The gameplay itself is relatively basic, the game is very narrative driven and for the most part you will spend the bulk of the time travelling back and forth in a 2.5D environment. That is not to say it is disengaging and it does not play into the narrative in any way, it is just a stunning unique presentation that I have not been exposed to in a game before and I loved it. That last statement is almost literally the art style,which first made me notice Oxenfree.It looks like it has been handpainted and if you stop moving at any point it appears like it really could be a painting. It is put together in a way though that feels new and given it a very unique coat of paint. What it is however is a perfect experience for someone that wants something that does not do much new. While games like Until Dawn play on the tropes as a homage, Oxenfree chooses to use that narrative to tell a strange story, in a strange way, that just clicks into place in nearly every way.ĭo not get me wrong, Oxenfree is not the perfect game.

A group of teens go to a remote island to get drunk on the beach, a couple of them wander off and satisfy their curiosity looking at some odd occurrences where they trigger a supernatural element that they then need to investigate in order to save themselves from the supernatural events they provoked. Much like with 2D sprites, you can inject a lot of personality and charm when not constrained to human models and the writing can be more free-flow.A synopsis of Oxenfree could very easily point someone in the wrong direction. I just got to the end of season 2 of Bojack Horseman and he's a more fleshed out human being than most actual human characters in shows (for better and definitely for worse). I wonder if there is something to substituting actual humans with anthropomorphic animals. It's nontraditional and I understand why LiS couldn't do it as much, but having those hours where you just play as a college drop out trapped in a cycle of their own making elevated it so much. The characters didn't have to do anything beyond being themselves. The loose structure of the first half helped it because it could focus on just fleshing the characters out without the need to give major time to the plot. There were straight up characters who felt like people I know/knew and Mae was a painful to endure at times for how close it hit. Night in the Woods went beyond just having moments and character baggage.

The moment that felt like a true capsule teenage/college life is when Max and Chloe wake up and Brights Eyes is playing - no dialogue needed. It's unfortunate because the cast is interesting and felt grounded in the tribulations of that age group for the most part. It wasn't the use of words like 'hella' (things like that gave it a charm for me), just it felt incredibly scripted and unnatural at times, there to forward the story and nothing else. Life is Strange had some great moments that landed, but any long stretch of dialogue always had something that felt unnatural. I was curious because I was reading on the OTs of the respective games, and saw how many people were relating to the characters' dialect. Which game was the most realistic or relatable to you? All of them? None of them? No judgement, this is just opinions after all. Nobody I personally know uses 'Hella' or emoji speak in dialogue, not even the hipsters at my school. Life is Strange was the worst offender though.

A little clean? It felt a bit too much like an adult sat down and tried to match what people talked like. Oxenfree was pretty great with its dialogue system which let you select something while others were talking and interrupt them, so it felt natural. I live in the South and NitW were written by people who lived in the Rust Belt, so that could be the reason. This could be chalked up to regional differences. The grammar being flawed also made the conversations flow well!Ĭompared to that the others didn't even compare. The writing feels so natural, and I'm only halfway done! Mae felt like an actual character with flaws shown through actions and how she interacted with others, the immature way she spoke (at times). I definitely knew people like Mae, Bea, Greg, and Angus. And I wanted to create this thread because all three games are about youths and are written by adults who had to try and faithfully recreate dialogue that would be quote unquote realistic or relatable?įor me, the most painfully realistic of the three was NitW. I recently finished Life is Strange (LiS) and Oxenfree, and am halfway through Night in the Woods (NitW).

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