Pheus and Mor, a boy and his dog. Best friends forever, right? This puzzle platformer puts that to the test, combining stunning, dreamlike levels with ominous foreshadowing for a flawed but engaging experience. Both characters will have to work together and use their strengths to get to the end, but are they ready for what's waiting for them on the other side of that locked door?
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I'm still not sure if I like bittersweet endings to my games. I prefer my completion to make me feel good, not bring me down.
If a game is going to have a poignant ending, teary or otherwise, I prefer it to be relevant in the gameplay, not just in the cutscenes. I didn't really get that here.
For example:
The styles of the levels didn't match the story. A Wizard of Oz tornado? A factory? A castle? How does that advance and/or resolve the story? All it appears to be is a magical adventure between a boy and his dog before, oops, the dog had died.
Rather, why not use the style to advance the story? A level utilizing the soccer balls more? Or instead of a factory, how about a wrecked car junkyard? Instead of a castle, what about a graveyard or pet cemetary? And in the final levels, what if the dog helped the boy return to his body instead of him passing on to the light?
Advancing the story through the gameplay and level styles would have gone a long way to limiting the "bitter" and increasing the "sweet." Instead, all I'm left with is a dead dog and a wish that I had stopped playing the game 2/3 of the way through.
Still the mechanics were fun (if not hard or original), and the artwork and music quite lovely.
Bittersweet?
The kid spent most of his childhood in a coma & his beloved dog is long dead!
That ending's downright sad if you ask me.
Also, I do kinda agree with LightWarriorK that there's a bit of a disconnection between the plot & the level design of this game.
Didn't like how you couldn't revist levels without beating the game, especially with it reminding you that you missed the key there! It was also too bad few of the ideas from
broken world under the floor
were used elsewhere in the game.
Speaking of sluggish, Pheus, um...
dies too slow.
Luckily you can just hit R to restart.
I considered it bittersweet because
through the adventures he has with his dog, which I think are just meant to symbolise various fairy-tale like locales that kids enjoy, Pheus finally emerges from his coma with the help of Mor, which is happy, but he has to face reality and leave Mor behind. I think considering it was Mor's spirit helping him emerge from his coma, it wasn't all sad.
Just my thought. :)
Hi LightWarriorK,
I see what you're saying and I agree somewhat. But maybe there is a reason...
As a child, he sees the world from a much different perspective than someone older. Those magical worlds are very much what would be significant to a child. Unless he was a car fanatic, a kid who doesn't drive wouldn't have much thought for cars or salvage lots.
Maybe in the boy's mind, a castle is a better way to face his teetering near death than a graveyard would be and, since he is not only unaware that the dog has passed but would probably even never consider the possibility that the dog wouldn't live as long as he did, there is no reason at all, he'd think of a pet cemetery.
I see these colorful magical worlds as actually Pheus being connected to life, as surreal as they are, and the black and white dystopias are a result of his body's awareness of its trauma and mortality.
In this way, perhaps the lack of relevancy was an intended poetic element rather than an oversight in storytelling?
Okay I gave the game 5, I loved it, but I would love to rate this review for being so spot on 10/5 (now there is a thought, rating reviews!)
"Pheus and Mor is pretty effective at pulling you in without saying a word."
And here you have "it" what made this game something special, you just had to keep going.
"On the other hand, the controls can get a bit frustrating, with Mor's movement feeling perhaps overly sluggish at times and Pheus's jumping not being as fluid as it really should."
True, very true, and it may be a game breaker for some, but maybe, just maybe
if you are in a coma, this is how the world feels
@Black Drazon
For the key levels
You can replay them any time from the level select screen
Edit to Black Drazon
(because I found out the hard way!)
@Black Drazon, @Yaddab,
About accessing the key levels--
I actually couldn't replay them from the level select screen until I'd finished ALL the levels (except for the big locked door).
When playing through the story for the first time, even if you stand in front of a door you've already completed and press S, it won't let you enter. Pheus does a lot of sliding around instead.
Agreed that this is a slightly annoying feature: good that the game lets you go back and get the missed keys eventually, but the closed levels cause a lot of unnecessary anxiety in the meantime!
Pretty heart-wrenching game, nevertheless.
Update