OYASUMII

Sharing my honest, post-playthrough thoughts on this for a few reasons: 1. I finally had the time to give this an honest playthrough. 2. TestedDsf's coverage of it in her recent video gave me a good enough impression to try it out for myself. 3. As a long-time fan and follower of the game through Reddit posts & the Discord server, I feel semi-obligated to offer my two cents here. 4. I wanna give as much constructive feedback as I can to hopefully help improve for future projects. Story-wise a lotta stuff just... happens. It's not downright horrendous or anything that really ruins my appreciation for the game; as I still like its narrative elements and attempt to tell a story. It's kinda just awkwardly hamfisted in a way weird to describe. There's no subtext throughout its gameplay or any real consistent themes that hint towards an expansive narrative until the very end, aside from a few character exchanges and obligatory walls of text for exposition. Idk maybe I missed out on some super important subtext or just didn't get far enough myself. In terms of practical gameplay, OYASUMII a suffers from a severe case of the dreaded "walking simulator syndrome". Many stages just involve the player traversing from point A to point B with no real tension or emersive sense of urgency. I enjoyed the platformer segments & the many mechanics it introduced, as well as is attempts to diversify obstacles to match given stages: like how rain levels will have slippery slopes, or having to slide through small crevices that could easily be overlooked at first playthrough, admittedly very smart stuff! Wasn't a fan of the mazes though, like... at all. Though maybe that's just a personal gripe. Stages also consisted of waaayyy too much open space, makin it a real pain to start a level from the beginning after falling off - easy fix could've been redesigning the levels more linear, instead of focusing too much on the whole "open-world" schtick. Definitely part of the reason I called it quits halfway through and just watched an existing playthrough instead. No offense tho. The game itself, for everything unique about it I enjoyed, also hinges a liiiiittle too hard on its inspirations - like it's tryna parody a million different games at once instead of sticking to one format and taking a unique spin on it. Saw another review here that goes into greater detail with this point, but I'll cut it some slack as it's very clearly a passion project at the end of the day. Saying all of this, I definitely still enjoyed what unique ideas this game had to offer, distinctly in its visuals. Absolutely adore the homage this game pays to both surreal indie RPGs old-school PSP/N64 games with its visual identity (although the pixelization mixed with a sharp chromatic aberration filter does become rather eye-straining to a point) - as well as the many stages in the game that reference old gaming nostalgia, really a treat to see! Same goes for the overall lighting and atmosphere, really captures the whole dark-surrealist liminal space vibe that comes with a lot of old games. I also like the use of camera smears, especially when traveling underwater. It's clear this was created more as an immersive passion art-piece than anything super complex in terms of lore and gameplay, which I still appreciate! All in all, I'd recommend OYASUMII to anybody into simple surreal exploration flicks. Here's hoping you guys take some of the criticism in mind & improve on your craft as game devs, since I genuinely see a lotta potential in y'all's work from this alone.