LogFAQs > #966391439

Wuppo

From the start, this gave my strong An Untitled Story vibes, and I even thought it must have been made by the same developerit wasnt, but it was apparently inspired by that game. Movement is extremely similar to that game and the hand drawn ms-paint aesthetic is clearly taken from that game.

I really wanted to like this game, because of that aesthetic and because its an interesting take on the genre, being more in the vein of traditional adventure games than your typical MV. But even at a relatively short length (I finished in 9 hours) it felt padded, and the game didnt feel like it had a solid focus on what it wanted to be.

One thing it did very well was it had a surprisingly deep lore, which, combined with the aesthetic and loads of NPCs roaming around, made the world feel very fully realized. They clearly spent a lot of time coming up with the various races in the game, giving them personalities and backstories, and it was often very funny.

however, they just didnt come up with enough interesting stuff to do in this world they created, and it often felt disjointed in terms of goals. For example, the first area of the game is purely an action-adventure style, with lots of platforming, and then the middle few sections of the game are purely adventure game style with no hazards and no enemies, just back and forth fetch quest style tasks, then the final section is composed of a large puzzle area followed by some platforming.

amongst all this, there are various bosses, which seem totally disconnected from the rest of the gameplay, having twin-stick shooter style controls, and which were often very challenging. Usually in a game like this you build up the skills for bosses by playing through the rest of the game, here, there were so many long segments that had no enemies separated by boss fights that got increasingly more challenging.

i also found it was often hard to tell what was going on in the game. The paint aesthetic doesnt make it clear what is actually a platform and what is background, and many of the NPCs running around look very similar to the player so its easy to lose your character. In several places the camera zooms super far out, and during boss fights the damage numbers that appear when you hit the boss can cover up the action

there was also a ton of unused stuff that seemed like it came from a different game. There are a whole bunch of shops throughout the game where you can buy costumes, extra items, and upgrades to your weapon, but since there are barely any enemies you dont really get enough money to buy anything. Theres an entire completely optional theme park area that similarly has everything cost money that you simply dont have. And theres a weird aspect of time-wasting they included, with several areas having trains/trams that you have to wait for in real time. One train that takes you to a new area only comes every five minutes and you just have to sit there waiting for it.

Ultimately its very obvious that this game started out as one type of game (an untitled story clone) and the developers shifted focus partway through but didnt fully commit to that new vision, or just ran out of ideas. It ended up being mostly boring, with areas of frustration (several bosses). a rare metroidvania-style game that I didnt feel compelled to 100% complete, I just wanted it over with.

4/10