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[calistan]

I got as far as the 'clean up the storage room' task and the lecture about not misgendering 'Fishy' in chapter two. It took over three hours to get to that point, and I was already skipping conversations to try to hurry it along, so basically it just isn't for me.

There's no gameplay whatsoever, and getting from one slow bit of story to the next is super dull. I appreciate the work that went into the graphics, but as an interactive movie it's badly paced. I checked out the rest of the story online.

Spoiler

Meh.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Gotta be chapter 1 still lol. I'm not bailing on it. I guess I just play really slow and look at everything.

Ahh yeah, chapter 1 is all world building. Everything pays off if you get into the character stories. I don't think there's a single character introduced that doesn't have a good resolution to their arc, except maybe Gunter.

I think the mystery picks up in Ch2.

I did record most of my play through. Maybe I will put it up on YT for those interested but not willing to shell out the cash. I need tor cap some parts as OBS crashed.

e: wells hit, the audio did not record for some reason, so scratch that idea.

I got as far as the 'clean up the storage room' task and the lecture about not misgendering 'Fishy' in chapter two. It took over three hours to get to that point, and I was already skipping conversations to try to hurry it along, so basically it just isn't for me.

There's no gameplay whatsoever, and getting from one slow bit of story to the next is super dull. I appreciate the work that went into the graphics, but as an interactive movie it's badly paced. I checked out the rest of the story online.

Spoiler

Meh.

Yeah the game is all story. If you're skipping dialog, that's the real reason to play, so it definitely is not for you.

For the idpol stuff, it's relatively minor. I don't recall anything else getting brought up outside of that one exchange.
In fact, the species don't even have gender in their world, so the humans wind up looking dumb for focusing on something trivial anyway.

 

[bender]

Downloaded on XSX yesterday. (52GB!). I'm only two achievements in so very early. The UI and animations are kind of bad (walking up/down stairs looks very awkward or interaction with objects leads to tons of clipping). The world and characters are all very nice though, except for one: Harold. Further, I think I understand that characterization they are going for but the voice actor they picked and the performance don't really match that so far. Maybe that will change as I press on and hopefully the game play does too as it seems more like a walking simulator (from a different perspective) than an adventure game. I do want to see more based on the trailer as I'm getting some Shape Of Water vibes.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Im a few hours in, this is a slow experience. I feel this could use some editing, for instance that Slippie commercial went on far too long.
Im not really finding any humor in the dialogue or in the situations. I dont think this is supposed to be funny ‘ha ha’ but funny strange.
Im invested at least to finish it.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Im a few hours in, this is a slow experience. I feel this could use some editing, for instance that Slippie commercial went on far too long.
Im not really finding any humor in the dialogue or in the situations. I dont think this is supposed to be funny ‘ha ha’ but funny strange.
Im invested at least to finish it.

Some characters definitely pay off better than others.

Slippie was one of my favorites alongside Tommy. Alon and Jim were the best bits imo. Shame the humor isn't landing as that was a big draw for me.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I finished the game. 15.9 hours. Got 74% of the achievements.
The game went all "Journey" there for a while.
I did all the side stuff I could find including delivering all the letters, which was the longest 'side quest'.
Nice introspection game about a guy who was not sure of himself.
As well as an entire crew that was unsure of what they were supposed to be doing.

I thought the setting and situation was very unusual, Crashed spaceship now underwater.
Even the spaceship was unusual, a core with all these modules that float around it.

I was not into the humor as I thought the tone of the story was more like an absurdist serious drama.
I did find some things funny, like the bubble fish situation and the mysterious lighthouse group shenanigans.

I am giving this an, I enjoyed this rating. I can't give it a number grade as I don't know how to describe it other than a series of talking cut scenes after traveling in water tubes over and over again. All Water thanks you for spending what seems like the majority of the game stepping in and out of water tubes.

Spoiler question for anyone that finished.

Spoiler: Library

The bubble library seemed to suggest we were actually on earth as the bubbles contained images of a memory of Earth. Was that a plot thing that I missed?

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Spoiler: Library

The bubble library seemed to suggest we were actually on earth as the bubbles contained images of a memory of Earth. Was that a plot thing that I missed?

Spoiler

You're definitely not on Earth since the beacon picked up a signal from earth saying the reason they left was fixed and earth was back to normal. Since it was all live action recordings, that's why it seems earth-like. The point, I think, was about treating the environment better.

Plus, it took however many years to leave earth and get to the new planet. Everyone going on the rocket back at the end there. If it was earth, they all would have made the same choice as Harold.

 

[Stafford]

Hmm, so far it's not really grabbing me. The more I play the more I get....well...bored? I now have to unclog a filter system, again. Is this going to get better?

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Hmm, so far it's not really grabbing me. The more I play the more I get....well...bored? I now have to unclog a filter system, again. Is this going to get better?

If the story doesn't have you by act 2, it's probably not for you. The art and story are the only draws.

 

[Stafford]

If the story doesn't have you by act 2, it's probably not for you. The art and story are the only draws.

I discovered a fish now, I guess it's going somewhere now, haha. We'll see. I don't give up too soon.

But this writing sometimes man, maybe it's just me but Harold saying "it feels unfair calling this fish it." breh, who says this?

And then he and the professor start calling it "them", such nonsense. Lmao.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I discovered a fish now, I guess it's going somewhere now, haha. We'll see. I don't give up too soon.

But this writing sometimes man, maybe it's just me but Harold saying "it feels unfair calling this fish it." breh, who says this?

And then he and the professor start calling it "them", such nonsense. Lmao.

If it makes you feel better, that’s the only time it comes up other than the fish thinking they’re silly for it because the fish have no concept of it.

 

[Magic Carpet]

If the story doesn't have you by act 2, it's probably not for you. The art and story are the only draws.

I never did see a Act or Chapter title. I assume your talking about when you go to bed and wake up the next day?

I discovered a fish now, I guess it's going somewhere now, haha. We'll see. I don't give up too soon.

But this writing sometimes man, maybe it's just me but Harold saying "it feels unfair calling this fish it." breh, who says this?

And then he and the professor start calling it "them", such nonsense. Lmao.

I thought the game got better as you learn more about each character's situation. Everyone has their own hangups.
I kept hoping for a Robot Chicken or Futureama like joke about fish egg laying but got something different instead.
I thought it took forever before the fish interaction started. The game does indeed move very slow, with lots of back-and-forth travel.

 

[Stafford]

I never did see a Act or Chapter title. I assume your talking about when you go to bed and wake up the next day?

I thought the game got better as you learn more about each character's situation. Everyone has their own hangups.
I kept hoping for a Robot Chicken or Futureama like joke about fish egg laying but got something different instead.
I thought it took forever before the fish interaction started. The game does indeed move very slow, with lots of back-and-forth travel.

Well, I had to reload an older save because I had not finished the optional task yet and at this point I couldn't finish it anymore. So I saw the scene again where Harold sees the creature in the water in the filtering room and it honestly looks more humanoid rather than a fish. But then when we get to the scene with Moreux it's clearly a fish. Odd. But I'm sure it will get clearer and I keep playing.


I've no idea how to use spoiler tags here.

 

[Roberts]

Considering pretty much every dialogue scene goes into midshots or close-ups, I wish the game didn't have to auto-move Harold into a specific position to trigger the conversation - it would be better if you could just click on the character and dialogue would start right away. Small and silly gripe, but it would really help the pacing.

Anyway, got to the third chapter and I'm really enjoying it. It is not the best written or voice acted game ever, but there is an ocean of passion behind it and I dig that.

 

[Stafford]

What did ya'll do with the paper white setting for HDR?

 

[SF Kosmo]

Brilliantly executed art style. Finding the game itself a bit dry and dull though. Doesn't pick up?

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I never did see a Act or Chapter title. I assume your talking about when you go to bed and wake up the next day?

I thought the game got better as you learn more about each character's situation. Everyone has their own hangups.
I kept hoping for a Robot Chicken or Futureama like joke about fish egg laying but got something different instead.
I thought it took forever before the fish interaction started. The game does indeed move very slow, with lots of back-and-forth travel.

No there are 7 chapters with their own title cards. Several days or more are frequent per chapter.

Brilliantly executed art style. Finding the game itself a bit dry and dull though. Doesn't pick up?

Gameplaywise no. Storywise, yes. It gets w e i r d.

 

[Stafford]

No there are 7 chapters with their own title cards. Several days or more are frequent per chapter.

Gameplaywise no. Storywise, yes. It gets w e i r d.

Good kind of weird or.....not really?

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Good kind of weird or.....not really?

One chapter toward the end gets really weird.

 

[Magic Carpet]

No there are 7 chapters with their own title cards. Several days or more are frequent per chapter.

Gameplaywise no. Storywise, yes. It gets w e i r d.

I frequently saw number of days after crash and days remaining till launch window. But I did not ever see a 'Chapter' title card while playing, I went back and I do see them listed in the 'load' menu.
I played on Gamepass for Windows.

 

[Roberts]

I don’t get to play much so I’m only on day 4 (or is it 5) and that’s where the weirdness truly starts to kick in and it has been consistently amusing: the mother at the poetry reading, talking to the announcer, etc. Also, Harold seemed like a somewhat dull protagonist at the beginning but he is gradually becoming more interesting and works as a neat contrast to more eccentric characters around him.

There are not that many movies about people travelling across the stars en masse to settle and start a new life on a different planet, but Halibut made me think of a recent Swedish film Aniara where the most of interiors of the ship looked like a giant shopping mall. It's a pretty good film but a hopelessly depressing one.

 

[ryu4]

Looks great, I'll give it a try but I hope it's not one of those games that seem to be made by art students; fantastic art style but boring gameplay and shitty story

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Looks great, I'll give it a try but I hope it's not one of those games that seem to be made by art students; fantastic art style but boring gameplay and shitty story

There is no gameplay really outside of walking around. Story is pretty solid IMO. I enjoyed it for its uniqueness.

 

[calistan]

There are not that many movies about people travelling across the stars en masse to settle and start a new life on a different planet, but Halibut made me think of a recent Swedish film Aniara where the most of interiors of the ship looked like a giant shopping mall. It's a pretty good film but a hopelessly depressing one.

Thank you, I'd been trying to remember the name of that film - it really stuck in my memory (the film, not the name). It was a somewhat unintentional journey across the stars.

There's also the one where the guy wakes up early from hypersleep, sees that one of his fellow passengers is Jennifer Lawrence, and wakes her up too so he can get busy. But I suppose there are effectively just two people there, since everyone else is frozen.

 

[phaedrus]

The stop-motion scale model art style looks exactly like Truberbrook, (which I abandoned after about an hour of playing).

I think these types of games need well-thought out puzzles to sustain our interest beyond their visual & narrative hooks.
Eg Grim Fandango, Syberia and more recently Edith Finch had challenging (and mostly logical) puzzles that were really fun to solve.

 

[Little Chicken]

How bad is it that I knew this would be on Game Pass the second I saw it?

Good actually. Indie games that take creative risks is part of what Game Pass is about.

 

[Stafford]

It's unfortunately just not doing it for me. I don't find the story all that interesting, nor the characters, the back and forth to the same damn locations is starting to get old now. But the problem is, once I start with something, I'll see it through, sigh.

 

[RPS37]

Good actually. Indie games that take creative risks is part of what Game Pass is about.

My initial reaction was, “well that looks…quirky…bet it’ll be on Game Pass…”

 

[Roberts]

OK, the game is lot longer than I thought it will be but I am not complaining as I think it gets more interesting the more you spend time with these weirdos. On chapter 5 right now and I can't stop being in awe of how it looks, especially how the lighting looks and interacts with characters etc.

 

[Kuranghi]

I'm gonna get this soon, looks like a relaxed and fun time.

 

[Stafford]

Can the game at least have the decency to at least know where some of these damned characters are? I now have to visit Cyrus again to talk about some bubbles, sigh. But he's not at his usual two places.

Fuck this bullshit. It already is a chore to get through, this isn't making it any better.

 

[Punished Miku]

Finished chapter 1 finally. Game is getting much more interesting now. Enjoying it.

That first bit is definitely a little slow before the story starts kicking in.

 

[Stafford]

Just finished it. It's shorter than I expected, which in this case is fine with me. Overall it unfortunately was a slog to play through and too little happens to keep it interesting.

All that stuff about Gluglugllll or whatever the fuck words they used for the other species, miss me with it. It just didn't click with me. And that's alright.

 

[Allandor]

Well, I somehow like this game. It is not the most interesting I've ever seen, but the atmosphere with the mixed sci-fi 50th technology is still interesting. It also somehow reminds me of the weirded game Normality.
I'm in chapter 4 so far.
Would totally not seen this game if it wasn't in gamepass.

 

[Punished Miku]

Chapter 2 done, really liked it. Chapter 3 starting pretty strong.

 

[Slaylock]

Finished it last night. I truly believe it is the most tedious, monotonous game I've ever actually completed. I even fell asleep while playing several times.

There is, however, something definitely charming about the game. The texture of the clothing is very realistic. The characters are often strange but still likable. The relationship between Harold and Weewoo is quite touching.

Overall, I'm glad I played it and I'm glad it's over.

 

[Punished Miku]

On chpt 4 and its been great lol. This is where they fully make it a Wes Anderson movie.

 

[Punished Miku]

Lol ...

Spoiler: Major story spoiler

 

[Punished Miku]

Finished. Ended up really loving it, despite some flaws.

Spoiler

By the end you have gotten at least some kind of small, memorable moment with almost every NPC in the game. A brief moment of human interaction, or humor, or dialogue that sticks with you. There's some moments with great song choices, moments that are pretty fun and compelling in the story at times. The visuals are fantastic and incredibly original. The whole premise and style is fairly original for gaming, but heavily drawing from Wes Anderson films stylistically.

The game does have some moments of crippling boredom and glacial pacing. I had to tap out for a while before finishing chpt 1, but when I came back I was over most of it and it progressed fairly steadily until the end. The "game" is also really more of a visual novel / art piece than strictly a game. I think there were several 10 min cutscenes. Basically just felt like watching a show, but you take control for limited stuff. My 3rd and final complaint is that the movement is unnecessarily sluggish at times. Your run loses momentum when you change screens and that gets a little annoying.

Not sure what kind of score I'd give to this honestly. It has many objectively poor elements (pacing, limited gameplay), but many elements I ended up totally loving (art style, characters, story). I can easily see people hating it and not being "wrong," but I'm glad I played it. Some character moments that will stick with me and I wont forget this weird game anytime soon.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Finished. Ended up really loving it, despite some flaws.

Spoiler

By the end you have gotten at least some kind of small, memorable moment with almost every NPC in the game. A brief moment of human interaction, or humor, or dialogue that sticks with you. There's some moments with great song choices, moments that are pretty fun and compelling in the story at times. The visuals are fantastic and incredibly original. The whole premise and style is fairly original for gaming, but heavily drawing from Wes Anderson films stylistically.

The game does have some moments of crippling boredom and glacial pacing. I had to tap out for a while before finishing chpt 1, but when I came back I was over most of it and it progressed fairly steadily until the end. The "game" is also really more of a visual novel / art piece than strictly a game. I think there were several 10 min cutscenes. Basically just felt like watching a show, but you take control for limited stuff. My 3rd and final complaint is that the moment is unnecessarily sluggish at times. Your run loses momentum when you change screens and that gets a little annoying.

Not sure what kind of score I'd give to this honestly. It has many objectively poor elements (pacing, limited gameplay), but many elements I ended up totally loving (art style, characters, story). I can easily see people hating it and not being "wrong," but I'm glad I played it. Some character moments that will stick with me and I wont forget this weird game anytime soon.

Well put and I agree with your assessment.

 

[Bridges]

Just finished this.

I got 100% of achievements so obviously I didn't hate it, but I am really struggling to think about how I actually feel about it. I definitely thought it was going to fall into a couple different tropes that it managed to subvert so I was pleasantly surprised by that. But actually as a game, there's really not a lot going on.

The art style and the atmosphere and the tone are so incredibly unique for a game, and I think that's what kept me going. I can't say I really loved the story or the characters, but the premise itself and how the characters interacted with each other was enough for me to proceed.

Gameplay is worse than non-existent to be honest. I've played a handful of visual novels with much better pacing than this. This is more like an adventure game if someone took out all the puzzles. Walk over here, talk, walk back to the other side of the map, talk, walk to another area, watch a cutscenes, now go to bed. Wake up, do the same. For 10+ hours.

I think this could've been a neat 90 minute movie, as a game and for what it is, it was entirely too long. But also, I thought to myself a few times "if this were a movie/tv show I would've stopped watching already". So I don't know

I rarely feel so conflicted at the end of a game. I don't regret playing it but I doubt I will ever recommend this to someone.

 

[Bridges]

Finished it last night. I truly believe it is the most tedious, monotonous game I've ever actually completed. I even fell asleep while playing several times.

I neglected to mention this in my last post but yes, I don't think I've ever fallen asleep during a game as many times as I did this one. I must've fallen asleep at least 7 times throughout my playthrough

 

[Hohenheim]

Finished this a while back.
Very impressive visuals and style! As for the gameplay, well it's not really setting the world on fire..
Although I love to see original styles in video games, I would enjoy this "game" more as a movie.
Walking around gets quite boring after a while, and the dialogue is not really gameplay.
If they took out the best parts and made it into a 1,5 hour movie, it would be awesome. As a videogame it's pretty mediocre for me.

 

[balls of snow]

Finished it just in time for Hellblade 2.

I...liked it somewhat. The gameplay is atrocious and its all due to the pacing. That jog Harold has was driving me nuts. Also the loading/animation for getting in and out of the tube. Man, makes Red Dead 2 feels like sonic.

The ending hits hard for me even though you can see it from a mile away. There are hints that Harold is kinda deppressed and cant relate to anyone on the ship bar the postman. So him finding an alien to connect to is very touching. On the topic of the postman,

Spoiler: Spoiler

his sidequest was the best thing in the game. Reading what people were going through pre-crash was lore! and then having him die and seeing the toll on everyone on the Fedora especially Harold. And then being able to send him off by delivering the batch he never had a chance to. Yeah, that worked for me.

FInal thoughts, if my insomnia acts up again this game is the perfect medication holy shit.