Feedback/Opinion [with spoilers]

[Pringles45]

I discovered this whole "liminal space" thing through vaporwave/hypnagogic drift music, and I turned out to be a sucker for the theme, especially for poolrooms.

For experiencing the a e s t h e t i c in the form of a video game a game simply called "Vaporwave" was my greatest hope, but its development seems to had been put on hold for a long time now, so I was more than excited when I discovered Anemoiapolis. I had high expectations from the atmosphere department, but Anemoiapolis DID deliver.

I seem to have joined the party right after the ticket rebalance patch. I don't know how it was before, but I had absolutely no trouble collecting more than enough tickets. I find the whole ticket system and hub area to be fitting. Progression is kinda too easy at times, but never frustrating. To be fair, the Lazy River section got me good at first, but I can't say I was frustrated with it.

What I think would make the experience better while not straying from the path too much, are more puzzles and collectible items.

Seeing that the first poolroom area have puzzles, I thought there is more emphasis on them throughout the whole game. Sadly, puzzles are few and far between; I'd definitely be glad to see them more often. Like at the golf course, you'd have to complete, say, 15 courses to be able to progress; or something as simple as finding a 4-digit combination for a numerical keypad.

Some collectibles other than tickets would also be great. They don't necessarily have to be tied to progression, but they would make use of some semi-hidden areas and would make exploration a bit more rewarding with other than the atmosphere itself (for example an item in the semi-hidden area with the beach balls in the poolroom with the water guns, there's even a door with a moving handle, but the door itself remains closed). This is especially true to the conference rooms section: really eerie vibes but that area desperately needs some extra puzzles or such. Collectibles could be casettes featuring songs from the soundtrack, to which the player could listen - if he finds the walkman in a hidden area, or something like this.

I was afraid that the game would have over the top jumpscares or forced "evil entity is chasing you" scenes. I'm really delighted to see that there's only one level with such a feature, and that's quite enough, in my opinion. I believe that liminal spaces in general are eerie and intense enough without any monsters. For me, the scary thing is that the more time I spend wandering about in the near-silent corridors, I start to think more and more about the place itself or life in general.

I think the Dev really did a great job with capturing the atmosphere, and when it comes to liminal spaces, atmosphere is everything. I enjoyed Chapter 1 tremendously and I really hope Chapter 2 will be at least this great!

So tl;dr, puzzles > evil entity scenes; PLEASE don't change this tendency in the future. :)

And more poolrooms. You can never have enough poolrooms.

[CheshireCatMoonSmile]

I would have liked to see more vaporwave theme, I thought it was pretty tame