Beasts of Maravilla Island

[b]"scaly facial frills... and teeth?!"[/b] 💖🖤🖤 🟩 very neat world 🔷 completely linear 🔴 kind of mindless [b]vibes:[/b] sterile magic [b]loops:[/b] walk around very linear maps taking photos of magical animals [b]states:[/b] finished with 100% [b]ramblings:[/b] this is an on rails photography game, without the actual rails, the maps are pretty much just linear hallways you go through, there is no room to explore. visually and aesthetically the environment and animals are all pretty neat and fantastical. i especially liked the second stage which is like a luminescent mushroom forest. the grandfather's journal's notes are also really nice, i wish the game had done more with those notes, for example having an entry for each animal that unlocks when you photograph them.  · unfortunately this magical journey loses all that wonder pretty fast. it dulls. it's hard to find the animals magical when they were absolutely everywhere, a constant overload, requiring zero effort or a keen eye or timing to take photos. there's no photography mechanics where you need to try and get a good shot or anything. sometimes i'd take one of something barely visible without even really knowing.  · only a few animals in the entire game even have different behaviours to capture. and most of those are scripted to happen at specific sections and the game grabs your hand for them. at one point in development there were more mechanics probably intended, as there's a tutorial for whistling to lure an animal out from hiding in order to take its photo. this mechanic is never used again.  · while i thought the second stage was the prettiest and aesthetically more interesting one, it's clear that the first stage has the most complexity and work put into it out of all the stages. the third stage in contrast is clearly the shortest, least polished, and least developed. [b]verdicts:[/b] it's not terrible or anything, just rather lackluster. the controls sometimes felt finnicky and buggy or unresponsive. there's very little interactivity or exploration. the photography feels tacked on and undeveloped. i did not enjoy it and felt disappointed. [b]scores:[/b] 🍄 out of 🪄 on 🖥️ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3774934350