ogto
Tangle Tower 2019
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
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Rating
Time Played
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Platforms Played
My ideal adventure game in terms of production value. The way this looks, animates and sounds is just best in class. There's not a single character without amazing voice work, that enhances the already great animation, which in turn hides its limitations deftly with a lot of careful placement and variation of how these character animations are reused. I really can't say enough good things about the production value of this overall, it's gorgeous and full of heart and character.
The story and overall design is where the game doesn't achieve "all-time great adventure game" status. It's still in my personal top-tier but a few things hold it back.
The final act feels rushed and too many threads are left dangling or are written off conveniently. Truthfully I just wanted to see the whole story play out cause it felt like there's at-least another game's worth of story to be told. I'm fine with leaving things open to a sequel, but this did neither successfully. This is far and away my biggest gripe with it the game.
To a lesser extent, there's a problem of missed potential with it's game mechanics. There's a lot of interesting ideas with it's 'sentence construction' method of puzzle solving and giving you dioramas of the action. But the dioramas are more for visual flair and maybe give you occasional hints. There's next-to-no gameplay element attached to them. While the sentence construction seems like it never evolves or becomes difficult enough for clever solutions or AHA moments. It's fine and functional, but it just feels like a replacement for typical 'use-item-on-X', rather than a truly transformative feature, like the log-book in Obra Dinn was. This isn't necessarily a knock against the game, but more so a feeling of "this could go from great to 10/10 with another iteration".
That's my ultimate hope, that SFB take what they've learned from these games and do another final sequel, blown-out to it's full potential. Take this game, treat it as act 1, and then do 2 more acts that develop the systems gradually, and you've got yourself an all-time great adventure game, that can stand toe-to-toe and surpass most of the greats in this genre.
And even if they never meet that potential, this still remains a high watermark for art, animation and voice work in adventure games, indie or otherwise.
The story and overall design is where the game doesn't achieve "all-time great adventure game" status. It's still in my personal top-tier but a few things hold it back.
The final act feels rushed and too many threads are left dangling or are written off conveniently. Truthfully I just wanted to see the whole story play out cause it felt like there's at-least another game's worth of story to be told. I'm fine with leaving things open to a sequel, but this did neither successfully. This is far and away my biggest gripe with it the game.
To a lesser extent, there's a problem of missed potential with it's game mechanics. There's a lot of interesting ideas with it's 'sentence construction' method of puzzle solving and giving you dioramas of the action. But the dioramas are more for visual flair and maybe give you occasional hints. There's next-to-no gameplay element attached to them. While the sentence construction seems like it never evolves or becomes difficult enough for clever solutions or AHA moments. It's fine and functional, but it just feels like a replacement for typical 'use-item-on-X', rather than a truly transformative feature, like the log-book in Obra Dinn was. This isn't necessarily a knock against the game, but more so a feeling of "this could go from great to 10/10 with another iteration".
That's my ultimate hope, that SFB take what they've learned from these games and do another final sequel, blown-out to it's full potential. Take this game, treat it as act 1, and then do 2 more acts that develop the systems gradually, and you've got yourself an all-time great adventure game, that can stand toe-to-toe and surpass most of the greats in this genre.
And even if they never meet that potential, this still remains a high watermark for art, animation and voice work in adventure games, indie or otherwise.