Cohost, help me out. I think Void Stranger is a landmark game, and I know many of you feel the same way, but I've been struggling so hard to convince anyone I know to get more than an hour or two into the darn thing.
It's a game that requires a good deal of trust from the player. I get that. It's not clear from the first hour or two exactly what the full scope of the game is, what its themes or narrative ambitions are, and so on. But I also feel like all the hints are there to entice attentive players, so...I dunno.
I know taste is subjective, and I don't expect that my all-time favorites list is going to look much like anyone else's. But the game's Steam reviews have kinda plateaued, which concerns me.
When I play Void Stranger, I feel like I'm playing the kind of game that ought to have reached a much broader audience — and I know there are tons of people out there who enjoy a game that asks them to put in a little work and challenge themselves for an immense narrative and intellectual reward. (Look at how big Tunic, Fez, The Witness, Obra Dinn, etc. are!) I feel like Void Stranger really deserves a similar level of acclaim and popularity. If only I could make it so.
i feel like Void Stranger does a fantastic job at appearing to be a tough, unforgiving, tedious game - and this ends up filtering out a lot of people when they realize they're playing a sokoban absent the modern conveniences before learning of its own, or when they look at their lives count dwindling and fear messing up before they internalize that you need to go "fuck it we ball" and live with the consequences, or when they learn they are expected to run the same floors many times and quit at the seeming tedium without realizing they are armed with so much more potentially game-opening knowledge than they realize, or when they discover one of the navigational tricks on accident and assume it to be a punishment. void stranger is a tough game, but in a deceptive way that hides how gentle it really is for the people willing to hold out faith for it and get some rest on a hard puzzle and ask a friend if they're still stumped.
but i've also seen a lot of people just not click with the plot and vibes, seeing it as various shades of Thin Plot Haha Anime Cool And Funny if they only got through the early stages, to a couple-to-few giving up at the first credits roll because they made an incredibly uncharitable read of it and entirely refused to see what they might've been cooking. (generally if they make it past that and don't just go in the corner and cry at the idea of more tile puzzles before realizing they can smuggle their knowledge into the stuff ahead or at least go back to find more, they're on this crazy train for the rest of the ride and they are going to be wired directly into at least SOME aspect of the story and world)
either way, i feel like ultimately this all kind of comes back to the game not being designed for everyone, just those willing enough to listen to what it wants to get across. you have to place your faith and embrace the Void, but many people just aren't prepared to hold out for it when they haven't been wired directly into the game's thought processes yet. ohh how i wish they were though
(total tangential sidenote: i did once see one person who very clearly got filtered fairly early and pretty hard complain about ESL-rooted spelling and grammar errors that are almost entirely absent (there's a couple but hearing them speak of it you'd think they were Everywhere), how the game was completely failing to introduce new mechanics (a thing which it does at a shockingly steady pace even by the time you'd think they stopped), how they thought it was trying to be Haha Funnee Edgy and how it was CLEARLY made by 'basement dwelling incels' that 'think their leering lesbian anime is high art' before repeatedly drawing comparisons to the excessively-just-kind-of-fine Forspoken, their apparent GOTY and declaring VS entirely unworthy of praise or recognition. this person from the Universe Where Media Is Bad baffles and vexes me to this day.)
