Signalis is a perfect game in the presentation aspect - every single bit of this game gels thematically and hits a spot I've wanted for ages. The art style is gorgeous, the visuals are flawless, the sound design is amazing, the worldbuilding is impeccable. I'm normally not a fan of games where the plot is obtuse and requires the player to piece it together but Signalis creates such an intriguing world that it's impossible to resist it. I can't get over how much I love everything about this game - except the gameplay.
I love survival horror games. Signalis made me incredibly frustrated for numerous reasons. The six item inventory limit doesn't add to the game (as of the 25th the devs made it so the flashlight and eidetic modules don't take up a slot by default which is a great change but I didn't get to experience that since the Game Pass version didn't update). Most of my experience was running with nothing but a pistol and flashlight (sometimes not even those), filling up my inventory in two rooms, then run back through enemies to empty my inventory. I never felt like I should kill enemies either because they'd get up like RE1R crimsonheads (I wasn't aware that they had a limited amount of times they could get back up). I can't say it was challenging because I finished the game with a fuckton of ammo and heals in my item box so it felt like the inventory limit was entirely artificial.
On top of that, the key hunting got incredibly tedious a few areas in which, combined with the incredibly limited inventory, lead to endless backtracking that wasn't fun, difficult, or beneficial. I will say the fact you can enter your inventory, notes, and radio while interacting with a puzzle is incredibly convenient and makes for a lot of saved time. The puzzles for the most part were solid and made sense but a few left me stumped in a way that I couldn't intuit or the answer wasn't clear (namely the tarot card puzzle and dials near the end, don't use the words "sun-like" and have both the sun and the star as a tarot card since the sun is literally a star). Out of my complaints for this game, this is near the bottom but compared to other survival horror games I was mildly disappointed by this aspect.
At the very end, I came out of this game wanting more from the developers. I fail to think of any other games that nail the PS1 aesthetic as good as this and the music, visuals, and gameplay are so cohesive that I need something else like this. I don't care if it's another survival horror, if it's something closer to Parasite Eve, if it's an RPG in the same world. Despite my dislike for the gameplay, I'm desperate for more.
I love survival horror games. Signalis made me incredibly frustrated for numerous reasons. The six item inventory limit doesn't add to the game (as of the 25th the devs made it so the flashlight and eidetic modules don't take up a slot by default which is a great change but I didn't get to experience that since the Game Pass version didn't update). Most of my experience was running with nothing but a pistol and flashlight (sometimes not even those), filling up my inventory in two rooms, then run back through enemies to empty my inventory. I never felt like I should kill enemies either because they'd get up like RE1R crimsonheads (I wasn't aware that they had a limited amount of times they could get back up). I can't say it was challenging because I finished the game with a fuckton of ammo and heals in my item box so it felt like the inventory limit was entirely artificial.
On top of that, the key hunting got incredibly tedious a few areas in which, combined with the incredibly limited inventory, lead to endless backtracking that wasn't fun, difficult, or beneficial. I will say the fact you can enter your inventory, notes, and radio while interacting with a puzzle is incredibly convenient and makes for a lot of saved time. The puzzles for the most part were solid and made sense but a few left me stumped in a way that I couldn't intuit or the answer wasn't clear (namely the tarot card puzzle and dials near the end, don't use the words "sun-like" and have both the sun and the star as a tarot card since the sun is literally a star). Out of my complaints for this game, this is near the bottom but compared to other survival horror games I was mildly disappointed by this aspect.
At the very end, I came out of this game wanting more from the developers. I fail to think of any other games that nail the PS1 aesthetic as good as this and the music, visuals, and gameplay are so cohesive that I need something else like this. I don't care if it's another survival horror, if it's something closer to Parasite Eve, if it's an RPG in the same world. Despite my dislike for the gameplay, I'm desperate for more.