Niahak's Place

Writing has felt difficult lately. I think this is partly because I have been playing a less compelling-to-write-about set of games, skewing more towards indie and older ones. Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a “brief reviews of things I’ve been playing” post. I’ll start with the older games and move on to (slightly) newer ones.

Kessen 2 (PS2): Probably one of the strangest games I own, Kessen is an odd fantasy-opera take on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, throwing in new characters, completely reimagining existing ones, and mixing action elements into an otherwise real-time-with-pause strategy game. It also has strategy-level decisions as well as tactical ones before battles. I don’t think it’s particularly good, though – while other games are more than the sum of their parts, Kessen 2 has very little actual fun packed into all of its mechanics. Things feel surprisingly dry for a game that is intentionally dramatic, and oddly rigid for a game which clearly has detail under the hood (formations, unit types, general stats, etc).

Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (PS1): Compelling for all its difficulty, Shadow of the Horned Rat is a frantic real-time strategy RPG set in the old Warhammer Fantasy universe. You play as a mercenary company, picking jobs and trying to make money while gradually getting wrapped up in greater problems. You start with two small companies – cavalry and infantry – and gradually acquire archers, wizards, potentially artillery, etc. While it’s polished in some ways for its time (in terms of artwork, story, and voice acting) its mechanics are opaque and often unfair, giving it a kind of “old school hard” feel. It is possible and perhaps even easy to get “stuck” in the campaign, as reinforcements are restricted and money can get tight. Several branches in the campaign are intentional dead-ends, while others offer different units or outcomes later on. I do think many modern games mistake being perfectly balanced for being fun. A game can be hard and still fun (like this one), or easy and still fun. Hidden items exist in most battles, too, and cannot be transferred between units. Many of these items are situational, but some are generally useful. While there are fewer decisions to be made between battles than Kessen 2, it feels much more satisfying in-battle and the plot is considerably more bearable. The dialogue and music mesh together really well to make battles feel very dynamic, as your various troop commanders yell “Charge!”, “Fire!”, “Engage!”, or enemies cackle as they join the fray.