What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Loud (Switch)

September 5th, 2022

I had a low maintenance game day yesterday, kicking off with my finishing Loud, putting me at 4 out of 10 games cleared for my completely arbitrary goal to hit before buying a new game. I realize that I am mostly clearing short indie games so far, but I haven't been good at beating even short games in the past. My focus has been pretty bad. Even if this is a small, rubbish goal that I'm scumming my way through, I feel good about what I've been able to do here.

As for Loud, it was a fun game. The story was a little too minimalistic, maybe, and I did have some problems with the controls. The guitar-driven soundtrack was a nice change of pace, though, and the outfits unlocked through the game were both cute and more dramatic than simple pallette swaps. Even if I don't do it right away, I'll leave this on my Switch in case I decide to go back for better scores and higher difficulties later.

I played My Sims a little more, too. I think I made some progress, and I got the fisherman to take one out of three of my fish. It seems like recording fish from the wrong body of water might be gated off until my town's star level goes up, but I don't really care enough to be mad about it.

September 4th, 2022

Today is Sunday, the central day of a three-day weekend, and I don't have to do anything today! I didn't really have to do anything yesterday, either, but I built a really big shelf. It was an accomplishment.

Game-wise, I picked up Loud, an indie rhythm game I'd downloaded to my Switch right when it had a new release discount, while I was making dinner. It's pretty cute, using the story of a high school girl dreaming of being a rockstar as she moves up in her local scene to move things forward, but the controls are really bothersome

The key issue I'm having is that, if you hit a button unrelated to what's on screen, rather than just missing your timing, the game counts it as a miss, which is brutal, but fine. On a different system, I'm not sure this would be an issue. It's giving me trouble here, though, for two reasons. First, my download of it/my Switch/the gremlins in my system can't read a held note on the D-pad bottom arrow, which means getting a prompt for that on screen can end a stage if I don't react fast enough. It marks the hold note as "good" at first press, so if I remember that spot is broken for me and back off right away, I'm fine. If I don't remember, though, the "any wrong button is a miss" rule means that after that initial "good," holding the down arrow for a note that has already been registered as clear results in an instant, quick string of misses, racking up the strike meter at the top and resulting in a game over. The D-Pad bottom arrow doesn't give me issues in any other games, so I'm not sure what's up here.

Edit: As of about 10 hours later, the D-pad note holding glitch I was running into is no longer occurring. I'm adding this note because I don't want a bug that might have been a total fluke to put people off of this game!

Second, with the buttons on the Switch being so tiny, the missed note scoring means that you can lose a combo just by your thumbs being too big. This one was only an issue for me once or twice, again on the D-pad, but I have relatively small hands and am using Joycons bigger than the standard. It was irritating when it happened to me, but I think it has the potential to be a bigger problem for other players.

At any rate, I don't dislike this overall. I like the music, it's fun to see how an indie music game approaches both the genre and storytelling, and it is hard for me to be totally disappointed with a cheap game where I'm unlocking new outfits. I think I probably got about halfway through while making a pot of soup last night, so one of my goals for today is to finish it before bed.

Later on in the night, after watching a bad movie and doing some crafts, I played some more Sonic Adventure on my PS3. I was working on Amy's levels tonight, and her mouth movements are egregiously mismatched to what she actually says in the English dub! She seemed to have more glitches than the other characters, too. Her skirt turned totally inside out while she was petting a Chao; it was a really odd visual! Still, this game is pretty and fun, and I like it. The glitchiness was way more amusing than bothersome.

Lastly, I played My Sims a little before bed again. I caught some fish, but I can't figure out how to get them to become selectable items to hand them off to the fisherman who wants them for his "fish book." Since this is obviously a game made for kids, it feels like a small personal failing.

With all that said, though, I'm off to enjoy a nothing day! Truly, 'tis glorious.