If we're talking about vibes alone, Planet Laika fucking nails it. the art direction, sound design, music, models, cutscenes & the amount of truly shocking and surreal story beats they throw at you is unbelievable. It makes you feel like you're losing your mind in space along with the cast here in this melting pot of overwritten sci-fi, body horror and beautiful primary colors.
Problem is, this is all brought to you by way of a pretty bad adventure game with occasional Pong-like(?) combat. You don't get lost that often, but you do have to do the rounds through the same 10-12 screens many, many times, talking to everyone and clicking on everything until you trigger the next piece of the game. The story is also super complex to a fault and becomes borderline incomprehensible after the halfway mark.
BUT like I was saying, I'd still recommend it to people who are into weirdo shit like this, because it really doesn't hold back. It boldly takes on some of the darkest themes and scenarios I've ever seen in a video game, but also never feels (that) exploitative. The surrealism here is so unhinged and, as someone who's typically not that shaken by "weird and trippy" media, this does really well at making the player feel shocked and uncomfortable in the best way.
The translation also feels really good! I'm not sure how faithful it is, or if some of the story makes more sense in the original Japanese version, but the English patch's writing here is super solid. Even though I think it's far from a perfect game, it's so incredibly unique, and it's so cool that it's now accessible to a lot more people more than 20 years after its initial release.
Problem is, this is all brought to you by way of a pretty bad adventure game with occasional Pong-like(?) combat. You don't get lost that often, but you do have to do the rounds through the same 10-12 screens many, many times, talking to everyone and clicking on everything until you trigger the next piece of the game. The story is also super complex to a fault and becomes borderline incomprehensible after the halfway mark.
BUT like I was saying, I'd still recommend it to people who are into weirdo shit like this, because it really doesn't hold back. It boldly takes on some of the darkest themes and scenarios I've ever seen in a video game, but also never feels (that) exploitative. The surrealism here is so unhinged and, as someone who's typically not that shaken by "weird and trippy" media, this does really well at making the player feel shocked and uncomfortable in the best way.
The translation also feels really good! I'm not sure how faithful it is, or if some of the story makes more sense in the original Japanese version, but the English patch's writing here is super solid. Even though I think it's far from a perfect game, it's so incredibly unique, and it's so cool that it's now accessible to a lot more people more than 20 years after its initial release.