A great tribute to noir detective stories. It doesn’t introduce much to genre heavy relying on well known tropes and clichés in writing, but a tribute is a tribute, and devs knew perfectly well how to do it right. The story revolves about the dangerous pair Natasha Catzenko and well known gangster Wesller. It’s quite obvious that archetype of Natasha is Anastasia Nikolaevna, or rather legends about her miraculous survival. On the trail of the case is explosive duo Sonny “I’m too old for this sh*t” Featherland and younger partner Marty “Riggs” MacChicken, both learning to accept each their complicated history. The third hero… is the city itself, a true cultural melting pot, a vulgar and full racism place. The fact all characters are presented by animals… makes it far easier to swallow it’s true face. The pacing of the story is good, only at one point you feel that maybe devs revealed a bit too much, which is even more annoying that shortly after while solving case you can pick the “right” answer which is branded incorrect only because you solved a puzzle a bit too fast. One and the serious drawback, is that game sometimes allow you to push forward the story when you still have something else to do, and without any warning. It’s even worse because you can’t make several save files returning to a spot you were made to skip. It made me “insanely” furious. The music itself… is ok. Nothing great, nothing bad, it just blends well into story, but you probably won’t remember any particular songs. Everything’s gray in this world. Only two things have colour. Love and Hate.
Although very short (under 2 hours) I think it was worth the money. The artstyle is simply stunning, feels like an animation made by Ghibli Studio. Music blends really well creating perfect mood for the story. And yet... The game tells a story about two aspiring artists and their fateful meeting, but I cannot wave off the feeling that it's extremely rushed and the story abruptly ends. Yes it's a complete story, from start to an end but you simply want more. One of the first thing in the game to do is to "write" a letter to an art gallery sending your portfolio.... and basically a game is just that... a sample of skills of Weichen Lin and the people of the studio. The game elements are there... and yet they are not exactly relevant. The puzzles are way too easy to be called puzzles. At no point of the game you will think to yourself "ok what's next". Don't get it wrong. The game is still great experience. Worth the money you pay and even full price is justified... you will be just left with the feeling of wanting more.
It's a stunning story about life and death. Behind gorgous artstyle there is a very bitterwseet story about dying and coping with death of close people. A death of friends, family members, little kids and even yourself... yes it's very dark theme. It was very brave of devs to make game about it. What they achieved is something beyond of anything you have every played. There are no words to describe how great... and at the same time heartbreaking it is. Chapeau bas!
