Heavy, full-story spoilers ahead for Overboard! (2021), Twelve Minutes (2021), The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (2000), Outer Wilds (2019), Oxenfree (2016), The Forgotten City (2021), and Elsinore (2019). The Hill In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a deceitful and shrewd king. He maintained power through cruelty, and always seemed to find a…

All stories need conflict. If the Necromorphs could be defeated with headshots and traditional tactics, there would be no Dead Space. Video game narratives, as noted, operate similarly, often necessitated by their design as games: what challenges players between the title screen and the end credits? Sometimes, it’s the literal…

All stories need conflict. If the rogues of Gotham City had access to proper medical treatment, there would be no Batman. Video game narratives operate similarly, often necessitated by their design as games: what challenges players between the title screen and the end credits? Sometimes, it’s the literal, exterior forces…

All stories need conflict. If Frodo could just waltz into Mordor and huck the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom, then there would be no Lord of the Rings. Video game narratives operate similarly, often necessitated by their design as games: what challenges players between the title screen…

There’s a great deal to be said about role-playing games/RPGs. Whether they tell a grand story of heroics and triumph over evil, or of a wandering vagabond trying to make the most out of the apocalypse, or some deal in-between, they’ve found purchase in our collective game libraries. We like…

The Pathless (2021) caught me off-guard when I finally got around to playing it. I was expecting something akin to Blue Isle Studio’s Valley (2016): move fast, make progress, have fun. But it became much more than that within the few evenings of play I’ve had with it. The Pathless…

As per usual, I’m late to the game. Octopath Traveler II was just announced, and I’m finally getting around to its predecessor, Octopath Traveler (2018). And you would think, for someone with an attention span as terrible as I have, that eight smaller stories wrapped around a larger journey would…

Some Things Change I’ve been on the Gears of War bandwagon for the better part of a decade. There’s just something wonderful about a gritty world, full of gray tones, inhabited by a bunch of sad humans and mad subterraneans beasties, using guns with chainsaws attached. Is it the simple, focused narrative (when…

Spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) ahead. It’s been a hot minute since I played Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation, but I remembered the main beats: Shinra are bad guys, Avalanche are good guys, Don Corneo is the worst, Sephiroth isn’t a big-name character until near the end…