feels undercooked compared to its ancestor moon, a game with similarly novel gameplay that was matched by its vast and modular soundtrack, oddball dialogue, toybox world, and experimental, love-filled story.
in chibi-robo's case, that novelty gradually, steadily transforms into mild yet pervasive monotony.
the game feels two, maybe three times longer than it should considering the lack of areas and things to do in them. cutscenes are sluggish, the soundtrack is mostly just two overworld songs you'll become intimately familiar with, and the day/night cycle is frustrating even with the tools you eventually gain to mitigate it... the complaints continue to pile up the longer you play.
the friendly vibes of being a cute little robot hopping around and helping out are demolished by the game's lack of friendliness towards me. i'm stuck climbing up one area in the same way for the 10th time because it's the only method i have to go where i need to. i enter cutscene after cutscene where characters consistently enter 0.2x text speed, a decision i rarely find fitting to the line it's attached to or the character saying it. another review on the site states the game is a 4/5 if you learn a few speedrun tricks and skips to make traversal more technical and speedy, and i believe it.
despite the supposed openness of the world i often felt oddly railroaded in ways i don't remember feeling in moon. areas and items are locked behind ladders i don't have the material to build, so i just need to do other things while i wait for enemies to pop up randomly. quests are locked behind other quests for nebulous reasons. i try to do one thing, and it turns out i need to do one other thing first. again and again.
at one point you need a bone for an important main story quest. if you don't have a bone, or you used it earlier, you must wait a few days for one to spawn in a random room. have fun searching for it.
you also need a bone for a side quest which takes place later on. if you don't have a bone, or you used it earlier, you must wait a few days for one to spawn in a random room. have fun searching for it.
honestly, i don't mean to be that harsh. it's undeniable that walking around as the titular chibi-robo, collecting trash and scrubbing the floors for little hearts is a good time at its simplest. it's just unfortunate that the game is filled with repetitiveness in platforming, dialogue, areas, etc. and i don't know wh-i'm suddenly struck by a washpan falling on my head, knocking me unconscious. that's the 12th time that's happened!
in chibi-robo's case, that novelty gradually, steadily transforms into mild yet pervasive monotony.
the game feels two, maybe three times longer than it should considering the lack of areas and things to do in them. cutscenes are sluggish, the soundtrack is mostly just two overworld songs you'll become intimately familiar with, and the day/night cycle is frustrating even with the tools you eventually gain to mitigate it... the complaints continue to pile up the longer you play.
the friendly vibes of being a cute little robot hopping around and helping out are demolished by the game's lack of friendliness towards me. i'm stuck climbing up one area in the same way for the 10th time because it's the only method i have to go where i need to. i enter cutscene after cutscene where characters consistently enter 0.2x text speed, a decision i rarely find fitting to the line it's attached to or the character saying it. another review on the site states the game is a 4/5 if you learn a few speedrun tricks and skips to make traversal more technical and speedy, and i believe it.
despite the supposed openness of the world i often felt oddly railroaded in ways i don't remember feeling in moon. areas and items are locked behind ladders i don't have the material to build, so i just need to do other things while i wait for enemies to pop up randomly. quests are locked behind other quests for nebulous reasons. i try to do one thing, and it turns out i need to do one other thing first. again and again.
at one point you need a bone for an important main story quest. if you don't have a bone, or you used it earlier, you must wait a few days for one to spawn in a random room. have fun searching for it.
you also need a bone for a side quest which takes place later on. if you don't have a bone, or you used it earlier, you must wait a few days for one to spawn in a random room. have fun searching for it.
honestly, i don't mean to be that harsh. it's undeniable that walking around as the titular chibi-robo, collecting trash and scrubbing the floors for little hearts is a good time at its simplest. it's just unfortunate that the game is filled with repetitiveness in platforming, dialogue, areas, etc. and i don't know wh-i'm suddenly struck by a washpan falling on my head, knocking me unconscious. that's the 12th time that's happened!