Indie Quickies #4 - Numbers Go Up (and Down)
This edition: a minigame idler, a mind-bending interactive narrative, and a very French RPG!
The Summer Steam Sale is upon us, so I figured I would recommend some of my favorite indie games that I've played recently. I haven't had much time for games until the last month, but I'm happy to report that these three have collectively taken up a significant amount of my waking hours and even some of my sleeping hours! Check 'em out below.
Cauldron
Cauldron is technically my first idle game - I never got into Cookie Clicker or any of its derivatives - but it's an interesting title due to its structure, which I am still uncovering. You see, Cauldron doesn't technically begin as an idler. It starts as more of a...mini RPG? You start by unlocking a map through JRPG-styled turn-based combat, but soon enough, you can collect falling apples from a tree, go fishing, mine ore, and more. You spend apples, fish, and ore to upgrade their idle collection rate as well as your toolset when actively playing these increasingly wild score-attack minigames. The aforementioned apple harvesting eventually turns into an arcade shoot-em-up complete with radial bombs, timer extensions, and minibosses.
More content is revealed as more of the map is unlocked through combat, which inevitably becomes more economical when set to autobattle. In an interesting twist, though, you can still choose the characters' items, formations, and skill trees. Eventually you unlock the ability to start another game file (within your existing save) that is exclusively idle, as well as a pacifist mode, a mode with even tougher combat, and at least one other that I cannot access yet.
All in all, Cauldron is a fantastic little "second monitor" game that still requires occasional interaction, which makes it feel slightly more like an iceberg of a game and less like a simple series of ticker tapes.
1000xResist
Released May 9, 2024
1000xResist is, simply put, a triumph of interactive storytelling. The "gameplay" is rather light, and one could technically call this a "walking simulator" with light traversal puzzles. However 1000xResist is one of those experiences that needs to be a game—it simply would not work in another medium.
At the start, players control Watcher, one of many clones ALLMOTHER who also happens to be one of five Sisters who supervise The Orchard on her behalf. The opening cutscene reveals that Watcher will eventually assassinate the ALLMOTHER, and what gradually unravels over the subsequent 10 hours is a narrative tour de force that must be played to be truly understood.
Without major spoilers (outside of the first chapter or so), 1000xResist deftly weaves together so many themes that it left my head spinning. It manages to tackle topics like cloning, pandemics, generational trauma, assimilation, political dissent, and the malleability of history/memory/truth while also dodging the pitfalls that one might expect. Few characters are squeaky clean or "correct", children and adults are right to blame each other for their shortcomings, and fighting for what's right does not always pay dividends. I'm reminded of a famous MLK Jr. quote (which was actually interpolated from the words of a 19th century Unitarian minister): "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” 1000xResist makes you question what needs to happen - and on what scale and for how long - before positive change can occur. But the future is inevitably built on the foundations of the past, no matter how fractured and unstable they may be, and as one character reminds us at the game's conclusion, "there are many more yesterdays to come".
If you are a fan of any of Nier Automata, Evangelion, 13 Sentinels, Madoka Magica, and/or Everything Everywhere All at Once, you should probably check this out. I'm already planning to go back to complete some of the optional objectives/dialogues that I missed!
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I've already waxed poetic about the game's introduction, but I didn't say much about what Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actually is in that previous post. It is a miracle of a game that punches way above its weight (even considering that half the team is ex-Ubisoft), featuring addictive and satisfying combat, stunning music, rich characters and performances, and a story that shouldn't be as engrossing as it is considering how deceptively simple the core premise is. While the game technically doesn't do anything new, it expertly blends mechanics and tropes from all of its influences for an experience that delights (and devastates) from start to finish.
As described elsewhere, the game follows Expedition 33, the latest group of adventurers who seek to defeat a supernatural being called The Paintress. Each year, this towering female figure paints a new number on her monolith, causing everyone of that age to be erased. This "gommage" is essentially a premature death sentence, so each Expedition is tasked with ending this cycle of death once and for all. The premise is absurd (in a very existentialist anime fashion) but expertly realized through incredible writing and voice-acting. And the music—God, the music—amplifies every emotional moment that the game serves up, from heart-wrenching goodbyes to heart-warming communions to heart-pounding combat sequences.
Speaking of combat, players battle all manner of bizarre creatures on this quest in a sort of reactive turn-based combat. Attacks are dealt out on a timeline, determined by that entity's speed, but the player's party members are able to amplify the damage of their skills and negate enemy damage with timed button presses. The common consensus is that the battle system falls somewhere between Paper Mario and Sekiro, but regardless of your familiarity with either game, this is a challenging and rewarding combat loop that rewards both buildcraft and timing. It feels great, especially when you perfectly read a boss' combo and your party launches into an epic group counterattack.
That's all for this edition of Indie Quickies! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some more pixellated apples to harvest...