The second Analgesic title for me in a few weeks - call me a fan now because these games really do it for me in so many different ways. They tell an engaging story with great character dialogue and emotions, with super impressive and memorable music all throughout, and always in these weird colorful worlds that feel out of place, out of time; futuristic and bizarre. And their design philosophy is all about the appreciation of simple and classic old games that give us nostalgia, but that everyone can play and enjoy. Both this game and Sephonie have customizable options that can make the game as easy or accessible as you want from the get go, or just to play the game normally. And they also "break the fourth wall" by talking to you directly as game designers, offering personal advice for the game, showing you how they made certain things, and even containing hidden little rooms and debug options that kind of break the game in a fun way.
Even the Ocean tells a super interesting story using very solid puzzle platforming and exploration, and with ethereal music that feels like Brian Eno meets Grant Kirkhope at times (one of my faves is this track you'll hear quite often in an area that you return to frequently... such a nice dreamy bop). It feels like a lost SNES or Genesis game in the best way. It's not a hard puzzle game except for some late-game sections but even then you won't struggle too much - as I mentioned this is something anyone can enjoy. It wraps up in a way I did not expect and had me engaged the whole time. I can't wait to play other Analgesic titles, what a great team of only two members with a ton of creative zest
Even the Ocean tells a super interesting story using very solid puzzle platforming and exploration, and with ethereal music that feels like Brian Eno meets Grant Kirkhope at times (one of my faves is this track you'll hear quite often in an area that you return to frequently... such a nice dreamy bop). It feels like a lost SNES or Genesis game in the best way. It's not a hard puzzle game except for some late-game sections but even then you won't struggle too much - as I mentioned this is something anyone can enjoy. It wraps up in a way I did not expect and had me engaged the whole time. I can't wait to play other Analgesic titles, what a great team of only two members with a ton of creative zest
Extremely good 2d platformer. Movement feels slick and I really like how the energy mechanic can lead to a bit of min-maxing lol. A bit on the easy side, for me at least. Maybe would have been nice to have some options to make it a bit more difficult but its whatever. Music and art are top notch with the artwork particularly being a huge selling point, simply a gorgeous game. With the story, I always like it when an action-focused genre like platformers have other stuff to do outside of the platforming and structure to guide the rest of the game on. The story does both of these and I think it does it quite well! It may be a bit "preachy" for some, but the moment-to-moment character reactions are really good and add some nice depth to the world and its characters. It also has an entire scrapped prototype of an earlier version of the game as post-game, which is awesome to see, even if I would have preferred it be a bit more guided than it is, but the fact its even there is so cool. Overall huge recommend.