A really, really interesting game that requires a bit of patience and openness to its motions, which ultimately pays off.
I was not familiarized with the works of Kenji Miyazawa and played the first two thirds of the game simply enjoying it as an experimental somewhat surreal project for the Super Famicom. Learning it is actually a love letter to the works of an influential Japanese poet and also an attempt to translate his sensibility into an interactive art form made it even more special.
Gameplay-wise, Ihatovo Monogatari (Stories of Ihatovo) is pretty simple, consisting on multiple, self-contained small chapters loosely focused on one of Miyazawa's stories each, while keeping a really charming sense of passage of time. You will be mostly likely trying to figure out how to advance the plot speaking with the right characters and giving them the correct items. It may feel a bit too simple and slow-paced to our time, but even going beyond the necessary good faith required to enjoy an experimental game from thirty years ago and its obvious limitations, I think this is a very smart, confident project on its own merits. Its sluggish, meditative pace fits the meditative nature of most good poetry. Most of all, though, it made me yearn for a game with its passion for the tiny stories of tiny, weird places but applying mechanics and lessons learned decades later, maybe in an Outer Wilds-like approach of knowledge as a verb that moves forward the greater machinery.
In any case, Ihatovo Monogatari is a must-play to anyone who is interested in weird stories from the early days of video games. It's not for everybody - thankfully!
I was not familiarized with the works of Kenji Miyazawa and played the first two thirds of the game simply enjoying it as an experimental somewhat surreal project for the Super Famicom. Learning it is actually a love letter to the works of an influential Japanese poet and also an attempt to translate his sensibility into an interactive art form made it even more special.
Gameplay-wise, Ihatovo Monogatari (Stories of Ihatovo) is pretty simple, consisting on multiple, self-contained small chapters loosely focused on one of Miyazawa's stories each, while keeping a really charming sense of passage of time. You will be mostly likely trying to figure out how to advance the plot speaking with the right characters and giving them the correct items. It may feel a bit too simple and slow-paced to our time, but even going beyond the necessary good faith required to enjoy an experimental game from thirty years ago and its obvious limitations, I think this is a very smart, confident project on its own merits. Its sluggish, meditative pace fits the meditative nature of most good poetry. Most of all, though, it made me yearn for a game with its passion for the tiny stories of tiny, weird places but applying mechanics and lessons learned decades later, maybe in an Outer Wilds-like approach of knowledge as a verb that moves forward the greater machinery.
In any case, Ihatovo Monogatari is a must-play to anyone who is interested in weird stories from the early days of video games. It's not for everybody - thankfully!
This review contains spoilers
This is basically a walking sim for the Super Famicom, but I love the calm atmosphere and the overall ~vibes~ of the game. I was a little annoyed at some parts (the game doesn’t make it super obvious when you need to talk to someone more than one time in a row), but it wasn’t enough to dissuade me from finishing the game. I loved the end of the story where the main character follows Miyazawa on the Galactic Railroad. I actually ended up buying a collection of short stories by Miyazawa after completing the game as well.