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FOAMGaP pt 11: The Wild at Heart
a year ago
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i can also be found at:
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
and
patreon.com/ZaBardicDragoon
Hi, Hello there; been awhile since I did one of these ne? for the new people or those who forgot in the last ~5-6 months: FOAMGaP (Faceless Online Art Monkey Grows a Personality) is a thing I where I talk about whatever I feel like. Its so far been exclusively videogame stuff (all but exclusively waffling and rambling ‘reviews’ of games I’ve recently beaten), and we aren’t breaking any new ground with Todays subject; a pseudo restart after a long break with Pikmin, or at least something that feels like it wants to be Pikmin
As discussed in the first of these I am really like the gameplay styling of Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 1 and so indie games that look to try and emulate or copy that (especially in the gap between Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4) would immediately catch my attention. Though most often the Pikmin comparison would be very surface level, and so regardless of individual quality never scratch the itch for that dandori playstyle I loved (Tinykin comes to mind: really great 3D platformer, but, despite being a legion of followers you literally throw at things to solve puzzles, the titular tinykin share more in common with power stars/moons in 3D Mario games than pikmin). The Wild at Heart is the first non Pikmin game that even feels like it attempts to scratch that dandori itch, though it also does its own thing.
This games pikmin analog, spritlings, come in handful of different times (twigling, emberlings, shiverlings, barblings, and lunalings) with distinct mechanical functions (poison immunity, fire immunity and higher attack power, freezing certain bodies of water and interacting with cloning portals, sticking to objects and doing more damage when thrown, being really strong at night) that you have to effectively deploy to solve puzzles all while dealing with a limited daytime cycle to do things in; you even get two captain analogs in the main characters. However the game expands upon this in a few ways: most prominently is the inclusion or crafting aspects that give a bit of a survival game feel to things (as you craft food and tools using consumable ingredients you can find), but also the ‘captains’ each have certain things only they can do rather then being the same, also nightfall isn’t the pencils down moment that it is in Pikmin and you can actually play through the night there are just powerful rapidly respawning creatures chasing you down.
That said these unique elements come to define the game and don’t quite work wholly out in my opinion. Crafting is probably the worst out of them; being almost completely ignorable unless you play on a sort of ‘hard mode’ that makes taking a day or two to farm resources on a regular basis part of the central loop, something I don’t really enjoy doing. The implementation of ‘captains’ fairs better; the unique abilities each has, while not complex, do expand puzzle options a bit, really the only issue is there is no ‘Go Here’ option so unless a puzzles needs you to split up for whatever reason your probably never going to utilize the ‘captains’ as separate entities. The handling of night though is a great idea; giving you the option of having more time in a day if you want to risk/can deal with the dangers of the night, bonus points for one of the spritelings function being to be used at night.
As for the story; it starts with an interesting hook and while I wouldn’t call it bad I can’t really say it’s really good either. Things start out with a kid running away from, what is implied to be a somewhat abusive, home planning to meet up with a friend who is also running away from home. Both kids are separately pulled into a magical world where they end up meeting some strange old people and have to deal with an awakening evil that seems to be a threat to both worlds. Honestly the main issue is the pacing once your in the magical world the story is juggling three big plot points (the save the world plot, the main characters home situation and attached reflections and realizations, and the friends place as assort of chosen one in this magical world) with very few moments of storytelling most of them extremely optional and not always well explained which can leave the ending feeling a little out of left field.
Overall if you like Pikmin 1 or 3 (moreso 1) this is still likely to be a good time, but you should probably keep you expectations tempered as it feels like a game that wants to be Pikmin but also its own thing but never quite reaches the peaks it maps out for either.
https://www.deviantart.com/bardicdragoon
and
patreon.com/ZaBardicDragoon
Hi, Hello there; been awhile since I did one of these ne? for the new people or those who forgot in the last ~5-6 months: FOAMGaP (Faceless Online Art Monkey Grows a Personality) is a thing I where I talk about whatever I feel like. Its so far been exclusively videogame stuff (all but exclusively waffling and rambling ‘reviews’ of games I’ve recently beaten), and we aren’t breaking any new ground with Todays subject; a pseudo restart after a long break with Pikmin, or at least something that feels like it wants to be Pikmin
The Wild at Heart
As discussed in the first of these I am really like the gameplay styling of Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 1 and so indie games that look to try and emulate or copy that (especially in the gap between Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4) would immediately catch my attention. Though most often the Pikmin comparison would be very surface level, and so regardless of individual quality never scratch the itch for that dandori playstyle I loved (Tinykin comes to mind: really great 3D platformer, but, despite being a legion of followers you literally throw at things to solve puzzles, the titular tinykin share more in common with power stars/moons in 3D Mario games than pikmin). The Wild at Heart is the first non Pikmin game that even feels like it attempts to scratch that dandori itch, though it also does its own thing.
This games pikmin analog, spritlings, come in handful of different times (twigling, emberlings, shiverlings, barblings, and lunalings) with distinct mechanical functions (poison immunity, fire immunity and higher attack power, freezing certain bodies of water and interacting with cloning portals, sticking to objects and doing more damage when thrown, being really strong at night) that you have to effectively deploy to solve puzzles all while dealing with a limited daytime cycle to do things in; you even get two captain analogs in the main characters. However the game expands upon this in a few ways: most prominently is the inclusion or crafting aspects that give a bit of a survival game feel to things (as you craft food and tools using consumable ingredients you can find), but also the ‘captains’ each have certain things only they can do rather then being the same, also nightfall isn’t the pencils down moment that it is in Pikmin and you can actually play through the night there are just powerful rapidly respawning creatures chasing you down.
That said these unique elements come to define the game and don’t quite work wholly out in my opinion. Crafting is probably the worst out of them; being almost completely ignorable unless you play on a sort of ‘hard mode’ that makes taking a day or two to farm resources on a regular basis part of the central loop, something I don’t really enjoy doing. The implementation of ‘captains’ fairs better; the unique abilities each has, while not complex, do expand puzzle options a bit, really the only issue is there is no ‘Go Here’ option so unless a puzzles needs you to split up for whatever reason your probably never going to utilize the ‘captains’ as separate entities. The handling of night though is a great idea; giving you the option of having more time in a day if you want to risk/can deal with the dangers of the night, bonus points for one of the spritelings function being to be used at night.
As for the story; it starts with an interesting hook and while I wouldn’t call it bad I can’t really say it’s really good either. Things start out with a kid running away from, what is implied to be a somewhat abusive, home planning to meet up with a friend who is also running away from home. Both kids are separately pulled into a magical world where they end up meeting some strange old people and have to deal with an awakening evil that seems to be a threat to both worlds. Honestly the main issue is the pacing once your in the magical world the story is juggling three big plot points (the save the world plot, the main characters home situation and attached reflections and realizations, and the friends place as assort of chosen one in this magical world) with very few moments of storytelling most of them extremely optional and not always well explained which can leave the ending feeling a little out of left field.
Overall if you like Pikmin 1 or 3 (moreso 1) this is still likely to be a good time, but you should probably keep you expectations tempered as it feels like a game that wants to be Pikmin but also its own thing but never quite reaches the peaks it maps out for either.
