobile

(On my Top 10 Game Soundtracks list)

I wonder why Japanese style role playing games aren't made much anymore. At least they're not released as frequently as they used to be. Especially when you compare what's been released in the last generation of gaming systems to what was released on the SNES or the PS1. It seems like SNES/PS1 JRPGs usually sold well, were usually well received and games like Final Fantasy VII (PS1) and Chrono Trigger (SNES) are now often referred to as some of the best games ever made. A video I watched recently suggests that JRPGs like Chrono Trigger are on the rise again. I sure hope so. By the way, you should totally watch all of PBS Game/Show's videos. Good stuff.

Referring to themselves as "the dream team", Chrono Trigger was the brainchild of Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series), Yuji Horii (creator of the Dragon Quest series) and Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragonball Z). Sakaguchi designed the battle system, so everything will feel familiar to anyone who has played a Final Fantasy game before. There's the active time battle system, potions and ethers and all that stuff. Horii wrote most of the story and scenarios with input from Toriyama. Both Horii and Toriyama were big fans of time travel fiction and wrote the game around the theme of time travel. Toriyama did a lot of the artwork for the game including the character designs and the visual styles for each time period. When I think about it, Chrono Trigger shares quite a few stylistic similarities with Dragonball Z. It's especially evident in the future and prehistoric time periods, whereas the present and middle ages feel more like they're out of Dragon Quest. So it's pretty much like playing a Dragon Quest game set in a world out of Dragonball Z with the battle system of an old school Final Fantasy.

Squaresoft also commissioned a then unknown and unproved composer, Yasunori Mitsuda to do the soundtrack for the game. Chrono Trigger has become one of my all time favorite video game soundtracks and it's some of Mitsuda's best work. Tracks like Time Circuits, Silvard, Secret of the Forest, Chrono Trigger and Frog's Theme blow my mind. Keep in mind when you listen to these they were made in 1995 on a SNES. Also keep in mind this was Mitsuda's very first soundtrack. Crazy. No one should be this good on their first try. The tracks perfectly complement the time period and scenery and art style to create mood. Exactly what a good soundtrack should do. There's even little musical motifs he repeats throughout the soundtrack, altering them slightly to fit the mood of each track. Amazing stuff. Also Robo's Theme sounds suspiciously like Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give you Up". Just sayin'.

The main character of Chrono Trigger is a boy named Crono. Yeah, Chrono and Crono. It gets confusing. I'm guessing in Japanese, Crono's name is written as some clever play on the word for "time" rather than just dropping the "h" from "chrono", but whatever. In the beginning of the game, Crono's scientist friend accidentally transports them 400 years into the past while testing a new invention. When trying to get back to the present, the party way overshoots their destination and winds up in the year 2300. When they arrive in the future, they find the world is in ruins. Few humans are left, there is no food and the Earth is a barren wasteland. The find out that the Earth was practically destroyed in 1999 by a giant monster called Lavos who emerged from deep in the Earth's core, where he had been resting for millions of years, slowly absorbing the Earth's energy. Yes, the Earth is destroyed in 1999. Keep in mind this game was made 20 years ago, but they probably should have picked a date farther in the future to avoid dating themselves. Most of the game's plot then deals with the party trying to find a way to defeat Lavos and spare the Earth from being destroyed in 1999. You'll need to time travel to different eras to learn how to defeat Lavos, enlisting help from a robot from the future, a cave woman from the prehistoric era, and even a talking frog from medieval times. The story's tone covers everything from adventurous & light-hearted to mysterious & thrilling and even sometimes bleak & depressing. It's well paced, and there are memorable characters and events that held my interest throughout the game

Gameplay wise, Chrono Trigger feels like a pretty standard old school Final Fantasy style RPG. You wait for your action meter to fill up, perform an action and repeat. There's really nothing too special about the battle system in Chrono Trigger, which is kind of disappointing. But even with a bland combat system, there's still fun to be had in battles though. The fights will feel challenging, but also not unfair. I never feel like I need to sit and grind in Chrono Trigger, and I do feel like that's necessity in some of the older Final Fantasy games and other older JRPGs. Which is fine if you like grinding, but I don't. If you get stuck on a boss in Chrono Trigger, you're probably not using the correct strategy. Some bosses are susceptible to physical attacks, while others are magic weak. Some bosses are susceptible to physical attacks, but only after using magic. Some have attack patterns you can exploit. You kind of have to experiment to find which strategies work best on which bosses. And I like having to figure out that these strategy puzzles rather than having to grind to get past bosses.

Chrono Trigger is notably one of the first RPGs to have a seamless transition between exploring and fighting. When you encounter an enemy while exploring, a menu just pops up and you start fighting, no transition or screen wipe to another battle scene or anything like that. It's also one of the first games I can think of to have multiple different endings depending on what actions you choose and which sidequests you do. There's also a good amount of optional sidequesting you can do to see more of a certain character's background story while also obtaining more powerful weapons and equipment for that character. There's even a secret party member you can unlock if you make the proper dialogue choices and do the appropriate sidequests.

Summary:
In short, Chrono Trigger is a fun and memorable adventure if you like old school JRPGs. The battle system is a bit unimaginative, but the game is carried by its well paced story, inspired art design and its incredible soundtrack. I played through its sequel Chrono Cross and... kinda didn't like it much. I'd love to see another game in the Chrono series and it seems now is a perfect time for it what with Square Enix's recent financial struggles. Another Chrono game seems like money in the bank to me. That and a FF7 HD remake.

The Cave

Double Fine - 2013 - PC/X360/PS3/WiiU

The Cave is a puzzle/adventure game by Double Fine Productions, the game company founded by Tim Schafer, one of the lead developers of Monkey Island and Psychonauts. This game was directed by Ron Gilbert, who also had a hand in Monkey Island. I mention those games only because the writing and jokes and general silliness is the same in The Cave, so if you enjoyed the humor in those games, this is more of the same. By the way, if you haven’t played Psychonauts, check it out. It’s probably a bit dated now, but that game is criminally overlooked for how good it is.

Anyway, back to The Cave. At the beginning of the game, the game asks you to pick three of seven characters to take into The Cave to explore it. Each of the characters has a different power or ability that is used in the puzzle solving sections. For instance, “The adventurer” character has a grappling hook that allows her to swing from platform to platform wherever there’s a place to hook her grapple. You can switch between your characters at any time and puzzle solving usually involves controlling them asymmetrically i.e. having one character stand on a switch to open a door for another.

The layout and size of the rooms in this game seem unnecessarily large and solving puzzles requires a lot of walking back and forth between long hallways or large rooms for seemingly no reason. If memory serves, there are 4 generic puzzle solving “levels” in the game and 3 character specific levels. So if you take The Adventurer, The Knight, and The Monk into The Cave, there’ll be a Adventurer level, a Knight level and a Monk level in addition to 4 generic levels. That means, in order to see all of the endings and solve all of the puzzles, you have to replay the game 3 times because there are 7 characters and only 3 can be taken in The Cave at a time.

Summary:
One playthrough of this game was plenty for me. The jokes and silliness were on point and what I would expect from Schafer/Gilbert writing. But the quality of the puzzles and overall “funness” of the game fell a bit short of Monkey Island/Psychonauts standards.