Tokyo Dark
I finished Tokyo Dark yesterday. You play as the detective Ito, haunted by something she did in the past that was terrible, hoping she can save her former partner, and maybe find out why the ghost of a girl is following her and tormenting her. I probably didn't describe that too well, but Ito also uncovers a sinister cult and comes into the possession of this cursed mask. She has some important choices to make. The game is done in a Japanese anime style even with some animated cutscenes, which were nice. I think it was probably made in Japan and translated into English. Most of the game you are just going from place to place in Tokyo and questioning people, so there is a lot of dialog. There's only maybe one or two actual puzzles. One involved a sequence of lights and I got the basic idea of the puzzle, but couldn't follow what the pattern was, so I looked it up. I know shameful. Other than that, I didn't need any help. Although, there was one part in the game where you are trying to find the right person who drugged this cat, and I botched that one up good lol. Speaking of cats, are there really cat cafes and cat maid cafes in Japan? I can only assume so. The game lived up to its name because it definitely had a very dark atmosphere. Parts were chilling, but I wouldn't say I was outright afraid to play the game. The intensity gets dialed up a few times and there are flashes of creepy things more in the beginning of the game. And there is gore. Definitely not a game for children. :P The only time I actually jumped though is because my mom just happened to come into my room and said something during one tense moment. Yeah. >_>
I think the most interesting aspect of the game though was Ito's SPIN meter. That stands for Sanity, Professionalism, Investigation, and Neurosis. And those traits can go up or down depending on the actions you take. Early on, Ito kind of has a mental breakdown and is prescribed medication to keep her sanity in check. I didn't think it was that great of a portrayal of mental illness. :/ In this case, probably PTSD. The few times you visit her apartment you can take the pills to adjust her sanity, but too many and her investigation trait takes a hit. So, it's a balancing act. I didn't test to see if you could overdose on the pills or not. Another thing that probably wasn't too realistic. As interesting as this idea is, I don't know that it had a huge affect on the gameplay or story direction. And sometimes those traits go down (like sanity), no matter what you do. I guess I wasn't all that professional much of the time too because that one would take a hit. I guess pulling the alarm at the police station is just not very professional. :P I've heard the game has eleven different endings based on your choices. I was pretty satisfied with the ending I got. Ito seemed in doubt about the outcome, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
It was kind of on the short side, but I did really like this game. It had some good music too, although the volume control was kind of wonky. And the only other thing is, whenever I would change locations the screen would get all flickery and I don't know if that was intentional or graphical glitches. I'm guessing it's more of the latter. I would even notice sometimes before the screen came up that Ito appeared to drop from the sky lol. So, that was kind of a weird, but at least it wasn't game breaking. One more thing I forgot: there was one area where I thought the game was bugged, but it was just that I couldn't find this one particular hotspot because it blended in with the background making it hard to see. That probably wasn't designed too well. But anyway, yeah I definitely had fun with this one. Here's a screenshot. While this is actually from a cutscene, it's a cute moment with Ito having a pancake at the cat maid cafe.
Now I have decided I will in fact take a brief adventure game break and play a Hidden Object Game. It's called 1 Moment of Time: Silentville. I don't usually cover HOG's on here, so I doubt I will say much more about it except maybe if I liked it or not later.
One last thing: I finally got my replacement glasses. For some reason they tried to text the home phone. I know I specified before that number is the home phone. Obviously we can't get texts on that phone lol. But we happened to be at Target, and checked on my glasses and they were ready since the 9th. Definitely like them much better than the other ones. I did have to get them adjusted once and now they're perfect. No more glasses sliding off my face. And they are stylish tortoise shell ones too. ;)
I think the most interesting aspect of the game though was Ito's SPIN meter. That stands for Sanity, Professionalism, Investigation, and Neurosis. And those traits can go up or down depending on the actions you take. Early on, Ito kind of has a mental breakdown and is prescribed medication to keep her sanity in check. I didn't think it was that great of a portrayal of mental illness. :/ In this case, probably PTSD. The few times you visit her apartment you can take the pills to adjust her sanity, but too many and her investigation trait takes a hit. So, it's a balancing act. I didn't test to see if you could overdose on the pills or not. Another thing that probably wasn't too realistic. As interesting as this idea is, I don't know that it had a huge affect on the gameplay or story direction. And sometimes those traits go down (like sanity), no matter what you do. I guess I wasn't all that professional much of the time too because that one would take a hit. I guess pulling the alarm at the police station is just not very professional. :P I've heard the game has eleven different endings based on your choices. I was pretty satisfied with the ending I got. Ito seemed in doubt about the outcome, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
It was kind of on the short side, but I did really like this game. It had some good music too, although the volume control was kind of wonky. And the only other thing is, whenever I would change locations the screen would get all flickery and I don't know if that was intentional or graphical glitches. I'm guessing it's more of the latter. I would even notice sometimes before the screen came up that Ito appeared to drop from the sky lol. So, that was kind of a weird, but at least it wasn't game breaking. One more thing I forgot: there was one area where I thought the game was bugged, but it was just that I couldn't find this one particular hotspot because it blended in with the background making it hard to see. That probably wasn't designed too well. But anyway, yeah I definitely had fun with this one. Here's a screenshot. While this is actually from a cutscene, it's a cute moment with Ito having a pancake at the cat maid cafe.
Now I have decided I will in fact take a brief adventure game break and play a Hidden Object Game. It's called 1 Moment of Time: Silentville. I don't usually cover HOG's on here, so I doubt I will say much more about it except maybe if I liked it or not later.
One last thing: I finally got my replacement glasses. For some reason they tried to text the home phone. I know I specified before that number is the home phone. Obviously we can't get texts on that phone lol. But we happened to be at Target, and checked on my glasses and they were ready since the 9th. Definitely like them much better than the other ones. I did have to get them adjusted once and now they're perfect. No more glasses sliding off my face. And they are stylish tortoise shell ones too. ;)