werebike

Welcome, Moon-and-Star.

Ryszard/Pyton, polish kłir trans furry,
likes TES and tokusatsu

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EphemeralEnigmas
@EphemeralEnigmas

This week's game is The Magic Obelisk, Game Arts' delisted WiiWare puzzler about trying to get a very impulsive child to stay in the shadows. Its sweet story and general creativity would make it a hidden gem if the play wasn't so fussy and unreliable:

The Magic Obelisk may very well be one of the most intriguing games that was exclusive to the WiiWare service. A puzzle game by Game Arts, the developers behind Grandia and Lunar, that maintains their good vibes and emphasis on warm, cozy storytelling? Sign me up! Despite the genre shift, The Magic Obelisk displays many of the developer's strengths. It's a vivid, colorful game with curious characters, a strong conceptual core, and themes that extoll the virtues of kindness and helping others. The story is simple and intentionally aimless, but its charm shines through and manages to channel some of the particular cozy vibes that make certain scenes in Grandia stick out so much.

If that was all there was to it, I'd love this game, but playing this particular one is more stressful than fun. The concept is really interesting and has you activating three different types of obelisks that cast shadows with different attributes in order to have the main character Lukus move from start to finish while sticking entirely to the shadows. Sunlight is to be avoided by any means necessary and the way the level design always manages to make this possible is really cool. What's not cool is how going about this works. This is a 3D game and it's really fickle about collision and pathfinding. You don't control Lukus directly but instead try to guide him from path to path while avoiding foes, all the while the paths created by your obelisks expire after a short period of time. This leads to a lot of situations where he'll get caught on geometry even though it's clearly fine to pass, you'll get caught on the obelisks and not be able to react on time (this is a dpad only game for some reason), and if you dare to leave Lukus unattended for a few seconds, he'll wander off and either ruin the timing of your plans or get himself in trouble. If you have the patience to accept that your best laid plans will often go up in flames and you're cool with babysitting, you'll find things to appreciate here, but if having a sense of control over your actions and being able to trust the game is important to you, this game will probably frustrate you more than anything.


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