Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo: Closure Edition

Nice game

Must Play

[h1]Recommendation Review[/h1] I've never done reviews for games, even though I have many thoughts on them, all too often I feel diswayed from it in one way or another. Yet, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo has broken that curse. I'm sure it has happened before and yet to memory I cannot place a single other game to affect me so profoundly in a positive way. I did not cry, and yet it was beautiful. I went into this game blind; I knew only that it was a paperlike/billboard animation game with charm, it was made by two brothers in Dominican Republic inspired by their favorite games and their culture, and it had a question based encounter system rather than a fight to the death battle system most games implement. If you are even just considering putting this game in your wishlist to decide later if you want to check it out, if in any way you want to play it, I would like that same blindness for you, just know that from how the emotions spoke to me, this is a beautiful game with a beautiful message in a dark time and I highly recommend it. [h2]Recommendation Review Concluded. [/h2] [h2]Personal Review/Essay Beginning. ALL OF THE SPOILERS.[/h2] If you have already finished the game yourself, or you've decided blindness is not for you, that you want to see so much your retinas burn, against my recommendation, but that's alright so long as you choose it. What follows will be me gushing about the game in my personal opinion and interpretations with no regard to spoilers whatsoever. The game affected me deeply and I simply have to note it and rant about it somewhere where the point isn't debate or discussion just sharing my experience into the void, what follows is just that, for me and as a side possibility people who have finished the game and are interested in others experiences! Spoilers! Alright so since Steam is currently bugged showing spoilers, for now I've edited my review to contain the gameplay side of my review rather than the message it spoke to me. (I have so much to say I can only keep one section on this review at a time) [h3] Game Mechanics - Mild Spoilers [/h3] This game touted point and click puzzles like the olden games of yore. I am particularly fond of these sorts of games. Here, Kulibra succeeded even where Point and Click Titans like Tim Schafer failed, it brought the slow savory puzzle feel and blended it perfectly with a 3D world. Kulibra can move about freely, Kulibra can run, and where Kulibra can run he can also be chased! He can sneak about and hide too. This adds a perfect blend of peaceful at-your-pace progress with moments of high stakes tension that march perfectly in step with the elements of it's story. Abilities are fun, they never feel underutilized and yet they are never overdone. The clock mechanic was a delight! I never finished Majora's Mask and henceforth shied away from clock based games (I will return one day Outer Wilds, one day). However this was a breath of fresh air. Changes are not micromanaged down to the minute, leaving you to desperately chase characters rushing about the world as in Majora, rather, changes are sliced into three sections of day and they happen immediately. This means the world moves enough to demonstrate it has life, yet stays still enough that you can interact with it while stopping to smell the roses too. I can't tell you how many times I was waiting for the time to turn over the next section but refused to pass it on the bench because I wanted to breathe more of this lovely and charming world. [h3] Storytelling - Moderate Spoilers, Pacing indications [/h3] Layers. That is the word that comes to mind when thinking of Kulebra's storytelling. Everything is layered on so that the next element fits in perfectly and the player understands. Yet it is not entirely predictable. In fact, as I could not resist endlessly guessing and predicting I was always pleasantly surprised, nothing was exactly as I thought it was and yet everything fit. Then, just as you believe you have all the pieces that make the individual pretty pictures, the last pieces reveal they were all connected, we are all connected. Blowing back to the beginning of the game with new understandings I will take with me on my inevitable second playthrough. With this in mind, what I truly did not understand never felt like a failure to explain but rather felt entirely like it was on me, and I look forward to seeing those moments again in the hopes of a deeper understanding next time. The game is unceasingly charming and yet it touches deep emotions. Perhaps it is this combination that allows you to go down into the troubled lives of these characters and then lets you to come up gently, breathing gratitude.