Figment

Verdict: Not Recommended

Is there a way to say a game tries too hard? That's what Figment feels like. Looking past the whole right and left brain psychology it espouses, the dialogue and characters feel flat and one-dimensional with the typical plucky sidekick and grumpy hero - the latter of whom constantly berates the former, which is grating the first time and frankly irritating all times afterwards. I'm hoping that this changes the more I get into it, but so far, I feel like this is supposed to be a children's game in terms of hand-holding and story but with weirdly adult jokes, and the tonal dissonance is extremely off-putting (they use 'tit' and 'damn' and 'bastard' but draw the line at 'shit'? I'm not sure who the target audience is here).

I could tell the music was lovingly crafted, and I tried really hard to enjoy it, but the way it would come in and out in combat was especially jarring. I love xylophone as much as the next person and I get that it's supposed to be starkly different from ambient music during combat, but it was so simple and repetitive that it became annoying. Combat itself is also clunky as hell.

That said - gorgeous art. When the music isn't disruptive, it's very nice. I've found that tuning out the dialogue and just running around and completing the very straightforward tasks is pretty relaxing in and of itself, so I do intend to finish it off. Not much replay value in my opinion, but that may change as I progress through the story.

Edit: Physically I could not bring myself to finish this game.