izigame.me

Want to preface this with up until the final act I would have given this a thumbs up. I could look past all the shortcomings and praise it as an incredible first effort at a game release. But it just took took a step too far into the red at the end there.
:: The good ::
Art/Vibe
Fall of Porcupine is a beautifully presented game. The art and atmosphere is incredible. And at times I questioned whether I actually preferred the art-style and atmosphere over that of its spiritual predecessor, and honestly I think I do. They have done a great job at building the world and vibe they set out to. And must make an extra note of the character rigs. They are so bouncey, full of life, and expressive! The game feels great.
:: Not a deal-breaker ::
Music
The music itself was very good. However something I noticed while playing is that it is a very quiet game. Occasionally I felt like something was missing and very quickly realised little to no sound was present in the scene at all. I understand this is used intentionally in some cases but too often it just seemed to be missing, and would have otherwise boosted the atmosphere and general feel of the game to another level.
:: The not so great ::
This game had massive potential and has obviously drawn a lot of comparison between another game involving a town of animals, fall themes, crisp picture-book-esque lineless art direction, dialogue balloons, and sarcastic humor, packed into a narrative based side-scrolling platformer. And it initially looked like it was going to be able to stand on its own two legs against it very very convincingly. However unfortunately it just doesn't quite make it there on a few levels.
Bugs/Gameplay
Certain keyboard keys don't correspond with the UI prompts. Gamepad can be unresponsive at times. Moved back onto PC only to find that some games were literally uncompletable on keyboard. For example, one mini-game requires you to hold down multiple keys (4-5 keys) which seems to stop working after holding two, causing you to immediately bomb multiple unrepeatable parts of the game. Another mini-game seemingly has no instructions on how to play it and despite playing it multiple times through the game, still could not figure out what was required for an "A grade" by the end.
NOTE: And on the briefly on subject of grades (because I don't want make a whole other section for it), the grades/mini-games are such a large part of padding out the game time just for them all to seemingly not mean or amount to anything by the end.
The game also suffers from some clipping/z-axis issues where parts of characters or props will clip/overlap over one another in passing. I once witnessed this following what should have been a hard hitting scene. Instead I woke up immediately following that scene then proceeded to fly from my bed to the other side of the room while still laying down and asleep, which sort of ruined the mood.
NPC movement AI is also quite buggy causing them to be left behind often.
Writing
For the most part the writing is solid. At times the humor seems to attempt to emulate that of its spiritual aforementioned predecessor and sometimes meets that mark, and other times doesn't. Otherwise the dialogue is perfectly fine and enjoyable to read.
The structure of the narrative on the other hand is not great. Most of the time when it comes to your relationships and learning more about other characters it seems to be a bit of an exposition dump. Instead of building a relationship with the characters throughout the game and the payoff being some personal reveal or hard hitting scene near the end, characters you are hanging out with for the first time seem to abruptly give you their life story by the end of your first hangout and then aren't much further developed upon after that.
I was enjoying myself regardless for the first two acts but felt like something was missing that was stopping me from getting fully immersed in the story. It turns out it was because of the seeming lack of one, which was subtly missing from the chit-chat up until that point. The overarching story beyond "slice-of-life pigeon goes to first job and is nervous" doesn't really take shape until the final act and then the game is over. I spent the first two acts wondering what the main plot thread actually was. In retrospect the seeds of the final plot are dotted around the early game but they mean very little until the last act and don't give you a solid enough sense of what the mystery is, or even if there is a mystery in the first place. At best they are hints that there could be a plot, maybe. So by the time it actually comes out that there is indeed an actual overarching something going on to be theorising about, you're already an hour or two away from the credits.
The game does a great job at setting the immediate scene (and town in general) and capturing the everyday events taking place presently in-front of Finley, but has a hard time developing on both characters and the story outside of that over the length of the game.
The Ending
I was writing this review as a recommendation in my head as I was playing as I could look past everything that has been said, enjoy it for everything it does well, and praise it for being a great first release. But the ending just put an unforgettable damper on everything.
(Vague spoilers)
As mentioned, the final act finally confirms an overarching plot and goes full steam ahead, packing the entire story into that final act. It poses a very interesting mystery and opens up a bunch of questions about the true nature of the events taking place. Then proceeds to answer none except for one of them. And that reveal is given in the shortest most unceremonious exposition-dump I've ever seen which takes place between two characters you just casually walk into chatting in a hallway. And even then it proceeds to answer none of the other questions such as:
-Why/how did the 5th floor suffer the fate it did?
-Confirmation on how the entire town got sick
-Who was in on it?
-How/will the town tensions be resolved?
It then proceeds, in the last 20 minutes of the act/game, to set off what feels like the start of the climax of the game. And then the credits suddenly roll. Nothing answered. No resolutions or even hints at what those resolutions might look like. The one reveal that does take place seemingly has zero consequences as literally no one broaches the issue from that point until the credits roll, everyone present sort of just glances over it. In fact with regards to everything that happens, the player is not given the opportunity to experience any of the repercussions or outcomes of it all, apart from some fleeting stills in the credits. No characters even get an opportunity to talk about or address literally anything that happens in the last 20 mins. It just ends.
Ultimately it doesn't deliver on the massive build-up it creates.
And then in the post credits scene throws another stray random attempt at a hard-hitter which falls flat since, much like the majority of the other characters, no time was spent actually building the players compassion & familiarity towards said character. And it doesn't go about it in a way that would be effective even if they had. It sort of just randomly drops it in your lap and then kicks you back to the main menu suddenly. With pretty much no buildup or time to fathom it or let it set in afterwards, or to experience the consequences of it, it just doesn't really work.
As a side note, funnily enough I found one of the side characters (fisherman) to have left the largest impact on me as you actually visit them each day and develop your relationship with them throughout the game, evidence CritRabbit know how to do this.

Edit: days later and I'm still thinking about this review. Wish I could give a neutral rating. On a couple of levels I love this game a lot. But it keeps coming back to the thought of how a third of the story feels missing.