According to its introduction, popol maya is “not just a game” but a belief system. Supposedly, its tenets are based on Maya mythology, though it flagrantly misinterprets everything about that culture save for a vaguely tropical setting. The game stumbles onto its own ideas instead, attempting to solve that universal question of how to find meaning in a disorderly, malevolent world.
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Very much an interesting experiment in the style of games like Lack of Love. The soundtrack itself was supervised by the late, great Ryuichi Sakamato (according to a Japanese website.) The music was composed by Takuma Sato, who deserves to be more well known, as the soundtrack to this game is something that would not be foreign to the most ambient, relaxing moments of Donkey Kong Country.
I think Ryuichi Sakamato might have taken from this game in his experience directing L.O.L, and the similarities do not start only with the music, but with the main idea of the game itself: helping animals. It's one of those "Symbiosis Simulators". It's an interesting balance here between semi-realistic animals (like a pretty realistic Axolotl) and crazy, somewhat far off surrealist creatures which only resemble their counterparts.
We have a huge cow with, uh, 8 udders which have the potential to hurt you (I'll spare you the details). This is the same cow that is represented by the cool boxart. There is a black rabbit, that looks like something out of Lack of Love, with it's minimalistic, polka-dot design riff on the form of a real rabbit. The whole game oscillates on the spectrum of realism, and more often then not it goes towards the unreal, surrealistic side. It's an uncanny valley where it feels just real enough, however.
The spaces you walk around in are surprisingly expansive. Granted, they are literally just prerendered backdrops that you walk through (albeit beautiful ones). However, based on where you walk forward in said backdrops, you will be led to different parts of the environment. The environments are all biomes, and you get there by typing in a 3-string word on a pillar at the start of the game. The biomes are aquatic, subterranean (kind of deserts and caves), a lush forest-like area, and the literal last area of the game. You can spawn in any of these, as it is mostly random.
Now, to the main gimmick of the game, which is a kind of proto-Scribblenauts idea where you can type in any verb, and your avatar (the weird squiggly spiraled golden triangle guy) will perform the action. You need to type in the right verbs to help the animals. Sometimes, it's simple, other times its frustrating. Even at the very beginning of the game, I was stuck. In my frustration, I typed in "go", and finally a kind of 'movement board' appeared which allows you to move in various directions in the game, and I was shocked. In a good way, rest assured. I felt like a magician (though it was the game doing the heavy lifting).
Luckily, there is a really in-depth analysis and walkthrough on youtube by a user named Dilan. Mad props to him for his and his friends determination in not only emailing people involved but pushing through and helping people complete the game.
I'm shelving it, but please know that I will finish this aesthetically wonderful and mythologically/spiritually rich game (even if the mythology is nooot very reflective of actual
Mayan belief systems).
I think Ryuichi Sakamato might have taken from this game in his experience directing L.O.L, and the similarities do not start only with the music, but with the main idea of the game itself: helping animals. It's one of those "Symbiosis Simulators". It's an interesting balance here between semi-realistic animals (like a pretty realistic Axolotl) and crazy, somewhat far off surrealist creatures which only resemble their counterparts.
We have a huge cow with, uh, 8 udders which have the potential to hurt you (I'll spare you the details). This is the same cow that is represented by the cool boxart. There is a black rabbit, that looks like something out of Lack of Love, with it's minimalistic, polka-dot design riff on the form of a real rabbit. The whole game oscillates on the spectrum of realism, and more often then not it goes towards the unreal, surrealistic side. It's an uncanny valley where it feels just real enough, however.
The spaces you walk around in are surprisingly expansive. Granted, they are literally just prerendered backdrops that you walk through (albeit beautiful ones). However, based on where you walk forward in said backdrops, you will be led to different parts of the environment. The environments are all biomes, and you get there by typing in a 3-string word on a pillar at the start of the game. The biomes are aquatic, subterranean (kind of deserts and caves), a lush forest-like area, and the literal last area of the game. You can spawn in any of these, as it is mostly random.
Now, to the main gimmick of the game, which is a kind of proto-Scribblenauts idea where you can type in any verb, and your avatar (the weird squiggly spiraled golden triangle guy) will perform the action. You need to type in the right verbs to help the animals. Sometimes, it's simple, other times its frustrating. Even at the very beginning of the game, I was stuck. In my frustration, I typed in "go", and finally a kind of 'movement board' appeared which allows you to move in various directions in the game, and I was shocked. In a good way, rest assured. I felt like a magician (though it was the game doing the heavy lifting).
Luckily, there is a really in-depth analysis and walkthrough on youtube by a user named Dilan. Mad props to him for his and his friends determination in not only emailing people involved but pushing through and helping people complete the game.
I'm shelving it, but please know that I will finish this aesthetically wonderful and mythologically/spiritually rich game (even if the mythology is nooot very reflective of actual
Mayan belief systems).