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Jun. 14th, 2019 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bonnefoisSo, as I mentioned, Paranoiac got a remake. And I finished it a couple days ago, about in an hour. Spoilers below. (CW: as per game, mentions of suicide and mental illness)
So, technically despite loving Uri's games, I never finished the original Paranoiac. The chase scenes were just really unforgiving. So I watched an LP instead. Loved the story, but found the gameplay aspect barely playable.
Manlybadasshero hasn't done it yet, so in the end I just figured I'd give it a try, as the notes around the remake said the gameplay was overhauled. I was dying to see what new content there was.
I'm pleased to report that the gameplay is much less unforgiviing. And it is majorly revamped, so I'll go through it one by one.
First up, the gameplay. Originally in paranoiac the creature that followed you was this dead zombie thing that was extremely fast. You had to figure out the right hiding spot and if you didn't, you'd get flushed out and die. Now it's more like a shadow/void/static ghost thing that's actually kind of slow. There's a mechanic to make it slightly easier (taking your pills every day) and even in the hardest part of the game I was able to do it without wanting to pull my hair out.
This was a great improvement, I won't lie.
But at the same time, while it's more playable, it's actually less scary. Because it was easier it was less frustrating, but it also made it a different kind of game. So much so that I actually feel like it's left the horror genre. Like it's more supernatural/drama at this point. Several of of Uri's games can go along the line of "the TRUE horror was depression/mental illness!" in a way that's done well, but this remake really turned that up to 11. I'll go on this more with a discussion of the new bad end epilogue.
So, moving on, I've always liked Shinji. of course, it's a pretty small cast with some of the most important ones dead, but in general he's just really nice. Now his preseence is more expanded upon, and his personally is really changed. Now, he's like a nice everydude next door who's adorably awkward.
Also, probably one of my favorite reasons for liking him (and Miki/Shinji) is that he doesn't think less of her when she confesses that she's mentally ill and in general supports here when he can and even waits two years for her to get her mental health together all that time to wait to date her basically. Like he literally meets her at her worst, when she's grieving and depressed and potentially having hallucinations, completely hystertical at points and still loves her and supports her and that's just romantic. I was kind of hoping Uri would include that mentioned epilogue where they meet, but it's included in the character profiles at least.
There's also more background to who he was and what was going on with him.
One note is that Miki's mother is waaaay nicer. Like she has only one big blow up and the others seem nicer and it even says she eventually got psycological help for her hysteria. At the other time, she does some pretty horrible things, pushing her own sister to suicide.
So, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Because like I was fine with someone who pushed their sister to suicide not being redeemed.
The new ending and profiles make it more clear of a "or was it?" when her doctors diagnose her with schizophrenia. If anything, that new epilogue to the bad ending kind of implies that the ghost thing she saw was essentially a "crooked man" like from the Crooked man series--like a physical manifestation of her depression, guilt and grief, and that in the ending where Miki dies, Shinji was getting one as well. The author's notes outright say that the diagnosis of schziophrenia could be wrong.
In that it wasn't just a ghost but like a ghost + people's negative feelings manifested into some kind of revanant that hunts someone down in an attempt to release those feelings.
Or at times like, a ghost that feeds upon a person's own self-loathing/depression and meshes together to push them into suicide.
Other than that, there's some new puzzles, and the house is way streamlined. It always felt way too large for a random Japanese house. Original game had it feeling like a mansion. At least it had a reason for the random locked doors as opposed to some of the other games in this genre which just have me going "bwuh? WTF did this person randomly lock their doors?"
There's even a new section where you leave the house. It's actually one of the harder chase scenes. I was able to get through it on the first try, though~
I'm really eager to see the remake of Crooked Man. The story of that game was great, if not disjointed, but it had one of the major issues Uri has had with other games--namely, large empty rooms with nothing in them. The Hanged Man was especially bad for this.
Though, there's also The Boogie Man and The Sandman remakes to see.
Anyways, I really love RPGmaker/wolf editor games. Uri especially.
So, technically despite loving Uri's games, I never finished the original Paranoiac. The chase scenes were just really unforgiving. So I watched an LP instead. Loved the story, but found the gameplay aspect barely playable.
Manlybadasshero hasn't done it yet, so in the end I just figured I'd give it a try, as the notes around the remake said the gameplay was overhauled. I was dying to see what new content there was.
I'm pleased to report that the gameplay is much less unforgiviing. And it is majorly revamped, so I'll go through it one by one.
First up, the gameplay. Originally in paranoiac the creature that followed you was this dead zombie thing that was extremely fast. You had to figure out the right hiding spot and if you didn't, you'd get flushed out and die. Now it's more like a shadow/void/static ghost thing that's actually kind of slow. There's a mechanic to make it slightly easier (taking your pills every day) and even in the hardest part of the game I was able to do it without wanting to pull my hair out.
This was a great improvement, I won't lie.
But at the same time, while it's more playable, it's actually less scary. Because it was easier it was less frustrating, but it also made it a different kind of game. So much so that I actually feel like it's left the horror genre. Like it's more supernatural/drama at this point. Several of of Uri's games can go along the line of "the TRUE horror was depression/mental illness!" in a way that's done well, but this remake really turned that up to 11. I'll go on this more with a discussion of the new bad end epilogue.
So, moving on, I've always liked Shinji. of course, it's a pretty small cast with some of the most important ones dead, but in general he's just really nice. Now his preseence is more expanded upon, and his personally is really changed. Now, he's like a nice everydude next door who's adorably awkward.
Also, probably one of my favorite reasons for liking him (and Miki/Shinji) is that he doesn't think less of her when she confesses that she's mentally ill and in general supports here when he can and even waits two years for her to get her mental health together all that time to wait to date her basically. Like he literally meets her at her worst, when she's grieving and depressed and potentially having hallucinations, completely hystertical at points and still loves her and supports her and that's just romantic. I was kind of hoping Uri would include that mentioned epilogue where they meet, but it's included in the character profiles at least.
There's also more background to who he was and what was going on with him.
One note is that Miki's mother is waaaay nicer. Like she has only one big blow up and the others seem nicer and it even says she eventually got psycological help for her hysteria. At the other time, she does some pretty horrible things, pushing her own sister to suicide.
So, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Because like I was fine with someone who pushed their sister to suicide not being redeemed.
The new ending and profiles make it more clear of a "or was it?" when her doctors diagnose her with schizophrenia. If anything, that new epilogue to the bad ending kind of implies that the ghost thing she saw was essentially a "crooked man" like from the Crooked man series--like a physical manifestation of her depression, guilt and grief, and that in the ending where Miki dies, Shinji was getting one as well. The author's notes outright say that the diagnosis of schziophrenia could be wrong.
In that it wasn't just a ghost but like a ghost + people's negative feelings manifested into some kind of revanant that hunts someone down in an attempt to release those feelings.
Or at times like, a ghost that feeds upon a person's own self-loathing/depression and meshes together to push them into suicide.
Other than that, there's some new puzzles, and the house is way streamlined. It always felt way too large for a random Japanese house. Original game had it feeling like a mansion. At least it had a reason for the random locked doors as opposed to some of the other games in this genre which just have me going "bwuh? WTF did this person randomly lock their doors?"
There's even a new section where you leave the house. It's actually one of the harder chase scenes. I was able to get through it on the first try, though~
I'm really eager to see the remake of Crooked Man. The story of that game was great, if not disjointed, but it had one of the major issues Uri has had with other games--namely, large empty rooms with nothing in them. The Hanged Man was especially bad for this.
Though, there's also The Boogie Man and The Sandman remakes to see.
Anyways, I really love RPGmaker/wolf editor games. Uri especially.
