Lately I've been thinking a lot about spaces and time in fiction. Not just literal spaces and time (that is an incredible whole thing on itself) but how pacing can be deliberately built on what might seem boring or cheap.
Believe me when I tell you I didn't think in the slightest that a Shin Chan game (for a newby on Boku Not Natsuyasumi) could give me such a fresh and beautiful argument through pure mundanity.
If I had to describe this game with a word that would be "honest", it is what it is, pure and simple; never tries to go beyond its own limitations and those are so clearly well thought out and developed, built with such talent and intimacy on details and rhythm, that every in-game day was met with a smile on my side of the screen.
It is, as the best Nintendo games manage to be, a creator of joy; a game that doesn't force, only asks. The lack of impositions on the player changes the question of the commonly (and wrongly) compared Animal Crossing from how much can you do today to what do you want to do today. Shin Chan progresses without input, it's a game where everything passes through and not thanks to you, and with that, time can not be forced and places will be seen infinitely, changing on the slightest; gaining new perspectives only if the player wants to stablish a relationship with the town and his vistas and particular flow. But that is exactly the point where the game shines and delivers, everything apart from what which happens without question, feels like a treasure.
The gameloop might turn tedious if you rush the game or obsese about everything having a definitive purpose, but the beauty of it all is that it's there, as it is in life, for the sake of itself. Dialogues doesn't need to hide anything, they're fun, activities throughout the world are simple and basic because the reward is on the evocative it results presented in the way they are. Fishing shines when you stop to look at the water, the light and how stunning the framing of every single shot of this town is, how it can transport you to the most dreamy place and make you feel like a 5 year old; everything is shallow because the complexity responds to the emotional core of all that commands this game.
Spaces and time.
It is quite fantastic how a game can literally put you out of feeling like a piece of shit simply through sincerity and purity; how this game has brought me to good places on bad days, and how its themes as basic as they are, can resonate and echo thanks to the atmospheres and the little it demands of you.
Sometimes an Elden Ring can be the catalyzer of great things, through discovery and work one can feel the best of itself can get out and turn the worst of you where it should be. Other times it's really good to know that one can just walk hearing the summery sound of cicadas and wind, with a bugcatcher up my shoulder, and look for people I ended up caring a lot for to hear a silly phrase and take a picture in a lake. That innocence and good faith can be all there needs to be in the craziest of situations, and I'm a sucker for any piece of art that knows how to breath and wants you to keep the same tempo with good ideas and a good heart.
Time, spaces and people.
It's all there is.
Believe me when I tell you I didn't think in the slightest that a Shin Chan game (for a newby on Boku Not Natsuyasumi) could give me such a fresh and beautiful argument through pure mundanity.
If I had to describe this game with a word that would be "honest", it is what it is, pure and simple; never tries to go beyond its own limitations and those are so clearly well thought out and developed, built with such talent and intimacy on details and rhythm, that every in-game day was met with a smile on my side of the screen.
It is, as the best Nintendo games manage to be, a creator of joy; a game that doesn't force, only asks. The lack of impositions on the player changes the question of the commonly (and wrongly) compared Animal Crossing from how much can you do today to what do you want to do today. Shin Chan progresses without input, it's a game where everything passes through and not thanks to you, and with that, time can not be forced and places will be seen infinitely, changing on the slightest; gaining new perspectives only if the player wants to stablish a relationship with the town and his vistas and particular flow. But that is exactly the point where the game shines and delivers, everything apart from what which happens without question, feels like a treasure.
The gameloop might turn tedious if you rush the game or obsese about everything having a definitive purpose, but the beauty of it all is that it's there, as it is in life, for the sake of itself. Dialogues doesn't need to hide anything, they're fun, activities throughout the world are simple and basic because the reward is on the evocative it results presented in the way they are. Fishing shines when you stop to look at the water, the light and how stunning the framing of every single shot of this town is, how it can transport you to the most dreamy place and make you feel like a 5 year old; everything is shallow because the complexity responds to the emotional core of all that commands this game.
Spaces and time.
It is quite fantastic how a game can literally put you out of feeling like a piece of shit simply through sincerity and purity; how this game has brought me to good places on bad days, and how its themes as basic as they are, can resonate and echo thanks to the atmospheres and the little it demands of you.
Sometimes an Elden Ring can be the catalyzer of great things, through discovery and work one can feel the best of itself can get out and turn the worst of you where it should be. Other times it's really good to know that one can just walk hearing the summery sound of cicadas and wind, with a bugcatcher up my shoulder, and look for people I ended up caring a lot for to hear a silly phrase and take a picture in a lake. That innocence and good faith can be all there needs to be in the craziest of situations, and I'm a sucker for any piece of art that knows how to breath and wants you to keep the same tempo with good ideas and a good heart.
Time, spaces and people.
It's all there is.