Grim Fandango Remastered Review (Gnocchizeme)
About an hour into Grim Fandango and you'll notice something odd: the writing doesn't make you want to tear your hair out. For the more patient players out there without sudden onset violent alopecia, you might find the dialogue is not just bearable, it's funny and dare I say it, witty at times. That's because Grim Fandango comes from a time where eccentric designers by the name of Tim Schafer wrote genuinely clever and memorable stories in games.
If one were to describe Fandango's greatest strength, it would be presentation. Rather than bore you with nebulous definitions of "presentation", let's focus instead on how Fandango delivers. The excellently voice-acted game seamlessly weaves film Noir framing with Mictlān aesthetics and elements of grim fantasy that would not be out of place in a Tim Burton movie. Environments in this underworld feel lived in, and the world conveys a sense of liveliness that few adventure games could even hope to achieve. Ironic, considering the Día de los Muertos setting. Throughout this is a (mostly) well-paced narrative featuring a likable underdog protagonist and a recurring cast of lovable weirdos.
The passage of time can be harsh to everyone, and video games from the 90s are no exception. Grim Fandango has issues if you play with uncapped framerate, and certain puzzles are so unintuitive at first, they are borderline perplexing. Overall, these are minor nitpicks for the best Robert Frost simulator on the market today.