This review contains spoilers
Please do not read if you have any intentions of beating the game, I think the non-spoiler experience is very worth it.
While I had my doubts as to how good of a game this is at many points, and perhaps I would still like this to be a part of a different medium, I think there are moments which do a great job with interactivity, and some really good puzzles once a chapter throws you into the deeper waters with its mechanics. There's also this great moment as you walk forward and fight against clones of yourself as the two godly cats duke it out in the background. That owned. There's also the great pixel-art and soundtrack that loops just perfectly. Rarely do we get such smooth loops.
A lot of this game is similar to the visual novels from the studio key and their anime adaptations. A cute girl that needs to be protected which possesses, or is a victim of mysterious powers beyond human comprehension. Usually, every character had something going for them, except the protagonist, who was usually a perfect hero, always making the right decision and saying the exact words the other person needed despite the problems being so complicated and vast. It never really worked for me. Atma is similar to this archetype. For a long time I was annoyed by how little character he had. But they made it work, in retrospect.
Atma, as the player knows him, was never real, which I thought was a fantastic twist that explained why he was the way he was. The only Atma we know is the one Nirmala perceived. He may have been real and died while caught up in that stream, in which case it shows how the sympathy and the kindness of a stranger can go a very long way. He may have had problems in his past life, he goes into them a tiny bit towards the end, but he may also not have been real, in which case it means our hopes for a person that understands us and cares for our vision of the future help us carry on.
A lot of this game is explained very openly at the very end, but I think a lot of the conclusions drawn are good ones and they are wrapped in a lot of good emotions. As sappy as it might sound, I hope whoever gets to that point grows to learn their worth, their place, their limitations. To look at things from a different perspective. Everything that this game tries to tell with sincerity.
And I hope others won't dismiss it because of its simple mechanics, its inability to fully commit to making some of them deeper, the cheesy "you were in a coma" conclusion, or a lack of a deeper perspective on bullying. I think all of those are valid complaints, but I still hope this game doesn't falter under them for everyone. There are some solid mechanics and puzzles in here, a great structure and the aforementioned great, ambigous twist about Atma's existence. It's not my ideal version of this game, but I am satisfied with what I got and glad it's out.
Finally, the award for best cats goes to this game. Not only is petting them a core mechanic, but you CAN NAME ALL OF THEM. Can you name all the cats in Stray and come back and say "you're as fluffy as ever Cherry"? That's what I thought. Top 1 cat mechanics. Undefeated.
While I had my doubts as to how good of a game this is at many points, and perhaps I would still like this to be a part of a different medium, I think there are moments which do a great job with interactivity, and some really good puzzles once a chapter throws you into the deeper waters with its mechanics. There's also this great moment as you walk forward and fight against clones of yourself as the two godly cats duke it out in the background. That owned. There's also the great pixel-art and soundtrack that loops just perfectly. Rarely do we get such smooth loops.
A lot of this game is similar to the visual novels from the studio key and their anime adaptations. A cute girl that needs to be protected which possesses, or is a victim of mysterious powers beyond human comprehension. Usually, every character had something going for them, except the protagonist, who was usually a perfect hero, always making the right decision and saying the exact words the other person needed despite the problems being so complicated and vast. It never really worked for me. Atma is similar to this archetype. For a long time I was annoyed by how little character he had. But they made it work, in retrospect.
Atma, as the player knows him, was never real, which I thought was a fantastic twist that explained why he was the way he was. The only Atma we know is the one Nirmala perceived. He may have been real and died while caught up in that stream, in which case it shows how the sympathy and the kindness of a stranger can go a very long way. He may have had problems in his past life, he goes into them a tiny bit towards the end, but he may also not have been real, in which case it means our hopes for a person that understands us and cares for our vision of the future help us carry on.
A lot of this game is explained very openly at the very end, but I think a lot of the conclusions drawn are good ones and they are wrapped in a lot of good emotions. As sappy as it might sound, I hope whoever gets to that point grows to learn their worth, their place, their limitations. To look at things from a different perspective. Everything that this game tries to tell with sincerity.
And I hope others won't dismiss it because of its simple mechanics, its inability to fully commit to making some of them deeper, the cheesy "you were in a coma" conclusion, or a lack of a deeper perspective on bullying. I think all of those are valid complaints, but I still hope this game doesn't falter under them for everyone. There are some solid mechanics and puzzles in here, a great structure and the aforementioned great, ambigous twist about Atma's existence. It's not my ideal version of this game, but I am satisfied with what I got and glad it's out.
Finally, the award for best cats goes to this game. Not only is petting them a core mechanic, but you CAN NAME ALL OF THEM. Can you name all the cats in Stray and come back and say "you're as fluffy as ever Cherry"? That's what I thought. Top 1 cat mechanics. Undefeated.