Anodyne

This is clearly a passion project, so I feel bad being mean, but this game fucking sucks. It's a total slog. After the first hour, the game stops being fun, and starts being a gigantic chore.

Now, it's clear this game isn't trying to have the best gameplay ever. Putting my critical thinking goggles on, I can see that the gameplay isn't really the point. It's about the experience. You're supposed to wander around the world and be mesmerized by the environment. I will admit, the setting of this game is beautiful. The pixel art is great, and the music, while not perfect, is still pretty decent. The description for this game says that it's inspired by yume nike, and that isn't really a game that's meant to have a great gameplay loop. I get it, I like walking sims if I'm in the mood for them. Whatever.

However- Wait that's not big enough, HOWEVER, in trying to have the best of both worlds, both enviroment and gameplay, this game absolutely ruins the one it does have a handle on. The gameplay is so goddamn repetetive, and they barely do anything to mix it up, so you're five hours into the game, and you're STILL just swinging around the broom, and solving weird dust puzzles. Sure, the enviroment is great, but the gameplay is turning you into a skeleton as if you opened the ark of the goddamn covenant. The game might be great, sure, but the gameplay is so TEETH PULLINGLY BORING that you can't give A SINGLE GLIMMERING OF A THOUGHT to the parts of the game that actually give it ANY merit.

1/5. The gameplay drags a great game down to ABYSSMAL levels. This shit is in the goddamn hadalpelagic zone.