Yep, the end
This was retro game, kinda had a metroid feel to it. People who came here for a SAS zombie thing that just came out should do a u-turn back to the shooter isle. Good story, formated in a patchy you fill in the blanks kinda way. I really luved the dark feel to this game, at parts you can really feel yourself desending into whatever darkness this was. I get the strong feeling of no sequel here.
Silent Hill meets Moebeus?
Art games are often hard to review in the traditional sense, because it brings up the argument of what is a good game and what is a good piece of art. The game aspect of Gyossait is rather minimal, so lets start with that. The controls were simple, the jump was a little funny at first, but I adjusted to it eventually. I'm surprised so many people complained about not being told how to play. Didn't anyone see those slabs in the background of the first level? I did, so that either means I'm incredibly intelligent, but more realistically, it means I've probably played ANY OTHER FLASH GAME ON NEWGROUNDS! The level design, from a technical standpoint was the usual platformer fair, however, I did appreciate that short cuts would upon up as you progressed through the level so any untimely death was made easier to cope with when you realized you didn't have to trek through the whole level again.
That's really all that can be said for the game play, so lets move onto the next part which requires a bit more examination.
Visuals: This game has a great variety of moody, disturbing imagery. The atmosphere is thick and menacing and i think the pixelated graphics work very well. Some may poo poo this retro design choice, but I think it adds to the spooky ambiance. Pixel art by it's nature is mostly interpretive. It leaves much of the work up to imagination of the player, and a good fabricator of horror knows that when someone is frightened, their imagination is their worst enemy.
Sound: The SFX and music were something of a mixed bag for me. Sometimes it would be great, but other times it would just be grating (see what what I did there! yuk yuk yuk) I would have preferred the looping of the music to be a little more subtle, but I can at least say that the music is always very appropriate and it does help to keep you enthralled in this dark, dying fantasy world.
Storytelling: Instead of going into the actual story, I'd rather talk about the story telling technique. Sense the game's controls are rather limiting, most of us will play through to the end to get our story telling fix. The challenge of the art game is indeed to be artsy, but you must be wary of becoming artsy fartsy. When something is artsy, it usually tries to tell us a story or evoke an emotion in an interesting and abstract way, so at first we're confused, but later on, we get that epiphany and we walk away with a greater understanding or appreciation for that story or emotion. This differs from being artsy fartsy when it feels like someone is just trying to be as abstract as possible, so no one gets it but them, and they can feel some sort of artificial sense of superiority.
If there was anything that i think needed to be changed about this game, it would be the removal of all the text. Visual narrative is a powerful and underused tool in the video gaming world. It encourages the player to interpret things for themselves, and ultimately immerses them deeper into the world. And immersion really is the defining factor of a game like this.
Many people seem confused by the games story, but feel all the text gave away a little too much. And sense it's written in a dark and surreal, poetic style, it comes dangerously close to artsy fartsy territory.
However, I don't think it's fair to call this game pretentious, or patronizing. It's actually a fantastic story that's paced extremely well, and in the end, is very satisfying to see all the way through. Art games are becoming more and more popular, much in the way art films have, and i think it's up to games like this to set the mold for future artistic gamers and game designers.
This was really cool
I love the art style and the dark atmosphere. This game really drew me in but the only thing that kept me playing was the desire to see what crazy thing would happen next. I think that if you made the game play more interesting then this would be a perfect game.
Truly a fantastic game.
I must admit, your direction, storyline, graphic and creative skill are all superb, but i found myself trapped in a few parts, and lost in others. After i killed the (Demi God?) and fell that great way down, i ended up glitching through the floor and couldn't more on. I don't know if its a common glitch or if its just cause of my luck, but w/e. I wished i could have gone on but from what i played and how far i got i like it all.
Still, I must say this left me feeling both impressed, and rightfully creeped out. Great job!
so creepy... and its ok. becides it maybe giving me nightmares, its a pretty cool game. I played like 20 minutes and got 4 of the awards so I think ive played it enough.