Neon White is a game where everything from the level design, to the visuals, to the incredible soundtrack compliment eachother so well that they had to channel all of the bad decisions into the writing.
Literally everything but the dialogue is fucking great. I get what they were going for. Cool edgy 14 year old writing, but I don't feel that that's a valid excuse when there are plenty of examples of this style of writing done well. Kill la Kill, MGR or anything by Tatsuki Fujimoto goes for a similar vibe, but they actually manage to be funny, or have compelling characters.
It's just a shame that this game is dragged down by dialogue that makes you actively want to skip it.
Wait, the dialogue is designed this way so you speedrun cutscenes? That’s brilliant. I only just realized this whilst writing. Bravo. Certainly intentional.
Near the middle of the game I started to try and beat my friends. Go for high scores.
I then had the epiphany that I HATE my friends and I HATE getting high scores and THEY SUCK why are my friends better at games than me??
Afterwards I realised I was having a lot more fun when I wasn't going for high scores. My bad.
Luckily all of the final few levels and mechanics were absolutely stellar, and immediately hooked me back in. It’s one of the rare examples nowadays of a gameplay loop that manages to gel everything together so well, it becomes impossible not to admire it.
Literally everything but the dialogue is fucking great. I get what they were going for. Cool edgy 14 year old writing, but I don't feel that that's a valid excuse when there are plenty of examples of this style of writing done well. Kill la Kill, MGR or anything by Tatsuki Fujimoto goes for a similar vibe, but they actually manage to be funny, or have compelling characters.
It's just a shame that this game is dragged down by dialogue that makes you actively want to skip it.
Wait, the dialogue is designed this way so you speedrun cutscenes? That’s brilliant. I only just realized this whilst writing. Bravo. Certainly intentional.
Near the middle of the game I started to try and beat my friends. Go for high scores.
I then had the epiphany that I HATE my friends and I HATE getting high scores and THEY SUCK why are my friends better at games than me??
Afterwards I realised I was having a lot more fun when I wasn't going for high scores. My bad.
Luckily all of the final few levels and mechanics were absolutely stellar, and immediately hooked me back in. It’s one of the rare examples nowadays of a gameplay loop that manages to gel everything together so well, it becomes impossible not to admire it.