7821 Akuji

Do not touch the forbidden mayonnaise.

The level design and world building is compelling! The controls are kind of janky though, and it took me some time to get used to the movement system. The soundscape and music is immersive. Overall it was a good experience (albeit with some rough edges).

Preliminary thoughts after getting through some early objectives, in case anyone is interested in more than just mayonnaise: Only for the curious. [i]7821 Akuji[/i] makes good use of its low-poly vibe and surprisingly-effective audio engineering to create a claustrophobic atmosphere that isn't too difficult to navigate, though at times you will need to take leaps of faith. Though you are in a submersible (or at least in something that acts kind of like one), you have no control over your elevation so it's kind of more like driving a slow and somewhat slippery rover more than a sub. While not very dreadful or horrific, it does pass the vibe check in the "uncomfortable" department, but not to an extent where you're actually uncomfortable. You are a pilot inside a small vessel and I haven't got far enough to see why you'd need to navigate the interior, but I'm sure it'll come up sooner or later. For the most part, you will be locked to the vehicle's single viewport which will require some strategic positioning on your part to allow you to both drive the sub and interact with its handful of other controls which include a scanner, a magnet, and some sort of messaging system. The controls are serviceable, but purposely not great. I actually like it a lot, but my main nitpick is that you cannot really accurately set your heading so a lot of the navigating of tight spaces will require constant micro adjustments. This isn't really a big deal until you're trying to aim your guiding laser at something specific; you can tap left or right, but you really can't "cancel" the movement so trying to pinpoint something is a lost cause. It's much better to just drive up closer and start a turn while aiming at the scanner button. While the liminality of the environments I've encountered so far are debatable, I dig the overall aesthetic, from tight mazes to uncomfortably-wide-open spaces and things lurking out in the darkness. There's clearly a lived-in feeling with equipment strewn about and technology built into rocky surfaces when you're navigating the more tightly-wound spaces where humans have clearly been. You'll inevitably end up "elsewhere", though with my short time in the game I have yet to understand quite what that means. ADDENDUM: Apparently I was mere moments away from completing the "true ending" when I stopped to write this. It's a pretty short jaunt, if I'm honest and I really thought there was more to this game. However, there is yet another path I have not explored, so I'll go squeeze some life out of this yet. Ultimately, if you're curious and don't mind a slow pace, you might like what 7821 Akuji has to offer, though for such a short experience, you may wish to sit on it for a bit. For whatever reason, it feels to me like I'm operating a theme park ride except it's in severe disrepair and only mostly gets what I want it to do. The opening hour is interesting enough, but then it just kinda ends not long after. I think there's a bit of lost potential there. It feels like a solo dev/small team effort and should be viewed through an appropriate lens. UPDATE: Completed the other path. With generous pausing, I completed both routes in about 2 hours. Also, none of the achievements actually worked, if you're here for those. Final verdict: An interesting experience, but I'm disappointed. Path A is excruciatingly mind-numbing because of the backtracking. Path B is just a straight point-A to point-B experience. The story in both is just kinda meh so I didn't feel that payoff. That said, there's cool ideas here and I can see this being expanded with tighter controls and perhaps more interesting things to do and/or a faster vehicle.