An Aisling

For the first two and a half hours, An Aisling is a fantastic game which I think is right up there with Night in the Woods. And then it just ends in a very abrupt way. I tried to replay the ending to check if I missed some possible actions or story bits during the ending sequence, but the only available option was to start a new game. There are many missable interactions and side quests, so 2.5 hours is the playtime without doing most of the optional content. The game has obvious similarities to NitW, from the general gameplay style down to details like doing a bit of parkour to find NPCs hanging out on rooftops. There are great stylized graphics, an eerie setting of something unknown creeping into the quiet life of a small community, trippy visions, and goofy minigames to play when hanging out with friends. Oh, and animal suits instead of anthropomorphic animals. So bizarre and funny moments are guaranteed, and many of them are done perfectly. The game has a couple of nice puzzles of the kind action-adventures can be so good at, where we have to follow vague directions or figure out how we're supposed to interact with things. There's also a fun hint system. I didn't quite like the inventory management UI. There's no way to examine or quickly unequip an inventory item. Using an item is automatic, which can be confusing (like with the mouse queen, especially if I hadn't talked to her before obtaining the item). Some experimentation is required when interacting with things (like the elevator) because Use/Cancel buttons can be different for different interactions. There's only one platforming sequence during the main quest which can turn out to be difficult, and that is partially because of the controls. I believe the issue is that if I tilt the left gamepad joystick a little up or down, that's interpreted as putting on the hood or crouching, so pressing Jump at that moment does nothing. After several tries, I ended up using the D-pad for that sequence. When I first tried the game a few months back, the game was so buggy that it wasn't fun to play at all. Now I've only encountered one minor bug, which doesn't affect the gameplay, namely, that occasionally a character starts moving sideways while facing the camera. Given the state the game was in, it's an impressive achievement. There are still some minor text issues though.