I’ve played some baffling games in my time but this may be one of the oddest in years. It’s sort of a visual novel, where you play as seemingly the subconscious of a very anxious girl who is sent out to buy some milk. Except, you also play as you, the player. And the girl knows it’s not real. Or is it? Or is it not real but her medication makes it seems like it is?
Or is the subconscious the real thing here and the girl just a puppet?
“Gameplay” takes the form of you, or something, responding to the girl when she talks to herself. Or to you. Or to both of you. Ultimately, if you’re supportive and encouraging, you get the good ending, and if you tell her she’s weird and stuff you get the bad ending. Along the (short) way, you find out a bit about her family and why she’s on medication for whatever mental illness she seemingly has. Or hasn’t.
Yes, it’s very strange.
It was only a few days ago when I was saying about playing baffling games, and, well, here’s another one! About An Elf is somewhere between a visual novel and an RPG, where you play an elf trying to rediscover Elftopia or something. The plot is nonsense and, frankly, not what you’re going to be focussing on if you play it because that art style.
Are the characters real people dressed up? Are they CGI? Models? Some combination of all three? Is Dam, the elf you play as, really a woman who wiggles back and forth, in PVC and with presumably very cold legs? Are the “magiballs” you attack with actually marbles or drawings of marbles? IS THAT A REAL CAT?
As you chat away, you have to fight ridiculous baddies like clowns and shark clowns and space clowns and some things which probably aren’t clowns, and this is done by discovering their elemental weakness and using the corresponding magiball on them. And how do you discover their weakness? Why, with a fish-eye lens affected bit of looping video of a dog having a wash or a sunset or something unrecognisably abstract of course! Of course. A cat’s nose? Why, that means attack with your water ball, obviously! Baffling.
Thankfully, it’s near impossible to fail, as if you chose the wrong one you lose a gummi bear and get to try again, and since there’s only a maximum of five possible balls to choose, and gummi bears are plentiful, you’re not going to die.
Look, I know this sounds like I’m describing a cheese dream, but that’s probably not far from how this thing got made in the first place. Is it good? No. Is it fun? No. Is it one of the most bizarre things you’re likely to ever play? Well, duh. Essential purchase.
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