I think I hate Baba is You. Or, I love Baba is You but I hate what it asks of me. Or maybe I adore Baba is You but with the major asterisk that I used Baba is Hint from time to time because some times the things Baba is You asks you to come up with on the spot are fucking asinine, and require such liberal guesstimate reads of the fundamental mechanics that extend well beyond the rules presented that you genuinely will sometimes just accidentally guess the right answer after three straight hours on the same puzzle then have to reverse engineer how the solution you got even makes sense.

Baba is You is a game about love, I think. You move around in this four by four grid with this cute little critter named Baba, and you push around blocks that manipulate the rules Baba works by. You are a kid playing with metaconceptual Legos, and as you play you discover, and as you discover you learn, and as you learn you explore, and as you explore you find new ways to play. There's a zen here, I think, don't quote me on this I don't know zen philosophy at all, in the quiet meditative peace of just seeing what the game will allow you to do, trying different solutions.

If there's an "optimal" way to play Baba is You, which i think there isn't as a facet of its nature, it's in finding new and better ways to fail faster and harder. How can you try different ideas without restarting a level, how many different ideas can you throw at a solution, how do you act when nothing you're trying is working. Maybe the most frustrating part of baba is you is how little it judges. You won't get feedback on whether your idea is right or asinine, whether your play is open or restrictive, whether you've even beaten the game or not. But I think there's something beautiful in that too- I finished Baba is You but it's more accurate to say I walked away from Baba is You, put it down like the bell rang for recess and it's time to go back to class and tomorrow I will pick up my toys and play with them again