It's cute, but the "tragedy" feels forced

[Cyber Akuma]

I get this game is trying to go for a "this is so sad" emotion, but just feels so heavy-handed and forced that it removes me from the game.

Having one of my cubs be kidnapped in a cutscene I could do nothing about, and then being forced to give up the search.

Having an owl I saw coming a mile away kill one of my cubs when I SAW it in the background, stayed by my cub, and tried to attack it but it just does nothing.

The cub-meter that is clearly always there just to remind you "These cubs are gone/dead" to try to evoke emotion.

The world having become a wasteland, because of course these games HAVE to have a "humans suck" message in them.

And on that note, humans who for no reason seem to want to kill "the last fox on earth" when you would think every zoologist, environmentalist, and scientist would want to do everything to try to preserve and protect said fox family.

It all just comes off as a very forced attempt to try to make you feel bad, and instead it makes me go from feeling bad to actually stop caring when I realize that the game is trying to force emotions out of my control.

[TheGlecter]

Our aim with the Demo was to show as much of the game experience as possible in just a <30 minutes session. To achieve that, though, we had to mess up a bit with the game's pacing and added some kind-of forced situations, just to show as much the game has to offer as possible... and yeah, also for a bit of extra drama. :P However, the final game will go at a smoother pace and we are definitely staying away from scripted, can't-get-outta-here situations. You will also get to know more about the human characters, who may not be so evil after all...

Anyway, it's totally OK that you didn't enjoy some stuff from the Demo, and thanks a lot for taking your time to share it! We'll do our best to improve it. :)

P.S: Sorry about the Owl kill. We are totally aware it is cheesy... ^^

[Akky]

I never met the owl! Sounds scary, haha!

But I also generally got the feeling that it mostly felt forced due to the limited play time. Like how the humans simply swarm you at the end even if you choose not to follow your pups trail. There's just no more content there at the moment, so it kind of makes sense. If it was at a normal pace, we probably wouldn't have seen much of the game's mechanics, so I appreciate it.

Also, now we know what to look out for once the game comes out. Maybe it'll give us a little head start.

[Adam Beckett]

It is interesting to read how other players react to the demo.

For me, I just look for different things in a demo:

"Does it run without crashing?"
"Am I doing things, I like?"
"Do I like the art-style and/or game setting?"
"Do I like the controls?"

The story is something, I look forward to, I do not expect to understand everything or 'like' everything. I am absolutely okay with 'tragedy' - if that is the design intention. Pacing in an 'adventure'-ish game demo does not have to make 'sense', for me.

The first time I died, I understood "oh ... okay, so this is the 'game over' condition. Avoid humans". Which makes a lost of sense, because that is what real foxes do too. It is something the game teaches you as a player.

More than anything, a demo is a 'teaser'? "Do you want to play more of this?" Which every demo player has to decide for her-/himself?

[Cyber Akuma]

Originally posted by Adam Beckett:

"Does it run without crashing?"
"Am I doing things, I like?"
"Do I like the art-style and/or game setting?"
"Do I like the controls?"

Heh, that's how most of my reviews for the demos during this and other demo events are. I didn't do that for this one because I didn't really having anything positive or negative to say in that regard, it works fine for what it is, nothing bad, but nothing groundbreaking either (Other than a few bugs I encountered, one of which trapped me in my position and I had to restart).

The thing that stuck out most for me was how the drama felt a little forced, so I just commented on that.

The first time I died, I understood "oh ... okay, so this is the 'game over' condition. Avoid humans". Which makes a lost of sense, because that is what real foxes do too. It is something the game teaches you as a player.

My reaction to that was just confusion. Probably doesn't help that I did the first two quick-time events fine and he stepped backwards when I did, and since he was directly in the way of the scent I was following, I assumed that I had to make him leave. When I failed the first one I was just..... confused. He goes after me and.... snaps my neck? I just yelled out loud "WHY?" when that happened. Why does he want to kill me? It was part of what felt "forced" to me and the whole "evil humans" thing. I was wondering at first if the guy in the suit who kidnapped my cub was a mis-direction, that he was some kind of wildlife rescue or something, but when the other guy was trying to kill me and then that same guy shot me in the end it seemed to just want to paint them as evil (The whole "last fox in the world" and polluted planet thing didn't help paint a good view of them either...)

[Idioteque]

You could try th game shelter. it has badger mom and isnt forcing death. .

[Avaruuskettu]

The game looks promising, but the question is: Do I want to hate humans more than I do already?

Edit: I mean, I hate only some humans now.

[stlsf4003]

Just another nature good man bad type of story.

Seen them all and there all the same. Which is a shame, The art style is pretty good.

[muffin]

A spoiler in in this comment so read at your own risk


With the last comment you made, "The humans just want to kill the only fox left around here." Well, I would predict they are either ones who hate this forest and, SPOILER ALERT: made the forest catch fire as in the beginning if you go past the pole you climb you see them lighting the forest. Or are hungry and since animals are rare they eat you. Just kinda what I thought about them when they killed me.

[Bee]

I know I am here late but I would just like to say that the humans in this game are in no way 'evil' if you look close enough. SPOILER ALERT FOR THE DEMO, the game shows when following your pup's trail that the person who kidnapped them was trying to trade it for...medicine I think? Correct me if i'm wrong because this is just a theory, but the person or someone close to the person, who kidnapped your pup has some sort of illness from the toxic environment, one of the last foxes on earth would be a pretty good bargain for medicine. The environment itself? It wasn't this generations of humans faults, at least not entirely. This 'end of the world' suituation has clearly been building up for decades. The people who are just randomly wandering around during the day and try to kill you? Probably a person trying to get medicine like the first guy! The humans in this game are not guiltless for sure but the humans in the game are pretty much in the same boat as everyone else