LogFAQs > #919854492

#48: World to the West

If the previous game was cut from metroid cloth, World to the West is a direct inheritor of the Zelda style. But there's something weird about this one.

Is it the completely black, glassy eyes? Is it the fact that the four protagonists don't really like each other, or have any chemistry whatsoever? Is it the fact that the game doesn't bother to resolve several prominent storylines and story hooks, cutting the final act short, as if the game were a project, essay, or homework assignment a student slapped together with duct tape six hours before the deadline? Including the story hook that kicks off the entire game? Is it the fact that health upgrades, while typically sequestered in a place that only one character can get, can be picked up by any character that reaches them first? The answer is yes to all of those

Basically, it has all the signs of a game made by a very small studio on a timetable.

Aside from those eyes, the art style is bouncy. The diversity of character abilities makes for good breaks in gameplay. The puzzles/dungeons are lean towards the easy side, but take good advantage of each character's arsenal. Not quite Twilight Princess easy, but i think I remember being stumped more than once or twice within a room. There are tougher ones when it comes to collecting optional items, which is the perfect difficulty slider. The fact that you get to play with physics a little bit with some abilities helps.

The only times I remember being completely confused were when I had to do a certain number of 'things' to open a door, and i didn't know what (hint: one time i had to kill a certain number of enemies in the room, another i had to collect a certain number of 'things' around the world).

The difficult section of the game involves the broader world- it's easy to hang yourself with all of the rope the game gives you. Oftentimes it'll just sort of mark a faraway point on the map, and then you have to determine through trial and error when and where (and how many times) you need to go underground, where you need to emerge, and from which angle you need to approach tthe destination. On top of that, you might need to send one character ahead to unblock some obstacles, but you won't know when- this only happened once or twice

As for the individual characters? A couple of the survivor's boss battles stood out in terms of design. The strongman was dumb and annoying. The mindbender being the only one that could use money was pretty funny. Teleporting around as the teslamancer is the best, which is also nice because every speedrun abuses the hell out of it. It is a little weird how you have to progress through each room separately with each character. The theme is not teamwork- the theme is how everyone has parallel goals and tackles their challenges in different ways. The studio is Swedish- is this a Swedish stereotype?

This game compelled me to play it all the way through in about a week, but it's not a must-play. It's worth analyzing if you're at all interested in zeldalike game design, but the story and characters have a strange, unfinished isolation about them.
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You did indeed stab me in the back. However, you are only level one, whilst I am level 50. That means I should remain uninjured.