In the last few months, I have played several indie games that have left a mark on me. For good and bad reasons in not-so-equal measures. I want to talk about two of them because they have thrilled and frustrated me while playing them, but I appreciate both of them for reaching for the sun. I will probably compare them as I did a bit in the last post because they both have pretty big things that annoy the fuck out of me.
They are, of course, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive) and Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works). The reason I compare them is because they are both made by indie devs and the games weren’t expected to be hits. One was and one wasn’t. While I’m not going to delve into that very much, I do find it very interesting.
I wrote obsessively about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as I played it because I could not stop playing it. I was not enjoying it as I played, but I could not stop. I hated the combat, and I found the story to be, to put it kindly, hot trash. It looked gorgeous, yes, but the levels were terrible as I constantly got lost, and I was often worn-out at the end of a session. In the beginning, I could only play an hour at a time before tapping out. That lengthened later on, but it took some time to get to that point.
I was the odd person out. Everyone else was gushing about how great the game was whereas I was definitely underwhelmed. I don’t know why I kept playing it, but I could not stop. I ended up finishing the game, and I gave it a solid 7, and I stand by that. You can go back and read the dozen posts I wrote about it if you really want to know how I feel about the game.
Suffice to say, it wasn’t going to be my game of the year. Still isn’t.
The other game, I’m still playing. It’s the Promise Mascot Agency, and today is the first day since I started playing it that I probably won’t play it. When I think of playing it, I have a small internal sigh.
I’m also playing Dark Souls Remastered in order to get Big Hat Logan’s big hat. I rarely get it because his quest is so involved and takes 180,000 souls (yes, I looked it up). You have to save him in Sen’s Fortress, then find him at Firelink Shrine. I think you may have to buy all his spells here in order to get him to move, or maybe it’s event-dependent. At any rate, at some point, he moves to The Duke’s Archives, and he’s locked up. You have to get captured by Seath, get thrown in jail, go down to get the key to get out, and then make it to the second The Duke Archive’s bonfire.
Then, you have to get the key to free BHL, and then go back to where he’s locked up. I hate The Duke’s Archives, and it’s been a while since I’ve done it. I also don’t have much health because I’m running an intelligence build, which means I’m very squishy. Then, you have to talk to BHL in The Duke’s Archives and buy all his spells. I am up to this point of his quest and thought I could just trigger the next step by buying all his spells, but, no. I have to beat Seath first.
Back to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Promise Mascot Agency. With both of them, the more I play, the more my interest wanes. It’s slow and barely noticeable with PMA, but it’s still there. It hit me in the face when the game introduced a new mechanic and instead of me being delighted by it, I felt weighted down and burdened.
This is my point. Finally. With both of these games, they throw so many things at you. Everything but the kitchen sink. Some of them work, and some of them don’t. In PMA in particular, I think they could have cut half the mini-games/side quests, and the game would not have suffered for it. In fact, I think it might have been better because then each mini-game/side quest would actually mean something. Now, as I mentioned in the last post, many of them feel very fetch-quest-y.
If it were up to me., I would cut out the crane game, much of the driving or at least make it decent from the beginning, and the goddamn fucking artificial timer. I must say, including the artificial time pressure slashes at least one whole point from the game, if not more. This is the one I can’t get over and the one that makkes me sigh when I think about booting up the game.
Honestly, it feels so shitty and ill-conceived. The game devs created a world I really wanted to explore, but just when I got into the groove of it–I had to go find an ATM and send money to keep my yakuza mother from being killed. If I don’t, she dies and I get kicked back to my previous save. The consequence of this is that I’m constantly saving, and I do micro-saves after picking up anything important or doing a bunch of chores.
In addition, if the screen is fairly dark red (the indication that mother is about to be killed), I abandoned the meticulous exploring I’m doing in order to find an ATM or a phone booth so I can fast-travel back to the hotel where there’s an ATM. I try to note the important things I’ve missed, but because of my horrendous lack of direction and the fact that the map doesn’t note the side quests I need to do, I can’t find them again.
I just thought of something I could do. I could mark the map where there’s a cluster of activity. I can place one waypoint on the map at a time, which feels very limited. I hate having to pass by a bunch of stuff, especially the ones that give me truck upgrades.
I honestly don’t understand why it’s there. As I said, I can imagine the devs wanted to give the game a sense of urgency, but that’s at odds with how much there is to explore. I think the game would be much better without it, and it’s the one big reason I’m not enjoying the game. It’s hard to get into the flow of things knowing that every five or ten minutes, I’ll have to stop and find an ATM. I absolutely hate it and wish there was a way to disable it. Hm. Nope. There’s no mod to disable having to send money. I didn’t think there would be, but I looked it up just in case.
I don’t normally like mods, but I hate this mechanic so much, I would seriously consider a mod if there was one. I cannot emphasize enough how much it hampers my enjoyment to have to stop every ten minutes to send money. The game is not immerzive in the first place because it’s so wacky, but when I’m in the groove, I can feel like I’m flowing.
Until I have to send the damn money.
Here’s the thing, though. With both the games, if I had the choice between taking them as is and not having them at all, I would instantly choose the former. Both of them are quite frustrating to me for different reasons, but they are also both games I’m very glad I’ve played. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is more streamline and mainstream-friendly, whereas Promise Mascot Agency is much more niche and downright weird. It’s not for everyone, and that’s ok!
I have played a half-dozen indie games in the last few months, and while I did not get on with all of them, I appreciated each one for the fresh new take it had. They have all stood out in my mind for different reasons, and I am pleased by the state of indie games right now.
More on that tomorrow.