Void Stranger

Outer Wilds, Tunic, Animal Well, and Rain World are amongst my favourite games, and so based on what I'd been hearing about Void Stranger, I thought that this game would be right up my alley. I was expecting a game with heavy epistemic progression wherein mechanics are deliberately withheld and unexplained, and where there are countless instances of world recontextualisation where something you didn't previously know radically recasts much of what you thought you already knew. And here's the thing: Void Stranger may well be precisely this sort of game. It's just that I won't have any way of knowing it because after playing for 4 hours and 100 or so Sokoban levels, and having heard that there's at least 200 of them in total, and that fully unraveling the story/world/scenario here requires a large number of repetitions through all of these levels, requiring multiple dozens of hours, I just can't be bothered. One of the things about the games I listed above that makes them work is that the epistemic loop is not the only engaging thing about playing them. Just existing in the world of those games is compelling - just being a Slugcat, just flying your little spaceship around, just exploring a deceptively colourful voxel world, are all brilliantly fun and rewarding on their own. The epistemic layer only works because the basic lower level interactivity loop is functioning well. But for Void Stranger? The first dozen or so single-screen levels were alright. There were a few instances very early on in the game where I figured out the basic mechanics after a little trial and error, and that was a good feeling. And even though the developer is able to do some reasonably clever things his fundamental mechanics, from my perspective at least, there is NOT 200 levels worth of mechanical depth here. The very thought of having to trudge my way through double what I've already endured multiple times is painful. There's just not even remotely enough conceptual richness and depth in these environments to justify inhabiting those spaces for such incredible amounts of time. One way the game's organised is that after every 20-30 Sokoban levels there's an injection of a little story/backstory/cutscene exposition. I very quickly found myself trying to rush through the Sokoban levels explicitly so that I could access the next ration of storytelling. That's what I was wanting to get to! That's how I wanted the game to communicate with me. And that's a terrible sign for a game generally - story should not be a reward; the player shouldn't have to endure the core gameplay loop just to get to the good stuff. The setting itself implies that something deeply psychological is going on. There are all of these wonderful symbols and hints of quite possibly Jungian ideas present from quite early on. But unfortunately it's all locked behind hours of top-down pixel Sokoban puzzling.

yes - it's excellent

Never before in a video game have I been sent to the court for groping the massive oversized bosom of a snake lady. First time for everything I guess. The judge let me off the hook for honesty after pleading guilty. What a nice guy. Alas, they haven't heard the last of me. 10/10 would grope again.

I had to make a python script to set my locusts to 64 because the anti save scum view was upsetting my delicate soul.

solid 8.5/10 game, finally beating [spoiler]hard mode[/spoiler] was an amazing experience

I could only enjoy Void Stranger because I was unemployed as I was playing it. You need a notebook. You need patience. You need many, many, many hours to spend/waste doing random trivial bs until something clicks. The puzzles are fun and hard, but the real metagame is the stupidly dense mountain of vague, brain-poison hidden interactions and secrets. I cannot overstate how rewarding the game gets once you start autopilot solving puzzles while trying to find secrets to progress. In my opinion that is where the game truly starts. It turns into a game of hot potato between developer and player, every and I mean EVERY time you look back at your game notes and think you've made a breakthrough, you have. You are rewarded every time you think outside the box (but not really, you have to think outside the box in the way that the developer wants. you will need a guide, I did). I feel like System Erasure's next game in whatever weird xenosaga-like mythology/epic they are crafting will make this one make more sense. SPOILERS: [spoiler]The shoot-em up section at the end of the game made tear up just from the realization of how insane and beautiful the game truly is. In so many ways I wish the game was more accessible to a wider audience but by doing so it wouldn't be the same game. I guess that's what the youtube video essay is for.[/spoiler]

This is the weirdest game I've played in the last 5 years, but that is not to it's detriment, its a strenght. I've played for over 12 hours and i JUST NOW believe i have JUST finished the tutorial, I recommend not looking things up but share it with a friend and lose yourselves in finding the gems this game has to offer. Void stranger is a 10/10 and more people need to play it

this game is evil