holy shit.
Princess Love, the soon-to-be empress of the Velayan Empire, is at the space lighthouse with her best friend and guard Kel. Her coronation will be soon and she's dreading it. She wants to get away from it all. Her sister could be empress instead. Kel isn't all that amused. While she doesn't say it in so many words, even that escape speaks to the privilege Love possesses. Love doesn't get the criticism, but its something that will have to sink in as the lighthouse is placed under attack.
In act 3, Love returns to the ceremony she underwent when she was 13. On a desert planet, she speaks to the oracle. She's asked to choose between three paths for her empire. Security, Prosperity, and Stability. She's 13. She chooses what makes sense at the time. Its forbidden to speak of what happened with the oracle, so this moment stays with herself.
Now revisiting the memory, Love can question things deeper. Only three choices? And don't those choices mean the same thing in the end?
Each spirit of Love's past insists that she shouldn't ask questions. Only her deceased mother, the one born a handmaiden among these rich nobles, is willing to push Love towards the truth. There was never really a choice. The choice was made before Love was born. The Empire comes first.
Really incredible character work. Love as the sassy royal coming into her own and trying to figure out how to use power against entrenched systems is a whole other level. But the other characters rule in other ways. Ramzap, the psychic assassin with a snowglobe head. Kel, the bodyguard with a secret past. AVA, the irritable AI who's name isn't an acronym, she just thinks her name should be shouted whenever possible. Just an excellent band of quirky, purposeful freaks.
I've played all of Cosmic Void's previous games, although I didn't realize they were all by the same devs until now. I found Void Breach to be... a perfectly fine hour of game with a clumsy finale. The Corruption Within was an excellent adventure game, albeit a little vague on wider characterization and plot details. Blood Nova is the clear winner of the pack. The puzzle work is a bit confusing, specifically when it involves complicated sci-fi lore and tech. But the story and its presentation just soar into an incredible package. They've improved their aesthetic in every single game they've released and this seems to be the perfect way of nailing everything they want to go for in design and story. What a gorgeous fucking game.
Princess Love, the soon-to-be empress of the Velayan Empire, is at the space lighthouse with her best friend and guard Kel. Her coronation will be soon and she's dreading it. She wants to get away from it all. Her sister could be empress instead. Kel isn't all that amused. While she doesn't say it in so many words, even that escape speaks to the privilege Love possesses. Love doesn't get the criticism, but its something that will have to sink in as the lighthouse is placed under attack.
In act 3, Love returns to the ceremony she underwent when she was 13. On a desert planet, she speaks to the oracle. She's asked to choose between three paths for her empire. Security, Prosperity, and Stability. She's 13. She chooses what makes sense at the time. Its forbidden to speak of what happened with the oracle, so this moment stays with herself.
Now revisiting the memory, Love can question things deeper. Only three choices? And don't those choices mean the same thing in the end?
Each spirit of Love's past insists that she shouldn't ask questions. Only her deceased mother, the one born a handmaiden among these rich nobles, is willing to push Love towards the truth. There was never really a choice. The choice was made before Love was born. The Empire comes first.
Really incredible character work. Love as the sassy royal coming into her own and trying to figure out how to use power against entrenched systems is a whole other level. But the other characters rule in other ways. Ramzap, the psychic assassin with a snowglobe head. Kel, the bodyguard with a secret past. AVA, the irritable AI who's name isn't an acronym, she just thinks her name should be shouted whenever possible. Just an excellent band of quirky, purposeful freaks.
I've played all of Cosmic Void's previous games, although I didn't realize they were all by the same devs until now. I found Void Breach to be... a perfectly fine hour of game with a clumsy finale. The Corruption Within was an excellent adventure game, albeit a little vague on wider characterization and plot details. Blood Nova is the clear winner of the pack. The puzzle work is a bit confusing, specifically when it involves complicated sci-fi lore and tech. But the story and its presentation just soar into an incredible package. They've improved their aesthetic in every single game they've released and this seems to be the perfect way of nailing everything they want to go for in design and story. What a gorgeous fucking game.