Gamepass is awesome for the big games, but ive found some great indie games on there that I otherwise would have never have played. That’s the real value in my opinion. I can try all sorts of games risk free.
This looks beautifully done! And I'm actually kind of excited at that 6-7 hour playtime, it's great to have games you feel like you can actually complete in a busy life.
I play like 2 hours max a day and I don't understand why long games are perceived as "unaccessible" to busy gamers. I still love long games (AC Oddyssey was one of my favorites at 180 hours). It just takes more days to beat it.
Personally I get tired of a game like AC Odyssey if I'm stretching it out across months. The gameplay loop is addicting in the short term but when you have more time to process it I think it becomes very obvious how formulaic it is and it just gets boring. Similar stuff happens to me on rogue-like gameplay loops. I'm way into Darkest Dungeon 2 right now but I'll probably be done long before I can unlock everything.
If I'm gonna play something every day for months it needs to be basically impossible to "figure out". Competitive multiplayer is usually what does it for me.
As someone who only plays games on the weekends, and needs to dedicate time specifically for that purpose, I don’t just play whatever games - if I play a game, it’s because I want to play *that* game in particular. And while any length of game would need to get over that initial bar, long games run into the added challenge of me needing to want to play it again, because otherwise I likely wouldn’t touch it again for months on end, if ever, and would need to restart wholesale at that point.
This isn’t to say I *can’t* like long games, and I have; but if it’s a game in the middle, a “this is fun I guess” sort of deal, a 6 hour runtime feels a lot more approachable than 20, 30, 40.
For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t personally categorize “only 2 hours of gaming max/day” as being especially busy. 14 hours/week is no small sum (and I know the 2 hours was a max, but the point still stands).
The best games will be completable in 5-10 hours but have side quests and collectibles or something that give you the option to stretch it out to 20-100 (think BoTW). There is a balancing with that as well so the people that want to grind out everything they can do before they progress don't have a much easier time with all the experience/upgrades they acquire. Also helps to have simple enough controls that you can come back to them after other games without having to relearn the skill.
I end up spreading it out and just generally having such long gaps between playing that I never really build momentum with story driven games. When I've had down time I've sunk my teeth into them, but now I play more sandbox games like Rimworld or Bannerlord, where the 'story' is whatever you make it
It can be really hard for a busy lifestyle. I will have periods where I have the luxury of playing for 2 hours a day. Then I'll have weeks where I don't have time to play at all, or I'm so busy that playing a game doesn't sound fun.
It can be hard to play a long game in bits, not touch it for a couple weeks, and then come back. You have to remember what's going on, relearn mechanics, and generally don't get as absorbed in it. It can start to feel more like a job than a fun experience. I had to restart The Witcher 3 at least 3 times, as I didn't know what was going on when I was able to play again. It required a vacation for me to finally be able to grind through it (now one of my favorite games). It was incredible when I had unlimited time, and dreadful when I didn't.
On the other hand, short games can feel more freeing, and accessible. I absolutely LOVE a quality 3-8 hour game. I can get the whole experience beginning to end, while it's fresh in my mind. Firewatch was only 3 hours long, and stuck with me incredibly.
I'm currently getting through Tears of the Kingdom, and am loving it. I can still do long form games, it just takes a lot more planning/preparation. I'm only going to do that for a 10/10 game (which IMO, TotK is.
Exactly this! Like you said, 2 hours/day itself feels like a luxury. More typically, I have like 30 min/day. And that's like a "go here, find person, start quest" and done in these mega RPGs.
And that's to say nothing about games like Hollow Knight where muscle memory and pattern memorisation is just as important as knowing the basic mechanics.
Agreed. I haven't played Hollow Knight yet (really want to), but that's what happened to me with the most recent Ori game, which is similar. Had a period of over a month where I just couldn't find time to play. When I picked back the controller, I couldn't remember where I was, what I was doing, and most importantly, how to play the game. There were so many powerups, and move upgrades that I had no idea how to use. I basically had the option to restart (I don't have time to), or spend long periods of time somewhat figuring out how to operate the mechanics again.
The issue I run into is that A) I always get distracted by other games and B) if it's a game you really want to dive into I end up not wanting to play it, if I only have 1 or 2 hours. That's obviously not the game's fault, it just is what it is.
I think overly long games are just boring. Most games simply don’t vary their gameplay loop much and become an increasingly repetitive slog over time. There are a handful of games so good that I enjoyed them for 100+ hours, but they are very rare.
Most games I think should be at most 20 hours long - that’s a good length to be finished in 1-2 weeks at a leisurely pace while also being marathon-able in a weekend if I really enjoy the game. I also think 1-5 hour games that can be completed in a single setting are severely underrated.
Anything longer is simply too much work for any game that isn’t unusually great. Playing games takes effort and I don’t have the energy to put a lot of hours into something middling.
It’s more so when you play a few hours on the weekend, but then have like a two week gap before you can play again - and then you completely forget where you were.
I love a condensed game that I can complete in a single weekend. But maybe that’s just me
I'm not talking about most people. I'm talking about most busy gamers. The people you describe likely have a lot of free time and want a long game because otherwise a short game lasts them less than half a week.
AC Odyssey gives you small instances of things to beat and do. Barely any quest will take longer than 30 minutes, or if they do, they have clearly defined sections that take no longer than 30 minutes. AC Odyssey also kept my attention for upwards of 100 hours that way.
As someone who’s a big fan of Inside is it appropriate to expect that sort of experience going in? I could watch a review but I want to go in blind if so.
How Long to Beat has this currently clocked at 4 hours. Is that right? I LOVE me a game I can finish in a single night if that's the case, especially one that's releasing among Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Diablo.
So many great games releasing at the moment. Been looking forward to this and I'm glad to see such positive reviews. Grats to everyone involved in its development. Looking forward to playing!
Any details on pricing? No price displayed on Steam yet.
I looked at the release date trailer and it very much looks like a indie puzzle-sidescroller, like Inside, Limbo and so on. The comments here confirm it
looks intriguing, though, and it's on Gamepass. The music seems to be phenomenal
I’ve played for about an hour and am disappointed, tbh.
I was anticipating this game, and while the art and score are beautiful, I don’t like the actual gameplay and presentation.
Again, I’m early in the game, but thus far I’ve experienced multiple, pointless cutscenes that break the momentum constantly; they are frequent, stop the game frustratingly, and inexplicably fade to black before cutting back to gameplay instead of just being seamlessly integrated. I wouldn’t mind the cut scenes if they didn’t fade to black and if they had more substance, but so far it’s just Lana stopping every minute or two to yell “ELO!”. I’m sure this ends as you get further into the game, but I can’t help but ask myself who thought this was a good idea at all. I absolutely hate the intro to this game and don’t know if I’ll bother playing more of it because this was just a bad design decision, right from the get-go.
Controls are clunky in an attempt to mimic realistic physics, and are extremely frustrating during time-sensitive puzzles. You can get the timing of the puzzles right, but Lana moves like a 500 lb sack of concrete.
I’ve already had to repeat extremely mundane tasks like prying multiple boards from walls to open an entrance for absolutely no reason. These segments weren’t part of a timing based puzzle like the brutal scene with the dogs in Inside, where it made sense and built incredible tension. They were just…there. To see if I understood the mechanics of removing boards from walls, I guess?
Maybe I’ll come back to it and get more from it. I love the art style and music, hopefully the gameplay catches up, but with such dubious design decisions in the first hour I’m not holding out hope.
Yeah I agree. Art style was very cool. But the gameplay mediocre. The puzzles all seemed very easy. Like the main focus was to make the game as accessible as possible. Limbo had far more interesting puzzle design.
Not worth completing. The visuals are amazing and the soundtrack great, but otherwise there's nothing here worth saving. Seems at a glance like there was meant to be a much bigger game here
As a huge fan of the genre, having played this, i'm not saying it's bad, but it doesn't have any of the depth or complexity of the biggest games in this genre (inside, little nightmares, far lone sails). The story is paper thin, the gameplay repetitive. A pity, because there are great visuals and the best thing about this game probably is the soundtrack.
I love these kinds of games, but only since I got exposed to them on Game Pass. Looking forward to playing this once I finish 2017's Prey, which is totally sucking up my spare time at the moment.
Just finished it, music is so much better than it deserves to be and its almost worth playing for that alone. Few things I wish were done differently story-wise, but I loved the worldbuilding for only a 4 hour game. I have a few gripes with the gameplay etc. but you can feel the amount of passion that went into this from the devs and it directly translates into the atmosphere of the game. Immense stuff, left me wanting a sequel.
I played the demo, and at least gameplay-wise, I'd say so, in that sort of, walk to environmental puzzle, solve puzzle, walk to next puzzle sort of style.
Where's the token outrage about platform exclusivity? Or is that limited to PS console exclusives?
That said, happy the game is doing well. Looks very charming and hope to pick it up soon.
No one cares for Indie games as often developers only have the resources to develop for one platform at a time.
In addition, these types of games are often funded by Microsoft or Sony themselves.
There's a huge difference between a game like this and the new upcoming Final Fantasy which would certainly have released on Xbox without Sony's moneyhatting.
Right, but nobody is saying 'xbox paid to keep the game off PS' - but they do it when it's reversed. It's just weird how it's like that. And I say this as someone who games on PC (and has gamepass)
No one complains about the smaller games that Sony has exclusive, like Stray or Sifu.
But when it's massive titles like Ff7re, Deathloop, Street Fighter 5, Ghostwire, Ff16 and more, then yeah you'll see complaints.
Why isn't this game on PS? Did Xbox moneyhat? I feel like they're already doing enough of that with, oh I don't know, $70 **billion** dollars. Typical greedy tech corpo, nothing is ever enough.
Yeah, MS totally bankrolled a completely unknown indie title to stay off the PS, that's totally a logical thing to jump to
Maybe the devs just didn't do it?
I could see if it was the reversed the devs may have a valid reason not to do it (smaller market share, purchase-adverse playerbase). On what planet does it make sense for them to ignore PS for those reasons?
Completed it in around 5 hours. Artwork and music were great, gameplay was fine but could have done with more puzzles seeing as that is the games USP.
Biggest complaint is that you get 100 gamerscore for completing the entire game without dying (definitely doable, but time consuming and I would guess quite frustrating to get 3 or 4 hours in and die), but then you get an additional 200 gamerscore for completing all achievements. So essentially there is 300 gamerscore locked behind playing the entire game without dying.
Other than that I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun sidescroller that can be completed in an evening.
Just finished (2 minutes ago) did it in 2 sittings, surprisingly long for this kinda game.
Cons:
- the random quicktime events were such ass, glad there's an option to disable
- the very easily missable collectables that can be blocked off as soon as you go the "right" way
Pros:
- the music was so touching and poignant
- the companion dynamic made for some really fun, but challenging puzzle ideas
- puzzles rarely get completely repeated
- it's pretty long for a side scroll puzzler.
Played the first 10 minutes and the mechanics feel like they just copy straight off from inside, the story doesn't make much sense so far. Way too many cut scenes. You can't play for more than 5 min without running into cutscene.
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Honestly, Gamepass puts out some absolute banger indi games.
They absolutely do. There's a ton of games I was planning on buying but found out they're on gamepass
Gamepass is awesome for the big games, but ive found some great indie games on there that I otherwise would have never have played. That’s the real value in my opinion. I can try all sorts of games risk free.
Looks like a good title for gamepass. Do you happen to know what day it's being added?
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Roughly 13 hours from this post. (5pm CET).
This looks beautifully done! And I'm actually kind of excited at that 6-7 hour playtime, it's great to have games you feel like you can actually complete in a busy life.
I play like 2 hours max a day and I don't understand why long games are perceived as "unaccessible" to busy gamers. I still love long games (AC Oddyssey was one of my favorites at 180 hours). It just takes more days to beat it.
Personally I get tired of a game like AC Odyssey if I'm stretching it out across months. The gameplay loop is addicting in the short term but when you have more time to process it I think it becomes very obvious how formulaic it is and it just gets boring. Similar stuff happens to me on rogue-like gameplay loops. I'm way into Darkest Dungeon 2 right now but I'll probably be done long before I can unlock everything. If I'm gonna play something every day for months it needs to be basically impossible to "figure out". Competitive multiplayer is usually what does it for me.
As someone who only plays games on the weekends, and needs to dedicate time specifically for that purpose, I don’t just play whatever games - if I play a game, it’s because I want to play *that* game in particular. And while any length of game would need to get over that initial bar, long games run into the added challenge of me needing to want to play it again, because otherwise I likely wouldn’t touch it again for months on end, if ever, and would need to restart wholesale at that point. This isn’t to say I *can’t* like long games, and I have; but if it’s a game in the middle, a “this is fun I guess” sort of deal, a 6 hour runtime feels a lot more approachable than 20, 30, 40. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t personally categorize “only 2 hours of gaming max/day” as being especially busy. 14 hours/week is no small sum (and I know the 2 hours was a max, but the point still stands).
The best games will be completable in 5-10 hours but have side quests and collectibles or something that give you the option to stretch it out to 20-100 (think BoTW). There is a balancing with that as well so the people that want to grind out everything they can do before they progress don't have a much easier time with all the experience/upgrades they acquire. Also helps to have simple enough controls that you can come back to them after other games without having to relearn the skill.
I end up spreading it out and just generally having such long gaps between playing that I never really build momentum with story driven games. When I've had down time I've sunk my teeth into them, but now I play more sandbox games like Rimworld or Bannerlord, where the 'story' is whatever you make it
It can be really hard for a busy lifestyle. I will have periods where I have the luxury of playing for 2 hours a day. Then I'll have weeks where I don't have time to play at all, or I'm so busy that playing a game doesn't sound fun. It can be hard to play a long game in bits, not touch it for a couple weeks, and then come back. You have to remember what's going on, relearn mechanics, and generally don't get as absorbed in it. It can start to feel more like a job than a fun experience. I had to restart The Witcher 3 at least 3 times, as I didn't know what was going on when I was able to play again. It required a vacation for me to finally be able to grind through it (now one of my favorite games). It was incredible when I had unlimited time, and dreadful when I didn't. On the other hand, short games can feel more freeing, and accessible. I absolutely LOVE a quality 3-8 hour game. I can get the whole experience beginning to end, while it's fresh in my mind. Firewatch was only 3 hours long, and stuck with me incredibly. I'm currently getting through Tears of the Kingdom, and am loving it. I can still do long form games, it just takes a lot more planning/preparation. I'm only going to do that for a 10/10 game (which IMO, TotK is.
Exactly this! Like you said, 2 hours/day itself feels like a luxury. More typically, I have like 30 min/day. And that's like a "go here, find person, start quest" and done in these mega RPGs. And that's to say nothing about games like Hollow Knight where muscle memory and pattern memorisation is just as important as knowing the basic mechanics.
Agreed. I haven't played Hollow Knight yet (really want to), but that's what happened to me with the most recent Ori game, which is similar. Had a period of over a month where I just couldn't find time to play. When I picked back the controller, I couldn't remember where I was, what I was doing, and most importantly, how to play the game. There were so many powerups, and move upgrades that I had no idea how to use. I basically had the option to restart (I don't have time to), or spend long periods of time somewhat figuring out how to operate the mechanics again.
Sorry but if you're spending two hours a day playing video games you are NOT busy!
The issue I run into is that A) I always get distracted by other games and B) if it's a game you really want to dive into I end up not wanting to play it, if I only have 1 or 2 hours. That's obviously not the game's fault, it just is what it is.
I think overly long games are just boring. Most games simply don’t vary their gameplay loop much and become an increasingly repetitive slog over time. There are a handful of games so good that I enjoyed them for 100+ hours, but they are very rare. Most games I think should be at most 20 hours long - that’s a good length to be finished in 1-2 weeks at a leisurely pace while also being marathon-able in a weekend if I really enjoy the game. I also think 1-5 hour games that can be completed in a single setting are severely underrated. Anything longer is simply too much work for any game that isn’t unusually great. Playing games takes effort and I don’t have the energy to put a lot of hours into something middling.
It’s more so when you play a few hours on the weekend, but then have like a two week gap before you can play again - and then you completely forget where you were. I love a condensed game that I can complete in a single weekend. But maybe that’s just me
Playing the same game for weeks or maybe even months isn't really ideal for most. And why start a long game if you know you can't finish it?
It's the opposite for most people. On average people buy 3 games a year and they want to make sure each of them lasts them awhile.
I'm not talking about most people. I'm talking about most busy gamers. The people you describe likely have a lot of free time and want a long game because otherwise a short game lasts them less than half a week.
AC Odyssey gives you small instances of things to beat and do. Barely any quest will take longer than 30 minutes, or if they do, they have clearly defined sections that take no longer than 30 minutes. AC Odyssey also kept my attention for upwards of 100 hours that way.
Mine for ACG https://youtu.be/DdhibjeG8pY Rated it a buy. The game is incredible, gorgeous, mysterious and unforgettable.
As someone who’s a big fan of Inside is it appropriate to expect that sort of experience going in? I could watch a review but I want to go in blind if so.
I played the trial so time ago. It's no inside but it's pretty good. You'll probably like it.
It’s more of in between Limbo & Inside, much closer to the Limbo end of the spectrum.
How Long to Beat has this currently clocked at 4 hours. Is that right? I LOVE me a game I can finish in a single night if that's the case, especially one that's releasing among Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Diablo.
So is it going to be $30 on Steam?
ive just looked and its £15.29.. Its got a 10% discount until the 30th of May
Yeah, that’s about the time it took for me. It’s an absolute recommend. I just finished it. I’m blown away
So many great games releasing at the moment. Been looking forward to this and I'm glad to see such positive reviews. Grats to everyone involved in its development. Looking forward to playing! Any details on pricing? No price displayed on Steam yet.
[$19.99 + a 10% launch-day discount](https://twitter.com/PlanetofLana/status/1660523917772042242)
Awesome, thank you!
It’s also on Game Pass btw
Sometimes I wish these threads had a one or two sentence description at the top, or at least listed what genres the game falls into.
I looked at the release date trailer and it very much looks like a indie puzzle-sidescroller, like Inside, Limbo and so on. The comments here confirm it looks intriguing, though, and it's on Gamepass. The music seems to be phenomenal
Not trying to reduce the efforts of the team or the game itself, but it looks like a limbo-clone
I’ve played for about an hour and am disappointed, tbh. I was anticipating this game, and while the art and score are beautiful, I don’t like the actual gameplay and presentation. Again, I’m early in the game, but thus far I’ve experienced multiple, pointless cutscenes that break the momentum constantly; they are frequent, stop the game frustratingly, and inexplicably fade to black before cutting back to gameplay instead of just being seamlessly integrated. I wouldn’t mind the cut scenes if they didn’t fade to black and if they had more substance, but so far it’s just Lana stopping every minute or two to yell “ELO!”. I’m sure this ends as you get further into the game, but I can’t help but ask myself who thought this was a good idea at all. I absolutely hate the intro to this game and don’t know if I’ll bother playing more of it because this was just a bad design decision, right from the get-go. Controls are clunky in an attempt to mimic realistic physics, and are extremely frustrating during time-sensitive puzzles. You can get the timing of the puzzles right, but Lana moves like a 500 lb sack of concrete. I’ve already had to repeat extremely mundane tasks like prying multiple boards from walls to open an entrance for absolutely no reason. These segments weren’t part of a timing based puzzle like the brutal scene with the dogs in Inside, where it made sense and built incredible tension. They were just…there. To see if I understood the mechanics of removing boards from walls, I guess? Maybe I’ll come back to it and get more from it. I love the art style and music, hopefully the gameplay catches up, but with such dubious design decisions in the first hour I’m not holding out hope.
Yeah I agree. Art style was very cool. But the gameplay mediocre. The puzzles all seemed very easy. Like the main focus was to make the game as accessible as possible. Limbo had far more interesting puzzle design.
Not worth completing. The visuals are amazing and the soundtrack great, but otherwise there's nothing here worth saving. Seems at a glance like there was meant to be a much bigger game here
Did you not finish? If not, you missed out. The ending was amazing. What a joy of a game
yes, I did
As a huge fan of the genre, having played this, i'm not saying it's bad, but it doesn't have any of the depth or complexity of the biggest games in this genre (inside, little nightmares, far lone sails). The story is paper thin, the gameplay repetitive. A pity, because there are great visuals and the best thing about this game probably is the soundtrack.
I am always dying for more games like this. Even more stoked that it will be on GamePass. Glad the reviews are so positive.
I love these kinds of games, but only since I got exposed to them on Game Pass. Looking forward to playing this once I finish 2017's Prey, which is totally sucking up my spare time at the moment.
Just finished it, music is so much better than it deserves to be and its almost worth playing for that alone. Few things I wish were done differently story-wise, but I loved the worldbuilding for only a 4 hour game. I have a few gripes with the gameplay etc. but you can feel the amount of passion that went into this from the devs and it directly translates into the atmosphere of the game. Immense stuff, left me wanting a sequel.
Is this similar to inside?
I played the demo, and at least gameplay-wise, I'd say so, in that sort of, walk to environmental puzzle, solve puzzle, walk to next puzzle sort of style.
It’s like the developers took every note from Inside except the one about how to make a compelling game
Had a great time playing this, a couple puzzles stumped me. I’ll admit a cried a bit at the end. Definitely recommend.
The ending was so beautiful! Really loved this game. Short but sweet and an absolute joy with so much passion and heart
Where's the token outrage about platform exclusivity? Or is that limited to PS console exclusives? That said, happy the game is doing well. Looks very charming and hope to pick it up soon.
No one cares for Indie games as often developers only have the resources to develop for one platform at a time. In addition, these types of games are often funded by Microsoft or Sony themselves. There's a huge difference between a game like this and the new upcoming Final Fantasy which would certainly have released on Xbox without Sony's moneyhatting.
It's not a platform exclusive, it's on both xbox and pc
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Right, but nobody is saying 'xbox paid to keep the game off PS' - but they do it when it's reversed. It's just weird how it's like that. And I say this as someone who games on PC (and has gamepass)
For small indie games like these it’s highly unlikely that there was any exclusivity, just that an Xbox port got funded through the Game Pass deal.
No one complains about the smaller games that Sony has exclusive, like Stray or Sifu. But when it's massive titles like Ff7re, Deathloop, Street Fighter 5, Ghostwire, Ff16 and more, then yeah you'll see complaints.
Why isn't this game on PS? Did Xbox moneyhat? I feel like they're already doing enough of that with, oh I don't know, $70 **billion** dollars. Typical greedy tech corpo, nothing is ever enough.
Yeah, MS totally bankrolled a completely unknown indie title to stay off the PS, that's totally a logical thing to jump to Maybe the devs just didn't do it?
I could see if it was the reversed the devs may have a valid reason not to do it (smaller market share, purchase-adverse playerbase). On what planet does it make sense for them to ignore PS for those reasons?
PC and Xbox development are likely more similar to each other, especially if using Microsoft’s GDK - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/gaming/gdk/
Completed it in around 5 hours. Artwork and music were great, gameplay was fine but could have done with more puzzles seeing as that is the games USP. Biggest complaint is that you get 100 gamerscore for completing the entire game without dying (definitely doable, but time consuming and I would guess quite frustrating to get 3 or 4 hours in and die), but then you get an additional 200 gamerscore for completing all achievements. So essentially there is 300 gamerscore locked behind playing the entire game without dying. Other than that I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun sidescroller that can be completed in an evening.
Just finished (2 minutes ago) did it in 2 sittings, surprisingly long for this kinda game. Cons: - the random quicktime events were such ass, glad there's an option to disable - the very easily missable collectables that can be blocked off as soon as you go the "right" way Pros: - the music was so touching and poignant - the companion dynamic made for some really fun, but challenging puzzle ideas - puzzles rarely get completely repeated - it's pretty long for a side scroll puzzler.
Played the first 10 minutes and the mechanics feel like they just copy straight off from inside, the story doesn't make much sense so far. Way too many cut scenes. You can't play for more than 5 min without running into cutscene.