izigame.me

Lost Potential: Beyond the Story

It's one of those games that makes me wish Steam actually had a neutral review option rather than the binary yes/no recommendation.
In short, this game has amazing story and voice acting (admittedly, hitting very close to home for both me and my friend, with whom we discovered the game together) that brought me on the verge of tears on multiple occasions. But the game is massively dragged down by its gameplay aspect.
Let me elaborate.
This game is a platformer, and I normally hate platformers, but I liked the narration and the visual style shown in the trailers, so I decided to give it a try. Plus, the game had a deep discount. The platforming is very easy compared to some other similar games in the genre, as are the puzzles, but that's where the biggest caveat lies. The platforming gets tedious really quickly. Multiple times I caught myself thinking "I want more of the story, not more pesky jumping sections". All that said, I find myself hesitant to give this a negative review, because the diary entries (one of the two stories in the game) are absolutely phenomenal. The fantasy story, though, is where it all comes crashing down.
The external story is presented in the form of diary entries. which are essentially small-scale jumping puzzles, where you can sometimes juggle words around to change the pictures in the journal, all presented in a stunning watercolor aesthetic.
The internal "story within a story" takes place in a vibrant fantasy world, where the protagonist supposedly has the power to use words to influence the world around her. But there are three (four, if you count Point 0) main issues with this part of the game.
Point 0. Any choices made in the diary entries have little to no influence on the story, besides visual differences. So, this is Not a Choose Your Own Adventure game. Not an issue in and of itself, but still worth mentioning.
Point 1. The "word magic" has no variance whatsoever. This game had the potential to have amazing word-based puzzles. Instead, the words are contrived to be used in very specific circumstances ("rise" on platforms with arrows, "break" on rocks with cracks, etc.). They are essentially glorified Metroidvania-like abilities, and even that is squandered by the linear nature of the chapters.
Point 2. The combination of needing to use the keyboard for jumping on platforming sections while simultaneously using the "hold and drag" on words with the mouse, all on top of the jumping being floaty and the swinging being unresponsive at times, makes the "fantasy" platforming portions really tedious. Why have three statues on breakable foundations, where you need to repeat the same sequence of actions (open the book, apply the word, close the book, jump) only to see another identical statue with the same sequence of actions? If all three were on the same screen, the gameplay "loop" in that particular section would have been much smoother (break all three, jump across).
Point 3. The collect-a-thon for nothing (an achievement doesn't really count when SAM exists). Why have "fireflies" to collect in later chapters, when they are mostly along the line of the story, with some of them being in the nooks to the left of the screen or on platforms, if they give no gameplay benefit. This is Assassin's Creed II feathers all over again. Admittedly, that is a personal pet peeve of mine.
The straw that broke the camel's back for me was a bug in Chapter 4 where I fell into the lava and was spawned back before the platforming section, with the upper platform being stuck, as if I was already on there, so I couldn't progress.
In conclusion, I think this game would have been better as an interactive story or a visual novel, rather than a platformer. As it is, I'd rather watch it on YouTube, because the story is genuinely amazing.
If you want a brilliant Choose Your Own Adventure story, I recommend the Life and Suffering of Sir Brante. If you want a puzzly word-based game, I recommend Chants of Senaar. For an adventure puzzler, try The Last Campfire. These games do the mechanical aspects of this game a thousand times better.
TL;DR. A hesitant non-recomendation. Great story dragged down by tedious gameplay. Something I'd rather watch than play.