It's a Sierra Sunday and we’re doubling up by finishing King’s Quest 1 (SCI) then starting King’s Quest 3 (1990/1986). Fantasy graphic/text adventures with plenty of stairs.

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's Saturday and we're continuing Psychonauts. Popping into more asylum inmates brains, I don't even know anymore. 3D adventure platformer, so I expect to suffer, haha. Blind playthrough for me!

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

Beware the moon, lads...🌕🐺🍿Commission for @BassJackal ~

#Babyfur #kidfur #furryart

It's a Sierra... Thursday!? We're finishing Gabriel Knight 3. Another blind playthrough for me. Grace is getting close to solving a treasure riddle thing, Mosley's stolen royal documents, and the Prince showed up so Gabriel's cowering.

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

No jackalstream tonight but I'm over in Gleonger's channel being a jackal hint system (but not jackseating) while he gives Sam & Max Hit the Road another try!

https://www.twitch.tv/gleonger

Jets of Time (Chrono Trigger randomizer) was a lot of fun but now I'm tempted to mess around with the duplicate character options... could be interesting to see what they do with dual techs and such.

Worlds Collide (Final Fantasy 6 randomizer) might be the next one I look at but that one's got so many settings! It's intimidating!

Jackal pawbs have been complaining but we're gonna try and do a little extra Sierra stuff as a treat. Starting with King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne (1985). King Graham needs a queen and a magic mirror said to go to a distant land. So he did! Text adventure with graphics, I will read aloud!

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's a Sierra Sunday and we're continuing, maybe even finishing Gabriel Knight 3. Another blind playthrough for me. Grace is getting close to solving a treasure riddle thing... babynapping all but forgotten.

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

Still a bit fried from surgery but we're back! It's Saturday and we're continuing Psychonauts. Popping into asylum inmates brains, I don't even know anymore. 3D adventure platformer, so I expect to suffer, haha. Blind playthrough for me!

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

I almost got a job as a release engineer a few years back. I'm very thankful that I did not in fact get stuck doing exclusively that for a living. It's rough.

It's hard to post multiple places right now and I'm behind on messengers too but I had a minor surgery and while I sort out the early recovery I've been skipping streams. Will update again with info about Monday when I know!

I think my new thought is that I would only recommend the first half of this game.

It constantly suffers from a design conflict of wanting to be a game and wanting to have very sudden long sequences with no control (and worse than not warning you, it warns you only once you're already committed to the scenes). An art installation masquerading as a game.

I used to think Act V of Kentucky Route Zero was the worst offender in this regard but that game was always up front about being more art than game. Rue Valley often feels like the designers weren't even making user experience / flow decisions with a game and players in mind.

I am on the fence but hesitate to recommend Rue Valley, a non-combat CRPG that has some design vibes similar to Disco Elysium (but it's NOT a Disco clone for many reasons). I feel like it has good bones. But it's also just such a mess in ways that hurt the experience. I've had fun but also some frustration and the design concerns I have will probably only get worse.

The idea of adding the core mechanics over several loops (really not a spoiler to say it's a time loop game - that's the premise) is good. But how they do it, and how the initial pace/player-gripping-material is unevenly blocked some of the early progression points means there's a lot of player attrition that could have been solved with better pacing/puzzle dependencies.

I had a bit of a weird early-to-mid game, because of the fact that despite it taking place at a motel with room numbers visible in world, you don't get to read half of them and the angle means you don't see them as the player. And one thought which really should be present earlier (since it's about getting into Room 1 and that info is on the related person's memory earlier) is not there until you try to get into room 1. I thought I was too early because the game was giving a generic response but I was apparently trying the door for room 4.

Anyway, vagueness for hours because I didn't find out about a certain project. Made things mysterious and kinda sidequests seem important and interesting?

But then I figured this Room 1 thing out, which you normally would do pretty early. And it's awfully paced with a long cutscene, forcing some strange likely out-of-character shoe-related decisions if you check the shoes, and then a massive info dump plus ending the day.

To get there , they throw out some red herrings that are hobbled both by the limitations of wait system and what you can and can't interact with. It's like the motel was key art and probably one of the first locations in dev but they just never went back and fleshed out most the possible interactions they could stick there - weirdly polished and half-baked at the and time?

Another place the game feels half-polished is in the "RPG" aspect. You pick stats on a spectrum which sometimes give or block dialog options - occasionally by a numeric check (no dice rolls) but typically by the presence or absence of traits given if you are far enough on one of the spectrums. For example having enough extraverted (sic) points may give you Nosy.

This system gets used a lot early on and then closer to mid game stops getting used as much in impactful ways, or at all in some dialog chains. This is done in favor of focusing on telling specific narratives and facilitating more "detective" type gameplay in those quests. Which is fine but kinda... throws away one of the main attractions that sets the game apart from many other CRPGs. Feels ... incomplete as a result even though I rather enjoyed some of those mid game quests.

I dunno. I've got opinions. And legally prescribed narcotics in my system. I am playing blind but based on feel and UI hints I'm probably approaching halfway through.

It's a Telltale Tuesday! Continuing The Wolf Among Us (2013), a noir detective point and click involving Fables living in a chunk of Manhattan. It might involve fairy tale characters, but it's definitely not a cozy game! Continuing Episode 4.

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's Monday and we're continuing Psychonauts (2005). I did the rest of the arrowhead grind off stream so we can go cobweb dusting while we try and rescue our friend who's a girl, Lili. 3D platformer and a blind playthrough for me!

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's a Sierra Sunday and we're continuing Gabriel Knight 3. Another blind playthrough for me. Grace has her eye on a treasure hunt. Got a little behind last time due to jackal confusion, but we're back on track!

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's Saturday and we're continuing Psychonauts. Someone's been stealing kids' brains I guess? And it's our problem now? 3D adventure platformer, so I expect to suffer, haha. Blind playthrough for me! Still using keyboard/mouse instead of controller life is great :3

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's Thursday and we're continuing Psychonauts. 3D adventure platformer and collectathon, so I expect to suffer. Blind playthrough for me!

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's a Telltale Tuesday! Continuing The Wolf Among Us (2013), a noir detective point and click involving Fables living in a chunk of Manhattan. It might involve fairy tale characters, but it's definitely not a cozy game! Starting Episode 3.

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal

It's Monday and we're starting Psychonauts (2005). Something about a summer camp for kids that's actually for training psychics? 3D adventure platformer, so I expect to suffer, haha. Blind playthrough for me!

https://www.twitch.tv/BassJackal