It always makes me feel bad to rag on indie games, especially crowdfunded ones like VVVVVV, because they generally don't have the marketing benefits of AAA games, and so when one manages to penetrate the zeitgeist, it inherently feels wrong to declare it unworthy of play.

Of course, everyone's opinion will vary in the end, but VVVVVV (which I shall henceforth refer to as just "V") didn't do it for me. As a platformer, it had the sole requirement of being unique and fun, and I didn't think it achieved either of those.

Let's start with the former- gravity manipulation, as it is depicted in V, isn't a unique concept for a video game, and I don't mean that in the literal sense of being able to change the flow of gravity (although many games have done that, if only in sections). What I mean it's no different than directional manipulation. Think about it- you're playing a level and you come to a part where you have to strategically overcome an obstacle blocking your way and touching it will cause insta-death. So what do you do? You opt for some kind of strategic movement, whether it's jumping over it, leaping onto a block above, grabbing onto an adhesive surface, using a barrel to burst your way past, etc....

You guys see what I'm saying? Vertical gravity manipulation isn't radically different from what we have seen in other platformers because it's all 2D. If you throw-in horizontal manipulation, then that is something different due to the third-dimensional variable, though that is neither here nor there. What you have in V is interesting enough, and I'd be lying if I said there weren't moments of genuine creativity, but the vast majority of V's level structure comes down to simply manipulating around lethal obstacles via pure verticality. I'm not saying it doesn't take skill and I'm not saying it isn't well-crafted- what I am saying is that, in comparison to other platformers that often add special elements to change up the gameplay, V lacks much. The closest are these white chains in some areas that make you auto-bounce when you hit them, but that's the gist of it. Overall, I can't say many of the stages are memorable, and those that are were more so because they reminded me of things I had seen in other games (i.e., one level features a row of spike slowly rising, bringing to mind Toxic Tower from DKC2).

Graphically, I'll be honest, V looks cheap. While I've always said unique styles are > polygon photorealism, V is too minimalist even by arthouse standards. Character models are crude humanoid outlines with a single color and only two facial expressions- I couldn't tell if these were supposed to be humans or aliens. While there are a myriad of multicolored platforms boasting varied patterns, a lot of it feels like a worse copy/paste version of something you'd find in a Mario Maker level. Even backgrounds are very sparse, ranging from simple shapes to outright blackness.

That being said, if there's one thing I can universally praise about the graphics, it's Terry Cavanagh's use of color. V brought to mind images of No Man's Sky, which took a similar chromatic approach to space frontiers. Every level is visually distinct, and there are some cool effects Cavanagh plays with from time-to-time, like warps and flashes.

Sound is the worst aspect of the game by far. There's no voice acting, only text blocks, so I'll begin with the SFX. What's there is very sparse: there's no running, collision, or terminal velocity dins, only checkpoint hitting, flipping, and dying. The flipping sounds like a DJ scratching a record while the dying literally resembles a handicapped Jigglypuff- the former is tolerable, but the latter is very irritable, made all the more aggravating by the fact that you will die a lot in this game. Finally, with regards to the music, it's too much of a throwback for my liking. See, V's OST is a deliberate emulation of the tunes that accompanied 8-bit consoles. And I get that nostalgia is a powerful drug, but does anyone genuinely think those tracks sounded good? I'm not talking about the actual compositions- those are iconic and will forever be remembered as pioneering, quality music. I mean the actual warbulation of the sound chip- it was very whiny and often stretched the boundaries to the point of being earsplitting. This is an objective observation (err, audition), and I wonder why more people don't acknowledge it. You can still like the Zelda and Mario Bros. themes while admitting they deserved a better musical outlet. So yeah, V's melodies are technically solid, decently memorable (particularly when they go for a more cyberpunky sound), and switch well between stages, but the deliberate 80s-style regression got too much for my ears.

Is the game fun? Well, the story is very minimal, involving a ship Captain who must find his other crew members when an interdimensional incident separates them all, so you have to rely purely on the gameplay for fun factor. You can probably guess from my previous ranting that the answer is no. I might have been fine with V had it been structured like a Mario Bros. game with stage-after-stage, but no, we get yet another victim of the free roam craze wherein you have an "open world" that is a pain to explore. In V, you're moving screen-by-screen, and the top/bottom, right/left screens connect, meaning you never feel like you're progressing anywhere despite the presence of a map that fills in the fog of war. You're going to have to traverse this world to find the six crew members, and believe you me it gets annoying to do so given the numerous dead ends you run into. It's the most pointless open world I've seen in a video game since Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and I'm 90% sure the only reason it was implemented was to artificially draw out the game's length via 20 collectible orbs (most of which are easy to get, though none are worth your time).

On the topic of difficulty, reviewers have commented that the game is notoriously difficult, and the high death rate most players will get does statistically supplement that. But outside of some parts (particularly as they relate to the orbs), it doesn't feel that way. It's less that it's difficult and more that the inherent gamer nature of wanting to blitz past combined with very forgiving checkpoints means you're more prone to making mistakes (short respawn times inherently justify playing less cautiously). There are some controller-throwing parts, but nothing mandatory that can't be overcome.

Overall though, I can't recommend V. It took me 2.8 hours to beat, which would hit the $1 : 30 minute ratio that I generally require. However, a good fraction of that time was trying to collect an orb that I promptly gave up on. Even if I ignore that, when a large part of a platformer is spent exploring a pointless world instead of doing levels (of which there are only 6), that tells me it's been artificially-lengthened. Add to this lesser quality graphics and sound, and you have a title that I personally can't recommend.

All things considered, I acknowledge I'm in the minority and always say support indie developers if you are able.

Not since Virginia have I felt that I was wasting my time playing a video game from the very beginning as I did with A Bird Story. This title has been marketed as a major miniature release in the To the Moon franchise, acting as a transitionary point between the first and second entries. And yet, if I hadn’t been told that, there is no way that I would have known. A Bird Story isn’t quite a misfire, but nor is it experimental: it’s another substandard, overly-cinematic excuse for a video game that should be looked upon as an example of what NOT to do in indie game design.

You’re supposedly given the ability to move around like in TTM, but I’d say the game only unlocks that about 50% of the time. The other 50% you’re forced to watch mini-cutscenes of an abysmal narrative that I’ll tear into in a little bit.

99 percent of this movement is just basic UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT, though that 1% comes up in the form of gimmicks that are too short-lived to be impactful. TTM didn’t have much in the way of gameplay either, but at least the story was intriguing, and exploration was encouraged. That latter part isn’t available here because you’re essentially on rails: trying to go off the straightforward path will land you against a brick wall, forcing you to backtrack and go back the way the game wants you go.

Aesthetically, A Bird Story is a mixed bag. It reuses a lot of the assets from TTM and the RPG Maker engine, but TTM was a beautiful game, and so that was far from being a bad tactic. Unfortunately, the limited environs here (a schoolground, apartment complex, and forested area) are laced with copy/pasted models (same-sized shadow figures, same-exact trees, same-exact lamps) ad nauseam. The biggest problem, though, is this weird filter that is placed over most of the game: it’s like halfway between sepia and bleach bypass. I’m guessing it was Freebird’s attempt at conceiving a unique “old-timey” feel to their storyline, but I didn’t think it fit personally due to the timeline being relatively modern.

Another graphical issue is the poor depiction of verticality. This is an inherent issue with 2D sprite games, and TTM suffered from it occasionally as well. But here, I felt that the problem was a lot more prevalent in the three places, with barriers not being distinguishable enough from regular pathways. That being said, one thing A Bird Story does remarkably effectively is combine the three places in fused sets that occur as a result of memories/dates getting combined in-story; you’ll see the schoolgrounds leading into forests, apartment doors opening into rainy exteriors, and so forth. Freebird also continues to demonstrate their ability to create unique facial expressions out of small sprite countenances, (though the smiling closed/curved eyelines was overused).

Sadly, I do have to end on a bitter note in this department, and that is regarding the constant use of white and black flashes. I get that this was done to depict time-skips and fast-forwards, but I couldn’t help but feel that, half the time, it was also done because the devs didn’t want to commit a huge budget to the project and so wanted to avoid animating sequences. But I fully concede that that is pure conjecture on my part. Either way, they were overused. Shortcuts were also taken like the lack of shadowmapping and no splashes (characters, in general, look like they’re floating on the land).

I was not a fan of the score. Gao did it himself again, yet the first half of the game incorporates these weird warble experimentations that distract rather than contribute to the scenes playing before you (the use of muted instruments, for example, or French Horns that hit notes so high they near-burst speakers). The second half is more restrained and standard, and yet that’s a bad thing because it both doesn’t stand out AND doesn’t contribute to the images at large. Flying around in your paper airplane, for example, should’ve elicited the same awe as John William’s track in ET during the bike scene.

The SFX is also barren. The exact same chirp is rehashed for your avian companion, and other things like footsteps and ambient noises are nonexistent. No dialogue means no voice acting (not that TTM had any, a big fault on its part).

Finally, we arrive at the story, and it’s such a misfire. You remember that episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody where Cody adopts a baby eagle? Imagine that turned completely serious and stretched out for an entire hour+ and you have A Bird Story. It’s actually worse than that: take that premise and combine it with a cliché tale of a loser kid with estranged parents becoming extroverted via a newfound friendship and you have A Bird Story.

Forgive me, but at this point I’m just tired of this archetypal narrative. We’ve seen it done with humans and animals alike a bazillion times, and Freebird doesn’t do anything different here. Thankfully, it doesn’t go into tearjerker territory, however there are blatant attempts at being heart-tugging and I just found it annoying. It’s quite possible to tell a moving story about a relationship using just imagery and music (Up and BvS’s openings are prime standards of this), but Freebird botched things here by over-relying on hackneyed tropes and story beats. The magical realism aspects aren’t bad, but it doesn’t amount to anything substantial or memorable courtesy of the aforestated weak OST and gameplay. Alongside, there are these odd momentary throwbacks to classic games/shows (Zelda, Spongebob, Mario, Scooby-Doo), and the comedic tones associated with them feel out-of-place with the drama elsewhere.

So yeah, it goes without saying that I wasn’t a fan of A Bird Story. Every single facet of it bore a noticeable problem, with its core narrative, in particular, being flawed. I have to play Finding Paradise to see just how integral it is to understanding that game, but I have a good feeling that it won’t be. It took me a little over an hour to beat the game, making the $4.00 asking price too much. Regardless, even if it was one dollar, the fact that I felt a one-hour game dragged says enough.

It probably helped that I had just seen Memento prior to playing To the Moon. The idea of using reverse-time travel to explore a person's memories is an interesting concept, though perhaps not entirely accurate to the game. What we have instead of time travel is memory travel, done through some sci-fi tech with logic so inane I could waste time poking holes in it.

But To the Moon isn't about the specifics, at least not until an ill-fated third act springs up, but more on that later. No, for most of its run, To the Moon treats its premise as something commonplace, using it to spring forward a melodramatic tale of two scientists working to change a dying man's memories so that he can fulfill his wish of going to the moon.

During this initial exploration, To the Moon succeeds largely on the strength of its script. As the scientists Eva and Neil progress deeper and deeper into the psyche of the dying Johnny Wyles, pieces of a heartbreaking story involving love and loss are slowly unveiled to the players. Fans of the movie Blue Valentine may delight in seeing a similar realistic take on a contemporary romantic relationship, this one focusing on Wyles and his late wife River. Many questions and mysteries arise during this journey that players will have to uncover the truth to, including why River was obsessed with making paper bunny rabbits, why she carries a platypus plushie around, and of course why Johnny himself wants to fulfill the eponymous title.

I mentioned a flawed third act earlier, and it is definitely a disappointing addition that almost killed the game's narrative for me. One of the problems with To the Moon, insofar as it relates to gaming, is that it does not contain much actual gameplay. Sure you control the character's movements, but the only real gameplay in it is a Concentration-inspired minigame that you have to do to progress to the next memory stage. Some will see this as disappointing, but as a fan of so-called "walking simulators" like Gone Home, I personally had no problem with it.

Unfortunately, in the third act someone at Freebird Games evidently thought they needed to throw something in there to make To the Moon more like a conventional video game, thus leading to one of the worst third acts I have ever experienced. Not only does the gameplay consist of mediocre ripoffs of Metroidvania shooters, but it also kills the pacing and story. One of the characters (Eva) betrays everything they've been portrayed as up to that point, and the worst part is none of it makes sense when you think about it. If you recall earlier in my review, I pointed out how if you were to logically think about the technological backstory of the game, it would fall apart, thus making it a smart decision that the writer avoid delving into it. In the 3rd act, it is brought to the forefront of the game, forcing me to analyze it and find just how illogical the whole drama is.

Another issue I had is why is Autism treated as something taboo to the point that they have to hide it? If the game takes place in the far future, surely this is a condition that can be openly talked about? Hell, even when the game came out in 2011 Autism was openly discussed. And I say the far future due to the characters using groundbreaking technology and treating Animorphs as a thing of a long lost childhood.

I understand the low budget the team was working with, but one inherent problem with To the Moon is that, by using 16-bit graphics, character emotions are not convincingly conveyed. Voice acting could very well have made up for this, but even that is missing. That being said, I would be lying if I said the artists didn’t make the most of things- no detail is spared, whether it’s interiors or even seemingly-generic exteriors like the woods. And I was genuinely surprised by how many facial expressions they were able to convey with the sprite models.

Much has been made about the music score, and it is definitely solid, though I personally think a few more tracks could’ve been fitted in.


Sigmund Minisode 1- I played the two minisodes long after I had completed the main game, so I fully expected to be partially lost in doing them. And yet, color me surprised when I found the story and characters coming back to me without hard exposition by the writers. It’s a testament to the strength of the original’s narrative, and I was appreciative that they worked with subtle nods and references over blatant explanations.

The bulk of the gameplay here involves an old-school, Pac-Man-esque adventure game created by Neil, and it’s honestly well-done. It reminded me a lot of the Fire & Sword minigame in Observer, and is proof that Freebird could venture into other computer game genres if they choose.

The story, as a whole, serves as a nice epilogue to To the Moon, addressing some of the more ethical questions with the mnemonic premise, as well as the internal feelings/thoughts of the characters themselves about everything, that weren’t addressed in the main game.

That being said, here the art design somewhat faltered- you get to explore the interior of the Sigmund company building, and yet there isn’t much personalization between all the different offices and lobby- it’s pretty standard corporate greyscale. Alongside this, the music is completely rehashed, albeit in a different key.

Lasts about 1 hour.


Sigmund Minisode 2 is not tied to the previous two and serves more as a lead-up to A Bird Story. It sets-up some interesting, mysterious things that will undoubtedly be resolved/answered in the sequel, though the build-up/cliffhanger might be seen as annoying to anyone who wanted another standalone follow-up to To the Moon ala the first Minisode.

Because it’s only 30-45 minutes long, I can’t talk too much about the story without spoiling things, but it involves everyone trying to leave work to celebrate Christmas. There are more character moments here, and though Neil comes off as annoying more often than not, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the overall product enjoyable.

NOTE- I experienced massive lag whenever dialogue bubbles popped up during the two minisodes. Watching them on YouTube reveals this to be a personal problem, though I assure you my computer is more than capable of running To the Moon, making me wonder what the issue is.

So, on its own To the Moon only gives 4 hours worth of playtime. However, when you combine it with the two Minisodes, it took me 5 hours to beat, which makes it just worth purchasing per my $1 : 30 minutes ratio. While I do have significant problems with the third act of the main game, as well as the lack of voice acting, the overall product tells a solid enough story to make it worth playing.

Recommended, but only if you can get it on a sale

A Story About My Uncle feels less like an IP than said IP's DLC, and no, that’s not a shot at its length (although it does falter there in relation to price). What I'm actually referring to is the way the story and world come together; it's more akin to a product that expects baseline knowledge of its gameplay mechanics as you’re put through a series of trials and tribulations without much guidance.

Ah, I suppose that doesn’t do much in terms of clearing up what I mean. Let me try this again- ASAMU is a short adventure centered around a system of parkour and grappling. And because you’re not doing anything uniquely different throughout the title aside from that (compared to a bigger game which would introduce variations throughout), it's spiritually reminiscent of DLC due to narrative add-ons doing just that: creating a separate environment, introducing a new gimmick, and then setting the player off on a quick errand.

Is this a criticism? Yes and no. ASAMU could have done a lot more with the movement puzzles its gameplay focuses on, yet it’s saying something that I wanted more since I found it fascinating. It goes like this- you have the ability to spring, jump, super jump, leap, and grapple. You’re going to have use all of these abilities to traverse the rocky terrain that makes up most of the world. Velocity, jumps, and falls are all crisp, and there was an option by developer Gone North Games to make this purely about movement ala Sonic- that is, have the level layout revolve around darting, bounding, and grappling in a fast-paced environ. Instead, they opted to craft parkour puzzles wherein you use the aforestated powers to plan your traversal across a world with floating stones and platforms. Was this a good decision or bad? In light of their budgetary or time constraints, it was good since it allowed them to focus on one aspect rather than split up the effort, but given that ASAMU should have been longer, there's no denying an alternating schema between the two parts would've spruced things up significantly.

In general, the controls work and respond fine....minus a hitch with the grapple: it operates like the tractor beam from Star Wars in that it locks you into a directional suck once used on an object. The problem with this is you can’t turn or leap at all while you’re zapped, meaning if you target a platform at the wrong angle, there’s a 95% chance you’re going to have to restart as your character will fail to land on it and consequently fall. And yes, it gets frustrating despite the abundance of close save points (and the ability to insta-respawn). The introduction of rocket boots helps alleviate things via giving you a mid-air boost jump, but I don’t think this was intended to be a solution, rather its own feature.

There were a couple of remedies that could have been implemented to overcome this: one, give players directional control, or two, incorporate a ledge grab that causes the protagonist to pull themselves onto a surface even if they come at it at the edge.

Graphically, ASAMU looks solid. Though it kind of sucks that Gone North built it in Unreal 3 given that Unreal 4 came out the same year ASAMU was released, it still looks great for the most part – in-between the blocky roundness of the Xbox 360 and the beautiful polygons of the Xbox One. Texturing isn’t as strong as it could have been, but given that the game is consistently dim, it’s not noticeable, with the exception of NPCs. OMG did they look ugly, and not in a xenophobic way but in an uncanny way. Facial animations (really all animations in general) are particularly jarring.

Outside from your grapple's illumination, the lighting is baked, which was a wise choice. The majority of the title takes place at night and most of the environment’s luminescence comes from these in-game crystals that, if dynamic, would have made things too dark. That being said, ASAMU, as a whole, could have been brighter as it was sometimes hard to see where to go next despite the presence of glyphs indicating as such. I also liked that your character model is small, indicating you’re a child.

With sound, the score is good but not used enough. It plays during the beats that the director wanted it to play, but outside of that it’s mixed in way too quietly, even with max volume settings. The same issue applies to SFX where you get these nicely crafted acoustic accompaniments to your jumps, windfall, landings (LOVE the oomph there), and use of tools, but in general it’s soft. I also would’ve liked a lot more ambience, particularly for the cavern areas.

With voice acting, you primarily have the performance of Walter Ferrero as the narrator, who does a good job at simultaneously explaining what was going on whilst also interjecting his dialogues with other character in the story as well as conversations with his daughter outside. His daughter is also good. The other voice acting, particularly for Maddie and the titular Uncle….your mileage will vary is all I’ll say as I wasn’t a big fan of them personally, though I acknowledge they had script limitations and delivered things as they were told to.

This brings us to the story. ASAMU evidently draws on classic epic poems like the Odyssey and Beowulf, as well as frame stories like The Princess Bride. It details a tale from the narrator’s childhood wherein he ventured into an alternate microcosm in search of his missing Uncle Fred. Because the environments are relatively similar to each other, you don’t have much in the way of an adventurous feel, despite that being the intentions of the devs. It’s also not emotional in the slightest due to the lack of fleshed out characterizations and relationship developments, though I don’t think this was a big intention. That being said, the writing is good insofar as it is does a great job simultaneously narrating what’s going on storywise, providing the protagonist’s inner thoughts, explaining new discoveries/items/mechanics to players, and incorporating the aforestated dialogue, all without coming off as forced or expository. In fact, it was so good I wanted more. There are too many sections where you’ll be walking or running and not have anything but silence, and I feel this was a missed opportunity to include more from the well-done script, even if the package as a whole was lacking in scope.

Overall, I did enjoy my time with ASAMU. It’s a shame that no sequel has been made or will be made (as of the time of this writing) as I think it laid the foundation for something solid to be built off of ala Portal -> Portal 2. While the story lacks an epic or even thrilling feel, and while there were problems with the gameplay like the tractor beam, the physics engine combined with mostly-precise controls made it a fun playthrough. Hopefully this concept is picked up on again in the future.

I got around 4 hours (maybe less, my Steam clock is inaccurate since I was afk for at least 30 minutes), which does not justify the $15.00 asking price. Granted, I didn't look to get all the collectibles since I didn't think they were worth it (they do provide some goodies like new game modes and a different colored grapple beam, but that's nothing substantive). As such, I recommend getting the game on a sale.

LostWinds is an example of a game that’s mostly charm and very little substance. Okay, maybe that’s being too harsh, but when you have a concept as interesting as a platformer with wind manipulation and you squander it on cause/effect schemas that barely constitute as puzzles, you can imagine my disappointment.

Unlike other platformers, LostWinds has developed a decent mythology about its world, and while that mythos is solely used to fuel an archetypal good vs. bad conflict, it’s evident that some effort was put into it. You play as a boy named Toku who finds himself united with a spirit named Enril. Long ago, Enril helped seal away an evil demon named Balasar, but years of festering in the prison have lead to Balasar growing too powerful for containment. And with Enril’s power weakened, it’s up to Toku to help him save the world.

As I said, it’s relatively simplistic, but there were some touches I liked, namely that Toku avoids falling into the “chosen one” trope- he just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (or rather, right place at the right time since it is ultimately positive), and Enril avoids having a personality. That latter point might seem strange, but one thing I am not a big fan of in these types of fiction is the spirit partner having a wisecracking or pestering personality: think Tatl in Majora’s Mask or The Watcher in Darksiders. I’m not saying they don’t have moments, but most of the time they come off as more irate than enjoyable. Enril, by contrast, is a straightshooter who is consistently encouraging progression to Toku over moments of pointless relief.

That being said, the biggest flaw with the narrative here is how it’s all set-up. Lostwinds feels more like the first half of a game than a full-fledged title- you don’t fight Balasar at the end, nor even encounter him, nor do you even restore Enril to her full potential. If this was done because they wanted to end on a cliffhanger, then it’s lackluster; if it’s because they wanted to forcibly create a sequel, then that’s just borderline scammy.

Graphically, Lostwinds is definitely enjoyable. As a former WiiWare title, LostWinds reminded me why the Wii lacking HD was never an issue- the art styles employed by various developers more than made-up for it. Here, I was reminded a lot of the Clash of Ninja and Donkey Kong Country Returns series, which featured 3D models against 2D backdrops. Do I think Lostwinds would’ve been better off being purely 2D? I do, but the aesthetic here is pleasing: warm colors, well-proportioned models that are stylish without being flamboyant, and backdrops that are always filled with some natural or architectural vista. A lot of effort was put into creating each area and it shows. Characters are also dressed uniquely so that they stand out without standing out if that makes sense (i.e., not feeling like they belong there at all ala Oxenfree). Some cutscenes are present and depicted in a cross-stitch style that's also very beautifully rendered.

Sound is a huge huge let down. There are only 2 tracks that play throughout the game that I recall: first is this panflute melody that is your general overworld track, and the second is this drumbeat that is the battle music. Both are fine, but as they are the ONLY pieces of music to transpire on screen, they get tiring very fast. The former, in particular, has too many high notes to qualify as soothing. Also, I just couldn’t help but feel that they came off as too stereotypically Asian, though your milage will vary on that front.

Sound effects are lackluster- you have a single din for each wind action that does not differentiate depending on what object you’re using it on: weight, mass, length, duration don’t make a difference. It also lacks power- you would think a gust would carry more oomph than the gentle breeze you’re left hearing. And no voice acting outside of grunts means the category is essentially nonexistent.

Gameplay is probably the biggest letdown. Obviously, this is a title that was made with the Wiimote in-mind: you create air currents to move Toku via drawing directional lines. On PC, the controller for these has been substituted with the mouse, which in theory should give more precision but in actuality feels like it plays harder than it would’ve on the Wii. This is because the Wiimote, even with Motion Plus, were never true 1:1 compared to a mouse, and so Lostwinds lacks that input : response here. I’m not saying there’s a huge delay or anything that makes it broken, but it was noticeable and will create occasional moments of frustration that may add up depending on your mileage.

The biggest disappointment has to do with what I alluded to in the introductory paragraph, which is how minimal the gameplay is. Lostwinds’s world is divided into 24 areas, and the developers had the potential to have each of these areas brimming with secrets locked behind puzzles that would require unique power utilizations or combinations. Yet, in incorporating a Metroidvania overlay, Frontier Developments went the minimal route- almost every time you revisit a previous place, it’s to do the ONE thing that your newly acquired power is stated to do. For example, the initial slipstream is only used to transfer fire to a wooden barricade (or move an object faster) while the vortex is only used to hit a metal barrier with a fast object. That. is. it. The limitless creativity that could have come with wind manipulation is reduced to bare bones X = Y. By comparison, think about the myriad of puzzle variations that came with Batman’s gadgets in the Arkham games when tackling the Riddler challenges. I’m not saying Lostwinds had to be that sophisticated, but when I’m destroying a bramble blockade for the 20th time in the endgame, you can bet I’m disappointed.

Also hampering things is the “combat” , which should have been scrapped completely given how pitiful it is. All the enemies are these globs said to be remnants of Balasar’s magic. While there are variants on them, those changes mainly amount to their protections. Outside of the rock-covered ones, you defeat them the same way: smash them into a wall or the ground or hit them with fire from a nearby torch. It’s lame, they’re an annoyance over a genuine threat, and any damage you do sustain from them can be easily replenished via fruits that grow everywhere. Considering they respawn constantly and don’t give any reward for being defeated, you’re honestly better off avoiding them entirely when they get in your way. And when combat becomes unnecessary, that’s a sign that it’s a failed gameplay system. I would’ve much rather had more puzzles over it.

So yeah, Lostwinds wasn’t worth it. A beautiful artstyle with well-drawn backgrounds can’t overcome the barren soundscape, cliffhanger set-up, or flat-out lack of imagination in terms of the usage of abilities. And considering, even with all the collectibles, it only took me 2.5 hours to beat, its content falls well short of the $10.00 asking price.

How do I even begin talking about this game? In his review of the film "A Ghost Story", film critic Matt Zoller Seitz opened with the following proclamation:

"I rarely see a movie so original that I want to tell people to just see it without reading any reviews beforehand, including my own. David Lowery’s “A Ghost Story” is one of those movies. So I’m urging you in the first paragraph of this review to just see it and save this review for later. If you want more information, read on. There are no spoiler warnings after this because as far as I’m concerned, everything I could say about this film would constitute a spoiler."

I won't go so far as to say that "There is No Game" is as unique and rift with spoilers as that movie allegedly is solely by virtue of its content, but it is such a distinctly different title from your usual puzzle games or even self-aware titles like Pony Island. The best way I can describe it is it's a pastiche of the themes/persona of such media as The LEGO Movie, Undertale, Animator vs. Animation, and even The Fountainhead. A lot of comparisons have been made to The Stanley Parable, and though I have not played that title as of the time of writing this review, I have a feeling I would either way reject the notion. TING begins one way, but quickly transmogrifies into something different, changing forms with each chapter till it hardly resembles what it started off as.

You play as unnamed user trying to play a new indie release on the market, only to be consistently stopped by the AI overseeing the project, appropriately referred to as “Game”. What begins as a humorous back-and-forth between the two of you quickly escalates into a serious narrative wrapped with a strong helping of black humor. Things get dramatic, meta, and satirical, culminating in a climax that is as bizarre as it is entertaining to witness. That’s the most I can say without spoiling anything serious- you may think you have an idea as to who Game is, but as the story progresses and revelations are made, you’ll find your earlier assumptions to be wrong.

Graphically, TING is a genuine feat due to it being self-funded by creator Pascal Cammisotto. The way he has not only established his own unique art scheme, but successfully replicated the aesthetic of older titles like classic DOS graphic adventures and The Legend of Zelda is very commendable. He tries to go for something resembling a cartoony computer interface, yet avoids falling for a depressing grading that you would expect to be associated with a semi-rogue artificial intelligence. There are a lot of bright reds, greens, and browns that make it warm and accentuate the self-awareness.

Sound and score are good, if only adequate. Nothing stood out for me personally, but then again this isn’t a title that you will be caring about for specific dins. A lot of the music is homaging/emulating the usual OSTs you’d hear from the games being parodied, but they stand on their own and I never found it distracting.
In terms of the puzzles/general gameplay, I’m a bit more mixed. I do think the vast majority of the solutions were clever, and often incorporated a meta-facet to achieve them, but there were a number of others peppered throughout that were contrived. Regardless, there is a hint system available that will alleviate any frustrations you should have (and I don’t believe there is an achievement for beating the game w/o using a hint!).

My bigger issues are the following: one is that, I do not think it’s good satire to have a character or characters criticize an issue or trope with the gaming industry, only to then have your title require you to engage with said trope/issue. That’s not spoofing, that’s simply engaging in these acts with a different coat of paint. It’d be like if that tile puzzle from Undertale was actually mandatory to beat AFTER hearing Undine’s speech about the complicated mechanics.

Second is that you have to complete the game in chapter spurts- there’s an autosave function, but every time I tried to reload my game file, it said I would have to restart from the beginning of that section. What? What was the point in even having that icon present as an indicator?

Third is that the ending is a big disappointment. It doesn’t live up to all the shenanigans you had to go through before, and doesn’t even end on a note that will make you laugh out loud courtesy of ending a long-running gag the way Naruto’s sexy no jutsu did in the final arc of Naruto. I have a feeling that Cammisotto ran low on budget at this point and had to put something together to get the product ready for shipping. In fact, I feel budgetary limitations, in general, prevented the title from being as zany as it wanted to be ala Rick and Morty-style.

But overall, I did enjoy my time with There is No Game: Wrong Dimension (an unnecessary subtitle by all standards). I can’t say I loved it or that it held as strong an appeal to me (I did not grow up with 90s PNC releases, which is what TING primarily parodies), but it is so distinct from everything being released in the AAA and even indie markets that I can only recommend you play it for yourself.

It took me little more than 6 hours to beat (ignore the Steam record- I was AFK for at least 1.5 hours while the game ran, and since I chose to complete it in one sitting I consequently had to balance breaks/other things), and at a $12.99 cost, it is perfectly priced.

I'm not going to go too in-depth since Darksiders is a very well known/reviewed game, but what I will say is this is essentially a God of War adaptation of Judeo-Christian mythologies, albeit far more respectful than those games (the pre-reboot ones anyway). You play as the embodiment of War seeking to restore his honor after he prematurely arrived on Earth before the Seventh Seal of Hell was broken.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. It incorporates a lot of lore from the Abrahamic faiths, but dons its own take on them, keeping it all fresh, exciting, and epic. While characters are essentially archetypal, there's usually an adjacent layer to them that gives them a subtly interesting quality. War, for example, has a dry humor that comes out in many scenes, Azrael a sense of shame that gives him an honor quality, Uriel a sense of justice that makes her rise above her duties, etc...

Visually, Darksiders is definitely reminiscent of the Xbox 360 era, but that's far from a bad thing. You do have polygon modelling that is still blocky at times, but the color grading is top notch, really conveying a post-apocalyptic atmosphere to the whole world. Individual locales stand out thanks to this art style, which is adaptable to the different demands of the various ecosystems (amphibious vs desert vs lava caverns vs flora paradise). Cutscenes have surprisingly aged very well and contribute to that aforestated epic scope.

That being said, with the vanilla version I did have an inconsistent framerate that I was only able to alleviate via turning down the camera motion (didn't fix the problem, but helped make it tolerable). Unfortunately, the battle against the sandworms triggered a massive FPS drop when I pulled out the revolver, and Darksiders also crashed once on me courtesy of trying to tab out of the app to adjust the volume. But those were the only technical issues I experienced- game ran smooth otherwise, including the transition to and from cinematic cutscenes and in-game gameplay (looks consistent).

Gameplay was honestly mixed for me. Hack-and-slash button mashing is always fun, but the combo system was weak courtesy of the button combinations being awkward (having to hold a bumper down + Y/X button + direct with the joystick). Half the time my new attacks wouldn't register, and overall attacks that weren't mapped to a single button didn't flow well as part of a combo. Magic abilities could've also been better incorporated rather than making them two separate buttons that produce independent results not tied to War's attacks (the arrow wall around you for example, igniting enemies on fire).

Exploration is another mixed bag. Darksiders opts for the Metroidvania formula of returning to previous areas with new gear, but the problem is the map isn't designed well enough to find those secrets. You can't create markers, you can't even move from left-to-right between multiple areas (the "open world" is blockaded through doors that literally block visual access on the map unless you enter the place behind said door), and while you can tell if you've been to an area or not courtesy of it being lightened up, you cannot tell if you missed something back there because most of the environs don't provide a map showing all these places or keep a collectable icon visible after discovery. Darksiders also suffers from the Skyward Sword problem of most new gear being largely useless after completing the area you were meant to use it in, making me wonder why so much programming effort went into crafting tools like the portal gun or Mask of Darkness.

For all my whining though, the narrative will keep you hooked. The fallen hero is an overused storyline for a reason- it works, and hearkens back to ancient myths that Darksiders clearly draws from. The voice acting is terrific, featuring top actors like Liam O'Brien, Mark Hamill, Troy Baker, Keith Szarabajka, and Phil LaMarr, who evoke deity/supernatural vibes through their voice registry. That being said, one slight criticism here is that too many voices are on the deep end of the spectrum, meaning some character's lack distinction and blend together ala the Akatsuki in the Japanese version of Naruto.

Sound design is good, but could've been more extravagant. Enemies all die/sound the same, weapon hits are synced to material being struck over individuals (i.e. all flesh sounds the same, all stone sounds the same, all metal sounds the same). What you hear is solid, but when you're unleashing the same attacks multiple times you'll notice the repetitious din quickly. The OST does a solid job blending religious sounds with your typical video game motifs of good/bad guys, even though I did feel the latter overtook the game one too many times. I also didn't think any of the bosses had distinct themes minus the Bat in the beginning.

On that note, boss fights are pretty disappointing, particularly the final one that was being built up to. They're all tied to a repetitive gameplay loop that you'll have to repeat whilst avoiding letting your health drop low. In fact, that even extends to minibosses/tough enemies, where you often have to repeat the same tactic of attack, dodge enemy heavy swing, then attack again ad nauseam.

Part of me does wonder if the devs didn't have the budget to consistently fulfill their vision because the first area with the Bat is long, well-paced, and full of a surprising number of puzzle elements that are slowly dissipated as you go to other areas. I'm not saying it's abandoned completely as there still are a lot of puzzles to solve, but when you play the game you'll notice the simplification. The last act, in particular, is a giant fetch quest that drags and doesn't feature anything unique, despite you having all of your tools at your disposal by that point.

Overall though, I had a lot of fun with Darksiders. While I will not be 100 percenting it courtesy of the poor maps, it helps a lot that the core story (for the remastered version since vanilla isn't sold anymore) offers almost as many hours of gameplay as the $20.00 price tag.

Yes, I had to technically abandon the game because of my inability to beat the final level; however, given that the vast majority of the game was played, I feel this review is a qualified-enough critique

 
Just Cause has always been one of those franchises that prospers despite not having a particularly large or excited fan base. People buy the games because they offer popcorn entertainment at their finest- fun gameplay, explosions, sharp dialogue, banta fodder enemies, and a cool setting to indulge in.

This began with the first entry back in 2006 for the Xbox, PS2, and apparently Xbox 360. I say apparently because this is clearly a game that was intended for sixth-generation consoles. From a graphical perspective, it's aged weirdly. I was very much reminded of Spider-Man 2 when playing it, due to uneven texturing, constant pop-in, and character models that attempt to resemble realistically-proportioned people only to falter the second they begin moving. There's also an inherent rectangularness to the world, with things looking as though they're made up of malleable blocks- a sign of the awkward transition from pixels to polygons that 6th gen consoles had to deal with.

2006 was towards the end of the Xbox/PS2's life, yet it's clear that, in spite of working with the then-outdated hardware, Avalanche Studios tried their best to push out a product as good-looking as they could. Color grading is very well done here- San Esperito looks like your typical tropical paradise gone to hell, with foliage, beaches, oceans, mountains, and cityscapes blending together without feeling like distinct zones ala Pokemon Snap's Pokemon Island. As you can imagine, it primarily relies on a yellow/green/grey palette, but nothing is too bright or out-of-place, even when you're moving at high speeds. Even more impressive are the cinematic cutscenes, which look very good, as though there was some motion capture involved in their production.

Still, even by its standards, there are graphical hitches that haven't aged well. Like in Spider-Man 2, outside of those cutscenes, characters have flat faces and do not move their lips when speaking to you. The pop-in does get noticeable, and too many particles on screen will cause a temporary "edge lag" before things resume back to normal. Luckily, there were no bugs that I experienced.

To end the programming on a positive note, though, there are aspects in place here that are pretty impressive for their time (I don't have as intimate a knowledge of video games to say that Avalanche was ahead of their time). Civilian AI does react to your actions- hitting their car results in them getting out and cursing at you. Shooting at the car has them run away. Enemies sometimes try to jump out of the way, and cars will try to ram you off the road or pound you with gunfire to set your vehicle ablaze. They're not completely smart on the ground, but they do try something resembling flanking and respond to gunfire/alarms. There's also a dynamic weather system in place here for rain, as well as a dynamic day/night system. The shadow mapping is also pretty dang good.

The story exists. It deals with the CIA-esque group called "The Agency" trying to initiate a regime change in San Esperito, with the majority of that change being initiated by main operative Rico Rodriguez. There was an opportunity here to do a satirical commentary on the utter violence and mayhem the United States (and by extension western world) have caused in other countries via such imperialistic actions, but outside of some small bits like a character reading a magazine cover called "how to initiate regime change", there isn't much done here. It's not like the narrative intentionally goes out of its way to propagandize black ops-organized regime changes, but considering the lack of a morality meter and the consequent fact that you can essentially mow down law enforcement, soldiers, and civilians alike without any consequences, the game unintentionally does support such notions. Either that, or it treats the matter as a non-serious thing as an excuse to indulge in gleeful violence. Regardless, it doesn't bode well from a modern ethics perspective.

The three characters are likable enough. Rico (voiced with a pretty good Latino accent by Robin Atkin Downes) doesn't speak much, but when he does it's almost always in cool one liners that are very snappy and damn well written. Sheldon looks like Bruce Campbell and sounds ridiculous and out-of-place, but he and Maria provide decent conversations that outline your missions objectives before each main campaign level. Maria, in particular, often has nice banter with Rico given their prior work history. My biggest problem with the two, though, is that the game doesn't show them actually doing anything besides basic investigation. Why is it that Rico has to go through with all these actions by himself? Sure they're providing information and intel, but outside of the first mission, Sheldon refrains from helping, and Maria NEVER does anything besides look cool for the camera.

Music works- Just Cause is an action game, so there's only so much the score can do to stand out, but at least it doesn't feel irate or out of place. Some sound bugs occasionally occur, but they're few and far between. I would've liked more action beat tracks as I swear there were only 1-2 that played for both the main story and side missions.

Sound is notably diverse for a ps2 title. Each weapon sounds different when used, and the same goes for vehicles. Bullet impacts are the same sounding though, regardless of surface, with water getting an additional splash SFX on top of the bullet impact.

Despite my seeming praise, I can't recommend Just Cause because of two big reasons. 1) It controls very clunky. Gunplay is fun so much as you can mow down enemies point blank without risk of dying due to very poor targeting systems in place for the AI (this is both a criticism and a praise since it allows you to have a blast shooting up everyone whilst acknowledging that it shouldn't be this way)- Just Cause very blatantly wants to avoid being a cover shooter (you can't even duck or hide behind cover) so they committed to the alternative. Unfortunately, that same fun wears thin for yourself since your own targeting can get really hit-or-miss. There's also a coding error wherein you will spray a wall if you try to shoot an enemy around a corner.

Stunts, which are one of the biggest selling points the devs were evidently intent on, aren't as concise as they should be. First off, there is no animation transition for them, just hard cuts. Secondly, they don't always work and aren't as intuitive as they should be to make them fun. There's a lack of fluidity- jumping off a car onto another one doesn't always work, and initiating a paraglide from an enemy vehicle via the grappling hook doesn't give you a consistent altitude jump, meaning you'll sometimes go a little high and other times very high (and NO, it doesn't appear to vary based on the velocity of the vehicle you're hooking).

The real issue comes with the driving: it's GTA-lite. Ground vehicles glide more than they drive, and the world just isn't built for navigation, which brings me to 2) the world isn't built for navigation. Roadways are carved throughout the island, and you're forced to use them because the forestry areas are either randomly elevated to prevent you from going up them via walking or driving (going up any kind of elevation, even small ones, results in your car grinding to a halt and having to be prodded up) or full of small rocks that will either send your car toppling or catch the car, getting you stuck. It was annoying, and took a lot of the fun out of traveling the island.

There are side quests and collectibles- this game really seems to have had a big influence on later Ubisoft games since the quests and collectibles are generic. I will say there is unique dialogue to most of the side missions, and raising your prestige amongst different factions yields you rewards like new bases, weapons, and vehicles, so they are worth doing. But going from place-to-place just lacks fun due to the aforestated aspects. Also, the quick travel system is very slow (Rico calls a plane, then waits for it to pick him up, then has to paraglide down from the nexus it drops him at).

Contrary to popular opinion, I didn't find the autosave/checkpoint system to be has unforgiving as people made it out to be. Some places yes (particularly the very last mission), but it's not bad. The story missions, in particular, are very diverse from each other and never get repetitive.

But you guys have to understand that, because Just Cause is an open-world game, it has to be enjoyable to go through. And when you have controls don't work as well as they should and movement that is wonky, it gets tiring to play. For me, I had to force myself to complete the game as I wasn't having fun with it. What's worse is that, despite coming out on two Xbox consoles, you aren't able to use an Xbox controller with it, which makes no sense as the keyboard controls aren't the best (strange too that you have to use the arrow keys to navigate the menu over WASD).

Also, really hated how cops would instantly go after you if you drove after them. Helicopters are also really annoying, with you not being given a clear-cut way to take them out since bullets apparently don't affect them ala Call of Duty. You have to either be lucky that you have a truck with a mounted gun or an RPG-type weapon in your arsenal, otherwise you'll be constantly sprayed with bullets and (if you're in a vehicle) rockets, though thankfully the targeting system for the former is bad enough to make it relatively easy to avoid.

I'll also confess that I did not actually beat the game- I found the last level of Just Cause to be too hard and unforgiving. You have to take a boat to an island that is immediately surrounded by choppers pounding everything with rockets and explosives. Your speedboat can frequently get one-shotted, and the constant fire from everyone (enemies, choppers, mounted guns) makes it a pain in the ass to get to the first checkpoint. When you're not having fun with a game, that's when you know it's time to call it quits.

But yeah, if you can get past the controls and somehow overlook the navigation, Just Cause provides a fun island and campaign for you to explore and indulge your violent tendencies. There's no consequences for what you to do, decent rewards in place for side content, and diversity in the main campaign to make it a good time (if you can get past the last level!). Sometimes the gunplay makes it too easy to take out enemies, but there's no denying that it's entertaining.

Originally published on Flickering Myth: https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/12/video-game-review-alba-a-wildlife-adventure/



There’s something about animal photography that strongly stirs me. Perhaps it’s because I grew up reading nature catalogues, flipping through page after page of colorful creatures beautifully captured by some talented photographer. Ads for Zoo Books enchanted me, EyeWitness encyclopedias were checked out from the library, and every other week I found myself playing NabiscoWorld’s two “video safari” games (anyone else remember that amazing site?). Any chance I could get to see visceral images of fauna in their habitats I immediately took.

It should come as no surprise, then, that I was instantly enthralled by the concept behind Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. Developed and published by ustwo games, Alba sets you on an island of 61 animals and tasks you with helping save their home. Yet, in going the open-world route, I feel the game makers ultimately lose the charm they are trying to maintain. That’s the short answer, for the longer one read on.

We’ll begin with the story- you play as a young girl named Alba who is spending a summer vacation with her grandparents on the Mediterranean island of Pinar del Mar. Prior to the events of the game, a fire broke out and ruined the isle’s signature nature reserve, leaving its fate up to the mayor. While the majority of the townsfolk evidently want the preserve restored, sociopolitical dealings have convinced the Mayor to replace it with a luxury hotel. Teaming up with her friend Inés, Alba sets out to reclaim the once proud sanctuary.

As you might imagine, there is a strong environmentalist message behind Alba’s main narrative- conservation of the biosphere, respecting the livelihoods of other living beings, and stopping unnecessary industrialization on elemental grounds. What I really appreciated about Alba’s take on these familiar themes is that it never veered into preachy territory. There are a number of citizens, including the protagonist’s Grandfather, who make a reasonable case for the proposed grand lodging: tourism is drying up, businesses are closing, and it’s been over a year since the refuge was destroyed with no one bothering to do anything. The game also chastises ideas about the conflagration being deliberately set as nonsensical conspiracy theories. By being rounder in its approach, Alba ends up looking more thoughtful.

That’s not to say it’s perfect. The man behind the hotel’s conception, a guy named Sérgio, is your typical mustache-twirling greedy real estate tycoon, and the controversy surrounding the Mayor’s decision to support Sérgio comes down to cliché political machinations. But for an independent title that is evidently catering to children, Alba stands out in a genre that, all too often, speaks down to its audience.

The titular character herself is mostly silent until the very end, so there’s not much to say there. Besides loving animals and boasting a cap that looks eerily reminiscent of Ash’s from the first few seasons of Pokémon, she’s pretty much a blank slate. Unfortunately, I can’t say the others fared much better- the Island is home to an assortment of generic individuals, and while some were memorable from a kooky POV, no one besides Alba’s aforestated granddad were fleshed out. NPCs here tend to be one-note, defined solely by a singular personality rather than their conscientiousness or sapience.

When it comes to open world games without a centralized cast, this tends to be the case, so it wasn’t disappointing to see the writers falter overall. What was disappointing were the sprinkles of potential that were never expanded upon: the local veterinarian is revealed to be a secret graffiti artist- is this a satirical commentary on the artistic constraints of small town suburbia or just a silly plot twist? A little boy rapidly alternates between states of anger and quietness- is this a take on bipolar disorder/childhood regression or simply a gimmicky emotion to exploit for dialogue variation? A resident’s husband is shown to be constantly exhausted by the work he has to put into his acreage despite the support of his wife- do we take this as a jab at gender roles or simply a farmer’s dilemma? An ice cream maker requests you help out one of her friends who has become depressed for some reason- is this an attempt at showing how children can comfort people deal with mental illness or just a random side activity?

You will never know the answer to any of these because they are self-contained without any kind of follow-up. There will be those who criticize me for critiquing this, saying that the game isn’t a Shakespeare play and doesn’t need lines of monologue dedicated to expanding minor characters. I agree, but that’s not what I’m saying- what I’m saying is that these narrative aspects exist in Alba’s game world but don’t serve any purpose- they don’t expand on an NPC’s disposition, they don’t add lore to ustwo’s fictional setting. At best they make bland parts semi-memorable by way of a quirk, but that’s faint praise at best and wasted potential at worst.

If I can end on a positive note, it’s that Alba beautifully embraces its Hispanic and Latino roots. This is a game set somewhere evidently adjacent to Latin America, and the incorporation of those fundamentals into its reality, whether it’s the food, music, or occasional bits of Spanish in the script, were delightful, and showcase how to introduce new cultures without it feeling forced.

Graphics are up next, and the results are mixed. To put it bluntly, Alba is a very plain-looking game. It utilizes an art style that deemphasizes the need for texturing: objects in the environ, ranging from flora to architecture, appear like they’ve been filled in by the fill tool from MS paint- there’s no patterns, no fine details, no differentiation in material usage. It’s clear this was a deliberate decision, yet it’s also clear that this was done for budgetary reasons. The bright hues do make everything palatable aesthetically, and there are times where it does evoke an old-school children’s picture book. However, at the end of the day, I couldn’t help but feel that there was something lacking in the overall presentation. I hate using luddite language, yet “simple” is the first word that pops up into my head. Nearly all the elements are rendered with a single color, and the majority of the shapes and sizes are atypical of what you’d expect from a 90s educational video game.

In addition to this, Pinar del Mar does not display its heritage well. I complimented the Latino influence on the writing earlier, but in terms of visuals, it is almost non-existent here. This could have been a place in any other western country and you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference (outside of some flat rooftops maybe resembling Havana).

That being said, there are a couple of major savings graces in the graphical department. The first are the animals- they look amazing. As I said above, there are 61 different species, and while most of them are birds, that didn’t stop the artisans from crafting unique models for each of them. You can view close-ups in your biota atlas, but even out in the wild they are stunning, especially upon closer inspection with your lens. In addition to this (and the second commendable artistic feat), you have excellent shadow mapping on nearly everything and everyone: man, creatures, plants, etc…are all joined with a silhouette twin that moves and shivers alongside its identical. Which is great because the AI for the animals is specifically programmed to mimic real-life motions: a bird will hop a few steps before fluttering away if you try to approach it; cats and dogs will run up and around you should you enter their sensorial vicinity, and a fox will retreat into its den should you attempt to get it. The sole exception to the otherwise superb umbras are some miscellaneous aspects in the city, like cloths lines, which feel pre-rendered and pre-inserted.

With regards to the people, though, I’m afraid they will take some getting used to. Whenever Alba spoke to one, I was reminded of the animation from the Clifford the Big Red Dog TV series from back in the day, albeit applied to a 3D format….only for me to then realize that there was a reason Fairly Odd Parents looked jarring in 3D during the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour crossovers- some things just don’t translate well.

Alba is far from that level of grotesqueness, but the negative connotations are present nonetheless. Facial expressions are conveyed properly, yet those beady black eyes seem disconcerting. The folks around you look humanoid, but there’s something off about their perfect contours and blocky bodies. At the end of the day, this will all be subjective, but for this reviewer it veered a little on the uncanny valley side.

Sound is next. As there is no real voice acting beyond some generalized groans, we will begin with the SFX, which is phenomenal. Alba more than makes up for those small GFX flaws I pointed out above with an excellent SFX schematic, and yes, the bulk of that credit goes to the noises generated by the various beasts and critters you’ll encounter. Every single one of them, let me repeat, every single one of them has 2-5 exclusive cries that some talented audio designer invested time into producing, and Alba luckily gives you the option to listen to them via your field guide. These are not slightly different warbles from one passerine to another; they are completely different modulations that I would not be surprised reflected their real-life counterparts. This is particularly helpful when you begin looking for specific species who are concealed sightwise, but visible aurally (though that part leads to a problem that will be talked about in the gameplay section).

Other signature sound traits, like the flapping of wings, stomping of footsteps on different surfaces, and crashing of waves, don’t quite have that same dedication put to them- I noticed a lot of synchronization issues wherein it would take a second or two for the sound change to completely register. But these are ultimately minor and don’t break the immersion.

Lastly in this trifecta, we have the score, credited to a composer named Lorena Alvarez. Interestingly enough, Alba doesn’t really rely on music. For most of my playthrough, I don’t recall hearing any distinct compositions in the background: the only times they were noticeable were during the opening of each new day, and pivotal story beats. That’s not a dock on Alvarez’s work as what I did hear was lovely. Like I mentioned before, there is a Latino culture present in the game, and the music reflects that through its choice of instruments and inherently lowkey approach. It may not stand-out, but I blame that more on the mixers as it appears to have been a deliberate decision.

Now, we come to gameplay. Alba is built on free-roaming around an open world, helping out villagers, doing side activities, and, yes, taking pictures. The game is a bit more modernized in the latter category as Alba utilizes a touchscreen smartphone to conduct her photography, though, from a technical standpoint, it still serves the same purpose as a Polaroid (who remembers those babies?).

I wish I could say that running around this tropical paradise snapping up images is good fun, but there are significant problems with the systems in place here that limit its scope, and the best way to convey the extent of those problems it to draw comparisons to Pokémon Snap– another title that was similar in concept. In Alba, there is no quality meter to your camerawork: as long as an animal is close enough and centered, you can successfully upload it to the database. Doesn’t matter if the image is blurry, obscured, or smeared, if it fits the above requisites, it will be good. This ends up significantly watering-down an already watered-down concept, and feels condescending to its target audience; was there a belief that kids could not handle more complex gameplay? In Pokémon Snap you had to make an effort to get a good shot of whatever pocket monster you were documenting. Points were awarded based on attributes like pose, size, technique, as well as bonus factors such as whether there were multiple subjects in the frame or something extraordinary was happening. Failure to adhere to higher standards would result in Professor Oak either docking points or outright dismissing a submission.

It wasn’t foolproof by any means- sometimes you would get marked down for arbitrary reasons. However, it still represented an intriguing endeavor that Alba severely lacks. All photos you snag are automatically rendered as perfect stills, and this hurts the game in a few ways: one, it motivates players to not actually pay attention to roaming wildlife, making the efforts of the AI programmers null and void; two, it makes the gameplay about guerilla snapping over genuine photography, and three, it ironically has the thematic effect of encouraging kids to constantly look at the outside world through their phone over their own eyes- after all, if all you need is a quick glimpse to snap a full-body shot, why bother trying to find the animal optically when a hazy lens will suffice?

Not helping this is the atoll itself. Pokémon Snap was also set on an island, but it was divided into compartmentalized levels that were beautifully crafted, allowing the designers to flesh out specialized homes for their inhabitants. The isle in Alba is wide and spacious from the get-go, allowing you to explore almost every part of it immediately over waiting for things to open up like so many other nonlinear games, but the catch is that most of it is empty space: space that extends upwards to the stars and outwards to the sea. What this means is that it can be a pain to find all the animals in your directory because a number of them will take advantage of this expanse to evade your reach: flying skyward, hopping into the mountains, or crawling along the shoreline. To be fair, filling your index isn’t required to beat the game (and I admittedly was unable to get two of the species), but for a title predicated on wildlife photography, the world should have been built to make it easier to find said wildlife.

Side content is thrown in, and it’s pretty non-memorable. Most of it comes down to cleaning-up Pinar del Mar, meaning you will be doing Chibi-Robo!-esque activities like picking up trash, putting away laundry, and fixing broken items. Advancing through the story leads to Alba gaining tools that allow to her to complete more tasks, like healing animals and building constructs, as well as enabling her to create alternate routes between areas. Very very occasionally you’ll get something in the way of “side quests” like the aforestated ice cream girl request, however it’s few and far between.

Alba, to its credit, never feels monotonous (perhaps because it’s so charming), but there’s no denying that there is a severe lack of interesting things to do in its open world. I honestly think the game would’ve been better off following the first Witcher’s model: have each day be a chapter dedicated to a specific part of Pinar del Mar. It would have allowed more details to be implemented, as well as made it easier to input a greater diversity of external activities.

But we can’t rate a game by what it could have been, only what it is. Even there, though, Alba could have resolved all of the above issues with a simple solution- implement an RPG experience metric. Make pictures have an appraisal measurement based on their virtuosity- the better the image, the more cash Alba gets that she can then use to purchase new filmic equipment or new textiles if you want to stick to pure esthetics. Have completing extra projects and jobs garner recognition that will allow Alba to progress more easily through the town, via giving her equipment, tools, or even vehicles (a bike of some sort would’ve been nice). If that would have been too much to do, then make it a mere reward system compensating her with goodies from the citizenry ala some kind of stamp or medallion.

The basis for these changes already exists in two ways- during the main story, you have to complete all these ventures in order to get signatures for your petition, and aiding animals leads to you receiving hearts that don’t do anything. If ustwo had thrown in some prize along the John Hancocks or even just given those hearts a tangible aspect, then the side content might have been more palatable. Alas, that isn’t the case.

All that aside, I will say that the HUD is ergonomic, the phone controls swell, and swapping between different things is relatively swift (infrequent FPS drops aside). Alba is also well-optimized, with me never encountering bugs, glitches, screen tears, or any other error. However, shortcuts were taken in the base coding, notably when it comes to Alba’s movement. Using the mouse to direct her looks fine, but try and change directions with just the arrow keys and you’ll see her practically teleport to the cardinal point: there’s no transition animation showing her turn. This extends to climbing up on surfaces: stairs are fair, but skip onto a rock or bench and it’s like she gained Sasuke’s super speed from Naruto.

So overall, what do you get with Alba: A Wildlife Adventure? You get an indie title that doesn’t quite live up to its grand name. A fabulous assortment of animals were handcrafted to look and sound distinct from one another, but that same effort was not quite extended to the rest of the island. Pinar del Mar itself is pretty enough to look at, but upon closer inspection you will notice timesavers were utilized in development to avoid adding external grain onto anything. The concept of walking around a balmy holm to spot fauna seems pleasant until you come to the realization that, without a faster method of traveling or intriguing labors to do, there isn’t much to hold you. And while the story is surprisingly deep and even-handed in its approach to bioecology and environmentalism, it isn’t strong enough to outweigh these other flaws.

I want to be clear that this was a very relaxing video game to play, and ustwo did give it a lot of magic. At a $17.00 asking price, though, I only got 6 hours worth of game time, and that was attempting to 100 percent it. I don’t know if everyone will want to do that, but even if they do, it falls below my $1:00 to 30 minutes ratio. Still, I always say support indie companies if you can.

Pros:
+ Biodiversity design
+ Well-balanced story/Latino influence
+ SFX
+ Calming atmosphere

Cons:
– Superfluous open world
– Repetitious side activities
– Simple art style
– Unsatisfying gameplay

Review originally published on Flickering Myth: https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/04/video-game-review-ramiwo/

Playing Ramiwo, I was unfortunately reminded of another indie title called Virginia. Like Ramiwo, it marketed itself as a walking simulator with a deep narrative, but the end result was more akin to an overly-ambitious animated film that ultimately failed thematically and artistically.

Developed by Matto and Bil Deerberg (I am unaware if the latter is also the name of his company) and published by Deerberg himself, Ramiwo offers slightly more gameplay freedom than Virginia (and certainly angered me a whole lot less), but the fact that I was so blatantly made aware of the latter isn’t a good sign. Ramiwo advertises itself as being an exploration game providing “sweetmeat” for one’s brain, but you’ll find that both aspects are significantly limited, consequently making the game a hard sell. That’s the short answer- if you want the longer one read on.

Beginning with the story, I can quickly say that there isn’t one. You play as a floating cube that has no characteristics to it. Maybe Deerberg intended for there to be a subtler tale told by the background sounds and imagery in front of you, but if there was I couldn’t discern it.

That imagery makes-up the many settings. Ramiwo is an interesting game in that it takes place on a cube-shaped planet divided into 96 different worlds (16 on each side, 6 sides total). I say interesting because the idea of traveling through differing environments to get to an end-goal is the perfect excuse to engage in a visual orgy, and Deerberg does exactly that. While each face of the “dice” features a specific motif for the mini areas to follow (industrial, jungle, water, etc…), the regions themselves are uniquely crafted on an individual basis. You’ll see awkward geometry resembling the labyrinthine descriptions in a Lovecraft novel; matter and masses moving in crazily, yet distinctly controlled, manners; wetlands rife with strange plants and totems, and urbicidal scapes taken from some post-apocalyptic future amongst many others. In particular, I liked the luminescent tints some places had based on the way that particular land’s sun shined (ranging from common yellow to even purple!).

Deerberg’s imagination is on point, and made me wonder if he was influenced at all by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, which was about a series of different burghal environments as described by an objective viewer.

Unfortunately, all that creativity is hampered by the bizarre art style in front of you. It’s as though Deerberg was going for photorealistic graphics, realized halfway through he wouldn’t have the money to fully render his vision, quickly downgraded it to try and resemble Minecraft, only to realize he didn’t have the budget for THAT either, and then started changing it back to his original intent only to give up halfway through. What I mean by that is, while environmental pieces don’t look cartoony, they lack good texturing, making them resemble the out-of-place polygon models from the PS2 era. If it was always his wish be abstract, I just don’t see the effort because every solid in Ramiwo strikes me as though it was taken from some pre-designed model in an old game engine and haphazardly put into the game without much craftsmanship.

Making things worse are a couple of graphical hitches. First, I noticed some texture pop-in during times when I would walk through one place or another. Secondly, and most unforgivably, is that the game isn’t optimized well. Every minute or even half-minute the screen will go white or grey for a few seconds before returning back to normal. It got really bothersome, especially for a title that rests its appeal on the visuals in front of you.

Sound is another disappointing category. There is no voice acting, and the music is literally just a single stringed instrument playing some solo piece on repeat. Occasionally it’s altered by the respective world you’re in, but, for the most part, it stays constant. It is peaceful sounding (which is the perfect accompaniment to a walking sim), and the musician behind it is clearly talented, but considering how wacky some of these locales could be, I felt the lack of diverse melodies was a missed opportunity.

The worst part is the SFX. I don’t know what Deerberg’s aim was here, but if it was to be insipidly surreal he nailed it. You’ll hear a variety of the most random noises you can possibly think of, including: pencil scratching, saw cutting, bubble spattering, weird buzzing, and even a baby cooing amongst a plethora of others. Sometimes they make sense by fitting the terrain you’re in, like the sound of a waterfall when near a body of moving water or a pig snorting when you’re on a farm, but for the most part it’s so desultory, as though it was thrown in at the last minute.

The game design itself has flaws too. As a walking simulator, the point of Ramiwo should be to successfully drift through all the adjacent worlds, with said worlds being fun to explore- if you’re going to limit someone’s gameplay to just wandering around a free roam map, you have to give them the ability to do so without (unreasonable) restraint. Given the concept of almost 100 planes to visit, you’d think Ramiwo would fit the bill.

Each place you enter has four entry points that connect it with the other squares in its vicinity, these “portals” (if you will) marked by graffiti etchings that aesthetically resemble the drawings from Antichamber (on a side note, a stenciled art style would have been perfect for this title). The problem is the space you’re given to amble between these entryways is so small, you’re really not able to appreciate the geography. Want to take a closer look at that monolith in front of you? How about those polychromatic flora on the other side? Nope, take one step too far and you’re teleported to another venue. And considering you’re not given a visible boundary line indicating the warp zone of these beaming glyphs, you’ll find this will happen to you very frequently. Why Deerberg didn’t think to expand the area for player examination when he put a lot of time into conceiving these intricate, colorful designs makes no sense (unless he didn’t want gamers to notice the poor texturing most of these surfaces have).

So ultimately, Ramiwo was a big missed opportunity. Deerberg could’ve given us an arthouse version of a Rick and Morty episode- a relaxing journey through a series of demiurgic dimensions, but instead we got a poor man’s video game adaptation of Sliders. To add the cherry on top, you can’t even pause- pressing the escape button hits you with a “game over,” meaning you have to beat it one sitting.

But it’s not like it’ll take you long. I completed Ramiwo in about 1.5 hours, and at a $5.00 asking price, that doesn’t qualify it per my $1 : 30 minutes of gameplay ratio. I wish I could say that the kaleidoscopic excursion is worth it, but with restricted movement, an annoying flash bug, and half-baked graphic design, it isn’t. If you really want to kill one and half hours on an acid trip with this, get it on a sale.

Pros:
+ Imaginative level design

Cons:
– Graphical hitches
– Faulty texturing
– Nonsensical sound effects
– Limited roaming

Originally published on Flickering Myth: (https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/04/video-game-review-half-past-fate/)

When I was in college, I took a journalism class that frequently had group discussions. During one of these meetings, we got to talking about how difficult it was to interview or even speak to our neighbors these days. One of my fellow students was a young woman who had immigrated from Iraq, and she noted how surprised she was about the level of isolation in America- back in her hometown, it was commonplace, she claimed, to know everything about everyone in one’s neighborhood within the first year.

It wasn’t always this way though. People born to the 2000s generations may believe this to be the norm, but my fellow millennials will no doubt remember the early days of our childhood: when we weren’t afraid to go trick-or-treating alone; when entire communities gathered together to greet newcomers or mourn the passing of existing members; when it wasn’t unusual to meet someone down the street for the first time and immediately invite them over to your house. I’m talking, of course, about the time before the tragic September 11 attacks: the day that started the end of the ’90s and the beginning of increased seclusion, caution, and general weariness of those around you.

I know it seems strange to open this review on a bleak nostalgic tangent, but playing Half Past Fate, the latest release from developer Serenity Forge and publisher Way Down Deep, I felt like I was entering an anachronistic echo chamber; a regressive time-capsule if you will. It’s a video game that is so desperate to hearken back to that era of innocence, but can’t help coming off as a Gen Y kid jumping up-and-down with his fingers plugging his ears. But even with these narrative flaws, an irate gameplay loops prevents it from being enjoyable- that’s the short answer. If you want the longer answer, read on.

Given that I began by talking about the story, I should expand my thoughts on why I feel it was a mistake. See, Half Past Fate follows six seemingly random people who come together over the course of eight years. I say seemingly because the degrees of separation between them are so minimal that you can almost call them an alternate version of Modern Family.

As far as slice-of-life tales go, this isn’t a bad concept, but where it falters is in its dialogue and character interactions. For most of its playthrough, Half Past Fate treats the world you live in as this paradise of civility, where the majority of the populace is either happy, willing to help you, open-to-be-preached to, or in a slam-bang mood for conversation.

In the first level, for example, you’re trying to get ahead of several people in line at a coffee shop, and wouldn’t you know it, all of them are willing to step aside without much resistance- try and do that in the real world, I dare you. In another scene, you’re asking random people in a district about this girl you’re looking for- who, in their right mind, would give two hoots about some random guy’s quest for love? And yet another part has you, the boss of a company on the verge of a major meeting, politely dealing with a set of incompetent employees: one has abandoned his barking dog in the hallway, another has come in sick and selfishly sabotaged the thermostat, and another mistakes a complete stranger for the clientele- yeah, you try doing any of that at your workplace and see if you’re not immediately reprimanded or outright canned.

Now, I stop myself short of making an absolute statement because, in the last third of Half Past Fate, the story finally starts to take on a more realistic front. We get a greater diversity of NPC personalities who resemble the type of humans you would expect to find in any given location. However, considering you have to spend a significant amount of time arriving at that point, it makes it a little moot. The fact is, of the twelve chapters, all but three of them are so drenched in this type of syrupy wholesomeness that it doesn’t feel natural.

And I know people will tell me that video games are meant to be escapist forms of art, which I wouldn’t disagree with, but when the cloying factor is this much in your face it can’t help but be criticized. I’m not saying the writers needed to inject a vial of cynicism into the plot, but what I am saying is that, when you set a title in a semi-real world setting, you have to have a balance. Even in Animal Crossing, one of the most relaxing franchises of all time, you have hardship-facets like paying taxes, spreading of contagions, handling debt, and dealing with bothersome fellows. In Half Past Fate, someone can get coffee and wine spilled on them multiple times and still be willing to apologize to the perpetrator.

Maybe I wouldn’t have minded most of this had the verbal exchanges been outstanding, but unfortunately the end result is a mixed bag. Half Past Fate is a 2D walking-sim, meaning the core of its enjoyment rests on good writing. However, the conversations you get into with other NPCs don’t feel like natural confabs. I noted above that the folks you encounter are willing to help or just chat with your character, and that inherently lends their words an overly-optimistic cover. Despite hitting up an individual for the very first time, they’ll divulge you secrets, answer your out-of-place inquiries, or even explain something about the particular locale they reside in. It rarely feels naturalistic, instead pandering to the notion that cheeriness exists wherever you look.

There are times when the script actually gets tongue-in-cheek: wherein it acknowledges that what you, or someone else is, doing is out of the ordinary. For example, one section has a sales clerk giving you cash to buy him a burrito from the food truck nearby, prompting your avatar to question why he would trust a complete unco with his money. There are a number of moments like these sprinkled throughout the narrative, but they’re too sparse to make it the intent of the developers (i.e. it being a self-aware title).

It doesn’t help that the cast of protagonists aren’t three-dimensional beings either. I said before that there are six of them, though it should be noted that two of them are only playable in one level each. First up is Rinden, a hopeless romantic who tries to see the good in every day moments; next is Jaren, a happy-go-lucky weab gamer; then there’s Bia, a nice college student hoping to become a photographer; Mara the workaholic founder of an energy company; Ana, an independent-minded young woman who doesn’t know what she wants to do in life, and finally Milo, a quiet yet deep-thinking fellow aspiring to be a documentarian.

As you can tell, these are all archetypes we’ve seen in some form or another in various media, like Rinden being the pathetic idealist popularized by Frank Capra movies or Jaren the pop culture-loving nerd you’ll find in any Shounen school anime. Of course, originality these days doesn’t come from the invention of new ideas but the reinvention of existing ones. The writers evidently wanted to take the Love Actually premise and combine it with the time-moving scheme of When Harry Met Sally…– show various couples destined for each other having multiple encounters before ultimately fulfilling their fate. In Half Past Fate’s case, it’s Rinden x Mara, Jaren x Ana, and Bia x Milo.

This type of storytelling is hard to pull this off in a movie given the short run time, but video games theoretically have more leeway since you are dedicating extra hours to the endeavor at hand. However, in spite of Half Past Fate taking me over seven hours to complete, no one was given extra attributes. The issue here isn’t that there is no room in this narrative to flesh out anyone, it’s that the format isn’t used very well. So much effort was put into making all the protagonists likable that the writing team forgot to give them flavor: they’re bland.

Expanding upon Ana’s relationship with her parents, for instance, could have lead to some interesting developments, especially when it’s hinted that she grew up stuck in traditions. Nothing of the sort happens. Of the six people at your disposal, only Milo showed some depth: a conversation Bia has with him down the line reveals that he secretly hates his work because he fears the effects it’s had on impressionable viewers. But because the writers felt it was better to have him mumble and talk in short, withdrawn phrases his whole life, we don’t get enough of those glimpses throughout his various appearances.

What hurts the story, more than anything, though, is that it just fails as a tale of multi-paramours. Rinden and Mara’s relationship flat out sucks- its central focus revolves around Mara pursuing Rinden in the hopes of having a financial partner for her business, which makes her come off as both creepy and desperate at the same time. Bia and Milo’s had the most potential since we would hypothetically see two close friends realize they’re right for each other over the course of years, but because of massive timeskips, we don’t ever see that friendship elaborated on outside of small reflective conversations between the two, making it inherently feel like something is missing. Jaren and Ana come out looking the best courtesy of theirs being a semi-real time, meet-cute, however Jaren turning his search for her into some grand odyssey was just….odd? It has its moments for sure, but your mileage will vary depending on how much you perceive the level of irreverence in the tone of Jaren’s delivery.

I know I’m being a negative nancy, so let me end this section on a positive note- if there is one spot where the writers excel, it would be with the item interplay. When you receive a new item in your inventory, you are able to show it to an NPC: 99 percent of the time, this yields a unique text blob from them, most of them humorous. Occasionally you’ll get a generic, pre-rendered response, but this is the exception not the norm. I honestly found myself backtracking throughout the worlds whenever I got a fresh trinket, just to see how prior characters would react to it. When I kept handing tire-repair parts to a nearby arborist, for example, he would crack car-themed jokes! Without a doubt a sign of true dedication from the staff.

Item interactions make a good segway to the gameplay category. I’ll repeat, Half Past Fate is a walking sim, meaning there isn’t much here. The goal is to progress from the beginning of a level to its end by talking and helping people out. Regrettably, Serenity Forge decided that the best way to set their title apart from other games in this genre was to incorporate a fetch quest format for each section, and I honestly don’t know what they were thinking by doing this. Every single level drags out beyond enjoyment because you’re spending the bulk of your time helping people with the most-contrived tasks you can think of.

Want to find out Ana’s real name? Oh sure, all you got to do is get this chick’s love interest’s boss to leave the building he works in since he conveniently hates HER boss and will only depart if his spicy ramen challenge hosted by the nearby noodle shop is topped (why the two lovebirds don’t just talk outside of work is beyond me). Want to sneak by Mara in the restaurant? Sure, all you got to do is get a fedora from a guy who will only give it if he gets a date with an intellectual woman, and wouldn’t you behold, there’s an art history teacher conveniently dining at the same place who was conveniently stood up by the student she was supposed to tutor there (what kind of disturbing professor would even want to teach a pupil at a fancy restaurant?).

I could go on but I don’t want to give away too many spoilers. The point is the scripts here are really bad. It would at least be tolerable if things were presented in a satirical format, like some lines of dialogue are, but most of it is taken seriously by the protagonists. Now, the situations do temper out in the last third of Half Past Fate, as I said before, where you start to get more sensible circumstances, like Jaren passing the time by helping Milo with a flat tire, but it’s too little too late. When a game makes you yearn for Wind Waker’s (GCN) Triforce quest, you know it’s done something wrong.

Thankfully, the levels themselves are at least beautiful to roam in, and this has to do with the palette. Half Past Fate is, without a doubt, one of the few games I’ve played that has been successful with multi-chroma aesthetic, with color upon color filling the screen. From the streets to the architecture to the nature outside, all the hues blends so well together. And people have to understand that this is not an easy thing to pull off- look outside your window and you’ll see that solids rarely exist in either the floral or manmade worlds: colors inherently mix together so organically that we don’t take a second glance since it’s universal. Green leaves have strands of yellow and red marking the stem veins in them; roads have bits of white and grey strewn inside the asphalt material; wood and bricks on buildings are a weave of brown, maroon, and black, and none of this is even taking into account the precious metals that live inside everything.

I note all this because Half Past Fate manages to feel like a pixelated representation of a photorealistic world; that, despite the sheer number of them filling up the screen, the pigments aren’t distracting. It’s a testament to the craftsmanship of the graphic artists.

The art style itself is an interesting thing. It’s as though a 2D environment was shot with a 3D camera: characters and most objects inside are flat, but the way places open up as you move around or inside them appear whole if that makes sense. Imagine the Paper Mario series, but instead of everything looking wafer-thin or transitioning with folds, there’s a roundness to them, as though they are an entire stereoscopic entity.

One other graphical feat I have to lavish extreme praise on are the shadows. How an indie company pulled off great shadow mapping is beyond me- every singleton on screen, whether it’s the protagonists, an NPC, or even an object in the foreground, has a shadow that moves in-sync with whatever they are doing, right down to even hair flow! And when you enter the silhouette of another body, guess what? Your shadow disappears as simultaneously as you want it to. I was absolutely impressed by this and glad that Serenity Forge took the time to incorporate this aspect.

Unfortunately, the soundscape operates at the other end of the quality spectrum. There’s no voice acting, leaving music and sound effects, and both are not good at all. The score, attributed to a composer named Max Messenger Bouricius in the credits, is banal. Based on the chip quality, it sounds like something you’d hear in an old-school NES game like Harvest Moon with all those high register pitches and notes, which isn’t intrinsically bad, but given the amount of low-price or even free music software out there, I don’t know why anyone would resort to this outdated condition outside of maybe wanting to recreate an older harmony. Regardless, there isn’t much of it- I heard maybe 3-4 tracks during the entire game, one of which only played during specific emotional beats, and all of them were obnoxious. They play too loudly, don’t match up with the atmosphere or mood on-screen, and are ultimately distracting.

I emphasize the vociferous quality because the sound mixing is terrible- I had to go into the settings and turn the music down past 50 percent just to hear the SFX, though it’s not like you’ll miss anything significant by doing so as the audio is even more generic than the score. Everything you’ll hear, both ambient and marginal, is some stock noise played on a loop, from the wind, dog barks, and bird flutters to beeps and boops, whistling, and guitar strings. The worst offender, however, are the footsteps. Not only does everyone’s walking sound the same (despite everyone wearing different footwear), but the footstep noises aren’t even synchronized with the player movement!

So, in conclusion, I sadly can’t recommend Half Past Fate. The basic idea underlying could have been enjoyable, but hamfisted writing intent on showcasing unrealistic cordiality ruined it from the get-go. Combine that with amiable yet undistinctive characters, a gimmicky timeskip blueprint, and tedious fetch quests galore and you have something that isn’t a fun experience. Though I always say support indie developers, I can’t approve a game I didn’t have fun with. Even if I did, you’ll only get a little over 7 hours worth of enjoyment from a $20 product, which falls under my $1 : 30 minute ratio.

Pros:
+ Elegant and creative looking levels
+ Great shadow effects
+ Likable characters

Cons:
– Faulty story
– Mediocre score
– Horrible SFX
– Fetch quests in EVERY level

Long before I decided to become a game reviewer, I used to jot down brief thoughts on the games I was playing to best capture my feelings at the moment of completion for personal archival purposes. Since then, I’ve of course evolved my craft into full-fledged write-ups, but I do think there is enough merit to some of the earlier critiques to warrant their publication, especially for titles I do not intend on replaying (in the near future at least). I’ve thrown in some updates, but this is one of them.

STORY
-Premise is guy wakes up with amnesia in a hospital room, learns he's in Argentina 20 years after it underwent a sudden regime change, and needs to escape said hospital. Interesting political backstory rendered moot by the game's weird tongue-in-cheek tone. It presents its exposition seriously, yet all the characters, particularly the guards, act so silly. The protagonist is wanted by the Colonel, but nothing else is explained (including the man’s name!).

-Story is very vague and deliberately set up in a way to make people go for the sequel. If it wasn't for the dirt-cheap asking price, this would've annoyed me.
-

GRAPHICS
-Cool art style -- flat cartoony characters, almost like a plainer version of Archer. Characters are drawn to proportionally match regular humans, yet are stylized enough to the point where they wouldn’t be out of place in an Archie Comic.

-Lame shadow effect, character animations very stagnated.

SOUND
-Music is literally limited to just three tunes (title screen, one that plays throughout game, and end one). Sounds like an old-timey mellow sound with a piano and some stringed instrument.

-Limited SFX, not much. Not even footsteps.

-Voice acting hit or miss. Stefan Martello technically gives a good performance as the main guy; however, I didn't think he fit the character's design. Others can be downright terrible. Lip syncing is horrible and the localization for the subtitles is full of typos that don't match the dialogue. Honestly there seems to be a microphone problem for the recording of the audio for the VAs.

-Dialogue moves slow.
-

GAMEPLAY
-PnC built around causal/effect puzzles. Some require a little out-of-the-box thinking, which kind of annoyed me (ex. speaking to the guard multiple times, throwing rubber into the trash can). That said, there is a hint system to alleviate things, though keep in mind it has a cool off period of several minutes between hints.

-Another button lets you view all points of interaction on a screen, which is cool except most of the interactions don't yield anything useful and seem pointlessly implemented (why have the water valve for example if it was never going to be used?).

-Some items are also never used (i.e., baton). Didn't like that items that served no more purpose weren't removed from inventory automatically.

-Didn't like having to double click on something to open up options (talk, analyze, use). Why couldn't it have been one click?

-No reactions from other characters to what you're doing for the most part.
-

CONCLUSION
At a $1.00 asking price, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth, but the question is, is it worth it? Based on how lackluster the sequels turned out, I would say no given that this game exists for no other purpose than to be sequel-bait.

Remember, just because something is cheap doesn't mean you should buy it.

Long before I decided to become a game reviewer, I used to jot down brief thoughts on the games I was playing to best capture my feelings at the moment of completion for personal archival purposes. Since then, I’ve of course evolved my craft into full-fledged write-ups, but I do think there is enough merit to some of the earlier critiques to warrant their publication, especially for titles I do not intend on replaying (in the near future at least). I’ve thrown in some updates, but this is one of them.

Barely continues the story from the first game, still having a really annoying vagueness to it wherein none of the other NPCs can take even a minute out of their day to explain basic exposition to you. There's a lot of padding here too, compared to the first game where everything was more straightforward and to the point.

Main character's VA has grown on me, even if I don't think he quite fits the character.

Graphics the same, animations look slightly more fluid, but it honestly feels like this game and the first one were the same title split in half to generate more profits (evidenced by the OST for both being available as a single bundle).

Sound design a little better, but still generic. Music is more varied, but it plays based on area not really on story, which sucks for a story-based game.

Puzzles are better this time around, with you getting more tools. The game could've been clearer regarding how to use some tools, and the double click option is still annoying as ever.

At $5.00, you're getting 2 hours worth of content, which does fall under my ratio.

Originally published on Flickering Myth: https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/05/video-game-review-reversion-chapter-3-the-return/

Point-and-click adventure titles have been a staple of computer gaming since the days of the DOS, their simple mechanics making them accessible to players of all ages and experiences. Unfortunately, that relatively easy production process has also given them a reputation for being cash grabs. After all, it’s not difficult to slap together something on GameMaker and put it out to the public at $1.00 a pop. Steam, being the defacto digital distribution platform for PC games, has been flooded with such shovelware, making it hard for fans of the genre to find quality products.

Developed and published by 3f Interactivo and Soluciones 3f S.R.L., Reversion: Chapter 3 – The Return is the third and final entry in a series that has managed to stand apart in its competitive crowd (or at least managed to generate enough revenue for two sequels!). The question is, does this success mean it’s worth diving into, or is it a case of hype overshadowing quality? The short answer is it isn’t worth it, but for the longer answer read on.

When analyzing sequels or prequels, the first question every reviewer must ask is, how necessary is it to play through the predecessors? Not only do we have to see how important the story beats in them are, but whether or not the follow-up fixed inherent problems in their gameplay systems.

Having done just that in preparation for “The Return,” I can safely say that it is not needed in this case, namely because the story in them was so annoyingly minimalized and compressed as to be nonexistent. Set in a dystopian future, the first game (“The Escape”) had you play as an unnamed young man who awakens in a hospital in the city of Buenos Aires, which you quickly learn is under the control of a madman known as Sergio (divulged via a grand exposition dump by the doctor treating you). Wanted by the guards, your goal was to escape the facility with a fellow female patient. In the second outing (“The Meeting,”) this woman frustratingly refuses to tell you anything about yourself before setting you off to find a member of her team, which is fighting against Sergio’s regime. You spend the better part of ‘The Meeting” doing stupid tasks for ungrateful people, before finally making it to the secret lair of the Resistance, where you regain some of your memories.

Again, not much story happened in either third, but if you were even a little bit worried about missing something integral, you need not worry. Right from the beginning, “The Return” gives a strong recap of what transpired beforehand, not only making its predecessors sound much better written and executed than they were, but also telling you everything you need to know. Granted, you will miss some nods to the prior entries, like seeing a trashcan you set ablaze to distract some guards, however it’s really not worth the excursion.

Continuing directly from there, you’re finally given a name and backstory: you’re a scientist called Christian who built a teleportation device with your best friend and teacher Nicolas. This machine, however, ended up failing due to suspected sabotage, creating a portal that sent you both to the near future. Nicolas has spent his time both assisting The Resistance and attempting to rebuild the engine. Your goal now is to find the missing components in order to help Nicolas, head back to the past, and stop this from ever happening (though they specify that doing so would simply create a secondary timeline, making Christian’s quest inherently selfish since it’s just about him going back for himself).

“The Return” is the first time this series actually goes in-depth with a narrative, and, with this, I now understand why they avoided it beforehand: the writers just aren’t good. Unless there were problems with the localization (which wouldn’t be surprising, given the plethora of typos in the text translations), I never understood whether they wanted to be serious or tongue-in-cheek with their story. We’re told repeatedly that Sergio is this insane dictator who is imprisoning, torturing, and ruining the lives of most of the citizenry. However, he and his guards act so idiotic, they never feel threatening. Buenos Aires is reportedly blockaded, but the streets are completely deserted outside of a few NPCs mandatory for story progression. You can’t tell a serious tale about the suffering of the proletariat whilst having them be ruled by a buffoonish despot and his band of idiots.

Your allies sadly aren’t any better. Nicolas is a one-note scientist who comes across as pathetic and apathetic, unwilling to do anything proactive except give you pockets of data through more exposition dumps. Pablo is a stereotypical nerd, full of uptight and pretentious attitudes galore- there’s actually a scene wherein he refuses to give you information you need (for, you know, the success of the Resistance) unless you get him something to eat.

Then there’s Victoria, the nameless lady from the prior entries, who literally does nothing the entire game – there’s even a recurring gag wherein Christian asks the others why she just stands there instead of helping him on his odyssey, which I guess the writers thought would be funny but in actuality comes off as eyeroll inducing with regards to its stupidity (why not have Sergio kill her off in the beginning if you weren’t going to do anything important with her? It would have provided the story with stakes, made Sergio a semi-competent antagonist, and gotten rid of a pointless person).

Finally, the aforementioned NPCs scattered throughout Buenos Aires have varying degrees of personalities, ranging from enjoyable to irate, but credit for the diversity among them.

Thankfully, Christian himself is likable enough, making him a worthwhile protagonist to stick with to the end. There’s a small degree of self-awareness to him, as though he knows that there’s something inherently silly about the future he’s arrived in.

But overall, the story isn’t interesting. By not committing to satire, the serious elements feel lackluster, and by not committing to a severe tone, the frivolous aspects feel out of place. Considering we’re talking about a time-traveling adventure, it is genuinely sad that the writers weren’t able to come up with an engaging narrative.

Graphically, the Reversion franchise hasn’t been bad. I compare the art style to the animated sitcom Archer, featuring cartoony humans drawn with lightly bolded outlines in a muted, secondary color scheme. Everyone looks like a realistic person, but the aesthetic is clearly intended to evoke 90s sprites as though from the Monkey Island series or even Sam & Max Hit the Road.

One of the biggest additions, this time around, is the presence of cutscenes. 3f Interactivo and Soluciones 3f S.R.L. must have had a budget increase because these are very beautiful to watch; they’re done in the style of motion comics, but feature the same artistry as the regular game, meaning the transitions to and from them (despite having some lag) look natural.

Old-school principles also guide the animation, which is very limited (ironically also like Archer). Not that you need extensive motions for these kinds of games, but whenever Christian would grab things or walk to the other end of a room, it was noticeably a rehashed movement.

The sound continues that same limitation, which is a shame because I actually remember those older adventure titles having good soundscapes- it was one of the things you had to put some effort into back in the day given that you weren’t going to have much in the way of graphical extravagance. Granted, I could just be suffering from nostalgia, but, regardless, Reversion didn’t put much effort here. Everything sounds like a simple stock noise, every similar looking item has the same sound, and there aren’t even footsteps! I also don’t recall hearing anything atmospheric, like birds or static from technology.

The score, by composer Emiliano Saenz, is actually quite good, intermixing Hispanic music and instruments (like flamenco guitars) with the occasional dark synth. In particular, his song for the title screen, which has been the same for each entry, is ridiculously catchy. Despite this praise, there is an inherent problem with his compositions in that they’re too area-focused. The exact same track will play in the exact same area, no matter when you enter it- it restarting to the beginning if you leave and return.

This kind of static tuning is fine for pure platformers which are about getting the player from point A to point B- you just need something to play in the background. The problem here is two-fold: one, you often have to come back to areas to get new items or talk to an individual(s) again, so having a changeless melody is repetitive and feels lazy, and two, Reversion is a story-driven title, meaning the music has to change with the tone of the narrative. When you access a region for the first time, for instance, the music works very well- but returning to that unvarying consonance is a little jarring when you have to do it again and again.

The voice acting is VERY hit-or-miss. Stefan Martello is the actor credited with playing Christian, and I got to say he has really grown into the role. When I first heard him in “The Escape,” I didn’t think he fit the part, doing a good job reading the lines but his voice inherently not working if that makes sense. However, with Christian finally being given more of a personality this-time-around, I couldn’t imagine anyone better. He embodies the character perfectly, and does an excellent job pronouncing Spanish words, as well as alternating his tone depending on who he’s speaking to or the situation at hand.

This excellence is countered by many of the others, who often sound like they’re doing impressions of ’80s movie characters (which wouldn’t be surprising, given the number of pop culture references to media like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future). Nicolas, for starters, comes off like a clone of Doc Brown, whilst Sergio sounds like Beetlejuice after years of chainsmoking. These latter instances of over-the-top throwback retrogression wouldn’t be bad if “The Return” went full-out parody, but because it walks a strange line it appears awkward at best.

Lastly, we have the gameplay, which was never going to be a saving grace. As I said above, graphic adventures inherently don’t have complex mechanics- they’re purely about examining objects, putting certain ones in your inventory, and using them to solve eventual puzzles. In spite of this simplicity, “The Return” makes things harder than they need to be courtesy of implementing a double-click key: you need to tap the left mouse button twice in order to pull up the menu of options per an interactable object/subject (examine, take, or, if possible, speak to), then tap the button again to go through with your choice. Double clicking might not seem like a big deal, but when you have to do it for everything it can get a little grating on your finger, and it’s regrettable because there was an easy solution for this: make the right mouse button the one for the menu. The worst part is this is a problem I’ve had since “The Escape”- the devs could have implemented a simple fix considering they had the money for the aforestated cutscenes.

The puzzles themselves were alright as far as the genre goes. There were times where I felt the solution was a bit contrived in terms of finding out how to make an item, or items, work together, but overall it was solvable, and you are given a hint system in the event that you do get stuck. And to the developers’ credit, used items are mostly taken out of your inventory, compared to the previous titles where you were forced to carry nearly everything (making sifting through your inventory a drag).

But that’s the best praise I can give Reversion: Chapter 3 – The Return. After two disappointing entries, I didn’t go in expecting much- then I was hit with that opening recap and changed my mind: by being more story-driven, there was a chance for this series to end on a high note. Unfortunately, the way the devs/publishers went about expanding the campaign was flawed, with an inconsistent tone being the main issue. Add to this haphazard voice acting, minimal sound, poorly-implemented music, and a slightly irate point-and-click system and you have a faulty game that doesn’t stand well, either on its own or as a finale to a trilogy.

It took me about 5 hours to beat “The Return,” which makes its $10.00 asking price technically worth it. But as I pointed out in the introductory paragraph, that’s how these narrative video games work- they’re churned out quickly at just the right price to make them worth exploring to the casual or dedicated gamer. But just because something is cost effective doesn’t make it worth it, and that’s the case with the Reversion franchise. I can’t recommend it, even if it hits my ratio.

Pros:
+ Pleasant art design
+ Terrific lead performance by Stefan Martello
+ Main theme

Cons:
– Tonal shifts
– Unlikable side characters
– Inconsistent voice acting
– No gameplay improvements from predecessors
– Basal soundscape

Original review published on: https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/09/video-game-review-verdant-village/

Note - this is a review of the Early Access version of the game that was available 09/2020. Any changes since then are not reflected in this review

Sometimes great ideas emerge from the polymorphization of smaller ones. Take two radically different franchises, such as Final Fantasy and Disney, and throw them into a mixer- now you have Kingdom Hearts.

Likewise, new genres emerge from the combination of preexisting templates. One of the more interesting ones of the 2000s has been what I call the “farm RPG” spin-off, which has blended farm sims with role-playing elements to create games that emphasize resource gathering, exploration, social interactions, and energy conservation. Rune Factory, Terraria, and of course Stardew Valley are some of the more famous examples to emerge.

Developed and published by Exodus Software, Verdant Village is another such farm RPG (and perhaps the latest one, at the time of this article’s publication, to spring-up in the indie market). Unlike it’s predecessors, though, it seeks to differentiate itself through downplaying its agricultural roots and emphasizing the RPG aspects. The question is, was this wise and/or is it worth checking out? The short answer is too many issues exist at this time, but its spirit is strong. For the longer take read-on.

To clarify, Verdant Village is still in early access, meaning existing in-game content is prone to change. Indeed, during my own playthrough, I found many areas and buildings that were inaccessible, instead prompting the tagline “this area of the game hasn’t been implemented yet.” Per Exodus’s own words, they expect a fully-furnished product to be ready “by the end of 2020,” though are keeping potential delays open to “no later than Summer of 2021.” That being said, this review will attempt to be as fair as possible to the current state of the game, and a redux review may be issued at a later date closer to the Summer 2021 deadline.

We’ll begin with the story, which, at first glance, seems like the archetypal one seen in the Harvest Moon series wherein you play as a protagonist who is trying to make a living and name for themselves in a new town. The difference is, whereas in those entries you were presented as the inheritor of some piece of land, here the aforementioned role-playing principles come into play- your character has awoken on on a mysterious island with amnesia. After picking their gender, you’re rescued by the ruler of the nearby Kingdom of Amberglen and his daughter, who nurse you back to health, give you a house and plot, and leave you to your devices.

Obviously, functionally speaking, it’s the same as the beneficiary set-up , but there are subtle narrative differences implemented here that I was sad weren’t continued into the main game. For example, the daughter, Lorelei, openly questions why her father would leave you alone with a home instead of setting you up in the city inn. There was a missed opportunity to use this opening as a jumping off point to satirize (or, if you wanted to take it seriously, deconstruct) the tropes of the farm RPG genre, but alas, that is the extent you’ll see of this potential. From here on out, Verdant Village plays like any other similar title in terms of your interactions with the townsfolk- everyone you meet is mostly jolly, privy to telling you information about the area, and is openly willing to task you with very important things they need done. And yes, I understand this latter point is a trademark of RPGs in general (strangers entrusting strangers with quests), but considering the emphasis placed on your outsider status in the exposition, I was hoping to see some hesitation on the part of at least a couple of people.

But yeah, as far as the story goes, that’s about it. References are occasionally made by the citizens to a past crisis known as the “The Collapse,” but it’s as vague as “The Event” from The Big O. If there is more that comes out of the memory plot, I did not witness it in my playthrough. Pretty bare bones, but that’s also atypical of these types of games.

Next, we move onto the graphics, which coast on old-school artistry. Seriously, you have two different types of art here: the close-ups and the general arrangement. The close-ups are clearly derived from visual novels, with NPCs looking like kawaii anime characters. The general design, on the other hand, refers to what you see when you’re moving throughout the world, and here it seems that Exodus was influenced by SNES Quintet games. Maybe it’s solely cause of how hair was drawn, but I was reminded of classics like Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, and Soul Blazer.

Now, to clarify, Verdant Village isn’t a carbon copy of those works- there’s something distinct about the way humans, nature, and architecture look. Humans are thinner, with rectangular faces compared to their oval JRPG counterparts. Trees vary depending on their genus, ranging from gnarled branches to grand-standing oaks. And buildings feel individually assembled, as though each homeowner had an active role in constructing their own dwelling- the residence of the blacksmith is smaller and more compact compared to the residence of the farmers, who have a sprawling mansion.

My point in listing all of these is that there is a true craftsmanship in Verdant Village that I have not seen in many famous older releases by such bigwigs as Square and Game Freak (take a look at any forest in any first-to-third gen Pokémon game for instance, or the inner layout of most abodes in Secret of Mana). It’s a testament to the artisanry of Exodus Software, and their commitment to making a unique environment to explore. None of this is even taking into account the changes caused by the four seasons, which are far from reskins and put Oracle of Seasons to shame in terms of aesthetic creativity. Summer nights bring you a flurry of fireflies, while springtime bathes the area in a yellow glare.

Speaking of glares, luminescence is creatively conveyed during dusk and twilight through the combination of a murky gradient, preexisting torches, and scotopic eyesight. By the former, I mean how the screen naturally darkens as the day goes by; by the middle, there are lanterns strewn throughout the landscape that automatically turn on during sundown, disclosing an annular glow that lighten up the pixels in their confines, and by the latter, I am referring to a radiance that surrounds your character- it’s labeled “night vision” in game, and you can earn perks to increase its ambit, but I was admittedly unsure as to how to receive said perks. Nonetheless, it blends quite well with the beacons during eventide.

Another thing I appreciated was how raindrops actually impacted the surface. In most smaller budget games, rain is presented as a pre-rendered particle effect that MIGHT cause nature’s tears to blur your perception, but is otherwise just a nonexistent backdrop that phases through things. In Verdant Village, it won’t impact your navigation, but you will see the droplets splatter upon contacting the ground, with two different versions in place depending on whether the beads hit a solid or liquid area. A rainy day also eliminates the need to water your crops, making it more than just a pretty overlay.

Not everything about the graphics is good, though. There were shortcuts taken, most notably with the shadows- they are nothing more than dark circles surrounding each person and component in the game. In fact, many things, like birds and the aforestated downpour, don’t even have that, making it a little disappointing.

On top of this, Verdant Village has an issue with its depiction of 3D spacing. What I mean by this is, 2D games obviously rest on creating the illusion of an extra dimension, and they typically do this through geometric prisms and land placement: how things are arranged and drawn on a flat plane can make wonders, especially when you throw in color.

The problem here is very hard to describe, but essentially nothing looks as elevated as it should be. Going through a complanate location such as a swamp or beach or ranch looks fine, however the second you arrive in a place with altitude, like grasslands with hills or a mountain pass, it can’t help but feel like you’re zigzagging your way horizontally rather than travelling vertically. I’m not sure why this is compared to other sprite-like games, but if I had to pick a theory, it would be the use of hues. The higher something is, the larger its shadow, and the larger its shadow, the darker its circumference of influence will be. In Verdant Village, every place has the same level of lighting, (and by lighting I of course mean the tint of an object since there aren’t real lighting systems). Because of this, there’s no sense of up/down distance or depth of field. I doubt it’ll ruin anyone’s experience, but it’s worth saying.

What WILL probably ruin people’s experiences, though, are the strange geography schemes that impact navigation. Verdant Village is one of the few times I’ve witnessed ordonnance in a video game that was pointlessly obstructive. Amberglen features structures and rivers like any other medieval-inspired hamlet, but it’s a genuine pain to walk through. Bridges are infrequently placed, architectonics bizarrely rise on acclivities, both of which impede your movement and force you to maneuver in weird angular shifts. You will find the placing of such static obstacles even worse in places like the morasses, jungles, and sierra bluffs even worse.

And it all made me wonder why? Why do this to players? Why have them waste a few extra (in-game) minutes having to oddly steer when you could have just designed the environments to be easy to roam? To give a great example of how this impacts motion, we can look at a small-scale version of this issue: to get from your orchard to Amberglen, you have to walk down, then right- why not just have you walk right? Why throw in that offbeat downward ambulation? It ruins the kinetic flow.

From there, we move onto sound, which is objectively unsatisfying. No voice acting exists, so I’ll begin with the SFX, which is a series of repetitious noises. Each action you can do has a set sound that does not alter no matter what- upgrade your pickax to a mithril one? Doesn’t change the fact that it hits ore with the same din as your original mattock. Want to pick up a piece of wood or a flower on the ground? Don’t worry, they “pluck” the exact same. What about cutting down a giant evergreen versus a slim palm tree? Well, if they both fell down in a Verdant Village forest where there was no one around to hear them and they made a sound, I guarantee you they would crash in a similar fashion.

There’s also the lackluster attempt at ambience. You get a lot of stock noises like frogs and mosquitoes in the marsh or wind in a field of grass or crashing waves by the waterfront, which wouldn’t necessarily be bad except that there is clearly no source for these audible pieces. There are no critters basking in the middle of a bog or shrubs swaying as though they are being blown or regenerating sea surfs. It really feels like it was thrown in last minute.

That being said, there is a saving grace with the music. The score, presumably composed by an in-house musician at Exodus, is very enlivening. It takes those symphonic melodies we’ve come to associate with the fantasy genre and modulates them for a smaller setting. There are only five or so tracks, and they play regardless of location or time of day, but I honestly preferred this over syncing attempts in past farm RPGs wherein you have a single theme for a designated locale that restarts whenever you reenter said area.

Now, having a different set of tracks for night/afternoon/day or adding individual OSTs for each season would be nice and a big improvement, but what you have here is very pleasant to hear. Regardless of the activity I was doing, I never found myself distracted by the compositions, which speaks to their universal tone.

Finally, we come to gameplay, of which there is a lot to talk about. As mentioned in the story section, the goal is to become a self-made man, but unlike preceding farm RPGs where you were encouraged to achieve this through recreating the Hanging Gardens of Babylon via your very own grand acreage, Verdant Village provides numerous ways to increase your personal wealth and income. Mining, hunting, fishing, foraging, archaeology, cooking, and even alchemy (amongst others!) are all valid avenues. The thing I enjoyed the most is how none are prioritized over the other- they all come with their own pros and cons that you will have to take into consideration when deciding which to pursue: mining can quickly get you valuable gems, but trekking to the quarry takes time and constantly breaking rocks tires you out quicker; you can go the old-fashioned route and cultivate a giant plantation, but keeping it moisturized daily and having to wait up to a week for the crops to grow is a time sink; fishing is simple and easy, yet you can’t guarantee whether you’ll get a prized trout or a common aquatic species, making it a bit of a gamble.

You can see that a commonality for all these activities is stamina, which is utilized for every action you do save walking and smelting. You can restore it through eating food and sleeping, but chances are you’ll exert yourself every day because of the relatively low endurance meter. Due to their not being a personal leveling-up system, I don’t know if you are able to increase your avatar’s capacity, but what I do know is that enhancing your tools results in their associated strokes draining you less and less as you improve them further. Many of these abilities do have their own associated experience bars that you can level up through repeatedly doing them, but I wasn’t sure what they yielded in terms of gameplay. Still, it can only be a positive thing.

In spite of the variety, Verdant Village suffers from a big grind issue, and I mean this economically (since there are no extravagant skill sets). With the exception of foraging, you will find it in your best interest to get better tools and/or order additional appliances so that you aren’t constantly weary from whatever enterprises you choose to pursue. To do this, you will need to manufacture metallic bars that the craftsmen in question (most of the time being the ironsmith Sven) will utilize for the upgrade. The problem is prospecting the caves for the minerals needed can be a drag- you will frequently run out of strength, forcing you to return home, rest, and continue the excavation in the next period ad nauseam.

It’s not just mining that has this headache. Like I noted before, woodcutting, fishing, and other ventures have their own toll that you will have to pay for the sake of progression. And while you will notice a decline in exhaustion through the refurbishing of your tools, the sheer amount of times you need to repeat a task ensures that you are in this for the long haul.

Another thing that ensures the long haul are the quests, which are a massive misfire. Every single one I played was nothing more than a gigantic fetch quest- a character either needs a ridiculous assortment or a ridiculous amount of items and it’s your job to go get them. Sometimes you’ll get an idea of what they want from their preceding description, but there are just as many times where you won’t know and may end up filling your log with an entry that you know will take a while, which wouldn’t be a negative were it not for the fact that your journal only has 10 spaces- try and exceed it and either you or the person you’re speaking to will inform you that you have too much to do, which makes no sense from either a story or gameplay perspective.

While all fetch-related, they can be divided into two categories: random and grubwork. The former requires you to find an item or items whose presence is dictated by a RNG. For instance, collecting seashells entails you to go to the shore and find the right husks, only the possibility of you getting all the ones you need is slim to none, meaning you’re going to have to make monotonous trips again and again until Mother Earth grants you respite!

Grubwork, contrarily, puts the furtherance mostly in your hands. You’re going to have to toil until you earn enough raw materials to get the NPC what they want. Sometimes this can be as simple as preparing an individual’s favorite meal, but other times it can be a massive investment. For example, if you want to increase the size of your rucksack, you’re going to have to get this chick 10 spools of wool. Sounds simple right? Well, to get wool you need sheep -> to get sheep, you need a barn -> to get a barn, you need 35 slabs of bronze -> to get bronze you need 105 pieces of copper, 70 tin, and 35 coal -> to get that you need to mine for a long while (and this isn’t even taking into account the assets you need to procure a loom to spin the fleece).

As you can imagine, both of these are tedious tasks, with the latter making the grinding worse than it normally would be. There could have at least been a silver lining in the form of juicy subplots wherein a narrative is conveyed through your dialogues with these characters; since the head shots already look they’re out of a VN, Exodus could have taken a further cue from that genre and really driven home interesting or humorous tales, but alas, these threads are as basic as a “a nearby village suffered a harsh winter, go get me 100 flax,” or “I want to make mushroom soup, go get me some fungi” or, my personal favorite, “get me these odd items cause I like them.” It also doesn’t help that the bulk of the NPCs are cut from the same types of cloth: you have the extroverted young females, the older blasé men, and the younger optimistic gents.

The worst part are the rewards. You would think, given the many past years’ worth of great sidequests in other franchises, that the developer would have understood the relationship between time sunk and award given, but they don’t. Ninety percent of the time, you’re provided with either recipes for your cookbook or useless furniture designs (not even the furniture itself, just the blueprint to spend money ordering it from a catalog).

That’s not to say that they’re all like this as there are a few tasks which unlock the previously mentioned skills (or the equipment needed for them), but the vast majority of them are. You will kill many in-game (and real life!) hours collecting scraps in exchange for instructions on how to bake a blueberry pie. It’s unfortunate when RuneScape, all the way back in the early-2000s, knew how to appropriately compensate players for their undertakings.

An additional flaw RuneScape unintentionally reveals about Verdant Village is its lack of a good market system, which could have not only added depth to the game but alleviated some of the problems with the quests. What I mean by that is, instead of having to waste your own time accumulating goods, you’re instead given the option to obtain them via trade or bargaining. To be fair, some of that exists through the storekeepers in Amberglen (you’re able to purchase sugar directly instead of growing sugarcane), but it’s nonexistent for ores, produce, flora, and animal skins. And though you are able to sell anything to any retailer, if you accidentally oversell an item to a shop, you’re unable to buy it back or undo the transaction. Seriously, imagine if a version of the marketplace system from Secret of Evermore was implemented here.

For all my complaints though, I will say that Verdant Village runs very well. Screen transitions are solid, there’s never any lag, and I only encountered two bugs in my playthrough, one of which was near-immediately resolved after contacting the developer on the Steam forums, which brings up a solid point: Verdant Village has a great community. Seriously, for a small indie title, it not only has extensive discussions going on in the comments, but also a burgeoning wiki that I was able to consult whenever I needed extra information on item locations and help with quests.

I believe part of the reason for this amassing of gamers is the relaxing atmosphere of the title. As you all are more than aware, 2020 has been a depressing year, and with September being the month for Suicide Awareness, that factor has only been amplified. A beautiful farming simulator that doesn’t pressure you or rush you or punish you, that has likable characters and a large open environment, a title that embraces freedom and serenity; THAT is the perfect remedy to indulge in for the remainder of the decade.

And the truth is all my big criticisms are amendable through patches and updates (which Exodus is, as we speak, constantly doing). Throw in the ability for your protagonist to build platforms or ladders and you solve the wayfinding issues; simply append supplementary dialogue to existing conversations with villagers to give their jobs more weight, and administer the option to mail order every supply so that players can prioritize and grind for what they want to do (hide it behind a quest if you don’t want to put it upfront!).

As noted, Verdant Village is currently in early access, but you can still play it for the price of $15.00. RPGs, of course, technically provide enough content, but you have to understand that a good chunk of it comes from iterant undertakings, and the pitfalls I outlined above, while fixable, aren’t yet fixed.

If you’re a fan of this genre, want a calming game to wallow in, and wish to support a passionate independent developer who is actively working every week to make their game better and better, then Verdant Village is for you.

Pros:
+ Unique art style
+ Peaceful setting
+ Diverse endeavors
+ OST

Cons:
– Navigation
– Poor SFX
– Nothing but fetch quests
– Grind heavy