Is there a back button in the menus? Losing my mind a bit

[andrew-mc]

I've played for an hour or so and although I feel like I'm on the precipice of something amazing and mysterious I am finding it so torturous to navigate the menus that I'm debating whether it's worth continuing.

I haven't seen mention of this in reviews or other comments so maybe I'm just especially sensitive to it, but having to navigate back through every menu screen and list item is really getting to me.

Am I missing something? Is there a button I can press to go up a menu level or close it altogether? It sounds minor, but precisely selecting the exit button on each menu takes so much more concentration than just pressing B until you're out. I want to focus on the puzzle at hand but instead I find myself perpetually distracted just trying to move through the UI...

(I'd also love separate "interact" and "introspect" buttons - wasn't much fun accidentally walking into the WC multiple times and having to wait for Lorelei the character to do her thing before I can try opening the menu again)

[Fachewa]

Came here to see if anyone mentionned this, so thanks. The game really needs a "back" button yeah...

It's baffling to me that this isn't in there, and that not a single review I've seen complains about it.
Played for 4 and a half hour, and I'm sure a non negligeable amount of that was me struggling with menus and opening the same document 3 times trying to back out of it. Even if you're not struggling, the time spent on navigating to the right option is just wasted for no sensible reason. Using menus was clearly the most difficult puzzle so far for me.

I get that going for a game playable with a single button is a nice goal, but this isn't Cocoon, it has tons of menus and different interactions, it clearly could use an option to have a button open the current level's map, a back button and an introspect button.
If it really goes against the vision or something, at least let me deactivate B so that I don't open more docs while trying to close them...

(also, no graphical option outside of fullscreen :( and the constant "ghost" images could use an option to make them a little more transparent, it's really distracting, if the one button thing is for accessibility, there definitely should be more options like that)

[TheDrunkenMerchant]

I'd say a "Back" button and a "Map" button and we're good. It can still be played with one controller / one hand even if you added these controls.

[Monica]

Agreed, I'm really loving the game so far but the menus are really tedious to navigate without a back button

[Pancake]

Yep, Simogo's previous game (Sayonara Wild Hearts) also has sparse options menu, no key rebinding and no mouse input, but it's not that bad as that game doesn't need to navigate in and out of menus often.

Putting simple quality of life improvements like Backspace to exit menu, and mouse input would make menus way less annoying.

[andrew-mc]

Hmm that's disappointing :(, glad I'm not alone though

A few new Steam reviews do call it out, and the Kotaku review articulates it well even if it didn't bother them as much as it does me:

While backtracking through the hotel between puzzles isn’t tedious, the constant backtracking between menus and puzzles is. You constantly need to reference in-game documents in your photographic memory, but there is no back button for menu navigation. It’s not game-ruining by any means, but after navigating through menus for sixteen hours, I really wished I could just press a button to exit my photographic memory instead of navigating to the exit button every time. That problem also extends to puzzles, which require you to enter a solution to exit the puzzle screen. That can grow annoying when you know you don’t have the answer yet but you just want to give the puzzle a look in order to do some brainstorming.

There's also an interview with Screen Rant[screenrant.com] talking about the intent behind the controls. Sounds like the devs really wanted to experiment with mega streamlined controls, but IMO it gets in the way of basic usability and makes the truly interesting core of the game less accessible.

To go full UI/UX designer for a minute: this seems like a great example of how there's a limit to how much you can simplify a UI before you're just shuffling around complexity. Limiting the controls to "d-pad + one button" means additional complexity bubbles up in the menu system. I reckon the increased controls-complexity of an additional button would really pay off in reduced interface-complexity. It massively reduces the cognitive load required to use the menu system while maintaining a high level of physical accessibility. (I might even argue it improves physical accessibility since it removes thousands of fiddly button presses from a playthrough)

Anyway, I'd really welcome an optional control scheme that allows for a back button. As much as I hate to, if there's no QoL news within a couple of weeks I think I'll just refund it. Even for a puzzle game on the level of Obra Dinn I don't think I can handle 16+ hours of tedious menus.

[Fachewa]

Originally posted by andrew-mc:

...

Thanks for articulating it that well, that's a reassuring sanity check :D
I had missed the Kotaku review, that's cool to see. I fell that kind of potential technical / specific issues are rarely acknowledged.

[yesnomu]

This is my single serious point of criticism too, glad other folks are noting it! I'd like to see this patched in at some point. A dedicated recollections button would be convenient too.

[Origami]

I was honestly sure something was wrong with my controller. This really needs to be in the game...

[SomeKindaBliss]

I'm playing on Switch and I kept thinking I wish there were a back button! But I've adapted, and it isn't ruining my enjoyment too much.

[󠀡Dibelabbes]

Hard truth: The most reliable way to get developers, be it a 'suits' lead AAA developer or a small indie developer that wants to see their exact vision in the game, to change something is via a bad review.

If you want that control scheme changed, make your voices count.

[SomeKindaBliss]

After saying I'd adapted... well maybe i hadn't. Having TWO loads options on the main menu is dangerous. Went into the non-disk one, and then clicked 'back' in my head but of course loaded an old save and lost progress.

[Fachewa]

Oh.... Is that why they recommend saving before loading disks?? They must have realised people were accidentally loading their own saves sometimes

[hololulu]

Originally posted by Fachewa:

Oh.... Is that why they recommend saving before loading disks?? They must have realised people were accidentally loading their own saves sometimes

I never connected this... I was thinking one of the files could "corrupt" my game or something, but I guess this makes more sense, haha.

[Fawesum]

It's a shocking oversight in an otherwise wonderfully designed game. It honestly makes the game so much worse than it needs to be. You will spend literally tens of minutes navigating to back buttons during the run time of the game. I've never seen a developer mess up a simple menu naviagtion this bad this side of 1980.

[Archon]

bumping this in hopes of a reply or something.

recently started playing - i _really_ like what i see so far - but im sure this will annoy the crap out of me in the long run.
i understand the idea of having just one button, that's neat. but then there has to be considerations of how the menus work - perhaps there can be a long press to close introspection regardless of menu depth, or the menus would be navigable using 'right' for confirm and 'left' for back - including exiting back to game.

in the meantime: disabling the 'b' button on controller via steam input might help with frustration a little bit.

the only way to back out of a padlock zoom you have no clues for is to input a random code? really?

the way it is currently just feels more like a bug, honestly :/