I was quite intrigued when I found some friends of mine giving this game a low rating, so I went into this "game" with "eyes unclouded by hate (**)." Normally, I feel as though I'm a bit too harsh on my reviews, but at the same time I feel as though I'm fair, so without further to do...

When I first started I was like, this is pretty cool, but then I found out why this "game" was rated so low; where is the gameplay/funitivity/replay-value? There isn't any, simply art; this is where they failed. I'll quote their description to further emphasize where they went wrong and what they should have done (or rather, change):


Upon looking at this description, what is this? A game or an "interactive journey"? Clearly, there is no "play" factor in this, in the sense that provides entertainment (in the "normal" sense anyways); the "gameplay" involved is navigating the character through the level (medley of levels?) and firing a weapon that not only has no "rhyme or reason" (as to how/why the character can use it), but is pure auto-aim (or at least that is how I felt, since I had to spam the "bullets" continuously). Either they failed completly at creating a game, or they failed in its presentation.

If it is the latter and they're going for more of an art approach - Tale of Tales - they need to present it as such; the way they presented it is conflicting, since they claim it is a game, yet they claim it is a "interactive journey". From an artist's POV, this game is a "visual orgasum"; I was dazzeled by all the things flying about, the character changing for no aparent reason, matching with the insanity of the music. It was beautiful, but not a game. To be perfectly honest, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had to simply dodge things with the arrow-keys, without a spacebar to fire with; however, it still needs a lot more to be considered a game (by today's standards). I could be wrong, but I believe if they had presented this as an art piece instead of a game (like Tale of Tales), it would have gotten better results from this community.

Now the question is, how to make this a game?
Note: these are merely suggestions and they may or may not be good ones at that... ^_^

Present it correctly, know your target audience!

Either remove the "bullets" or make it less "auto-aim"...

Provide some sort of story or give some sort of "rhyme or reason" as to why some things hurt you and others don't (ex: big fish, dragons flying by).

I would like to see a upgraded version of this as an actual full game. Visually, I thought it was great (though some backgrounds and such could do some polishing), as was the audio, but the actual gameplay is very lacking.



P.S. To the Developers of this "game": If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. :)

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**= quote from Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli)

Learning Curve: Instant!

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