I quite like this dysfunctional relationship/beach simulator
By AssInAss 1 Comments
Bientôt l'été is the name of the game.
Since no one gave any impressions, might as well. "Finished" it or at least got far enough to where it loops back on itself. 5-6 hours. I was a big fan of their previous game,The Path, as a cool experiment in getting lost as a mechanic and the subversion of the Red Riding Hood mythos with the multiple girls in red who have their own "wolves" that they lose their innocence with.
This game straight up tells you what kind of mindset you should go in with:
It’s a 3rd person adventure game reminiscent of Facade with the dysfunctional dating sim/text adventure angle and the recent Proteus with the sped up day/night cycle and exploring an abstract island. A movie comparison would be Solaris where you're actually in a holodeck simulator in space trying to find out what happened to the relationship with your partner (who can be a real person ala Journey/Demon's Souls or a bot) so you're dumped on a beach simulator.
The incredibly gorgeous visuals and unique mechanics kept me going. Trying to figure out the mechanics and gameplay loop was interesting in itself. You have to encounter around 16 Apparitions to get the endgame of a unique item rather than the typical chess piece that might explain what happened.
Basically, there are 3 parts to the gameplay loop. You look for an object on the beach or “Apparition” by closing your eyes to bring up a grid vision and check it out for a mini-cutscene. A chess piece will fall from the sky, which you will pick up. You then walk along the beach and have to bring out the “poetry of the waves” where the waves dump out phrases that you remember for using as responses to your partner on the chessboard.
Finally, you head to the house where you give responses to your significant other through the chess pieces being planted down onto the board. This is where 2-player multiplayer comes in where a real person can be on the other side that works like Journey/Demon’s Souls. I didn’t get a connection, so I just used a bot. You use the phrases as verbal sparring. Rinse and repeat, and then I guess come up with an interpretation of what's going on.
