Heading into Chasing the Unseen, I used to be anticipating Shadow of the Colossus, however with out the sword. What I acquired as an alternative was a delightfully bizarre, aware little expertise about climbing—and after spending most of my time this week taking pictures bugs for Tremendous Earth and desperately attempting to study tabletop guidelines for my gaming group, it is simply what I wanted.
You play a teeny-tiny monk exploring a surreal community of floating islands. You have acquired a glider, a Breath-of-the-Wild model climbing button, and a leap—that is it. It is a utterly stripped-back expertise stuffed with eerie music, and whereas its beasties are a contact unsettling at first look, Chasing the Unseen is not actually attempting to scare you.
Its large, sprawling ranges are tough to navigate and a contact irritating at occasions, nevertheless it’s price getting over that preliminary hump. For a sport about climbing, scaleable surfaces are literally fairly uncommon—as an alternative, you are meant to shuffle your approach by way of awkward, winding routes, navigating on precarious ledges whereas the world yawns away beneath you. It will have you ever asking: “I can in all probability survive that fall, proper?” lots.
For completionists, the capybaras are the place it is at. These little critters are your excuse to really discover Chasing the Unseen’s weird ranges. In any other case, your mission is to get to the highest—that is it.
If we’ll draw a direct comparability to Shadow of the Colossus right here, I believe the good factor Chasing the Unseen does with the idea is flip the colossi from antagonists to be slain (mournfully, certain, however slain nonetheless) into bumbling, comparatively innocent megafauna. I finally began treating them like outdated associates.
I am unable to inform whether or not the tense music that accompanied my rides with Mr. Octopus was some misplaced sound design or really type of the purpose—feelings like anxiousness, concern, and panic can really feel scary, however one of many first stuff you study when attempting to grapple with them is that they cannot really damage you. Certain, you may get flung into the void from time to time, however you all the time come again.
It is all very aware, which is not shocking contemplating Chasing the Unseen’s meditative vibes and clear Buddhist influences.
Chasing the Unseen, in the end, is a delightfully bizarre and soothingly introspective sport. If you happen to’re in want of a palette cleanser from all of the live-service nonsense whirling about within the trade proper now, I might heartily suggest it. You should purchase Chasing the Unseen proper now on Steam.