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.