What I've Been Playing Vol. 48

Flipping Death (PS5)

It's life or death!

 Flipping Death is a 2D puzzle-platformer from Zoink! Games, the team behind Stick It to The Man! where you play as Penny, who accidentally dies and becomes a temporary replacement for Death after he's gone on vacation. It's a very bizarre game packing plenty of eccentric characters and oddball humor, which is refreshing these days. Gameplay is fairly simple with you controlling Penny as she travels between the living and spirit realms in search of her possessed body. 

 

 The main draw of the game is that you can "flip" between the living and spirit worlds as Penny can possess living characters and control them to do various things to solve obstacles in the spirit world. In that world, you control Penny who wields Death's scythe, which she can throw to teleport herself to higher ground and collect ghost critters that allows her to possess people. I gotta say, the idea behind flipping worlds and controlling characters was really cool and unique. However, the controls were cumbersome at times. Getting characters to move and making them push objects around was extremely slow, finicky, and a chore to do, especially when there's platforming involved.

 

 The presentation was really impressive boasting a cartoony but darker look compared to Stick It to The Man! since death is a part of the narrative. The voice acting was surprisingly good and so was the soundtrack. The optional challenges were cool as you get to unlock character cards, which details a specific character's life. Though I prefer SITTM, Flipping Death was a great time if you're looking for a fun story coupled with a unique gameplay style and visuals.

The Medium (PS5)

Between two worlds.

 The Medium is a mystery adventure game developed by Bloober Team, the devs behind the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake. It follows a spirit medium named Marianne as she can explore both the real and spirit worlds to help people find peace and discover her powers. When she receives a mysterious phone call from someone claiming to know her past, she goes to Niwa, an abandoned resort to find answers. The story was alright with it tackling themes of abuse and trauma as you take a look into the inhabitants of Niwa. That said, I wasn't invested with the characters as they're just one-dimensional, especially Marianne who fell flat.

 It's a third-person adventure game where you control Marianne with the twist here being getting to control her in real and spirit worlds simultaneously in order to solve puzzles and remove obstacles in one world. Like classic survival-horror games, the camera is fixed as it will automatically change view as you move, often hiding points of interests. I'd say enemies are hiding at every corner but no; the game's an empty one as you'll explore abandoned places and trying to peace the mystery out. 

You'll be chased by a disturbing figure called "The Maw" at points, where you must quickly to run away from it before it consumes you. It sucks that there isn't any combat like weapons to wield or spirit powers to fight back, making gameplay a tad shallow. You're practically just walking, interacting with objects, and solving puzzles. Levels were interesting as you have the likes of an deep forests, vast resort, old ruins, and desolate bunkers to explore. Each were littered with notes and journals that detail life in Niwa from various characters which were a neat read. 

 The Medium looks good as character designs and backgrounds (especially the spirit world) were solid-looking. Animations, however, were stiff at times when you're controlling characters. The soundtrack was great, packing plenty of ambient and unsettling tracks to keep you hooked. It's co-composed by Akira Yamaoka, the composer of Silent Hill 2! It took seven hours to beat, so it's a digestible game. Overall, The Medium was a decent-yet-forgettable adventure. I really hope that Bloober Team learns from their past experiences creating games and make Silent Hill 2 Remake a worthwhile one.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PS5)

One deadly night.

 Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an indie 2D metroidvania and successor to the Castlevania games. It made big news back in the day for being a Kickstarter success story and pretty much lived up to the hype. I reviewed the Switch version here when it released and it was plagued with issues, which is why I decided to revisit the game with technically superior PS4 version on PS5. 

 

You play as Miriam as you'll explore a large castle to stop demons from spreading over the land. She's a "shardbinder" who has the ability to absorb shards from enemies and use their abilities, so gameplay's pretty varied as you get to constantly try-out new abilities for Miriam. There's a lot to explore with labs, villages, towers, and I loved going out of my way for secrets. 

 The visuals are good though the 3D models look a bit dated. If they ever do a sequel, having 2D sprites would be awesome. The soundtrack was amazing, which is no surprise coming from the Castlevania composer. Bloodstained is definitely worth a play if you're a fan of metroidvanias.