An alright to pass the weekend.
I generally hate """wholesome""" vibe games, and this got dangerously close to being too much--we get it, you added the dog companion so you could be noticed by the "can you pet the dog" twitter account, its dumb. But it reigned it in when it mattered, and there was enough to like I found myself enjoying it mostly.
The monster fighting mechanics are well thought-out until you reach lategame and can basically build your own WMD to one-shot everything in the game on turn 0. I don't really have any complaints really about the combat except that it makes the same cardinal sin pokemon does--having way too many animations in combat that slow down the game. This game has a focus on status conditions, and a single attack will look like "You used Attack" (animation) "It deals damage" (health bar animation) "inflict status condition" (animation) (repeat for each status) (repeat for each attack). Unlike pokemon, you can't even turn off animations so its doubly egregious.
The main issues I have primarily concern the game progression. It's a pretty open-ended game in the sense that they give you two main questlines at the start and you're more or less allowed to explore the world at your leisure to find the macguffins, but in doing so they made traversing the world just...awkward? The physics are off is the best way to explain it, it just feels weird to jump and glide all over the world. My character would routinely clip up an awkward piece of geometry or randomly gain a bunch of height in the air, or lose grip when climbing a wall unexpectedly--its never enough to be a game-killer or outright annoying, but just feel bad. The decision to make sprinting cost an inordinate amount of stamina early contributes, because the animation when your stamina bar depletes completely locks you in place for a second so you're sort of forced to walk everywhere for the first half of the game.
For a game to hinge itself around careful exploration and then make the exploration janky hurts a lot, I won't lie.
The narrative is sort of whatever, its a very vibes-based sort of thing, but the vibes weren't immaculate or horrid. Just sort of generally pleasant. I really liked the sorta lo-fi punk vibe to the ost and the full vocal themes were a treat overall. Also easily the most British game I've played in a while. Take that as you will.
I dunno, like I said its clearly a target of the whole dumb wholesome movement with a dash of 80s/90s nostalgia that is a little overplayed but not done poorly. Its fine, its fun, its executed solidly, but it also won't stick with me.
My favorite monster was Apocrowlype.
I generally hate """wholesome""" vibe games, and this got dangerously close to being too much--we get it, you added the dog companion so you could be noticed by the "can you pet the dog" twitter account, its dumb. But it reigned it in when it mattered, and there was enough to like I found myself enjoying it mostly.
The monster fighting mechanics are well thought-out until you reach lategame and can basically build your own WMD to one-shot everything in the game on turn 0. I don't really have any complaints really about the combat except that it makes the same cardinal sin pokemon does--having way too many animations in combat that slow down the game. This game has a focus on status conditions, and a single attack will look like "You used Attack" (animation) "It deals damage" (health bar animation) "inflict status condition" (animation) (repeat for each status) (repeat for each attack). Unlike pokemon, you can't even turn off animations so its doubly egregious.
The main issues I have primarily concern the game progression. It's a pretty open-ended game in the sense that they give you two main questlines at the start and you're more or less allowed to explore the world at your leisure to find the macguffins, but in doing so they made traversing the world just...awkward? The physics are off is the best way to explain it, it just feels weird to jump and glide all over the world. My character would routinely clip up an awkward piece of geometry or randomly gain a bunch of height in the air, or lose grip when climbing a wall unexpectedly--its never enough to be a game-killer or outright annoying, but just feel bad. The decision to make sprinting cost an inordinate amount of stamina early contributes, because the animation when your stamina bar depletes completely locks you in place for a second so you're sort of forced to walk everywhere for the first half of the game.
For a game to hinge itself around careful exploration and then make the exploration janky hurts a lot, I won't lie.
The narrative is sort of whatever, its a very vibes-based sort of thing, but the vibes weren't immaculate or horrid. Just sort of generally pleasant. I really liked the sorta lo-fi punk vibe to the ost and the full vocal themes were a treat overall. Also easily the most British game I've played in a while. Take that as you will.
I dunno, like I said its clearly a target of the whole dumb wholesome movement with a dash of 80s/90s nostalgia that is a little overplayed but not done poorly. Its fine, its fun, its executed solidly, but it also won't stick with me.
My favorite monster was Apocrowlype.