Legendary Gary

7.5/10 I very much appreciate what it seems that the developer is trying to do here, demonstrating the ways in which we can grow personally through time spent gaming. We might gain self-confidence or an increased sense of agency in the world. Jane McGonigal, in her book "Reality is Broken," depicts the ways that gamification can be used to foster motivation in many non-gaming settings, such as implementing the game "Superbetter" to track recovery from an injury or disease. In Legendary Gary, you'll spend your time switching back and forth between Gary's normal, mundane life, and the RPG that he is playing, "Legend of the Spear." As Gary progresses through the game, the parallels between the characters in-game and the individuals in his life become more and more clear. Each in-game character has a real life counterpart, and these are listed explicitly in the game's credits. The barrier between Gary's actual life and his in-game life begins to blur, as in-game puzzle solutions are found in Gary's day-to-day life. The first introduced instance of this has to be the garden outside Gary's home. His mother would like him to plant flowers in it for her. Not only does this lend Gary a sense of accomplishment and please his mother, but proper care of the flowers provides extra abilities for Gary's party members in the RPG. These abilities, once gained, added a lot of depth and engagement to the combat system. Although the game isn't particularly long, I found uses for many of the abilities given in the fights provided. The combat in "Legend of the Spear" is turn-based, with both your party and that of the enemy acting simultaneously. Luckily, you have the option to "preview" the turn and discover what the opponents are planning. I often found myself leaping, winding up for strong punches, and grappling enemies, while also targeting opponents with abilities that made them unable to block or move. Another element which must be praised is the hand-drawn artwork. It is consistently charming, and actually struck me as very "real." So many of the side-characters, especially in Jumbomart, have a "fluffiness" about them. As I live in the Southern US, where almost everyone is slightly overweight, I felt like I had just walked into my local Wal-Mart. I also thought the dialogue was well-written, aiding in the evocation of appropriate emotions at certain moments. However, there were a few moments when it became a bit heavy-handed, as though the writer was worried that players wouldn't "get" what it was that they were going for here. My only issues with the game were: 1) The battle with Sintravos was pretty brutal, and didn't allow much in the way of alternate strategies. I found that I needed to take advantage of the barriers on the edges of the combat grid to claim victory. 2) I thought the soundtrack was absolutely terrible: cheesy, uninspired, dull beats with soft, garbled, low-effort vocals. At the same time, there's no accounting for taste. I quite liked Legendary Gary overall, despite the music and brief difficulty spike. It's an inspired piece of art, and I'm excited to see what the developer does next.

（犹豫了一下，还是选了推荐——如果看价位可能有些问题，但是游戏还不错） 本作篇幅并不长，主人公大约也就是八天的时间，每天大约都会有一场战斗，然后就是各种对话，一段现实故事一段虚拟游戏里的故事，两段故事其实是相互映射的。 现实世界的主角作为一个沉迷游戏的宅货，各种遭挫折，游戏世界则会把现实世界的人物纷纷映射进来，同时也映射进游戏世界的故事里去。 这种设计叙事的手法首先必须给予赞叹，是相当巧妙的——惊艳谈不上，毕竟类似的设计，p5珠玉在前，还有好多类似情节，虚拟网络与现实世界迥然经历最终逆袭的故事剧情。但是遍数游戏，创意还是相当新颖的。 剧情文本绝对是优秀的，朴实无华，却也不落窠臼，损友的对话，迷信末日的祖母，感到主角缺乏依靠感的女友，热爱音乐的叔叔……小小的人际圈子之间，日常的对白，却无时无刻、潜移默化地推动剧情发展，至少在玩家感受过来，可以说整个剧情自然而然，一气呵成——盖瑞从死宅一路成长为一个肩负起家庭责任的男人。这并不是多么了不起的故事，却温馨足够；游戏世界里寻找失踪国王，打败种种怪物，解决重重考验，成为传奇，这也并非是多么复杂的故事，却已经传奇足够。 一目了然的简短故事篇章，完结之后，心底也别有涟漪。 仔细思考回味，故事文本的朴实与老道之外，还有的印象深刻的就是游戏画风与音乐的特立独行风格。 作为玩过《艾迪芬奇的记忆》的玩家，对于这种奇诡画风的美术做还是挺有好感的。事实上，这样子的画风与这同样奇诡的音乐，确实做到了一种给人足够冲击力、“不明觉厉”的感受——事实上，做到这一点就已然成功。与《艾迪芬奇的记忆》一样，本作在美术和音乐上的设计上，才气横溢，可说惊艳。 游戏的玩法大体是剧情演出系统和一个战斗系统。剧情演出有分歧选项（以"行动力“为支撑关键，不过好像看到有评测里写到验证——是伪分支选项），有类似漫画对白的对话框设计，不算大的简陋地图探索，还有一个简单的种花浇水的养成部分。战斗系统，则是相当有新意的一种创新设计，类似战棋arpg的设计，在其经典的战棋回合战斗基础上改造出了拆解的动作格斗，并且战斗结束之后连贯快放，自动组合成了一场你来我往的格斗，效果相当不错。 ps：游戏中人物在地图行走动作太过僵硬，感觉不好 ps2：只有全屏，似乎无法窗口模式，steam自带的截图好像又无法使用……搞了半天没能够截图（好吧别人能够截图，可能是我自身的问题……）

I cried.. a little.. no.. not actually.. but i cried inside.. yes.. no..

Pros === - Really innovative tactical strategy battle mechanic. We've never seen something like this before. I hope more professional game designers will take a look at this and get inspired. - A quirky but consistent art direction. Cons ==== - Amateurish, unorganic writing. Quite a fair bit of grammatical errors and doesn't really pack an emotional punch. - Sterile scenes due to a lack of static animations (e.g. blinking eyes, etc would really help). - Quite boring overall due to a lack of plot or emotional highlights.

Interesting Art style, innovative concept and great music. But the turn based combat was a bit too slow to my personal liking and never really clicked with me. I would have liked the game better without this gameplay element in it. Nevertheless, the idea of playing a real person who's also an adult with a love for videogames is unique and enough of a push for me to want to see how everything plays out.

Short but nice.

Достоинства игрушки подробно расписаны в русско- и англоязычных отзывах, чтобы не повторяться просто присоединяюсь к рекомендациям (раз ограниченная система оценок Steam не позволяет рекомендовать игру без отзыва).