My Dad, Games & Shows, and Harvey's New Eyes
Before I share my thoughts on the game, I thought I'd share the latest news and updates. First some bad news. My dad got a shocking call on Wednesday that he was being laid off. Yeah, it really sucks, but at the same time it's what he wanted and hoped for since he wants to retire. Now he's going to retire a little sooner than usual. But his whole life he had been worried throughout his career at different jobs about losing them, and now it finally happened. I mostly don't think it has to do with the pandemic. More of a ridiculous long lasting problem at his work where the blame was being shifted onto him even though it wasn't his fault. Yeah, assholes. My dad has had mixed feelings about this situation. He did get depressed because he felt like he was being dumped and lashed out at my mom even though she had nothing to do with any of this. It's just what he does. Takes his anger out on others, especially my mom. :/ Still, my dad is going to have to stick out this rotten situation until October, or possibly later if they want to keep him around longer. That's what my dad said they did to this one woman where they dragged out her layoff for two years. D: Beyond all this we're going to be OK though because my dad was smart with his finances. He might see about doing another job after this is all over, but it's a better idea to wait things out for now for his severance package. I think the main thing my parents have to worry about is health insurance and it probably getting more expensive. It is an awful situation added to the shittiness this year is already, but I think things are going to turn out fine in the end.
Something else I got up to was I finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was really amazing and completely lived up to the hype for me. The writing was just so good, the characters well developed, and the action scenes were incredible to watch. The characters went through some fantastic arcs. I can't think of a more perfect animated series. I'll definitely be watching The Legend of Korra in the future.
Another show I watched finally was Tiger King. Crazy documentary, but maybe not as crazy as I was expecting. A lot of those people should be in jail, just saying. Really unlikeable people and some fucked up stuff. I also tried watching Space Force, but DNF'd the series about midway through. The first time I've ever done so for a Netflix show. The humor just really wasn't doing it for me. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point, but not right now. And I've been watching Disney+ original series but I don't feel like getting into those. I'll just say some good ones I've watched fairly recently are Prop Culture, A Dog's Life, Be Our Chef, and The Big Fib. The latter your mileage may vary depending on how much cheese you can take, but I found it fun.
That is as much as I can say for shows. I also failed to bring it up several times, but I found my perfect pandemic game: Stardew Valley. It replaced Dragon Age II only because I thought my codes for that game stopped working. I was wrong because I forgot to use the shortcut icon for the game, but now that I started Stardew Valley I'm not about to stop playing it. :P I wasn't sure if I was going to like this game. It's a farming simulator/RPG and fairly popular. I thought I'd give it a try and I've been loving it. It's actually not too difficult once you get into the groove of things and I really have by now. It's relaxing and totally satisfying to play. There is some combat, but even that's pretty easy, at least so far it has been. I could really dive in deep about this game, but I won't. I'm happily enjoying it and don't see myself stopping any time soon.
OK, that's it for those updates, now on to the main event, as this blog post is already getting long. I finished Edna and Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes yesterday. It's going to be difficult to talk about it without spoilers. So...spoilers. I thought this was going to be a spin-off, but it is actually a direct sequel. However, Edna and Harvey are more side characters this time. Harvey still factors into the plot in a big way though. Instead you're playing as a practically mute little girl (either that or the characters just don't let her speak) named Lilli who lives at a convent with her best friend Edna, but Edna finds out the evil Doctor Marcel is looking for her and wants Lilli to help keep her safe. Interesting this game assumes you picked the ending from the last game where you pushed the doctor down the stairs and he doesn't die, just ends up in a wheelchair. We get up to some shenanigans involving the murder of all the children in convent, but it's done so comically. The humor runs dark. I didn't mind because most of those kids were pretty mean, but there was one kid that I felt bad about because he seemed to be the only one who was nice to Lilli. It's only after this that the game truly begins. Doctor Marcel finds you and forces these behavioral blocks on you using hypnosis. He has found Harvey and reconstructed him to his own evil ends. I think I like this Harvey better though. So, your goal is to break through the behavioral blocks like lying, contradicting adults, and drinking alcohol, in the subconscious realms. And you do get to make it back to the asylum to see some familiar faces.
So you're taking on this surreal, yet fun journey of the subconscious with demons and gnomes? I certainly had a good time with it. And the humor worked better for me than the first game. It's bizarre, it's creative, and entertaining. Most of the puzzles were inventory related with some more logic based puzzles included as well. There's less to interact with and less items to work with, which works in the games favor IMO. The Breakout was more exhausting in that regard. The logic puzzles I would sort of give up on even if they weren't mind numbingly difficult. I just didn't want to take the time. They seemed more prevalent earlier in the game. There was one final puzzle that seemed kind of out of place for an adventure game, which takes the form of a turn based RPG. Yeah, I failed it on my first go. There is a skip button for the logic puzzles, but I never used it. I considered using it for this however. I came back to it the next day and was able to beat it. I was almost out of HP for my characters, but I found my pattern to protect my guys and ultimately win. That was satisfying. I don't like that this was included though. In the end you get a choice of endings. The third option was the best, but again there's not much to the endings. But yeah, between the two games I recommend this one over the other. It was more fun to play. Here's a screenshot. All the Harveys you get to take with you once you've broken all the behavioral blocks.
So, what's next? A game called The Initiate. It's a puzzle horror game, which is supposed to be similar to escape rooms I guess. I might bash my head in over it, but we'll see.
Something else I got up to was I finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was really amazing and completely lived up to the hype for me. The writing was just so good, the characters well developed, and the action scenes were incredible to watch. The characters went through some fantastic arcs. I can't think of a more perfect animated series. I'll definitely be watching The Legend of Korra in the future.
Another show I watched finally was Tiger King. Crazy documentary, but maybe not as crazy as I was expecting. A lot of those people should be in jail, just saying. Really unlikeable people and some fucked up stuff. I also tried watching Space Force, but DNF'd the series about midway through. The first time I've ever done so for a Netflix show. The humor just really wasn't doing it for me. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point, but not right now. And I've been watching Disney+ original series but I don't feel like getting into those. I'll just say some good ones I've watched fairly recently are Prop Culture, A Dog's Life, Be Our Chef, and The Big Fib. The latter your mileage may vary depending on how much cheese you can take, but I found it fun.
That is as much as I can say for shows. I also failed to bring it up several times, but I found my perfect pandemic game: Stardew Valley. It replaced Dragon Age II only because I thought my codes for that game stopped working. I was wrong because I forgot to use the shortcut icon for the game, but now that I started Stardew Valley I'm not about to stop playing it. :P I wasn't sure if I was going to like this game. It's a farming simulator/RPG and fairly popular. I thought I'd give it a try and I've been loving it. It's actually not too difficult once you get into the groove of things and I really have by now. It's relaxing and totally satisfying to play. There is some combat, but even that's pretty easy, at least so far it has been. I could really dive in deep about this game, but I won't. I'm happily enjoying it and don't see myself stopping any time soon.
OK, that's it for those updates, now on to the main event, as this blog post is already getting long. I finished Edna and Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes yesterday. It's going to be difficult to talk about it without spoilers. So...spoilers. I thought this was going to be a spin-off, but it is actually a direct sequel. However, Edna and Harvey are more side characters this time. Harvey still factors into the plot in a big way though. Instead you're playing as a practically mute little girl (either that or the characters just don't let her speak) named Lilli who lives at a convent with her best friend Edna, but Edna finds out the evil Doctor Marcel is looking for her and wants Lilli to help keep her safe. Interesting this game assumes you picked the ending from the last game where you pushed the doctor down the stairs and he doesn't die, just ends up in a wheelchair. We get up to some shenanigans involving the murder of all the children in convent, but it's done so comically. The humor runs dark. I didn't mind because most of those kids were pretty mean, but there was one kid that I felt bad about because he seemed to be the only one who was nice to Lilli. It's only after this that the game truly begins. Doctor Marcel finds you and forces these behavioral blocks on you using hypnosis. He has found Harvey and reconstructed him to his own evil ends. I think I like this Harvey better though. So, your goal is to break through the behavioral blocks like lying, contradicting adults, and drinking alcohol, in the subconscious realms. And you do get to make it back to the asylum to see some familiar faces.
So you're taking on this surreal, yet fun journey of the subconscious with demons and gnomes? I certainly had a good time with it. And the humor worked better for me than the first game. It's bizarre, it's creative, and entertaining. Most of the puzzles were inventory related with some more logic based puzzles included as well. There's less to interact with and less items to work with, which works in the games favor IMO. The Breakout was more exhausting in that regard. The logic puzzles I would sort of give up on even if they weren't mind numbingly difficult. I just didn't want to take the time. They seemed more prevalent earlier in the game. There was one final puzzle that seemed kind of out of place for an adventure game, which takes the form of a turn based RPG. Yeah, I failed it on my first go. There is a skip button for the logic puzzles, but I never used it. I considered using it for this however. I came back to it the next day and was able to beat it. I was almost out of HP for my characters, but I found my pattern to protect my guys and ultimately win. That was satisfying. I don't like that this was included though. In the end you get a choice of endings. The third option was the best, but again there's not much to the endings. But yeah, between the two games I recommend this one over the other. It was more fun to play. Here's a screenshot. All the Harveys you get to take with you once you've broken all the behavioral blocks.
So, what's next? A game called The Initiate. It's a puzzle horror game, which is supposed to be similar to escape rooms I guess. I might bash my head in over it, but we'll see.