GOTH

you know, sometimes a game is so good that, as i'm playing, i genuinely feel intimitaded by it. like "huh? how can something THIS good exist?? i didn't even know you could do that???". my brain genuinely can't wrap itself around it.

and i'm glad to report that GOTH has earned that spot on my list of "intimidatingly good" games because ABRA WTF THIS WAS UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING!!!

(SPOILERS)

i am genuinely BLOWN AWAY by every single aspect of this game. the incredible art and use of color and lighting, the super unique plot world and characters and how creatively they all interact with each other, the moments of levity contrasted with moments of confusion and dread, the amazing variety of puzzles and mechanics, the writing and dialogue, the humor, the music, the sheer creativity of it all... UGHHH this was so so good, i'm kind of mad at myself that i didn't try this sooner lol. i don't think i can go through everything i want to talk about, but i'll try!

this might sound kind of abstract but i really loved the feel of the game, if that makes sense? the idea of this person being in a room, where every day he has to go through a random puzzle with a random solution, find items to feed his refrigerator, then go to sleep and have strange dreams before waking up and doing it all over again... and then, as the game progresses, things get gradually stranger, rules get broken, sentient characters appear... the sheer weirdness (with a certain set of logics) of everything really captures a specific vibe yk? this feels like a story that knows exactly what it wants to tell and how to tell it, and every step of the way is extremely compelling and intriguing. i was REALLY looking forward to whatever happened next, and what new strange world or character would show up. i'm someone whos pretty easy to make invested in a story, but it's hard to make me this glued to the screen haha.

and speaking of worlds and characters, they are easily the best part of this game!! it doesn't feel like you brought your A game, it feels like you brought a giant truck full of nothing but A+++ game and i was FEASTING. the levels are extremely creative; the tree where you have to give the right items to the leaves and find the light of its heart, the snowy plains with the snow angels, the broken randomness of the haxel encounter... it's all just SOOO creative and memorable, and they all perfectly capture the theme of "random places but with a reasonable level of logic when it comes to the puzzles". so so clever. and the characters!!! omg i think these are some of my favorite characters in... anything?? senza is a great protagonist who reacts to everything weird in a really appropiate (and sometimes really fun) way, but he's also a great way to introduce the player to how this world works, and let us know when things are more weird than usual. and i also really wanted to see him figure out everything; why was he here, what is the purpose of his room, why does everything happen the way it does... the tree was also fantastic! their calm way of speaking was really intriguing, and hearing about what they think happened to them was really compelling, as well as fitting with how strange everything is. lumen jumala was fantastic too! looooove elder gods that are both super wise and kind of playful haha. the way they answered senza's questions in their own unique way was really intriguing. and omg, haxel!! haxel is... tbh one of my favorite characters in any rpg maker game ever. a super old being that acts seemingly randomly, but is actually super knowledgeable and powerful, while still being kind and kinda going with the flow... can you tell that's also one of my favorite types of character ever haha. the way her portrait changes colors, the things she says (the "you've never tried" moment was a total highlight, loved that lmao). she's super fun and honestly i hope she appears in later chapters, she really left a big impression on me :D and there's so many other great characters!! the fish will-o-the-wisp is fun and their puzzle is super clever, the snow angels were honestly TERRIFYING haha, the way the tree's heart's personality changes as the light goes out was super creepy, and 00111111 was absolutely 01100010 01100001 01110011 01100101 01100100. the roster of characters is genuinely one of your best, and i couldn't get enough of everyone here. genuinely outstanding stuff.

and of course, i couldn't talk about this game without mentioning the presentation, because OH MY GOD this game is SO pretty and SO creative and the use of color is SO cool AAAAAA- seriously i think this is one of your best looking games ever!! the way monochromatic and simplistic maps are contrasted with the splashes of color of others, the levels with abstract and weird backgrounds, the use of lighting and weather in so many parts, the way the colors change and shift like the screen is glitching!! god this game looks out of this WORLD, how did you do it? everything just pops in its own unique way, genuinely insane that this was your first published rpg maker project. and the character design is great as well! enza and haxel look great (i love how you have to "unlock" emotions for senza haha), the snow angels look goddamn terrifying, 00111111 doing a dab is a work of art... even small touches like the snowman's face becoming bloody when you leave, or the pulsating light around lumen jumala, are amazing and lets you know just how much effort and care was put into the visuals. and the music was great too!! definitely more of an understated quality of the presentation, but it fit the mood superbly well. and sounds like the one when all the snow angels are praying are suuuper pretty and quietly unnerving (i did notice that one time when i loaded a save file, two tracks were playing at the same time. but when i crossed the room's door it went back to normal, so it's not a big deal :>) aaaaa the way this game looks and sounds is so amazing! i wish i could gush about all the details i noticed but this review would be way too long, even for me lol.

if i had to mention any problems i had... i think the snow angel sequence, while cool in concept, felt a bit frustrating. despite what the diary tells you, the snowing doesn't stop once it's started, and i feel like that kind of approach (parts where you're safe flowing into parts where you're not) would've made the level really interesting. and since the overview of the map goes by only at the start and there's no indication that you can leave without collecting all the refrigerants, it felt a bit tedious to feel the need to collect all of them. aside from that, and the music thing i mentioned earlier, i think the heart chase starts way too fast and since everything is so dark it's kind of hard to see what's happening (in the middle of the actual chase that's REALLY intense, but at the very start it's kind of hard to tell what's happening). but that's about it in terms of issues, everything else was butter smooth :>

so, even though the story isn't finished yet, i kinda wanna give my (probably wrong) interpretation of what's happening: from the text at the beginning, i believe that senza is part of a cell, which is part of an organism. maybe this organism is a supernatural or godlike being, and that's why these super weird things happen in their cells; or maybe the organism is a human, and everything we're seeing is kind of a "heightened" version of what these microbeings are going through. senza, as part of a cell, must provide energy so it doesn't die, like how he has to find refrigerants for his refrigerator. to find them, he must go to seemingly random places and solve seemingly random puzzles; maybe reflecting how the organism needs/does different things throughout the days, and that's why the cells must do different tasks every day (this sounds kind of weird but it's the best i could come up with haha). whatever the case, i think this organism is in the middle of dying (hence the title of the game and its meaning), and all the different parts of its body are melding together as a result of the decomposing process. that's why worlds and beings start to cross over through each other's realms; they're different parts of different systems (blood cells, antibodies, neurons...) i think haxel and lumen jumala are the organism's neurons, due to them having such strong powers (maybe haxel isn't, since she herself says that her powers aren't that strong). and as this body is falling apart, they try to help senza survive any way he can, as its host and sole purpose of living slowly dies.

(ngl i feel like i probably misinterpreted or missed a buncha stuff but oh well! that's kind of par for the course when it comes to theories haha. i hope it was at least interesting! :D)

aaaaa if you couldn't tell by my constant gushing, i really REALLY loved this. such a creative and incredibly well told story, with some of the best presentation i've seen in a good while. this felt so personal, and it's the kind of game that reminds me why i love indie games and game developing so much.

if you do make the second chapter (no pressure of course!), save me a seat at the front row :D

I liked the game! Question, is chapter 2 any of your other games or has it not come out yet? No pressure or anything! Like I understand if you feel more like working on other stuff or just taking time for yourself. Thank you for the experience!

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Hey, this is Good Game. I Likes it.

i dont understand what to do in the heart ....

ive gotta play this soon!!! its really late atm...

Holy moly. Good game :D 

BASED