Game: Space Funeral
Console: PC
Developer: thecatamites
Release Date: 17th September 2010
Click here to listen to music from the game as you read
It's been a while since I played an indie game for PC, but I often think about how well produced and enjoyable 'Off' by Mortis Ghost was, for an indie title and as a game in general. With this in mind, I decided to take a look at a similarly surreal RPG, 'Space Funeral'. While the story isn't as allegorical as Off, and the game is much shorter overall, features such as the battle system and the characters remind me of it strongly.
Players begin as Philip, the main character as he leaves his mother and father's home behind and explores the world. Philip is visibly unhappy from the start, with tears streaming down his face and a generally sad disposition. A little of the game world is explained by NPC's, and it's revealed that Philip will need a weapon if he wants to get past the Swamptrogg which is the game's first boss. Past this, Philip meets various characters on his way to restoring the world to its rightful state.
As can be seen above, the design of the game world is incredibly surreal, colourful and full of interesting imagery and textures. At first it can be a little hard to immerse yourself in such a visually different game world, but after a while it becomes easier. The purple path areas usually lead the way for Philip, although there are some sections which require a little deduction from players.
Battles in game work much like those in Chrono Trigger and Off; there's a timed move meter which must fill before players can choose what to do. Options include Attack (with whatever weapon is currently equipped), Skills (more of which are learned as the player progresses; these are handy for inflicting status conditions on opponents), Mystery (which chooses a random action to occur) and Items (which lets players use any item they're currently holding). With a maximum of two characters to control in battle in the entire game, and a limited range of enemies, it's never particularly difficult to win battles, and there's certainly no need to grind. In fact, there are more than enough health power-ups around to simply choose attack every turn.
Graphically the game resembles titles released around the end of the NES era, perhaps extending into the early SNES era slightly at points. This works well stylistically and for the plot at the end of the game, although the colour scheme could be seen as somewhat garish. The music chosen for the game is a large part of the atmosphere; all of the tracks are fairly obscure and set the scene for the various places Philip visits.
Overall it's an enjoyable little game which should take around an hour to complete, unless players neglect to talk to NPCs or discover the world for themselves, in which case it could be much shorter. While there are some problems with battles being a little too easy, and a surplus of items and money, meaning that there's not too much challenge to the game, it's more of an experience.
Rating: 61/100
Grade: D
Game: Ghost Party
Console: PC
Developers: Tuan & Marshall
Release Date: 16th May 2013
Ghost Party is a game which combines adventure with puzzle solving in a fairly common way. Players take control of a ghost in a mansion, who can interact with people, bats and objects (though most people are simply talking to themselves rather than directly acknowledging the ghost). Through this interaction the player learns of each character's troubles and through the course of the game acquires items which can be traded to solve further problems.
Soon after the game begins, a murder takes place and although the player seems fairly powerless to prevent more murders from happening, their collecting and trading of various items from around the mansion may eventually bring an end to the killings. A vital part of the game is talking to each character a number of times between murders and trying to figure out what inventory items might be useful to NPCs.
Although talking to each NPC multiple times and searching every corner of the house slows the pace of the game, it also uncovers its unique charm and humour which reminded me a little of Earthbound. Each place in the mansion that can be searched has a different message to display, even if there's nothing there, and NPCs that aren't of any use to the player at the present moment will still say witty things.
I've seen criticisms of the game which said it was too slow and repetitive, but considering that there are 3 endings, all of which can be achieved within 1 hour of gameplay (if you save in the correct spot) I would disagree with both of those complaints. While the game is played at a relaxing pace, it's a nice change from the mainstream games of today, with their action sequences and adrenaline fuelled play. I don't think that there's a huge amount of immediate replayability, but players could replay the game after a little while and still enjoy it.
Graphically, the game in a pixel style resembling 16-bit games, with a predominantly blue and grey colour palette. There's a fairly large cast of characters for such a short game, each with their own personality and needs. The music used to accompany almost all of the gameplay can get repetitive at times as it's only around 20 seconds long, and continuously loops, but there's always the option to turn the game down if this is a problem.
Overall Ghost Party is an interesting experience which can give players an hour or so of immersion into its world and allow them to discover the characters and events which occur there. While its slow pace and relative lack of action may put off some gamers, others will find that the atmosphere and mood of the game are relaxing and provide a nice contrast from most video games.
Rating: 70/100
Grade: C
No comments:
Post a Comment