![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Game: Ikenfell (2021)
Ikenfell is a "turn-based tactical RPG about a group of troublesome magic students", available on PC/Playstation/Xbox/Switch and largely developed by one person (Chevy Ray Johnston). I played it on PC via the Xbox GamePass.
I enjoyed it a lot, even though I had to use the difficulty settings in order to make the battle system tolerable. The plot is very linear, which for me is a selling point (no pesky decisions to make!), and went in some unexpected directions. There are lots of queer and non-binary characters, and their identities are not treated as plot points. The save points are adorable sleeping kitties. The soundtrack is by aivi & surasshu who are apparently best known for creating the soundtrack for Steven Universe.
The general pattern of the game is: You are given a place to go to chase down a plot point. You walk through a dungeon to get there, fighting monsters, solving puzzles and hunting out secret extra items. You fight a boss battle (or two). You are given another place to go. Repeat.
Skills required:
Timing (adjustable, can be disabled)
Tactical combat decisions (can enable an instant-win option)
Puzzle-solving (logic, observation, timing)
Content warnings:
Can be enabled in-game! Spoilers: There's some dark themes, particularly centred around self-hate and survivor's guilt (warned for), self-harm and destructive behaviour (warned for), bloody graphics (warned for), and feelings of betrayal towards a sibling (not warned for). As always this list is not comprehensive - feel free to ask me if you're concerned about anything specific.
- Like I said above, I found the default battle system intolerable. If it were just hitting the timing on the shrinking circle, like Maritte's first attack, that would be okay, but you need to learn a different visual cue for every attack and defense! I turned on the middle setting, where you automatically get the average damage/defense but can hit the timing for the best damage/defense, because I liked the little flash of validation I got when I hit the "Great!" timing.
- 8-bit-era graphics are not really my aesthetic - I'm a 16-bit-era pixelart person - but I didn't find it too bad here.
- It was cute how the game lamp-shaded every single building in the school being essentially a dungeon - both directly with the dormitory being a converted dungeon (Maritte thinks this is weird, and she is right), and in explaining that the weird magic is making everything a maze.
- I kept accidentally mashing through dialogue and through picking up secret objects (so I missed what I'd just picked up), particularly in the areas where you had to discover secret passages with no visual cue (THANKS GAME) but also just because I am apparently a serial button masher.
- Ima was my favourite! I just loved zir design, role in the story as the token competent adult and zir fun paintbrush magic. Also zir abilities were really useful in battle.
- My standard party ended up being Maritte, Ima and Pertisia. Every time I switched away from this trio I would just get slaughtered! I never figured out how to use Petronella or Rook effectively at all.
- I got really stuck on one boss battle early on and eventually found a thread of battle tips from the game creator, which included the advice to level up, at which point I finally remembered how RPGs work.
- Some of the dialogue has a strong "queer teens on Twitter" vibe - "I'm so gay", wails Gilda after one encounter with Maritte - which at least one reviewer found very annoying without the game providing any context for how queerness is regarded in the world, so YMMV - but I found it cute.
- It's not in conversation with Harry Potter the way that Carry On (Rainbow Rowell) was in conversation with Harry Potter, but it definitely shook some of the tropes out of it and examined them closely.
- Some of the battle themes have lyrics! This took me surprise, and I'm still not sure it really fits the 8-bit aesthetic, but the songs were super fun.
- Some of the story choices, while making sense individually, combine to make you think, well, I sure am playing a video game right now! Eg. We need to go to the library (sensible), but the entrance is blocked by the mischievous spirit who lives on campus (plausible, in a Hogwarts-sequence magical school), so we need to go to this other part of campus to find this particular teacher (okay), but we can't find them and the building has turned into a maze due to the weird magic (mmhmm) so we need to make our way to the end to find the teacher, and then we can unlock the library, but the magic has made it into a maze, and...
Spoilers below
.
.
.
.
.
- Ima's theme has the lyrics "Let's paint the future / real bright / with the faith of Martin Luther / it feels right", and then mentioned Ikenfell, so I'm left wondering... does Martin Luther exist in this fantasy world with magic? Is it set in THIS world with Ikenfell a secret magic school? What is going on here? (Also I just looked up the lyrics and it references "pants of Santa's" and Bob Ross, whaaat.)
- Pertisia's issues with Safina being personal kind of undercut her very valid points about endangerment and irresponsible behaviour, but it also gave her more depth.
- Love Maritte's post level-up character design. Gradients and sparkles are my aesthetic.
- The constant re-assessment of Safina's character was really interesting. In the end I guess she had good intentions, but really needed to tell some people what was going on rather than keeping it all to herself.
- The spinning ghost puzzle in the stacks was just... impossible. I just guessed until eventually I got it.
- The same goes for the light-bulb puzzles in the final dungeon, which should have been solvable using logic but my brain was not having it.
- I get anxious when there's a long period between save points, particularly when it's hard, so the last 1/3 of the game was really tough for me.
- The final battle was super tedious and not especially challenging for my party (at level 28), but also... the music just kept getting sadder... it wasn't fun, I just felt terrible.
- I have a lot of questions about Baz and Ibn. Was this the first time Ibn had lost control like this? It seems like the most likely explanation under the circumstances. Was it also the first time they'd talked about... being friends? being in love?
- I liked that Maritte doesn't automatically forgive Safina at the end. Sometimes healing takes time.
- The epilogue was very sweet, although I, as a fanfic author, occasionally prefer a canon to leave some questions, particularly romantic ones, unanswered. (Not to take away from the importance of having canon queer relationships! Just, some middle ground would be nice.)
END SPOILERS
But like I said above, I genuinely enjoyed it despite its annoyances. Solid use of my 22+ hours.
I enjoyed it a lot, even though I had to use the difficulty settings in order to make the battle system tolerable. The plot is very linear, which for me is a selling point (no pesky decisions to make!), and went in some unexpected directions. There are lots of queer and non-binary characters, and their identities are not treated as plot points. The save points are adorable sleeping kitties. The soundtrack is by aivi & surasshu who are apparently best known for creating the soundtrack for Steven Universe.
The general pattern of the game is: You are given a place to go to chase down a plot point. You walk through a dungeon to get there, fighting monsters, solving puzzles and hunting out secret extra items. You fight a boss battle (or two). You are given another place to go. Repeat.
Skills required:
Timing (adjustable, can be disabled)
Tactical combat decisions (can enable an instant-win option)
Puzzle-solving (logic, observation, timing)
Content warnings:
Can be enabled in-game! Spoilers: There's some dark themes, particularly centred around self-hate and survivor's guilt (warned for), self-harm and destructive behaviour (warned for), bloody graphics (warned for), and feelings of betrayal towards a sibling (not warned for). As always this list is not comprehensive - feel free to ask me if you're concerned about anything specific.
- Like I said above, I found the default battle system intolerable. If it were just hitting the timing on the shrinking circle, like Maritte's first attack, that would be okay, but you need to learn a different visual cue for every attack and defense! I turned on the middle setting, where you automatically get the average damage/defense but can hit the timing for the best damage/defense, because I liked the little flash of validation I got when I hit the "Great!" timing.
- 8-bit-era graphics are not really my aesthetic - I'm a 16-bit-era pixelart person - but I didn't find it too bad here.
- It was cute how the game lamp-shaded every single building in the school being essentially a dungeon - both directly with the dormitory being a converted dungeon (Maritte thinks this is weird, and she is right), and in explaining that the weird magic is making everything a maze.
- I kept accidentally mashing through dialogue and through picking up secret objects (so I missed what I'd just picked up), particularly in the areas where you had to discover secret passages with no visual cue (THANKS GAME) but also just because I am apparently a serial button masher.
- Ima was my favourite! I just loved zir design, role in the story as the token competent adult and zir fun paintbrush magic. Also zir abilities were really useful in battle.
- My standard party ended up being Maritte, Ima and Pertisia. Every time I switched away from this trio I would just get slaughtered! I never figured out how to use Petronella or Rook effectively at all.
- I got really stuck on one boss battle early on and eventually found a thread of battle tips from the game creator, which included the advice to level up, at which point I finally remembered how RPGs work.
- Some of the dialogue has a strong "queer teens on Twitter" vibe - "I'm so gay", wails Gilda after one encounter with Maritte - which at least one reviewer found very annoying without the game providing any context for how queerness is regarded in the world, so YMMV - but I found it cute.
- It's not in conversation with Harry Potter the way that Carry On (Rainbow Rowell) was in conversation with Harry Potter, but it definitely shook some of the tropes out of it and examined them closely.
- Some of the battle themes have lyrics! This took me surprise, and I'm still not sure it really fits the 8-bit aesthetic, but the songs were super fun.
- Some of the story choices, while making sense individually, combine to make you think, well, I sure am playing a video game right now! Eg. We need to go to the library (sensible), but the entrance is blocked by the mischievous spirit who lives on campus (plausible, in a Hogwarts-sequence magical school), so we need to go to this other part of campus to find this particular teacher (okay), but we can't find them and the building has turned into a maze due to the weird magic (mmhmm) so we need to make our way to the end to find the teacher, and then we can unlock the library, but the magic has made it into a maze, and...
Spoilers below
.
.
.
.
.
- Ima's theme has the lyrics "Let's paint the future / real bright / with the faith of Martin Luther / it feels right", and then mentioned Ikenfell, so I'm left wondering... does Martin Luther exist in this fantasy world with magic? Is it set in THIS world with Ikenfell a secret magic school? What is going on here? (Also I just looked up the lyrics and it references "pants of Santa's" and Bob Ross, whaaat.)
- Pertisia's issues with Safina being personal kind of undercut her very valid points about endangerment and irresponsible behaviour, but it also gave her more depth.
- Love Maritte's post level-up character design. Gradients and sparkles are my aesthetic.
- The constant re-assessment of Safina's character was really interesting. In the end I guess she had good intentions, but really needed to tell some people what was going on rather than keeping it all to herself.
- The spinning ghost puzzle in the stacks was just... impossible. I just guessed until eventually I got it.
- The same goes for the light-bulb puzzles in the final dungeon, which should have been solvable using logic but my brain was not having it.
- I get anxious when there's a long period between save points, particularly when it's hard, so the last 1/3 of the game was really tough for me.
- The final battle was super tedious and not especially challenging for my party (at level 28), but also... the music just kept getting sadder... it wasn't fun, I just felt terrible.
- I have a lot of questions about Baz and Ibn. Was this the first time Ibn had lost control like this? It seems like the most likely explanation under the circumstances. Was it also the first time they'd talked about... being friends? being in love?
- I liked that Maritte doesn't automatically forgive Safina at the end. Sometimes healing takes time.
- The epilogue was very sweet, although I, as a fanfic author, occasionally prefer a canon to leave some questions, particularly romantic ones, unanswered. (Not to take away from the importance of having canon queer relationships! Just, some middle ground would be nice.)
END SPOILERS
But like I said above, I genuinely enjoyed it despite its annoyances. Solid use of my 22+ hours.