A Look at "Night In The Woods"
I've just finished Night In The Woods, an offbeat story-heavy character-driven game where you play Mae, an aimless cat who has come home to her small town to wrestle with some old (and new) demons.
I loved the game, it's unique visual style and charming animations, and the surprisingly dark theme for what might appear initially to be whimsical (and still is in part) works very well. I want to discuss in depth what I loved and didn't love about it, so consider the rest of this post to be Spoiler Heavy.
The small town vibe of Possum Springs was conveyed very well. It's easy to empathize for people yearning for Something Better yet stuck in a relatively uneventful past-it's-prime location. While the area that you can explore at any one time is relatively contained, there's still a lot to do if you are thorough in going everywhere that you can reach. The colorful changing of the seasons, the little animations and throwaway conversations feel pretty legit.
The star of the game are the characters and their relationships. While exact ages aren't given, Mae has just left college and seems to have a great deal to learn about life. I admit that it was somewhat difficult for me to connect with Mae because her attitude is so frequently self-centered and immature for someone her age. Her desire to be a kid with no responsibility rang very familiar with people I know who want the privilege of being an adult without the burden of it. At no point in the game does Mae seem to show a deep interest in really understanding the lives of her old friends, it's more that she seems to assume (wish?) everything's the same and is shocked to find out that maybe she doesn't already know everything about everyone. It's strongly hinted that Mae might have some form of mental illness, which makes some of her immaturity a little more sympathetic, but it's never directly addressed other than the therapy she is forced to get after freaking out and beating up a classmate.
Admittedly in my playthrough it was tough to have to only be able to hang out with one main person on any given day, but even though I loved Gregg as a very cute amusing character, his "Let's Go Fuck Shit Up" attitude wasn't as appealing or relatable as Bea's "Real Life Sucks" character arc, so while I tried to divide my time, Bea got the most of it because I wanted Mae to grow up and learn something. In an interesting choice, the game often gives you 2 or 3 dialogue options yet usually they are more shades of the same color rather than opposites. When Mae goes into a Hot Topic-ish store with Bea, you don't get a choice to not shoplift. I tend to play characters to make the choices I would make so watching her then coerce Bea into also doing it made me feel extremely anxious.
I really loved the constant tension/frustration of Mae's relationship with Bea. At point it's like "jesus Mae, stop being such a narrow minded bitch" and yet you can sense that these characters have too much history for Bea to just tell Mae to fuck off. When we initially meet Bea she is already cynical and somewhat bitchy, but we quickly learn she has good reason to be. I think of all the characters I related to Bea the most, just because she seems to understand how the world works more than anyone. Bea's analysis of Mae is occasionally harsh but spot on.
Perhaps I didn't spend enough time with Gregg, ironic considering that he was the cutest character to me, but I wanted to know more about his life and backstory. He seemed to encourage a lot of Mae's worst instincts and clearly echoes her general "do whatever we want" irresponsibility so the most interesting aspect for me was his relationship with Angus, his quiet yet wise boyfriend. I loved the little touches of their relationship and would have loved even more, but I can't claim to be unbiased there. There wasn't a lot of chances to hang with Angus because I probably would have. He probably is the most well-adjusted character in spite of having one of the hardest lives. Maybe he hopes to impact Gregg's life in the same way that Bea hopes to impact Mae's, or maybe that's just me projecting since there's nothing in the game that overtly hints at this.
Mae's parents are pretty simple characters. I thought I remembered something about Mae's dad having done something bad earlier, but maybe I'm getting him confused with Bea or Angus's family. Dad is least sketched out, he's very Dadish but we never get to find out how he feels about much or what drives him other than providing for his family. Mom is also very Mom but get at least gets some nice character beats in a difficult conversation with Mae.
The frequent dream sequences are initially pretty cool, but get a little samey on the third time around. The scenery is apropriately creative and nightmarish but the meaning behind activating the band is never really explained, and yes I realize dreams don't make sense, but I feel like they were hinting at some kind of symbolism that never becomes totally clear other than a sense of unease and conflict. Mae also never really talks about her dreams except in vague allusions and their effect seems to unnerve her subconsciously as much as overtly.
The secondary characters such as Germ are given just enough backstory and depth to be interesting with drawing your attention away from the main storylines too much. I loved the little hidden things you can do that, while not critical to the main plot, still have effects down the line, like finding the rats in the old parade float and releasing the time capsules.
The part of the game that feels least important is Band Practice. I'm not terrible at rhythm games and yet every song seemed especially difficult since there's no difficulty setting. Even the one time I did what I thought was mostly pretty good, the result was basically the same as every other time, i.e. I suck. I get that they probably wanted to inject a little action into the game, but cutting it out wouldn't have been any great loss. In the end it feels like just more something to do in a small town with few diversions.
The climax is definitely interesting and a little crazy, although none of the danger in the game seems to be life-threatening. The denouement is perhaps a bit too pat and the ending comes faster than expected, but all in all I really enjoyed NitW and it's unique dark tale of "the more things change, the more they stay the same". Or maybe "The smallest towns have the biggest secrets."
Other notes:
- The computer chatting was a nice touch, and although I didn't play a lot of Demon Tower, I liked that it was just challenging enough to make me kinda want to. Not really sure what Sharkle is, but he's good for a few laughs.
- The room on the second floor barricaded with dad's boxes seems ultimately pointless? I kept expecting there to be something important or at least interesting in there that we'd get to see, maybe there's a way to do it and I just never found it? Did I not watch enough TV with dad?
- It's nit-picky I know, but I would have liked to see Mae have more than one outfit she wore every day except for one.
- Amusing to see the characters point out how surprising it is that Gregg is still employed despite being a terrible employee.
- Saw some fan art that made me think something even darker was going to be revealed about Mae. Likewise I thought at one point that we would find out that she left college because something bad happened to her, or even that she was a mess because of some traumatic incident, so a little surprised that it was just "one day I realized video games weren't real and then had a nervous breakdown". Mental illness, I guess.
- Come on, not even one scene of Gregg and Angus kissing or making out? *pout*
- Interesting that there are non-anthro rats and possums in a town where the people are all animals. Stop over-analyzing, Croc.
- Mae is a bit like Enid in Ghost World.
- Best Achievement of the 11 I got was "Accidentally Good Dinner" which I guess less than 5% of people got? Hey, that was no accident. I can cook, thank you very much.
- Gators in a game that aren't shallow or comic villians? THANK YOU.
I loved the game, it's unique visual style and charming animations, and the surprisingly dark theme for what might appear initially to be whimsical (and still is in part) works very well. I want to discuss in depth what I loved and didn't love about it, so consider the rest of this post to be Spoiler Heavy.
The small town vibe of Possum Springs was conveyed very well. It's easy to empathize for people yearning for Something Better yet stuck in a relatively uneventful past-it's-prime location. While the area that you can explore at any one time is relatively contained, there's still a lot to do if you are thorough in going everywhere that you can reach. The colorful changing of the seasons, the little animations and throwaway conversations feel pretty legit.
The star of the game are the characters and their relationships. While exact ages aren't given, Mae has just left college and seems to have a great deal to learn about life. I admit that it was somewhat difficult for me to connect with Mae because her attitude is so frequently self-centered and immature for someone her age. Her desire to be a kid with no responsibility rang very familiar with people I know who want the privilege of being an adult without the burden of it. At no point in the game does Mae seem to show a deep interest in really understanding the lives of her old friends, it's more that she seems to assume (wish?) everything's the same and is shocked to find out that maybe she doesn't already know everything about everyone. It's strongly hinted that Mae might have some form of mental illness, which makes some of her immaturity a little more sympathetic, but it's never directly addressed other than the therapy she is forced to get after freaking out and beating up a classmate.
Admittedly in my playthrough it was tough to have to only be able to hang out with one main person on any given day, but even though I loved Gregg as a very cute amusing character, his "Let's Go Fuck Shit Up" attitude wasn't as appealing or relatable as Bea's "Real Life Sucks" character arc, so while I tried to divide my time, Bea got the most of it because I wanted Mae to grow up and learn something. In an interesting choice, the game often gives you 2 or 3 dialogue options yet usually they are more shades of the same color rather than opposites. When Mae goes into a Hot Topic-ish store with Bea, you don't get a choice to not shoplift. I tend to play characters to make the choices I would make so watching her then coerce Bea into also doing it made me feel extremely anxious.
I really loved the constant tension/frustration of Mae's relationship with Bea. At point it's like "jesus Mae, stop being such a narrow minded bitch" and yet you can sense that these characters have too much history for Bea to just tell Mae to fuck off. When we initially meet Bea she is already cynical and somewhat bitchy, but we quickly learn she has good reason to be. I think of all the characters I related to Bea the most, just because she seems to understand how the world works more than anyone. Bea's analysis of Mae is occasionally harsh but spot on.
Perhaps I didn't spend enough time with Gregg, ironic considering that he was the cutest character to me, but I wanted to know more about his life and backstory. He seemed to encourage a lot of Mae's worst instincts and clearly echoes her general "do whatever we want" irresponsibility so the most interesting aspect for me was his relationship with Angus, his quiet yet wise boyfriend. I loved the little touches of their relationship and would have loved even more, but I can't claim to be unbiased there. There wasn't a lot of chances to hang with Angus because I probably would have. He probably is the most well-adjusted character in spite of having one of the hardest lives. Maybe he hopes to impact Gregg's life in the same way that Bea hopes to impact Mae's, or maybe that's just me projecting since there's nothing in the game that overtly hints at this.
Mae's parents are pretty simple characters. I thought I remembered something about Mae's dad having done something bad earlier, but maybe I'm getting him confused with Bea or Angus's family. Dad is least sketched out, he's very Dadish but we never get to find out how he feels about much or what drives him other than providing for his family. Mom is also very Mom but get at least gets some nice character beats in a difficult conversation with Mae.
The frequent dream sequences are initially pretty cool, but get a little samey on the third time around. The scenery is apropriately creative and nightmarish but the meaning behind activating the band is never really explained, and yes I realize dreams don't make sense, but I feel like they were hinting at some kind of symbolism that never becomes totally clear other than a sense of unease and conflict. Mae also never really talks about her dreams except in vague allusions and their effect seems to unnerve her subconsciously as much as overtly.
The secondary characters such as Germ are given just enough backstory and depth to be interesting with drawing your attention away from the main storylines too much. I loved the little hidden things you can do that, while not critical to the main plot, still have effects down the line, like finding the rats in the old parade float and releasing the time capsules.
The part of the game that feels least important is Band Practice. I'm not terrible at rhythm games and yet every song seemed especially difficult since there's no difficulty setting. Even the one time I did what I thought was mostly pretty good, the result was basically the same as every other time, i.e. I suck. I get that they probably wanted to inject a little action into the game, but cutting it out wouldn't have been any great loss. In the end it feels like just more something to do in a small town with few diversions.
The climax is definitely interesting and a little crazy, although none of the danger in the game seems to be life-threatening. The denouement is perhaps a bit too pat and the ending comes faster than expected, but all in all I really enjoyed NitW and it's unique dark tale of "the more things change, the more they stay the same". Or maybe "The smallest towns have the biggest secrets."
Other notes:
- The computer chatting was a nice touch, and although I didn't play a lot of Demon Tower, I liked that it was just challenging enough to make me kinda want to. Not really sure what Sharkle is, but he's good for a few laughs.
- The room on the second floor barricaded with dad's boxes seems ultimately pointless? I kept expecting there to be something important or at least interesting in there that we'd get to see, maybe there's a way to do it and I just never found it? Did I not watch enough TV with dad?
- It's nit-picky I know, but I would have liked to see Mae have more than one outfit she wore every day except for one.
- Amusing to see the characters point out how surprising it is that Gregg is still employed despite being a terrible employee.
- Saw some fan art that made me think something even darker was going to be revealed about Mae. Likewise I thought at one point that we would find out that she left college because something bad happened to her, or even that she was a mess because of some traumatic incident, so a little surprised that it was just "one day I realized video games weren't real and then had a nervous breakdown". Mental illness, I guess.
- Come on, not even one scene of Gregg and Angus kissing or making out? *pout*
- Interesting that there are non-anthro rats and possums in a town where the people are all animals. Stop over-analyzing, Croc.
- Mae is a bit like Enid in Ghost World.
- Best Achievement of the 11 I got was "Accidentally Good Dinner" which I guess less than 5% of people got? Hey, that was no accident. I can cook, thank you very much.
- Gators in a game that aren't shallow or comic villians? THANK YOU.