demo-a-day

this was an interesting one. muse is a game about an artist struggling with self-doubt where you navigate surreal scenes representing her subconscious. this may involve a full minigame, or it may just involve clicking around. the description of the game promises puzzles, but the demo doesn't have any. the minigame the demo did have... just did not work for me.

you see that painting there? it loses its color, and you have to recolor it while fending off ghosts. this is one of the most annoying things i have ever done in a game. it's not hard in theory, but the paintbrush only holds enough color for two clicks while each part of the painting takes several. taking out a ghost uses up your entire color. it took me a bit to figure out the right strategy for fending them off so my work kept getting erased before i could get anywhere. i did not have fun. i can see what they were going for - self-doubt, low self-esteem, and cruel words sap you of motivation and strip your world of color and joy - but it just didn't work for me. most of my time in this demo was spent on this minigame.

the rest of it was fine. despite also being an artist that struggles with believing in myself, i didn't really connect with the story or have any strong feelings about it. that could just be a consequence of the demo being so short, though; you don't get a lot of time with clara or her feelings. after the painting minigame, you take a look at some memory fragments and see clara in her studio. this was really cool visually, but it was so short!

despite my negativity, i don't think this is a bad game at all. it has its merits, and i can really see what they're aiming for. i think it has the potential to say some really profound things about creation. i want to like it, but it's not clicking with me. i probably won't be getting the full game when it releases, but it's still worth taking a look at it yourself! you might resonate with it more than i did. you may like the painting minigame. try it and see!

my original plan was to cover a different game, but i don't think i'm going to see all that demo has to offer tonight, so i decided to look at this demo too. my girlfriend played this game a long time ago, but i don't remember what she thought of it. the characters are certainly unique, by which i mean they're completely fucking weird. that's the whole point, though, and i love that for them. my favorite guys are marshmallow, the rudeass kid who loves food, and saeki, my classmate that can't say a coherent sentence. the writing in this game is pretty simple, but it works.

i didn't get much of a handle on the plot during my playthrough, and the steam page doesn't give many more clues on what it's meant to be. it's kind of like a weird slice-of-life but i get the feeling there's going to be a bit more to it later down the line. whatever's going on here, it's really interesting.

i'll probably play more of the demo before i decide if i want to buy it, but i'm intrigued! i love the pixel art style (of course) and the characters are just so weird that i want to hear them talk more. give it a look if you like zany characters!