I did a Twitter thread chronicling all the games I finished in 2022 with the thought that it might replace these massive end-of-year lists that I've been doing for close to ten years now. What actually happened is that I compiled the whole Twitter thread and still did a huge entry on top of that. I think it really just came down to having a lot of extra thoughts I just didn't have a home for on Twitter. Maybe this year I can split the difference and just do little blog posts for each new game I finish. I don't actually intend these entries to be as long as some of my more traditional blog posts, but I would also really like to have the flexibility to write as much as I want on any given game.
Having said that, there's not actually a ton to say about Cthulhu Saves Christmas. It's a retro-style JRPG much in the vein of previous Zeboyd Games releases from the mid-2000s like Breath of Death VII and of course the original Cthulhu title, Cthulhu Saves the World. Like that title, CSC is filled with self-referential humor and extremely frequent breaking of the fourth wall. It would become grating if not for the fact that the game is only about eight hours long. It also brings back its predecessor's interesting random encounter mechanic. Random encounters are limited per area, meaning if you're having a hard time finding your way, you'll eventually just run out of encounters for that area and you can explore to your heart's content. On top of that, there's a gauge that fills to let you know when another encounter is coming. If you hit the Action button when an exclamation point appears, you can avoid encounters entirely. I generally think the random encounter mechanic isn't good, but I do like it when developers come up with creative ways to tackle its weaknesses. I actually prefer this design choice over something like Bravely Default which just gives you the option to turn off encounters entirely. This method gives you choice while still imbuing that choice with gameplay. On top of that, limiting encounters prevents subverting game balance by leveling up too much.
Unlike Cthulhu Saves the World, which plays very much like Dragon Quest, Cthulhu Saves Christmas has been essentially redesigned from the ground up to function more as a hybrid between that game and Zeboyd's 2017 title, Cosmic Star Heroine. Each of the game's four characters learns a pool of skills as the game progresses and you choose which of those abilities to set to up to four slots in combat. Like CSH, abilities go on cooldown when used and must be recharged if they are to be used again. On top of that, each character enters Hyper mode on a given turn, which unlocks various bonuses and effects for each skill. The strategy comes from making sure a certain skill is available for use on the Hyper turn to get the best effect. It's a good combat system, but I felt it worked not quite as well here compared to Cosmic Star Heroine because you'll generally be fighting many more encounters in each dungeon comparatively. I think I actually would have preferred something a little simpler to match the breezy tone of the game.
Either way, it's a very silly, cute little game that I don't regret playing at all. I played it because I fully plan to play a lot more lightweight games this year and this is only the start.
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