It seems that this self-quarantine period is really bringing out all the things Riz does not do anymore.
I was looking through my blog and it surprised me that I wrote something back in 2011! Honestly, the earliest post in this blog that I still remember is the one about my high school class? So I checked what the post was…
It was a game review! About Yume Nikki! (Which I still love to this day, btw.)
These past few days (Four? Five?), I’ve been fixating on this particular horror game. I actually have known this game since, idk, maybe last year? What I find funny is even though this is an Indonesian horror game, I first found out about the game from YouTube and not from an Indonesian channel! I’m subscribed to John Wolfe’s channel (one of my favorite gaming channels), and one day I saw him upload a playthrough video of the demo and needless to say, I was super excited! The only Indonesian horror game I knew at the time was DreadOut, and Pamali looks like it got a fresh take.
Now, I love horror games. I grew up watching my uncle and cousins play the Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Siren series on PS2, and I started playing Fatal Frame in elementary school. To be fair, my sister played it the first time she learned how to pick up a controller. There’s just something about my family and horror games, I dunno.
What got me interested in Pamali when I watched the demo? First, it’s the only Indonesian horror game I knew other than DreadOut at the time. I’ve always thought DreadOut was hella creepy, heard a lot about the game cause one of my cousins got to do an internship at the studio, but never actually played the game. I was too spooked to actually try it, but after a while I realized that it’s more than that.
I suck at playing vidya games.
If y’all haven’t noticed, I focus a lot on games without combat/action. Other than Fatal Frame and Silent Hill, ESPECIALLY PC games, what are the other games I play? Yume Nikki, and its bunch of fangames. osu!, which is NOT Valid. I like Team Fortress 2. My friends were into TF2, even my college friends know that I’m into TF2 and will be like “Oh yea!! She likes TF2!!”. But do I actually play TF2? Nope! Farthest I got is the practice mode, nothing more.
(Maybe also because I don’t have friends to play with, but y’know.)
Alright, so with the whole no-combat/action gameplay, I was sold. Hey, it was basically Choose Your Own Adventure but spooky! Look at all the choices you have while interacting with the number of items in the game! Also, look at all the items you can interact with in the game! One of my favorite things about playing vidya games, from Fatal Frame to Silent Hill, is interacting with literally any background items I can interact with. And in this game, there’s just so many! And you can choose between doing something or giving a comment…
…wait, you’ll get a whole report about all the things you did during the gameplay? A report about how respectful you are in a haunted house? They explain to you about what you should and should not do, based on local customs and superstitions?
Just by looking at the ending report, I was immediately sold. Double sold? That, plus the setting! Triple sold! Imagine playing a horror game, but instead of Raccoon City or some shit, it could’ve been set at your grandma’s house. Spooky as hell.
I remember thinking to myself, that’s it, I’ll definitely keep a watch on this game if they release the full version!
(Didn’t think yet of buying and actually playing the game at the time cause I was a broke college student. Maybe watch another YouTuber’s gameplay of it, I dunno.)
But somehow I lost track and more than a year later, they’ve released the full game PLUS two cool DLCs, and I had no idea.
I did see John Wolfe’s gameplay video, but I watched the first few minutes of it and I dunno, I think it coincided with me writing my thesis? I didn’t exactly remember watching it till the end. I also don’t know anything about the DLCs.
Fast forward to March 2020, or to be more exact, last week! So, in case you live in a cave, COVID-19 outbreak is happening everywhere, including Jakarta. Jakarta gets hit pretty bad, and my office has made its employees work from home starting last week.
Naturally, I got more free time, especially from my commuting time! FYI, commuting takes around four hours of my time every day, so working from home gives me some free time before work starts and after work ends.
What do I spend it with? Not continuing my hobby. Not finishing my cross-stitch project. Yes watching random YouTube videos!
Soon enough, I got into a horror game gameplay watching spree. And it introduced me to two new Indonesian horror games: DreadOut 2 and Pulang: Insanity. I was in awe cause both of them look hella gorgeous. Indonesian horror stories put into games! Sexy!
So I was interested in them, but it was more like a game I’d rather watch other people play, y’know? Like Silent Hill and Resident Evil were to me… and Fatal Frame now as well. Anyways, watching those two gameplays reminds me of another Indonesian horror game that I’ve seen last year but forgot about… hmm… I wonder what that was.
Oh right, Pamali! So I looked it up, and I found out that the full game is out, and it has two released DLCs already. I found several channels doing playthrough videos, I decided to watch one… turns out they did all 30+ endings (one of the unique aspect of the game), and I stuck with it. Like, all the way from the first video to the last, even though they’re all at least 30 minutes each.
Next day I told my mom and my dad and my sister and Instagram: Hey, guys, I’m gonna buy this really cool game. One major obstacle, though, is my shitty laptop. The game itself doesn’t exactly need the most high-end, fastest, most cutting edge gaming PC to operate, but it does help to have something a little more than a toaster. My laptop is… somewhere above a toaster, but not quite there yet.
So I figured that to get the DLC, first I gotta buy the game! Problem is, I’ve never bought a game off Steam before! All the games I have in my laptop are free, like TF2. So yadda yadda, I looked up how to buy games off Steam without a CC, and only a few hours later, the game was downloaded!
(Please don’t ask me out to shop or travel impulsively, I might say yes.)
In short, I’ve played it for three days now and have unlocked… only half of all the endings so far, but I really love the game!
So what aspects do I love about Pamali?
(Switching to Jaksel mode!)
- First, the setting. Oh lawdy the setting! Gila sih, jadi kan sebelum ini gue juga pernah nonton gameplaynya Home Sweet Home (the Thai horror game) ya. I was spooked to no end soalnya settingnya kan di rumah gitu ya, dan somehow feelnya berasa… lokal banget. APALAGI INI CUY. Pertama liat depan rumahnya aja berasa, this could’ve had my grandma’s house as the setting and it will look the same!! Belom hantunya, belom backsound sama musik-musiknya kalo lagi ada yang serem. Pertama mainin gamenya pen nanges gua.
- Second, the gameplay! Sudah dijelaskan sebelumnya bahwa Rizka alergi terhadap too much action (pasti mati mulu), dan berhubung di game ini satu-satunya yang bisa bikin mati adalah being disrespectful and stupid as all fuck, Rizka aman lah.
- PLUS, BERSIH BERSIH!!!! OMG SENENG BANGET BERSIH BERSIHNYA GUYS sumpah ya the house was literally coated with so much dust, lantainya kotor, di langit-langit banyak sawang, trus bisa dibersihin dong hehehehehe walaupun menurut Rizka itu lantainya perlu di-pel lagi at least 3 kali tapi lumayan banget sih abis dibersihin.
- The backstory is also really good? I love the whole looking through diaries and letters to slowly piece together one by one what actually happened. The main character was absent a lot in the family (spoilers?) and in a way, returning to his house gets him a chance to figure out what actually happened.
- The folklore aspect is the most interesting aspect for me, tbh. I’ve always loved learning about culture and customs through media, be it books, or movies, or games, and seeing my own culture put into a game like this was so exciting! It’s also interesting that I still learn new stuff playing this hahahah cause my own family is already detached super far from traditional customs like the stuff shown in this game.
The only downside is:
- My mom was pretty upset about the lampu petromak thing wqwqwq it’s called lampu tempel guys, at least according to her. Lampu petromak is, apparently, a whole different thing?
I guess that’ll be enough for now! I’ve already written so much more than I thought I could wqwqwq it’s really exciting to be able to write about something different like a game review. Look forward to more reviews! I’m planning to write much more, although maybe not video games because I don’t play a lot of them hahahah. I’m thinking maybe books or albums? I’ve always wanted to write about Florence and the Machine, had a draft about that lying untouched since idk, 2015.
Anyways, that’s all! Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom, I sure hope y’all get to gain something from this. Expect more from me heheheh I’m bored as hell in quarantine and I Will Not Stop!
ak.da.si 