The definition of an author-driven art game full of personality.
It's a metalinguistic work: art about art. It's a game from the perspective of passionate artists, the kind you see in undergraduate students. People who are eager to express themselves, have discovered a lot, met many new people, and gathered a group full of dreams of living off their art to create a game that represents them, addressing their influences and artistic loves. Just as an example, there's literally an interaction where a character name-drops a bunch of real bands (including my beloved Covet) as favorites, but I'm sure they're the bands the developers listen to the most, especially the composers of some of the math-rock-flavored songs you play in the game.
The user copapistao also mentioned here that the game draws from various sources in its mechanics: the music sessions have a bit of Guitar Hero and Parappa the Rapper, with you pressing buttons to the rhythm while wild scenes play out in the background; the destruction sessions are inspired by Katamari Damacy, urging you to break everything as fast as possible and have fun with the chaos; and the exploration and conversation sessions draw heavily from Mother/Earthbound and its successors (like Undertale and Deltarune), filled with characters full of personality, funny, memorable traits, and inhabiting an engaging world.
The game's trophy, for me, is how STYLISH it is. I loved the madness and chaos of mixing 2D and 3D animation with live-action footage, miniatures, and claymation. And that's present from the very first cutscene, making it clear what the vibe will be! I especially love the whole dollhouse aesthetic and miniature setting, particularly when they highlight the size disparity with real-world objects in the scene, like a fence made of nails.
This is a game well worth playing. However, there are two reasons why it's not a 5/5 for me.
The first is simple. It lacks a bit of polish, both technically and in some of the game's design choices. I went through several moments where I missed notes because the game would freeze when the background scene changed drastically (probably because Unity was loading assets), which took me out of the flow of the music. Actually, the music sessions are a relatively weaker point of the game. For starters, I'm not a fan of the left-to-right bar that resets to the left when it reaches the end, because it makes you lose focus when moving your eyes from one end of the screen to the other. But beyond the mechanics, I think half the songs (especially the non-lyrical ones) needed more polish. I know it might have been the original intention, but I found it kind of lame how some felt like they were "improvised carelessly." They weren't fun to listen to or play.
Finally, my second point about where this game loses me is its message. Note: I mean the message, not the story. I find the story quite interesting, I like the characters, and I thought everything was more or less well tied together, with the game's themes being developed throughout. My problem is more with what the game itself seems to be saying.
To repeat myself: this is a game about art. About how creating art requires copying, repetition, and adaptation. It touches on themes of fraudulence and how it's lame to want to stick to replicating the old, because that's what's expected by those around us, especially older generations who experienced and replicated that tradition. The cool thing would be to let go, express your creativity and individuality, "break the mold," and unleash your artistic potential. As I said, this game smells of young artists full of dreams who are just discovering the world. More than that, it uses a worldview (noticeable through the various historical references throughout the game) that is extremely North American/Western Global North.
And so I have just one thing to say to these folks, in the style of the game's Brazilian Portuguese translation (which, by the way, is excellent): don't hold your breath, because life isn't a bed of roses. This view is too simplistic and Manichaean, as if you can only either repeat the old or create something new. Furthermore, the game gave me a vibe that what really matters is 100% original, brand-new art, created from scratch, which materially doesn't even exist. All art is the fruit of the culture that influenced the artists. There is no art without an audience, no art without an artist, and no creation in a vacuum. Everything that is made is inspired, transformed, adapted, and copied from past traditions and works. The issue lies in how you look back, reinterpret, understand how everything brought us here, and think about where you want to go. To be fair, the game is quite vague in how it expresses these ideas. Vague in the style of the last two episodes of the Evangelion anime. So, maybe it didn't intend to say that, but that was the perception I had.
Anyway, it's a fun, charismatic game full of personality, but it will leave you a bit lost in the end and maybe a little frustrated when playing the little songs. Still, I highly recommend it!
