Welcome one and all to the celebration of the tenth edition of Indie Insights! Double digits, bebe!
Every fortnight (apart from when I took a month off between volumes 8 and 9 and this edition because of an editor issue), I highlight some games from smaller studios and publishers I’ve encountered. Some people ask me how I discover some games I talk about here or in my standalone reviews. The answer is I am perpetually online and frequently scroll upcoming and new releases for things that might be cool.
I have no criteria for what is “cool.” If something catches my eye, I either follow its development or download a demo, if available and see what happens. Most of the time, my instincts about what will rustle my jimmies are pretty spot on, but I am not infallible. I have been misled by a seemingly interesting premise or mechanic or art style in my time and ended up with an experience that leaves me furious or exasperated (Hokko Life, I will never forget you.) Unfortunately, one of the games for today’s column is such a game.
It’s this one.
Ghostpia Season One – Nintendo Switch
This visual novel on Nintendo Switch caught my eye because the premise sounded genuinely interesting. In a town full of ghosts, one girl doesn’t remember her past, let alone what happened to the town. An evil Church is overseeing the goings on in the town, there’s friendship, and there are random ninja skills and bloodshed. Along with that, the art style is both cute and, at times, weird, utilizing mixed media in some areas and traditional art that looks hand drawn and colored with coloring pencils.
Unfortunately, this visual novel didn’t land for me. As a visual novel, both aspects of the format have to work. While the visuals are genuinely great, the story and writing are terrible. It is all over the place. It jumps around from scene to scene with no explanation of what’s happening, frequently repeating the same sentiment but slightly differently over and over again.
There are five chapters in Ghostpia, each with at least one sub-chapter. Every chapter could be easily cut in half. I genuinely can’t tell if it is poor writing, poor translation, or a combination of the two, and it is frustrating. Visually, it works amazingly. However, story-wise and momentum-wise, it falls. This could be an interesting story if the writing were edited instead of constantly falling into cyclical sentiments. All the characters are profoundly unlikable, and it’s a confusing mess of protagonist self-hate and various characters saying “poop” more times than any other word.
Ghostpia Season One is out now for Nintendo Switch and has a trial version on Steam.
Forward: Escape the Fold – Steam
From developer Two Tiny Dice, Forward: Escape the Fold is an itty bitty roguelike dungeon crawler with some card-based mechanics. It isn’t quite a full deck builder, but the action itself is card-based. Your character has HP and mana points, with one special ability unique to that character that will spend mana. The dungeons are randomly generated and are laid out as rows of cards. You advance sort of like a game of checkers.
Move your card on top of the card you want/need to move to. You can only move forward and to a card that is diagonally ahead. For example, the cards are in rows of three. If you are on the far right, you cannot reach the card on the far left, but you can move directly ahead or to the middle card. Moving to a poison card will deal status damage to you, and moving directly in front of an enemy will cause it to attack you unless your stealth is high enough.
There’s a variety of enemies, events, and items to encounter, as well as merchants and towns where you can spend your gold. In addition, you can occasionally encounter a card that is a location. Reaching that card will change your location, and if you make it to the end, you can unlock a new character for your next run-through. It’s a truly fantastic, minimalist experience. Despite its stripped-down nature, it is addictive, with excellent pixel art and various encounters.
Forward: Escape the Fold is available now on Steam and mobile through Apple and Android.
B.I.O.T.a – Steam
This mega-retro 2D action platformer from developer small bros is a nostalgia quake of epic proportions and is the most fun I had this fortnight. You play a little bit of Metroid, a little bit of Mega Man as a member of the Gemini Squad. As part of this elite team, you are headed on a mission to a distant mining colony where some kind of biological contamination occurs. I knew this would be fun from the second the opening scene began. It starts with a voiceover exposition in the classic NES/SNES platformer tradition. It’s the future; bad stuff is happening, and you must stop it. Hell yeah.
You can choose to play through as different team members and return to your base at any time to heal or change characters. The action takes place in the mines themselves. At first, the elevator down can only arrive at one destination, but the further you go, the more gates you unlock, which allows you to travel to different areas from the surface. In the mines, there are a wide array of blobby, insectile, and generally weird and goopy pixel aliens to shoot while you try and make your way through the giant maze that is the mines.
There are different “biomes”, for example, some rooms have water-type attributes, which will change the enemies you encounter. Dotted throughout the map are also secret specimens to collect. Collecting these little weirdos will unlock different color palettes you can change the game to in the settings. This is one of my favorite features. There are a lot of different color palettes to choose from, which is fantastic for two reasons.
The first is that the wide range of options will make life easier for people with various kinds of color blindness. The second reason is that I am an aesthetic/colorization nerd, and I enjoy this level of control. B.I.O.T.A is a truly joyous experience for those who grew up with Metroid and Contra-style games, and I will be replaying it a lot.
Evil Wizard – Steam
The fresh release Evil Wizard comes from Rubber Duck Games and is a little throwback to early 2000s animated shows. Focusing on the villain and with a crude sense of humor, it honestly reminded me of the shows that would be on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon that would be aimed at older teens. In a meta adventure for the ages, you are the player and controlling the Evil Wizard. The local heroes have invaded his castle, and now it’s up to you to help him regain it.
Utilizing melee and various forms of magic, you have to navigate through the expansive castle solving puzzles and unlocking areas. But, most importantly, you must find your minion Rubito’s rubber duck collection. They will be around, and once you collect them, you can return them to Rubito, who will unwrap their mummified forms. Inside will be such treasures as rubber duck versions of Robert Downey Jr. with suitably rubber duck-based pun names.
You can change enemy damage and health in the options menu as part of the accessibility settings, as well as scale up text and change the font—all pluses in my book. As for the gameplay, it’s pretty smooth and responsive. I played using a mouse and keyboard without input lag or accuracy issues. Using a mouse puts melee on the left click and magic on right-click, and the magic is interchangeable. Interact with elemental environment things like generators for lightning magick and burning torches for fire magic. You can only have one at a time, so take environmental cues for your needs. Overall, it’s a super fun experience that’s easy to pick up and fun to play, although sometimes its crude humor can be a little grating.
Evil Wizard is out now on Steam, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X/S
Upcoming Releases
- A short, handcrafted pixel art platformer, Sheepy, comes out on PC on May 26.
- Action, strategy RPG The Riftbreaker: Into the Dark comes out on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on May 29.
- Bonkers-looking multiplayer, PvP, deck builder Friends vs. Friends comes to PC on May 30.
- Survival horror walking sim Shame Legacy heads to PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on May 30.
- First-person horror adventure Killer Frequency comes to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on June 1.
- The next installment in the Amnesia series, Amnesia: The Bunker, heads to PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on June 6.
