Art is highly subjective. Different things will resonate with different people for different reasons: our aesthetic sensibilities, nostalgia, the sum total of our experiences that shape our inclinations over the course of our lives. I often find it difficult to put into words why something speaks to me. The term “debcore” has found a place in my vocabulary as a useful shorthand for “this is my thing, though I may not be able to articulate why.” Signalis may be the most debcore game I’ve played yet.
There's a lot I can point to that I like about this game. The animesque cassette futurist aesthetic; the thick atmosphere; the powerful, open-ended romantic tragedy; the lived-in feel to the environment; the music. All of these are related to its greatest strength: its presentation. Signalis is a master class in doing more with less. rose-engine has achieved so much more with quality writing, direction and a handful of simple assets than lesser studios have with hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are plenty of games out there that share some of these qualities, but few have tickled my brain the way this one has. Work shifts, showers and late nights spent contemplating what actually happened in this surreal, tender, cruel work of robot yuri. Maybe I’ll be closer to understanding it if I go for the other endings. For days now, I’ve been thinking on why exactly I love this game so much. Ultimately, Signalis as a whole feels laser-targeted at the things I like in video games and storytelling. I think I now have a clearer picture of what debcore actually looks like.
The fifth console generation and the golden age of survival horror were before my time. I grew up in the era of the annual or biennial military shooter, and came of age at the onset of that disease called “games as a service.” In an industry landscape where each AAA release just wants all of your spending money and free time, this relatively short but impactful single player experience has reminded me that, maybe, video games are alright.
There's a lot I can point to that I like about this game. The animesque cassette futurist aesthetic; the thick atmosphere; the powerful, open-ended romantic tragedy; the lived-in feel to the environment; the music. All of these are related to its greatest strength: its presentation. Signalis is a master class in doing more with less. rose-engine has achieved so much more with quality writing, direction and a handful of simple assets than lesser studios have with hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are plenty of games out there that share some of these qualities, but few have tickled my brain the way this one has. Work shifts, showers and late nights spent contemplating what actually happened in this surreal, tender, cruel work of robot yuri. Maybe I’ll be closer to understanding it if I go for the other endings. For days now, I’ve been thinking on why exactly I love this game so much. Ultimately, Signalis as a whole feels laser-targeted at the things I like in video games and storytelling. I think I now have a clearer picture of what debcore actually looks like.
The fifth console generation and the golden age of survival horror were before my time. I grew up in the era of the annual or biennial military shooter, and came of age at the onset of that disease called “games as a service.” In an industry landscape where each AAA release just wants all of your spending money and free time, this relatively short but impactful single player experience has reminded me that, maybe, video games are alright.