Ok. I’ve been rambling about my year in gaming, so I’m going to jump right into the game awards I’m giving this year. The main theme of this year has me being simultaneously disappointed and hyped about the same game. I mean, most games have good and bad to them, but this year, there were several games that were elicited very split emotions in me.
The game I would have unabashedlly adored if it had ended one act earlier:
Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Galla)
Big sigh with this game. Every time I think of it, I get sad all over again. It’s such a charming, quirky, visually gorgeous game that engaged me and entertained me It’s bright and colorful, and you plpay as a dead snake who goes around helping souls in limbo release their hold on this world.
I played the generous demo and was immediately drawn into the game. You roll around as the dead snake, which is the only movement you can make. Then, you have to collect, uh, stars? Lights? Something bright and twinkly, don’t remember what, as your currency. You have to solve puzzles or mysteries, rather, and chat up several vivid, memorable NPCs. I think the demo was the whole first chapter, one out of five, which took me an hour or so to finish. And I know I missed some stuff, but I wasn’t worried about that. I assumed I would be starting from scratch when I played the game for real.
I knew within minutes of playing the demo that I would want to play the full game. The story was simple, but engaging. A dead snake rolled his way around this world, helping stuck souls along the way. He met so many interesting characters along the way, hepling several of the along the way.
There were boss fights in the game, sort of. Instead of straight-up combat, you had to answer questions about what you had experienced so far, and each one you got right did damage to the boss. There was some bulllshit mechanic that allowed them to regain health/do damage to you/something else I can’t remember, but I was not a fan. In general, the combat was pedestrian to middling–at least until I got to the last chapter.
Man. I have not had more mixed emotions playing a game this year than when I was in the last act of this game. Er, chapter. If it had ended a chapter earlier, I would have been happy with the game. I would have said it was a great game, and that would have been that. In fact, I would have seriously considered it as my non-From game of the year without that last chapter.
Instead, I ended the game feeling unhappy, dissatisfied, and grumpy about the ending. For most of the game, the theme seems to be doing your best and helping out all the stuck souls along the way. It’s about grief, anger, and other big emotions that we tend to bottle up inside, ruminate over, and allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by them.
For the first four chapters, the game seemed to be saying that you had to work through that grief, trauma, anger, etc., in order to move on with your life. Then in the last chapter, *spoiler*, the game does a 180 and seems to be saying that you do more harm than good if you try to help people get over their grief/anger/trauma, and that perhaps you were the baddie along the way.
I do not mind a grim or dark ending. Hell, I usually prefer those over a happy ending. However, just as a happy ending can be uunearned, this felt as if the unhappy/scoldy ending was unearned. I felt like the ending was rushed and that the devs were pressed to get the game out, no matter what. I have no idea if that was true, but that’s how it felt.
The perfect bite-size puzzle game that made me feel impossibly smug when I figured shit out
Is This Seat Taken? (Poti Poti Studio)
This is such a charming puzzle game. I love the art style as it’s minimalistic and the lines are clean. The simple premise is that there are different shapes that you need to seat in different situations. This was another game that had a generous demo, the whole first chapter, which got me hooked on the game.
In the demo, you have to seat the different shapes on a bus. You would think it would be simple to seat a dozen or so shapes, but each has one or several conditions, such as being stinky, not liking to sit next to stinky shapes, not liking noise, etc. The first level or two are fairly simple, and it’s pleasing to make them all fit properly.
As the game goes on, though, the conditions become trickier and more plentiful. Also, at some point, you can start messing with things in the environment–such as the heater/air conditioner, food (in a cafe) and seats (in a movie theater).
The puzzle solving gets increasingly trickier, yes, but it never gets too hard. It remains just a step or two above comfortable, which is how I like my puzzle games. It never broke my brain, though, which is just what I needed. It’s also fairly short in that I finished it in 8.5 hours, and I take longer than most people in finishing games. I also 100% it, but it wasn’t that hard to do.
I really like the art design, and there is a story of sorts. It’s a thin story, but a story, nonetheless. Plus, the game touches on the themes of fitting in and discriminating against those who are different.
This game just made me smile the whole time I was playing it. It wasn’t deep or that thought-provoking, but it was just what I wanted. A game does not need to be dozens of hours (or hundreds) in order for it to be worthwhile playing. It seems like we’ve moved in that direction in the last decade or so, but there is still room for the small game.
It’s funny. My first playthrough of Elden Ring was over 200 hours. Most of the my playthroughs of From games are long (in part because I take twice as long to play a game as most people do). The other games I played a lot of this year are meaty as well. Sometimes, I need a breath. A moment. Just an amuse bouche. That’s when a small indie game comes in, and I’m grateful for it.
That’s all for this post. I have two or three other awards to give. I’ll get to those in upcoming posts.