kinda wild that a game about how institutional mismanagement sabotages the work of the boots-on-the-ground, outward facing workers kinda also plays like that was the case in the game itself!

the people who were involved in the most strictly artistic elements of the game = innocent. the music was phenomenal, the painted landscapes stunning, the character designs expressive and unique, and the writing largely pretty good. this game has some great pieces and a lot of heart

too bad about the rest of it though.

I waited several months after the game's release to buy it, due to how many comments I saw about its volume of bugs. the game does not play like they were cleaned up

and this specifically a shame because a game like this hinges so well on its cultivation of ambience, of getting the player into a certain mindset. a mindset that, in practice, gets punctured every time a dialogue bubble fails to launch, or launches in the wrong spot, or a character appears in a wrong spot separate from their dialogue bubble, or—

and even beyond the strict bugs, the gameplay is deeply misaligned with its story, design, and a logical play style. the exploration is hindered by inconsistently appearing invisible walls and totally unexplained, almost completely barren locales. the platforming is rendered largely moot by porcupine's very flat, almost suburban layout and long stretches of empty nothing. the choosing between two people to hang out with is pulled, like almost everything, from the game's clear inspiration in the night in the woods, but those choices don't connect with narrative at all. they seem to exist not because they meaningfully serve the game, but because night in the woods had it (see also, the aforementioned misapplied platforming and 'exploration')

the minigame mechanics are, at least on the switch, very poorly implemented. the guitar hero minigame doesn't register inputs in-game correctly (and this is not a hardware problem—the game visually imply a registered input without actually registering it). very frustrating that patients' lives depend on these minigames. please use the accessibility options if you can.

side characters appear and vanish not in a way the feels consistent with the story, but like they got forgotten in a rush to meet a deadline. many relationships do feel earned, but almost just as many don't. the game plays like there was a lot more intended, but it missing. you can see the missing shapes in all the empty space

sigh. it's a bummer, because when it's good, it's really charming, and it tries to tell a story that I think is very specific and meaningful. but most of it gets loss in the mess of it all

I enjoyed playing this game a lot and I thought the minigames were a super cool and creative way to keep the player engaged through the story, but I can’t help but feel like a lot of characters’ arcs are kind of stagnant and the story’s ending feels incomplete in a way. Like it was obvious from the start that the hospital was going to collapse eventually and I guess I just wish that that wasn’t where the story ended? It would have been so cool to at least have some sort of cutscene showing what happened after - maybe rebuilding things from scratch and Dr Krokowski earning Theobald’s old position after his death (I was so sure that’s where her arc was headed, especially after Theobald explained his disappearance).

Speaking of Theobald - maybe I simply didn’t spend enough time with his character on this first playthrough, but I felt that his disappearance and the reveal of his embezzlement sort of came out of now where and I think it could have been foreshadowed more. I still was very moved by the post-credits scene where Pina puts the stethoscope on his memorial doll, though. It’s nice that he sort of redeemed himself after the damage he did to the hospital, even though again it all felt very sudden and a little rushed.

I also would have liked more explanation about why everyone fell suddenly ill in the third act because it ended up feeling like a device to suddenly up the stakes rather than something that fit with where the story was going.

In summary: I think the first two acts make this game more than worth playing, especially if you snag it on sale like I did. But I didn’t love the third act, especially the ending.

After playing this game again I still think it's one of the best survival horror games of all time I think there's not a boring moment in this game I think its terrifying every second feels like a fucking gut punch of horror and it also has Mr. X who just damn he's terrifying I genuinely screamed at one point even on my 4th play through of this game like holy shit that's an accomplishment amazing game with one of the best final boss themes of all time Mr. X's boss theme is so goodie doesn't feel real