Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week - Sep 27 to Oct 3 - Cave of Juggler's Sorrow.

In the spirit of this month of horrors, EmP reanimated the rotting corpse of former RotW judge Jerec to step in and judge the first few days of Project Horror (plus one late September review). Two reviews on October 1st, and 2 more on October 3rd. Nice coordination, guys! And speaking of nice coordination, you'll need to pretend I'm Joe and his two reviews from this week have been carried over to next week's topic, which is up before this week's topic. Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.

Third Place
A Juggler's Tale by Gary Hartley

While the game does seem like interesting subject matter, I can tell you were keeping the descriptions kinda vague apart from the introductory sequence, because it's a short game and you don't want to spoil the surprises. So you make the right call, giving us readers a good idea of what the game is like, while hinting at what it becomes. It's descriptive and well written as I'd expect from an EmP review, but I think it might be one of those rare cases where the screenshots take up more screen real estate than the text.

Second Place
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow by Overdrive

This seems like a very timely review given the recent release of the Castlevania GBA games for modern systems. The brief history lesson is appreciated - the GBA and other handhelds that followed really were the successors of the 16/32-bit era. Your description of the game is colourful and has a kind of casual tone that I tend to like. It feels like a friend telling me about a game they liked, and your enthusiasm for this game and the series shines through. I get a pretty good idea of what to expect from this game, and the 2D Castlevanias as a whole. Still need to play Symphony of the Night, though, which this review has reminded me I need to look into.


Review of the Week
Cave Noire by Dagoss.

I quite like the feature article approach you take here (similar to your Octopath review) where you establish some context, although it did take quite a chunk of paragraphs to even mention the game the review is about, with deviations like it not being the first handheld rogue-like being interesting but not really relevant. The review didn't really start for me until about a third of the way in, where the descriptions of gameplay, strategy, and movement patterns were interesting, with screenshots illustrating how it works. It seems like a game well worth documenting. I appreciate the info that there is a fan translation for this game, but that it isn't really necessary since the game uses pictures for most things.

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And that's it for me. This was actually a lot harder than I expected - though I only read 5 reviews, and in the end only had to rank 3, it was kinda difficult to rank them. Everyone's at a really high bar of quality that I find envious because they make it look so easy. Some of us have been honing this craft for 20 odd years, so I'd expect no less.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Thanks for the comments and placement. Yeah, Symphony is a worthwhile experience to enjoy. One of those easy games with great atmosphere and a large place to explore, making it a fun and leisurely experience -- which is something I don't think I envisioned saying about a Castlevania game back when I was young, since most of them weren't leisurely and the one that was (Simon's Quest)...well, the "fun" aspect of it was debatable. I guess in the context of "stuff I was playing in the early 90s", it was enjoyable simply due to it not being frustrating as long as I had about five different Nintendo Powers on hand. But it didn't age well and felt like a very obsolete part of my library about the very minute I purchased a SNES.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

I beat Juggler's Tale in a couple of hours. It was a good game and I enjoyed it, but talking about more then the opening stages is more or less heavy spoiler territory. So I'm good with all that.

Thanks for stepping back into the fray, Jerec. Congrats on Rob stacking up a mountain of silvers and to Dagoss who has really developed a unique reviewing voice that I will subscribe to.

For us. For them. For you.

I did like EmP's juvenile tagline for his review, which I felt was especially fitting and very much like something I would have written if I had played the game myself and tried writing about it. And if I had been that clever, which I usually am not. I swear, I sit down at a keyboard and my creative side heads into the kitchen for snacks.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2