ib
ib is a puzzle game with horror elements where you play as a little girl named ib which is a stupid name who goes to an art gallery one day and gets trapped in a world of pretentious hipster bullstuff and must escape via conveniently solvable puzzles. the game is a puzzle game foremost and the horror stuff sort of gets put on the backburner so dont expect to stuff yourself but do expect a good atmosphere. the puzzle stuff sort of sucks because in the end it is just standard press x on items until you figure out what you are supposed to do because its on rpgmaker which sucks ass but its clever enough with what it has to keep it going for its 2 hour running time. the story manages to avoid being pretentious despite the game being about modern art hell and i think this is the first game that made me think all of the characters were non stuff so congrats we might have moved into average writing territory finally. also the new game + implementation and ending getting is stuff so forget that. whatever i dont know play this game if you want there are probably better puzzle games out there or some stuff.
this game is exclusively a puzzle game and that means no combat or anything like that so that becomes a problem when the puzzles are heavily limited by how trash everything about rpg maker is. why do people still make games with rpg maker i mean seriously why does this still happen. puzzles in this game are the aforementioned press x on everything until you figure it out and thus arent heavy in the difficulty department but can be heavy in the bullstuff department if you miss the thing you are supposed to press x on and thus have to go search everything again. thankfully this is rare unless youve lost both your eyes because the game is linear enough but it will probably happen to the best of us except me because i am the greatest video game player of all time. the puzzles do get pretty smart and sometimes you do have to put forth some effort into solving them but not too much because press x to win. the puzzles arent smart enough to actually make the title though and usually only help push off the boredom that this game would be if it was exclusively a walking simulator along with other stuff. special mention to new game+ stuff that makes you play through all the same puzzles again which is loving dumb but at least you get some new content near the end. fishing for different is different. the game has like 8 different endings and i guess it expects you to replay the puzzles you already finished over and over to catch them all which is a loving dumb system and the game would have been much better if it just teleported you to the new content or some stuff. i got the best ending first try because im that good and only slogged through that stuff again just for new game+ because of my dedication to my craft and because it actually had some other stuff to do so im guessing that unless you really liked those loving puzzles or are some whack ass completionist everyone else will just watch all the endings and stuff on youtube.
the story and stuff actually shares the spotlight with the gameplay this time which is groundbreaking for an rpgmaker game so even if you dont like it if you like it you can probably get through it just fine and vice versa. story is pretty simple ib is somehow trapped in the works of some avant garde looking motherforgeter and his art is trying to kill her and you are trying to not die and get out of dodge alive. stuff gets freaky as you traverse the land and i dont have any complaints about it and its actually a pretty good setting and stuff although the way you get different endings is never fully communicated and seemingly irrelevant decisions and by seemingly irrelevant i mean stupid stuff that doesnt matter but you know matter because its da viduo gam adds up and those choices boil down to a. violence and b. no violence and these choices dont matter at all except for the ending stuff so that sucks some major ass. characters in this game are actually pretty good too and the bad thing actually has a motive that i would actually say is relatable to which is like finding in the sahara and its drought season although you sort of have to dig for it. the story was unique and pretty loving good but also because its the first rpgmaker game with decent story and characters obviously the gameplay is heavily present and it sort of feels like youre going through the puzzles just to find out what happens to the characters and the puzzles suck enough richard for this to feel like a chore which is a shame. also just because this story is not total ass does not make this the next take your favorite story and insert that so dont get too excited over characters that actually act like human beings instead of anime stereotypes.
the graphics and stuff are incredibly important to the game because everything about it revolves around art and atmosphere it makes both not stuff for the most part. all of the pixel art looks fine and sets the tone well with the stuff ton of unique pieces of art although most of them are paintings and are small and hard to see. the enemies also look pretty good and can get freaky at times. the enviorments are pretty forgetin bland and usually consist of mostly one color depending on where you are which sort of makes sense because you are in an art gallery and the walls are there to try to exhibit the art stuff but whatever. the non pixel art is of debatable quality and looks sort of like an amateur drew it all but it sort of fits the game and doesn't show up much so forget you man. music is pretty good and is usually designed to make the atmosphere more intense and it does its job and there are some memorable tracks like the one when you stuff just begins to go down and youre still in the gallery. sound design just sort of exists its pretty limited along with the music as to not interrupt any atmospheric stuff but it works and thats all i can really ask from sound design. the game sets the atmosphere well and thats what it was gunning for so it works but dont expect to come out of it with a new profound revelation on the meaning of experimental art.
game was pretty good but if any of you were expecting a deep indie masterpiece i am here to destroy all expectations. its sort of slow when the puzzles are slow and stuff but the puzzles are decent and the game is just decent. its decent. ib is still a loving dumb name for a kid like holy stuff.
current tier list
decent time waster tier
sluggish morss
space funeral
mimicry man
ib
mogeko castle
boring tier
presentable liberty
lieat
worse than Riddler tier
the gray garden
off tier
off
worse than off tier
wadanohara
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