izigame.me

Judero is a bizarre, one-of-a-kind game, that feels like it was tailor made for my weird tastes. It's a stop-motion animated, top down action game about the titular Judero traversing the Scottish Highlands and more mythic realms, looking to solve what ails the land. What it's really about, though, is the music which jumps from folk to psychedelic freakout to piano ballads to a low-fi black metal-ish boss track and everything in between. It's about the bizarre presentation and malformed clay characters. It's about the oddly poetic writing and surprisingly deep philosophical conversations with random side side characters. Well, that's my take at least.
I went into Judero expecting to suffer the gameplay for the rest of the package, but it was actually surprisingly enjoyable despite some jank. Combat is a bit of a limited Zelda-like affair, with a simple melee combo and a handful of activatable powers and passive upgrades. Oh and your spirit can leave your body to possess enemies to use their abilities -- an enjoyable mechanic that could have seen a bit more use throughout the game. While standard combat is ho-hum and can lack in impact, boss fights are actually quite enjoyable, each having their own unique and enjoyable mechanics. Paired with the strange claymation and killer soundtrack, the boss fights felt quite special.
The soundtrack is phenomenal and surprisingly varied, with around 85 tracks to cover the 6-7 hour experience. There is a heavy use of vocals throughout the soundtrack which I absolutely adore, whether it's a folk duet, a piano accompanied ballad or a boss theme that is somewhere between goth rock and dream pop. Vocal music and lyrics are very powerful tools to cement mood and theme and are used expertly here. It's not just the vocal music in the big moments that is excellent, though. Many of the early areas of the game are accompanied by rustic guitars that set the perfect tone for wandering the Scottish countryside, while later areas have droning hums and synths that call to mind 70s and early 80s sci-fi. I've been listening to the soundtrack on bandcamp regularly for the last few days, which isn't something I do very often.
Another high point of the game is the dialogue, where even the random conversations with one off characters delves into the philosophical or poetic. In one house, you might speak to the inhabitant about the nature of memory and novelty, while in another you might get a rendition of the story of the Luck Child. NPCs could have a surprising amount of dialogue, requiring multiple interactions to receive their full thoughts. While exploring, I was always more excited to find a new NPC than I was a treasure chest. I never knew what conversation I'd be in for, but it was sure to be interesting. The dialogue for the main story was similar fascinating, though the overall narrative was surprisingly straight forward.
Of course, you can't talk about Judero without discussing the immediately obvious: the stop-motion animation. The characters are all varying levels of uncomfortable or even grotesque, and their movements uncanny. Beyond just creating a unique feel to the game, it serves to further a theme that bubbles up in various portions of the game -- recognizing the humanity in the monstrous. The animation is rough and uncomfortable, but that's why it fits so beautifully for the game.
Judero is great. I love it. If it appeals to you at all, please give it a try. It deserves so much more recognition than it's received so far. Judero is the perfect example of an imperfect 5/5 game.