i want to rate this higher because it has such a cool setting and lore, and is stunning with bright, vibrant cartoon art depicting such bleak and eerie landscapes. it makes for an amazing setup, but the execution is sadly just awkward.
this is a 3-hour game stretched out to double that time because everything is slow. running is slow. crawling in and out of tunnels is slow. watching your boat dock and undock is slow. every single unnecessary camera pan is slow. finding the exact right spot you have to jump to get to the next edge and then watching mo slowly float back down because you missed is slow. i played when i was tired and sometimes i'd keep the joystick pressed left for a minute while i rested my eyes because i knew nothing would happen in those sixty seconds. you get the idea. oh, and that long climb you took to reach this peak? if you were wondering if you have to take the long way back down—yes, of course you do.
i normally have a lot of patience but this bothered even me. you know how hayao miyazaki said that stories need ma, like downtime in between story beats, time to breathe and observe the scenery? this game is like 80% ma forced upon you, broken up by 20% actual content.
i think if this had been a point-and-click game, i'd've forgiven it, because calling it a puzzle platformer is... generous. there aren't many puzzles and the platforming is mediocre. its meat lies in its story, not in the many platforms that exist just to make you press jump a few more times. if it had been advertised as a narrative adventure or maybe reworked as a walking sim, it'd have excelled, because the gameplay mostly consists of walking around slowly just to finally, finally press a button. and i like those games, but i don't consider them puzzle platformers.
am i irritated that this game made me play through a dozen hallucination scenes just because the main character won't wear a fucking mask while walking through several poisonous clouds of gas? yeah, maybe.
this is a 3-hour game stretched out to double that time because everything is slow. running is slow. crawling in and out of tunnels is slow. watching your boat dock and undock is slow. every single unnecessary camera pan is slow. finding the exact right spot you have to jump to get to the next edge and then watching mo slowly float back down because you missed is slow. i played when i was tired and sometimes i'd keep the joystick pressed left for a minute while i rested my eyes because i knew nothing would happen in those sixty seconds. you get the idea. oh, and that long climb you took to reach this peak? if you were wondering if you have to take the long way back down—yes, of course you do.
i normally have a lot of patience but this bothered even me. you know how hayao miyazaki said that stories need ma, like downtime in between story beats, time to breathe and observe the scenery? this game is like 80% ma forced upon you, broken up by 20% actual content.
i think if this had been a point-and-click game, i'd've forgiven it, because calling it a puzzle platformer is... generous. there aren't many puzzles and the platforming is mediocre. its meat lies in its story, not in the many platforms that exist just to make you press jump a few more times. if it had been advertised as a narrative adventure or maybe reworked as a walking sim, it'd have excelled, because the gameplay mostly consists of walking around slowly just to finally, finally press a button. and i like those games, but i don't consider them puzzle platformers.
am i irritated that this game made me play through a dozen hallucination scenes just because the main character won't wear a fucking mask while walking through several poisonous clouds of gas? yeah, maybe.