I play the game.
There are a ton of robots.
This is the worst haiku ever this isn't even funny why did I even make this
Inspiration is a key part of the creative process, we are all inspired by an work of art in some way or another, be it a game, a movie, a book, a painting or whatever you can think off: if something can evoke a feeling of any kind it's very likely that someone will use it as a source for inspiration when creating its own work, which isn't a bad thing in the slightest!... or at least necessarily. As I see it, there are three common possible results when a game takes a lot of inspiration from another one: it can take the reference material as a basis and from there go above and beyond and form its own identity, it can be a sort of cute experience with clear nods to other works but still having its own ideas and spins that make it have at least a bit of value, or it can feel extremely derivative and make you wonder why are you wasting your time playing it instead of the better work it’s based on.
Somehow Haiku, the Robot is all three at the same time.
I needed to start this review like this because Haiku it’s a great example of a game with a great basis and ideas of its own can sometimes be clouded and try to replicate the same feelings other works produced, in this case being both Hollow Knight and the Metroid series, without completely understanding what made those games special and lacking their polish and attention to detail, it’s an amalgam of really good stuff and really jarring and disappointing stuff that I still don’t fully know if it’s better or worse than what I already think it is.
And the fact I’m in the middle of this conundrum in the first place it’s a huge shame, because, and I can’t stress this enough, Haiku, the Robot does have some fantastic ideas of its own! The enemy and boss design is simple yet ingenious, the healing mechanic being also tied to the money is a really cool idea that for the most part works really well, some areas like the Factory Facility and the Forgotten Ruins are pretty inspired and fun to traverse and the feeling of progression is steady and the upgrades feel like they have true impact, which is some a really important thing in Metroidvanias specially and they pull it off pretty well.
The problem here is not that Haiku doesn’t have good stuff, ‘cause it sure does, but overall, I can’t scratch this feeling of deja vú, a feeling that’s at every corner of the game; in its story, its areas, hell even the way enemies behave and characters talk, they smell too much of its inspirations, except that not only they all lack the oomf that made them especial in the first place, but there not being as much attention to detail, as much development in certain quest and areas, as much emphasis on characters or combat and as much originality in the boss fights (seriously, it’s mind-boggling how some bosses are exactly the same as some in Hollow Knight only with another appearance, and this not me being a HK nerd, like there are bosses that follow the EXACT design patterns as the ones in the funny bug game and it really broke my immersion at times).
And even with all that said, it has flaws on its own: the chip system seems cool at first, but there are some, like the fast healing one, that break the game in half, others like the one that shows secrets without really revealing there and useful, but some are just too powerful and feel like an obligatory use, and I’d go as far to say that some should had just been full-blown upgrades. And also, and maybe this is just a me thing, but in the end there’s an attempt at a plot-twist about something which… we already knew. Maybe it was just me who even without caring too much about what was happening caught onto it, but I don’t know, it feels like that information was already told in some ways, and it being the ‘’grand reveal’’ is the equivalent to a Scooby-Doo monster turning out to be a human, only not as funny.
And in the end, all that I’m left with is a profound feeling of bittersweetness, ‘cause the game is fun, is well designed and it has really cool concepts, but it isn’t fully its own thing, it isn’t as special as it should be and it’s attempts at replicating wonder and mystery result in it being lesser that it could have been. This one was a really hard one to write ‘cause It’s just me criticizing a game that in the end I kinda enjoyed and had fun with and clearly was made with a loving passion for metroidvanias and videogames; it’s unique, referencial and deravitive all at the same time, and it’s just sad that I can’t just call it only unique.
However, there’s a robot that references Wall-E, which is not only something that I approve but also made want to watch Wall-E again, and that’s a positive If I’ve ever seen one.
There are a ton of robots.
This is the worst haiku ever this isn't even funny why did I even make this
Inspiration is a key part of the creative process, we are all inspired by an work of art in some way or another, be it a game, a movie, a book, a painting or whatever you can think off: if something can evoke a feeling of any kind it's very likely that someone will use it as a source for inspiration when creating its own work, which isn't a bad thing in the slightest!... or at least necessarily. As I see it, there are three common possible results when a game takes a lot of inspiration from another one: it can take the reference material as a basis and from there go above and beyond and form its own identity, it can be a sort of cute experience with clear nods to other works but still having its own ideas and spins that make it have at least a bit of value, or it can feel extremely derivative and make you wonder why are you wasting your time playing it instead of the better work it’s based on.
Somehow Haiku, the Robot is all three at the same time.
I needed to start this review like this because Haiku it’s a great example of a game with a great basis and ideas of its own can sometimes be clouded and try to replicate the same feelings other works produced, in this case being both Hollow Knight and the Metroid series, without completely understanding what made those games special and lacking their polish and attention to detail, it’s an amalgam of really good stuff and really jarring and disappointing stuff that I still don’t fully know if it’s better or worse than what I already think it is.
And the fact I’m in the middle of this conundrum in the first place it’s a huge shame, because, and I can’t stress this enough, Haiku, the Robot does have some fantastic ideas of its own! The enemy and boss design is simple yet ingenious, the healing mechanic being also tied to the money is a really cool idea that for the most part works really well, some areas like the Factory Facility and the Forgotten Ruins are pretty inspired and fun to traverse and the feeling of progression is steady and the upgrades feel like they have true impact, which is some a really important thing in Metroidvanias specially and they pull it off pretty well.
The problem here is not that Haiku doesn’t have good stuff, ‘cause it sure does, but overall, I can’t scratch this feeling of deja vú, a feeling that’s at every corner of the game; in its story, its areas, hell even the way enemies behave and characters talk, they smell too much of its inspirations, except that not only they all lack the oomf that made them especial in the first place, but there not being as much attention to detail, as much development in certain quest and areas, as much emphasis on characters or combat and as much originality in the boss fights (seriously, it’s mind-boggling how some bosses are exactly the same as some in Hollow Knight only with another appearance, and this not me being a HK nerd, like there are bosses that follow the EXACT design patterns as the ones in the funny bug game and it really broke my immersion at times).
And even with all that said, it has flaws on its own: the chip system seems cool at first, but there are some, like the fast healing one, that break the game in half, others like the one that shows secrets without really revealing there and useful, but some are just too powerful and feel like an obligatory use, and I’d go as far to say that some should had just been full-blown upgrades. And also, and maybe this is just a me thing, but in the end there’s an attempt at a plot-twist about something which… we already knew. Maybe it was just me who even without caring too much about what was happening caught onto it, but I don’t know, it feels like that information was already told in some ways, and it being the ‘’grand reveal’’ is the equivalent to a Scooby-Doo monster turning out to be a human, only not as funny.
And in the end, all that I’m left with is a profound feeling of bittersweetness, ‘cause the game is fun, is well designed and it has really cool concepts, but it isn’t fully its own thing, it isn’t as special as it should be and it’s attempts at replicating wonder and mystery result in it being lesser that it could have been. This one was a really hard one to write ‘cause It’s just me criticizing a game that in the end I kinda enjoyed and had fun with and clearly was made with a loving passion for metroidvanias and videogames; it’s unique, referencial and deravitive all at the same time, and it’s just sad that I can’t just call it only unique.
However, there’s a robot that references Wall-E, which is not only something that I approve but also made want to watch Wall-E again, and that’s a positive If I’ve ever seen one.