Do you remember?
Do you remember it? That tale about pain...
Inmost is a profoundly sad game, it tackles loss and pain in a really mature and respectful way, its bleak, yet it's absolutely beautiful at times. I was left speechless at times at the sheer sight of what I was experiencing, and it did things I've never expected a game of this kind to ever do... yet its heartbreaking that I cannot say that it's amazing. It’s great, don't get me wrong, but I can clearly see the masterpiece it just doesn't manage to fully be, and it’s even more heartbreaking that it's not a matter that it bites more that it can chew, like in so many other instances with other games, but rather that it chews it very slow, and then by the end EXTREMELY fast and then it spits it out. But let's take it in parts.
Inmost does something really curious, as even tho it technically has a level-by-level progression, with clear parts meant to be experienced in a certain order, it also has various elements of the ''Metroidvania'' genre, with all of its parts being interconnected and you getting different items as you progress and these being the key for your progress as well as getting the different collectables. It's a puzzle-oriented game, with light platforming and combat being practically out of the question, which leads to a very interesting game of cat and mouse with the enemies scattered through-out this dim world and some cool chase sequences. Even in the more narrative focused sections of the child or the times that there's combat when you take control of the knight, puzzles are always the focus, and for the most part they are super-well designed! They feel integrated in the context of the environments and the feeling you get after realizing what you got to do is sometimes very rewarding! They are far from the most complex thing in the world, the game as a whole is not that hard to be honest, and there are bits here and there that can actually be quite frustrating and not fun, like the bell puzzle. Plus, I sometimes couldn’t find a way to progress through a puzzle or to the next area the game wanted me to go, it happened a couple of times and every single one of them it was because the element I was supposed to interact with meshed into the background, but honestly, that seems like a fair price to pay in exchange for such a presentation.
This might just be one of the best pixel-art I’ve ever seen in any videogame. Everything is just so beautifully detailed, and even the most simplistic designs, like the enemies, worked really well. The game uses color extremely effectively, and most of it being shades of blue, green and black made it so when other colors were added into the mix the more incredibly impactful, and all of that combined with the fluid animations and simply spectacular soundtrack and sound effects, it amounts to an experience that can evoke something simply by looking at it, which it may seem a silly compliment to give since a LOT of games have that quality, but with this one it's especially true. It may have the occasional visual glitch and the aforementioned problem with not being able to distinguish certain things from the background. But I really can’t complain that much when I’m feasting my eyes with such a beautiful yet sad world.
Yet, where Inmost really shines, is it its narrative and story. I went in already expecting a rich and mature story, and I STILL was incredibly surprised in the best of ways. As I said at the beginning, this game tackles bot loss and pain, and it does it in a slow and masterful way. Piece by piece, the true meaning of this world and characters is shown to us, and it’s interesting as it it’s upsetting, I felt extremely torn seeing this characters suffer, I felt bad for pushing that kid accidentally, I felt terrible seeing how the child in the house suffered, was confused and surrounded by broken people with a broken pass, and the final not the game leaves on it’s so fucking astonishing and inspiring… and it’s because all of that that the fact it takes a lot of missteps in the way of telling that story breaks my heart so much. I got the feeling that halfway through they realized they didn’t have enough time for telling everything they wanted to tell, and as such we get a lot of flashbacks and changing of characters that happen out of nowhere and a lot of unnecessary narration that just detracts from what it would be some of the most striking moments both visually and narratively wise ever put into videogame. For most of the game I was left conflicted ‘cause some of the story is made clear as it progresses, and some parts of it just don’t seem to fit or the message to be that clear or even good, and even tho in the ending it all comes across and nothing is left up in the air… it’s because you just watched a 10 plus minute long cinematic explaining everything, instead of just being shown little by little across the game, which was what it was doing up until that point, and it just feels… rushed, and while it ties everything nicely and the message hits you like a truck at full speed, the long term impact it left me was just this sensation that it went too fast, and honestly, I would have been fine with sacrificing with some of the most obnoxious puzzles in favor of getting more development, and being shown instead of told. Even the collectables seem jarring, context wise at its core they do make sense, collecting fragments of pain and drawn memories, but it’s the way you get them that doesn’t really make sense. You are told that everything that is alive feels pain in this world, but… why do you get ‘’pain’’ from rocks and chests? And why the hell do I get paper from mining stones? I absolutely know that this just sounds petty and void as criticism, but with a game that tackles so much and it does make sense, it makes it so the ways it contradicts itself or it doesn’t make sense feel the more apparent and non-sensical, which its sadly a statement I wished could only be applied to the collectables.
And saying this tears me apart ‘cause I wished I could say this game was perfect, that its without flaws, because I really mean it when I say Inmost was such a emotional experience, the messages it wants to share are so beautiful and that are needed to say, and parts of them really hit close to me and I’m sure they will do for so many people, and if you love this game I absolutely get it, I loved parts of it too, but I have to be fair with myself and say that I did not like some of them as well. And still, I just think this one is really especial. I can totally understand arguments of both sides for not liking and adoring this game, but one thing I think some can agree upon, it’s in that this is a truly unique game. If you are in a good place mentally right now, I really recommend it, I can’t do it for people that are not, as it tackles some incredibly serious and upsetting matters, this is a tough one to play, for me in more ways than one, and I hope someone out there can see beyond its flaws and encounter a masterpiece, or not and not like it, but still think about it and how could games tackle this themes more or even better. Either way, Inmost its one of those that I will not forget about in a while, and damn did it made me tear up a bit.
…I was wrong.
It’s a tale about love
I will tell you… tell you once again
Do you remember it? That tale about pain...
Inmost is a profoundly sad game, it tackles loss and pain in a really mature and respectful way, its bleak, yet it's absolutely beautiful at times. I was left speechless at times at the sheer sight of what I was experiencing, and it did things I've never expected a game of this kind to ever do... yet its heartbreaking that I cannot say that it's amazing. It’s great, don't get me wrong, but I can clearly see the masterpiece it just doesn't manage to fully be, and it’s even more heartbreaking that it's not a matter that it bites more that it can chew, like in so many other instances with other games, but rather that it chews it very slow, and then by the end EXTREMELY fast and then it spits it out. But let's take it in parts.
Inmost does something really curious, as even tho it technically has a level-by-level progression, with clear parts meant to be experienced in a certain order, it also has various elements of the ''Metroidvania'' genre, with all of its parts being interconnected and you getting different items as you progress and these being the key for your progress as well as getting the different collectables. It's a puzzle-oriented game, with light platforming and combat being practically out of the question, which leads to a very interesting game of cat and mouse with the enemies scattered through-out this dim world and some cool chase sequences. Even in the more narrative focused sections of the child or the times that there's combat when you take control of the knight, puzzles are always the focus, and for the most part they are super-well designed! They feel integrated in the context of the environments and the feeling you get after realizing what you got to do is sometimes very rewarding! They are far from the most complex thing in the world, the game as a whole is not that hard to be honest, and there are bits here and there that can actually be quite frustrating and not fun, like the bell puzzle. Plus, I sometimes couldn’t find a way to progress through a puzzle or to the next area the game wanted me to go, it happened a couple of times and every single one of them it was because the element I was supposed to interact with meshed into the background, but honestly, that seems like a fair price to pay in exchange for such a presentation.
This might just be one of the best pixel-art I’ve ever seen in any videogame. Everything is just so beautifully detailed, and even the most simplistic designs, like the enemies, worked really well. The game uses color extremely effectively, and most of it being shades of blue, green and black made it so when other colors were added into the mix the more incredibly impactful, and all of that combined with the fluid animations and simply spectacular soundtrack and sound effects, it amounts to an experience that can evoke something simply by looking at it, which it may seem a silly compliment to give since a LOT of games have that quality, but with this one it's especially true. It may have the occasional visual glitch and the aforementioned problem with not being able to distinguish certain things from the background. But I really can’t complain that much when I’m feasting my eyes with such a beautiful yet sad world.
Yet, where Inmost really shines, is it its narrative and story. I went in already expecting a rich and mature story, and I STILL was incredibly surprised in the best of ways. As I said at the beginning, this game tackles bot loss and pain, and it does it in a slow and masterful way. Piece by piece, the true meaning of this world and characters is shown to us, and it’s interesting as it it’s upsetting, I felt extremely torn seeing this characters suffer, I felt bad for pushing that kid accidentally, I felt terrible seeing how the child in the house suffered, was confused and surrounded by broken people with a broken pass, and the final not the game leaves on it’s so fucking astonishing and inspiring… and it’s because all of that that the fact it takes a lot of missteps in the way of telling that story breaks my heart so much. I got the feeling that halfway through they realized they didn’t have enough time for telling everything they wanted to tell, and as such we get a lot of flashbacks and changing of characters that happen out of nowhere and a lot of unnecessary narration that just detracts from what it would be some of the most striking moments both visually and narratively wise ever put into videogame. For most of the game I was left conflicted ‘cause some of the story is made clear as it progresses, and some parts of it just don’t seem to fit or the message to be that clear or even good, and even tho in the ending it all comes across and nothing is left up in the air… it’s because you just watched a 10 plus minute long cinematic explaining everything, instead of just being shown little by little across the game, which was what it was doing up until that point, and it just feels… rushed, and while it ties everything nicely and the message hits you like a truck at full speed, the long term impact it left me was just this sensation that it went too fast, and honestly, I would have been fine with sacrificing with some of the most obnoxious puzzles in favor of getting more development, and being shown instead of told. Even the collectables seem jarring, context wise at its core they do make sense, collecting fragments of pain and drawn memories, but it’s the way you get them that doesn’t really make sense. You are told that everything that is alive feels pain in this world, but… why do you get ‘’pain’’ from rocks and chests? And why the hell do I get paper from mining stones? I absolutely know that this just sounds petty and void as criticism, but with a game that tackles so much and it does make sense, it makes it so the ways it contradicts itself or it doesn’t make sense feel the more apparent and non-sensical, which its sadly a statement I wished could only be applied to the collectables.
And saying this tears me apart ‘cause I wished I could say this game was perfect, that its without flaws, because I really mean it when I say Inmost was such a emotional experience, the messages it wants to share are so beautiful and that are needed to say, and parts of them really hit close to me and I’m sure they will do for so many people, and if you love this game I absolutely get it, I loved parts of it too, but I have to be fair with myself and say that I did not like some of them as well. And still, I just think this one is really especial. I can totally understand arguments of both sides for not liking and adoring this game, but one thing I think some can agree upon, it’s in that this is a truly unique game. If you are in a good place mentally right now, I really recommend it, I can’t do it for people that are not, as it tackles some incredibly serious and upsetting matters, this is a tough one to play, for me in more ways than one, and I hope someone out there can see beyond its flaws and encounter a masterpiece, or not and not like it, but still think about it and how could games tackle this themes more or even better. Either way, Inmost its one of those that I will not forget about in a while, and damn did it made me tear up a bit.
…I was wrong.
It’s a tale about love
I will tell you… tell you once again
A história me pegou de surpresa com muito mais profundidade que achei que teria. Mas no geral, achei o jogo bem redondo, bem fechado em si mesmo, gostei da alternância de histórias e como tudo é amarrado no fim.
Do ponto de vista técnico gosto mais dos momentos com o homem adulto, procurar os pontos de dor pelo mapa, resolver pequenos puzzles e conectar um mapa que está quase sempre aberto para ser explorado. Os outros dois pontos de vista me capturaram igualmente pela história mas a gameplay é mais fraquinha e desinteressante.
Do ponto de vista técnico gosto mais dos momentos com o homem adulto, procurar os pontos de dor pelo mapa, resolver pequenos puzzles e conectar um mapa que está quase sempre aberto para ser explorado. Os outros dois pontos de vista me capturaram igualmente pela história mas a gameplay é mais fraquinha e desinteressante.
i pushed a cat down a ledge
Review EN/PTBR
A story about pain that is very well constructed and enigmatic from beginning to end, following 3 characters with very different paths but who all convey on the same feeling.
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Uma história sobre dor e luto muito bem construída e enigmatíca de começo a fim acompanhando 3 personagens com caminhos bem distindos mas que todos transmitem o mesmo sentimento.
A story about pain that is very well constructed and enigmatic from beginning to end, following 3 characters with very different paths but who all convey on the same feeling.
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Uma história sobre dor e luto muito bem construída e enigmatíca de começo a fim acompanhando 3 personagens com caminhos bem distindos mas que todos transmitem o mesmo sentimento.
Vorab an alle Interessierten eine Content Warnung zu wirkich tiefgehenden Themen wie häusliche Gewalt, Suizid und etlich weiteres. Schaut lieber vorher mal bei doesthedogdie.com rein und passt auf euch auf.
Definitv spielenswert, habe mich aber noch nicht richtig sortiert, um mehr zu schreiben.
Darum nur für alle ebenso Verwirrten hier ein Video, das die Story nochmal auseinander dröselt und mir zumindest etwas mehr Klarheit verschafft hat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhlt2Mjd4vA
Definitv spielenswert, habe mich aber noch nicht richtig sortiert, um mehr zu schreiben.
Darum nur für alle ebenso Verwirrten hier ein Video, das die Story nochmal auseinander dröselt und mir zumindest etwas mehr Klarheit verschafft hat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhlt2Mjd4vA
pain
I finished this one in a single. Which is an indication of both its length (around 4 hours) but also how gripping its story and presentation is.
Good puzzles, great music, fantastic visuals, and a deep and somewhat disturbing and touching story.
Good puzzles, great music, fantastic visuals, and a deep and somewhat disturbing and touching story.
a ambientação amarga funciona muito bem e as animações são LINDAS. A histórinha funciona ok e até que fiquei surpresa com o quão efetiva é a movimentação dura dos personagens, funciona bem pros puzzles e pro terror.
Legalzinho :)
Legalzinho :)
One of the best retro looking games. The gameplay is this strange mix of puzzles, combat, and lightning fast platforming sections that’ll end in many deaths. I found the story engaging and morose, though I don’t remember the details, given I played it years ago.
The one issue I have is the tedious walking segments as the old man.
The one issue I have is the tedious walking segments as the old man.
Inmost weaves a heartbreaking narrative with some of my favorite pixel graphics I’ve ever seen.
There's a good number of scares and heart racing moments. I am a member of weenie hut jr. and jump at any loud sound but the sense of urgency from the game was real. This game has such good impact. Enemies can move swiftly and when they connect, either with a wall or with you, it can be felt. It combines its depressing narrative, dreary atmosphere, beautiful art and animations, with an impeccable sound design to place you into this dangerous dark world. Banging on doors feels as though it's shaking your house. And even with such limited graphics the sense of fear is visceral. That’s what makes it a great game.
I would recommend it but there’s some glaring issues I couldn’t overlook.
Collectibles have no part in a game like this. It does a disservice and somehow feels insecure. As if without them it wouldn’t fit into the medium of video games. It took me out of the experience and at a certain point I gave up on them entirely. I was somewhat actively avoiding them like it was a silent protest to the idea.
The game itself is pretty linear. It does intersect and cross over itself often but I did not have a sense of exploration. I could have loaded into each section of the game individually, solved a puzzle, and then loaded into the next without much being lost. The connected paths and doorways seemed like a courtesy.
The major downfall for me, personally, is the ending. I love how the story wraps up. Allegory is great but I found the game played its cards in a way that didn't belittle the player. But unfortunately it does so with a long cutscene. I thought the game did a fantastic job having gameplay elements while the story was being told, even something as little as walking the character from left to right yourself instead of having the game do it. This is gone from the ending. I sat down my controller and would glance at it every once in a while as the sad puzzle pieces fell into place. And this ending wasn't done without action either. It has a great action sequence. Better than anything you play in the game itself. And I really wished I was playing that scene but there was my blue xbox controller, sadly lying there next to my keyboard that needs a good cleaning, wishing for a chance to be used. The next time I touched it, it was to close out of the game. Honestly, a more heartbreaking tale than the game itself.
There's a good number of scares and heart racing moments. I am a member of weenie hut jr. and jump at any loud sound but the sense of urgency from the game was real. This game has such good impact. Enemies can move swiftly and when they connect, either with a wall or with you, it can be felt. It combines its depressing narrative, dreary atmosphere, beautiful art and animations, with an impeccable sound design to place you into this dangerous dark world. Banging on doors feels as though it's shaking your house. And even with such limited graphics the sense of fear is visceral. That’s what makes it a great game.
I would recommend it but there’s some glaring issues I couldn’t overlook.
Collectibles have no part in a game like this. It does a disservice and somehow feels insecure. As if without them it wouldn’t fit into the medium of video games. It took me out of the experience and at a certain point I gave up on them entirely. I was somewhat actively avoiding them like it was a silent protest to the idea.
The game itself is pretty linear. It does intersect and cross over itself often but I did not have a sense of exploration. I could have loaded into each section of the game individually, solved a puzzle, and then loaded into the next without much being lost. The connected paths and doorways seemed like a courtesy.
The major downfall for me, personally, is the ending. I love how the story wraps up. Allegory is great but I found the game played its cards in a way that didn't belittle the player. But unfortunately it does so with a long cutscene. I thought the game did a fantastic job having gameplay elements while the story was being told, even something as little as walking the character from left to right yourself instead of having the game do it. This is gone from the ending. I sat down my controller and would glance at it every once in a while as the sad puzzle pieces fell into place. And this ending wasn't done without action either. It has a great action sequence. Better than anything you play in the game itself. And I really wished I was playing that scene but there was my blue xbox controller, sadly lying there next to my keyboard that needs a good cleaning, wishing for a chance to be used. The next time I touched it, it was to close out of the game. Honestly, a more heartbreaking tale than the game itself.
I really enjoyed this one, playing through in a single sitting (approx 3 hours to complete). This emotional and spooky tale is split between three playable characters, a young girl, a knight, and an old man (who has the majority of the runtime). Each play quite differently, with a focus on narrative, action and light puzzle platforming respectively.
The atmosphere is off the chart, with the pixel perfect greyscale aesthetic, haunting soundtrack and crunchy sound design. The enemies and encounters are suitably spooky, and navigating the fantastically grim environments is a delight, especially when the rain kicks in during the second half.
The ending sequence is my only major complaint. Approximately 10 minutes of cutscenes wrap up the game, feeling to me like the development budget ran out. If this sequence had been playable I'd have likely scored this a 4.5 (especially the knights story where it appears a final boss was changed to a cutscene).
Dark and depressing but with a final message of love, this falls just short of greatness.
The atmosphere is off the chart, with the pixel perfect greyscale aesthetic, haunting soundtrack and crunchy sound design. The enemies and encounters are suitably spooky, and navigating the fantastically grim environments is a delight, especially when the rain kicks in during the second half.
The ending sequence is my only major complaint. Approximately 10 minutes of cutscenes wrap up the game, feeling to me like the development budget ran out. If this sequence had been playable I'd have likely scored this a 4.5 (especially the knights story where it appears a final boss was changed to a cutscene).
Dark and depressing but with a final message of love, this falls just short of greatness.
I liked this game. It does what Little Misfortune failed to do - discuss very difficult topics in a way that is engaging, interesting, and doesn't make you feel bad.
I don't want to say much about this game except it does a phenomenal job of taking you on this journey through this unique world and exploring a very difficult topic. My only real critique would be how, "out of nowhere" the ending is.
Out of nowhere isn't really fair because they do a pretty good job of hinting at it throughout, but it takes a pretty dramatic turn at the end. Still, a good game that I'd recommend playing if you can handle the dark themes.
I don't want to say much about this game except it does a phenomenal job of taking you on this journey through this unique world and exploring a very difficult topic. My only real critique would be how, "out of nowhere" the ending is.
Out of nowhere isn't really fair because they do a pretty good job of hinting at it throughout, but it takes a pretty dramatic turn at the end. Still, a good game that I'd recommend playing if you can handle the dark themes.
cutting grass and breaking rocks produce human suffering
This review contains spoilers
Inmost is a beautiful metaphoric story about a couple and their two daughters. The gameplay is relaxing and not really too much to learn, it's a simple game with a complex tale. I love when I'm clueless about everything and you're somewhat trying to puzzle everything together but it's almost impossible and then at the end, boom, suddenly everything makes sense. I think as someone who has lived with depression for many years, this game's dialogue spoke deeply to me. I think Inmost is an extremely underrated indie and should be talked about more.
This game was enjoyable, but seemed to try to add too many stories and components, making the story hard to follow and gameplay feeling incomplete.
Inmost did surprise me, as I’ve never experienced a disturbing and heavy weighing story in this format and it did really work well. Mainly because the sound design is superb (seriously, play this with good headphones on), but also because there is a lot of detail in the world building and animations. You play 3 different characters and all of them have a different skill-set, making the gameplay vary from a walking simulator, to a puzzler and also a bit of metroidvania. I don’t want to go into details about the story, because it builds up to a revelation by telling bits and pieces very subtly and drenched in symbolism, making it perfect to uncover it for yourself.
The game gives a trigger warning though, as the overall themes are emotionally taxing.
The game gives a trigger warning though, as the overall themes are emotionally taxing.
QUE TRISTEZA
Existem determinados tipos de mídia que vão além do que consiste a soma de suas partes, além das características que vêm obrigatoriamente do meio em que são publicadas ou expostas. Essa, na minha opinião, é a parte mais bela da arte, quando consegue sair do técnico (onde muitas vezes nem é tão bem executado) e provocar uma transformação, uma reflexão, e até mesmo mudar um estilo de vida inteiramente a partir da transmissão de uma mensagem. Inmost não foi o primeiro jogo que me fez sentir isso, mas senti uma vontade de escrever um pouco mais sobre essa sensação após finalizar esse excelente trabalho da Hidden Layer Games e Chucklefish Studios. Justamente por não ser a melhor produção já distribuída pela Chucklefish, mas é a que tem maior impacto individual em quem joga!
Se você para para olhar Inmost do ponto de vista puramente técnico, como uma avaliação direta do que a "jogabilidade" oferece, ele tem defeitos, não vou negar. Os controles não são tão precisos, a sensação de controlar os personagens e seus pesos não dão aquela sensação gostosinha que estamos acostumados em outros jogos de plataforma, a movimentação pode ser muito lenta, tem alguns bugs leves que podem incomodar e as decisões de onde colocar o texto, sem contraste com o plano de fundo ou momento em que determinado evento do jogo está acontecendo, e talvez poderiam ter feito algumas escolhas com maior impacto para gerar diferentes finais (ou não, do jeito que está ficou bom também).
Ah, mas então por que eu estou dando nota alta para um jogo com tantos defeitos? Porque talvez seja errado olhar para Inmost como apenas um jogo. Eu nunca vi um jogo ter tanta maturidade e criatividade para retratar a dor, o sofrimento, luto, empatia e também o amor. Como alguém que está passando por um dos momentos mais conturbados em relação à luta contra a ansiedade, insônia e problemas familiares, posso afirmar que a mensagem final sobre encarar o sofrimento foi extremamente importante e impactante pra mim. Consegui me conectar de maneira bem pessoal com tudo e com certeza abriu novas perspectivas e novos sentidos para a minha vida.
Além disso, também não é como se o jogo não tivesse seus próprios méritos técnicos, com uma das animações em pixel-art mais lindas que eu já vi, que conseguem exprimir por completo as nuances e sentimentos que a temática e proposta exigem, e a sua narrativa é extremamente bem elaborada e coesa, com acontecimentos paralelos que vão se aproximando até chegar em um ponto em comum. No fim das contas, Inmost não é um jogo convencional, e talvez não seja do gosto de qualquer pessoa. Mas definitivamente vale a pena pelo seu impacto e capacidade de mudar uma vida, ou pelo menos a perspectiva pela qual alguém enxerga a vida. E não estou exagerando, foi exatamente isso que eu senti.
Se você para para olhar Inmost do ponto de vista puramente técnico, como uma avaliação direta do que a "jogabilidade" oferece, ele tem defeitos, não vou negar. Os controles não são tão precisos, a sensação de controlar os personagens e seus pesos não dão aquela sensação gostosinha que estamos acostumados em outros jogos de plataforma, a movimentação pode ser muito lenta, tem alguns bugs leves que podem incomodar e as decisões de onde colocar o texto, sem contraste com o plano de fundo ou momento em que determinado evento do jogo está acontecendo, e talvez poderiam ter feito algumas escolhas com maior impacto para gerar diferentes finais (ou não, do jeito que está ficou bom também).
Ah, mas então por que eu estou dando nota alta para um jogo com tantos defeitos? Porque talvez seja errado olhar para Inmost como apenas um jogo. Eu nunca vi um jogo ter tanta maturidade e criatividade para retratar a dor, o sofrimento, luto, empatia e também o amor. Como alguém que está passando por um dos momentos mais conturbados em relação à luta contra a ansiedade, insônia e problemas familiares, posso afirmar que a mensagem final sobre encarar o sofrimento foi extremamente importante e impactante pra mim. Consegui me conectar de maneira bem pessoal com tudo e com certeza abriu novas perspectivas e novos sentidos para a minha vida.
Além disso, também não é como se o jogo não tivesse seus próprios méritos técnicos, com uma das animações em pixel-art mais lindas que eu já vi, que conseguem exprimir por completo as nuances e sentimentos que a temática e proposta exigem, e a sua narrativa é extremamente bem elaborada e coesa, com acontecimentos paralelos que vão se aproximando até chegar em um ponto em comum. No fim das contas, Inmost não é um jogo convencional, e talvez não seja do gosto de qualquer pessoa. Mas definitivamente vale a pena pelo seu impacto e capacidade de mudar uma vida, ou pelo menos a perspectiva pela qual alguém enxerga a vida. E não estou exagerando, foi exatamente isso que eu senti.
I love how atmospheric this game is.
damn, it's so sad she died of deadwife
Inmost is an intense and deeply emotional experience, and the beautiful atmosphere and how it changes throughout the runtime is excellently crafted. The story remains fairly obscure until right near the end, but I promise everything falls into place in a meaningful and satisfying way; the ending (despite mostly taking part as a long cutscene that I would have preferred to be playing) wraps up everything beautifully, and delivers a heartfelt and earnest final message that makes a lot of other 'spooky' games I've played feel a bit vapid and hollow by comparison.
The tone of the game is of course greatly helped by its striking aesthetics. The game is, at base level, rendered in pixel art with an extremely subdued colour palette, which already gives things a melancholy and eerie tone. But this art style is often subverted in small ways (a splash of colour here, a smoothly moving sprite or photorealistic particle effect there) which superbly accent and augment the world and really help bring it to life. I'm less a fan of some of the character sprites which all look a bit goofy to me (the intentionally goofy cartographer character in particular really just didn't gel with the game's aesthetic for me at all), but they are animated excellently to show emotion and the world in which they are placed is stunningly realised.
The sound design in Inmost is also absolutely fantastic. Everything in the game sounds so heavy and stark and gives a real heft and sense of unease to even mundane things and actions. There are a few moments throughout the game in particular (which I won't spoil) that use the sound design as the predominant way to deliver an emotional payoff, and these are fantastic; it proves it's perfectly possible to frighten a player without resorting to shitty jumpscares.
The gameplay is more of a mixed experience, but on the whole is decent. There are 3 characters you end up swapping between as the story progresses, and all have drastically different abilities and playstyles. The older man's sections are a decently realised puzzle-platformer world that remind me very strongly of Limbo, but taking place in a much more tightly designed world that almost feels like a miniature metroidvania at times. While these sections feel like the main feature of the game, I think I slightly preferred the little girl's sections which play more like a more traditional story-driven psychological horror game. I was less a fan of the knight's sections; his fast-paced but underdeveloped action-combat sections were too drastic a departure from the much slower gameplay of the other two characters. These sections weren't actively bad or anything like that, but I was always willing them to be over so I could return to one of the other characters.
On the whole, Inmost ends up being an excellent and rich emotional experience wrapped around what would otherwise be three pretty average core games. But rest assured, nothing here is poor quality. I've ended up enjoying this a fair bit more than I thought I would, and it has plucked heartstrings that hitherto had remained unplucked.
The tone of the game is of course greatly helped by its striking aesthetics. The game is, at base level, rendered in pixel art with an extremely subdued colour palette, which already gives things a melancholy and eerie tone. But this art style is often subverted in small ways (a splash of colour here, a smoothly moving sprite or photorealistic particle effect there) which superbly accent and augment the world and really help bring it to life. I'm less a fan of some of the character sprites which all look a bit goofy to me (the intentionally goofy cartographer character in particular really just didn't gel with the game's aesthetic for me at all), but they are animated excellently to show emotion and the world in which they are placed is stunningly realised.
The sound design in Inmost is also absolutely fantastic. Everything in the game sounds so heavy and stark and gives a real heft and sense of unease to even mundane things and actions. There are a few moments throughout the game in particular (which I won't spoil) that use the sound design as the predominant way to deliver an emotional payoff, and these are fantastic; it proves it's perfectly possible to frighten a player without resorting to shitty jumpscares.
The gameplay is more of a mixed experience, but on the whole is decent. There are 3 characters you end up swapping between as the story progresses, and all have drastically different abilities and playstyles. The older man's sections are a decently realised puzzle-platformer world that remind me very strongly of Limbo, but taking place in a much more tightly designed world that almost feels like a miniature metroidvania at times. While these sections feel like the main feature of the game, I think I slightly preferred the little girl's sections which play more like a more traditional story-driven psychological horror game. I was less a fan of the knight's sections; his fast-paced but underdeveloped action-combat sections were too drastic a departure from the much slower gameplay of the other two characters. These sections weren't actively bad or anything like that, but I was always willing them to be over so I could return to one of the other characters.
On the whole, Inmost ends up being an excellent and rich emotional experience wrapped around what would otherwise be three pretty average core games. But rest assured, nothing here is poor quality. I've ended up enjoying this a fair bit more than I thought I would, and it has plucked heartstrings that hitherto had remained unplucked.
Visually pleasing and good sound design but gameplay is VERY slow. Animations take ages and moving around is a slog. I like how the colour changes in different areas, its a nice atmospheric touch.The story doesn't make sense until the end but it's fairly emotional and has a nice message.
Fantastic fantastic spritework, if you love sprite art this is an instant recommend. Gameplay's solid too, my only gripes being that death is tedious you'll always move a little too slow,the story has one bonkers aspect of it in the end, and the story and gameplay are pretty divorced outside the few peaks of story you get during gameplay, but the rest is solid.
While Cassandra Lee Morris is a good actress (she even portrayed Chihiro in the Persona 4 anime!) I unfortunately cannot take her seriously here due to this dreary sounding game narrated by Morgana but that's not really a fault of this game. Especially as you're being narrated to you play as Wavedash Knight just swooshing around. Guy doesn't even get a boss fight just mobs.
While Cassandra Lee Morris is a good actress (she even portrayed Chihiro in the Persona 4 anime!) I unfortunately cannot take her seriously here due to this dreary sounding game narrated by Morgana but that's not really a fault of this game. Especially as you're being narrated to you play as Wavedash Knight just swooshing around. Guy doesn't even get a boss fight just mobs.
um jogo lindo e que me fez chorar. é 100% focado na história (o que incomoda em alguns pontos, já que parece um filme que se joga sozinho). felizmente, isso não me incomodou
sobre a gameplay: os puzzles são simples e a arte é maravilhosa. dá pra terminar o jogo em menos de 3 horas... isso se você não for maluco de jogar sem morrer e sem coletar nenhum item.
a trilha sonora desse jogo também é impecável e merece ser falada. é um jogo feito pra se jogar de fone e aproveitar a ambientação e o áudio 3D dele
não é o tipo de jogo que eu indicaria para qualquer um. os temas tocados aqui são um pouco pesados e podem acabar dando gatilho em certas pessoas, então, tenha isso em mente antes de jogar
sobre a gameplay: os puzzles são simples e a arte é maravilhosa. dá pra terminar o jogo em menos de 3 horas... isso se você não for maluco de jogar sem morrer e sem coletar nenhum item.
a trilha sonora desse jogo também é impecável e merece ser falada. é um jogo feito pra se jogar de fone e aproveitar a ambientação e o áudio 3D dele
não é o tipo de jogo que eu indicaria para qualquer um. os temas tocados aqui são um pouco pesados e podem acabar dando gatilho em certas pessoas, então, tenha isso em mente antes de jogar
This review contains spoilers
Inmost was not the game I was expecting it to be when I went into it, but that is not at all a bad thing. Based on the trailer I saw for the game going into it I expected another indie horror game with a pixel artstyle, what I got instead was a bleak, gripping story about recovering from loss and how events can be seen by different people involved in the process of it and how that evolves. This review is going to primarily talking about the story of this game, since it's the main part of the game that resonated with me, so if you have any interest in this game I would suggest you stop reading here and go play it instead since in my opinion this is a game you should experience the story of first hand. I would also like to mention that there is talk of pretty heavy themes within the game's story, and this review, so if you aren't in the best mindset it might be best to sit this one out. However before we get into talking about the story, I do want to go over the gameplay really quickly just because the context of it is needed to talk about the story.
The game has you constantly switching between three main characters, Elizabeth, Adam, and the Knight. Each character has a different gameplay style and it ties directly into the kind of story each character tells in your time as them. As Elizabeth you explore your house as you try to avoid your adopted parents. As such stuck to actions that only a child could really do such as climbing things and pulling them around to be able to climb up higher and reah new areas. Meanwhile Adam, an adult exploring a crumbling world, has his gameplay be more of a puzzle platformer where you have to avoid enemies and find ways to defeat them without directly fighting them while also trying to find a way to move ahead in the areas you've exploring. Finally, there's the Knight who is a nigh unstoppable walking weapon who just mercilessly cuts down as many enemies in front of him as he can on his quest to gather pain from other living beings to bring it to a mysterious being known as the keeper. Despite how different all of these sound both in terms of gameplay and storywise, they all do fit together well and work off each other in interesting ways.
That being said, the gameplay is never the most engaging. It all works well enough but it's not particularly good I feel on its own. The platforming for Adam is fine and is the most gameplay there is, Eliza's is almost a point and click adventure, and the Knight's is just mashing the attack button and using it to grapple to different platforms to get to more combat. The Knight's combat was definitely the least fun in my opinion but at the end of the day all three of the gameplay styles are serviceable, just not anything to really write home about.
From here I want to talk about each character's individual story before talking about how they all tie together to kind of try and emulate the way the game tells the stories, I'll be starting with Elizabeth's and then going down the list in the order I talked about them previously from here.
The story for Elizabeth's part of the game follows her as she adapts to her new home with her adopted parents. At first everything seems normal and she is just trying to play but her new mom seems to not even be able to look at her, which then turns into outright contempt and anger once Elizabeth finds a stuffed bunny toy hidden in the garage. Elizabeth turns this stuffed toy into an imaginary friend that she talks to and uses to think things through, which leads to Elizabeth spiraling into anxiety as the rabbit convinces her that her new parents are not as they seem. After her new mom has a breakdown where she screams at Elizabeth and leaves she and her new dad disappear all together, leaving Elizabeth alone in the house. She is convinced by the rabbit that her new parents had been kidnapping kids and she goes on a quest throughout the house to find out the truth, which ends with her finding a basement full of old children's toys that she had never seen before; that in her mind confirms her theory.
Elizabeth's story is very interesting to me because its main focus on how being brought to a new home can create some a lot of fear and anxiety in a child who doesn't know why they're there; on top of how those feelings can be expanded by an authority figure that isn't exactly happy that she's there in the first place. Seeing the anxiety grow and consume her in real time is really well written and accurate to how anxiety functions in real life, at least in my experience. Especially the way her anxiety transitions halfway through her story from worrying about the prospects of her fears being right to worrying about if she gets caught once she finally decides to take action and find out for herself. Anxiety isn't something that really goes away on its own in real life unfortunately, and seeing how it plays out in game was surprising and also really cool in that it felt like a very accurate and honest portrayal of it. Finding the toys isn't the end of the story however, as when she tries to escape the house after that discovery Elizabeth comes face to face with Adam.
During his sections of the game Adam is revealed to be a father who lost multiple people close to him. On a few occasions throughout his story it is mentioned a few times that three lives being lost lead him to where he is now. This is later revealed to be Adam's son, his daughter in law, and his granddaughter. Adam's granddaughter is revealed to have been lost when she committed suicide after never ending bullying from school, which sent her parents into a spiral that resulted in their deaths; which we will talk about more later. Adam's section is ultimately more gameplay than story for most of its time on screen, but that is mostly due to what Adam's roll in the story represents.
Adam's story is not actually happening. He isn't actually traversing this broken, decaying land in search of something like it's portrayed from the beginning of the game, rather it's Adam trying to navigate his way mentally through this very complex emotional situation he's in because of what's happened to his family. The desolate world he navigates essentially represents his emotional state as he tries to navigate the sudden loss of his remaining family and how its making him feel. This is further shown by how about halfway through Adam's sections he starts to be guided by a fox made of light, which up to this point is the first thing he has seen that differs from either the real people or the dark monsters that inhabit this world that Adam has found himself in. The Fox represents Adam's hope and desperation for an answer. He is following it as he grasps for answers and has to keep it alive against creatures a few times in order to basically keep his hope alive. The Fox leads him to a fountain that in turn turns Adam into a being of light like the fox, and he finds a flower of light there with another person of light. This flower will be touched on more in the Knight's section, but it is important here as Adam's section ends with him still being a person made of light that has been left alone with the flower. This ending for Adam is him coming to terms with what happened and what he has to do going forward. To get into how that is however, I will first have to talk about the Knight's story.
The Knight is an interesting character as he feels very different from both of the others in how he's presented and played throughout the game. For his part of the story the Knight is hunting down those with pain, which is represented in game as little glowing balls of light, and killing them in order to take the light back to the Keeper, who is a giant mysterious monster that demands his soldiers, such as the Knight, gather all the pain so he can consume it. A thing the game tries to emphasis is that people like the Knights who hurt others and take their pain cannot grow their own light flower like the one that Adam had at the end of his campaign, and due to that the Knight kills two light people and steals their flower. He then proceeds to give the flower pain repeatedly like he has been to the Keeper but the flower does not grow or bloom, and the game makes sure to remind us that this flower will never truly belong to the knight. The knight's story caries on like this where he continues collecting pain for the keeper but is slowly becoming more and more of a monster as the story goes on, becoming like the beings that he is destroying for the pain. After a moment where the Knight decides he no longer wants to serve the Keeper and is badly wounded he returns to the flower and instead of trying to force the pain he has onto the flower, he accepts the flower's pain instead. This allows the flower to truly bloom and grow, moments before the Knight is attacked once again by the Keeper. This entire story feels weirdly disconnected at first from the rest of the game, until you realize that the Knight isn't real.
The story of the Knight in Inmost is made up. It's narrated entirely by who we later learn is Elizabeth and it is a story based in her perceptions of how she thought her adoptive father was. This is why the story is so much more fantasy oriented than both Elizabeth and Adam's stories as well as why the Knight is the only one who feels like they fit in these strange fantasy environments, because like the environments the Knight himself is a fantasy. Too fully analyze this, we need to talk about how all three stories are woven together in the ending.
As I mentioned earlier Elizabeth became convinced that she had been kidnapped by her new parents, and she was actually right. Kind of. Her adopted parents were Adam's son and his daughter in law. This is revealed immediately after Elizabeth found the toy basement, and with it we learn that Adam's son after losing his daughter to suicide was out one night when he happend to find an appartment building that was burning down. Hearing a baby crying he ran into the building to help and found the baby alone with it's parents dead in the room. Adam's son saved the baby from the building and raised it as his own daughter in order to replace the one he lost. The moral questions this raises aside, Adam's wife was not happy about this at all. So Adam's son tried working harder and harder in order to get money to try and appease both his wife and new daughter with gifts. This is where the story of the Knight comes in. Elizabeth sees her new father as the knight, going around and taking from others and destroying their lives. The flower that he takes represents the connection between the two people who made it, that resulted in Elizabeth after he lost his daughter, his own flower. Which is why the game hammered in the idea that it would never truly be the Knight's flower so hard, because he was trying to recreate something that he had lost and had taken it from someone else in order to do it.
The Knight being killed by the Keeper also mirrors what happens to Adam's son in real life, that being killed by his wife. The person who wanted his pain as atonement for not being able to save their daughter and adopting a new one after she was gone. The wife then kills herself after her husband is gone in order to be with her daughter again, leaving Elizabeth alone. Which is where Adam reenters the picture. Upon hearing what happened to his son and daughter in law he tries to race to their house, and in doing so this is where his events of the game take place. Him navigating the broken and confusing world as he rushes to their home to find out if what he was told is true is where he tries to think through everything and creates the complex puzzles he has to work through during his sections of the game. Then, he meets Elizabeth.
When he gets there and sees Elizabeth for the first time is when he becomes the person made of light in his story. He is left alone with this flower that has been given to him, and he knows that he has to be the one to take care of it now that both the previous people with that flower are gone. Adam is accepting his responsibility and becoming the guardian of this flower that his son took because he wants to make things right. He is deciding to be there for her like he wasn't there for his son after his son lost their first daughter.
This game's story was a lot more impactful and just all around strong than I was expecting given what I thought the game was when I went into it, and I am thoroughly impressed with how they managed to tell this story. The fact that even the gameplay types each character has functions as a factor in how the stories are told feel incredibly well done, even if the gameplay at times isn't the most interesting. This game is truly something special in my opinion, and while it might not be the most engaging game gameplay wise, its something I recommend highly.
9/10
The game has you constantly switching between three main characters, Elizabeth, Adam, and the Knight. Each character has a different gameplay style and it ties directly into the kind of story each character tells in your time as them. As Elizabeth you explore your house as you try to avoid your adopted parents. As such stuck to actions that only a child could really do such as climbing things and pulling them around to be able to climb up higher and reah new areas. Meanwhile Adam, an adult exploring a crumbling world, has his gameplay be more of a puzzle platformer where you have to avoid enemies and find ways to defeat them without directly fighting them while also trying to find a way to move ahead in the areas you've exploring. Finally, there's the Knight who is a nigh unstoppable walking weapon who just mercilessly cuts down as many enemies in front of him as he can on his quest to gather pain from other living beings to bring it to a mysterious being known as the keeper. Despite how different all of these sound both in terms of gameplay and storywise, they all do fit together well and work off each other in interesting ways.
That being said, the gameplay is never the most engaging. It all works well enough but it's not particularly good I feel on its own. The platforming for Adam is fine and is the most gameplay there is, Eliza's is almost a point and click adventure, and the Knight's is just mashing the attack button and using it to grapple to different platforms to get to more combat. The Knight's combat was definitely the least fun in my opinion but at the end of the day all three of the gameplay styles are serviceable, just not anything to really write home about.
From here I want to talk about each character's individual story before talking about how they all tie together to kind of try and emulate the way the game tells the stories, I'll be starting with Elizabeth's and then going down the list in the order I talked about them previously from here.
The story for Elizabeth's part of the game follows her as she adapts to her new home with her adopted parents. At first everything seems normal and she is just trying to play but her new mom seems to not even be able to look at her, which then turns into outright contempt and anger once Elizabeth finds a stuffed bunny toy hidden in the garage. Elizabeth turns this stuffed toy into an imaginary friend that she talks to and uses to think things through, which leads to Elizabeth spiraling into anxiety as the rabbit convinces her that her new parents are not as they seem. After her new mom has a breakdown where she screams at Elizabeth and leaves she and her new dad disappear all together, leaving Elizabeth alone in the house. She is convinced by the rabbit that her new parents had been kidnapping kids and she goes on a quest throughout the house to find out the truth, which ends with her finding a basement full of old children's toys that she had never seen before; that in her mind confirms her theory.
Elizabeth's story is very interesting to me because its main focus on how being brought to a new home can create some a lot of fear and anxiety in a child who doesn't know why they're there; on top of how those feelings can be expanded by an authority figure that isn't exactly happy that she's there in the first place. Seeing the anxiety grow and consume her in real time is really well written and accurate to how anxiety functions in real life, at least in my experience. Especially the way her anxiety transitions halfway through her story from worrying about the prospects of her fears being right to worrying about if she gets caught once she finally decides to take action and find out for herself. Anxiety isn't something that really goes away on its own in real life unfortunately, and seeing how it plays out in game was surprising and also really cool in that it felt like a very accurate and honest portrayal of it. Finding the toys isn't the end of the story however, as when she tries to escape the house after that discovery Elizabeth comes face to face with Adam.
During his sections of the game Adam is revealed to be a father who lost multiple people close to him. On a few occasions throughout his story it is mentioned a few times that three lives being lost lead him to where he is now. This is later revealed to be Adam's son, his daughter in law, and his granddaughter. Adam's granddaughter is revealed to have been lost when she committed suicide after never ending bullying from school, which sent her parents into a spiral that resulted in their deaths; which we will talk about more later. Adam's section is ultimately more gameplay than story for most of its time on screen, but that is mostly due to what Adam's roll in the story represents.
Adam's story is not actually happening. He isn't actually traversing this broken, decaying land in search of something like it's portrayed from the beginning of the game, rather it's Adam trying to navigate his way mentally through this very complex emotional situation he's in because of what's happened to his family. The desolate world he navigates essentially represents his emotional state as he tries to navigate the sudden loss of his remaining family and how its making him feel. This is further shown by how about halfway through Adam's sections he starts to be guided by a fox made of light, which up to this point is the first thing he has seen that differs from either the real people or the dark monsters that inhabit this world that Adam has found himself in. The Fox represents Adam's hope and desperation for an answer. He is following it as he grasps for answers and has to keep it alive against creatures a few times in order to basically keep his hope alive. The Fox leads him to a fountain that in turn turns Adam into a being of light like the fox, and he finds a flower of light there with another person of light. This flower will be touched on more in the Knight's section, but it is important here as Adam's section ends with him still being a person made of light that has been left alone with the flower. This ending for Adam is him coming to terms with what happened and what he has to do going forward. To get into how that is however, I will first have to talk about the Knight's story.
The Knight is an interesting character as he feels very different from both of the others in how he's presented and played throughout the game. For his part of the story the Knight is hunting down those with pain, which is represented in game as little glowing balls of light, and killing them in order to take the light back to the Keeper, who is a giant mysterious monster that demands his soldiers, such as the Knight, gather all the pain so he can consume it. A thing the game tries to emphasis is that people like the Knights who hurt others and take their pain cannot grow their own light flower like the one that Adam had at the end of his campaign, and due to that the Knight kills two light people and steals their flower. He then proceeds to give the flower pain repeatedly like he has been to the Keeper but the flower does not grow or bloom, and the game makes sure to remind us that this flower will never truly belong to the knight. The knight's story caries on like this where he continues collecting pain for the keeper but is slowly becoming more and more of a monster as the story goes on, becoming like the beings that he is destroying for the pain. After a moment where the Knight decides he no longer wants to serve the Keeper and is badly wounded he returns to the flower and instead of trying to force the pain he has onto the flower, he accepts the flower's pain instead. This allows the flower to truly bloom and grow, moments before the Knight is attacked once again by the Keeper. This entire story feels weirdly disconnected at first from the rest of the game, until you realize that the Knight isn't real.
The story of the Knight in Inmost is made up. It's narrated entirely by who we later learn is Elizabeth and it is a story based in her perceptions of how she thought her adoptive father was. This is why the story is so much more fantasy oriented than both Elizabeth and Adam's stories as well as why the Knight is the only one who feels like they fit in these strange fantasy environments, because like the environments the Knight himself is a fantasy. Too fully analyze this, we need to talk about how all three stories are woven together in the ending.
As I mentioned earlier Elizabeth became convinced that she had been kidnapped by her new parents, and she was actually right. Kind of. Her adopted parents were Adam's son and his daughter in law. This is revealed immediately after Elizabeth found the toy basement, and with it we learn that Adam's son after losing his daughter to suicide was out one night when he happend to find an appartment building that was burning down. Hearing a baby crying he ran into the building to help and found the baby alone with it's parents dead in the room. Adam's son saved the baby from the building and raised it as his own daughter in order to replace the one he lost. The moral questions this raises aside, Adam's wife was not happy about this at all. So Adam's son tried working harder and harder in order to get money to try and appease both his wife and new daughter with gifts. This is where the story of the Knight comes in. Elizabeth sees her new father as the knight, going around and taking from others and destroying their lives. The flower that he takes represents the connection between the two people who made it, that resulted in Elizabeth after he lost his daughter, his own flower. Which is why the game hammered in the idea that it would never truly be the Knight's flower so hard, because he was trying to recreate something that he had lost and had taken it from someone else in order to do it.
The Knight being killed by the Keeper also mirrors what happens to Adam's son in real life, that being killed by his wife. The person who wanted his pain as atonement for not being able to save their daughter and adopting a new one after she was gone. The wife then kills herself after her husband is gone in order to be with her daughter again, leaving Elizabeth alone. Which is where Adam reenters the picture. Upon hearing what happened to his son and daughter in law he tries to race to their house, and in doing so this is where his events of the game take place. Him navigating the broken and confusing world as he rushes to their home to find out if what he was told is true is where he tries to think through everything and creates the complex puzzles he has to work through during his sections of the game. Then, he meets Elizabeth.
When he gets there and sees Elizabeth for the first time is when he becomes the person made of light in his story. He is left alone with this flower that has been given to him, and he knows that he has to be the one to take care of it now that both the previous people with that flower are gone. Adam is accepting his responsibility and becoming the guardian of this flower that his son took because he wants to make things right. He is deciding to be there for her like he wasn't there for his son after his son lost their first daughter.
This game's story was a lot more impactful and just all around strong than I was expecting given what I thought the game was when I went into it, and I am thoroughly impressed with how they managed to tell this story. The fact that even the gameplay types each character has functions as a factor in how the stories are told feel incredibly well done, even if the gameplay at times isn't the most interesting. This game is truly something special in my opinion, and while it might not be the most engaging game gameplay wise, its something I recommend highly.
9/10
Check out “Don’t touch the pillow!” on YouTube and look for my comment
I had no idea what this game would be or how it would play before going in which left me to surprised by all that if offers. The game has a very impressive atmosphere with the sound design, pixel art and soundtrack all work together to create a very melancholy but also calm setting. The game has a lot to say about pain and grief but I was left a little confused on how these themes tie into everything the game shows. Luckily the game is very short and worth going back to notice all the symbolism and beautiful art on display.
Inmost has amazing sound direction and a visual atmosphere, but with very little underneath.
It's an indie pixel-art puzzle platformer with dark and moody aesthetics that is more focused on storytelling than it is on the gameplay, which I feel is well-worn territory to the point where you likely already know if Inmost will be for you or not.
From chapter to chapter, you swap between three playable characters. A young girl who moves painfully slow and must solve simple puzzles in her house, an older man who moves slightly faster and must solve equally simple puzzles in a semi-Metroidvania-style environment and a swordsman who at least moves at a good pace but has simplistic and unengaging combat mechanics.
You get the occasional cutscene where a narrator will talk about how dark and twisted the world is in a way that I would have lapped up as a teenager but as an adult, it feels shallow and immature. I can't blame the game for this as there's a good chance I'm not the target audience. There are occasional attempts at humour that feel out of place and fall flat.
In all, Inmost takes around 4 to 5 hours to complete which sounds short but can still feel like a slog due to the slow movement and repetitive nature of the gameplay.
It feels as though this game was designed from an art and story perspective first and then had puzzles added to justify itself as a video game. Perhaps if it had fully committed to one direction, either as a mechanics-heavy exploration game or as a purely narrative-focussed adventure, it could have worked.
It's an indie pixel-art puzzle platformer with dark and moody aesthetics that is more focused on storytelling than it is on the gameplay, which I feel is well-worn territory to the point where you likely already know if Inmost will be for you or not.
From chapter to chapter, you swap between three playable characters. A young girl who moves painfully slow and must solve simple puzzles in her house, an older man who moves slightly faster and must solve equally simple puzzles in a semi-Metroidvania-style environment and a swordsman who at least moves at a good pace but has simplistic and unengaging combat mechanics.
You get the occasional cutscene where a narrator will talk about how dark and twisted the world is in a way that I would have lapped up as a teenager but as an adult, it feels shallow and immature. I can't blame the game for this as there's a good chance I'm not the target audience. There are occasional attempts at humour that feel out of place and fall flat.
In all, Inmost takes around 4 to 5 hours to complete which sounds short but can still feel like a slog due to the slow movement and repetitive nature of the gameplay.
It feels as though this game was designed from an art and story perspective first and then had puzzles added to justify itself as a video game. Perhaps if it had fully committed to one direction, either as a mechanics-heavy exploration game or as a purely narrative-focussed adventure, it could have worked.
I know pixelated 2D games have been done to death these days, but sometimes they really stand out. Inmost has detailed visuals, great animations, and an interesting and engaging horror theme and atmosphere that kept me sitting through until the end. While the story isn’t all that great, the message at the end of the game makes it all worthwhile.
You play as a few characters in this game. One is a middle-aged man, another is a knight, and the third is a little girl. You jump between the three as the story unfolds and each has a unique control scheme. The man can jump around and find objects to progress, the knight can engage in combat, and the little girl can’t jump, but must crawl her way around a house lifting objects to create steps and unlock the secret of this house. It keeps the game fresh and moving, but most of the game is played as the man.
The entire area is quite large that you explore and backtrack through. Climbing around the levels also requires dodging black matter that can attack you and there are even some intense chase scenes. You are solving puzzles, pulling levers, and switching, and like Metroid, you are also finding new objects to progress through the level. A crowbar, pulley, knife, pickaxe, and more are needed to progress along with the occasional key. The game was never too touch and I enjoyed how the game made me think a little bit. There is some clever level design here as I actually remembered where doors and entrances were as I progressed. By the end of this entire area, I actually memorized the entire thing and could backtrack anywhere with no issue or a map. That takes skill and I commend the developers for creating such a great map with memorable landmarks.
Playing as the knight, you can swing your sword and use a hook shot to get around, but you can’t jump. The enemies vary with numerous hits needed to defeat them, but overall these are easy areas. If you die you literally just respawn in the same spot so the game is very forgiving. As the little girl, you must walk around the house moving chairs, opening cupboards, and finding secret entrances in the house and I found it quite entertaining. Without giving too much of the story away there’s really not much here and it mostly makes zero sense. I know there’s something about a Soul Flower and the knight is trying to take them for himself and stealing other Soul Flowers is required to give to the Keeper which is a giant guardian type thing. It makes no sense honestly. Even at the final 15-minute cut scene I couldn’t really figure out what was going on, but without spoiling the very end the message is what counts the most and it was rather touching.
The visuals are great with lots of dark colors, great pixel art, smooth animations, and tons of atmosphere. The game is a treat to look at, and the music is amazing. There’s quite a bit of emotion in this game, and I just wish the story was a bit more comprehensive to make the whole package feel a little more complete. As it stands, Inmost is a great 2D platformer that takes around 4 hours to complete. It’s a small investment for a great ending and some fun and challenging puzzles and platforming. If you don’t like modern 2D pixel art games, this won’t change your mind, but for fans of Metroid and Castlevania, there’s not much to lose here.
You play as a few characters in this game. One is a middle-aged man, another is a knight, and the third is a little girl. You jump between the three as the story unfolds and each has a unique control scheme. The man can jump around and find objects to progress, the knight can engage in combat, and the little girl can’t jump, but must crawl her way around a house lifting objects to create steps and unlock the secret of this house. It keeps the game fresh and moving, but most of the game is played as the man.
The entire area is quite large that you explore and backtrack through. Climbing around the levels also requires dodging black matter that can attack you and there are even some intense chase scenes. You are solving puzzles, pulling levers, and switching, and like Metroid, you are also finding new objects to progress through the level. A crowbar, pulley, knife, pickaxe, and more are needed to progress along with the occasional key. The game was never too touch and I enjoyed how the game made me think a little bit. There is some clever level design here as I actually remembered where doors and entrances were as I progressed. By the end of this entire area, I actually memorized the entire thing and could backtrack anywhere with no issue or a map. That takes skill and I commend the developers for creating such a great map with memorable landmarks.
Playing as the knight, you can swing your sword and use a hook shot to get around, but you can’t jump. The enemies vary with numerous hits needed to defeat them, but overall these are easy areas. If you die you literally just respawn in the same spot so the game is very forgiving. As the little girl, you must walk around the house moving chairs, opening cupboards, and finding secret entrances in the house and I found it quite entertaining. Without giving too much of the story away there’s really not much here and it mostly makes zero sense. I know there’s something about a Soul Flower and the knight is trying to take them for himself and stealing other Soul Flowers is required to give to the Keeper which is a giant guardian type thing. It makes no sense honestly. Even at the final 15-minute cut scene I couldn’t really figure out what was going on, but without spoiling the very end the message is what counts the most and it was rather touching.
The visuals are great with lots of dark colors, great pixel art, smooth animations, and tons of atmosphere. The game is a treat to look at, and the music is amazing. There’s quite a bit of emotion in this game, and I just wish the story was a bit more comprehensive to make the whole package feel a little more complete. As it stands, Inmost is a great 2D platformer that takes around 4 hours to complete. It’s a small investment for a great ending and some fun and challenging puzzles and platforming. If you don’t like modern 2D pixel art games, this won’t change your mind, but for fans of Metroid and Castlevania, there’s not much to lose here.
Juego precioso con excelente gameplay, música, arte y sobretodo narrativa en serio es increíble 👍🏻👍🏻 mis aplausos al equipo de desarrolladores por su gran trabajo