Alessandro Zangrandi

If you like detective games, Urban Myth Dissolution Center might be for you

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:13:11 +0200

Let's be honest: everyone talks about paranormal occurrences every now and then. Be it because of some movie you've seen or a game you've played, or because you heard something odd while you were peacefully sleeping at 3 AM (spoiler: it probably was your cat), we, as humans, are interested in this kind of stuff. But while we just ignore a lot of these events or laugh at them, there's a group of pretty bizarre people who decide instead to dive into these mysteries: the Urban Myth Dissolution Center. And this is what Urban Myth Dissolution Center, a detective game developed by the Japanese indie studio Hakaba Bunko and published by Shueisha Games whose demo was available during the last Steam Next Fest, is about.

The game tells the story of Azami Fukurai, a CS University student (hey, she's like me, poor soul) in her third year who, one day, while walking, notices an advertisement of this Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Azami can see ghosts and other entities that normal people don't even know about. Desperate, Azami decides to pay a visit to this private entity to try to find a solution for this problem that just won't leave her alone.

After entering the Center, Azami gets to know the director, Ayumu Meguriya: he knows everything about her, despite having never seen her before, thanks to an ability known as clairvoyance. Ayumu also knows about Azami's problem, that, after breaking a cursed chair, is basically forced to work part-time for the Center as a way to repay her debt. Alongside her colleague Jasmine, who at first doesn't seem to be particularly interested in giving Azami a hand, and the director's help, our protagonist has to investigate some paranormal events related to urban legends that she will have to explain.

While investigating, Azami has to find some clues exploring the place she is in and talking to who is involved in these events. When needed, Azami uses a particular pair of glasses that the director gave her to "see" thoughts and memories of places and people that show up as shadows and ghosts.

These glasses are also going to be useful during another part of the investigation, which is researching social media. With the help of Jasmine, Azami will read posts on a website that reminds me a lot of Twitter (there are mean comments, that's why I think it's Twitter) to get a clearer picture of the situation she has to investigate. Some posts have wobbly keywords that, when read with the glasses, give you a clue useful to the case. I'm not too fond of this mechanics because of the number of posts that have to be analyzed, but I appreciated a lot how the development team created for every post a unique conversation between Azami and Jasmine.

Once found, some clues are simply jotted down by Azami and saved in a menu that you can open up at any time to get a recap of the investigation, but others will require you to make a little effort. Sometimes you'll have to complete a mini puzzle where the goal is to fill spaces in a sentence with various terms. This is pretty interesting, even though I found it to be too simple. There are no penalties if you get something wrong, and it's easy to understand the correct phrase due to the grammar and conjunctions. In the case you don't get the sentence right, the game will still highlight the words put in the right place so that you don't have to start from scratch. Neat idea.

I wasn't that much satisfied with the difficulty of the demo. Sure, I didn't certainly expect to solve a complex case at the beginning of the game, but I would have liked more obstacles. The prologue's case and the real, first investigation act as tutorials, so I get that the developers wanted to make them easy. However, I am hopeful that the next cases will be increasingly harder.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center mixes the more classic point-and-click games with visual novels: while investigating, you have to select the people and items that you want to interact with, while the story is told with a dialogue system you've probably seen a lot in Japanese games. What also caught my interest was the art style, as Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a pixel art game with a cool color palette leaning toward blue and light blue colors that highlight elements useful in investigations with a bright red.

I admit it, I was pretty impressed by the Urban Myth Dissolution Center demo. I think it's a detective game with great potential, and my feedback is absolutely positive. I hope that the full game, releasing next February on PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch, offers a really compelling story. I would like to help the unfortunate Azami to pay off her debt and make her return to her everyday life, leaving the world of the paranormal behind, if possible.

Butcher's Creek is a new horror game from Dusk's creator that lets you beat up insane cultists

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 19:34:42 +0200

Valve recently held the seasonal Steam Next Fest, an event where you can try hundreds of demos of games still in development releasing soon on Steam. Honestly, the Steam Next Fest has too many games to play, but one that I absolutely wanted to try was Butcher's Creek. It's the latest project from David Szymanski, known for the popular boomer shooter Dusk and for the great underwater horror title Iron Lung, so this is why I had to play the demo as soon as possible.

Butcher's Creek is a first-person horror game that tells the story of a pretty insane man in search of some gory video material in the remote Appalachian Forest. After hearing rumours of authentic snuff videotapes, this troubled loner is led to an abandoned cabin near Butcher's Creek, Pennsylvania, where he gets kidnapped by a group of sadistic killers. Our mission is to flee from a mysterious prison and from these cultists while searching for those videotapes for our own pleasure (the protagonist's pleasure, at least).

As Szymanski himself explains on the game's Steam page, Butcher's Creek is inspired by classics like Rockstar Games' controversial Manhunt and Condemned: Criminals Origins, a game made by Monolith, the studio that created F.E.A.R., one of my favourite FPSs ever. The inspiration from Condemned: Criminal Origins is clear almost immediately, as the gameplay revolves around a melee combat system that forces the player to use various items, such as wooden planks, shovels, hammers and box cutters to put the cultists to sleep. You can't use weapons such as guns and shotguns, but you need to go face-to-face with the killers to let them know that their plan to chop you into little pieces to foster their peculiar sadism isn't going to work for you.

Every weapon in Butcher's Creek can only be used a few times, but fortunately, there will always be something near you that you can use to fight the cultists. Don't worry, you're not going to end up empty-handed. Also, weapons have their own stats: some items do more damage than others, but they can take their own sweet little time to hit the enemies. If you decide to use a shovel and you're still waiting to be able to hit a cultist after delivering the first attack, you should know that you can use your feet to push them away a bit. The combat system also lets you parry incoming attacks, and you can throw boxes and other stuff if you have nothing in your hands.

Stamina is a thing in Butcher's Creek, and the only way to replenish it is to wait a few seconds. This means that you can't spam attacks or kicks, so you should pay attention to the stamina bar: being in a fight with one or even two cultists without stamina could turn you into one of their victims. These insane cultists, however, are pretty easy to take down, even though their AI is not the best. A lot of times I noticed them attack me, then step back and stand still as if they had forgotten they were in the middle of a fight. I basically never had to parry an attack: hit the enemy, step back and hit them again is a strategy that worked pretty well.

Moving past the combat system, I really liked how video tapes and photographs are used in Butcher's Creek. Video tapes can be used to save the game and to open some locked, big doors, while with the gory photographs you can heal yourself. And by the way, after obtaining a certain number of video tapes your maximum health will increase. I have some questions on how can images full of gore and blood be used to increase your health, but since our protagonist is a troubled and (probably) insane person, I won't say anything more, except that he should probably seek help.

What I appreciated so much about Butcher's Creek is the ambience, filled with tension. Finding yourself in a dark place kidnapped by some cultists who plan to kill you is obviously scary, and the game does transmit this sense of dread pretty well. Indeed, I admit that I was scared myself sometimes: you know, turning a corner and being suddenly faced by a man shouting, "Who are you?", with a hammer in their hand is not exactly something I look forward to.

I will keep an eye on Butcher's Creek, waiting for the complete game that should launch early next year. If you're bored, have half an hour where you don't know what to do and the idea of being locked up in a bunker somewhere in Pennsylvania doesn't frighten you, try the demo on Steam. It's worth it.

Review: The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (Movie)

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 21:31:23 +0200

One of last year's anime movies that most intrigued me was Natsu e no Tunnel, Sayonara no Deguchi, also known in English as The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes. Based on the light novel of the same name written by Mei Hachimoku and illustrated by Kukka, The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes revolves around the legend of the Urashima Tunnel: it is said that by entering this tunnel, one can obtain what they most desire. However, this comes at a cost: time.

This is the premise of Hachimoku's story and the anime adaptation directed by Tomohisa Taguchi, which focuses on high school students Kaoru Touno and Anzu Hanashiro. Touno is a serious boy, most likely not because of his character, but due to some events that have changed his life for the worse and that he still struggles with, such as an alcoholic father who abuses his son. Hanashiro, on the other hand, is a straightforward and determined girl that tries to achieve her goals in every situation. The two meet at first by chance at a station in a seaside town during a downpour: Touno is on her way home from school, while Hanashiro is completely soaked, without an umbrella, carrying something apparently very important to her. The two students have a little conversation, and Touno decides to lend Hanashiro his umbrella as he was concerned about her.

One afternoon Touno, after running away from home and slipping into a forest to avoid being hit by a train on the tracks, discovers the Urashima Tunnel almost by accident and decides to walk in. An incredible scene unfolds before him that leaves him astonished. Intrigued by the length of the tunnel, Kouno begins to walk and walk, until he finds alive his parrot that died a few years earlier. Impressed by the finding, Kouno notices something strange after coming back to home. Although he had spent only a few minutes in the tunnel, time had moved much further outside: a week had passed. Kouno realizes that the story of the Urashima Tunnel is anything but a legend, and that in exchange for time he can try to take back what he needs to fix his life.

One visit to the tunnel is not enough for Kouno, who becomes increasingly curious about what lies within. The next day he returns to the tunnel, but with someone following him without his knowledge: Hanashiro. Despite coming from Tokyo the girl is aware of the legend, and she asks Kouno what he knows about the tunnel. At that point Hanashiro decides to try to follow Kouno, and the two strike a pact by starting an experiment. Hanashiro also has something she wants from the tunnel, and, as if they have nothing to lose, they both agree to spend their time inside the tunnel as long as they can find what they are looking for.

While the first part of the movie is mainly focused on the birth of this relationship between Kouno and Hanashiro, the second part should, technically, have been focused more on their experiment and what the tunnel hides. Well, it doesn't, and that is the main problem I have with this movie. Taguchi, in fact, decides to continue to emphasize the friendship of the two teenagers, using the tunnel more as a gimmick to slowly grow and transform their relationship, instead of treating it in a way that answers the many questions that the audience may have. We learn what Kouno and Hanashiro's desires are, and the unconvering of each other's secrets helps the two grow closer and closer. While it's good that there's a focus on character development, on the other hand a movie whose plot revolves around the mysterious tunnel shouldn't take all the attention away from it.

The ending, as was my case, might leave a bitter taste in the mouth, not because of the ending per se, but because it's unclear how several events take place and how they are going to continue. Perhaps, if the film had lasted longer than 83 minutes there might have been some explanation, and in my opinion the short running also had a negative impact on the enjoyability of the work. It's a pity, as I was really attracted by the plot, and I would have liked to have some answers that might be in the light novel instead. To clarify, I appreciated the two main characters, their personalities, and the way they collaborated to carry out the experiment Hanashiro envisioned. However, I finished the movie with some unanswered questions about both protagonists (I will not elaborate further to avoid spoilers).

Regarding the other aspects of the movie, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by many things. The animations are very well done: character designer and art director Tomomi Yabuki has directed the movie in a way that can really get your attention while also making you feel various emotions, from sadness to happiness. Let's be clear, while the story is not that happy, there are times when you can enjoy with joy the moments that Kouno and Hanashiro spend together, such as a short visit to the local aquarium (Was it a romantic date or not? Who knows) or their meetings where they try to figure out how the tunnel works. Also noteworthy is the soundtrack composed by Harumi Fuuki and Satoki Iida, which nicely accompanies all the scenes in the movie. The Japanese artist eill also made some songs for the movie, collected in the EP Pre-Romance / Finale..

In conclusion, The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes is an enjoyable film with a screenplay that goes down its own path without adapting the source material properly and not giving answers to questions one would like to investigate more. Had it been longer with more focus on the tunnel and its mysteries, rather than just on Kouno and Hanashiro, I would have been definitely satisfied. A missed opportunity, unfortunately.

Score: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Why this blog

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 23:18:32 +0200

The internet is currently a dumpster fire. Well, at least social media are. Twitter is killing itself (or it's being killed, it depends on the point of view), Reddit is struggling with protests and private subreddits, because they thought that limiting the APIs, an idea copied from none other than Mr. Elon Musk, was a good thing, and hundreds of millions of people are doomscrolling on TikTok watching questionable videos like there's no tomorrow.

You know, I appreciate the concept behind social networks: they give you a space with a potentially enormous audience where you can share whatever you want, but also keep in touch with your friends or catch up on the latest news. At the same time, though, your space isn't exactly yours, but it's owned by those who manage the company or the group of people behind the social network, and it can potentially be taken away from you for whatever reason at any moment.

Most people probably don't care about this, but some do, me included. So, is there a solution for this? Yes, and it's called a personal website. I've always wanted to create a personal website, mostly just as a hub to let people know where they can contact me if needed. I've shared most of my thoughts on Twitter and some other social networks in the last few years, but there are two main problems with this.

I've already explained the first one so I won't repeat myself. The second is that if you want to write on a social network, you have to consider that people aren't going to read something longer than 300 characters because they're lazy. Some social media are also not a good place for walls of text in general: Facebook and Tumblr may be, but surely Twitter or Instagram aren't. So, what's the solution? You guessed it, a website.

Before social networks became mainstream, a lot of people had a website to express their feelings, their thoughts and everything that came up in their minds. They even communicated with each other in some ways, thanks to the so-called trackback and pingback, something that is no longer used nowadays, but still included in some CMSs like WordPress. And it was... cool. But let's be honest, why do the majority of people prefer creating a personal space on social networks and not on the good old blogs? Because they're easier to use! Convenience, however, comes at a cost: you own nothing.

I started reflecting on this after Twitter began to fall off and people rushed to find an alternative: we have a lot of options today, but while they might be good, there's always this problem of the ownership of the content you make (unless you host everything yourself). Everything can disappear in the blink of an eye, but that's not all: for me, at least, a simple Twitter or Instagram account does not represent a "personal space". You can customize pretty much nothing, you can't make it what you want.

With websites, though, the situation is different. When you create a website, you're free to do whatever you want with it. You can write as much and as long as you want, you can customize every page down to the smallest detail and so on. It's yours, and you have the mission to make it feel yours. Oh, and most importantly: you don't have to worry about a mysterious algorithm and an influx of people that might be good or annoying, depending on what you write and your opinions. I could even write a thousand words about privacy, but I'm not going to do that because you already know what happens to your data when you use a social network, especially mainstream and closed source ones.

Considering this probably long premise, what does this blog represent to me? After much back-and-forth, I decided to create an archive of thoughts, ideas, rants, analyses and considerations. Something that, unless I don't renew the domain because I forget to do it, will be here for years to come. Can I call it a diary? Maybe, even if it's not really intimate. I'm not gonna keep track of analytics and things like that, I don't care. I just want my own place to write: if people want to read this archive, they're absolutely free to do it, and I'd be happy to receive feedback, even if it's negative.

Blogging has always been important to me, at least for the last five years. When I was 14 years old I decided to open a website about videogames (which is thankfully still updated today!), and the concept of having a personal space where everything was up to you has always fascinated me. I take care of everything I do in my life, so it doesn't feel right to leave a part of me in the hands of companies that could go bankrupt and kill their apps tomorrow. I also created this blog as part of my plan to detach myself from services I don't personally control, and that's why I'm planning to self-host a lot of things (shoutout to awesome-selfhosted), including this very website, in the next few months.

If you're reading this, you don't have a website yet and you use social networks a lot, I suggest you to find a way to create your blog. It doesn't matter what you do in your life: you might be an IT guy, a doctor or a politician, but everyone on the internet deserves a personal space, if they want to have one. I don't want to demonize social media because I use them everyday and I think they have their utility. Nothing, though, beats having something that's really yours. The concept of the blog will always exist, even if it becomes a niche. "We will always have games" was the theme for Tokyo Game Show 2022, and "we will always have blogs" is this post's theme.