The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

[droqen]

Regarding
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

[droqen]

I played this game for 24 minutes, and I'm done! I'm not interested enough in the characters, or the gameplay -- to be specific about the gameplay, I think I feel that there's nothing to play with that's interesting to play with! Not for me to play with, that is, but not even for the developers to play with and show to me -- I've grasped the system and the pacing in particular of everything and it just... is... a little bland. The minigame is just a minigame, the puzzles are really simple -- no, let's not make it about difficulty. The puzzles involve thinking about silly obvious character details: Knuckles gets angry easily and throws punches. Amy has a hammer and, maybe, is headstrong, but reckless?

If these puzzles, despite being silly and obvious, were about characters or systems or dare I say components and connections that I was interested in (for whatever reason) I would be all for them!

[droqen]

Oh, and as for the jumping-platforming Sonic minigame.
The timing challenge isn't hard, it's possible to fail, there are enough new components (spikey balls get introduced partway through) that I could imagine it continues to introduce them and try to be interesting.

There's no Sonic nostalgia for me, for collecting those rings or playing as Sonic.
Now, I'll talk about pacing next.

[droqen]

The game does set up mysteries and likely solves them. The pace is quite slow. This is something that bothers me about the vast majority of visual novels -- so much time is spent watching panels slide in and out, and not reading. I do have issues with the content but I believe I also dislike the form. I enjoy some visual novels but this is, I think, in spite of the form.

I don't have the patience! I don't like the linearity! I don't spend time basking in visual novel space well at all.

[droqen]

Penultimate thought: I'm watching a longplay of the full game and it's... annoying, waiting for every little screen transition, every animation. As previously mentioned it seems really unnecessary? The form is full of breaks and pauses. Certainly these transitions add something -- I couldn't recreate the exact same experience on a sheet of paper, even with good imagery. A good comparison is the children's book form, where text is often overlaid on and across pictures in an artful way.

I return again and again, however, to the feeling that it's all superfluous and for 'padding'. I have to actively reject this thought each time it presents itself. Nothing is padding if you enjoy it, if you feel something as a result of it, if it is a part of the work.

To me, so much is padding, so much is irrelevant. It may be bad but it could not simply be removed. Everything is real.

[droqen]

(P.S. I forgot this but I'm watching at 2x speed! and it's still kinda too slow for me! Ugh)

[droqen]

fin