I am a fan of every Analgesic game but coming off of Sephonie, this one is my least favourite. Although I got into the parkour-platforming and found the levels to be fun sprawling playgrounds for pretty tight maneuvering mechanics, I didn’t love it. I think that comes down to personal preference, though.

I have convicted criticism for the ONYX puzzle portions of the game. The game throws in a lot of curveballs into the puzzles but I never felt like I had to strategize. It was a very mindless activity for me and I never felt a connection to it, to touch on to one of the story’s themes of connection.

Actually, the story is pretty good. The plots are very basic but the thematic elements are strong. The characterization is pretty good. Like a lot of other Analgesic games, the characters are very actualized. They don’t come off as characters in a story: they come off as humans. Sometimes this leads to moments where their expressions are too subtle to be read, but the overall effect is that the story feels personal.

I liked the focus on Taiwanese culture and the character themes about immigration and being moved into unfamiliar cultures, the stuff about borders– all that stuff, it was fascinating. The text comes fast and hard but the themes looped around enough– it’s a rich narrative and will stick with me even as I walk away from the game feeling underwhelmed.