Recent reviews by ptychomancer

Pristinely executed take on a classic genre + overflowing with personality. Art!

No game has felt so much like a good movie to me as NitW. It achieves what so many games—even great games—fail to do: put its mechanics to work in service of its broader themes. Playing out the daily cycle gives me the visceral feeling of Mae's apathy. Hopping around town puts me in Mae's anxious-but-playful headspace. The mini-games feel like conversations in a character-driven movie.

The writing is brilliant, fresh, good-not-just-for-games-but-just-good. What surprised me most, though, was how exquisitely crafted the supporting pieces of the game are. The animation is so crisp, the platforming feels good, the music and sound design are perfect. The game would still be amazing without these touches; with them, it's just an utter work of art.

Good lord Dungeonmans is fun. It's just such a perfect distillation of the roguelike experience. The design of the ability modules lets me express a lot of creativity in character building—an absolute must for a roguelike to get its hooks in me. The opportunities for cross-class character design are what really drive a lot of the fun. The game gives me a bunch of tools for outsmarting the challenges it throws at me.

The tone is cheeky and hilarious, but it's never dismissive or tediously meta. Despite being self-aware, Dungeonmans never forgets its dungeon-crawling roots; I never feel like I'm playing a puzzle game with abstract tactical challenges or on a joke adventure (this is a problem a lot of the distilled roguelikes have). I still feel like I'm a real adventurer adventuring, making risk/reward plays, evolving a hero.

This is often overlooked for turn-based games, but the juice and game feel are so spot on. The loot explosions are wonderful, the text is pleasant to read, the level-up animation are always a welcome joy no matter how many times I see them.

Ultimately, adventuring is fun as hell. Go be a dungeonmans.

WTWTLW is a fantastically novel game experience that's exposing me to a whole new arc on the wheel of storytelling possibilities. The art is gorgeous and evocative, the music is perfectly mood-setting, and the writing is wonderful—somehow spanning an array of voices while making sure they all feel like they belong in the same world.

I want more games that explore a wider swath of the human experience. WTWTLW takes a bold step in this direction. I get to experience the lives of the Dust Bowl with the great tenderness that the game and its creators have for them.