night in the woods (mostly no spoilers)

[veryroundbird]

So, I did believe all my friends who've played Night in the Woods that it is an entire video game of "don't come for me like this" @ our nebulous generation but WOW there is hearing a thing and then experiencing that thing, and holy shit*

(faypire and I are like... maybe 60-70% through?)

In addition to how hard-hitting the main plot is, I also just really like all the attention to little details, like Selmers's poetry and all the little places you can find and parkour to and investigate, the wide variety of weird minigames, and the mostly-daily conversations with Mae's parents. Also the jumping puzzles are interesting but not too hard, which is good for someone like me who is easily-defeated by jumping puzzles.

...it's also just interesting the ways in which it hits a lot of similar notes to Ask Again Later's worldbuilding, since I think it draws on a lot of similar things to AAL as far as real-world inspiration.

* that's a good "holy shit", to be clear; I highly recommend this game

Comments

[dorchadas]

I've seen a lot of complaints about how the main plot goes ✨💀✨, but I think it really drives home how it's been there before Mae and her friends were born, and it'll be there after they die, and they can work against its devotees but can't actually fight it directly. Much like global capitalism.

So...Bea, or Gregg?

[veryroundbird]

Having finished the first playthrough last night: it's not what I imagine a lot of people were expecting, but it definitely is a solid cosmic horror plot in a "in comparison to the universe you are very, very small, and very, very insignificant, but you make what meaning you can out of it" way. I thought it was neat how all the stuff with the constellations ties back into the main story insofar as it's about, well, making meaning out of just shapes.

Bea! We'll probably play it again at some point to get the Gregg content (we did do what turned out to be Knife Fight Hour with Gregg and Mae, which was excellent) but we really wanted to hang out with the cute goth.

[dorchadas]

It's strange to me that I saw so many comments about how the game suddenly changes when it seemed to me like it was rural gothic from the beginning--I mean, the very first person Mae meets is the janitor who disappears after walking out into an empty well-lit parking lot. Plus the constellations

Did you play Lost Constellation? I played the game back in November so it wasn't part of my game, but now that it's updated to Weird Autumn edition I think I can go back and play that too (and the other prequel game whose name I forget).

I also did Bea! I found Gregg's personality really overwhelming (though now I realize it's probably supposed to be a depiction of untreated mental illness) and figured pessimistic goth would fit better. I do think Bea's path fits the tone of the story better, but I wish I had gotten to knife fight...

[veryroundbird]

Ha, yeah, maybe it was because I'd heard a little bit about the genre from friends but no spoilers, but it definitely came off as pretty spooky to me from the get-go. I haven't played Lost Constellation or the other one yet (I think it's Longest Night?) but they're definitely high on my to-do list now.