This review contains spoilers
I have MIXED FEELINGS on this VIDEO GAME
First off all,
I've been looking forward to this game for a good while now. Visually, it is probably the one of the most Up My Alley video games to have ever existed. like holy fucking shit it's insane. I love that little guy. a lot of dubious little creatures getting up to mischief. It's even a point-and-click adventure, a genre which has a lot of stuff I enjoy in it
There is clearly a lot of love put into the animation and background art; I know this is said about any video game with a cartoonish art style, but the first half/quarter? of the game truly feels like a playable cartoon. very surreal. I adore the cutscenes as well as the ingame animations.
The game is really short. Not inherently a bad thing, of course, but that paired with some of the aspects of the game I don't like so much, it feels a little... I dunno.
There are a lot of bugs. For some reason, on the switch, I couldn't play with any of my pro controllers - I had to use the joycons. The sound effects are inconsistent. The most impactful of it was that sometimes things just... wouldn't work. Couldn't switch between different parts at one point (I had to restart), couldn't jump up onto a platform (also restart), couldn't look at hints or turn the page in the book. I'm not allergic to jank in video games - but when it feels like half the experience rather than a footnote to the experience, it's really frustrating.
Some things I couldn't figure out if they were glitches or weird design choices (chase music playing once the chase is over, INSANELY LOUD piano sound effect)
The hints book is odd. I'm kinda back-and-forth on it. It basically just, directly gives you the answer, rather than most adventure game hints which help but don't directly give anything away.
On one hand, it sort of takes some of the challenge away. On the other hand, I usually end up using a guide for most adventure games anyway lol. And the illustrations are cute. Im sure many would disagree, but I honestly wouldn't mind if more games had something like this
but yknow, I still needed the guide because it wouldn't let me look at the hints at one point. lol
The game ends with a "to be continued"!
I mean. I get it. Animation takes a shit-ton of time. But I do wish the game felt more like a complete experience than a longer demo. it's not just because it's short, there are short games that still feel like a complete experience, it just genuinely has the vibe the first few areas of an adventure game. I just wish there was some sort of indication of that
I hate how most of what I have to say about this game is criticism (immediately after playing it, at least), because like I said I truly do love the style of this game and what it's going for. and I am looking forward to whatever comes next for it. But I'm not really sure if I'd recommend it to someone else - at least not until they've patched most of the glitches and are just as taken by the art style and vibe of it as I am
First off all,
I've been looking forward to this game for a good while now. Visually, it is probably the one of the most Up My Alley video games to have ever existed. like holy fucking shit it's insane. I love that little guy. a lot of dubious little creatures getting up to mischief. It's even a point-and-click adventure, a genre which has a lot of stuff I enjoy in it
There is clearly a lot of love put into the animation and background art; I know this is said about any video game with a cartoonish art style, but the first half/quarter? of the game truly feels like a playable cartoon. very surreal. I adore the cutscenes as well as the ingame animations.
The game is really short. Not inherently a bad thing, of course, but that paired with some of the aspects of the game I don't like so much, it feels a little... I dunno.
There are a lot of bugs. For some reason, on the switch, I couldn't play with any of my pro controllers - I had to use the joycons. The sound effects are inconsistent. The most impactful of it was that sometimes things just... wouldn't work. Couldn't switch between different parts at one point (I had to restart), couldn't jump up onto a platform (also restart), couldn't look at hints or turn the page in the book. I'm not allergic to jank in video games - but when it feels like half the experience rather than a footnote to the experience, it's really frustrating.
Some things I couldn't figure out if they were glitches or weird design choices (chase music playing once the chase is over, INSANELY LOUD piano sound effect)
The hints book is odd. I'm kinda back-and-forth on it. It basically just, directly gives you the answer, rather than most adventure game hints which help but don't directly give anything away.
On one hand, it sort of takes some of the challenge away. On the other hand, I usually end up using a guide for most adventure games anyway lol. And the illustrations are cute. Im sure many would disagree, but I honestly wouldn't mind if more games had something like this
but yknow, I still needed the guide because it wouldn't let me look at the hints at one point. lol
The game ends with a "to be continued"!
I mean. I get it. Animation takes a shit-ton of time. But I do wish the game felt more like a complete experience than a longer demo. it's not just because it's short, there are short games that still feel like a complete experience, it just genuinely has the vibe the first few areas of an adventure game. I just wish there was some sort of indication of that
I hate how most of what I have to say about this game is criticism (immediately after playing it, at least), because like I said I truly do love the style of this game and what it's going for. and I am looking forward to whatever comes next for it. But I'm not really sure if I'd recommend it to someone else - at least not until they've patched most of the glitches and are just as taken by the art style and vibe of it as I am