Nairi: Rising Tide Review (Nerdie)
A game about surviving in a desert kingdom, delivered with confidence and self-assurance.
I like this game a lot more than Nairi: Tower of Shirin. The scope of the franchise is clear now: each game centers on a different aspect of the setting of Shirin. The first game focused on the poor district, the second game presented the middle district, and the third game will focus on the rich district. There is so much clarity of purpose seeping through the game's framework, a certainty of its setting and story, delivered with such a precise pace and tone. Its kind of incredible to behold. Rising Tide so dramatically expands its world, offering a greater variety of nuance and internal discourse to its setting that really makes it feel more like a real city. I kind of adored it!
The puzzle dungeons are genuine challenges that forced me to make heavy uses of maps and notes in order to reach their conclusion. But the way all the pieces click together into a greater whole is downright electric once the entire picture slots together.
Its tough for me not to feel anxious about the world of indie development. The different costs and barriers to turning a profit. How difficult it is to survive to keep making the things you're passionate about. I don't like to sit in the mentality of art as profit versus art as art, but I couldn't help but fuss about the future of Home Bear Studio and Nairi. So I was reluctant to write a Steam review for a while because of how inevitable it might be that the review would become just about that. Which is why I was kind of surprised and heartened to get a message from Home Bear Studio on social media responding to that anxiety and encouraging me to keep some faith. They didn't have to try and assuage my fears, I'm sure they've got all kinds of bigger priorities. But the passion and care this team have for their game and this world... its something I think is worth rooting for.
Buy this game. Its cute, its fun, and the people making it care a lot about it. That's worth the price of admission.