Puppergeist

• Genre: Music/Rhythm
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, not much to spoil.
• Time Played: ~2 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine.
• Did I cry: I audibly bawled within the first half hour, to a point where Naga was concerned, got up from her place in the corner and laid next to me, causing me to bawl even harder.
• Soundtrack: For a music game it's uh... not the best. It's not "bad" by any means, it's music, there are rhythms. But they're more just like little jingles for you to play to for the most part.
• Why I played: I wanted to play something thematic as we approached the Halloween season and it looked cute.
• Jank: I would say there is jank in how it handles/responds, but really that's the only thing I can call out and I'm not positive it's not the way it is by design and I'm just bad at it.
• Difficulty: While it's certainly not the hardest game, it did frustrate me at certain points.
• Something I liked: The art was very cute, it was overall just a little sweet game.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine, it met expectations.
• Recommend to others: Not exactly. Unless you look at it and like me, immediately think you have to get it, regardless of it's actual contents, then sure. If you wanna cry about dogs, sure.
  

Puppergeist is a harsh reminder how bad I am at rhythm games. Even the ones I enjoy most I'm not particularly good at. "Real" music games that have like a 1-10 skill rating, or 3-5, whether it's numbers, score, stated difficulty, are not games I generally am able to play on the higher difficulties, like at all. I understand the skill ceiling is ridiculous. People play music games like people play games for competitive tournaments, sinking hundreds, if not thousands of hours into individual music games.

I avoided earlier music games partially because I didn't find earlier music games to have very engaging mechanics and I was also just not super into music until I was well into my teens anyway. When I got my first car, I owned 3 CDs - in a time where those were the dominate technology for over a decade. (Fun stats: ~95% of the market share a the time, more than digital music media has today at around 85%, that's including both purchase and streaming revenue)

I especially especially avoided music games like PaRappa the Rapper, and follow ups, which at least the first was a huuuge hit, and often listed as one of the best original PlayStation games. It wasn't until the first Guitar Hero where I really started to expand an interest in the genre.

Not that it was the first by any means, but Guitar Hero had clear visual queues and despite requiring a special controller, simple controls that clicked with me. Most music games I play these days are similar. There is a scrolling bar with the notes I have to press in time on the way down, which is a timing skill test, not a rhythm challenge.

Claire begins to cry while you're playing this game and there is a pause and the dog comes over from his little window to hug her and then I began to cry. (and proceed to fail the challenge)

Furthermore, with a focus on Guitar, usually you weren't to the rhythm, you were playing various melodies, riffs, filler sounds, etc. Generally. The songs I did the worst on were the ones where the guitar parts weren't over exaggerated. The ones where there is a consistent rhythm from the primary, or perhaps only guitar in that band. Sure I can see the indicators coming, but I can't maintain the consistent rhythm for more than a handful of beats.

I just have no rhythm, and it's a skill I've specifically tried to improve, with little to no success over the years. I can keep a beat for about 4-5 notes, and then I fall off. The whole point of this tangent is to point out that this game is entirely that. There is one button to press during the music sections, and all you are doing is keeping a rhythm for most of them, and I just can't do it. I played it around two hours, but I think most people could knock it out in half the time. There are only like 10-12 challenges? Most of them only being a couple minutes. There aren't higher difficulties or scores and they're pretty generous with the amount of missed notes you can still pass on. Most people will get about 25 minutes of gameplay and 25 minutes of story. There were only two-three challenges I got on the first try and those are clear visual indicators of when I was supposed to hit the button.

I mentioned PaRappa the Rapper, because as far as I can recall, this is more like that. Where you're actually supposed to listen, then press the button on queue, rather than just look at a scrolling circle on screen and press the button when it's aligned. At least for some challenges. Each of the dozen challenges are set up differently. My biggest problem is though, is it's just not like a "real music" game, the music is just there to create the little rhythm challenge for the game, and doesn't really stand out more than any music in any other game, but damn if it didn't make me cry several times.

This entry is way too big for this little game.