1. Tiny Echo's title implies it's a small game--and it is. It sets its stage quickly then you get to explore it for a while and then your done. While not some sprawling experience, it still manages to rope you into its strange little world for the time you're there. It is a small game but still complete.
2. The main character is a sweet little figure w/ an eyeball for a head. The developers call this character Emi. I call her Creepy Red Riding Hood.
3. The story begins like so: a bunch of letters float across a wasteland full of decrepit looking humanoids into a small working chamber occupied by a sleeping Creepy Red Riding Hood. She awakes, places the letters into a satchel and sets out on foot for a purpose yet unknown.
4. Well... not exactly unknown. If it wasn't clear from the setup, it is obvious that the general goal here is to deliver these letters from the very first room you enter. This is not really about delivering letters though. The letters on their own are just a reason. What they are a reason for is to explore Tiny Echo's twisted and beautiful little world.
5. In 2017, Cuphead garnered a lot of attention for looking like a cartoon come to life. If you ask me, Tiny Echo captured this same feeling to much less fanfare. The graphics are hand drawn and wonderfully detailed. Any given frame of gameplay could easily be a work of art in its own right.
6. The style has an edge of cuteness to it but its mood is still strange and mildly foreboding. The world itself is dreary and seems on the verge of decay. Its inhabitants are fox-like and mostly indifferent to you. There is no place in it that seems truly comfortable.
7. The music fits w/ this perfectly. It feels generally darkly atmospheric but with all kinds of fun and sometimes unexpected jazzy little touches that bring each area to life. The soundtrack is by a person who goes by the name Mount West (not to be confused w/ Mountain's Leslie West) and has already gotten a few spins by me after I've played through the game. Give it a listen if you like to listen to music.
8. This definitely has an influence from old point-and-click adventure games but the puzzles in this tend to be quite a bit less involved. You have no inventory or any way to hold on items and nearly all the puzzles are contained w/in one area.
9. Realistically, every puzzle in Tiny Echo is solved by just clicking on everything that seems clickable.
10. This is fine. This is not really a game about solving puzzles. It's about exploring the world and doing so is evokes a real sense of wonder. Tiny Echo is not large but the whole thing feels lived-in and real. What keeps you pushing through is not the need to best the next set of challenges but simply to see what else there is and what changes occur.
11. Do not try to put this down halfway through and comeback a few days later on your first playthrough. You will come back w/ no idea what's going on. A big part of it is just remembering where you've already been. I'd actually go as far to recommend you block out an hour and a half or so to get it all in in one sitting. Come on. You're worth it.
12. You can actually beat it much faster than that once you know what all you have to do. Tiny Echo is not exactly speed-running fodder but I suppose you could if you wanted to.
13. The ultimate goal developers Might and Delight had w/ Tiny Echo seems to be world building and, in that, I think they succeeded completely. Neither your goals nor the setting are particularly well explained but nevertheless the game maintains the elusive quality of feeling believable. It has an internal logic you intuit on from the beginning and is genuinely an interesting place to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment