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.

Short, story based game that plays with the gimmick of more than one main character
Everyone plays different and has a special feeling to it
The story was fun

Gameplay wise, there isnt that much tl say
Had a few bugs while playing, but nothing you cant fix

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

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.

INMOST es un juego que, de primeras, empieza avisando que varios de los temas que trata pueden herir la sensibilidad de algunas personas, dejando muy claro temas como la pérdida o la depresión. Contiene un gran mensaje que verdaderamente es increíble y la forma en la que lo trata es muy impactante.

El juego se centra en tres personajes: una niña, un hombre y un caballero. Al principio no sabes qué relación hay entre los tres y, así, empiezas una historia que da saltos entre cada uno de estos personajes mientras se va desarrollando la trama.
- La niña es lenta, torpe y necesita de sillas para poder alcanzar lugares altos. Es el personaje que cuenta con los momentos más impactantes de todo el juego.
- El hombre es ágil con el salto y, además, tiene la capacidad de llevar objetos para poder realizar acciones, pero no puede atacar.
- El caballero cuenta con una gran movilidad gracias al sprint que tiene, al gancho para subir por ciertas zonas y la espada para eliminar a presencias oscuras.

CONCLUSIÓN
Es un juego que visualmente es precioso y no tarda nada en atraparte. La historia que cuenta te hace querer saber más y más sobre ella. Sin embargo, no es para todo el mundo por el mensaje de alerta ya comentado.
Lo recomiendo totalmente si buscas una aventura original que vaya más allá.

Ce jeu m'a pris par surprise, c'est l'histoire la plus touchante que j'ai jamais vue dans un jeu vidéo, pas seulement grâce à l'histoire elle même mais surtout grâce à la façon dont elle est racontée. On incarne à tour de rôle trois personnages totalement différents et qui paraissent n'avoir rien en commun et pourtant, ils sont tous les trois liés. La direction artistique en pixel art pastel accompagné de beau effet de lumière est magnifique, le gameplay diffère en fonction du personnage mais consiste majoritairement à de l'exploration et de petites énigmes mais ce n'est pas la que réside le point fort du jeu. Le level design bon. Sachez aussi que le jeu est très court, environ 3 heures. Il ne mérite peut-être pas une note aussi élevée objectivement, mais je souhaite marquer le coup car ce jeu manque cruellement d'appréciation. C'est un chef d'oeuvre bien trop peu connu, croyez moi, il mérite votre temps.

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.

Sights & Sounds
- Hope you like cool gray tones
- The pixel art is pretty good. In spite of the spooky overtones, the characters look fairly cartoonish. It actually clashes in an interesting way with the incredibly grim subject matter
- Contrary to the simplistic presentation, the game manages to be impressively cinematic
- The music follows the color palette. Lots of somber piano music and ambient sounds back the majority of the game's action and cutscenes

Story & Vibes
- Because this is a narrative-driven game, it wouldn't be helpful to give away too much of the story. In vague terms, you alternate playing between as a young girl and a middle aged man and learn about their shared history
- There's a lot of dark themes in the game. Bullying, mental illness, and death all factor heavily into the story. It's a pretty good thriller, though
- There's a quasi-hopeful shift in the ending, but it doesn't land quite right. There's some wisdom in the game's final message; however, it's presented in a sort of platitudinous way
- The way the game exposition dumps in the final cutscenes is a little conflicting. On one hand, it's nice that it wraps up some loose ends. On the other, it re-explains some plot points that are already heavily hinted at. It's a little patronizing

Playability & Replayability
- At it's core, the game is a puzzle platformer. You'll avoid obstacles, trigger switches and elevators, move objects around, and flee from the occasional scary monster
- When you're playing as the man, the game largely focuses on jumping and door puzzles. There's also a collectathon element where you can gather crystals to hear more of the game's lore (I actually forgot about this until near the end of the game and never went back to do it)
- When you're playing as the young girl, your jump height is much lower. Her puzzles are centered more around searching and stacking boxes to access higher areas

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I went in blind and still felt just a little bit let down. The story and art are big plusses, but the puzzles were just okay. It doesn't overstay its welcome though, clocking in at a tight 2-4 hours
- Excellent game on to play on the Steam Deck. I just played it on my couch, but it would be a great title to play on a flight

Final Verdict
- 6.5/10. A spooky, bloody story worthy of being heard, but not the most interesting puzzle platformer in terms of gameplay

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.

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.