Night in the Woods: Weird Autumn Edition

"Anemoia" is when you feel nostalgia for a place you've never been to and this game has tons of it. If you have any empathy and attention span at all, this game will make you feel nostalgic as hell. The game's setting and its characters are inspired by the slow decline of small towns in the American rust belt, a place I've never been to, but now I can't help but feel sorrow for those kinds of places. It's not all melancholy, though. The great humor and mild mystery/cosmic horror elements spice things up. The ending is satisfying, but it hits you in the feels even harder when you realize there will never be a sequel since the creative lead of the studio died. 😔

A Night in the Woods is a simple game full of mystery and intrigue that falls more on the interactive novel spectrum of gaming despite some light platforming, minigames and rewards for exploration. But this isn't a negative. The character development and the extremely authentic representation of a dying Pennsylvanian mine town as well as the engaging mystery make this experience an intense and emotional ride. It's hard to talk more without ruining what makes this game so great so do yourself a favor and just give it a go if you're looking for a rich and memorable story.

Played this on Switch, so not much to say about the game mechanically speaking, however I will say that there's not much "game" here. It's effectively a really pretty/semi-interactive visual novel. It's more of a game than a true visual novel, in the same category as "Firewatch", and about as good. The characters take a bit to get going but they really do grow on you, and while I didn't personally identify with the main character, a lot of the late-millennial ennui hit me pretty hard. Discusses, but does not pontificate on topics like depression, death, money, parents, sexuality, and alcoholism among others. The dialogue is the star of the show here. Mae and the rest of her friends are darling, and you'll definitely fall for at least one of them if you're in the right age-range. 15-28 I'd say. While the writing pulls some punches here and there, and the game's "dream sequences" get very repetitive, my major criticism is that the main plot completely sabotages the realistic and mature atmosphere of the game in the 3rd act. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that the game is good, but not great and it fails presumably because it tried to make itself more marketable by artificially inserting a bizarre twist into a story which could've ended in a much more grounded or spiritual way. If you find yourself paying less than 10$ for this game you'll walk away happy. Treat it like a book. Play a little every day or so for 2 weeks and you'll be done. It has a lot to say, but don't expect it to be truly life-changing. And feel free to skip the "bonus games" on the main menu, they're irrelevant and not up to the main game's quality.

After a few hours, I was done listening to Mae. The game is competently put together. I bought it because the art intrigued me and i usually enjoy visual novels/ adventure games like this. It's a short glimpse into the life of a flailing 20yo. Your enjoyment depends on how well you can connect to the main character since there isn't much in the way of gameplay. Honestly if you don't like Mae or any of her friends once you've met them all, this might not be a game for you either.

I got sucked into the hype for this title and bought it before there were very many reviews and I am regert. I thought it was an exploration game where you could find a bunch of cool little secrets and mini-games and whatnot by poking around every inch of a small town, with an awesome art and music style, and with a general theme of occult mystery. When the reviews say that for almost the entire "game" you basically just click next, they aren't kidding. You usually have only one option at any given moment, the dialog options are entirely superficial. You essentially walk up and down the same four screens nudging the same couple of NPCs for dialog over and over. Except when you are playing a terrible guitar dance button masher thing. Or having repetitive dream sequences where you leap around trying to find all the members of a band in environments that are too dark and bland to boot. The roguelite is actually pretty fun, but the same kind of fun you can have on the flash game website of your choice a hundred times over for free. I really wanted to like this game based on the general description, but it was just underwhelming on every level. I did like the art and the music, and I like what they were trying to do in broad strokes, so 3 stars. Somebody please make the quirky occult small town exploration game I thought this was.