izigame.me

I cannot recommend this game enough.
A friend of mine recommended me this title as he knew that I was a big Lovecraft and pixel art fan and I will admit that I was a little skeptical at first, having never played a text based game in the same style as this. But nevertheless it was only £11.00 and I had nothing new to play so what the hell.
Oh. God. I. Love. This. Game.
I understand it will not be everyones thing but as someone who loves the vibe of pixel art and chip-tune and the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft and Junji Ito, This game is a masterpiece... and its still a pre-release beta.
Pros:
- The pixel art style is beautiful. The options for 1-bit or 2-bit colour palettes really gives a feeling of personalisation to the game and the pseudo-anime style (Whilst I never thought it would appeal to me) is oddly nostalgic in a way which is both really comforting and oddly disconcerting.
-The music is gorgeous. Throughout the game the chip-tune soundtrack moves and alters to suit situations. You need horror? heres horror, you need relaxing safe room music? here's relaxing safe room music. Honestly, the musical director for this game is incredible and when the game is out of pre-release, I will be deeply upset if the soundtrack is not released somewhere.
- The gameplay is ever changing and evolving. There is a really good tutorial case which helps to explain the games fundamental mechanics but is not so in depth that it tells you everything and leaves nothing to be discovered. As the game has no voice acting bar some basic sounds (Which is a huge bonus) there is also no annoying tutorial voice. 11/10.
-In addition to this, I made the mistake of thinking that as the game was still in pre-release, there would be a small amount of cases to go through and each would be the same style. Oh boy, was I wrong. About 10 hours in, I felt like I had a rough grasp on the game so I decided to try the feature where you design the parameters for your own playthrough. It was here that I discovered the scope of this game. Multiple characters, each with their own abilities, stats, aesthetic options, character specific cards, the list goes on and on. There are different gods to create the overarching darkness for the game, each with interesting and playthrough altering effects. There are difficulty options, world seeds and - Most importantly for me, an option to prioritise encounters that you haven't seen before. This tiny feature easily highlights this game to me as a diamond amongst the coal.
The thing that blew my mind the most about the gameplay however?
There is a case which is specific to halloween this year that alters the map, the style of the story telling and a small number of other things which drastically changes the storytelling mechanics and the game itself as a result. I'm not saying it's a better or worse way of doing it, I am saying that by having the different styles and formats, this game achieves something that games five times its price can only dream of. *It. Is Fun.*
- The references in this game are obviously present, it is heavily inspired by a number of horror sources but most predominantly Junji Ito and HP Lovecraft as well as a number of urban legends, myths and fairy tales. despite this, it manages to carve an identity for itself and never once feels like a self insert fan fiction.
-There is an option in your home (Safe room) to bathe, which *does not* contain gratuitous nudity and honestly thank you to everyone involved in that choice. It is really refreshing to see a game containing horror and Japanese influenced art with little to no nudity whatsoever, in the time I have played I haven't noticed even one example and it's nice to see a game that doesn't need this in order to thrive.
- I cannot find a single micropayment in the game. I am aware that DLC has the potential to be added later on as with all games (Honestly I wouldn't mind this in the slightest. But there is no in game currency, no shop (outside of the one in the game world of course) and it is amazing to see. (if this is added I retroactively revoke this point but I feel its safe to say the developers seem wholeheartedly focussed on creating an amazing horror experience as opposed to milking the game.)
- The game is actually creepy. It sounds stupid but the amount of horror games I have played that focus on jump scares and cheap gore in order to make a game feel scary far outnumbers the games that genuinely create a sense of unease and discomfort purely through the world building and consequences of your actions. Whilst there are some minor jumps along the way, the game does not rely on them in order to create the oppressive and unnerving atmosphere it achieves so well.
Cons:
Honestly I have no outright cons, I haven't been playing long enough to have discovered any gamebreaking glitches or bugs and seeing the effort and passion that has gone in, I really cannot criticise the features that are already there. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement and I feel like the addition of some features could improve the game even further:
- Firstly, I think it would be a great idea in the monster compendium to add some more features instead of just names of the enemies. It would be nice to be able to click on a name and see the artwork for those enemies, the art in this game is a strong point and it would be awesome to see it shown off in this way.
- Although the aesthetic choices for 1 bit and 2 bit are incredible, I play on the 2 bit option mainly and being able to change each colour individually would be really great as currently I find it a little tricky to read some of the wording as one of the colours may be slightly too dark on my favourite colour scheme.
- In some sections I feel as though the introduction of a back arrow would be really helpful, in the menu to customise playthoughs for example this would really help if you wanted to change something on the previous page. Also in the hospital where if you enter you either have to enter the pharmacy or the doctors office, both increasing doom and being as I click on this option by accident when I go to click the item storage, I feel like a back button would be really helpful.
A final summary:
This game is a light in the dark. At a time where large companies are releasing fast paced action shooters and battle royales (which absolutely have their place in gaming but seem to be an oversaturated market currently) it is refreshing and reassuring to see smaller developers releasing genuinely fun, interesting and passion filled projects. The horror genre is a very tricky one to create something groundbreaking for as so much has already been explored and while text based games have definitely been done before, there is something different about this game which really helps to make it feel deeper and more unnerving- the ominous nature of the looming lighthouse, the effect that your choices have on the world around you, the cases themselves and the changing style of gameplay. Whatever I was expecting when I decided to install this game, it was not this.
If you need any further proof that this game is a shining gem, look no further than the fact that I actively went out of my way to review a game I have only been playing for about 24 hours and every time I go back into the game for the purposes of writing this review to check something, I find myself drawn back in unable to escape the unravelling mysteries and the beautifully crafted world. If that doesn't capture what gaming is truly meant to do, I genuinely do know know what does.
11/10
Would pet the shop keeper.