I suddenly found myself in possession of nearly 100 games that I previously didn't have access to on that fateful night where I drunkenly upgraded to "extra' status in my PlayStation Plus account. I didn't even remember signing up for it but I guess I was well lubricated with alcohol and now it was done. I only have a few months left on my account so it would be impossible for me to finish all of these games so instead I just decided to spend an hour on each of the lessor-known titles in the hopes of finding a hidden gem or two. Sadly, mostly my attempts have been in vain because most of the game that are on offer are pretty bad. There have been a few true winners but mostly, even the decent games are just barely passable as something I would normally play.
Today we venture into the story-driven experience that is Last Day of June which although quite touching and really looks like it is going somewhere special as far as the emotional story is concerned, quickly becomes tiresome and repeitive.
First, let's start off with the things that I admire about the game such as the fact that they tell the story without ever uttering a single real word. This is likely very helpful for them as far as marketing the game in multiple markets is concerned and for me I appreciate this sort of thing because I normally get annoyed when a game is filled with too much reading. If i wanted to read a book I would do that.
Instead the story is told through animated mannerisms and sounds that are almost words but something that anyone regardless of age can determine through visual clues such as someone sneaking about or sighing in a certain way that lets us know of the disappointment or anger that is going on.
The story is clearly about how things went terribly awry for a loving couple who is returning from a little lakeside getaway when their car flew off the road resulting in the crippling of the man and the death of the woman. We awaken from this accident to be in control of the man in the wheelchair as he goes about his life, clearly without his woman. We are taken through a sort of time travel that goes through the various actions of the other people who live in their small village and how all these tiny little things that would otherwise seem inconsequential actually lead up to the accident ever happening.
Little things like a bored child wanting to play catch that no one will do with him as well as a woman who is moving house but packs the truck improperly ultimately lead to the events that resulted in the crash in the first place.
As we travel back in time using some sort of magical paintings we come to realize that even if we remove one event that lead to the crash, another one pops up and the fateful accident still ends up happening. I think that this is perhaps a lesson about fate or perhaps a warning about messing with past events if time-travel was actually possible, and I like the interactions that lead to various aspects of the story changing but the end result ends up being the same regardless (at least as far as I made it in the game after 1.5 hours or so.)
Now let's get to the part about how the game becomes repetitive and sadly, quite boring and tedious after just a short while.
I don't know if it is mandatory but it seemed like you are forced to take the role of the small boy at first and go through his day of being bored and simply wanting someone to play with him. The village is almost entirely open to you at this point and there isn't really much indication as to where you are meant to be going. This results in you walking around the entire, albeit small, village and interacting with anything that you can in the hopes that it gets things moving. Sometimes when you interact with something it goes through an unskippable cutscene that if you have to watch it more than a couple times starts to become annoying. When you do finally achieve what your end objective is the story is finished and you move on to the next part of the story.
It is at that point that you find out that even though you prevented the accident with one of the villagers, another villager goes in to fill the place of making the car with the initial couple fly off the road. Then you are presented with the fact that you actually need to go back to the little boy's scenario AGAIN and do it differently.
Since you already spent so much time simply clicking on EVERYTHING with the little boy's story a little while ago, the notion of going back to do it again, complete with watching all of the cutscenes AGAIN doesn't really invoke a sense of actually wanting to continue to play. When I finally resigned myself to the fact that I had to do the boy's story again I was hopeful that certain elements of it would all of a sudden be different than the first time through. There are 1 or 2 minor changes that weren't options in the first go-through, but other than that it is exactly the same and this makes for boring gameplay.
It wasn't long after this where I was once again forced to go through another character's day, which I had already done once and the same thing happened there with the story being exactly the same save a couple of minor differences and being forced to watch the same tired cutscenes over and over again.
I decided at this point that I had had enough and switched the game off never to play it again. Instead of going through the rest of the game to see what the overall story was, I just looked it up online and yes, it is a very good story, but the rigmarole that you have to go through in order to see it by playing is just too repetitive to really hold anyone's attention. I like what they were trying to do with a dialogue-free story, but the execution in the end really doesn't do much for me and I presume most other gamers as well.
Therefore, despite the fact that I like the art-style and somber nature of the story I can't really recommend this game for anyone because you are going to get bored. You can't lose in this game per-se, it just keeps going until you eventually discover what you failed to click on during your first 4 laps around the village and when you do figure it out you will be thinking "well, that is stupid."
Not only would I not pay for this game if I were you, I wouldn't even recommend playing it for free. Sorry devs!
- Windbound (survival game with rogue-like elements - not recommended)
- Magicka 2 (top-down humorous multiplayer hack and slash-sort with immense spell system - maybe recommended)
- Tearaway: Unfolded (charming casual 3D platformer with inventive graphics and gameplay designed for all ages - recommended for casual players)
- Spiritfarer (casual simulation / resource-management style game with an extremely good story - recommended for all)
- Observation (point and click survival sort of... interactive game of sorts set in space - found it very boring after just one hour and do not recommend)
- Gabbuchi (simplistic puzzle game that I feel is better suited to mobile devices. Not recommended on consoles)
- The Messenger (8-bit style action/platformer that is a throwback to original Ninja Gaiden. It's simplistic fun. Recommended)
- Megadimension Neptunia VII (typical JRPG with some adjustments made to combat for uniqueness. Could be fun and I lukewarmly recommend for someone willing to dedicate 50 hours to a turn-based RPG)
- Monster Jam: Steel Titans 2 (monster truck racing game that will appeal only to people who are already fans of the sport - not recommended for any other people)
- Entwined (Visually appealing rhythm pace game that is very easy to pick up but gets repetitive after 30 minutes or so - recommended for anyone that can get it for free.)
- 2Dark (8-bit graphic survival horror/stealth hybrid. The game becomes extremely difficult really fast and therefore failed to hold my attention - not recommended)
- Virginia (interactive-cinema...not really a game and it is over in a couple of hours. Not recommended)
- Trials of Mana (simplistic action RPG that will definitely appeal to the casual gamer that is a fan of old-school RPG combat mechanics - recommended)
- Journey to the Savage Planet (FPS exploration game in a semi-open-world environment. The game is intentionally silly and I loved it - recommended)
- Resogun (arcade-style single-screen SHMUP that will get boring to most people after an hour or so. Not recommended)
- The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (point and click adventure game that doesn't work on consoles and is just irritating to play - not recommended)
- Mighty No. 9 (it's Mega Man but terrible. Definitely not recommended)
- Moving Out (delightfully funny moving company simulator. It gets boring and repetitive pretty quickly. Recommended for a short laugh)
- Last Day of June (a sad story done in 3rd person perspective that while an interesting story and/or life lesson, quickly becomes repetitive and dull. Not recommended)