Picayune Dreams

[h3]HEARTBEAT PING ? PONG. CONDITION STABILIZED. ANALYZING DATA…[/h3] Despite having played most of them, I hate survivor-likes – bullet-heavens, call them what you like. The time I spent with them wasn’t out of real interest, but because they are neuro-chemically pleasing. To me they’re just glorified slot-machines, dopamine dispensers and skinner boxes. Yet, it wasn’t until I played an actually good one with Picayune Dreams that I got to understand more clearly why I hated them and what’s the real problem with the genre. First off, this game does a number of things to separate itself from bullet-heavens and even transcend them in a way. The best way I can explain it is with a quote from my former Shorinji Kempo sensei: “If martial arts are a cup of coffee, then the fighting part is just the sugar you add to make the coffee less bitter. The coffee itself is the philosophy we teach”. That’s how I perceive Picayune. The “numbers go up” and “mow down the screen” part is actually just the hook, the sugar you add to make the coffee less bitter. But the coffee itself? It’s everything else. The psychedelic visuals, the insane breakcore soundtrack and the gut-wrenching story. The writing itself is as edgy as it gets, but it does an amazing job making you care for the characters. It made me laugh, made me uneasy, but mostly it made me feel sorry for them. Theres a certain rawness to it that is highly evocative of both the mental and physical trauma Picayune and her friends go through. The story is also pretty simple and focused with its themes, although the way it is delivered will no doubt have people think of it as more convoluted than it actually is. You’ve also got Milkypossum’s wild breakcore soundtrack. Their work probably deserves more recognition, it’s easily up there with the likes of Venetian Snares, Igorrr and goreshit. A perfect fit for both the aesthetic of the game and the frantic pace. And speaking of aesthetics, Andy Land’s visual work is stylish and surreal as hell. It has an otherworldly feel to it which matches greatly ideas of space, aliens, the afterlife and the unknown. At its best, you'll be wondering if something is represented metaphorically or literally. So with visuals, sounds and narration that solid, you could’ve in all honestly probably slapped just about any gameplay and still get a decent game. But Picayune chose to be a bullet-heaven game and ended up being – at the time of writing this – probably the only good game in this genre. Sure, at a glance, it’s like most survivors-likes. You kill entire screens, collect exp, level up weapons, die, get permanent upgrades and repeat. But there’s a twist: bosses turn the game into a proper bullet-hell. That small detail is enough to make the game infinitely more engaging than anything else in the genre already. The dedication to bullet-hell mechanics doesn’t feel like an afterthought either. Granted I’m no expert in the genre and could see more seasoned Touhou players not being impressed. But I found the patterns to be varied and interesting, your hitbox is also appropriately tiny and clearly communicated. Even if you [i]could[/i] use the game’s progression system or black holes (although that locks you out of certain achievements) to nullify a lot of the bullet-hell aspects, the devs still implemented at least one fight that more or less requires you to deal with those mechanics. All this to say, it’s more than a gimmick or anecdotal. It might even end up being a solid entry point into the genre for some people who otherwise had no experience with bullet-hells prior. More importantly, this one twist creates [i]contrast[/i], otherwise terribly lacking from other bullet heavens yet fundamental in making them interesting. Contrast alleviates flatness and repetitivity, something utterly essential in a genre that is all about repeating samey runs. That contrast is further backed up by the rpg-maker horror segments you unlock after a boss. A moment of peace before the storm, pacing your runs and progress. On top of all this, every aspect of the game fits coherently with the gameplay. The narration for example makes perfect use of the roguelike format: repeated boss encounters yield new dialogues, specific challenge runs lead to more exposition. The continuity is meta. The soundtrack appropriately ramps up during a boss fight and suddenly everything comes together. Blarring synths flood your ears, the visuals melt into a fever dream, millions of abstract shapes are vaporized as your cooldown rate sync’s up with the beats per minute. There you are, battling against one’s disillusion with humanity, having fun and caring about it all. That’s what it comes down to for me. Other survivor-likes are just raw sugar. No coffee in sight. For the most part they have no story to tell, no visuals worth looking at, no music you’d come back to again and again. The only thing they have is their mechanics, but those are just addictive, flat and boring. They are just numbers going up and locked things unlocking. Picayune Dreams understands that sugar is just an ingredient you put in something to make it more palatable, not the point itself. In the end, what keeps you going isn't just the next unlock, or high score. But the desire to hear that specific boss soundtrack one more time. To see the next twisted memory. To spend time with Picayune and her friends. Learn more about them. Help them. Save them. Seriously, please save th [h3] [TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED...] [/h3]