I've seen in some other forums I visit occasionally over the years some people commenting on graphics in a way that frankly, perplexes me. Complaining that new games visuals are bad, or AAA graphics are awful. I grew up in the 80's with a ZX spectrum, everything now days looks fantastic to me. There are a certain set of gamers seemingly obsessed with screen resolution and hyper detail. Sure those things are nice, I love stunning looking games that are cutting edge but none of that matters if the art is bad or not of one vision. Art holds these games together and Aspire: Ina's Tale really emphasizes this because it's gorgeous.
It uses a very flat 2D style almost like it's been made with paper cut out to form the shapes and patterns. Through the titular Ina's journey you visit, dungeons, gardens and factories and each area is distinct from each other with a nice mixture of foreground and background elements. To bring this artistic cohesive vision together the soundtrack is wonderful. Using piano as it's main instrument but other pieces in different parts for a slow melancholic relaxing vibe through most the game but there are sections especially at the end where the tempo picks up matching the action perfectly. Aspire's overall presentation is stunning, at least to me.
Visual and Audio enjoyment aside the rest of the game is both simple and very short, but I don't mean that as an insult. This is the sort of game you can play over a weekend or in a day and any more than that it would wear out it's welcome frankly. The story to the game follows Ina, a young girl and priestess held in a mysterious tower she has to escape from. She will meet a limited cast of characters as she goes giving hints of what the overall story is actually about, it's a little ambiguous at the end exactly what was happening with quite a lot to read between the lines.
The gameplay is a fairly standard 2D puzzle platformer. It's very linear with it's puzzles being fairly simple manipulating blocks, lifts and moving objects to doors. Ina can manipulate spirits of different type, either energy, motion or mass to power, move or grow objects to travel to the next area. Each area has certain resources to do this as part of the puzzle. They are mostly intuitive puzzles that are quite clear what you need to do within a few seconds though I got stumped on two for a few minutes simply because I was overthinking them. I finished the game in about 3 hours with a checkpoint select to mop up the few trophies I missed but there is nothing else, very limited collectibles or reason to replay it.
I'm gonna be honest, I had a really nice time with this but you need to know what you're getting into when you start it. If you want a simple to play, short game that looks and sounds fantastic as a palette cleanser from bigger or more complicated titles than this is the perfect game for that.
+ The art and audio design are a delight.
+ Simple relaxing game.
+ Pleasant characters and narrative.
It uses a very flat 2D style almost like it's been made with paper cut out to form the shapes and patterns. Through the titular Ina's journey you visit, dungeons, gardens and factories and each area is distinct from each other with a nice mixture of foreground and background elements. To bring this artistic cohesive vision together the soundtrack is wonderful. Using piano as it's main instrument but other pieces in different parts for a slow melancholic relaxing vibe through most the game but there are sections especially at the end where the tempo picks up matching the action perfectly. Aspire's overall presentation is stunning, at least to me.
Visual and Audio enjoyment aside the rest of the game is both simple and very short, but I don't mean that as an insult. This is the sort of game you can play over a weekend or in a day and any more than that it would wear out it's welcome frankly. The story to the game follows Ina, a young girl and priestess held in a mysterious tower she has to escape from. She will meet a limited cast of characters as she goes giving hints of what the overall story is actually about, it's a little ambiguous at the end exactly what was happening with quite a lot to read between the lines.
The gameplay is a fairly standard 2D puzzle platformer. It's very linear with it's puzzles being fairly simple manipulating blocks, lifts and moving objects to doors. Ina can manipulate spirits of different type, either energy, motion or mass to power, move or grow objects to travel to the next area. Each area has certain resources to do this as part of the puzzle. They are mostly intuitive puzzles that are quite clear what you need to do within a few seconds though I got stumped on two for a few minutes simply because I was overthinking them. I finished the game in about 3 hours with a checkpoint select to mop up the few trophies I missed but there is nothing else, very limited collectibles or reason to replay it.
I'm gonna be honest, I had a really nice time with this but you need to know what you're getting into when you start it. If you want a simple to play, short game that looks and sounds fantastic as a palette cleanser from bigger or more complicated titles than this is the perfect game for that.
+ The art and audio design are a delight.
+ Simple relaxing game.
+ Pleasant characters and narrative.
2 Comments
@cowboyjosh - I am a poor excuse of one :(
cowboyjosh
9 months ago