RiME and Fires
I finished RiME yesterday. I really liked this game. It may be one of my favorites I've played this year. It's by Tequila Works or distributed by them? Either way, I liked it much more than the previous game I played by them: The Sexy Brutale. I wouldn't so much call this one an adventure game rather than a platformer with puzzles, but the platforming isn't difficult or anything. It gave me Zelda vibes (not that I've really played those games) and maybe Studio Ghibli. In the end the game was kind of sad, but great. I couldn't wait to play it each day, which rarely happens for me.
So you play as this boy who has washed up ashore on this beach. And that's about all the information that's given to you. The scenery is beautiful though from a tropical island, to a desert, and a temple. The locations and the appearance of the boy make me think this is influenced by the middle east, but maybe it was more Spain or Mexico considering most of the people working on this game have Spanish names. The boy has this special power where he can sing or shout to manipulate things mechanically, like raising and lowering platforms, igniting flames, and activating various other things. You soon get the sense that this whole place is magical or mystical. And then this mysterious fox appears guiding your way that seems more like a spirit than anything else, and sometimes you encounter a red hooded figure. What the significance of these things are, you'd have to play to find out. The boy is obviously trying to get somewhere, but where that is you don't really know. But you've got to jump and climb your way, sometimes swim underwater, and solve puzzles impeding your path to get there. There are about five different stages or levels in this game, each being a different location.
About mid way through the game there is what I would call the bird level. I call it the demon bird. You had to stick to the shadows because if you stayed too long in the sunlight, it will snatch you. It was kind of annoying. Most of the time it was easy to avoid, but there were a few times you had to be quick. It wasn't too bad though. Then there were also these shadow figures. Depending what level you were at, they'd either run away from you or try to suck the life out of you. The latter were also annoying, but again not too much of an issue. This game was really not that hard. Sometimes you can fall from great heights, which I did several times, but the game places you back to right before you took that "leap of faith." There were a few times where I fell and had to do a bunch of climbing to get back to where I was, which was a little bit of pain, but again this was never a game I raged over. The puzzles are usually easy enough to figure out too and fun to solve. You play a lot with light and shadow, which has a lot to do with the themes of the game. There were maybe a few times I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do so I did look it up. Some of those times were because I just didn't know what button to push. The controls well yeah, it would probably work better on a console system, but I managed OK most of the time. I will tell about that one time I was trying to find this location from underwater and for the life of me I just couldn't find it. I probably spent a half hour trying to find it. The number of times I drowned lol. But yeah, that was the only part that actually really frustrated me. The rest was good.
Great game overall. Highly recommend. Here's a screenshot. And that would be the Demon Bird. Curse the Demon Bird.
I'm now starting the twelfth Carol Reed mystery, called Profound Red.
Now on to the subject of fires. Yeah, it's been bad here all over the state. But I want to focus on the Holy Fire because that's the closest one to where I live, almost scarily close. But we weren't in any danger and certainly not now. But the reason it's so scary is because of how easily we were able to see it. We got major smoke here and you could see the flames in the distance at night. One day was really bad with the smoke. You could smell it. And another day it really cut down the visibility. The fire is near Lake Elsniore. It's still not out yet, but finally they have some significant containment at 29%. It's been really hot here, which hasn't helped, but finally it's going to cool down some. Burned over 21,000 acres, which is the largest fire I've ever witnessed personally, and I know it's so much worse up north. As far as I know, no houses have burned down, which is great. It makes you paranoid when you see a fire on the mountain and just pray it doesn't come down the other side of the ridge towards your direction. It would have had to cover a lot of ground to make it to this neighborhood, but it's something we've had to worry about recently now ever since last year's terrible fire season. Now with the fire season being this bad this early, it's not a good sign. And I still don't think we're prepared for it. What do you even think to take with you if you have to evacuate? Losing your home is the worst thing imaginable to me. While I'm grateful it stayed on the other side of the ridge, I'd never want other people's homes to be in danger. The fire made me think of how small this world is. I've never seen anything like that smoke before. It was like a volcano erupted or a bomb went off.
The fire was started by an arsonist, as most fires are. All because of a feud he had with his neighbor. Really? So everyone else has to suffer? I'm not a violent person nor do I really wish ill will towards anyone no matter who they are, but some people, like arsonists, I feel like they deserve to burn.
One last thing, I also went to the dentist on Wednesday. I got an A+. No cavities. Yay! Cleaning went well. :) And I'm glad this high anxiety week is over.
So you play as this boy who has washed up ashore on this beach. And that's about all the information that's given to you. The scenery is beautiful though from a tropical island, to a desert, and a temple. The locations and the appearance of the boy make me think this is influenced by the middle east, but maybe it was more Spain or Mexico considering most of the people working on this game have Spanish names. The boy has this special power where he can sing or shout to manipulate things mechanically, like raising and lowering platforms, igniting flames, and activating various other things. You soon get the sense that this whole place is magical or mystical. And then this mysterious fox appears guiding your way that seems more like a spirit than anything else, and sometimes you encounter a red hooded figure. What the significance of these things are, you'd have to play to find out. The boy is obviously trying to get somewhere, but where that is you don't really know. But you've got to jump and climb your way, sometimes swim underwater, and solve puzzles impeding your path to get there. There are about five different stages or levels in this game, each being a different location.
About mid way through the game there is what I would call the bird level. I call it the demon bird. You had to stick to the shadows because if you stayed too long in the sunlight, it will snatch you. It was kind of annoying. Most of the time it was easy to avoid, but there were a few times you had to be quick. It wasn't too bad though. Then there were also these shadow figures. Depending what level you were at, they'd either run away from you or try to suck the life out of you. The latter were also annoying, but again not too much of an issue. This game was really not that hard. Sometimes you can fall from great heights, which I did several times, but the game places you back to right before you took that "leap of faith." There were a few times where I fell and had to do a bunch of climbing to get back to where I was, which was a little bit of pain, but again this was never a game I raged over. The puzzles are usually easy enough to figure out too and fun to solve. You play a lot with light and shadow, which has a lot to do with the themes of the game. There were maybe a few times I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do so I did look it up. Some of those times were because I just didn't know what button to push. The controls well yeah, it would probably work better on a console system, but I managed OK most of the time. I will tell about that one time I was trying to find this location from underwater and for the life of me I just couldn't find it. I probably spent a half hour trying to find it. The number of times I drowned lol. But yeah, that was the only part that actually really frustrated me. The rest was good.
Great game overall. Highly recommend. Here's a screenshot. And that would be the Demon Bird. Curse the Demon Bird.
I'm now starting the twelfth Carol Reed mystery, called Profound Red.
Now on to the subject of fires. Yeah, it's been bad here all over the state. But I want to focus on the Holy Fire because that's the closest one to where I live, almost scarily close. But we weren't in any danger and certainly not now. But the reason it's so scary is because of how easily we were able to see it. We got major smoke here and you could see the flames in the distance at night. One day was really bad with the smoke. You could smell it. And another day it really cut down the visibility. The fire is near Lake Elsniore. It's still not out yet, but finally they have some significant containment at 29%. It's been really hot here, which hasn't helped, but finally it's going to cool down some. Burned over 21,000 acres, which is the largest fire I've ever witnessed personally, and I know it's so much worse up north. As far as I know, no houses have burned down, which is great. It makes you paranoid when you see a fire on the mountain and just pray it doesn't come down the other side of the ridge towards your direction. It would have had to cover a lot of ground to make it to this neighborhood, but it's something we've had to worry about recently now ever since last year's terrible fire season. Now with the fire season being this bad this early, it's not a good sign. And I still don't think we're prepared for it. What do you even think to take with you if you have to evacuate? Losing your home is the worst thing imaginable to me. While I'm grateful it stayed on the other side of the ridge, I'd never want other people's homes to be in danger. The fire made me think of how small this world is. I've never seen anything like that smoke before. It was like a volcano erupted or a bomb went off.
The fire was started by an arsonist, as most fires are. All because of a feud he had with his neighbor. Really? So everyone else has to suffer? I'm not a violent person nor do I really wish ill will towards anyone no matter who they are, but some people, like arsonists, I feel like they deserve to burn.
One last thing, I also went to the dentist on Wednesday. I got an A+. No cavities. Yay! Cleaning went well. :) And I'm glad this high anxiety week is over.