I’m playing Unbeatable (which is another one of those terms you cannot search for on discourse.) It fucking rocks. Here’s my impressions of the demo.
The game suggests playing it in a single session on New Years Eve which proves the makers are young because that would take like 10 hours. Then again it is so filled with references for people exactly my age. Who has the focus and time to play a game 10 hours straight??
The music is freaking great (If you like Japanese alternative from the 90s, And I do!) It felt really special when a song started and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Woah! Like none of the songs have I hummed or wanted to listen to afterwards, but in the moment, rock solid. Never mind the ridiculous animation.
Despite it being a I Fucking Love Japan/Egg Sandwich game I am having a fantastic time with it. I wish folks would make games about their own culture, which this does. It would feel incredibly petty to list the several times it triggered me betraying this as a Weeaboo, and not of the culture it mythologizes. But here’s one, running around town it has the “blind cross walk beep” playing on a 2 second loop. Then it had cicadas, just barely audible in some other aural loop. Alright y’all I get it you love gacha machines and fresh bread and mixed zoning.
The game has real characters. I have laughed out loud multiple times at the dialog and words.
Then on top of all this it also has a 50 song rhythm game right there in the main-menu. On top of the story game.
I hate to end this praise on a bummer but it is worth pointing out the game is made of hopes and gumption on at least ps5. There are dropped frames and skips in a rhythm game. One of the character’s sprites just doesn’t load for me. One of the songs timing was just absolutely broken (you can just turn on auto mode which was a godsend to get past that.) i tried reinstalling, restarting the game and the console and no fix. There were times during songs that stuff just broke and I felt like I was playing a beta that had unexpected behavior on a show floor.
I’ll probably play the last two chapters tonight straight through to the credits tonight. Unlike Artful Escape or OFK this is the real deal. A game about music made with love and passion and energy and no-cynicism.