Oh, santa narrativa. Una pena que tengan que ser un puñado de indies sueltos los que hagan recordar la importancia del guion en el medio.

Pros:
- Exquisitamente escrito y traducido. Chapó.
- El estilo feísta le sienta de maravilla al tono de su historia.
- La anécdota de la cagalera es de las mejores cosas que he leído en un videojuego.

Contras:
- Los minijuegos que de vez en cuando cambian un poco la estructura del juego son demasiado simplones.
- Carece por completo de cualquier dificultad. No dista mucho de leer una novela gráfica.
- Su cierre deja demasiadas cosas en el aire.

Norco is a dystopic sci-fi adventure game about a nomadic drifter named Kay who comes home after her mother passes to find her missing brother. Taking place in an overindustrialized part of swampside New Orleans, Norco's thematic ties to capitalism, oppression, connection, and loss flourish within a gorgeously bleak color palette of pixel art and a script that should be recognized as one of the medium's best.

Norco mainly plays out like a standard point-and-click adventure game. Much of the 6-ish hour runtime is spent hopping between locations, talking to the quirky characters, and finding items and information to move forward. These elements are standard fare and the game mostly swings on the easy side in terms of logic and item usage. There are no out-of-pocket inventory combinations and most instances of a puzzle can be solved with a few seconds of backtracking. I was only stuck at one moment of the game, where the mindmap didn't say there were new options to explore.

Speaking of, Kay is able to source her thoughts and progress into the mysteries of Norco with a detective-board-like mindmap. It's not very complex, but it was nice to browse when I came back to the game between sessions or wanted a quick summary after long conversations. Apart from the main plot, Norco has a knack for detail in its literature. Many of its best moments are the descriptions of the world, a land pulled apart by division of inequality and rebellion. The lore here is so rich that the game is most enticing when you can fully sink into the bats*** insanity of it all. There is also a light combat element, which I actually enjoyed. Using basic JRPG mechanics, you perform attacks with the characters in your active party by timing moves, akin to Paper Mario. It was a welcome addition that I actually wish was a little more frequent and had a broader purpose.

As I mentioned, the world is unbelievably realized in Norco. Each of the environments is a dark, twisted pixel masterpiece, and the character design and the grimy nature of the aesthetic connects you to Kay's home and her struggles. Norco isn't afraid to push boundaries, and several moments flip the traditional genre style and add in new ideas to the presentation that are clever and surprising. The relationship of the player to their audiovisual experience is played with in subtle, intelligent, and sometimes off-putting ways, but all to serve the story brilliantly. Special mention must go to the music, which is a blend of electronic hellscapes and funky tunes that capture the energy of a land seeped in culture on the precipice of insurmountable change. Many of these tracks I will surely be listening to in the coming weeks.

What I wasn't expecting most from Norco was its acceptance of choice. Right from the opening, you can choose elements of Kay's backstory, and you can continue to make foundational choices throughout your playtime. Dialogue doesn't just run you through every option, so conversations feel weighty and real, and several achievements and interactions have binary choices that have alternate options. I'm usually not a fan of having an amorphous approach to character like this, but Norco still manages to contain the setting and tone despite what options you choose for Kay and her family.

Norco is going to be one of 2022's best titles. In a year where more than ever, understanding the value of family, our homes, and the growing dissent in corporations, the internet, and humanity at large is at its critical mass, the game handles its lofty perceptions of reality and dials it in for a crafted, enjoyable experience you should not miss.

Norco apresenta uma das melhores narrativas ambientadas em um futuro sombrio. O game faz um excelente trabalho desenvolvendo os personagens e os tornando humanos. O jogador, ao conhecer a história dos residentes desta Louisiana gótica, sentirá emoção, raiva e empatia por estes personagens. Cada um deles possui sua propria história e jornada e infelizmente, a protagonista não conseguirá ajudar todos eles.

O mistério central também é um grande destaque, sendo que este elemento mantém os jogadores atentos e curiosos sobre o rumo narrativo a todo momento. As reviravoltas conseguem ser impactantes e fugir bastante do que é esperado em uma história deste gênero. A jogabilidade do título também não deixa a desejar, sendo um excelente point and click.

Por fim, Norco é uma jornada única e cativante que eu recomendo para todos os jogadores em busca de uma narrativa interessante, profunda e que representa com realismo traços dos seres humanos.

This game was sick. It required such little player input, I just taped a pill bottle to the X button on the controller and it freakin played itself, dude. Meanwhile the game got me WAY into wanting to be a backwaters, oppressed, hitchhiking hipster. Gnarly experience playing as a black in this, too, seeing as how IRL, I’m a white, You never really know somebody else’s stuff, you know, til you walk a mile in their walking simulator. This wasnt one of those thank God. But it FELT like one, And thats what this games about, man. Feels. It even uses that word in the game. Its rly up w how the youth speak, dude. Game of the year, bro.

Fuck Big Oil!!! Hell, I never really cared about any cause, bro. I think this game really rubbed off on me….woah.

An original and affecting story about memory, class and family set in a rich and unique world. The point and click gameplay is more than just a way of showcasing the pixel art - it immerses you in the games early 90s retrofuturism. Like Inscryption this game is in conversation with the very idea of retro tech (though in a more understated way). Where other retro indies make a nostalgic fetish of their throwback style and mechanics these two games are totally alive to the fact that playing a point and click in 2023 can never be the same as playing one in 1993 and they exploit that gap to aesthetic ends. An exciting turn in video games.