Simple puzzle platformer with darker undertones.

Controls are good.

I didn't like the story, the graphics or the soundtrack.

In my view this game is overhyped. I can see the appeal to many, espacially people that like artsy games, but this game is not for everyone.

My rating 5/10, not recommended.

For an on the nose metaphor for domestic abuse, the lack of animation and voice work struggles to portray any emotion. It is interesting seeing the Brazilian shantytown move itself into position but both the puzzles and the platforming are far too simple.

Papo & Yo is a narrative adventure game featuring a Brazilian boy named Quico and his adventures through a mystified version of a Brazilian slum.

In many other reviews, I see people praising the story, but I just don't get the praise. The game introduces some girl (who is apparently named Alejandra based on the credits) who can utilize the same "powers" you use and some flying robot named Lula. However, the story makes no effort to explain who any of these characters are. You're just expected to acknowledge their existence and have them inside of the story. There are various story points that also expect you to feel some emotion about what is happening to these characters, but they genuinely just made me feel nothing. It becomes more of an "Okay, I guess this is happening now" sort of situation. Also, the underlying narrative just doesn't work for me. I get the message they are trying to convey, but I just couldn't find any reason to care about it. For a game where the gameplay isn't the most engaging or the best, the story is one of the only things that can make a gaming experience better, but I just don't think this story can carry the subpar gameplay in this case.

The gameplay is fairly standard for games of this type. You do a bit of platforming, a bit of puzzle solving, and a lot of just running around from place to place. I don't particularly care for this sort of gameplay loop, but if you find the story engaging enough, then I guess this wouldn't matter much to you. However, the game does have its fair share of bugs. There are times when it is impossible for me to progress past a certain puzzle due to a mechanic being broken or me getting stuck inside of objects.

As for graphics, the models of the characters look a bit bad, but that, thankfully, doesn't take away from the world they crafted here. As I partially mentioned earlier, the setting is essentially Brazilian slums but with fantastical elements spread all around. The backgrounds look really nice, especially the ending scenes of the game. The solutions and parts of puzzles also have nice visuals associated with them or smaller things that can be appreciated, like the little tiny stick legs on moving buildings.

As for the sound, I think that it was really good! The music may not be something that I would listen to outside of the game, but while I'm playing the game, it sounds really nice. Not much else to say other than they did a really good job with the music.

Overall, I think this is a nice little game, but it has a lot of flaws in the areas that matter the most. For me, the story is uninteresting and boring. It tries to display a narrative between Quico and his father, but the story points are so minimal, scattered, and ambiguous that I just couldn't find myself caring about any of the characters present. Considering this is a narrative adventure game, not having a good story typically just means everything else also falls apart. It looks nice and has great music, but this game just isn't it for me, and I can't recommend it due to this.


(P.S. My above-average playtime is due to me forgetting my game was open during a busy day and figuring out the locations of the hats in the post-game)

Awful

I thought this was going to be a puzzle game but it involves nothing more than pushing buttons and lining up platforms.

- Story is really dull and done to death.
- Gameplay consists of nothing more than running, jumping, and pressing buttons, either physically or remotely with a robot companion.
- The soundtrack is not good and gets quite annoying at one point when you're in an oversized field running around repeating the same exact thing 3 times in a row.

I also didn't get an achievement called "Don't Need No Hints" which involves not seeing any hint boxes, which I definitely never used. Apparently, seeing the tutorial box counts as a hint. Seriously? I bet they did this on purpose to get people to replay the game. This 'game' has no replay value whatsoever. Achievements that require completely replaying a game should be banned.

I like the motion blur for the camera movement, I think it was done well.

Overall, just a waste of time.

This is one of *those games" that came during a certain era when everyone was pushing the "games as art" farce.

I think the purpose behind this game is really special an I appreciate what this game is attempting to do. I just wish the gameplay was fun enough to keep me interested throughout.

There are some neat ideas scattered throughout Papo & Yo, and it's a shame that I can't recommend it. The experience clearly intends to evoke certain emotions, but any human connection that I was able to have with the story was diluted by bugginess, technical oversights and poor design choices.

To list off some good elements;

1. The art direction: The tilted, fantasy shanty town that Papo & Yo creates is at times a joy to explore and traverse. There are also stunning pieces of graffiti art scattered around from prolific South American artists, which are a real highlight.
   
   
2. The puzzles (sometimes): The puzzles will, at times, have you saying to nobody in particular "oh, that was neat". None are particularly difficult to solve, but occasionally are assembled from interesting elements.
   
   
3. The subject matter: Papa & Yo covers some dark themes, 100% cocoa levels of bitter. When a game treads unfamiliar thematic territory, I have to respect the developer for taking on such a raw yet ever significant subject matter.
   
   
4. The score: The orchestral swells and general ambient sound design are top notch. A friend who was in the room while I was playing through the thing commented on how wondrous the audio landscapes coming from my PC were. In isolation, the soundtrack is exceptional, and it really draws the player into the world of the game.

However, whenever you being to be drawn in, a dozen other factors snap you back to reality, and just leave you having a real bad time. To list off some bad elements...

1. The art direction: The textures are low res and muddy. From afar, it's not an issue, but close up or in isolation they sometimes look like they were ripped from an N64 era game. The character animation is often janky and jumps unnaturally between poses and positions.
   
   
2. The puzzles (sometimes): The puzzles will, at times, have you saying to nobody in particular "I HATE THIS F***ING GAME, WHY DID THEY DESIGN IT LIKE THIS?". None are particularly difficult to solve, but occasionally are completely unstreamlined, with multiple puzzles requiring slow moving elements, backtracking, unskippable cutscenes, more backtracking, randomized elements that can cause you to reset the puzzle from the beginning...the list goes on.
   
   I solved one puzzle using a method that the devs apparently not intended (although it wasn't obvious), causing me to reach a further section of the map when the game hadn't expected me to be there. I wandered around aimlessly for about 20 minutes before resetting the game out of confusion. Upon loading an earlier save point and completing the puzzle as the devs had intended, I made it back to where I had been before to find that elements that had previously not been there had spawned in, confirming that I'd just done the puzzle in a way that wasn't expected. There were countless other bugs and control issues spotted over my playthrough, and I ended up having little faith in the stability of the game or the controls.
   
   The 'monster' can't kill you as far as I could tell, but it can annoy the hell out of you. When it gets aggressive, it often just becomes a barrier to completing an otherwise simple puzzle, and ends up obscuring a large portion of the camera when it pursues you. Overall, the puzzles are (sometimes) a drag. They're slow and don't respect your time in the slightest.
   
   
3. The subject matter: Papa & Yo covers some dark themes, 100% cocoa levels of bitter, and it wants you to know that. By the end of the game (no spoilers) the allegories and metaphors are all spelt out to you, and every veneer of subtlety is abandoned entirely. It holds on a particular expository sequence for far longer than the player needs to 'get' the metaphor. The way in which the developers lay out the narrative elements ends up feeling patronising and detracts from the impact that they would have otherwise.
   
   
4. The score: The orchestral swells and general ambient sound design are top notch. I actually don't have any complaints about the score, just thought I'd keep it here for symmetry's sake.

Papo & Yo is flawed, and with a more experienced team behind it, it probably would have been significantly more effective at tackling the subject matter it does. The frustrations of actually playing the puzzles actually distract from the genuinely tragic and emotive themes that underlie it. The world it builds is sometimes beautiful, and other times grubby, seemingly almost unfinished. At least the sountrack is good. Maybe just go buy the soundtrack.

5.5/10

Okay game. Nothing to write home about.

PAPO & YO

Ok, interesting setting, good musical score.

What about the game play? Is it fun and engaging? Unfortunately its not..

Levels seem empty.. devoid of life and color, you have this monster later in the game which feels very dry and cut like many other platformers, many invisible walls and liner pathing kills this game for me.

Overall a very interesting concept not utilized fully.

I did not enjoy my experience as it felt like it was missing to many things.