This is one of my personal biggest games of the year. Very excited to talk about it. BACKGROUND:
This game caught my eye at one of Nintendo's presentations due to its unique gimmick. That was honestly enough to sell me on it. Then much later, a demo for it came out on Steam, and my god, did I have so much fun with it. I enjoyed that demo so much, I completed it 100%. In short, the more I saw of the game, the more I knew I had to play it. PLOT: Neon White is set in a version of the afterlife where the Believers of Heaven employ sinners (called "Neons") to help deal with the demon infestation. This takes place annually during the Ten Days of Judgment, which frames the act as a competition amongst Neons. The Neon who performs the best and kills the most demons is rewarded with a year's stay in Heaven, and any Neons who disobey orders are executed via special masks they're made to wear during the competition. The player character is none other than the eponymous Neon White, who is one of the souls taken from Hell to participate in the competition. He awakes with virtually no recollection of his past life, and shortly after being given the rundown of why he's in Heaven, he meets Neon Red, Yellow, and Violet. The three appear to have known White in life, and over time, their interactions with White help piece together the puzzle. As the story progresses, White comes into conflict with Neon Green, who has been the top Neon for several years running. Without disclosing too much, the rivalry becomes a blood feud, and in the process, many truths are revealed about White's past and what's really going on in Heaven. Overall, I thought the premise was neat with its alternative take on the afterlife. The main story takes time to explore how different it is from our usual idea of heaven, and it builds the central conflict around that. Interestingly, the conflict also gets quite personal for White, though to elaborate any more is approaching spoiler territory. The world-building is solid (many of my questions about certain elements were sufficiently answered), and most of the exposition (of which there's a lot, unfortunately) actually factors into the story later on. I feel like it goes off the rails once the endgame is revealed, though, and I would have preferred if the story sticked to the more personal stakes. Most of the main characters have strong personalities, to the point that they feel like tropes a lot of the time. Their banter is fun off the bat, it gets interesting when their backstories are revealed over time. Admittedly, the way the main story goes about revealing things is a bit slow, and the reveals themselves aren't all that surprising (I figured out what was the backstory was before the game actually got around to telling me). Their respective motivations are either pretty straightforward or seemingly don't have any rhyme or reason to them, though I didn't really mind it that much. I can also see some of the character being insufferable to some players, because when I say "strong" personalities, some of them lay it on way too thick sometimes. I think what I appreciated the most out of the characters and their backstories are the emotional and thematic elements involved. The idea of forgiveness is one of the game's central themes, and through the characters, feelings like guilt, resentment, and all-consuming revenge are explored. A lot of the situations that led to the characters feeling these emotions aren't that complex, but the way they resolve these emotions nevertheless resonated with me in some way. Though the story and the world seem serious, and the themes and violence can get intense, this game has a ton of humor. This is primarily seen with the banter between the main characters, and while not all the jokes land, I was amused by the overall silliness (like how the angels in heaven have desk jobs). This mix of comedy and serious, intense story makes the game feel like an anime to me. The game has two different endings, though you can only access one of them by fulfilling certain conditions in the game. Both endings are interesting, but I found the "secret" one more satisfying in a thematic sense. PRESENTATION: My anime comparisons extend to the game's visuals. The 2D character portraits definitely look like something out of a manga, with the Neons having cool and edgy designs (badass masks and sharp outfits), and characters like angels looking super cartoony. There are no moving cutscenes with the 2D art, so the way the game depicts strong emotions visually with classic anime/manga iconography superimposed on the portraits (e.g. sweat droplets for confusion, eye sparkles, popping veins, and more). This method of conveying emotion was charming to me. The visuals of the actual game are in 3D, and the overall aesthetic leans more towards the simple than it does highly realistic. You're not going to get intricate detail or complex shapes, but the style is enough to make this version of heaven feel like an idyllic paradise. Speaking of heaven, the locales are more than just ornate palaces in a sea of clouds, as you get beautiful port cities, massive skyscrapers, ancient-looking castles and temples, and lovely gardens. The character models are equally simple in terms of detail and appear cel-shaded, though the majority of what you'll encounter in-game are the demons. Some of them kind of look like Rorschach inkblots come to life with added freaky features (like unsettling eyes), which I thought was interesting. The soundtrack leans heavily towards electronic in terms of genre, and quite appropriately, most of the level music is upbeat and gets your heart pumping. The overall vibe is perfect for the fast-paced nature of the game, and I never got sick of any track even when replaying levels. A few of the tracks even reminded me vaguely of Mick Gordon's soundtrack for Doom, which was intense heavy metal to go along with high-octane action. I thought the voice acting was really well done, and pretty much everybody conveyed their respective character's emotions and overall personalities quite effectively. It absolutely felt like the character's design and demeanor match perfectly with their respective voice (White sounds like an edgy badass, Red has a sultry quality to her voice, Violet sounds like the perfect mix of cutesy and unhinged... the list goes on). Speaking of anime, the game's intro cinematic is straight up an anime opening with an exciting rock song and action-packed animation. I liked it a lot. GAMEPLAY: At first glance, Neon White looks like a first person shooter. While you do shoot down demons in this game, that's not quite the core gameplay. Neon White, to me, leans heavier into the 3D platformer genre, and while the guns are important, the main experience of each level is all about speedrunning. The main game has close to a hundred levels, and the main objective of most of them is to eliminate all the demons and get to the end. Doing all this quickly matters quite a bit, as each level awards medals based on your time, and you need a certain number of Gold Medals to progress the story. I found it quite interesting how going fast is the most important aspect of the game, as one usually thinks of speedrunning/time trials as a completely optional challenge. I also enjoyed the added wrinkle of having to kill every demon first before the end of the level unlocks, as you have to balance moving quickly and killing everything efficiently. I thought that was a cool challenge, and you get to utilize the shooter aspect to its fullest here. In this game, your guns and your platforming abilities are intertwined. As you move around the level or kill certain demons, you'll pick up Soul Cards, which each correspond to a weapon type. You can naturally shoot these guns until they run out of ammo, and the variety is standard fare for what you'd expect from an FPS (you have pistols, shotguns, snipers, rocket launchers, SMGs, assault rifles, and shotguns). What makes these cards special, however, is you can discard them, and doing so grants you a special ability. Each weapon has a unique effect when you discard them. For example, the pistol gives you a double jump, the sniper gives you a horizontal dash that can break red barriers or kill enemies instantly, the rocket launcher becomes a grappling hook, and more. These abilities are the key to moving around in each level, and they are so fun to use. Chaining these discard abilities in quick succession to blaze through a level feels utterly satisfying, and I loved the challenge of balancing whether to use the gun as a gun to take out demons or to go all in and discard it to move forward. Managing ammo is also quite important, as if you deplete a card's ammo, it disappears, meaning you can't discard it. You can only carry two different Soul Cards at once, and only three stacks of each, which means you can't really hoard cards to save for later. Judicious use of your discard abilities is key, but at the very least, you'll stockpile ammo for the gun when you pick up more of the same Soul Card (even if you already have three of a kind). No matter what, you'll always have access to your katana Soul Card, which is not counted in the maximum two you can hold. This is a straightforward but weak melee attack, and while it's more of a last-ditch weapon, it's enough to trigger things like explosive barrels, and you can deflect enemy bullets with it. Oddly enough, the katana has ammo, and something funny happens when you run out. The level design is absolutely phenomenal to me. Each one has an obvious route that you can get a gold medal in with more or less perfect execution (which is what many people might believe is the key to speedrunning), but the layouts also have shortcuts you can take advantage of to shave precious seconds off your time. These shortcuts encourage you to really pay attention to the level route, and more impressively, they encourage you to think outside the box and use the Soul Cards in different ways. While raw execution of the platforming is already quite satisfying in this game, I felt like a goddamn genius whenever I spot a level's shortcut and figure out alternate routes (like killing enemies from afar or taking advantage of platforms) to save Soul Cards to use on that shortcut. There are also plenty of mechanics outside of the Soul Cards, like the various enemies (some of which have gimmicks, like the bouncy ones), launchpads that send you flying, red barriers that can only be broken with specific weapons/abilities, forcefields you have to enter and exit to break, and more. It's awesome to see how all these mix and match with the Soul Card abilities, and it really felt like they could design an infinite number of levels with all these elements put together. Some of the weapons even have special properties, like how you can use the rocket launcher to blast yourself upwards if you fire directly on the ground or on an adjacent wall. You can even use the assault rifle's discard ability (which drops a powerful bomb) to bomb jump Metroid-style. These feel like cool but obscure tech only genius speedrunners would know about, but the game teaches you all this and gives you levels designed around these mechanics, which is amazing to me. Very few levels last longer than a minute, making restarts barely a hassle. Replaying (and completing) levels also increases your Insight on that particular level. Leveling up Insight gives you rewards, like unlocking the hidden collectible (you can't find it on the first go, likely so you can focus on just beating the level), giving you a helpful ghost replay of your fastest time (so you can use that as a reference), revealing a level hint (which tells you where one major shortcut is), and unlocking the global leaderboards (a cool reward for getting an Ace Medal, which is the highest reward). It's a great way to incentivize repeating a level, and as you do, you're likely getting better at executing the level over time. Speaking of the hidden collectible, many of them are in devious spots that are either hard to find or hard to reach. Getting to them is a puzzle in itself and requires creative use of Soul Card abilities, taking advantage of the level's terrain (like hopping on pots or pillars to get up seemingly unreachable roofs), or using level mechanics/enemies in unconventional ways. Though some of the collectibles are insanely well-hidden (to the point that I was losing my mind scouring the level for them), the challenge of figuring out how to get there is as satisfying to me as getting an Ace Medal in any level. And thankfully, you don't also have to beat the level for the collectible to count. The hidden collectibles are useful in between levels, as they're actually gifts you give to the other characters. Doing so levels up your relationship level with the NPCs, and as you do, you unlock fun dialogue (which I liken to Fire Emblem's support conversations), and even memories of White's past life (helping flesh out his relationship with the specific character before death). Some characters also unlock sidequests as you deepen your relationship with them. These are special levels with a specific gimmick: Red's levels are designed around one Soul Card ability, Yellow's block discard abilities and have you traverse the level through other means, and Violet's push the need for perfect execution and put a lot of insta-death hazards in your path. I loved all these levels and how they use the mechanics you learn to craft unique challenges, and in the case of Violet's sidequests, I found the sadistic nature of the level design hilarious. You don't have to get Gold Medals for every level and max out everyone's relationships to complete the main story, but I'd say they're well worth doing since they unlock all sorts of things. Getting the collectibles already nets you special sidequests as I mentioned, but you get more by maxing out your relationship with a character. Doing so also unlocks their respective Level Rush, which has you try and beat all the sidequests in one run. Getting all Gold Medals also unlocks a special Level Rush, which subjects you to a gauntlet of every main story level. Lastly, giving all the gifts is tied to unlocking the game's true ending. Ace Medals, on the other hand, don't really reward you with anything more than an achievement you can be proud of. I'm fine with that, because the satisfaction of figuring out an optimal route to get the best time I can was a more than fulfilling reward to me. It's completely optional to get Ace Medals on every level, but I went out of my way to do so, and I enjoyed the entire journey. That is how much I loved the platforming in this game. The Level Rushes are also completely optional, and they're great for people who want to further challenge themselves with the game's levels. There's a whole separate leaderboard for each Level Rush if you want to go the extra mile and challenge yourself to do them quickly, but there are no explicit medal rewards or anything like that. VERDICT: Neon White is easily the most satisfying game I've played this entire year (so far) by a wide margin. I thought the shooter-platformer hybrid (with a hint of card game) was a unique blend of genres, the Soul Card mechanic was super engaging, I adored speedrunning being the main focus of the game (because not many games do that), and the level designs come together to make both speedrunning them and finding the collectible the most fun I've had all year. There's even an addictive quality to it, where I start to see where I can improve, then I end up repeating levels over and over just to save fractions of a second. The fact that I went the extra distance not only to 100% the game (excluding Level Rush achievements), but to also get Ace Medals on every single level should speak to how much I enjoyed playing this stylish speedrun game. I highly recommend this game if you find anything about it interesting (whether it's the story, the character designs, or the gameplay I described), but to me, the most notable reason why I want as many people as possible to try this game (regardless of genre preferences) is because it makes speedrunning accessible. Although the hobby itself isn't as niche as it used to be (largely thanks to Games Done Quick), people actually trying it still is. Not only is speedrunning the levels the main thing you'll be doing in the game, the things you'd assume are complicated tricks only the skilled can execute are also taught to you (and are easy to do to boot). Plus, the game encourages you to keep improving while also being lenient enough to not make you ace every level just so you can see all of the story. I think this is the perfect game to understand the appeal of speedrunning, and thus I urge people to give it a try. Pick up the game on Steam (please): Neon White on Steam (steampowered.com) Here's Vol. 1 of the game's awesome soundtrack: Neon White Soundtrack Part 1 "The Wicked Heart" - Album by Machine Girl | Spotify And here's Vol. 2: Spotify – Neon White Soundtrack Part 2 "The Burn That Cures" - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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