This was a delight. The story, visuals, characters, everything is just so pretty and charming. I typically love JRPGs for taking me on big journeys where I can really feel the characters growing and changing over time, and this is a rare case of that same feeling being executed really well in a fraction of the time.
As with a lot of indie games, the story and style are definitely the draw of The Artful Escape. The gameplay is secondary, it can afford to be on a lower level to the rest of the game so I forgive the simple nature of "hold square and move right", but the most engaging parts in terms of gameplay are, fittingly, rhythm games.
"Perfect!" I first thought, "I love rhythm games, can't wait to hear the cool tracks for the level finales!" ... If you were wondering why I knocked a full star off this score, well this is why. The music, for me, just isn't it. Shredding electric guitar can and does sound awesome, but when that's all you play throughout the game.. Well 4-5 hours is a long time to just shred guitar lol, really makes our "prodigy" protagonist feel like a one-trick pony.
Oddly enough too, the rhythm parts of the game are probably the least interesting in terms of music you actually play! Holding square while moving has you bashing out these crazy solos, but the finales are all just strumming big loud chords and holding them. Like I understand why, but I really would've preferred to be playing over some actual music. (Especially when the reactions to these scenes are as if you just played the best piece of music ever written when what you've actually played is like, the 4 easiest chords really slowly lol)
Anyway, if you're at all interested in following a young artist as he discovers himself, this is definitely worth checking out. Just maybe don't go hoping for great music outside of fairly standard shredding and held chords :p
(unironically the folk music in this game is maybe my favourite.. oops!)
As with a lot of indie games, the story and style are definitely the draw of The Artful Escape. The gameplay is secondary, it can afford to be on a lower level to the rest of the game so I forgive the simple nature of "hold square and move right", but the most engaging parts in terms of gameplay are, fittingly, rhythm games.
"Perfect!" I first thought, "I love rhythm games, can't wait to hear the cool tracks for the level finales!" ... If you were wondering why I knocked a full star off this score, well this is why. The music, for me, just isn't it. Shredding electric guitar can and does sound awesome, but when that's all you play throughout the game.. Well 4-5 hours is a long time to just shred guitar lol, really makes our "prodigy" protagonist feel like a one-trick pony.
Oddly enough too, the rhythm parts of the game are probably the least interesting in terms of music you actually play! Holding square while moving has you bashing out these crazy solos, but the finales are all just strumming big loud chords and holding them. Like I understand why, but I really would've preferred to be playing over some actual music. (Especially when the reactions to these scenes are as if you just played the best piece of music ever written when what you've actually played is like, the 4 easiest chords really slowly lol)
Anyway, if you're at all interested in following a young artist as he discovers himself, this is definitely worth checking out. Just maybe don't go hoping for great music outside of fairly standard shredding and held chords :p
(unironically the folk music in this game is maybe my favourite.. oops!)
Nancyfly
1 year ago