All Our Asias

Linear bare-bones video game, but also a bit of an avant-garde art project and conversation piece. Cool vaporwave aesthetics, strange & dreamy soundtrack. Overall interesting experience, though probably won't gel with everyone.

All Our Asias is a very strange game, but in a way that I think works surprisingly well. I play as Yuito, a Japanese American man whose father is dying, and I enter a strange Memory World built from his father's memories. From there I am exploring surreal places, talking to characters and trying to understand more about a father Yuito never really knew. It is a very short experience, around 90 minutes to two hours, and it feels much more like a personal story than a traditional adventure game. The thing I like most is the atmosphere. Everything has this strange old 3D look that reminds me of early PlayStation and N64 games, but the simple graphics actually fit the dreamlike setting really well. The environments can look familiar one moment and completely bizarre the next, which makes exploring the Memory World feel like I am moving through someone's thoughts rather than a normal game world. The music also adds a lot to this. It is calm and sometimes quite haunting, and it gives the whole experience a feeling that is difficult to get from a more conventional adventure game. The story is where most of the real substance is for me. Yuito is trying to understand his father, but the g…

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Contemplative

Review after 100% ♡♡♡ "Don't waste your life, I did. Go home," -John Rambo ⣴⣿⣦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣼⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣶⣤⣤⣶⣶⣿⣿⡗ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⠀ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃ ⣿⣿⡇⠜⠙⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀Got a cat here ⣿⣿⣿⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠋⡹⠙⣿⣿⣿⡇⠀ Friends passing ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣶⣾⣿⣿⠛⠀⠀by can touch her ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠛⠁⠀⠀and click Like to pet ♡ ⣿⣿⡿⠻⠿⠿⠿⠿⠛⠹⠑⠀⠀ Award for good luck, Take My Points for infinite pets ♡ ⠟⠁⠀

This game tries. It does not succeed. This is a preachy game that makes its points with a sledgehammer, but at least those parts are trying to say aomething. I'd say roughly half of this game's 80 minute runtime is just moving in a straight line through ugly, boring environments. I don't even accept that it's going for minimalist graphics, when you have geometry that looks like it was made by a 6 year old using Roblox for the first time. You know the building you stare at for the entire credits sequence? It has windows at the very top at roof level. There is not a careful artistic vision here, the visuals look like they were slapped together as fast as possible. While I wanted to give this game a chance, I even made a point to finish it after deciding i just kinda hated it 40 minutes in, it's just a very underwhelming and poorly made game even for going for a simple artstyle and a price of Free. Don't waste your time on this.