Here's an action/puzzle game (I dunno what the best genre words for it exactly) that I think flew under a lot of radars. I know it flew under mine for quite a while; from what I can tell it came out in 2018, I bought it late 2019/early 2020, and then after playing it for a while I kinda forgot it existed until today. Well, I just started playing it again and realized it might be a good fit for some people in this forum.
Ruby & Majesty: Treasure Team is built around a very simple overarching concept. Basically, you control two characters--a bat and a cyborg--each with the arrow keys, simultaneously. All of the interactions in the game are built out of just the two player characters moving. But there is still plenty of puzzle complexity from that alone. For starters, the bat can fly over pits and spikes, but is stopped/pushed by fans, while the human has the opposite situation; the human can push heavy blocks and things which the bat can't...etc.
Now, when I say "
you"
, that can be singular
or plural. I've been playing this game alone since I don't have any in-person friends who'd be interested in playing it with me, but the control settings are designed in a way where either a single person or two people could play the game--one as the human and one as the bat in the latter case. For a single player, there's a bit of a coordination challenge to controlling two different characters with different move speeds simultaneously, each with one hand. But of course, two players would need to work together effectively and communicate well to solve some of the more timing-based stuff.
As far as what I mean about "
action/puzzle"
, I mean basically games like chip's challenge or netshift/blackshift, where you move around in real time, so there are "
pure"
puzzles like block pushing and logical thinking stuff, there are "
reflex challenges"
that are purely about dodging attacks and moving effectively, and there are lots of things that are in between. Gameplay mainly consists of going around through a map full of rooms which each represent a self-contained challenge of some sort. Both player characters have to reach a room exit to proceed, and if either of them dies you must restart the room from the beginning. Several rooms and/or levels have extra challenges which you get treasure gems or soundtrack cd's for playing, which both unlock some things in the "
hub level"
.
The game overall has this really interesting "
mood"
to it that I find difficult to put into words. The graphics are nice pixel art, the music is sort of ambient weirdness, the story is some kind of weird post-apocalyptic situation, and the characters/dialogue is just kind of vaguely cheerful and positive, with an emphasis on "
Teamwork"
. Fortunately, it's got a free demo for anyone who wants to find out exactly what I mean, or just see whether the game is for them at all.
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[Last edited by Xindaris at 02-22-2021 04:24 AM]