#worldless

The art style for this game is very pretty, it takes that specific minimalist artgame aesthetic, like Gris or Monument Valley. It is very pretty.

The weirdness in this game comes from the fact that combat and movement are distinct and seperate. Combat takes on an active turn-based action-command structure where a timer ticks down on your turn while you perform combos, and then you do your best to block and dodge enemy attacks on their turn.

The actual platforming movement isn’t half bad, but it’s pretty standard.

The reason this game doesn’t work for me, is that it fails to establish itself. From a story perspective, the game is almost textless. There are these strange guys with horns that spout vagueries at you that don’t make any sense. The most I was able to gather was that this universe was newly created.

The environments you travel through are bare, and mostly featureless, mostly being destinguished by colors. There are some landmarks but there’s no environmental storytelling, as a result of both the aesthetic and the story explanation of this being a universe that was just born.

The body language of the characters is a highlight of this, but it’s the only aspect of the story I can see. There are battles that feel important but they’re never given any weight in the narrative. Why is the Angel so hard? Why does it matter?

There’s a lot of potential here but it could have been better used if they actually tried a little harder to make the story apparant.