izigame.me

My opinion is more complicated than a binary thumbs up/thumbs down. It's why I don't like the question "do you recommend this game?" because the actual answer to that question is "well I might as long at the potential buyer sets their expectations correctly and knows exactly what they're getting going in." But ultimately I believe that for the audience that this game seems to be geared towards in terms of its visuals I don't think I can quite give it the nod (and even for the audience that would probably appreciate it most, there are some real frustrating issues here).
First off, Ember Lab has done an absolutely phenomenal design and art direction job here. I would call this one of the prettier games I've played in recent years, despite the fact that it is not punching with the kind of graphical horsepower top tier AAA games do. Obviously one of the main comparisons that anybody would make looking at this thing is to Pixar and for good reason. I would argue this is probably the closest any studio has ever come to making a game that looks like what would happen if Pixar at their most visually inventive decided to make a game. I absolutely mean that as the highest of complements. But considering Ember Lab started life as an animation studio you can't help but feel in watching these cutscenes come to gorgeous life that a good portion of their passion still lies in telling us a story, rather than making us play through one ourselves. Not that the story is...much to write home about. I feel so bad saying that, but when my eye sees Pixar type characters I expect a little more character, and a little more story and investment in the world beyond "go here and get the thing to open the door." It's serviceable thanks mostly to some strong moments that play out in cutscenes, but it never lives up to the potential of the art design.
But don't get me wrong, this thing is not just a work of visual fidelity for its own sake. The gameplay is no slouch here. The mechanics are tight, the controls are responsive and absolutely nothing about it feels amateur hour.
So, where does it go wrong?
Well...it made itself a gosh dang Soulslike. I am perfectly aware that there are some people who would disagree, since it's not 100% designed and paced like a Soulslike. I'm not interested in arguing those points or changing minds. Yes, there are puzzle elements (which are pretty boring most of the time to be honest and felt like padding), but most of what you're getting here are encounters on encounters on encounters in arena-like environments against groups of enemies with telegraphed attacks and high damage, and you're armed with a parry move, a dodge roll, and a limited shield. And more often than that, scratch the groups of enemies and replace them with various big-ol', fairly interchangeable looking bosses (all hulking figures with wooden masks or rocky elemental types). They've got those moves where they slash real quick and you're punished if you roll the wrong way. They'll punish you for getting greedy with your hits. You actually have to learn how to parry and time your dodges with precision to survive, and some of these guys are gonna need a good chunk of your real world time as you grind them (this is compounded when the ending 2.5 hours are basically just an endless boss rush broken up by minor puzzles).
Now, do I have an inherent complaint about the Soulslike genre? Absolutely not. They have their place, and I've gradually been learning to be a capable enough player to succeed in them. But I would argue that the mishmash of Pixar movie and unforgiving Soulslike is an odd pairing. The game seems to have an appeal to little kids, but kids are gonna struggle at the very least trying to get through it. No it's not as hard as an actual FromSoft title, but I don't really think that makes a difference in the minds of a kid relatively new to gaming who just wants to play the nice cartoon game with the silly minions that follow the main character around.
And while you might be thinking "who cares, I'm not a kid bring on the pain," then you're going to run into things like a finnicky camera lock on in boss fights that makes fighting fast moving enemies more annoying than it needs to be (the Hunter boss fight can go jump in a hole). And nothing about throwing squishy bombs to solve timed platform puzzles really screams "this is meant to appeal to the hardcore Soulslike community." I'm just kind of left wondering who this game is supposed to be for, and therefore it becomes hard for me to offer an unqualified recommendation.
All that being said, take this with a grain of salt. I make it a rule to only review games I actually see through to the end credits. And while I think my motivation to finish this kind of just turned into a compulsion for the sake of a compulsion, if it was a truly awful game it would not be worth seeing through to the end credits no matter what. I hope Ember Labs continues its work, and if after all this you feel like this is the game for you by all means pick it up and support the devs. There is good work here.