shy guy 64 wrote:Finished chicory. Not the best indie game but the characters grew on me
Alternate take: Finished Chicory. Not the Absolute Best Indie game but a top-tier one. The playful painting is a joy precisely because it is so un-stringent, you can do as much or as little as you fancy, and even most painting quests and tasks are absurdly generous and accommodating, basically saying: Do As You Want, It's Fine! It's your Game And Your Adventure! Which feels fun and freeing and optional instead of obsessive and completionist. You can imagine a different game 'scoring' you Bayonetts style for your painting, or your Percentage Of World Painted, and thank God this game isn't that!
In general the whole looseness and generosity in design (asking if you want to save and quit at the end of a boss - welcome and legitimate release! Or the amount of customisable accessibility options) is as much a part of Chicory's tone and vibe as its story proper, which is cool but sometimes stepped strayed a bit far into overt, spoken Hugs N Kindness for me. A bit on-the-nose. Not that much though! And even though sometimes the gameworld felt like it was straining to be As Kind And Caring As Possible (like some safe space animal-utopia-arts-collective based in San Francisco or something) most characters were a genuine treat to chat to and not a dutiful chore a la many games for me these days. It's often funny! And there were some genuine light-touch wisdoms in there! And there Is a welcome streak of some thornier, sadder themes.
And Chicory isn't even the name of the protagonist! So it's like Zelda! But more like Skyward Sword Zelda or something where she's a fundamental foil and focus as opposed to just a Rescue goal. Chicory was cool!
And the gameplay is wonderfully sloppy and sploshy and gloopy by the end, traversal gradually improves and becomes a pleasure by around midway.
And the Joy-Con batons controls works so damn well it feels made for it, quick and instinctive instead of a bit of an analogue cursor dragging drag. I tried in portable and it was a different (worse) game. Combined with the slight plucks of HD rumble at you hover over different surfaces and the gamefeel is a Real treat.
Oh and the music bangs.
And the bosses are often awesome and dramatic.
And the opening half is organic and meandering, before the inevitable MacGuffins come to give it a bit more fixed purpose and heroism, which makes for a pretty complete feeling whole.
And the world doesn't feel too big, but still feels dense enough with interest and secrets all the way until the end (and beyond).
Anyway I really liked it and had a blast and liked it more and more as I went through it.
but yeah I am really liking it, think I have 6 commanders now, about to play for a 7th
