Neon White feels like a spiritual successor to Mirror’s Edge with the narrative sensibilities of a game like Catherine. As “sinners” you’ve been tasked with slaying demons to keep heaven safe for the true believers. If you slay enough of them, and quickly, you may even earn a space for yourself at the pearly gates.

The gameplay is a mixture between parkour simulator, FPS, and deck builder and it all works brilliantly. In a bid to raise your neon score, you are encouraged to beat each level as quickly as possible. At first, this is simply a matter of execution. Follow the obvious path (marked by brightly coloured platforms and don’t miss your shots. But, as you beat your score and earn yourself a medal, you’re tempted to try again… Upon returning, there is a gift hidden in the level, but it can only be found through thorough exploration. Now you can compete against your ghost and improve your score, then you see hints for alternate, faster routes through levels, then the leaderboards open up… The soul cards (which provide you with guns) function in much the same way. You begin with a handgun/double jump, but eventually graduate to a rocket launcher/zip line which requires much greater precision to handle.

This is a game about speedrunning and the mechanics take the daunting goal of being THE fastest and break it down into tiny, incremental steps. Without meaning to, you’ll find yourself thinking and performing like a speedrunner until you are the one driven to get a run that’s just a few milliseconds quicker than the last.

The backdrop for this frantic gameplay is a fantastic OST written by Machine Girl that is one of the best I’ve heard in years. It’s catchy, it matches the aesthetic of the game perfectly, and most of the tracks are great to listen to on their own. I think this is Machine Girl’s first game OST and I sincerely hope there are more to come.

The narrative of the game is often cringey, creepy, or weirdly kinky and I actively disliked most of these sections, but the setup for the game’s events was interesting enough to keep me engaged. Despite these negatives, the setting itself is pretty evocative and I found the interplay between the Angels and the Neons to be quite endearing. The narrative also feeds back into the gameplay by functioning as a way to unlock unique side missions for each of the main characters. Although this doesn’t excuse the dialogue, it’s no worse than the average JRPG most of the time.

If you enjoy precision platforming, have fond memories of Mirror’s Edge, or have even a passing interest in speedrunning, play this game! I can’t wait to see what this team does next because Neon White feels like one of the most unique gaming experiences I’ve had in recent memory.

Siempre que lo intentaba decía: no va a ser mi Final Fantasy favorito (FFF) y era una aproximación incorrecta. Si, Cloud me cae mal y me parece que tiene el carisma de un votante de vox que va a Ferraz. Si, Sephirot está gastadisimo como malo y ya me sabía todos los spoilers. Si, Nomura y Nojima. Pero esto es un juegarral y habría que estar loco para no verlo. Solo por el final del CD1 ya sería un clásico instantaneo pero encima tiene uno de los combates más interesantes en un FF que yo ya haya jugado, el reparto coral es inmenso (Tifa, Barret, Aeris, Caith Sith, Cid e incluso Yuffie son geniales), la música es una delicia, lo malos (tanto los Turcos como Rufus como Escarlata) aparte de Sephirot me han encantado y el subtexto y trama política no por obvios dejan de estar de plena actualidad y construyen una historia lo suficientemente profunda que son un hito para los juegos de consola. Y el final es muy atrevido, con un mensaje de esperanza pero sin dejarlo todo mascadito para el espectador y es precioso todo lo que hacen
con Aeris, sobre todo su aporte al final y que todos la recuerden, porque al final nadie muere del todo nunca. Genial haber descubierto este juego, aunque sea tan tarde.

No son pocos los juegos que intentan sorprender mediante mecánicas ocultas. Capas que ocultan mucho más de lo que el juego aparenta a simple vista. En los últimos años lo hemos visto claramente en títulos como Inscryption, NieR, Immortality o Undertale. A este título me he aproximado por ese mismo motivo, aunque el precio a pagar por la sorpresa era tener que lidiar con un sokoban, género al que no le echo nada en cara, pero que en lo personal me cansa con bastante prontitud.

La cuestión es que, mientras que en el resto de ejemplos las sorpresas empiezan a aparecer al poco de empezar a jugar, en este caso están escondidas tras una primera run completa de 255 niveles sokoban. El diseño de estos es magnífico, no vengo a decir lo contrario, pero la cantidad es superior a mí.

Enhorabuena a todos aquellos amantes del género, ya que sé de primera mano que han disfrutado y disfrutarán de este título como de pocos antes. Una lástima que no sea para mí.

Honestly wasn't really expecting this one to vibe with me, and certainly wasn't expecting to list it among my favorite games of 2023. Holy shit were my expectations blown away. Everything in this game works. Music, animation, design, movement, core gameplay loop - everything is exactly what it needs to be. I don't necessarily think it's the greatest game of all time, but I do think it is a perfect game in the sense that it is perfectly put together. Everything was tested to hell and back, everything unnecessary being cut or removed and every element that remains being polished to a mirror sheen. It's downright impressive, and it's a blast to play. Probably 2023's best.

this game is awesome. theres so much to love with the style, the music, the way the game feels, overall i just had a great time with it. it is very difficult and i remember the first time i tried this game i turned it off pretty quickly because of the difficulty but trying it again now im happy i gave it a second chance even if i used save states a couple times here and there. honestly though i would love to go back to this some time and try to get better at it not dying as much or trying to go save stateless, i think i would find a much deeper appreciation for it on subsequent playthroughs