So for my 1000th review, I chose what I consider to be the most important brazilian game of all time. The mere existence of Unsighted is a miracle in itself, being made by 2 latinas trans women with a short budget is nothing short of impressive, considering it’s quality not only in the gameplay but also in the sprite artwork, music, and so on. How did possibly the greatest achievement in brazilian game developing history become so unknown nationally? To properly answer this question, we first have to analyze the gaming scene in Brazil.

Despite being the 3rd largest country in number of active "gamers", Brazil has a surprisingly small game development scene due to a lot of harsh factors. Hardware and Software prices tend to be too high, the government gives very little incentive in developing technological careers, and both of these have only gotten worse in the last few years by the dystopian combination that is Bolsonaro, crypto bros and Covid-19 working together. Also worth mentioning, is that a lot of programmers and artists who are into game design, straight up just leave the country whenever possible, seeking better life conditions.

Currently the most noticeable games in the minds of the average brazilian gamer, are not the likes of Dandara, Chroma Squad, Momodora or Sludge Life, who even if they don’t make your cup of tea, had a lot of effort and love put into it. The most usual names you’ll hear are the cheap ones that were made to be bad, hoping that you either play them or buy them for your friends as a joke. Kandidatos, Ultra Miner Adventures, Zueirama, and the ever infamous Bad Rats, are probably the ones that get the most recognition.

The ironic praise and fetishization of trashy national media has always existed throughout the entire world, however, I think that the extent in which it happens in Brazil is absurd, especially considering it started off as a counter movement in direct response to the enforced nationalism by government endorsed media during the dictatorship years and the “Brazil: Love it or Leave it” mentality. For decades, our most watched movie genre were softcore porn movies called “pornochanchadas”, that benefited the state by suppressing other types of movies that didn't support the regime, in perhaps the weirdest panis et circenses case I can think of.

The good neighbor policy, enforced by the american government at the time, only directly affected Rio and São Paulo as they were portrayed as the definitive tropical paradise for other first world nations to exploit. Culturally wise, the majority of the country was abandoned, which meant that the imposed nationalism had to come from within every single state, creating a sense of animosity from others, as they were perceived more as enemies than neighbors. Xenophobia became ingrained in our culture, which meant that the idea of being born in a specific state became more important than being born in Brazil itself. Mocking the idea of being brazilian while hyper valorizing your own cities had unfortunate lasting effects even after the dictatorship was dissolved.

Although the respect for other states has gotten better in the last 10 years, the disdain for the government has only ever increased as we’re facing our worst political decade yet, ranging from multiple extensive corruption scandals to a forced government takeover publicized as a democratic impeachment. However, what I think is the series of events that perfectly encapsulates our political scene, happened when our current president, Jair Bolsonaro, denied covid for 2 months after it was declared a worldwide pandemic, only to accept it’s mere existence months later by contracting it himself, only to deny it again weeks later as he was cured, claiming that his “past as an athlete wouldn’t let him die by a simple fever”.

More than 600.000 lives were lost due to covid, a number elevated by Bolsonaro’s actions and denialism. 3 ministers of health were fired during the height of the pandemic, because any measurement that went against his agenda that Covid was nothing special, resulted in them being dismissed. While most nations were trying to buy and distribute vaccines, he denied 11 deals until april 2021, with common names such as Pfizer, Covax, and even the vaccine being developed in the national territory by the Butantan institute, deemed as untrustworthy. He tried to push a chloroquine agenda, claiming it to be the true cure to covid, which to no one's surprise proved to be ineffective even before he made his announcements. Couple of months and many deaths later, Bolsonaro would end up, surprisingly, accepting a vaccine deal, which turned out later that he only actually accepted as there was embezzlement involved.

Amongst our presidential wrongdoings, the indie gaming scene flourished around the world, and although it didn’t thrive as much in Brazil, it had an impact nonetheless. Developing codes, creating digital art, publicizing media, have only gotten easier as time goes on, despite creating the unfortunate consequence that it’s more scattered around the net as ever, making so that the mere chance of a spotlight is to be considered a miracle for the average indie dev. In the last 2 years, the gaming scene was severely hit by Covid-19, however, that didn’t affect small studios a lot, especially when the amount of people working on them is as small as 2 in Unsighted’s case.

Still here after the overly simplified history lesson? Good, let’s actually talk about the game now.

The easy way to explain Unsighted to someone is that it’s a mix of Hyper Light Drifter fast paced combat alongside the limitations of a punishing stamina bar, with a metroid map progression. I’m NOT calling this game a metroidvania because it has nothing to do with the usual 2D combat, however if you think metroidvanias are more of a “feel” with progression based items with pseudo open world games, I won’t stop you. The constant back and forth of experimenting with your new upgrades is one of gaming’s greatest sensations when done right, now imagine doing that in a punishing time limit. Sounds stressful when you can’t progress in your own way? Good, that’s the main idea behind Unsighted.

After finishing the tutorial, you’ll notice that everytime you go to a new room, a small text appears in the middle of the screen telling you how much time you have left until you become an unsighted yourself, a walking android with no thought beyond primal instincts hard coded in their metallic soul. The game tries to calm you down by explaining that you can give yourself and your friends more time, with an item called Meteor Dust, which you can find by exploring, however you’ll quickly realize that giving 1 day’s worth of time is not very impactful when a day ingame happens in less than 40 minutes. You may also share them to increase your “friendship meter” to get unique rewards, which is the opposite of what anyone would do in that situation: Embracing a decaying materialism in a world that needs only solidarity.

By accepting the loot social aspect more than the emotional one, you can in theory, save more people than before, since you’ll be increasing your combat capabilities which results in you resolving the game’s conflict faster, which means you’ll be bringing salvation to even more individuals. This could also be my half assed coping mechanism that I ended up developing after letting 2 characters that were really special to the main character die, both meeting their fate because although I tried really, I ended up failing, but chose to move once again. As we all have to do sometimes.

Gear Village is one of the most comfortable hubs I have seen in gaming, facing fierce competition against Majula from Dark Souls 2 and Rosalina’s ship from Mario Galaxy. Not only it has a plethora of charming characters wandering around, but also it looks like a place I could live in, if I travel enough to the south. The androids are all visually distinct and offer different essential functions from one another, like upgrading your items, selling useful stuff, or giving you hints on where to go next.

Exploration is not obtuse in the slightest, since there’s a clear indicator in what you can and can’t do, and early on you don’t even have to get key items in a set order, so it becomes a question in how you want to approach the game. The best weapon, until the very last dungeon, and some gadgets that allow you to completely bypass some puzzles to get powerful items early on, can be obtained after the very 1st dungeon if you’ve been exploring. It’s only after a long while, that you’ll have to progress in the way the game wants you to, which is honestly pretty well executed, because it ends up coinciding, for the average player at least, to a certain “event” in the cathedral which I’ll explain later.

Fighting also feels amazing, mobility is key in this game and it feels wonderful running around. By allowing the players to never take damage by missing platforming sections, even if you have to “respawn” again, it encourages a riskier and more fun approach to both combat and puzzles. Parrying is both smooth and responsive, and also if you land it gracefully with precise timing, it restores your stamina bar fully, making it so that if you take the effort to master it, you’ll be rewarded by never having to back down from a fight. There’s also a colossal weapon arsenal to choose from, including swords, pistols, axes, shotguns, dual wielding weapons, flamethrowers, and even grappling hooks.

Well, I’m gonna get into spoilers now, so if that’s what you wanted to see from this review, have a good one, and make sure to give this game a shot, it’s worth it.

Eventually, while exploring, you’ll receive some notifications about some npc’s who have less than 24 hours remaining. The feeble, the fragile and the old ones fall victim first, however soon you’ll start to notice that the character that teaches you how to parry better and is known as the village’s chief, is also one of the first ones. And that’s when it clicked with me, that this curse comes for everyone, independent of who you are, what you’ve done, and even if you have a “past as an athlete”. While not directly being a covid metaphor, the way Unsighted handles the story, themes, and the mechanics around time being a currency, are inherently something that could only happen in our current political and social scene.

One important thing I purposefully didn’t mention until now, is that during the entire game you’ll be accompanied by a small pixie called Iris, who doesn’t exactly have much time in her hands. She greatly helps you, not only navigate and solve puzzles, but also by being your only source of actually “leveling up”. In this game, the only progression you’ll get, besides equipping discardable gears with single uses and buying expensive items to improve your healing at the cost of time, is increasing your chip slots, which might give you more health, defense, damage, stamina, etc. The fact that the only fixed progression you’ll get is tied to a npc low in time is astonishing, because it forces you to sacrifice precious time with her. Due to the nature of video games we usually don’t end up thinking much about our sidekicks, but Unsighted makes sure you know how much she’s sacrificing for you and asks you to at least keep it mutual. If you intentionally or not, let her go unsighted, your journey is not only going to be a lot lonelier, but also immensely harder, because you took her feelings, dreams, and maybe even existence, for granted.

A certain event happens when your character has less than 100 hours: she is contacted by an entity in the cathedral. There, you’ll meet a powerful person who talks like an old friend of yours that wants to “help you”, by giving you an accursed power: You can take hours away from your friends and give them to yourself. Although this might sound like a relief for some, the idea of killing your friends for your own benefit is nothing but sickening, and it doesn’t help that every single one of them was written in the story to be a good willed android, trying to survive while helping others. This is the only place in the game in which Iris won’t accompany you, as she feels a malevolent presence nearby, which means that you’re the judge, jury and executioner of yourself while in there.

You can by all means challenge her to an absurdly hard secret boss fight that will give you 10 dusts, however it not only takes a lot of effort, but also gives a reward that doesn’t benefit you as much. By working with the current dystopian system, you can guarantee yourself a safe future in this cruel world, as it’s easy to live at the cost of others, specially when your job is to be selective to who has the rights to live, however, even challenging them, won’t help as much unfortunately, as the entire fundamental aspect of being an unsighted won’t change by dethroning a single individual within a intrinsically corrupt order. There is a secret ending that requires you to beat the self proclaimed angel, however I won’t get into details because I’d have to explain a lot more elements in the story, but to summarize: You can’t vote your way into revolution, fight for what you believe in.

So now to properly answer the question: Why is Unsighted so special, even when not considering the gameplay? In an interview for Screenrant in October 2021, the devs Tiani Pixel and Fernanda Dias answered the following question “...Could you talk about what gaming was like when you were younger, and compare it to what's happening now?...” made by Leo Faierman.

“One big thing here in Brazil, and it kind of ties in with some of the discussion that has been going around lately, is with piracy. Because, for example, in the city that I lived throughout my childhood, you could never find an original game to buy. Like, it wasn't even an option. I'll be honest with you: I never saw an original PS2 game in my life, and it's common for all Brazilians. Like, I even doubt that those exist, because there was never an original game being sold here in Brazil. However, this came with a lot of positives. English is not our native language, so we received pirated games from all over the world, so there's a lot of Japanese games that are famous here that a lot of people in the US don't know, and kind of ended up being inspirations here for game designers in Brazil.”

Transforming and adapting cultures from around the world is how Brazil became Brazil. Independent if it were the natives, or the portuguese in the 15th century, or the spanish a couple years later, or the dutchman in the 16th century, or the germans and the italians in the following years, or the japanese in the 19th century, or the many other that I forgot to mention: We are in the end, a mixture of cultures from around the world, trying our best. The cultural difference between some states in Brazil is higher than the ones from entire european countries, and yet we’re all stuck in the same tropical paradise. In the end Brazil was molded by those who were molded by Brazil, therefore making something made in Brazil only possible if it was made in Brazil.

We had a lot of games in the past that captured the brazilian essence, like 171 or Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio, however those were projects made in mind to be enjoyed by mostly brazilians. We’ve also had games that tried their best to abandoned that convention, accepting their own existence as a product meant to be mostly enjoyed for those that aren’t from Brazil, but seen as the same foreign product for those that are, like Heavy Bullets or Spark. Unsighted is the first project that not only doesn’t follow that convention, but also actively tries to display such ethos for those that weren’t born here or the ones that do but fail to recognize it.

Unsighted is a game made by 2 trans women fighting not only to survive in one of the most transphobic countries there are, but also to make a project that will never get mainstream attention. Unsighted tells the story of those that struggle, for those that don’t care. Unsighted is the essence of a story forever doomed to be praised yet not seen by many. Unsighted to me, is the most important brazilian game of all time.

CW: Videogame Difficulty Discourse

My Policy Guidelines

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Considering the thoughtfully effusive praise from Maradonna focusing on why its probably one of the best game titles to come out of Brazilian culture. Along with the more reflective post on the game by Archagent focusing on the mechanics of grief and passing away. I would be remiss to write off the game and dismiss it entirely, and following that I'm quite surprised how many people I follow (and I follow a LOT) haven't touched this title yet at all. Lesbian overtones, rewarding top down action combat, post apocalyptic storytelling, and anti human sentiments seem like taken together the sort of interests that would apply to most of the people who read what I have to say. Anybody who enjoyed Hyper Light Drifter for example would likely find great company here. However, I must stay true to my roots here as someone who writes about games mainly to vent a bit so let me get into my caveats.

I think actually the most simple way to put my frustrations are not actually with the game itself per se, but with how videogame difficulty is conveyed to the player. When you start the game you have an option between "Explorer", "Action Girl (Recommended)", and "Robot Apocalypse" difficulty. Most players in actuality on their first play through are going to be choosing between the easy and medium modes, and leave hard mode for when they are actually familiar enough with the game mechanics. I don't think I've ever seen somebody actively choose a hard mode in a game on purpose for their first playthrough as anything other than a joke.

Recently I read a fantastic analysis of the importance difficulty framing by Duranda called How Can Game Options Help Casual Players See The Core Appeal Of A Game?. The stellar takeaway is that difficulty framing is a mechanic that is important to the overall package

"Rather than your average difficulty settings which are often framed as 'the same gameplay, but stricter', difficulty settings that radically alter core game behavior are more likely to spark the imagination and in turn inspire deeper understanding of the game’s core appeal."

In theory this sounds like a huge ask for a 2 person indie title, but the curse I'm speaking of then is not so much specific to the game itself as it is to maybe the weakest point in both games critique and development that exists: Difficulty transparency. Writers often don't mention at all the difficulty they played on or the fluctuation in difficulties midgame. Whether they used assists and what they thought of them. Similarly designers tend to not give a clarity to the distinctions in difficulty. The reason why is because there's often a homogeneity in approach, that if you did not play the game at least on the recommended settings or above then you didn't really experience the game, instead you are just a passive object through it, no better than a journalist. This sentiment that 'casual' play should not be utilized is often undermined by the fact that it usually only applies to a specific type of game experience: The action genre. Compare for example most people's relationship nowadays with point and click adventure games, often dismissing their puzzles as 'nonsensical' and relying liberally on walkthroughs when needed and you get a general understanding that lateral puzzle games need not apply to this rule of thumb. What this rule of thumb fails to keep in mind though is that when it comes to more reflex based games different people have vastly different reflex times depending on various life factors and desires from gaming. Generally human reaction time to visual stimulus rests somewhere between 150 to 300 milliseconds, which doesn't sound like a huge distinction, but seeing as there is 30-60 frames in a second thats the difference between 4 and 8 frames which is the difference between seeing a wind up and responding or not.

In actuality this 'test' of player skill is usually already great for people with already fast reaction times. They get first breakfast to jokes of other players being 'filtered' by godhand etc. the rest have to rely on 2 factors to keep up with swift reaction times:

1. Learning the attack patterns through trial and error

and

2. Exploiting the systems in your favor, consciously or not

Let's actualize this through a game mechanic. In Unsighted there is a parry mechanic where upon seeing a red indicator on screen you hit a button to parry an enemy and then close in with a reply attack. What I noticed is that I was generally following attack patterns and audio cues for parrying instead because due to my slow visual reaction time (somewhere at a resting level between 250-300 for whatever reason) the ability to respond in time was simply not fast enough within that visual parry window. I would be calling the parry unreliable and thus getting annoyed with it, the reality is it was probably completely reliable to the 'average' and 'recommended' player and I fell just far enough out of that range to find that hard to rely on. Thus I had to exploit the Cog mechanic (which give you temporary buffs) and learn attack patterns through trial and error instead. Eventually I would run out of materials for using Cogs so I was floudering more slowly against bosses instead.

The problem is that for Unsighted, the combat itself becomes punishing based on whether or not you can parry in time. Parries are the way to output the most amount of damage so it becomes vital, especially versus boss fights, in order to not die several times in a row. But unfortunately, there's no time to spare here. Each time you die that much more time you lose to being able to help and save NPCs. You're letting everybody down when you die, not just yourself. It no longer becomes an at best tedious process of learning boss attack patterns and instead transforms into something actually stressful.

Far be it from me to make it out like this is just a reflex based issue though, this game in particular is mainly focused on puzzling into action combat. Outside of boss fights, action combat trends towards easy enough that it can be discarded as a general concern. So if you have issues with puzzling things out you will also be stressed by the doomsday clock. I don't for the most part. I can solve problems generally quite quickly. However if that does apply to you then you will want the time to be slower than the suggested amount as well.

This is compounded by the fact that in an environment where games like Majora's Mask and Undertale have already established a general player motivation to not let everyone down, there's often a huge stress to reset and start all over to do right by NPC's better and not have them die. At some point I looked at the amount of time I had left and said 'I can do this better if I restart' but of course that robs the 'authenticity' of the experience. Since I'm a 'memory vessel' of the original player character who knows a bunch of extra tricks I shouldn't this is why impressing difficulty to the player on the outset is incredibly important. Postmodernism aside, game immersion often relies on this feeling of the first time playing being imbued with 'authentic' experience. So if you walk into Unsighted and lose half the NPCs because you're simply bad at puzzle mechanics, that's not good. Sure the game is supposed to be stressful and give you a reason to persevere, but if its a matter of unknown limitations from the outset then you're fumbling around and not persevering much at all. This is the difference I can categorize between a feeling of actual stress and simulated stress. Simulated stress is the yearning to achieve, actual stress is recognizing that in spite of yourself, you just cant.

I can't stand most boss fights in games because they become pattern recognition checks with large health sponges attached to them. Due to my generally slower reaction speed this makes a great deal of sense. Most people with a better reaction time than me feel like they can learn and respond to attacks from a boss even the first time dynamically and quickly whereas I tend to have issues even keeping up.

This is all to say that I think the reccomended difficulty for Unsighted, at least for single player experience, is a bit too hard for what it's trying to push out of a player. You have 5 different dungeons to explore and map out plus a final boss and roughly about 8 hours to functionally do it before almost all the NPCs die. You can get dust that gives some of the NPCs an extra 24 hours of life, these tend to be somewhat rare. Each second a minute of in game time passes on the recommended mode so you're looking at an 24 extra minutes. That sounds like a lot but for example Iris, your 'Navi' character who actively helps you throughout starts with only 194 hours before they terminate and turn into an Unsighted (basically a zombie). That comes out to around 3 and a half hours give or take, and that means you have to shove dust in their maw for the whole game in order for them to be alive and help you progress for as much of the experience as possible. I think the time per minute should probably be closer to around 2.5 to 3 seconds considering the amount of content the game is pushing you to move through.

I may be wrong here, as it seems that most people who played through the game didn't mind and thought positively of it. But I think the fact is when we read Archagent's testimony for example we read the story of somebody for whom almost everyone died and while forlorn reflected that 'I did the best I could.' A completely valid experience, but not one that maps onto my own desires to save at almost all costs virtual NPC and their desolate society. I was pumping dust into everyones mouths to stave off death which meant that for me, death was not going to be slow and induvidual but instead a massacre over the course of 2 days. It wasn't staving off 1 NPC's death I really liked, but pretty much the entire town.

I think one of the other reasons I feel this extra pressure to the degree of either wanting to give up, start over, or get cynical is because the game's narrative pushes a 'chosen one' sentiment. You are the strongest robot of your type, out to save your wife and help anybody along the way, the rest of the town has all but given up on actively fighting and instead imbue all their hope for survival solely into you. In spite of that though, they still have to run shops apparently. I don't know about you but if I was in a dire last ditch effort post apocalypse scenario the last issue that would be on my mind is currency. Currency is usually the result of having to simplify larger logistical networks and trade so that bartering no longer becomes a nessecity. However often in scenarios of war and famine, food for example is doled out on a by person basis of basic need until the situation improves again. In dramatic scenarios merchants and shops fall by the wayside for a moment, so I find it interesting the degree to which games have trouble seperating from this currency process. Usually games more aware of this incompatibility justify it through saying the currency is some other life force, Dark Souls has 'souls' for example with the merchants saying 'I dont need money, I'd rather your souls'. Currency itself also becomes a gesture of the absurd and desperate. That's why it's justifiable that Hollow Knight has the shell currency system, so few people even use it now, and they are all incredibly delusional about the degree to which their way of life can still be maintained. Unsighted unfortunately doesn't have that excuse, all the characters know exactly that they will die next week. It feels like I'm being distanced from the actual help the people left want of me, they want me to help them as an old friend, and I do. But they also want me to be an obedient customer for them, which I don't.

Instead I would have preferred the checks for say, upgrading a sword, to be based on having the raw materials and maybe making me wait like a few hours. That would be much more realistic to what the game is trying to convey mechanically but of course it would be a difficult system to get right.

The only other negative thing I'll say about Unsighted is that it has a similar issue Elden Ring does, you have all these gorgeous iconic and in many cases sexy characters to speak to in the hubworld (a town). In total you have about 20 lines of dialogue for each of them outside of dramatic cutscenes which is not nearly enough to feel close to the characters and their plights. The focus was generally put on engaging combat, exploration, and puzzle design. All to well effect sure. However for me a game about grief and trauma should tend to have much more dialogue. I want to have 10k words from characters, I want to see some of them tear up about their own potential deaths and talk to me about the specific anime we watched together. I don't want to give an NPC 4 dust and get a cool effect from it, that's not the point for me at all.

In spite of all those misgivings I do think the feedback during attacks, variety of weapons, and visual design is quite good. The world is gorgeous and the puzzles are decently engaging although not replayable enough that I'd want to start over. The upgrade system of being based on 'chip' loadouts is novel even though it's hard not to justify running as much defense and stamina in the loadout as possible. The time mechanic itself is well established and I like it a lot, but the game is overall too difficult to actually sit through. It's not that I'm uncomfortable with failure, its that failure feels more like having to clear a giant roadblock rather than being gummed up for a few minutes. But it has to be emphasized here that this is probably some of the best character designs I've seen in a game like this. The sapphic energy of having a pony tailed muscle girl like Ariel and a pink haired pixie cut frown like Vana, with their distinct body types feels great. It's an awareness of the diversity of body types and hair styles that trans-women seem especially good at picking up on. Not to mention that the fact most of the cast is women and the character you play as is a woman just warms up my gay heart, but it's just not enough to pull it all quite together.

I would probably have felt a lot better about it had I played on easy mode from the start. I've set the mode now to explorer mode allowing me to actually fail with much more ease against the bosses, and also switched the combat to an easier difficulty too, but that doesn't avoid the fact that the simplicity in the choices and slow emergence of combat information in the early game didn't assist me well in knowing what I should have preferred. Not to mention that the disctinction between setting the game midgame to an easier mode and starting over does still have those mild knock on effects to immersion. In my subconcious I'll still know that the enemies are easier and the game is slower for a 'magic' reason that has no actual narrative justification. This game should have been trying to convince a player like me at all costs that playing on the easy mode is best suited, but instead dropped me into a pool that I wasn't ready to swim in. It's important to mention here that this has nothing to do with how familiar you are with videogames, as much as these games often try to make it out. This is why I feel like difficulty and its framing should be critiqued more, it's a generic issue for this game to have but one that does disrupt and trouble a player like me to the point of not wanting to play anymore considering the actual intensity of its theming by comparison. I refuse to believe that just due to my slowness in response time and quickness to actual stress that I 'shouldnt' talk about games or play them.

If only for any other reason, I realized today that when it comes to action games I really do start out as a 'casual' player. I think I've finally done my due diligence in recognizing that fact and that will probably reflect more clearly in future write ups. Along with that I'll be sure to make what difficulty I played on more clear in the future to where it matters.

It's possible I'm just wrong in this case particularly, that I need to grow a spine and watch some NPCs die. But I feel like if I'm going to have games based around fail mechanics leading to divergent outcomes, I would rather not be fitted with the 'chosen one' narrative of saving a town on top. It's the exact same reason why I've found Fallout 1 almost impossible to play. This is why my next game I plan to try and play and complete is Lucah: Born of a Dream, a game I played a little of before putting it down due to being distracted by something else. I'll be sure to do a write up on it as well fairly soon.

Unsighted é completo: pixel art efervescente e cheia de vida; trilha sonora carismática; puzzles, dungeons e bosses e itens e sequence breaking até dizer chega, e com um mapa bem conectado para esbanjar tudo que você conquista durante o jogo. De diferente, oferece uma controversa - para os fracos - decisão em colocar o jogo todo correndo contra um relógio. Embora pareça muito antitética a ideia de um jogo baseado em exploração e solução de puzzles te punir por demorar, achei que foi generoso o suficiente com seus recursos para te apressar sem desespero - tive que sofrer a perda de alguns personagens, porém consegui manter os meus favoritos vivos. Seu combate desbalanceado à favor de parries dá um twist legal à jogabilidade típica desses jogos; o ato de lançar o ataque carregado após uma sequência de parries dando uma satisfação que geralmente não se tem ao ficar mordiscando bosses.

É uma pena que apesar de suas inúmeras qualidades técnicas, eu não tenha me conectado emocionalmente com a história do jogo. Me importei com poucos dos NPCs e os mantinha vivos com base na sua utilidade, e não afeição. Ao começar o jogo, empolgadamente mudei a linguagem para português - e dei de cara com um texto que muitas vezes parecia ter sido traduzido do inglês, com até algumas expressões idiomáticas de gringo. Não questiono a brasilidade de Unsighted, porém achei o seu diálogo mais próximo de um desenho americano do que de uma história brasileira sobre resistência - e o que estava escrito não me cativou, ainda que a quase inevitável morte orgânica de personagens tenha ajudado muito em dar mais peso à narrativa.

Como nosso cenário de game dev é consideravelmente mais novo e humilde do que de outras potências, é claro que existe um bairrismo: às vezes, consideramos jogar um jogo porque ele é brasileiro, e não pelo que ele oferece como obra. Unsighted é um caso que não precisa de justificativa - duas mulheres brasileiras conseguiram fazer perto do impossível e produziram, quase sozinhas, um dos metroidvanias mais completos e polidos que se pode encontrar na feira. É uma conquista magnífica, que ajuda a solidificar nossa presença na arte e convence mais gente a botar a mão na massa.

i'm still working on my first playthrough, but i fell in love with this game at first sight. i booted it up, got through the intro sequence, and it's been a whirlwind romance ever since. i tried to type an "early impressions" thing here, and it ended up being a 5-paragraph essay, so i'll just leave it at that. this game rules, i can't wait to finish it so i can write a review that breaks backloggd's character limit (idk if there is one, but i will inevitably find out). there's so much to talk about here.

Dá para considerar UNSIGHTED um metroidvania? Essa pergunta só pode ser respondida através de outra: o que é metroidvania?

Eu não tenho uma resposta perfeita para essa pergunta, mas tenho uma definição pessoal que funciona muito bem pra mim. Metroidvania é um subgênero de plataforma (tanto é que costumo usar o rótulo platformer-adventure como alternativa), com uma exploração semi-linear mediada por itens e habilidades. Simples, não? Usando essa definição, UNSIGHTED parece não se encaixar na categoria. Afinal, sua perspectiva top-down o coloca de fora do gênero de plataforma.

Mas calma lá, não nos precipitemos. Metroidvania tem que ser plataforma, mas nada na definição que coloquei acima disse que tem que ser side-scrolling. Contemporaneamente não há muitos exemplos, mas jogos de plataforma 2D podem sim utilizar outras perspectivas — clássicos como Knight Lore e Qbert estão aí para provar. UNSIGHTED é pouco convencional nesse sentido, mas tem todo o foco em movimentação e overdose de pulos dignos do gênero.

E quanto a outra parte da equação, a exploração semi-linear? Aí a coisa complica um pouco. Apesar de eu gostar da minha definição, tem um pouco de espaço pra interpretação. Isso é deliberado. Estamos lidando com arte, não é uma ciência exata. Mais do que simplesmente ver se a exploração é linear ou não, eu sempre me pergunto se ela é não-linear o suficiente para considerar um game metroidvania. Nesse aspecto, minha impressão de UNSIGHTED foi mista por boa parte do jogo. O mapa é bem grande e os objetivos espalhados, mas o caminho que você tem que seguir parece bem fixo. O jogo até marca no seu mapa a ordem exata em que você deve fazer os "templos".

Foi aí que eu descobri o wall jumping e percebi que a "ordem exata" não passava de uma leve sugestão que pode e deve ser ignorada. Foi nesse momento que todas as minhas dúvidas se esvaíram: estou lidando com um metroidvania, e um excelente, por sinal.

Assim como seu nome, muita da profundeza mecânica de Unsighted passa desapercebida de início. Os itens que você ganhou? Eles têm mais do que uma única função e podem ser usados de formas inesperadas para alcançar lugares que você achava que não podia. O inimigo apelão que claramente só pode ser derrotado com uma arma especial? Talvez a arma especial não seja necessária afinal de contas, "git gud" e tente de novo. E aquele chefão que o jogo te diz explicitamente pra deixar por último? Vai lá e mata ele no prólogo do game, nada está te impedindo.

O limite de tempo do game, uma de suas mecânicas mais únicas e polêmicas, a primeira vista parece ir contra o que se espera de um game do gênero, te punindo por explorar em vez de cumprir os objetivos. Mas não é bem o caso. Explorar te dá acesso a itens que aumentam o tempo, além de te darem um conhecimento melhor do mapa e seus segredos, permitindo que você otimize sua jornada. O resultado é uma sempre presente ansiedade e senso de risco e recompensa na primeira vez que você jogar, e infinitas possibilidades de speedrun e sequence-breaking em jogatinas posteriores — um prato cheio para fãs do gênero.

Enfim, respondendo à pergunta do início: UNSIGHTED é mais metroidvania que muito Metroid e Castlevania. E ainda tem robôs lésbicas com crise existencial. Como não amar?

This game was a surprise, tried it on Gamepass and I immediatly fell in love. A great mix of 2D Zelda and a Metroidvania with a special time limit gimmick.

Tha map is really open from the start; using good movement and knowing what to craft makes you able to sequence break and do almost everything in the order you prefer (and the game even rewards you for it). Puzzles are interesting but not too hard, while secrets are few but impactful.

The combat is fun and impactful, however the parry system is way too overcentralized. The game gives you a ton of different weapons to play with,but once you learn how to parry and capitalize on the free critical it gives you, there is no reason to use anything else but the Axe.

Unfortunately the central gimmick of the game is not as impactful as it should be. Every character (main character included) has a time limit that dooms it to lose its mind once it reaches zero (which translate in a game over or the loss of an npc). This time limit can be increased using consumable items that you find around the map. Everytime you give this item to an NPC you'll get an heart, fill all the hearts and you get a special reward.
The problem is that once you have obtained this reward the NPC becomes useless and there is no reason to try and save it from certain doom outside of seeing a 2 second scene in the ending slideshow.

Even with a weak central gimmick, Unsighted, is still incredibly solid and the fun and rewarding exploration makes it fantastic from start to finish. While the open maps and multiple ending makes the game a treat to replay.

Slammed this start to finish in three days on normal, then immediately started a NG+ and got the true ending on hard mode. The extremely approachable Zeldaesque structure pairs perfectly with a combat system deep enough to rival any 2D game. Although the character progression doesn't operate in terms of levels and stats, it captures the RPG feeling of being able to choose between multiple builds to suit your playstyle or the needs of a particular fight.

The main thing that sticks in my craw a bit about this game is the timer system. I'm not going to say it's bad, because it certainly creates a strong emotional bond between you and the characters who are depending on your swift action to survive. But it does work at cross-purposes to the core search action loop of exploring every nook and cranny, which this game clearly encourages by hiding goodies everywhere. I ended my first playthrough much sooner than I really wanted to mostly because I didn't want all of my friends to die.

It's almost as though there are two different games here: the one in which you carefully balance time as a resource to keep your friends alive, and the one where you try to uncover everything. Fortunately the game allows you to disable the timers, and I think doing so makes the game different, not worse.

Until recently, this was just something I had idly added to my backlog before continuing to bounce between Xenoblade and Elden Ring and Splatoon, but when I heard it was leaving gamepass I thought I'd give it a go.

Tonight I'm a mess. I'm so close to victory, but I've run out of time. Maybe I could have done better, but I got distracted along the way, fulfilling promises to other people, indulging my impulses. This isn't the end, but it is, and right now I can't change that.

Unsighted has been one of my favourite experiences in years, please buy the album I had to spend all week recording instead of playing this game so that I can buy my own copy now it's left gamepass, cheers x

Unsighted is probably the best game of 2021 that you haven’t heard of. Where other games like it would be content to deliver a very carefully crafted and strongly guided experience to the player and leave lot of people satisfied, Unsighted opts to do the unthinkable: It just lets loose.

This top-down action game see you explore a world, beat up some enemies, solve some light puzzles and find ways to travel to your destination, not unlike Zelda. After a short prologue that shows you the ropes of combat and sets up the narrative and world, you find yourself in an overworld where an NPC marks the five McGuffins you have to find on the map. And then you can just do whatever you want. Yes, absolutely whatever you want. After I collected the first traversal item (a pair of high jump boots), I was apprehensive and thought the game might lead me through a predetermined sequence of events, just taking me along for the ride while actually orchestrating everything itself.

Stubborn as I am, I looked at my options and set out, determined to do the last dungeon first and to fall on my face in that endeavour. I did not. While the game would not let me just waltz right into the hardest dungeon, I just happened to stumble upon an item which let me traverse the overworld map in ways that clearly skipped the normal sequence of events, but the game did not do so begrudgingly, it openly handed me this weapon with a wink and told me to wreak havoc. This was the moment I knew I was in for something special. Instead of just heading to each dungeon, I largely explored the overworld map and I was thoroughly fascinated with the fact that I was very clearly just circumventing all the Zelda-esque traversal puzzles with my new-found weapon.

While there is a clear intended progression order and reliance on some dungeon items, it is also almost always possible to circumvent any given traversal block with some path you haven’t found yet. There are always multiple paths to your destination, and you probably can take half of them. But the true genius of Unsighted lies not only in the map design or the availability of items that let you just skip things, no. The game even has hidden movement techniques that let you further skip puzzles and obstacles in the overworld. At this point, a comparison to Super Metroid is inevitable: Yes, these optional movement techniques have the same versatility and sense of discovery that a shinespark and a walljump in that game grant you. A comparison between these games ends up making Unsighted see eye to eye with the search action juggernaut - that is a highly impressive feat in itself. You can legitimately play this game and explore its dungeons like you would for one of the classic Zelda games if you follow the intended progression sequence, but you can also play it like me and just blow caution to the wind. I am impressed how well the game manages to deliver on both of these types experiences, depending on which you opt for.

Another feature immensely helping the game’s openness on replays is the crafting system. While anybody who has played any video games in the last 10 years will probably just roll their eyes at this particular phrase, Unsighted surprises with another great idea: What if you could, on future playthroughs, just craft the dungeon items? This game does the unthinkable and lets you – as far as I know – craft almost all weapons and items at the crafting table, and that includes the dungeon items that are used for traversal. You just need to know the recipe. Not only does this mean that you could access the whole map from the start if you wanted to, it also means that you can make a choice on future replays. Do you want to abuse the crafting system or do you want to have another exploratory playthrough? Almost every facet of this game facilitates its openness, and that isn’t even going into how keys and key doors are designed and placed in this game, which gives you another layer of choice for your traversal of the map.

The combat in this game plays like a mix between Dark Souls and Hyper Light Drifter. You can do melee attacks or shoot with a gun. The weapons all have different attributes, and there are a multitude of viable strategies to approach combat. The equivalent of the estus flask, the syringe, fills up when you hit enemies. You have a stamina meter and you can dodge or block/parry enemy attacks. You can also equip “chips” that increase different attributes like number of bullets or weapon strength, as well as some with more specific effects, like a chip that makes the syringe fills slowly on its own. Weapon and chip choice leads to a lot of customizability and this customizability is what makes combat (theoretically) very satisfying and varied. My main strategy was to equip a machine gun and an axe so I could stunlock enemies with the gun while selectively doing big damage. One of the main problems here is that for stronger enemies parry and countering is such a disproportionally easier and quicker strategy than everything else, that the game turns into parry fishing on many of the bosses and mini-bosses - the parry counter also results in your stamina recharging and syringes being filled quicker than with normal attacks, making it an even better option. It’s a shame too, because only 2 of the bosses don’t let you fish more parries much, and that showed me what exhilarating combat the game is capable of when you don’t feel the need to parry everything to do any sort of substantial damage. I would have preferred a system where the moment-to-moment combat with normal attacks was the focus while making the parry feel more like an optional mechanic.

The last large facet of the game is the timer system. This game not only has a timer for your exploration, but for every NPC, so if you bumble about for too long in your adventure or just die too often to the enemies and bosses, you will be left with a barren world without shops or people to talk to. Even your small Navi-like companion can die after some time. The only way to alleviate this is to give these people (or yourself) the meteor dust that has been distributed in copious amounts across the map. If you extend an NPCs life three times they will give you a special item that fits their function and character. This can range from gaining new chips to acquiring things like a portable forge that lets you upgrade weapons anywhere as long as you have the money. The timer system does make exploration more stressful, but also more rewarding. The meteor dust is really hidden everywhere, and you will likely not feel helpless in the face of the time limit (even if I lost 3 NPCs to this system). On the difficulty I played – normal – the timer was just generous enough, considering how often I died and how many detours I made.

Other than my single qualm about the parry in combat, Unsighted’s gameplay comes together beautifully, and additionally to the great gameplay, it is also just visually stunning and the soundtrack is a treat, setting the mood for intrigue and action during exploration and combat segments. The all-female main cast is also inherently a big plus, because you just don’t see it very often in this medium.

This review has gone on for long enough, and what else can I even say? This game can measure up in all regards to explorative titans like Super Metroid. It is just as replayable, speedrunnable and enjoyable in all modes of play. If you like exploration in games, you will very likely love this game, and it’s a unique blend of different genres that will make me remember it fondly and replay it just as often as I do with my other favorite search action games.

Unsighted came out of nowhere for me but when I first saw it, I almost immediately knew it was a game I would enjoy.

The game takes a lot of ideas from the Metroidvania genre and throws it into a top-down action game similar to Hyper Light Drifter or Crosscode and it's the best part of the game for me. Like every Metroidvania, you collect power-ups throughout the game that let you explore areas that were of limits to you before. But those power-ups don't limit themselves to exploration but can even be useful during combat. The interconnected world slowly unfolds itself with each power you get and my god does it feel good. At the end of the game, you almost fly through the game and it's amazing. Everything in Unsighted also looks so beautiful because of the pixel-art, which is always a plus.

Besides exploration, there is of course the combat. During most encounters, the combat feels tight and responsive, especially later on when you're a bit stronger and got some of the more interesting weapons and tools. There is however one thing that annoyed me, the parry system. When you perfectly parry or, twice for bigger enemies/bosses, an enemy's attack you can kill them in one hit or do a huge amount of damage. This works for most of the time and often feels very satisfying to pull off. But sometimes it feels like the combat is relying too much on that system and it makes that you almost don't do any damage without the parry. It gets annoying the more enemies you have to defeat at the same time. There is one (optional boss) where you can only damage that boss after a few successful parries. At the same time, they keep throwing minions at you, that you also have to parry. It gets overwhelming and made the fight almost impossible to the point where I had to lower the difficulty to beat it (the only boss where I had to do that). I would've given Unsighted 4 stars if the parry system wasn't such a huge part of the game.

The story follows Alma in the city of Arcadia. When you first start the game she wakes up in some lab and she remembers nothing. When you finally arrive above the ground you only see the ruins of war. That war happened between humans and automaton's, androids that gained consciousness through anima. At the end of the war, the humans sealed away that anima which led to the automatons that ran out of it to become Unsighted (He said it! He said the thing!). So every character you meet in the game, including yourself, has some sort of timer that stands for the amount of anima they have. When that time runs out, they become unsighted and that again includes you. Luckily you can find piles of anima throughout that world that give you an extra 24 hours, which you can either choose for yourself or extend the time of the other characters. I however decided to turn off that timer for my character because it gave me anxiety. I did end up enjoying the story and caring for quite a few characters and especially Alma.

TL:DR
Exploring in Unsighted is the best part and it creates some of the best moments in the game with all the power-ups you get. The combat is tight and responsive but gets held back by the parry. Following Alma while she's trying to figure out what happened to her friends, herself, and the city of Arcadia was a story that kept me engaged throughout the game.

Unsighted was unfortunately overshadowed by some bigger releases and went under the radar for a lot of people. So hopefully my review gets some people interested enough to at least try this game because the team behind it deserves it!

It also has a demo if you want to try it before making the purchase!!

Com certeza um dos melhores jogos que já joguei na vida. É notável que as duas garotas que fizeram esse jogo entendem muito de metroidvânias e souberam fazer ele se destacar num gênero saturado.

DESTAQUES
Destaque para o Level Design perfeito, todas as áreas são perfeitamente conectadas, os puzzles são gostosos de resolver.

O combate é, com certeza, o melhor combate de todos os metroidvânias que já joguei, o parry funciona muito bem, a variedade de armas ajuda muito tbm.

A trilha sonora não fica chata nunca, muito pelo contrário, já estou ouvindo ela separadamente no Youtube.

ÚNICA CRÍTICA
As vezes a densidade de movimentos em tela atrapalha um pouco o combate, principalmente em mapas com chuva.

___________________________
Apesar de ter desativado, o modo com tempo traz um frescor ao gênero, obrigando os jogadores a explorar com rapidez e prestar atenção no tempo de vida dos personagens.

É por isso e muito mais que Unsighted é um dos melhores do gênero. Fantástico!

This game is often categorized as a Metroidvania and, hey guys, this ain't a Metroidvania. This is as much a Metroidvania as Link to the Past is. Unsighted is a 2D Zelda-like, and only an OK one at that.

The most unique thing about Unsighted is the system where all characters are basically on a death timer. The longer you take in-game, the more NPCs you'll lose. And this isn't limited to random townsfolk, crucial NPCs like merchants can just die and then not be in your game anymore. It's a fascinating idea but a supremely stressful and un-fun way to play a video game. I truly can't think of anything I want less than for my entire playthrough of a game to be timed. Thankfully, you can turn that feature off. However, once you do turn that unique mechanic off, there's nothing that sets Unsighted apart from any other 2D Zelda-like. The art style is dark and the perspective is poorly done making it difficult to tell when platforms you're next to are actually on your level or if they're above you. I also find the overall pixel art style to just be very unappealing, especially the cutscenes.

Overall, Unsighted has some cool ideas but the game is more enjoyable with its most unique mechanic turned off. And once you turn that off, Unsighted is just an unsightly pixel-art 2D Zelda-like.

+ Great diverse cast of characters
+ Combat gameplay is decent, but challenging
+ Timed game mechanic is unique

- Timed game mechanic is stressful and not fun
- Ugly, dark pixel art visuals
- Isometric perspective is poorly-done making traversal and puzzles difficult

Played this with a friend via Steam Remote Play and it was pretty fun.

It's essential a Zeldalike and Metroidvania and I think it does it well. Exploration was fantastic, we got 100% for the Map, and fighting enemies wasn't awful.

It's storytelling is similar to BOTW and I think it did it every well. I liked the relationship between Raquel and Alma. It didn't feel forced or unearned, it was cool. We played with the timer on and it wasn't a bad experience. Sure some Automatons died but we...kinda killed some of them on purpose.

Mechanics were ok. Hookshot was pretty janky, chips were just another thing to spend money on, Stamina system was bad but that isn't surprising, Parrying was good, the way double jump worked sucked, Spinner was fun and it was nice how elemental weapons affected the environment.

I will say multiplayer is pretty rough in this game. The camera only follows player 1 even in boss battle. You even teleport near player 1 if they're too far a way which can cause you to take damage for no reason. The models looks way to similar, only the hair is different which caused my friend and I to keep getting confused with each other a lot. But aside from that it always ran smoothly.

All in all, a good Steam game for anyone looking for some.

Review completo: https://gamelodge.com.br/critica-unsighted-inspirado-em-classicos-mas-moderno-e-complexo/

Unsighted foi provavelmente um dos indies que mais gostei de jogar esse ano. Apesar das pequenas ressalvas que destaquei, o jogo conta com um combate muito polido e segmentos de exploração e plataforma criativos e divertidos.

Como dito pelas desenvolvedoras algumas vezes, ele é um jogo que você deve jogar mais de uma vez, para explorar tudo que ele tem a oferecer, conhecer mais os personagens, encontrar todos os segredos e realizar as missões secundárias.

O fato de termos um tempo limitado no modo de jogo padrão pode ser um problema para algumas pessoas. Caso você tenha alguma dificuldade em lidar com isso, pode perfeitamente ativar o modo exploração.

Fora isso, Unsighted oferece bastante diversidade em sua jogabilidade e conteúdos extras para quem gosta de aproveitar tudo que um jogo tem a oferecer. Sua história é simples, mas bem escrita. Mesmo com poucos diálogos, temos personagens cativantes e você pode se interessar em rejogar e ver o que acontece com aquele autômato que você não conseguiu salvar da primeira vez.


Abraçando elementos de jogos clássicos e modernos, o Studio Pixel Punk entregou um jogo que consegue se aproveitar de diversos sistemas complexos que conversam de forma coerente entre si, além de ter uma progressão não linear que incentiva a descoberta e curiosidade. Definitivamente uma grata surpresa entre os lançamentos brasileiros.

This game is conceptually awesome! Everyone (including you) is dying and you have to save them and yourself!

It’s made even better by the addition of Meteor Dust, a resource you can find all around the world.
You can use it to extend the lifespan of any android by 24 hours. This decision of “Which of the NPCs do you want to save? Or do you want to help yourself?” would already be really interesting but it’s made even better by the third option of spending the dust for an additional syringe, making the game much easier.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t really care about most of the NPCs. They were mostly just… there. I was doing my own thing, exploring the world and doing the dungeons, while they were slowly dying in the village.