Um dos melhores jogos que ja joguei, otimo pra jogar de uma vez só
beautiful soundtrack, stunning scenic art style, engaging and effectively-tuned puzzles. the story starts in a compelling manner, at least initially only doling out minimal information in a way that caught my interest, but it lost me in the end
think of it like gently building a fire using flint and light kindling, the sparks get going, a tiny flame begins to catch, and then instead of gradually encouraging it with some small twigs, you just toss a log onto it, and it extinguishes
basically, very backloaded. and not captured in the metaphor: twisty in a way that doesn't feel earned because it's so backloaded
think of it like gently building a fire using flint and light kindling, the sparks get going, a tiny flame begins to catch, and then instead of gradually encouraging it with some small twigs, you just toss a log onto it, and it extinguishes
basically, very backloaded. and not captured in the metaphor: twisty in a way that doesn't feel earned because it's so backloaded
Underrated game, the story is great and the puzzles are complicated but not to the point you simply cannot progress. Great pickup!
The gameplay was fine. The story had a quality that made always makes me wonder if the characters are OCs that have their own story. A lot of the characterization seems to jump around in a way that doesn't really give anyone a consistent arc.
I also hate that if you try to speed up the text speed it skips the dialogue. I get having an option to do that for speed running, but I would have appreciated a middle option where I didn't have to constantly alternate tapping right and space to make the text not be laboriously slow.
I also hate that if you try to speed up the text speed it skips the dialogue. I get having an option to do that for speed running, but I would have appreciated a middle option where I didn't have to constantly alternate tapping right and space to make the text not be laboriously slow.
This review contains spoilers
Spoilers only discussed at the very bottom
Oh boy, did this game grind my teeth. Evan’s Remains is one of those titles that thinks it’s smarter than you; worst part is, it’s bloody right. We’ve all engaged with products that came from the M. Night school of hard knocks wherein the creators believed themselves so much wiser than their target audience, they felt the constant need to subvert expectations; and from my own history alone, I’ve experienced this fervor with such games as Observation, Antichamber, Witness, and Enslaved -- solid releases hampered by devs more interested in impressing people than telling a thematically-finite tale.
Evan’s Remains risked falling into that trap -- after all, its indulgence in the mystery genre inherently warranted the twists-and-turns pioneered by prior classics. Yet it’s the intricate-execution by writer/creator Matías Schmied that saves it from the pitfalls of its cogenitors (his script firmly guiding your experience whilst subtly taunting you for your ineptitude). The premise is you’re a young woman named Dysis sent to a nameless isle to find the eponymous Evan: three years before the events of the game, he disappeared without a trace, and now that he’s shown signs of life, his multimillion dollar company is very interested in bringing him back.
There’s a futuristic backdrop to the whole shebang done to justify all the crazy tech within the world, from Dysis’s pocket dimension to the island’s “City of Tomorrow” structures; however, it never feels science fictiony, and Schmied’s ability to hone in on the grounded DNA of his plot forms the backbone of why the game works so well -- like the best of social sci-fi, it’s more interested in exploring the human condition than fantasizing about implausible gizmos.
A large part of that success derives from ER not wasting time reveling in its lore: while the isle has a deep mythos, it’s almost always relegated to the back in favor of Dysis’s introspections as well as her interactions with fellow explorer Clover. This young runt has his own purposes for being there, with Schmied consistently using the guy's philosophy to provide contemporary life lessons to both the audience and various characters within the game. Some of these points are blatantly false (ex. Clover lamenting Dysis’ obsessions with money when money is definitively proven to be tied to happiness), others much more relatable (the idea of pushing self-improvement initiatives to another date, thinking there will always be time later until there is none), but what constantly fascinated me about the whole ordeal was the execution. Not once did I ever feel like Clover was coming across as smug or hifalutin in his discourses to Dysis, and that’s a testament to the quality of the prose (as well as the English localization) - usually, in fiction, these kinds of sage-like, holier-than-thou characters warrant a punch to the face or kick to the groin (see Impa from Skyward Sword; Mordin from Mass Effect), and the fact that I didn’t want to do either to Clover speaks well of his composition.
The mystery itself is effectuated quite well: Schmied and his team actually have their characters speak directly to one another when asking and answering questions, as opposed to engaging in annoyingly prolonged methods ala deliberate vagueness for the sake of deliberate vagueness. And when he does pull the rug out from under you, as frustrating as it appears at first, the disclosure of previously-lain breadcrumbs combined with naturally-divulged revelations goes a long way towards building up to a second emotionally-riveting climax. It’s a game I highly recommend going into with little foresight.
The biggest criticisms I have with the narrative are two-fold: first, there’s a severe lack of connecting tissue between the aforementioned convos of our two protagonists and the motivators behind the endgame pronouncements. Yes, the writers do have a B thread that’s technically meant to serve as a link; however, not only is it tethered poorly, but a number of other unrelated plot threads are outright abandoned(+).
Second is that a lot of macro elements ultimately don’t make a lot of sense when you put even a little thought into them, but as this involves extensive spoilers, you’ll have to learn what I mean below (AFTER beating the game)++.
Evan’s Remains won’t catch your attention with just its story, though. Despite being made by a small team, this is one of the best-looking retro games I’ve ever seen: so much so, in fact, that for five straight minutes after booting it up, I wrote extensive notes about the insane production value I was observing on-hand. And so, let me list for you all the kinds of details maitan69 put into its post-SNES aesthetic: water surfaces reflect every visage in real time, sun particles dot the oceanic top, fresh wind jostles flutterable objects in your vicinity (hair, clothes, leaves), characters actually blink, afterimages are produced following a turbo jump, hard stopping produces a plume of dirt, waterfalls bounce loose aqua motes off your hat, vistas in the horizon display pristine animation work (smog, clouds, citiscapes, celestial bodies), I’m sure I’m missing more. The point is a lot of sweat, blood, and tears went into the graphics of Evan’s Remains, and it consequently deserves all your attention.
Of course, there are some small setbacks: blinking occurs at a tempo rather than natural hum, limbs appear as uncanny stumps due to the absence of defined appendages/shoes, shadows are relegated to bland circles at the base of each model, and I was not a fan of the game’s pseudo-depiction of dynamic lighting on Dysis (when running, her back leg is wholly darkened as though burnt to a crisp). In addition, the design of the atoll’s ancient civilization is a bit mixed, the devs opting for some neo-Mayan architecture that’s pleasant to gaze at, at the expense of not being particularly unique.
One of the stranger decisions made by maitan69 is their concoction of numerous thumbnails for their character dialogue, only for a fair chunk of them to not be used much whilst others pop-up extraneously. Don’t get me wrong, the portraiture itself is well-drawn, representing an Americanized anime style that hearkens back to Super Nintendo JRPGs: I just wish more of the dormant profiles had been incorporated versus the same 5 or so templates you see ad nauseam.
Speaking of the SNES, the score for Evan’s Remains, primarily done by Schmied himself alongside Tomás Batista, is hit-or-miss. On the one hand, it’s clearly inspired by the iconic console’s library (I personally heard some David Wise and Uematsu amongst others), thus leading to a number of genuinely-enthralling tunes. On the other hand, to get to those tunes, you need to sit through some of the worst synth music I've ever had the misfortune to hear in a video game, and I don’t mean synths as in the use of synthesizers to replicate instruments, but rather the use of synthesizers to replicate electronica. That’s right, for the first couple hours of your journey, be prepared to protect your ears from some nasally-sounding beats straight out of the 8-bit era, from French Horns filtered through elephantine mutes to a keyboard that literally sounds like an old Casiotone product from the 80s.
Luckily, as things progress, Schmied dials back his nostalgic tendencies in favor of a more organically-sounding OST adorned with somberly-atmospheric tracks: tracks that successfully elevate the games’ innumerable story beats to emotional heights.
Voice acting is relegated to personalized dins played during each character’s respective dialogue, meaning SFX encompasses the remaining soundscape. In comparison to the graphics, it’s definitely been given less priority: there’s no whoosh to the effervescent breeze, no differentiation between jumps or landing zones, and while footsteps were granted some diversity, the synchronization isn’t the best. To be clear, nothing is distracting; it’s more-so that nothing stands out, which is a bit of let-down given the otherworldly beauty.
Similar to Even the Ocean, Evan’s Remains interposes puzzle-platforming sections between its narrative drops, and though short, they’re actually quite good, entailing you min-maxing various switches for the sake of circumventing an en-raised scaffold. There’s even some tongue-in-cheek drollery thrown your way wherein NPCs will question the futility of Dysis doing these tasks when she could’ve just walked/swam around them(+++).
Fundamentally, though, it’s the story which’ll be your draw to the game, a facet I absolutely praise. Yes, Schmied believes himself your intellectual-superior, but you know what, unlike so many creatives who go this route, he actually has the repertoire to show for it. And with a smooth price tag, you can’t go wrong checking his product out.
NOTES:
+++You technically have the option to skip these sections, though the game encourages their completion via Dysis remarking that it feels right to do them.
-I did appreciate Schmied including all his [Patreon?] backers in the end credits.
-Didn’t get a chance to say this in the main body, but the interplay between Dysis and Clover is worth studying as a way of showcasing how to build-up a surprisingly authentic relationship betwixt strangers.
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SPOILERS
+/++What I mean is the game’s A plot throws all these themes at you regarding valuing the true purpose of life over artificial gains like materialism, only for the overarching B plot to be Evan’s conflicts with his corporation. There’s no doubt I’m possibly misremembering things, so take this diatribe with a grain of salt, but IIRC, Evan bailed because he had dirt on the company, leaving his friend Andre to deal with the aftermath. He sent the original message out as a way of drumming up media attention so that his inevitable whistleblow return would garner as much attention as possible.
I say it loosely ties things together because this whole information warfare scheme is very much at odds with the main plot involving Evan and Andre conspiring to give Clover a happy ending. Yes, I get that Clover helped change Evan’s views on life, but that’s a relatively-underdeveloped subplot and one that doesn’t explain why we needed this extensive corpo backstory; if anything, it's been set-up purely for sequelbait. Ask yourself if Evan and Andre had to be high-level salarymen for any of the story to progress?
Worse still is the notion that Dysis was arbitrarily-selected solely because of her name. I get the game kind of gives a justification via Andre implying they wanted authentic reactions from the surrogate sister figure, but would a highly-trained actress have really been any less effective? Given the futurism on-display, you’re really telling me these two brainiacs thought it better to psychologically-traumatize a random chick instead of paying a Thespian performer to undergo the exact same ordeal? It’s without a doubt the most nonsensical part of an otherwise well-told mystery.
Oh, and to add salt to the wounds, Dysis doesn’t even get an opportunity to speak before Clover and his sisters’ graves -- in fact, it’s implied she was outright drugged so that Andre could bury the bodies in secret before the game cuts to credits.
In terms of dropped plot threads, you’ve got things like how they found the island/Clover’s village, Dysis’s arc of transitioning to a less-consumerist person, the aforementioned whistleblowing, and Andre’s reasoning for even aiding the bunch.
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Oh boy, did this game grind my teeth. Evan’s Remains is one of those titles that thinks it’s smarter than you; worst part is, it’s bloody right. We’ve all engaged with products that came from the M. Night school of hard knocks wherein the creators believed themselves so much wiser than their target audience, they felt the constant need to subvert expectations; and from my own history alone, I’ve experienced this fervor with such games as Observation, Antichamber, Witness, and Enslaved -- solid releases hampered by devs more interested in impressing people than telling a thematically-finite tale.
Evan’s Remains risked falling into that trap -- after all, its indulgence in the mystery genre inherently warranted the twists-and-turns pioneered by prior classics. Yet it’s the intricate-execution by writer/creator Matías Schmied that saves it from the pitfalls of its cogenitors (his script firmly guiding your experience whilst subtly taunting you for your ineptitude). The premise is you’re a young woman named Dysis sent to a nameless isle to find the eponymous Evan: three years before the events of the game, he disappeared without a trace, and now that he’s shown signs of life, his multimillion dollar company is very interested in bringing him back.
There’s a futuristic backdrop to the whole shebang done to justify all the crazy tech within the world, from Dysis’s pocket dimension to the island’s “City of Tomorrow” structures; however, it never feels science fictiony, and Schmied’s ability to hone in on the grounded DNA of his plot forms the backbone of why the game works so well -- like the best of social sci-fi, it’s more interested in exploring the human condition than fantasizing about implausible gizmos.
A large part of that success derives from ER not wasting time reveling in its lore: while the isle has a deep mythos, it’s almost always relegated to the back in favor of Dysis’s introspections as well as her interactions with fellow explorer Clover. This young runt has his own purposes for being there, with Schmied consistently using the guy's philosophy to provide contemporary life lessons to both the audience and various characters within the game. Some of these points are blatantly false (ex. Clover lamenting Dysis’ obsessions with money when money is definitively proven to be tied to happiness), others much more relatable (the idea of pushing self-improvement initiatives to another date, thinking there will always be time later until there is none), but what constantly fascinated me about the whole ordeal was the execution. Not once did I ever feel like Clover was coming across as smug or hifalutin in his discourses to Dysis, and that’s a testament to the quality of the prose (as well as the English localization) - usually, in fiction, these kinds of sage-like, holier-than-thou characters warrant a punch to the face or kick to the groin (see Impa from Skyward Sword; Mordin from Mass Effect), and the fact that I didn’t want to do either to Clover speaks well of his composition.
The mystery itself is effectuated quite well: Schmied and his team actually have their characters speak directly to one another when asking and answering questions, as opposed to engaging in annoyingly prolonged methods ala deliberate vagueness for the sake of deliberate vagueness. And when he does pull the rug out from under you, as frustrating as it appears at first, the disclosure of previously-lain breadcrumbs combined with naturally-divulged revelations goes a long way towards building up to a second emotionally-riveting climax. It’s a game I highly recommend going into with little foresight.
The biggest criticisms I have with the narrative are two-fold: first, there’s a severe lack of connecting tissue between the aforementioned convos of our two protagonists and the motivators behind the endgame pronouncements. Yes, the writers do have a B thread that’s technically meant to serve as a link; however, not only is it tethered poorly, but a number of other unrelated plot threads are outright abandoned(+).
Second is that a lot of macro elements ultimately don’t make a lot of sense when you put even a little thought into them, but as this involves extensive spoilers, you’ll have to learn what I mean below (AFTER beating the game)++.
Evan’s Remains won’t catch your attention with just its story, though. Despite being made by a small team, this is one of the best-looking retro games I’ve ever seen: so much so, in fact, that for five straight minutes after booting it up, I wrote extensive notes about the insane production value I was observing on-hand. And so, let me list for you all the kinds of details maitan69 put into its post-SNES aesthetic: water surfaces reflect every visage in real time, sun particles dot the oceanic top, fresh wind jostles flutterable objects in your vicinity (hair, clothes, leaves), characters actually blink, afterimages are produced following a turbo jump, hard stopping produces a plume of dirt, waterfalls bounce loose aqua motes off your hat, vistas in the horizon display pristine animation work (smog, clouds, citiscapes, celestial bodies), I’m sure I’m missing more. The point is a lot of sweat, blood, and tears went into the graphics of Evan’s Remains, and it consequently deserves all your attention.
Of course, there are some small setbacks: blinking occurs at a tempo rather than natural hum, limbs appear as uncanny stumps due to the absence of defined appendages/shoes, shadows are relegated to bland circles at the base of each model, and I was not a fan of the game’s pseudo-depiction of dynamic lighting on Dysis (when running, her back leg is wholly darkened as though burnt to a crisp). In addition, the design of the atoll’s ancient civilization is a bit mixed, the devs opting for some neo-Mayan architecture that’s pleasant to gaze at, at the expense of not being particularly unique.
One of the stranger decisions made by maitan69 is their concoction of numerous thumbnails for their character dialogue, only for a fair chunk of them to not be used much whilst others pop-up extraneously. Don’t get me wrong, the portraiture itself is well-drawn, representing an Americanized anime style that hearkens back to Super Nintendo JRPGs: I just wish more of the dormant profiles had been incorporated versus the same 5 or so templates you see ad nauseam.
Speaking of the SNES, the score for Evan’s Remains, primarily done by Schmied himself alongside Tomás Batista, is hit-or-miss. On the one hand, it’s clearly inspired by the iconic console’s library (I personally heard some David Wise and Uematsu amongst others), thus leading to a number of genuinely-enthralling tunes. On the other hand, to get to those tunes, you need to sit through some of the worst synth music I've ever had the misfortune to hear in a video game, and I don’t mean synths as in the use of synthesizers to replicate instruments, but rather the use of synthesizers to replicate electronica. That’s right, for the first couple hours of your journey, be prepared to protect your ears from some nasally-sounding beats straight out of the 8-bit era, from French Horns filtered through elephantine mutes to a keyboard that literally sounds like an old Casiotone product from the 80s.
Luckily, as things progress, Schmied dials back his nostalgic tendencies in favor of a more organically-sounding OST adorned with somberly-atmospheric tracks: tracks that successfully elevate the games’ innumerable story beats to emotional heights.
Voice acting is relegated to personalized dins played during each character’s respective dialogue, meaning SFX encompasses the remaining soundscape. In comparison to the graphics, it’s definitely been given less priority: there’s no whoosh to the effervescent breeze, no differentiation between jumps or landing zones, and while footsteps were granted some diversity, the synchronization isn’t the best. To be clear, nothing is distracting; it’s more-so that nothing stands out, which is a bit of let-down given the otherworldly beauty.
Similar to Even the Ocean, Evan’s Remains interposes puzzle-platforming sections between its narrative drops, and though short, they’re actually quite good, entailing you min-maxing various switches for the sake of circumventing an en-raised scaffold. There’s even some tongue-in-cheek drollery thrown your way wherein NPCs will question the futility of Dysis doing these tasks when she could’ve just walked/swam around them(+++).
Fundamentally, though, it’s the story which’ll be your draw to the game, a facet I absolutely praise. Yes, Schmied believes himself your intellectual-superior, but you know what, unlike so many creatives who go this route, he actually has the repertoire to show for it. And with a smooth price tag, you can’t go wrong checking his product out.
NOTES:
+++You technically have the option to skip these sections, though the game encourages their completion via Dysis remarking that it feels right to do them.
-I did appreciate Schmied including all his [Patreon?] backers in the end credits.
-Didn’t get a chance to say this in the main body, but the interplay between Dysis and Clover is worth studying as a way of showcasing how to build-up a surprisingly authentic relationship betwixt strangers.
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SPOILERS
+/++What I mean is the game’s A plot throws all these themes at you regarding valuing the true purpose of life over artificial gains like materialism, only for the overarching B plot to be Evan’s conflicts with his corporation. There’s no doubt I’m possibly misremembering things, so take this diatribe with a grain of salt, but IIRC, Evan bailed because he had dirt on the company, leaving his friend Andre to deal with the aftermath. He sent the original message out as a way of drumming up media attention so that his inevitable whistleblow return would garner as much attention as possible.
I say it loosely ties things together because this whole information warfare scheme is very much at odds with the main plot involving Evan and Andre conspiring to give Clover a happy ending. Yes, I get that Clover helped change Evan’s views on life, but that’s a relatively-underdeveloped subplot and one that doesn’t explain why we needed this extensive corpo backstory; if anything, it's been set-up purely for sequelbait. Ask yourself if Evan and Andre had to be high-level salarymen for any of the story to progress?
Worse still is the notion that Dysis was arbitrarily-selected solely because of her name. I get the game kind of gives a justification via Andre implying they wanted authentic reactions from the surrogate sister figure, but would a highly-trained actress have really been any less effective? Given the futurism on-display, you’re really telling me these two brainiacs thought it better to psychologically-traumatize a random chick instead of paying a Thespian performer to undergo the exact same ordeal? It’s without a doubt the most nonsensical part of an otherwise well-told mystery.
Oh, and to add salt to the wounds, Dysis doesn’t even get an opportunity to speak before Clover and his sisters’ graves -- in fact, it’s implied she was outright drugged so that Andre could bury the bodies in secret before the game cuts to credits.
In terms of dropped plot threads, you’ve got things like how they found the island/Clover’s village, Dysis’s arc of transitioning to a less-consumerist person, the aforementioned whistleblowing, and Andre’s reasoning for even aiding the bunch.
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O jogo se acha muito melhor do q ele realmente é
A história é mal explicada e meio idiota
O gameplay é meh
Os gráficos pelo menos são ótimos
A história é mal explicada e meio idiota
O gameplay é meh
Os gráficos pelo menos são ótimos
A nice sidescrolling platformer. Their team wasn't very happy when I stopped playing since it felt a bit..triggering some of the story parts. Which unfortunately made me want to finish it even less.
This review contains spoilers
Okay puzzle platformer torpedoed by an ending that was up its own clever ass. The art design is amazing though.
Love that game for the memories, the fact I played it with someone I liked discovering games with, for the art style, the story. I have very good and nostalgic memories the game.
Bought this cheap in the sales cos the pixel art was pretty. The gameplay was fine. Fairly simple platform based puzzles, some of which were mildly taxing but nothing had me stumped. The soundtrack was ok - suitable for the game but not especially memorable. The story was overly long and complicated, but it did end quite well. Didn’t outstay it’s welcome at 2-3 hours long.
Decided to play it because of the cute pixel-art. Stayed because of a super enjoyable story, though it took me a little bit to get into at first.
The gameplay did get a little bit monotonous at times and the puzzles left me thinking: "How the hell did I just clear that" rather than satisfied for figuring out the solution. But since the game isn't that long in the first place, it didn't become an obstacle for me to enjoy the game.
Kind of reminds of "To the Moon"... if that tells you anything of what you are about to experience.
The gameplay did get a little bit monotonous at times and the puzzles left me thinking: "How the hell did I just clear that" rather than satisfied for figuring out the solution. But since the game isn't that long in the first place, it didn't become an obstacle for me to enjoy the game.
Kind of reminds of "To the Moon"... if that tells you anything of what you are about to experience.
A puzzle-platformer with a quite emotional story. The game evokes a lot of feelings through dialogue, music and ambience. I find it wierd that it went so down the radar.
Turns out we can actually make good games in Argentina.
Turns out we can actually make good games in Argentina.
Hell yeah, let's talk about that jump arc. 50% Ice Climber, 50% Metroid, all great. More height than distance, a smooth parabola, a floppy hat and an orange sundress that animate beautifully throughout it. Arms thrown out for balance, feet cocked forward to give the whole affair a little more personality. And those backgrounds? Lush, lovingly rendered with so many layers of parallax, horizontal and vertical, shown off beautifully every time you hit that hop.
There's also the rest of the game, in case jumps aren't your thing. The puzzles are low-key, the music is just right and the story is broken up nicely, a pleasantly twisty affair with just a bit of overreach toward the end that doesn't spoil the pot. A bright, vibrant game with a narrative spine cloaked in grays.
There's also the rest of the game, in case jumps aren't your thing. The puzzles are low-key, the music is just right and the story is broken up nicely, a pleasantly twisty affair with just a bit of overreach toward the end that doesn't spoil the pot. A bright, vibrant game with a narrative spine cloaked in grays.
Decided to play this short little romp on my Steam Deck. Just as quickly as I beat the game, I'll likely forget the story this game had. It's a simple little puzzle game with a bit of visual novel to it in terms of unveiling the story. Music is fine and the pixel art is gorgeous (mainly the backgrounds, some character art feels hit or miss). The story took a weird turn toward the end that I'm not sure how I really like it?
Overall, this game was neat for its price (like $3 on a steam sale) but doesn't have any sort of lasting impact in terms of gameplay, story, or aesthetics. There are probably better ways to burn a short 3 hours but was worth trying and was simple but shallow enjoyment.
Overall, this game was neat for its price (like $3 on a steam sale) but doesn't have any sort of lasting impact in terms of gameplay, story, or aesthetics. There are probably better ways to burn a short 3 hours but was worth trying and was simple but shallow enjoyment.
The platforming was great, relaxing and provided a casual breaks from a story that could feel quite heavy at times. The story is dark and had me bawling at the end. A truly great game
Sehr kurzweiliger aber netter Puzzel-Plattformen.
encontrei esse jogo sem querer e gostei da mecânica dele de puzzle
Juego bastante curioso de que se centra en puzzles, pero a la vez no importan nada, y a la vez importan mucho.
Bajo el control de Dysis se nos envia a una isla a encontrar a un tal Evan con el que no tenemos relacion, y lo que no es encontramos alli son unos puzzles basados en plataformas que desaparecen tras saltar desde ellas y unos switches que pueden hacerlas aparecer o desaparecer que parecen esconder algun tipo de mensaje.
Esta es la parte mas floja del juego, no por que este mal sino porque no tienen mucha importancia, ni son muy dificiles, ni muy imaginativos... son solo una excusa para que tengas algo que hacer (el juego te permite saltartelos si quieres incluso) y para lo que te quieren contar, donde aqui si que hay bastante mas chicha.
En la historia es donde echa todas las fichas, contandote la historia de unos cuantos personajes y el misterio de que haces en esa isla y que esconde, para acabar teniendo un girito bastante interesante. Aun asi el guion hay veces que se pasa de redundante y de tener demasiado dialogo que se podria haber ajustado con algunas revisiones para pulirlo. Pero bastante interesante teniendo en cuenta su duracion de 2-3h.
Bajo el control de Dysis se nos envia a una isla a encontrar a un tal Evan con el que no tenemos relacion, y lo que no es encontramos alli son unos puzzles basados en plataformas que desaparecen tras saltar desde ellas y unos switches que pueden hacerlas aparecer o desaparecer que parecen esconder algun tipo de mensaje.
Esta es la parte mas floja del juego, no por que este mal sino porque no tienen mucha importancia, ni son muy dificiles, ni muy imaginativos... son solo una excusa para que tengas algo que hacer (el juego te permite saltartelos si quieres incluso) y para lo que te quieren contar, donde aqui si que hay bastante mas chicha.
En la historia es donde echa todas las fichas, contandote la historia de unos cuantos personajes y el misterio de que haces en esa isla y que esconde, para acabar teniendo un girito bastante interesante. Aun asi el guion hay veces que se pasa de redundante y de tener demasiado dialogo que se podria haber ajustado con algunas revisiones para pulirlo. Pero bastante interesante teniendo en cuenta su duracion de 2-3h.
A fun, short and sweet puzzle game. Interesting and unique story, fun puzzle designs, gorgeous pixel art and a pretty soothing OST. It's really good
La historia tarda en ser interesante, los puzzles que son el 90% del juego están bien.
So, the story is, uh, insane, but everything else is pretty damn delightful, with some really neat puzzles.
Acho que a história iria se beneficiar se tivesse acabado antes. Destaque para a pixel arte que é maravilhosa.
Si lo que buscas es un reto no llegaste al lugar correcto, pero si por el contrario buscabas un juego corto para pasar el rato una tarde de domingo este es tu juego.
No es muy complicado y eso se agradece ya que uno no viene al juego por los puzles aunque no lo parezca, parece mas que estos funcionan como un puente entre cada tramo de la historia, es algo corto pero eso no es problema ya que muy fácilmente de enganchas a esta historia y acabas deseando saber mas de esta, una decisión que no tardas en sufrir pero de buena manera.
Cuando llegues al final espero hayas disfrutado el camino.
No es muy complicado y eso se agradece ya que uno no viene al juego por los puzles aunque no lo parezca, parece mas que estos funcionan como un puente entre cada tramo de la historia, es algo corto pero eso no es problema ya que muy fácilmente de enganchas a esta historia y acabas deseando saber mas de esta, una decisión que no tardas en sufrir pero de buena manera.
Cuando llegues al final espero hayas disfrutado el camino.
This review contains spoilers
While the pixel art is beautiful, the music is fitting, the game fails going anywhere beyond "ok".
The gameplay revolves around jumping puzzles. Make it to the other side of the screen, while pressing buttons to change the layout of the screen. This is fine, but never really requires you to think. Most of the time you can just start jumping and the layout will fix itself as you go. I think there are 3 puzzles in the entire game where I needed to think, but never to the point where I get the "ahhh, of course" moment where you finally realize how to solve the puzzle. It was more like "Oh, lol. I forgot to press this".
So the game is not satisfying in terms of puzzles, which is half the game. The other half, is a story.
The game tries to build this mystery of a hidden artifact on an island. You have to solve these puzzles to translate ancient text, and they will reveal the secret to immortality.
It seems these are incredibly simple to translate, because apparently everyone who sees them just know what they say after a short period of time, but the game never addresses this, they are ultra mysterious and "hard to crack".
You play as a character who follows Clover, who is looking for the ancient artifact that gives you immortality. He needs this to save his sister and himself from dying, but they do everything they can to make Clover as selfless as possible. He helps the old man do shopping, he helps the bullied kid get a hobby, he will even let a thief stay in his home. Clover put his home on the line to this thief when they make bets around a game. The thief obviously has nothing to give in return, so Clover asks that if the thief loses, he has to face what he is running from. Wow, so selfless. Or an idiot perhaps.
You on the other hand, plays as a character who knows nothing. You're on a mission to find a person that does not exist, but you find Clover instead. As you solve puzzles, you learn more about yourself and Clover. For some reason, people keep stealing stuff from you, and it is never explained how or why, and it really does not matter in the end. Seems mostly like an excuse for you to not be able to contact the outside world.
You discover that the island is actually the immortality artifact. You have been fed lies about what your mission is, you were actually sent there to meet Clover. Clover's sister has the same name as you, and as all of this is discovered, you all cry, and Clover dies at the perfect moment to die happy, because he has been terminally ill this entire time, and all of this was a setup by the thief who wanted to give Clover a happy ending.
This story is very convoluted, and needs a cast of idiots to work. The idiot plot of Clover, who will believe and do anything anyone asks of him. Oh sure, let me make the thief look after my baby sister while I look for the immortality trinket. Sure, let trust this random agent character and tell her about the only thing that could save my sister's life, and of course, let me trust this random guy who has been stalking everyone with my water bottle.
Let me then drink from the water bottle, which the stalker had poisoned just hoping and assuming Clover would die in the exact moment everything is revealed so he get a happy ending.
The character you play as, sure, send her on a secret mission, let he discover that she has the same name as Clover's sister, and let us just hope she decides to go with it and lie about being his sister so he can die a happy death. They couldn't tell this person they would have the same name as Clover's sister, because they wanted the emotions of discovering to be "real".
What if the poison killed Clover a little earlier? Or what if he died to his illness before discovering everything? What if he was unable to decipher the messages to begin with, or not know what the final message meant?
What is Clover didn't want to share his water bottle with a stranger, that way he would never have been poisoned? What if the main character never trapped the stalker to begin with, then he could never have poisoned Clover.
What if the main character wanted to tell Clover the truth, or didn't immediately understand she was there to lie to him?
Clover seemingly only spent a day or two on the island, and if the whole lie is that he can't feel the passage of time, sure, but he still needs to sleep and rest normally, he should have understood that it is impossible for 20+ years to have passed, his baby sister can't have aged this much in an afternoon. And if that is the case, would he not be curious as to what the world is like after this much time? His friend like the old man would surely be dead, and the kid he helped an adult. He has no questions regarding any of this?
There are so many things that has to perfectly line up for any of this to take place. The poison, the discovery, the timing, his blind trust in a thief who is actually an ex billionaire that could make all of this happen, the agent to break her contract and reveal who she is (after she goes on a long rant about how she only cares about money) etc etc etc. It doesn't make sense. This is not how people work
Also, you might have noticed, I didn't touch much on these ancient civilization messages. Neither does the game. It's just something that is there. And there's a water plant for some reason. Why? Who knows. There was an ancient civilization on a hidden island no one can find that no one lives on, but you don't need to know anything else about them.
So that's it. You have a story about a mystery and twist that does not feel earned, and mediocre at best puzzle platforming. It does not make for a great game, but at least it does not overstay its welcome. The game lasts about 3 hours, and it does have gorgeous pixel art. The conversations between the characters are entertaining enough, though it can feel pandering at times.
The game itself is somewhat enjoyable to play if you just need something for an evening, but overall I can't recommend that you buy it.
The gameplay revolves around jumping puzzles. Make it to the other side of the screen, while pressing buttons to change the layout of the screen. This is fine, but never really requires you to think. Most of the time you can just start jumping and the layout will fix itself as you go. I think there are 3 puzzles in the entire game where I needed to think, but never to the point where I get the "ahhh, of course" moment where you finally realize how to solve the puzzle. It was more like "Oh, lol. I forgot to press this".
So the game is not satisfying in terms of puzzles, which is half the game. The other half, is a story.
The game tries to build this mystery of a hidden artifact on an island. You have to solve these puzzles to translate ancient text, and they will reveal the secret to immortality.
It seems these are incredibly simple to translate, because apparently everyone who sees them just know what they say after a short period of time, but the game never addresses this, they are ultra mysterious and "hard to crack".
You play as a character who follows Clover, who is looking for the ancient artifact that gives you immortality. He needs this to save his sister and himself from dying, but they do everything they can to make Clover as selfless as possible. He helps the old man do shopping, he helps the bullied kid get a hobby, he will even let a thief stay in his home. Clover put his home on the line to this thief when they make bets around a game. The thief obviously has nothing to give in return, so Clover asks that if the thief loses, he has to face what he is running from. Wow, so selfless. Or an idiot perhaps.
You on the other hand, plays as a character who knows nothing. You're on a mission to find a person that does not exist, but you find Clover instead. As you solve puzzles, you learn more about yourself and Clover. For some reason, people keep stealing stuff from you, and it is never explained how or why, and it really does not matter in the end. Seems mostly like an excuse for you to not be able to contact the outside world.
You discover that the island is actually the immortality artifact. You have been fed lies about what your mission is, you were actually sent there to meet Clover. Clover's sister has the same name as you, and as all of this is discovered, you all cry, and Clover dies at the perfect moment to die happy, because he has been terminally ill this entire time, and all of this was a setup by the thief who wanted to give Clover a happy ending.
This story is very convoluted, and needs a cast of idiots to work. The idiot plot of Clover, who will believe and do anything anyone asks of him. Oh sure, let me make the thief look after my baby sister while I look for the immortality trinket. Sure, let trust this random agent character and tell her about the only thing that could save my sister's life, and of course, let me trust this random guy who has been stalking everyone with my water bottle.
Let me then drink from the water bottle, which the stalker had poisoned just hoping and assuming Clover would die in the exact moment everything is revealed so he get a happy ending.
The character you play as, sure, send her on a secret mission, let he discover that she has the same name as Clover's sister, and let us just hope she decides to go with it and lie about being his sister so he can die a happy death. They couldn't tell this person they would have the same name as Clover's sister, because they wanted the emotions of discovering to be "real".
What if the poison killed Clover a little earlier? Or what if he died to his illness before discovering everything? What if he was unable to decipher the messages to begin with, or not know what the final message meant?
What is Clover didn't want to share his water bottle with a stranger, that way he would never have been poisoned? What if the main character never trapped the stalker to begin with, then he could never have poisoned Clover.
What if the main character wanted to tell Clover the truth, or didn't immediately understand she was there to lie to him?
Clover seemingly only spent a day or two on the island, and if the whole lie is that he can't feel the passage of time, sure, but he still needs to sleep and rest normally, he should have understood that it is impossible for 20+ years to have passed, his baby sister can't have aged this much in an afternoon. And if that is the case, would he not be curious as to what the world is like after this much time? His friend like the old man would surely be dead, and the kid he helped an adult. He has no questions regarding any of this?
There are so many things that has to perfectly line up for any of this to take place. The poison, the discovery, the timing, his blind trust in a thief who is actually an ex billionaire that could make all of this happen, the agent to break her contract and reveal who she is (after she goes on a long rant about how she only cares about money) etc etc etc. It doesn't make sense. This is not how people work
Also, you might have noticed, I didn't touch much on these ancient civilization messages. Neither does the game. It's just something that is there. And there's a water plant for some reason. Why? Who knows. There was an ancient civilization on a hidden island no one can find that no one lives on, but you don't need to know anything else about them.
So that's it. You have a story about a mystery and twist that does not feel earned, and mediocre at best puzzle platforming. It does not make for a great game, but at least it does not overstay its welcome. The game lasts about 3 hours, and it does have gorgeous pixel art. The conversations between the characters are entertaining enough, though it can feel pandering at times.
The game itself is somewhat enjoyable to play if you just need something for an evening, but overall I can't recommend that you buy it.
Não acredito que um jogo 8bit pudesse destruir meu coração. Não podia estar mais errada. As aparências enganam e eu tô feliz por ter jogado Evan's Remains.
A reasonably engaging story interspersed with surprisingly solid puzzle platforming. With quite a short runtime, this is worth checking out if your a big fan of platformer-focussed puzzle-platformers
I can't come up with any way to describe what I like about this game without just plagarizing @EVX's review of it so I'm not gonna try and will instead endorse his opinions for what works and elaborate on what makes me a bit more mixed on Evan's Remains.
I think the best way to describe my experience is to compare it to the song Crystal Ball by Styx and my cousin's reaction to it when I had him listen. The switchup from the quiet, melancholy acoustic opening to the driving, synth-accompanied ballad halfway is not necessarily a surprise if you're paying attention (and especially not if you know the band). However, if you really latch onto the first half, the second half becomes jarring and unwelcome, as it did for him.
Is this the song's fault? Not really. It wants to try something more bold and it certainly worked for me with that song, but switchups are inherently risky endeavors.
Which is to say, I do respect this game for what it attempted with its narrative, but I don't think they quite nailed it. That, or I'm simply too attached to the initial vibe of the game's narrative and don't want to follow it to that next stage. However, all of the other elements of the game—visuals, gameplay, pacing, presentation—are so easy to sail along with that I've just ended up accepting it as is.
I do also think there's something interesting here thematically that I've been pondering. It just feels a little more hidden behind the specifics of the writing than it ought to have been.
Either way, it's a fun, short puzzle platformer with gorgeous art. That's justification enough in my eyes for people to give it a shot and see what they take out of it.
I think the best way to describe my experience is to compare it to the song Crystal Ball by Styx and my cousin's reaction to it when I had him listen. The switchup from the quiet, melancholy acoustic opening to the driving, synth-accompanied ballad halfway is not necessarily a surprise if you're paying attention (and especially not if you know the band). However, if you really latch onto the first half, the second half becomes jarring and unwelcome, as it did for him.
Is this the song's fault? Not really. It wants to try something more bold and it certainly worked for me with that song, but switchups are inherently risky endeavors.
Which is to say, I do respect this game for what it attempted with its narrative, but I don't think they quite nailed it. That, or I'm simply too attached to the initial vibe of the game's narrative and don't want to follow it to that next stage. However, all of the other elements of the game—visuals, gameplay, pacing, presentation—are so easy to sail along with that I've just ended up accepting it as is.
I do also think there's something interesting here thematically that I've been pondering. It just feels a little more hidden behind the specifics of the writing than it ought to have been.
Either way, it's a fun, short puzzle platformer with gorgeous art. That's justification enough in my eyes for people to give it a shot and see what they take out of it.
i think this is the template for how you balance story games with gameplay. the gameplay was fun and i was thinking about it, but while playing i was also able to think about the story and where it might lead. i really like this one
Really good puzzle platformer. Enjoyable story with some good twists.
While the platforming got repetitive and easy, the way the story unfolded and ended made me tear up quite a bit.