Bokida - Heartfelt Reunion

A brief experience with the markings of a game with greater scope, but which falls short of this realization. You are given four physics based abilities to start, with the option to unlock more through gameplay, which all together would serve as a great foundation for a physics based puzzler. However, only two abilities are ever required for the scant number of puzzles encountered over a 100% completion playthrough. Instead, the bulk of the game is spent slowly gliding through the minimalist environment, scouting out black dots against the textureless landscape while suffering the sluggish and grating movement system. The surrounding architecture is dull and aside from player made structures, which the player is never incentivised to build, the use of contrasting colors against the starkly white environment is only ever utilized twice, making the minimalist design feel bland and underutilized. All this to say the game feels underdeveloped in many facets. Fans of games such as Antichamber, Manifold Garden or NaissanceE will recognize a lot of elements shared with Bokida - Heartfelt Reunion, and will like myself likely end up disappointed when these elements don't enrich the game i…

There's not enough game in this art project. It's a walking simulator where the main feature is snow blindness, and they forgot to include the story. If you read the other reviews, there are common elements repeated by most: [h3]Exploration[/h3] Overall, the walking pace is low and the pick-up items are scattered too far and wide and not in logical places. By logical I mean "video game logic", like giving a pick-up/upgrade at the top of the mountain or behind the waterfall. Here those pick-ups are often missing so it really becomes an Easter egg hunt, but without any logic and very few eggs. This leaves exploration as very unsatisfactory: You check out every nook and cranny, but most of the time it ends up empty. So why bother and explore even more? [h3]Graphics[/h3] Many people call it beautiful, but it's really just simple geometry with a basic shader to show the edges. Because of the overall lack of colors and size of the world, it can be quite disorienting and boring. The glaring shades of white is not nice on the eyes or beautiful. [h3]Puzzles[/h3] Far too few! They are overall kinda clever and nice, but there just isn't enough of them. Most of the time you'll spending look…

Beautiful and fun.

Bokida - Heartfelt Reunion is an epic, capital-A art game. I've had it installed for years, and every year or so I go back and play for an hour, completely baffled as to what to do and where to go, but still somehow in awe of the vast emptiness. Although there are some puzzles in this game, I am not sure you could ever figure them all out without a walkthrough, but the puzzles aren't really the point, I don't think. You are dropped into a huge, minimal, white world where everything you see is very far away. It takes a long time to get anywhere. You can build blocks into mid-air, erecting snake-like pathways and staircases that tower into the nothingness. Every now and then you encounter a weird symbol or tree or monolith. There are no instructions. By building blocks, pruning branches, pushing panels, eventually you may reveal a short cutscene and advance toward the end of the game. Most of the time nothing happens, but there's something compelling about trying. The game is very relaxing and very forgiving, and that's why it works. Even though you have no idea what to do or where to go, even though you occasionally fall off one of the stairs you spent 20 minutes building, all…

gotta say this game probably isn't for everyone, being more exploration focused than puzzles imo, but i really like it :] my only problem is i wish there was a high contrast option, as the white landscapes are VERY pretty but can hurt to look at after a while

cool