henke on 30/7/2013 at 17:00
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT PHIL FISH LETS DISCUSS HIS GAME FOR A MOMENT WHAT DO YOU SAY OK GOOD
I gotta tell ya: this is a great game. Honestly I'd barely read anything about it and knew next to nothing about it going in. I figured it'd be a solid platformer with a gimmick. It's more than that. There's plenty of nods to old-school Nintendo games here, but more than anything it reminds me of Knytt with it's heavy focus on exploration. Also like Knytt there are next to no enemies in the game, instead the main challenges comes from the puzzles and the platform jumping. The jumping is quite easy, it's no Super Meat Boy. But the puzzles? Oh my God. There's no hand-holding here. A sidecharacter will not suggest a solution if you have not found one in 2 minutes. Simple experimentation and systematically trying every item in your inventory will not help you here. No. You're going to need to get out a pen and a notepad for this one, ladies and gentlemen. Get out a smartphone as well while you're at it. Also, how are you at learning foreign languages and figuring out math equations? Often the puzzles aren't even apparent. You might walk through an area several times before you realize a detail in the environment actually is something you'll need to figure out. For the past 15 minutes in the game I've been starring at a couple of dots blinking in the background, trying to figure out if it's some kind of morse code.
I'm 10 hours and circa 157% of my way through the story right now. I've already opened a huge door that leads to what I think might be the final area, but I want to try to figure out as much as I can before moving on. I've had a few major breakthroughs in figuring out the world of Fez, and for each one I felt like a fucking genius. That's why I'm avoiding walkthroughs, when you overcome obstacles in a game that does this little handholding, the taste of victory is sweet indeed.
Play this one, folks.
june gloom on 30/7/2013 at 17:20
Manbaby's Mad Mediocre Magnum Opus: cute art design mostly a complete aping of Cave Story, core conceit is interesting but game does absolutely nothing with it and interest dies like a bitch about an hour in. 4/10 meh
henke on 30/7/2013 at 17:49
Come on, you've got an entire thread devoted to just bashing Fish. How about we let this one be just about the game?
june gloom on 30/7/2013 at 17:50
... that's what I'm doing? I just couldn't resist the alliteration.
Renault on 30/7/2013 at 18:44
Bought this game months ago, didn't really start playing it until last night in the wake of BlowFishgate...I'm about two hours in and still very intrigued. Even at the beginning stages, this game is no simple platformer, and there's some pretty interesting game/level design going on here. Looking forward to getting back to it and diving in some more, reports to follow...
Al_B on 30/7/2013 at 19:06
I picked it up a while ago and finally "completed" it (i.e. done what's necessary but not found all the secrets). It's a good game, the mechanics are slick although I found the jumping to be a little imprecise at times. I didn't really find that I fell in love with either the characters or the world, however - it felt a little soulless. As a puzzle game it's great but it doesn't have the charm of something like Within a Deep Forest or Cave Story.
SubJeff on 30/7/2013 at 22:12
Well I never heard of it or didn't pay attention to it before this whole Fez2 cancellation thing.
Got it today to see what the fuzz is about and I'm really liking it. It's dangerous - I could get lost in this thing.
june gloom on 30/7/2013 at 22:21
I'm with Al. There's nothing to the game beyond yet another indie game gimmick. It guides you through the concept with an endless tutorial and then never actually rewards you for understanding the concept with more complex applications. Also it's pretty much a pixel-perfect "look how 8 bit we are" deal, complete with multiple references to Zelda, yet that feels like a by-the-numbers nostalgia/retro trip as opposed to being something new and interesting with an 8-bit flavor.
henke on 31/7/2013 at 07:12
I decided to walk through the great gate and end the game last night. The ending was pretty trippy, but offered little in the way of closure. I started NG+ right away. My cubes and anticubes are still intact. It seems that if I want any answers, I can't take the easy way out. I must continue my research of this world.
Quote Posted by Al_B
I didn't really find that I fell in love with either the characters or the world, however - it felt a little soulless.
I agree about the characters. When I decoded what the headband people were saying I was a disappointed to find that it wasn't anything particularly interesting. The friggin Hypercube probably has the most personality of anyone in the game. The gameworld I absolutely love though. Beautiful, constantly changing, and full of marvelous sights. Best of all, it is dense with secrets, hidden passages, and history of the people who have inhabited it before.
ToolHead on 7/8/2013 at 11:16
53% in. What an astoundingly great little game. \o/
