Washed up on glistening angular sand; the shore shifts away from you… A puzzle game. Arrow keys control. – [Author’s description]
Craequ (Jonathan Whiting)
Posted by Terry
on March 27, 2012
Washed up on glistening angular sand; the shore shifts away from you… A puzzle game. Arrow keys control. – [Author’s description]
After I quickly discovered the puzzle mechanic (and it’s so satisfying to do that on your own, without a list of “rules” given to you!) the game became a little easy. However I’ve never seen a puzzle game done this way so it was a lot of fun.
Ending is kind of “meh”
This one is brilliant.
If I recall, it was released just before the latest Zelda game, which uses a similar mechanic at one point late in its arc.
I was really impressed by this game. Like Tilapia said, figuring out how the puzzles worked on your own was a wonderful feeling. No tutorials, no hand-holding, but it’s not needed because the mechanics are simple enough to grasp with a bit of trial-and-error. This is what I like to see in games: giving the player the reward of discovering the universe on their own, rather than telling them explicitly what they should be doing. Not to mention that the actual mechanics of the puzzle are simply brilliant and brilliantly simple.
I wondered if this would turn up on here. I really loved playing this game.
nobody: Actually, this was released about a month later.
Regarding the relationship between this games mechanic and Skyward Sword (quoting myself from indiegames.com blog comment):
In case it’s interesting… This game probably wouldn’t have existed without Skyward Sword, a game I have not played and know relatively little about.
The crystallizing inspiration for the game was my reaction to a comment by “Djula” on https://www.actionbutton.net/?p=1227 ; which was, essentialy “ugh! What a waste of such a lovely idea”.
My (untested) hunch is that my interpretation will be more comprehensive and less hand-holdy than Nintendo’s. I will find/watch those walkthroughs to see what they did do with the concept.
Having now watched the walkthroughs, I do prefer my interpretation.. but then again, I would!
Took me awhile to figure out the puzzle, but once I did, it was an “a-HA” moment. From there it didn’t take long to complete the rest, but I enjoyed it every step of the way. Very clever and well executed. If I could change anything it would be making the music track a bit longer. After awhile I had to lower the volume because it just kept repeating and repeating and repeating. 😯