[DJ]

AKA I'm finally getting around to playing this.

Long story short: Work's ramping up as it tends to do this time of year, and I've been coming home needing something to "unwind". Given that I don't drink and I've never really been one to binge-watch TV, my options are pretty much "read a complicated book" or "play a complicated game".

I know a lot of people unwind by playing something mindless that they don't have to think about terribly hard; I'm the dead opposite. I need something that will get me so engaged that it'll absorb all excess attention and that's actually quite relaxing to me. If something's dull or repetitive or predictable then I tend to just go through the rote motions while my mind's off doing something else and it doesn't work as escapism anymore.

So I started going down the list of stuff I "should" have played but never got around to and oh hey Deadly Premonition. Guess we'll crack that.



All I know about this game has come from briefly glancing at people's comments who've played it. It's been on my to-play list forever, and now seems like as good a time as any.

I beat the prologue, and as a huge Twin Peaks fan it's pretty clear already that they haven't chopped out nearly as much of the Rainy Woods we're-blatantly-stealing-from-Twin-Peaks as was advertised.

Combat's very easy so far, though I don't really care as this isn't a game one plays for the mechanics. York's weirdly nonplussed by being attacked by a bunch of these things:



That's about as far as I've gotten though.

Anyone want to go into specifics on what to expect? Anything I should or shouldn't do to proverbially get into character?
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[Intentionally Wrong]

Game never really gets difficult so much as "increasingly taxing", but that turns around really quick once you start getting some infinite weapons. I forget exactly how you unlock those, except that they're pretty obviously side-mission-type stuff. Maybe... maybe go back to previous investigation scenes after clearing? Like I said, I forgot.

There's some trading cards of the characters and game objects hidden all over the place. Feel free to collect them, but DO NOT read them from your collection unless you want spoilers.

Don't be afraid to use your cigarettes to advance time. Know where the various places you can sleep to advance to particular times of day are located, too. There's actually one (or two, I think?) located outside, but it's still safe to sleep there through the night, I think?

Somebody gave me a copy of the director's cut a while back, but I haven't been able to bring myself to play it, ever since Adilegian's observations woke me up to some of the problems this game has. Still, I can't deny that my first two times through it, I really enjoyed the vast majority of it.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[parker]

Collect all the bones as soon as the map opens up and before you run into the dalmation to get the infinite magnum
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[DJ]

I've only just completed the autopsy, and it's moving to what I'm assuming is going to be an action sequence after that (York's gone upstairs to have a cigarette).

Is it cool to just roam the map for a while and collect stuff and see the lay of the town? It seems like there's a timer going on but it's not super clear what that involves yet. Hunger hasn't dipped particularly low, nor has sleep, but I suppose that makes sense as I'm still at the beginning of the game.

Director's cut gives some bonus items you can use out the gate like suits that cut your hunger by 1/3rd and increase money drops substantially. Worth using (i.e. do they make the game less annoying), or will that fuck the balance up? This doesn't seem like a game that was particularly well balanced, even with the director's cut.
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[Cynic]

[DJ]

Can I get a Cliff's Notes on what these issues were? I'm curious.

I mean the game's clearly a complete and total mess, but I figured that was part of the experience.
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[Dark Age Iron Savior]

I think the issues mentioned above mainly have to do with the portrayal of females (and related subjects of violence/sexuality/identity in general) in the game, not the more conventional elements of game design. It may or may not be apparent to you as you play through it. There's a lot of interesting character/story stuff that has nothing to do with the problematic elements (mainly side-stuff), but the issues still exist in a speed-bump like fashion once you are aware of them.

It's a bit like the stuff we've gotten into lately about Kojima games (or Other M), only whereas Kojima mainly seems to be really bad at writing/understanding women in any capacity, and I personally still think that Metroid dude was mostly oblivious to what a mess he had made, some feel there's a certain disquieting sense that the malevolence in Deadly Premonition is willful and conscious.

Adilegian also complained about the action sequences, of course (combat and chase). Pretty much nobody really likes them. They supposedly weren't part of the original design and most any novel or compelling aspect of them is devalued or even ruined by some other part.

[DJ]

[wourme]

[diplo]

My positive opinion reversed after I'd finished DP. It'd been turning around more and more all the time, though - nothing sudden. I lost all connection with its supporters during the lauded Amazing Grace Happening.

Which version are you playing, DJ? iirc the PS3/PC release has a bug that causes every car you drive to forever make a horrible squealing sound. Not sure if it's fixable and/or if it's a bug that's present on every disc.

[Renfrew]

The amazing things it does with nature of the player-character interaction make it worth playing, despite everything else that may be wrong with it. It was the last game I truly got into, and that was almost three years ago now
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[Intentionally Wrong]

I cannot underscore enough how useful the guide Cynic linked to up there is. It has no spoilers, and its advice (including how to avoid certain game-breaking glitches) is solid gold. Read that thing A-S-A-P!
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[DJ]

[Kitten ClanClan]

anyone have some links to this discussion of the problematic content in the game that keep being alluded to?

i do feel deadly premonition does some awfully gross stuff, but i never felt like it was, as dais said some believe, "willful and conscious." there could have been (okay there probably or almost definitely were) some bits i perhaps didn't pick up on, but when i played it a couple of years ago, i'd say my overall experience was very positive. it did take me a while to get into the game, though, and i'm pretty sure i'd have completely lost my shit doing all the neat side-content if i didn't get the radio from george.
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[Swimmy]

Adi's narrative critiques start around here, note spoilers including of Twin Peaks contained therein. Looking back I guess people were more interested in Twin Peaks than the game's :( treatment of rape.
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[DJ]

[Kitten ClanClan]

dj, what is being discussed is largely dumped right at the very very end of the game.

swimmy, i've got to agree that thinking about that scene again with adi's framing in mind is pretty damning, but i still really fell in love with the cast of characters and their goofy interactions, and still really enjoyed most of the ending (and the rest of the game, for that matter).

i know quite a few people who i consider to be quite socially conscious that still really enjoyed the game, and i never really considered swery to be deliberately misogynist or hateful in what he did. emily genuinely seemed like her own character (mind you, like all the characters, heavily built on a few quirks) with her own agency in the game. i never got the vibe that she was written in as an accessory to developing york like i do from female characters in other japanese auteur's games (kamiya, kojima [especially kojima], suda51, etc.).

ultimately, i do still feel as though i could have a lot of my views changed on deadly premonition, but that will come with time as we see what else swery directs and as his ability to write female characters becomes more fleshed out with a library of examples.
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[DJ]

The idea of deciding to not like a game after the fact because someone brought up gender (or really anything) related issues down the road that hadn't been considered previously is quite strange to me, I'll admit. I tend to give games a lot more wiggle room in this regard than a lot of people, though, for better or worse. This isn't to say I don't have my own lines I draw where I'll stop enjoying something, but it has to be pretty fucking bad before I'll let it ruin a game for me provided it's doing other things I'm appreciative of.

Right now I'm digging the Twin Peaks vibe enough that I'm probably willing to shoehorn a lot of the clumsiness with female characters into that archetype. I'm not expecting the game to do it as well as Twin Peaks did, but I mean Twin Peaks was about the investigation into a girl who was sexually assaulted and then murdered and dumped on a beach; later you find out that she wasn't sexually assaulted, she was a willing participant in some pretty brutal stuff, possibly even up to the murder itself. The series goes back on this a bit because it's a pretty shocking point to make, but if that's the kind of ground that Rainy Woods Deadly Premonition is mining, I'm fully expecting some rather :/ shit to crop up.

We'll see, though. This is sitting within reach of me right now:



Love me some Twin Peaks.
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[diplo]

[DJ]

[Ronnoc]

[Intentionally Wrong]

The game has some issues, and I'd like to discuss them, but I feel like this is DJ's thread and I don't really want to influence his experience of the plot one way or another until he's finished the game. Looking forward to your write-ups, man; your game playthroughs are a vicarious joy.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Family Computer]

There's a 1,200 post thread on NeoGAF nitpicking the graphics of this game.
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3DS Friendcode: 2337-3480-4823
PSN: play2forget
This summer, become Buried In Games.

[DJ]

I haven't given up on this I swear. I'm working through this entire weekend (on that note oh my god you sons of bitches better be happy about this, those of you who know what I'm working on, because there is some BLOOD going into that sucker lemme tell you) but anyway I get a few days off soon-ish because Holidays don't give a fuck about submission schedules and our office closes down anyway, so I plan on diving back in in earnest then.
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[Intentionally Wrong]

:(
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Ymer]

PSA that this game is now part of The Indie Gala bundle if you pay at least like $5.
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[Toptube]