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 is by far Analgesic's most ambitious game, and every thing I love and hate about the game comes from that fact. To start with the story, unlike the brilliant characters of Anodyne 2 and Sephonie, EtO feels like it cares more about the world and the story around the world rather than the the people who live in it. And while that does serve the narrative of the game, it also meant that, until the big impact moment at the end of this one, there were only a few little moments that felt worth it to take a break from platforming to experience. (The namesake song is definitely one of them). Still, when comparing this game to non Analgesic-stories, it's hard to not love the charm of this world, and the way that playing it after playing Anodyne greatly increases the amount of perspective you feel it provides. It's a story that I feel impacted me the way it did because I had already played some of Melos and Marina's other games, and thus felt a connection with the way their games view the world.

Gameplay-wise, this one is definitely an oddity. On the one hand, the actual gimmick that replaces health is pretty uninteresting, and just serves as a puzzle-creator. On the other hand, the shield mechanic in this game is just an unfathomable amount of fun to use, and it by far the reason that this game is still likely going to be one of my favorites I play this year - just like Shovel Knight's Shovel, it completely transforms platforming, this time into a duel stick experience, something that made breezing through levels so much fun. While the levels never quite get difficult enough to be interesting, I still found just running around a beautiful place with a beautiful score to be too much fun to not call this game great.

9/10
Game #1 of 2024, January 2nd.

A flagship to all those games that want to talk about work outside the sim genre, Even the Ocean is a methodical puzzle-platformer essay on how the mundane and crisis moments of the individual and society shape one another. Fantasy electrician labor is made into an independent state Uber model (why is every indie game about labor like this), your coworker dies gruesomely the first day on the job, and you persist against all odds. Aliph has a loose metropolitan society and no proper coworkers to inform how they should react to being left for dead and silently accepts the hero's accolades along with being wrung out for more deadly work outside the job description. I really dislike the moments trying to bespoke about its fantasy elements because obviously I know that Shinra is evil and that I should not destroy the giant stone wardens of the planet, but our hero-electrician's plain acceptance of the clearly evil work is a really great vehicle for refrained the disaster tourism of video game levels. The game is functionally paced by having to clock in and out of work before levels. Along with a little breakfast stand that dots the way to work, a very small touch is all Even the Ocean needs to pull out mixed drudgery of life with wage labor. The NPCs speak as if they've been gutted of something precious at a spiritual and social level while the fantastical elements of the world are trying to yank a hero does not exist within Aliph. I'm pretty down on the narrative and thematic bow tying that gets dropped suddenly at the end, but I generally enjoy the way the game culminates and the sensations delivers on the way there.

Analgesic pioneered their style with this game. Sure, Anodyne before it was very unique but Even the Ocean defined the studio with its maritime colour palette, foreboding atmosphere, and humanistic storytelling. Even the Ocean's narrative contrasts the surreal and fantastic with the unassumingly human. The characters interact with amazing things and concepts but still come off extremely human.

The gameplay may be the best from the studio. Running around as Aliph– it's a joy. The play is extremely good although the game never reaches a difficulty level I would prefer. The loop of story-location-factory is infectious and the game is just the right length too.

Analgesic's game are usually rich with theme but as textured as this story is, I don't think it is tight as their other works. There are subthemes about being the model minority and grief that stand out. There also seems to be a theme in heteronormativity? Maybe not? It's a vibe I get. A lot of the themes didn't come back around though. They're mostly contained to specific acts of the story. They must be doing something right because even after 7 years since I last played this, I remembered many moments, lines of dialogue, and bits of the story. I especially remembered Hank & Carl, the two jovial neighbours like something out of an 80s sitcom. They weird me out, I don't trust them.

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.

It's hard to be the middle child.

There's nothing particularly wrong with Even the Ocean. Its predecessor, Anodyne, came early enough in the indie boom that its novelty carried it past its weaker design choices. The sequel to that game, Anodyne 2, came about a bit later and brought with it a certain confidence in its eccentricities, a boldness that improved on the first game in every way. In between there was this: stumbling, a sign of growth, an attempt to tackle a more concrete story and more involved mechanics but lacking just enough to fall short on both.

The platform puzzling is… fine, really. Fun concepts that are never really explored, rooms that are easily broken, challenges that are afraid to slow the player down. The core mechanic of light/dark energy and how that correlates to your vertical/horizontal movement is brilliant and utterly underutilized. Success comes with ease, and with that ease comes a lack of investment.

Meanwhile the story tries, sometimes succeeds, often does not. Strong character moments are undercut by heavy-handed technique while the worldbuilding is more of a fragmented tour and less of a nuanced dive. Everything feels earnest, untempered, eager to be seen but with little to say beyond a basic allegory. There are worse things to be, same as there are better.

my one analgesic blind spot and one im so angry i didnt correct earlier,,,almost certainly the height of their 2D game design for one, with a bold eccentricity that nonetheless feels constantly self-reinforcing and even intuitive...and as always, dovetails absolutely gorgeously with the larger picture. a rly common mental image in analgesics games is the individual standing in front of the incomprehensible and massive forces that have shaped them and their actions, and while this is by any measure the Bleakest of those in their catalog its also affirming in small ways...in particular the energy system. which even as u are filled with dread doing things u know u probably shouldnt (a feeling harnessed to similarly great effect in anodyne 2, god i love how many connections and filled gaps in this ludography finally playing this filled out for me), the energy balancing still illustrates that on an individual inherent human level, we are Different then systems, we know how to live well and are just forced pretend that the same rules dont apply to those above us. the pendulum swings between the intensive gameplay sections and the colorful intimate narrative sections are especially stunning here. as with all their games, a million tiny little moments of narrative and aesthetic and design that will stay with me forever.

First off I'd love to shout-out the game's accessibility options, they're heads and shoulders above most games, especially ones that were coming out at the time. While I'd recommend playing the full game without them if you can, they're both really welcome and fun to dick around with, which is always nice.

Anyways, Even the Ocean... I've played a lot of Analgesic's games, and liked most of them, but I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. It brands itself as a puzzle platformer but I felt like it was closer to a precision platformer a la Celeste, though infinitely easier. The mechanics are good and explored in fun ways, but I did wish that the game tried pushing them a little bit further, even the final levels are pretty simple and more of a fun romp than a challenge. Which is fine, I don't wanna bash ETO for something that it isn't trying to be, I just wanted it to be on record that there was a lot of potential to expand in that direction. As things stand, it's a pretty fun platformer, the core gimmick is solid, used well and there's a nice pace throughout most of it, though despite every level having its own unique elements, it's maybe a tad bit repetitive in the long run.

In terms of presentation man oh man is this a beautiful game, especially considering the low budget. Every background and stage is rendered in a painting style which looks amazing and absolutely fits the dream-like style that Analgesis often goes for. The characters and portraits are rendered as more standard sprites which I don't think mesh very well (especially the portraits which are weirdly realistic and a bit uncanny), but everything else is amazing, from the weightless, otherworldly music to the PS1-style open world map and the always super creative environments that the game makes you go through, Even the Ocean was a joy to go through.

As I mentioned, the budget is small and it shows, especially compared to the much simpler, and as a result tighter, Anodyne. "Cutscenes" are just a slideshow of one or two (again, beautiful) pictures and dialogue is maybe a little inconsistent in quality (I found myself kind of annoyed at some of the side plots, but also very interested in some other ones). Honestly I don't mind, from even the title screen this just reminded me of playing random free RPG Maker games as a teen, giving EtO a completely unintentional nostalgia bonus that I very much appreciated.

It's hard to discuss the main story, which is ultimately by far the most important part of Even the Ocean's narrative (duh), but I will say that while it feels slightly predictable it is heartfelt, well-executed, and once again happens to, completely by chance, end up fitting one trope that specifically appeals to me, which again, I appreciated. But uh, on a slightly more serious note, I found it pretty impactful, and way less preachy than I'd have expected.