You know that moment at the start of Sayonara Wild Hearts where the opening cutscene transitions into the menu screen and the title song kicks in? That moment rules. This is a game made entirely of that moment.
Simogo are the absolute masters of what some people call "presentation," but I like to call it "staging": the combination of elements that makes a moment dramatically successful. Simogo pays more attention than anybody to details like the way text moves across the screen, the way a colour scheme can set the mood, the way a touchscreen can give the illusion of physical tension. During their run of games from Year Walk to DEVICE 6 to The Sailor's Dream, their work became more and more stylish as it became less and less concerned with puzzles and traditional gameplay objectives. It's no wonder that they ran in the opposite direction with Sayonara: with The Sailor's Dream they'd reached the apex of something. They put all their efforts into making a game that looks, sounds and feels beautiful at every moment and indeed it does. Every design element from the explorable environments themselves down to the loading screens and individual UI elements are beautiful, tactile and intuitive. Assessing it demands an entirely different frame of reference from most games, and indeed even from Simogo's other work.
The story is simple enough but elaborately told. The same events are heard Rashomon-style from the perspective of three different characters through three different media: text, speech and music. (Incidentally, although this game doesn't have the best music of all time, it certainly has the best songs.) The gut punch arrives once you've completed all three parts of the puzzle.
The Sailor's Dream is Simogo's masterpiece and one of the best mobile games ever made. I joined this website because it needed a friend.
Simogo are the absolute masters of what some people call "presentation," but I like to call it "staging": the combination of elements that makes a moment dramatically successful. Simogo pays more attention than anybody to details like the way text moves across the screen, the way a colour scheme can set the mood, the way a touchscreen can give the illusion of physical tension. During their run of games from Year Walk to DEVICE 6 to The Sailor's Dream, their work became more and more stylish as it became less and less concerned with puzzles and traditional gameplay objectives. It's no wonder that they ran in the opposite direction with Sayonara: with The Sailor's Dream they'd reached the apex of something. They put all their efforts into making a game that looks, sounds and feels beautiful at every moment and indeed it does. Every design element from the explorable environments themselves down to the loading screens and individual UI elements are beautiful, tactile and intuitive. Assessing it demands an entirely different frame of reference from most games, and indeed even from Simogo's other work.
The story is simple enough but elaborately told. The same events are heard Rashomon-style from the perspective of three different characters through three different media: text, speech and music. (Incidentally, although this game doesn't have the best music of all time, it certainly has the best songs.) The gut punch arrives once you've completed all three parts of the puzzle.
The Sailor's Dream is Simogo's masterpiece and one of the best mobile games ever made. I joined this website because it needed a friend.