Do you remember?
Do you remember it? That tale about pain...
Inmost is a profoundly sad game, it tackles loss and pain in a really mature and respectful way, its bleak, yet it's absolutely beautiful at times. I was left speechless at times at the sheer sight of what I was experiencing, and it did things I've never expected a game of this kind to ever do... yet its heartbreaking that I cannot say that it's amazing. It’s great, don't get me wrong, but I can clearly see the masterpiece it just doesn't manage to fully be, and it’s even more heartbreaking that it's not a matter that it bites more that it can chew, like in so many other instances with other games, but rather that it chews it very slow, and then by the end EXTREMELY fast and then it spits it out. But let's take it in parts.
Inmost does something really curious, as even tho it technically has a level-by-level progression, with clear parts meant to be experienced in a certain order, it also has various elements of the ''Metroidvania'' genre, with all of its parts being interconnected and you getting different items as you progress and these being the key for your progress as well as getting the different collectables. It's a puzzle-oriented game, with light platforming and combat being practically out of the question, which leads to a very interesting game of cat and mouse with the enemies scattered through-out this dim world and some cool chase sequences. Even in the more narrative focused sections of the child or the times that there's combat when you take control of the knight, puzzles are always the focus, and for the most part they are super-well designed! They feel integrated in the context of the environments and the feeling you get after realizing what you got to do is sometimes very rewarding! They are far from the most complex thing in the world, the game as a whole is not that hard to be honest, and there are bits here and there that can actually be quite frustrating and not fun, like the bell puzzle. Plus, I sometimes couldn’t find a way to progress through a puzzle or to the next area the game wanted me to go, it happened a couple of times and every single one of them it was because the element I was supposed to interact with meshed into the background, but honestly, that seems like a fair price to pay in exchange for such a presentation.
This might just be one of the best pixel-art I’ve ever seen in any videogame. Everything is just so beautifully detailed, and even the most simplistic designs, like the enemies, worked really well. The game uses color extremely effectively, and most of it being shades of blue, green and black made it so when other colors were added into the mix the more incredibly impactful, and all of that combined with the fluid animations and simply spectacular soundtrack and sound effects, it amounts to an experience that can evoke something simply by looking at it, which it may seem a silly compliment to give since a LOT of games have that quality, but with this one it's especially true. It may have the occasional visual glitch and the aforementioned problem with not being able to distinguish certain things from the background. But I really can’t complain that much when I’m feasting my eyes with such a beautiful yet sad world.
Yet, where Inmost really shines, is it its narrative and story. I went in already expecting a rich and mature story, and I STILL was incredibly surprised in the best of ways. As I said at the beginning, this game tackles bot loss and pain, and it does it in a slow and masterful way. Piece by piece, the true meaning of this world and characters is shown to us, and it’s interesting as it it’s upsetting, I felt extremely torn seeing this characters suffer, I felt bad for pushing that kid accidentally, I felt terrible seeing how the child in the house suffered, was confused and surrounded by broken people with a broken pass, and the final not the game leaves on it’s so fucking astonishing and inspiring… and it’s because all of that that the fact it takes a lot of missteps in the way of telling that story breaks my heart so much. I got the feeling that halfway through they realized they didn’t have enough time for telling everything they wanted to tell, and as such we get a lot of flashbacks and changing of characters that happen out of nowhere and a lot of unnecessary narration that just detracts from what it would be some of the most striking moments both visually and narratively wise ever put into videogame. For most of the game I was left conflicted ‘cause some of the story is made clear as it progresses, and some parts of it just don’t seem to fit or the message to be that clear or even good, and even tho in the ending it all comes across and nothing is left up in the air… it’s because you just watched a 10 plus minute long cinematic explaining everything, instead of just being shown little by little across the game, which was what it was doing up until that point, and it just feels… rushed, and while it ties everything nicely and the message hits you like a truck at full speed, the long term impact it left me was just this sensation that it went too fast, and honestly, I would have been fine with sacrificing with some of the most obnoxious puzzles in favor of getting more development, and being shown instead of told. Even the collectables seem jarring, context wise at its core they do make sense, collecting fragments of pain and drawn memories, but it’s the way you get them that doesn’t really make sense. You are told that everything that is alive feels pain in this world, but… why do you get ‘’pain’’ from rocks and chests? And why the hell do I get paper from mining stones? I absolutely know that this just sounds petty and void as criticism, but with a game that tackles so much and it does make sense, it makes it so the ways it contradicts itself or it doesn’t make sense feel the more apparent and non-sensical, which its sadly a statement I wished could only be applied to the collectables.
And saying this tears me apart ‘cause I wished I could say this game was perfect, that its without flaws, because I really mean it when I say Inmost was such a emotional experience, the messages it wants to share are so beautiful and that are needed to say, and parts of them really hit close to me and I’m sure they will do for so many people, and if you love this game I absolutely get it, I loved parts of it too, but I have to be fair with myself and say that I did not like some of them as well. And still, I just think this one is really especial. I can totally understand arguments of both sides for not liking and adoring this game, but one thing I think some can agree upon, it’s in that this is a truly unique game. If you are in a good place mentally right now, I really recommend it, I can’t do it for people that are not, as it tackles some incredibly serious and upsetting matters, this is a tough one to play, for me in more ways than one, and I hope someone out there can see beyond its flaws and encounter a masterpiece, or not and not like it, but still think about it and how could games tackle this themes more or even better. Either way, Inmost its one of those that I will not forget about in a while, and damn did it made me tear up a bit.
…I was wrong.
It’s a tale about love
I will tell you… tell you once again
Do you remember it? That tale about pain...
Inmost is a profoundly sad game, it tackles loss and pain in a really mature and respectful way, its bleak, yet it's absolutely beautiful at times. I was left speechless at times at the sheer sight of what I was experiencing, and it did things I've never expected a game of this kind to ever do... yet its heartbreaking that I cannot say that it's amazing. It’s great, don't get me wrong, but I can clearly see the masterpiece it just doesn't manage to fully be, and it’s even more heartbreaking that it's not a matter that it bites more that it can chew, like in so many other instances with other games, but rather that it chews it very slow, and then by the end EXTREMELY fast and then it spits it out. But let's take it in parts.
Inmost does something really curious, as even tho it technically has a level-by-level progression, with clear parts meant to be experienced in a certain order, it also has various elements of the ''Metroidvania'' genre, with all of its parts being interconnected and you getting different items as you progress and these being the key for your progress as well as getting the different collectables. It's a puzzle-oriented game, with light platforming and combat being practically out of the question, which leads to a very interesting game of cat and mouse with the enemies scattered through-out this dim world and some cool chase sequences. Even in the more narrative focused sections of the child or the times that there's combat when you take control of the knight, puzzles are always the focus, and for the most part they are super-well designed! They feel integrated in the context of the environments and the feeling you get after realizing what you got to do is sometimes very rewarding! They are far from the most complex thing in the world, the game as a whole is not that hard to be honest, and there are bits here and there that can actually be quite frustrating and not fun, like the bell puzzle. Plus, I sometimes couldn’t find a way to progress through a puzzle or to the next area the game wanted me to go, it happened a couple of times and every single one of them it was because the element I was supposed to interact with meshed into the background, but honestly, that seems like a fair price to pay in exchange for such a presentation.
This might just be one of the best pixel-art I’ve ever seen in any videogame. Everything is just so beautifully detailed, and even the most simplistic designs, like the enemies, worked really well. The game uses color extremely effectively, and most of it being shades of blue, green and black made it so when other colors were added into the mix the more incredibly impactful, and all of that combined with the fluid animations and simply spectacular soundtrack and sound effects, it amounts to an experience that can evoke something simply by looking at it, which it may seem a silly compliment to give since a LOT of games have that quality, but with this one it's especially true. It may have the occasional visual glitch and the aforementioned problem with not being able to distinguish certain things from the background. But I really can’t complain that much when I’m feasting my eyes with such a beautiful yet sad world.
Yet, where Inmost really shines, is it its narrative and story. I went in already expecting a rich and mature story, and I STILL was incredibly surprised in the best of ways. As I said at the beginning, this game tackles bot loss and pain, and it does it in a slow and masterful way. Piece by piece, the true meaning of this world and characters is shown to us, and it’s interesting as it it’s upsetting, I felt extremely torn seeing this characters suffer, I felt bad for pushing that kid accidentally, I felt terrible seeing how the child in the house suffered, was confused and surrounded by broken people with a broken pass, and the final not the game leaves on it’s so fucking astonishing and inspiring… and it’s because all of that that the fact it takes a lot of missteps in the way of telling that story breaks my heart so much. I got the feeling that halfway through they realized they didn’t have enough time for telling everything they wanted to tell, and as such we get a lot of flashbacks and changing of characters that happen out of nowhere and a lot of unnecessary narration that just detracts from what it would be some of the most striking moments both visually and narratively wise ever put into videogame. For most of the game I was left conflicted ‘cause some of the story is made clear as it progresses, and some parts of it just don’t seem to fit or the message to be that clear or even good, and even tho in the ending it all comes across and nothing is left up in the air… it’s because you just watched a 10 plus minute long cinematic explaining everything, instead of just being shown little by little across the game, which was what it was doing up until that point, and it just feels… rushed, and while it ties everything nicely and the message hits you like a truck at full speed, the long term impact it left me was just this sensation that it went too fast, and honestly, I would have been fine with sacrificing with some of the most obnoxious puzzles in favor of getting more development, and being shown instead of told. Even the collectables seem jarring, context wise at its core they do make sense, collecting fragments of pain and drawn memories, but it’s the way you get them that doesn’t really make sense. You are told that everything that is alive feels pain in this world, but… why do you get ‘’pain’’ from rocks and chests? And why the hell do I get paper from mining stones? I absolutely know that this just sounds petty and void as criticism, but with a game that tackles so much and it does make sense, it makes it so the ways it contradicts itself or it doesn’t make sense feel the more apparent and non-sensical, which its sadly a statement I wished could only be applied to the collectables.
And saying this tears me apart ‘cause I wished I could say this game was perfect, that its without flaws, because I really mean it when I say Inmost was such a emotional experience, the messages it wants to share are so beautiful and that are needed to say, and parts of them really hit close to me and I’m sure they will do for so many people, and if you love this game I absolutely get it, I loved parts of it too, but I have to be fair with myself and say that I did not like some of them as well. And still, I just think this one is really especial. I can totally understand arguments of both sides for not liking and adoring this game, but one thing I think some can agree upon, it’s in that this is a truly unique game. If you are in a good place mentally right now, I really recommend it, I can’t do it for people that are not, as it tackles some incredibly serious and upsetting matters, this is a tough one to play, for me in more ways than one, and I hope someone out there can see beyond its flaws and encounter a masterpiece, or not and not like it, but still think about it and how could games tackle this themes more or even better. Either way, Inmost its one of those that I will not forget about in a while, and damn did it made me tear up a bit.
…I was wrong.
It’s a tale about love
I will tell you… tell you once again