Lost Ember review: There's still a way to go before the City of Light

In the middle of my obsession with the fox and the story in First Tree, the Wolf and the Red Ball appeared on the recommended list, and after a few quick screenshots and related information, he was moved to the wish list, where he remained until the end of November this year, when he became my stock game.

To be honest, from the moment I put him into the wish list, there was no expectation of how "mature" this game would be, because this type of game always seems to be a little "layman", and you can see its cracks as a game at a glance, especially when you are flying as a bird, you can even see map boundaries and crude levels at a glance.

Cracks naturally mean light is flowing in, and as long as the game delivers a unique story, keeps the player stuck with the rolling producer list for a while, or at least makes the nose sour, then those lights have meaning, and the cracks in the game part don't matter as much. But Lost Ember doesn't do too well, and in keeping with the game's main storyline, this soul is still a long way from the City of Light.

When I got this game, my friend told me that "this is an art game", and after experiencing the game in its entirety, this sentence should be followed by a question mark. The expression of Lost Ember is a formality, you can see the scene and terrain change with the pace of the story, you have the desire to cut a picture in each minor level, its artistic skills are evident, and at key points of the plot, the visual and auditory representation is specially designed to match the corresponding story arc.

"Lost Embers" because of the nature of its overhead world, the producer used a lot of length to let the player understand the world and the main characters, during this period, the main contradictions appear too slowly, the story rhythm is difficult to advance, resulting in the plot development in the player's expectation for a long time.

The early stage is not interesting plot naturally let the player's focus back to the gameplay itself, which is actually the "Lost Ember" short board, the experience of nature is not very good.

The core gameplay of Lost Embers is decryption and collection. Players can possess any animal and use their characteristics to unlock puzzles. The process is very simple, as long as you find the right animal, then the puzzle will be solved, so under this condition, the producer will focus more fun outside of the decryption.

"Become a happy duckling."

Become a pig to eat wild fruits, eat full and achievements, become a pangolin can occasionally arch out of the dirt radish, of course, the most cool or hummingbirds fly in the sky, if the player possessed the mother duck, you can also see the ducklings closely behind.

In addition to the fun of the animals themselves, the game is also designed with some environmental interactions, such as blowing away dandelions. Also let the game produce some if there is no small level, such as a column of dandelions in front of the stake channel, the player is very clear what to do, hit is cool, did not hit does not affect the next process.

These little fun continue to decorate the game itself, and the dots of stars eventually converge to become a highlight. Compared to these small fun, the game's collection elements are very redundant, players can collect various types of mushrooms, or many relics related to the game world. Unless you are obsessed with trophies, the value of these things alone is not enough for the player to bother to find, mushrooms will not let the player learn more about the world, some of the relics of the item description is a little unclear, it is worthwhile to collect white legendary creatures, but the novelty will soon wear out.

In the process of collection, we naturally cannot help but be accompanied by BGM, and this BGM is a pity, although it has BGM in slightly critical plot points and levels, and the effect is not bad. However, because the overall coverage of BGM is insufficient, at unnecessary moments, players can only hear dry environmental sounds, such as when the player becomes a variety of animals walking around the world, but there is no BGM to further render the atmosphere, and the experience is somewhat discounted.

However, as the game progresses to the later stage, the plot finally unfolds, the core contradiction begins to confront, and the quality of the game has finally made rapid progress, and this progress is also all-round.

The first is the dramatic improvement in graphic design. Much more shocking and layered than before, the lack of guidance in the levels is no longer an issue, and they seem to be aware of it, even giving the player "echoes" in which direction to go. After a long build-up to the plot, various mysteries were finally revealed at this stage.

"It's a beautiful part of the game, it lights up behind you with every move."

Here we briefly summarize the plot structure of Lost Embers. Due to the nature of its imaginary world, he laid a lot of groundwork in the early stage, the process is too long and the theme is unclear, resulting in the plot is difficult to attract players, and when the plot enters the formal confrontation stage, the interference of the subplot is finally removed, and the mystery is solved one by one, the plot is full of vitality.

But that doesn't mean Lost Embers ends up telling a good story, and the core of what it's trying to say is a little hard to empathize with. However, in the final stage of the game, "Lost Ember" after solving all the mysteries to present the theme, the ending became the finishing touch of the entire game, bringing the player no small shock.

So in general, Lost Ember didn't handle the "above game" elements too well in the opening phase, allowing the player to focus back on the "inside game". In this part of the content, the game did not make the player impressed, there are more or less many problems, all affect the actual game experience. Fortunately, after the game entered the second half, it recaptured the players through frequent plot performances, and many problems in the first half were alleviated and improved.

So is Lost Ember an "artistic game"? My answer is in the middle of the article, and his art is superficial. Looking at the screenshots alone, the game does have a little taste, but after actually playing it, you can find that the core of the game that you want to express is difficult to reach the softest place in the hearts of players.

So not every game that isn't primarily about gameplay can be called "art," and Lost Embers is only partially successful in trying to move players through storytelling. Before the author has broken through the medium of games, the work presented will naturally be difficult to break through the game itself.