This is a very premature review, and I want to come back and give this game a better shot... Maybe. But then again, maybe not.
I died once, and I'm discouraged from coming back.
I bought this game on Steam and Switch. It's been on my wishlist for a while, I've avoided watching playthroughs of it, I was really looking forward to it. I can tell that there's a lot of charm and care and things to love with this game, but I'll cut to the chase—
The writing in this game pushes me away from immersion at almost every turn.
- So often I feel like I should have a choice in how I respond, with the prompt literally asking me how, yet there is only one option to select
- The themes and narrative is clearly very diverse, accepting, and understanding to personal struggles, but is written with such modern internet quirks and - albiet - charm that it already feels dated and young
- Lastly, this game has a personality and humour to its writing that can bee seen in almost every aspect of dialogue, whether it's side characters, background character, or your own internal narration, there is an attempted humour at nearly every turn, and it almost never clicked with me, instead taking away the severity of immersion that I want to feel with text that is made far more bloated than it needs to be because of this
The game seemed fairly linear and slow at the beginning, and at least, according to other reviews, that doesn't go away. Unfortunately, that made a big impact on my impression of the game, because after only a few hours I went searching for reviews to try to see if others were in the same boat.
What really tipped me off was that first death. My character was described as someone capable for exactly the scenario I was in. I, as the player, had the agency to explore the area myself. Both of us were capable, yet a scripted event caused us to fail. An underwhelming death on its own, only to be paired with the game's narration insulting the protagonist's stupidity. I get that this moment was about our character feeling that way about themselves, but I wasn't convinced as a player. I didn't feel bad for them. I didn't feel mistaken myself. I just felt annoyed.
I don't want to be annoyed with this game. I hear it's very good, but unfortunately, there was a lot rubbing me the wrong way that caused me to look for similar feelings shared elsewhere, and the rest of the game doesn't seem very appealing for me to continue.
Maybe I will, I would like to, but this was my very brief first impression
I died once, and I'm discouraged from coming back.
I bought this game on Steam and Switch. It's been on my wishlist for a while, I've avoided watching playthroughs of it, I was really looking forward to it. I can tell that there's a lot of charm and care and things to love with this game, but I'll cut to the chase—
The writing in this game pushes me away from immersion at almost every turn.
- So often I feel like I should have a choice in how I respond, with the prompt literally asking me how, yet there is only one option to select
- The themes and narrative is clearly very diverse, accepting, and understanding to personal struggles, but is written with such modern internet quirks and - albiet - charm that it already feels dated and young
- Lastly, this game has a personality and humour to its writing that can bee seen in almost every aspect of dialogue, whether it's side characters, background character, or your own internal narration, there is an attempted humour at nearly every turn, and it almost never clicked with me, instead taking away the severity of immersion that I want to feel with text that is made far more bloated than it needs to be because of this
The game seemed fairly linear and slow at the beginning, and at least, according to other reviews, that doesn't go away. Unfortunately, that made a big impact on my impression of the game, because after only a few hours I went searching for reviews to try to see if others were in the same boat.
What really tipped me off was that first death. My character was described as someone capable for exactly the scenario I was in. I, as the player, had the agency to explore the area myself. Both of us were capable, yet a scripted event caused us to fail. An underwhelming death on its own, only to be paired with the game's narration insulting the protagonist's stupidity. I get that this moment was about our character feeling that way about themselves, but I wasn't convinced as a player. I didn't feel bad for them. I didn't feel mistaken myself. I just felt annoyed.
I don't want to be annoyed with this game. I hear it's very good, but unfortunately, there was a lot rubbing me the wrong way that caused me to look for similar feelings shared elsewhere, and the rest of the game doesn't seem very appealing for me to continue.
Maybe I will, I would like to, but this was my very brief first impression