Just shy of 140 hours of well researched technological singularity pondering, fun characters and weirdo romance, glued together in a punchy 2D action game with a great make-a-combo system.

Despite appearances it's not a mech game in the super robot sense (quite frankly the mech design is terrible). But Baldr's Sky is a story of everything beyond human. It explores almost all ideas of trans-humanism in some form. The mecha are called simulacrum, they are... virtual other bodies used for fighting. Not what Baudrillard had in mind. But his ideas are reflected in the work and thrown around constantly. Just as you think they're just riffing on The Matrix another completely different thought exercise pops up and proves Baldr's Sky is good enough to sit alongside it's contemporaries in fiction. It is also completely a product of the mid-2000s post dotcom bubble sci-fi. As a fan of that era, I love it. But it's dated as heck.

An extremely niche, extremely long, genre-piece in an already niche genre of gaming. I am so glad this exists. It really shouldn't.

PS I never want to read about Schrödinger's cat again. 3rd or 4th visual novel in a row now.

The effect when you slot all the clues in place is one of the best things in gaming.

The bottom bar turns green, a nice charm plays and the used up clues disappear from the row of collected things in a classic power-point inspired fizz fade.

So understated and yet deeply motivating and reaffirming. Genius.