A soothingly beautiful audio-visual experience that is lighter than it thinks.
The sound especially is very important to the experience. I played the first game approaching it like a puzzle game on buses and such without sound, but that’s a mistake - it’s more an experience than a puzzle game, especially considering the puzzles tend to be rather easy (which is good for a dumbass like me) and sometimes not even puzzles at all, just walk here and tap that.
More often than not, the puzzle you’re staring at is actually more impressive for the geometric trick they’ve come up with. Some moments made me go “how do they come up with this?”; and once I understood that I could decide myself the final symbol for the level, it became a small enjoyable thing I looked forward to (especially to see how the animation played with it then).
With its gorgeous visuals and calming music, it really is more noteworthy as an chill experience, especially as many of the puzzles aren’t intellectually involving.
It tells its story in short bursts of enigmatic fortune teller quotes which add to the ephemeral magical atmosphere, but little to anything else. As a parent, I was touched by the interaction between the parent and the child and the need to let go, but with its bonkers story in the other part it felt in service of little relevant and the game’s ambiguous finale obscures the potential emotional effect of the new meeting between the parent and child. It was surprisingly touching to see the old friend though.
Ultimately, it doesn’t have enough emotional or metaphorical resonance to really stick, and with puzzles that often left me bored, it falls just short of greatness. But I did use a screenshot I took from the game as the background for my phone, so there’s that.
The sound especially is very important to the experience. I played the first game approaching it like a puzzle game on buses and such without sound, but that’s a mistake - it’s more an experience than a puzzle game, especially considering the puzzles tend to be rather easy (which is good for a dumbass like me) and sometimes not even puzzles at all, just walk here and tap that.
More often than not, the puzzle you’re staring at is actually more impressive for the geometric trick they’ve come up with. Some moments made me go “how do they come up with this?”; and once I understood that I could decide myself the final symbol for the level, it became a small enjoyable thing I looked forward to (especially to see how the animation played with it then).
With its gorgeous visuals and calming music, it really is more noteworthy as an chill experience, especially as many of the puzzles aren’t intellectually involving.
It tells its story in short bursts of enigmatic fortune teller quotes which add to the ephemeral magical atmosphere, but little to anything else. As a parent, I was touched by the interaction between the parent and the child and the need to let go, but with its bonkers story in the other part it felt in service of little relevant and the game’s ambiguous finale obscures the potential emotional effect of the new meeting between the parent and child. It was surprisingly touching to see the old friend though.
Ultimately, it doesn’t have enough emotional or metaphorical resonance to really stick, and with puzzles that often left me bored, it falls just short of greatness. But I did use a screenshot I took from the game as the background for my phone, so there’s that.