Papo & Yo

A wonderful dream-world platformer about a small boy and his imaginary friends! Except his imaginary friend is an addict who goes mental and tries to kill him. It's inspired on the developer's childhood relationship with his drug addicted father.

Lovely.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/06/23/enter-the-dream-like-world-of-papo-yo/

That was pretty crazy

This is a pretty great game.

Technically, it's very nice to look at for a PSN title, but the frame rate drops a lot in isolated places.

Anyway, before release I was worried that the game's creator was being too open about his intentions. If the game has a deeper meaning beyond simple entertainment I'd like to discover that myself, you know? Or maybe I'd interpret the game a different way.

But the game itself is is very straight forward about it's subject matter and it's not any weaker for it. This about a boy trying to survive his father's abuse and somehow save him.

It's so direct that it's actually uncomfortable in places, especially at the end. I've never played a game that was so personal. It was like intruding into someone else's life. The part at the very end where you have to throw the things for Monster is the cruelest thing I've experienced in a videogame.

As far as gameplay goes, it's a basic puzzler. Never remotely taxing or difficult, but often enjoyable. The brightly coloured slum environments are quite unique. The best parts of the game in this regard are the puzzles that require you to manipulate the world. Like creating a stack of houses that you can bend and twist to create a pathway. There's one part in particular that's pretty much stolen straight from Inception.

Monster's role in the gameplay is as a simple tool. You can lead him around with coconuts to make him stand in certain places, or you can bounce on his belly when he falls asleep, which I found to be a nice image at first (not so much as the game progressed). But he's not entirely functional. He'll play catch with you if you want to, which as far as I can tell is never necessary. It's entirely possible that you would go through the game without even knowing about it, but it's there. Perhaps the only loving fatherly gesture in the game.

As some person who's name I can't recall because it's probably not important once said;

Quote :

It made me feel emotions at times which is pretty impressive for a game

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

This is a pretty great game.

Technically, it's very nice to look at for a PSN title, but the frame rate drops a lot in isolated places.

Anyway, before release I was worried that the game's creator was being too open about his intentions. If the game has a deeper meaning beyond simple entertainment I'd like to discover that myself, you know? Or maybe I'd interpret the game a different way.

But the game itself is is very straight forward about it's subject matter and it's not any weaker for it. This about a boy trying to survive his father's abuse and somehow save him.

It's so direct that it's actually uncomfortable in places, especially at the end. I've never played a game that was so personal. It was like intruding into someone else's life. The part at the very end where you have to throw the things for Monster is the cruelest thing I've experienced in a videogame.

As far as gameplay goes, it's a basic puzzler. Never remotely taxing or difficult, but often enjoyable. The brightly coloured slum environments are quite unique. The best parts of the game in this regard are the puzzles that require you to manipulate the world. Like creating a stack of houses that you can bend and twist to create a pathway. There's one part in particular that's pretty much stolen straight from Inception.

Monster's role in the gameplay is as a simple tool. You can lead him around with coconuts to make him stand in certain places, or you can bounce on his belly when he falls asleep, which I found to be a nice image at first (not so much as the game progressed). But he's not entirely functional. He'll play catch with you if you want to, which as far as I can tell is never necessary. It's entirely possible that you would go through the game without even knowing about it, but it's there. Perhaps the only loving fatherly gesture in the game.

As some person who's name I can't recall because it's probably not important once said;

Quote :

It made me feel emotions at times which is pretty impressive for a game

You bitch that sounds like something I said.

Game was alright and it dealt with the subject matter well. Presentation was done well and given the relatively low budget for the game it looked pretty nice.

I think it was Neo that said that about Journey.