Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 22 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's solid.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's not bad, but it doesn't really stand out.
• Why I played: It just seems like a game I'd like, but also a friend was adamant about how much they liked it and personally recommended I play it.
• Jank: On Switch, it seems to have some graphic issues when you Switch from dock to handheld - something I often do with my Switch.
• Difficulty: On average I'd say it's normal difficult, but some aspects are really challenging. It never quite gets to teeth gritting difficulty, but it teeters.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased enough. I'm only disappointed it wasn't like a new favorite. It was solid though.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend people try the demo and if they like that, get the game. The demo is pretty much how the game will feel for awhile, but it definitely gets better the more abilities you get.
  

Pipistrello is a solid game, but to me it felt like it started off a bit slow, half the game I was just a tad bored, it just felt a little slow, but I was also interested in what I would see or unlock next. So that said, I would maybe have liked to have seen some of the abilities you get in the game a bit earlier. However, that said, getting used to all the ways you can utilize them and mix them up with everything else took some getting used to.

Since the game is a little bit open-ended, maybe it's the way I progressed by trying to hunt down everything and search every nook and cranny as I played, but I don't think so, because I think I would have struggled a bit more without every upgrade I could find up to each point. I think there are a lot of great ideas and they're executed beautifully in very fun ways. Just something about the overall pacing/progression that felt a little off to me. I appreciated where it shined in it's uniqueness, but the places it didn't, the general walking around, and general combat, felt lackluster. It's almost as if this game would have maybe benefitted from being more linear and focusing on using only the abilities that are unique to it. I can't say for sure if that would have made for a better game, but I definitely feel something was holding it back from being a truly unique experience.

Split Fiction

• Genre: Action Adventure Platforming Etc.
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, but the screenshots could arguably be the most spoilery as a good bit of the experience is finding out what parts of the game you encounter next.
• Partners: Alice
• Time Played: 15 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty good. Some sections I might have liked to have seen explored more or revisited, but I can't complain.
• Did I cry: I got watery eyed a couple times.
• Soundtrack: There is some good music and even some vocal tracks, but it's mostly an undertone for the gameplay since the majority of the game has dialog spoken throughout.
• Why I played: It just seemed like it would be a great co-op game. Obviously the studios previous games were great co-op experiences, but this one seemed even better and a bit more aligned with Alice and my interests.
• Jank: It's mostly pretty jank-free, surprisingly with everything they do with the game. There a couple times it feels like the platforming could have been fine tuned just a bit, and just a few times it does actually feel janky, but it's such a small percentage of the game play, and it's otherwise impressive how much they pull off that I'll fully give them a pass on any of the jank that seeps through.
• Difficulty: It's mostly not that difficult and it's very forgiving when it comes to death/failure. There are some spots it's surprisingly difficult though, but most the difficulty comes from the times where it leaves you alone to figure things out on your own - which I appreciate.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased with Split Fiction, it's even better than I expected.
• Recommend to others: I would absolutely recommend this to anyone with someone they can reliably play through the whole game with. If you have someone to play co-op games with, you should definitely play this.
  

Split Fiction was fantastic. I'm not sure what really needs to be said. I definitely think it's one of the best and most impressive games that released last year. It just does so much in the game, explores so many genres, and types of gameplay, while generally retaining a familiar feel. Split Fiction is definitely something I would call a "gamer's game", something I think people who love games in general and play a lot of games will appreciate more than anyone else. But it's also much more accessible than most games I would call a "gamer's game". Something like Evoland - the first game I can think of I would also classify as such, is definitely more for people who are a bit more obsessed with games, and especially older games, and especially jrpgs, it's something I don't think everyone would enjoy. I think anyone would enjoy Split Fiction - it just has that much more to offer the more you already like.

Arguably the worst aspect of Split Fiction is the narrative. There are times it's clunky. Times it's cheesy. Times you really have to suspend your disbelief. Also just portrayals of the characters archetypes that are just very narrow or cliche. That said, the writing is still generally pretty fun and entertaining, and it doesn't fumble it so much you can't be emotionally invested, but the appeal and strength is definitely the gameplay and how seemless it is from the moment-to-moment.

It was loads of fun and that's what matters most, and so I have a bunch of screenshots I wanna share but these are arguably spoilery as finding out and seeing what you encounter is perhaps the best part of the game, so with that warning, everything below is just kind of in random order.