The Forgotten City (2021)

Still working on this one, but I got the first of four endings so I know there's still more to it.

But it amazes me how this, a 10-hour narrative-focused game has significantly more story and events and meaningful writing than most 60+ hour open world behemoths. Like this is the game that has me thinking, "What the fuck are AAA devs even doing?"

This is prooobably gonna wind up supplanting House of Ashes for my 2021 GOTY if it manages to stick the landing on its ending, but I do enjoy how both games are themed around ancient history.

Got the 4th ending on my 2nd playthrough, which I think, the best ending. 😭 Not only every character you interacted with are alive, but also all the people who turned to gold! It doesn't quite make sense how everyone able to retain their memory of the Underworld but the ending is so heartwarming!

I was reluctant to play this game at first because I am easily distracted and bored when the game involved a lot of listening/reading. But after playing it, I understand why the rating is so high for this game! I love the storyline and the time-travelling element. This game is my second favorite story-driven game after the first 'Life is Strange'. The difference of this game compared to LiS is this game doesn't have many cutscenes. Sometimes you need to pay attention to what's happening in the background, be alert what the NPCs are doing because if not, you might miss out something. It's quite realistic for me. The NPCs felt 'alive' which makes it interesting to interact with them.

I've hardly played games since finishing Super Mario Odyssey a couple of months ago. Nothing seemed to click. I think Nintendo broke me with how obsessed I was with that game. But this... this I like.

I played it for 4 hours yesterday and did not want to stop. Time loop games usually fill me with anxiety, but here there is no real pressure of a ticking clock. It is really up to you when the loop ends, so I haven't felt like I am constantly repeating myself. It helps that there are roughly 20 characters and the map is reasonably sized without being overwhelming. It feels like a mosaic of traditional RPG sidequests, so it is pretty easy to make progress, while also giving you the illusion of spinning multiple plates at once. There is always some lead I want to follow. Even now I can't stop thinking about what I need to check out next.

Update of the first 2 hours of game:

• I named my character Esclavitus Poncio, because why the hell not.
• My boyfriend didn't get the Karen reference, I guess I'm breaking up with him sooner than I though.
• Stealing is a sin?! Who'd have known? I learnt it the hard way at minute five.
• So you can approach random strangers and just ask "What is your story"??? I had no idea, guess that's why I've sucked at socialising my whole life.