Ib is an RPG Maker horror game where you play as a girl named Ib, who tags along with her parents to go to an exhibition showcasing the works of little-known artist and sculptor Weiss Guerterna. However, when a wrong turn places her in a version of the gallery devoid of people, Ib finds herself going deeper and deeper — soon entering the paintings themselves. Now finding herself in a world where Guerterna’s art has seemingly been brought to life, and the inhabitants not quite friendly to outsiders, Ib must solve puzzles, progress further and further down into the gallery, and try to keep herself and the friends she meets across the way safe as they all try to find a way out.
For a game that ostensibly uses exhibition art as a throughline — from the location design still remaining reminiscent of an art gallery the further and further down you go, to the puzzles primarily requiring the player to interact with the artwork of the gallery — I think the visual design is really strong. The game uses… a rather subtle version of pixel art, with soft colours, a lack of outlines, and realistic proportions that blur the line between pixel art and something like a more traditional form of art. This even extends to the character sprites that appear on the side of the screen — it took me a while after beating the game to even realize that they were actually pixel art and not hand drawn, which feels kinda insane to me. I’m also super into whenever this artstyle suddenly gets changed up. It’s hard to really elaborate further given that most examples on that part are spoilers but whether it’s done either subtly or loudly it’s always done for some sort of effect or enhancement, and always with some measure of deliberateness behind it. There’s… one particular portion of the game where I wished they actually leaned harder into what they were doing, but aside from that I was super into how this game looks visually — it looks like it belongs as an RPGMaker horror game, but also not, and it’s really cool to see a game like this with a totally unique visual identity.
I also think… this game does a lot of what it’s doing well. Gameplay-wise, I’m really into a lot of the puzzle design: you effectively go through the gallery one room at a time, and are always completely done with a room by the time you move on to the next one, which always means the options you have are limited to what’s immediately around you and you never suffer from the 90s adventure game problem of having wayyyyyyy too many things you can interact with and having wayyyyyyy too many items you need to juggle and figure out the use for. I’m also into the puzzles themselves: while there are a couple stinkers in there I’m generally into how the game approaches problem-solving. While it does mostly focus on taking items and using them in certain places, the theming of the art gallery and the use of more abstract logic make it feel more like you’re trying to solve riddles that the game designer has prepared for you rather than just getting items to get more items. I also like how… lenient the game is compared to most RPGMaker horror games — your healthbar means that you can actually take a hit when things get actively dangerous/if something catches you off guard, though the limited opportunities to heal do provide a survival-horror sense of resource management, or making sure you avoid damage so that you can take it if need be.
Story-wise… it’s very much an RPGMaker horror game in that it has a story you can’t exactly talk about in distinct terms without spoiling it, but in general, I enjoyed the way the game was written! The characters all were likable or fascinating, and… there’s a low-key undercurrent of black comedy which doesn’t always pop up but generally ends up being pretty fun when it does — the storybook you read early on in the game, for example, really sells its whiplash in a way that crosses from horrifying to incredible. The horror beats generally work very well — there are some particular sections of the game that are very tense and do a good job of making the player feel absolutely helpless. I’m… also really into the way the game handles player choice and multiple endings. The player can make choices that shape the narrative and come back later on, but the endings themselves are determined by particular values and how they mesh together… values that, however, are shown by the choices the player makes. I’m a little sad because you can only see so much of it when you go through the game once (and two endings are locked off until you beat the game for the first time, which is >:( ) but as someone who really likes looking at how player choice shapes the narrative this game has a ton going on under the surface, and it’s really enjoyable to unpack it all and see how all the cogs in the machine work.
All in all… yeah, I definitely enjoyed Ib a lot! I’m not quite sure it quite hits the level of excellent, to me, but it’s a super cool 2-3 hour game that does a lot of cool things with its visual and game design and, in the field of RPGMaker horror games, really does a good job at standing out amongst the crowd, even with so much time passing since it’s release. 8/10.
For a game that ostensibly uses exhibition art as a throughline — from the location design still remaining reminiscent of an art gallery the further and further down you go, to the puzzles primarily requiring the player to interact with the artwork of the gallery — I think the visual design is really strong. The game uses… a rather subtle version of pixel art, with soft colours, a lack of outlines, and realistic proportions that blur the line between pixel art and something like a more traditional form of art. This even extends to the character sprites that appear on the side of the screen — it took me a while after beating the game to even realize that they were actually pixel art and not hand drawn, which feels kinda insane to me. I’m also super into whenever this artstyle suddenly gets changed up. It’s hard to really elaborate further given that most examples on that part are spoilers but whether it’s done either subtly or loudly it’s always done for some sort of effect or enhancement, and always with some measure of deliberateness behind it. There’s… one particular portion of the game where I wished they actually leaned harder into what they were doing, but aside from that I was super into how this game looks visually — it looks like it belongs as an RPGMaker horror game, but also not, and it’s really cool to see a game like this with a totally unique visual identity.
I also think… this game does a lot of what it’s doing well. Gameplay-wise, I’m really into a lot of the puzzle design: you effectively go through the gallery one room at a time, and are always completely done with a room by the time you move on to the next one, which always means the options you have are limited to what’s immediately around you and you never suffer from the 90s adventure game problem of having wayyyyyyy too many things you can interact with and having wayyyyyyy too many items you need to juggle and figure out the use for. I’m also into the puzzles themselves: while there are a couple stinkers in there I’m generally into how the game approaches problem-solving. While it does mostly focus on taking items and using them in certain places, the theming of the art gallery and the use of more abstract logic make it feel more like you’re trying to solve riddles that the game designer has prepared for you rather than just getting items to get more items. I also like how… lenient the game is compared to most RPGMaker horror games — your healthbar means that you can actually take a hit when things get actively dangerous/if something catches you off guard, though the limited opportunities to heal do provide a survival-horror sense of resource management, or making sure you avoid damage so that you can take it if need be.
Story-wise… it’s very much an RPGMaker horror game in that it has a story you can’t exactly talk about in distinct terms without spoiling it, but in general, I enjoyed the way the game was written! The characters all were likable or fascinating, and… there’s a low-key undercurrent of black comedy which doesn’t always pop up but generally ends up being pretty fun when it does — the storybook you read early on in the game, for example, really sells its whiplash in a way that crosses from horrifying to incredible. The horror beats generally work very well — there are some particular sections of the game that are very tense and do a good job of making the player feel absolutely helpless. I’m… also really into the way the game handles player choice and multiple endings. The player can make choices that shape the narrative and come back later on, but the endings themselves are determined by particular values and how they mesh together… values that, however, are shown by the choices the player makes. I’m a little sad because you can only see so much of it when you go through the game once (and two endings are locked off until you beat the game for the first time, which is >:( ) but as someone who really likes looking at how player choice shapes the narrative this game has a ton going on under the surface, and it’s really enjoyable to unpack it all and see how all the cogs in the machine work.
All in all… yeah, I definitely enjoyed Ib a lot! I’m not quite sure it quite hits the level of excellent, to me, but it’s a super cool 2-3 hour game that does a lot of cool things with its visual and game design and, in the field of RPGMaker horror games, really does a good job at standing out amongst the crowd, even with so much time passing since it’s release. 8/10.