Turnfollow Ranked
Before the Green Moon caught my attention a few months ago from the Steam discovery queue, I really liked it so I went back to play the other games the team has put out and now that I've finished I'll maybe rank them in order of my enjoyment of them.
7 Games
Wide Ocean Big jacket just barely beats out Before The Green Moon, On replay I might think different and whilst they are somewhat different games, I think pound for pound WOBJ is the tighter game. Full of the wonderful stylistic idiosyncrasies of the previous games and saying a lot with very little. Its just very well constructed.
1
Before The Green Moon is a wonderful narrative focused farm sim, but you can read all about that in my review of the game. Now that its been a few months Im of two minds on the subject of replay. I think doing so now without rushing a lot of things would be a more enjoyable experience, there are a lot of things I didnt see or experience, but on the other hand a lot of the narrative meat of the game felt built upon that very thing, that you wouldnt see everything, that you wouldnt ever know everything about your neighbours and despite the melancholy of saying goodbye that you would follow your dreams and on to your next adventure. We shall see.
2
River bones is pretty cool, but its greatest strength is its greatest weakness also : it feels like a Game Jam game (which Im pretty sure it was?) and as such shows a few uncomfortable limitations. On the other hand its incredibly tight and its the first time Ive played a game and said "this feels like a student film" and didnt mean it as a putdown.
3
4EverTransitAuthority is definitely the odd one out in Turnfollow's output, but I think its compelling in its simplicity and mundaneity of staring at scenery on public transport
4
Little party walked to Wide Ocean could run, and thats about as kind as I can be to it, I think its kinda mid ngl. Its just incredibly awkward for no reason? And before you say "it controls awkwardly as you stumble from scene to scene unsure of what to do with yourself in parallel to the mother awkwardly trying to find out what to do in the presence of her daughter's party thing" : no. And even if thats true, no. I'm not taking intentionality that far when incompetence seems way more likely. Wide Ocean does a similar thing and it doesnt feel the need to put in weird ass tank controls in what is essentially a regular ass walking sim.
5
A good gardener is a neat idea executed poorly and frustratingly but without the balls to even commit to it. I guess the seed for before the green moon was planted here (pun intended) but other than that I can't see myself ever coming back to this
6
I do not have nearly enough patience to do this kinda bullshit, sorry
7
2 Comments
@Joas Yeah Before the Green Moon and WOBJ are really close for me. I was admittedly in kind of a bad mood when I played a Good Gardener, maybe that influenced it lol. I kinda vibe with 4TA, it reminds me of zoning out on public transport as a teenager. Yeah little party is kind of WOBJ but underbaked as hell, which makes sense as you say it probably had a lot less time and effort put into it.
Joas
7 months ago
Still not quite finished with Before the Green Moon, so I guess it depends on how it sticks the landing, but I think it might be #1 for me? Anyways, personally I really loved the little story of A Good Gardener so surprised to see it that low, and PATROYSOTLDAYOA was buggy but once again hit a nice vibe for me. Whereas 4TA for me was kind of just... nothing? And Little Party was so weirdly buggy for me that it was infuriating. River Bones is great for what it is though.
And yeah, River Bones is a jam game, along with 4TA (though it's clear that the three other small ones clearly didn't take much time or work compared to Wide Ocean Big Jacket and Before the Green Moon)