Arsene Lupin
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Hello and welcome! I will accept most friend requests, but I'd appreciate it if you post a comment here (or on one of my reviews) first. NOTE: bigots blocked on sight.
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Once again: hello and welcome! My name (currently) is Arsene Lupin (see “Who Is Lupin?” section for details). I am a lifelong player of games, with a special affection for the roleplaying and strategy genres – as well as all of the classics. I am presently engaged in an “impossible quest” to review each and every game in my Steam library – it's a race with the reaper, so wish me luck: I'll likely die trying.

The Impossible Quest
A long, long time ago – when I was a creature of smaller and stupider stature – I fell in love with the game: Total War: Shogun 2. For a time, the conquests of feudal Japan consumed my life. I spent so much time with the game that, eventually, I decided I ought to write up a short review for it. And, tempting fate, I prefaced that review with what was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek, facetious declaration:

In my ongoing and likely futile effort to review all 100+ games in my Steam library (#1 out of 100+) it's time for Total War: Shogun 2!

The joke being that I had a lot of games and only one review.

Jump ahead a few years and no small amount of trauma, and I eventually decided: why not review all of the games in my Steam Library? And so began my Impossible Quest .

Currently, thanks in large part to many very generous bundles, my game library has swelled to include more than 1000 titles. So far I have managed to review approximately half of that number. As you might have noticed from reading some of my reviews, I approach this task with a slightly unconventional method: my goal is not to provide comprehensive critical analyses of the games I review (few games are worth the trouble, to be honest, and even among those that do merit exhaustive criticism, Steam's draconian character limits impede the possibility. Further, the binary recommended/not recommended model Valve insists on using in inherently reductive and therefore not conducive to in-depth, nuanced critique. As such my primary goal with my Steam Reviews is simply to explore any aspect(s) of the game I feel especially interested in, personally, and gloss over the rest. This will (and, indeed, already has) result in longer reviews for games I find more interesting, and shorter reviews for titles that I find myself unable to connect with.

To put it more simply, my reviews are not about assessing the full qualities of a game, but simply, rather, to articulate why I like a game would think other people (this means YOU ) ought to play it. Or not.

In addition to the titles not-yet-reviewed, I also intend to re-review several titles – some games are, I think you'll agree, worth giving a second chance! So if you see a recommendation you disagree with, well, who knows? Maybe my opinion will change.

Who Am I?
Generally speaking I'm someone who avoids sharing personal details – of any kind – with anyone. I have, in fact, spent a lifetime so inhibited. But as I've grown, I've (finally started to learn more about myself and my (many) flaws. And with those revelations have come a desire – almost a necessity – to be more open and honest about who I am and why.

First, as you might correctly intuit from, well, everything , I have autism. I also have selective mutism and am disabled with chronic health problems. The former – the mutism – is perhaps most crucial to understanding why I am the way I am. Suffice it to say that you will seldom find my playing multiplayer games, and will never see my face or hear my voice. I've made a lot of improvement over the past few years, but that just ain't gonna happen.

You may also notice some oddities with my tone. At one point I foolishly believed myself capable of passing as allistic; now I know that was not the case, was never the case. But I still try. Part of that is affecting a somewhat informal, colloquial tone. Something lighthearted and generally friendly. If you perceive any artifice there, that's why. Every word I speak is very deliberate.

And that's me.

Who Is Lupin?
Arsene Lupin is a fictional character created by French author Maurice Leblanc in 1905. A contemporary of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, LeBlanc created Lupin as an inverse of the popular “brilliant detective” archetype. Instead of the likes of Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes, Leblanc's mysteries starred, instead, a brilliant criminal: Arsene Lupin, the original gentleman thief.

With a career spanning several dozen short stories and novels, the exploits of Arsene Lupin have spawned countless derivative works that continue to this day, from the Netflix TV series Lupin to the half-century-old anime franchise starring one of Arsene's descendants, the inimitable Lupin the Third. Possessing a vitality and energy and irreverence totally unlike most contemporary mysteries, Leblanc's stories have astonished and delighted readers for well over a century, and are poised to continue doing so for a century more.

If you're at all curious about Arsene Lupin, then I have excellent news: most of LeBlanc's tales are now firmly ensconced within the public domain, so you can download electronic copies to read for free! Start with The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin: Gentleman Thief (the first short story collection[/i]) – available for free from Project Gutenburg [www.gutenberg.org] – today!

There's no better time to dive into Lupin's world than now, so don't hesitate! And once you're done, feel free to pop over and let me know how much you liked them.

Miscellany
In addition to my activities here, I also run the (very infrequently updated) RedShoulders science-fiction blog, and am sometimes (albeit very rarely) active on other social media platforms. My handles elsewhere include:
* Twitter: ShouldersRed
* Reddit: Sly_Lupin
* GameFAQs: Mwulf [gamefaqs.gamespot.com]

Primary language(s): English. Secondary Language(s): Deutsch, 日本語
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NieR:Automata™
20 Hours played
In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a review for every game in my Steam library (#506 out of 1000+)... it's time for Nier Automata.

┛A Wild, Contradictory Masterpiece┏

Nier Automata blends the highly-polished third-person action combat we've come to expect from Platinum Games with the bizarre, very niche and sometimes controversial storytelling and direction of Yoko Taro. He is, perhaps, the most idiosyncratic games auteur this side of Hideo Kohima. You likely already knew that: in the years since release, Nier Automata became something of a surprise hit, resonating with a broad swath of players the world over. It may not quite have broken into the nebulous realm of the mainstream (I suspect such a feat will prove impossible for any Yoko Taro game), but it's come astonishingly close. With this explosion of popularity has come a great deal of discourse, leaving precious little left for someone like me to talk about here. So keeping in mind just how much has already been said of the game, I'd like to use this opportunity to delve into some of the aspects of Nier Automata that, in my experience, are not as often discussed.

But first, briefly, let's go over what you already know. Nier Automata is a slick, stylish post-apocalyptice action RPG that miraculously manages to combine bullet hell-style shooting with fast-paced melee combat and light platforming in a small but evocative open world. Crafted with a quirky, though sometimes opaque, sense of humor, a keen knack for surrealism, and a deep fascination with existentialism and nihilism, Automata depicts one of the most fascinating, striking and unforgettable worlds in the history of the medium. There also also many different, elaborate endings for players to discover as they venture through Automata's mysterious, broken world, learning more about both it and the many odd characters who dwell within it.

That's all true, but it's also nonsense. Here's what you may not know.

There aren't really any multiple endings – that was a boldfaced lie. Oh, the credits roll, many times, but there's really just the one ending. What's the deal? Yoko Taro being Yoko Taro, Automata is structured very weirdly. Basically: the narrative is composed of two acts separated by a time skip, much like the original Nier. You'll see "Ending A" at the halfway point, after which you must then play through the first act again, from the perspective of another character -- which plays out almost identically, to many players' great frustration, culminating in "Ending B." At this point I must note that the first act of the game is not terribly compelling or engaging and you'll very likely be tempted to stop playing each time the credits roll. But please don't. Once you've played through the lesser half of the game (twice) you get access to the second act, or final half of the game. And this is where the story gets substantially more interesting. At the end of act 2 you'll be presented with a choice that will lead into "Ending C" or "Ending D," and unlock a chapter-selection menu. Replay the last part of act 2 again, but make the other choice, and you'll see the other side of the game's ending plus an extended "true ending" which is, you guessed it, "Ending E." That's it. The game may proudly insists that there are 21 other endings, but they're really just nonstandard game-over screens, consisting of no more than a fade-to-black and a single line of (sometimes humorous, sometimes not) text -- usually as a consequence of turning right when you were supposed to turn left.

The other thing to know about Nier Automata is that the storytelling is pretty lacking. If you launch the game expecting a sophisticated script, compelling characters, an engaging plot, or even a coherent setting... you will[i/] be disappointed. To an even greater extent than other Yoko Taro games, Automata relies very heavily on subtext, implication and deliberate contradiction to evoke players' emotions and consideration. This is a narrative less about telling a specific story than establishing a(n often hauntingly beautiful) mood. What you get out of Automata's story will depend very much on what you put in -- read between the lines, so to speak, and you may well laugh and weep with these character. Don't, and you'll idly wonder what all the fuss is about.

In some ways this is a failing of the game: unlike its predecessor, Nier Automata does not bother to put in the legwork to make a more casual consumption of the narrative especially rewarding. As a conventinoal narrative, Automata is startlingly threadbare: there's precious little dialog, and even less exposition. Going out of your way to complete side-quests and obsessively reading through in-game lore texts will do little to imbue the story with any real sense of coherence. This isn't a story where what the characters think, feel or do matters: it's a story where what the player thinks, feels and does matters. It's a kind of dreamlike story, relishing in unreasoning chaos and compulsion -- something that would only ever be possible in the games medium. This approach to storytelling is easily Automata's greatest weakness, as well as its greatest strength.

That's all also nonsense. It's also true, too. That's part of the paradox of Nier: it's both more and less than you'd expect. Simultaneously deep and shallow; superficial and complex; dull and engaging; gorgeous and ugly; sophisticated and simplistic; reductive and nuanced; thought-provoking and irredeemably horny.

Key to Automata's tone is perspective: the characters whose actions you control on-screen are deeply ignorant of the world around them, and often incurious, and the game makes little effort to enlighten them; in perhaps Yoko Taro's signature move, there is also a clear distinction between the characters on-screen and the player -- we do not know these people. What they think, what they feel, where they've been, where they hope to go -- that's theirs, not ours. We merely accompany them on their journey. By upholding these boundaries, Automata constructs a strikingly believable world, despite the absurdities contained therein. We run through the game as ignorant of Automata's post-apocalyptic world as we often are of our own, mid-apocalyptic world; like our own friends, we know of these characters no more than what they allow us to know -- and often less than that. This is the foundation of Automata's profundity, I think: the deliberate withholding of information, both crucial and inconsequential. This narrative reticence prevents players from asserting any sort of sense of ownership over the game world, as we typically do in other spaces; it forces us to respect Automata's world, in all of its alien and grotesque beauty, for much the same reason taht we must respect our own world -- it is something too big and too great to ever be fully knowable.

Arbitrary Rating: 9/10
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★★★ CLASSIC ★★★

Note: also played on Sony PlayStation 4.
Review Showcase
CHRONO TRIGGER
13.9 Hours played
In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a review for every game in my Steam library (#500 out of 1000+)... it's time for Chrono Trigger.

┛A Timeless Time-Traveling Epic┏

When I first started this Impossible Quest of mine, I never imagined that I'd make it all the way to 500 reviews. Insofar as numbers go, it's frankly obscene. And I can think of no better game to review in commemoration of this milestone than Chrono Trigger, arguably the single greatest Japanese-style roleplaying game of all time. And while I may not necessarily agree with that assessment (I think I've played far too many games to label any one of them the absolute "best" of its genre), it's impossible to understate the enormous cultural impact of Chrono Trigger and its broad, cross-cultural appeal.

Simply put, Chrono Trigger is held in such high esteem for very good reason, despite being among the first modern JsRPGs – Chrono Trigger released on the Nitnendo SNES in 1995, and until this point in time, home video game consoles' strict memory limitations inhibited the ability of RPGs to tell anything but the barest, most rudimentary of stories. With the greater power (relatively speaking) of the SNES, console RPGs suddenly found that they had the means to craft far more detailed and nuanced narratives – and Chrono Trigger took that opportunity and went running with it.

To sum the game up simply, Chrono Trigger is one of those rare games that has something for everyone --.everyone. The premise is both simple and familiar: a great big evil thing is going to destroy the world in the far future, so you and your band of merry companions must travel through time in an epic quest to stop the apocalypse! It's nothing you haven't seen before, a dozen times at least. But each and every element of the Chrono Trigger is lovingly polished to a perfect sheen, resulting in a game that holds up -- often very favorably -- to today's modern RPGs. Many of us have a kneejerk response to modern JsRPGs, where we immediately compare them to Chrono Trigger, simply because nothing else has come as close to its perfection in the decades since.

Let's do a quick run-down, shall we? The combat is very simple and straightforward turn-based fare with an absolute minimum of grinding or filler combat. The visuals of the game are gorgeous, with each era you visit being lavishly rendered with colorful, evocative pixel art; the character designs are utterly iconic and immediately recognizable as the work Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest fame, and posses some of the finest sprite animation the industry has ever produced. The various temporal epochs you visit (which I will avoid spoiling) provide multiple diverse and interesting (and, of course, enjoyable) settings to immerse yourself in -- none of which overstay their welcome. And as for the music? It is, in a word: sublime.

The story tying all of these elements together is, perhaps, Chrono Trigger's weakest aspect, as it's relatively simple with characters mostly embodying broad archetypes, but I believe this is ultimately to the game's benefit. There's a lot going on here, and with all of the time travel and different, interconnected plot threads, it could very quickly become overwhelming to keep track of. By keeping its characters and their motivations simple, relying on familiar tropes and archetypes, Chrono Trigger also keeps its story accessible -- and reduces the amount of time it needs to spend in any one place, where other, lesser games might mistakenly try to pack in an abundance of characterization or worldbuilding. Instead, Chrono Trigger proceeds with alacrity, moving at a a brisk pace that never fails to slacken its momentum. Here is a case where less is more -- resulting in an ambitious time-travel story with a surprising degree of reactivity (especially in the famous trial scene) that's easy to follow and maintains the players' interest from beginning to end.

Chrono Trigger's 1995 release marked the beginning of what we can now recognize as the beginning of a golden age of JsRPGs – a glorious era where that genre, itself, was if not born, codified. Playing Chronoo Trigger now, so many years later, it's hard not to notice just how few games since can be said to be its equal. Chrono Trigger hit a level of quality that few games since have dared approach. It's also difficult to ignore just how refreshing it still feels, fully withstanding the tests of time, even after multiple subsequent playthroughs -- Chrono Trigger is one of those rare, precious RPGs that never seems to waste the players' time, and always has something amazing to show you just a few more steps ahead.

A quarter-century ago, Chrono Trigger set the gold standard for the genre. Whether or not any of the succeeding games approached the same heights is debateable, but few would argue that any have exceeded them. Chrono Trigger is a timeless journey, a sublime adventure, an immaculate classic, a dream given form -- and as unique and wonderful and captivating today as it was generations ago.

Arbitrary Rating: 10/10
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★★★ CLASSIC ★★★

Note: also played on Nintendo DS.
Comments
meow 26 May, 2024 @ 5:47pm 
i saw your review for the white march part 1 dlc of pillars of eternity, and it said you had around 500 games to review. it also said you had over 500 reviews now, so i was about to congratulate you, until i saw your most recent review having had the number increase to over 1000. godspeed.
Donjuanismo 5 May, 2024 @ 7:38am 
Great reviews! So well written and insightful.
IrisNebula 19 Mar, 2024 @ 7:01am 
The dedication to your reviews is commendable! Here's a health potion to help you go on: :healthvial:
hi Swift 17 Mar, 2024 @ 7:27am 
Great game reviews!
glynda 13 Mar, 2024 @ 7:57pm 
Thank you, I just dodged a bullet in kingdom under fire game. Good luck mate.
StarTrooper 28 Feb, 2024 @ 5:06am 
Hello there!
I am interested in adding you to follow the progress of your ongoing review challenge. :)
I would attempt a similar challenge, but my library is 3,000+ games and almost 4k now. xD