I'm glad I finally played this game, being a big fan of Cing, this was always a game I had meant to play through and was sure I'd started - I discovered I must've because the disk was still in my now packed away Wii.
There's something about the style or writing, the atmosphere and art direction about Cing that I just find magical.
The simple music, the sketches; I find it evocative but then I can't really put a finger on what.
I'd guess a big part now would be nostalgia and a yearning for another Kyle Hyde game but it's also a feeling I had when I played Hotel Dusk the first time.
I'm sure if I was more eloquent I could find the words.
Another Code: R for those not in the know is boiled down to its simplest terms a point and click adventure style game with Japanese visual novel leanings about a girl named Ashley searching to find more details on the death of her mother.
I won't go into details because explaining the story of a game that is majority story vs "gameplay" will ruin it, but the way the story progresses is a fantastic mystery novel-like tale, with a small cast of characters who are, in my opinion, all quite well realised with quality dialogue.
You learn a lot about Ashley as a person through her interactions with the world and the dozen or so characters, most importantly Matthew.
Matt, minor spoilers, is a younger lad who has run away from home looking for his father who went missing five years prior and the obvious similarities there create an interesting dynamic and a way to see an angle on Ashley you wouldn't typically.
Outside of talking and making a few conversational choices you're walking around the small area- done so by either using the d-pad or clicking the sides of the screen until you get to rooms you search with a pointer.
A lot of these areas are just to look at, flesh out the world. The rest are to find items which in a simple point and click style are there to solve puzzles.
When it comes to puzzles I personally found most of them a little too easy but I do have an uncommon enjoyment of them it seems.
The most difficult were due to my impatience because Cing loves to play with the hardware and a couple of things weren't as intuitive as I thought.
Counter to motion controls annoyance, much like Zack & Wiki you're not waving your arms around all the time and in fact even less so.
Also this game has the single most, what I would call a hype moment in Wii games, using hardware to solve a simple puzzle that genuinely eliminates any hard feelings I have for things where I had to hold still for longer than I'd thought.
The long and short of this is, if you dislike games with little in action then move on, however if you want a nice relaxing game with a well realised small contained world and cast of characters with a few fun puzzles and great atmosphere this is worth playing.
The saddest thing really, to end how I began this "review" is that Cing are no longer around and the game - whilst having a completely satisfying ending, feels like it was open for a third that we will most likely never see.
There's something about the style or writing, the atmosphere and art direction about Cing that I just find magical.
The simple music, the sketches; I find it evocative but then I can't really put a finger on what.
I'd guess a big part now would be nostalgia and a yearning for another Kyle Hyde game but it's also a feeling I had when I played Hotel Dusk the first time.
I'm sure if I was more eloquent I could find the words.
Another Code: R for those not in the know is boiled down to its simplest terms a point and click adventure style game with Japanese visual novel leanings about a girl named Ashley searching to find more details on the death of her mother.
I won't go into details because explaining the story of a game that is majority story vs "gameplay" will ruin it, but the way the story progresses is a fantastic mystery novel-like tale, with a small cast of characters who are, in my opinion, all quite well realised with quality dialogue.
You learn a lot about Ashley as a person through her interactions with the world and the dozen or so characters, most importantly Matthew.
Matt, minor spoilers, is a younger lad who has run away from home looking for his father who went missing five years prior and the obvious similarities there create an interesting dynamic and a way to see an angle on Ashley you wouldn't typically.
Outside of talking and making a few conversational choices you're walking around the small area- done so by either using the d-pad or clicking the sides of the screen until you get to rooms you search with a pointer.
A lot of these areas are just to look at, flesh out the world. The rest are to find items which in a simple point and click style are there to solve puzzles.
When it comes to puzzles I personally found most of them a little too easy but I do have an uncommon enjoyment of them it seems.
The most difficult were due to my impatience because Cing loves to play with the hardware and a couple of things weren't as intuitive as I thought.
Counter to motion controls annoyance, much like Zack & Wiki you're not waving your arms around all the time and in fact even less so.
Also this game has the single most, what I would call a hype moment in Wii games, using hardware to solve a simple puzzle that genuinely eliminates any hard feelings I have for things where I had to hold still for longer than I'd thought.
The long and short of this is, if you dislike games with little in action then move on, however if you want a nice relaxing game with a well realised small contained world and cast of characters with a few fun puzzles and great atmosphere this is worth playing.
The saddest thing really, to end how I began this "review" is that Cing are no longer around and the game - whilst having a completely satisfying ending, feels like it was open for a third that we will most likely never see.