izigame.me

One last breath is a beautiful cinematic puzzle platformer that is clearly inspired by INSIDE. I hate to draw comparrisons all the time as i prefer to let games stand on their own. But the environments here feel very similar, especially the forest & farm sections. Now obviously this game doesn't reach the same heights as INSIDE but i've yet to play a game in this genre that does. One last breath does do some things to stand on its own though, namely in the form of the branches mechanic. You can both grow and wither tree branches/roots to create paths or block others. While the inital uses are very basic I found that in the later half of the game they're put to proper use with some rather enjoyable puzzles. It's a lot of trial and error though when there's monsters involved which were sometimes a bit frustrating as even a split second of hesitation meant your demise with a lenghty kill animation.
Not enough to ruin the game whatsoever but enough to let me sigh from time to time. As is the custom for this genre though there's also a lot of running through enviroments, luckily the game looks very good with a nice variety of locales that each are breathtaking to behold. It may not reach the same complexity as some of its contemporaries but the enviroments are still nice to peruse and this sort of low poly cell shaded aesthetic is something i can't really get tired of. INSIDE, black the fall, sommervile and countless others, i find these games to have a strong visual identity and taking screenshots is half the fun of exploration for me. Speaking of exploring there's some satisfying secrets to find to get an alternate ending. If you missed any you can use chapter select to quickly pick them up as they can be used retroactively, which was very appreciated.
Sound design was a bit hit or miss but i would have especially loved to see more volume options. The SFX were generally too loud in comparison with the music which was VERY good. I even rolled the credits a second time to record the final song as i found it to be a very emotive piece. I would definately pick up a copy of the OST if it were to become available. I do think the game is a bit steep at base price, and i would recommend picking it up at a sale which hasn't happened so far. I had a few hours to kill today though and i had this game on my wishlist for a while without any sales. Thus i bit the bullet and picked it up at full price, something i don't regret as i found the experience memorable enough. If you're a big fan of the genre or the art style i think it's worth it. Also if any dev reads this review, please consider doing sales more often as it will really help your sales. I literally wanted to get this and waited until now before finally playing it.