Quick Look: Anodyne 2: Return to Dust

Why

This is extremely my kind of thing.

visually, this reminds me of megaman 64

one of my favorite games this year! glad y'all are covering it

You'd think that with these two guys in charge, the sound mixing would be a bit better and not require people to half-shout to be heard over the game sound… :-/

Nice voice work, @janman!

Happiness is in fact, NOT a warm puddle because that puddle is pee...

@janman: Movie you were thinking of is Fantastic Voyage.

I kept expecting a thumbs-up baby during the shrinking cut scenes

Man the polygonal stuff looks great, but it kinda bums me out that the majority of the game still seems to be 2D? I would be so much more on board if it was all just that PS1-ish, super murky, early 3D aesthetic.

Yo that hubworld background track got me feeling some kinda way.

Yeah, I'm also a bit bummed it isn't all 3D. Still looks great, but not what I was expecting.

Dunno why but i find the mics kind of harsh in this vid, ear piercing.

I would have loved that, too. Modern early 3D graphics are amazing, especially when they embrace the awful sense of scale that so many of those games had. The 3D stuff in this game reminds me gently of Paratopic.

Synthie beats to sit back and think about existential crisis's too

Jan's got a great anime side character voice

The music inside the tongue man is really good

This looks... pretty ugly. I understand the "intentional" low-poly retro-3D look that games go for, but this isn't doing a good job. The textures and lighting are all so bland and washed out and uninteresting to look at, and that hub world is so empty. Maybe it's the lack of UI or sound effects but it all feels like an early alpha build of what it wants to be.

"obtuse", you keep saying that word...

I get your point but i kinda like the retro playstation 1 graphics in fact i want full on chippy moving polygons. I dont know why n64 graphics havent worked there way into nostalgia too. Why is it that 2d is the only acceptable nostalgia dive people are willing to take. Once we go 3d everyone wants super realistic stuff and it all just blends together into a meh looks real i guess. Like how people stopped getting impressed by 3d car game graphics by ps3. Now we just go ehh cars look like cars. People look like people. Bring on the retro i say. and focus on ai and gameplay.

So do I. I agree with you! My point was that this game is not succeeding at that aesthetic. It just has a hollow, soulless, and muddy look. It doesn't evoke PS1 or even N64 to me. It's more like blurry leaked screenshots of a vaporware game in a GamePro from 1997.

To put it another way: rather than looking like a lovingly-crafted retro homage to early 3D, it looks like an unfinished student project that aims to be more but misses.

It maybe cuz of the PSX look, but the main character has to have been inspired by Claire from Ehrgeiz.

@tippis: To be fair, that's Ben's default volume 😜

i dont have nostalgia for this era but was watching to give it a try

some of the perspective stuff is making me nauseated in a weird way i wasnt expecting. am i alone? bad day?

last portion felt Soul Reaver inspired

This was one of my favorite games of the year - whole thing has such a unique vibe. Hope it gets some traction one day.

Seems accurately named then: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anodyne

Hoooooly shit this game looks good.

Anodyne was unique, never expected a sequel but I'm up for one.

Neat. I do wonder if this game eventually starts to play out in the 3d world or if it stays 2d. Like the jumping & shooting mechanics already seem to be there.