izigame.me

I came across this game on my birthday a couple years ago, which happens to be its release date. It is made by a Japanese developer about two young adults’ journeys into indie game making. It definitely came across like a darker, more thoughtful commentary on the artistic process. After completing it, I feel that sentiment mostly holds up.
I did enjoy the yin and yang of struggle and success the characters experienced in the game. The chance occurrences, the big successes, and the harsh realities of graduating and entering the “real world,” are experiences I imagine many burgeoning young artists have. You meet someone in a collegiate setting when it is easy to find like-minded passionate individuals. You enjoy a modicum of success in a controlled environment which leads you to believe that trend will naturally continue. Only to envitably find that the measurements of success in college don’t naturally translate to the free market which is predominantly dominated by sales. Things like artistic integrity and vision don’t mean squat if the “product” isn’t selling. But to the artists themselves, it was never about that in the first place. It was about doing something they enjoyed, expressing themselves, and bringing joy to the people who experienced it.
There is a puzzle game baked into the narrative drama taking place which is played on a Game Boy by one of the characters. I didn’t love the puzzle game itself, but I thought it was really cute that you could change the color of the game just like you could whenever you played a regular Game Boy game on a Game Boy Color. They even included that weird black and golden color scheme you could get by pressing B + right. I ended up just skipping most of the puzzle sections because I wanted to get back to the story but I thought its inclusion was cute.
I’m not a huge fan of the ending which I thought undercut a lot of the dramatic tension previously experienced. It made me question what events actually transpired which I felt undercut the emotional gut punch of the climax.
Overall I enjoyed my time with the game. It didn’t quite do it for me personally, but I think there is enough here for people to chew on if the subject matter resonates with them. I’m definitely curious to see if the developer ends up working on a new project.