The last few days been kinda sh*tty for me. I was about to finally play the game that I've been wanting to play, which is currently on sale, but my bank prevented my transaction for some reason. Among other annoyances I've been having, that was the last one. Until I found this little game that soothe my nerves.
I found this game in a lesser known video game publishing platform itch.io. Made by a small team based in Italy called Space Backyard, this incredibly small game titled Like Roots in the Soil was simply one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had this week... and the weeks before that too (sorry, Stories: The Path of Destinies).
Let me tell you what does it mean when I said "incredibly small". You play this game by rotating the camera to see the surrounding, which works the way you see in the gif below. And that's all. No other mechanics. No walk, no jump, or whatsoever. Not even voice acting is there. So basically you could say this game has little to no gameplay.
"Okay, so where in the world is the fun in that? Did you smoke weed when you played it, which is why you think it's 'touching'? I want whatever it was you smoked, dude."
First, I don't smoke. Second, I hate smoke. Like Roots in the Soil's power lies in its simplicity itself. The game tells a story from two perspectives simultaneously using the only mechanic it has; the camera rotation. And it took only about 4 minutes to finish. But, when I finished my 4 minutes, it felt like there's a whole 4 years of happening within that short duration.
The colour pallete, the poetic lines, a hypnotic(?) soundtrack, and the camera rotation mechanic to change the perspective of the world that let you absorb all the details the game 'tell' you instead of 'show' you, all of that resulted in this simplified and beautiful take on the post-apocalyptic setting. I hope all those big studios take a long look at this game and learn from it.
Since this game is short, free, and only less than 50mb, I'm not going to tell the whole thing, the ending, because it's best you experience it yourself. If you're interested, you can go here: Like Roots in the Soil, and feel free to tell me what you think of it.
If some blank blue canvas with a white line in the middle that shapes absolutely nothing but, "a blank blue canvas with a white line in the middle", can be considered an art, hung on a museum, and cost millions of dollars for f**k knows what reason, then this game can be considered an art as well... as ignorant as I may sound.
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DISCLAIMER: All artworks in this post (except for the cited ones) are belongs to me and I don't allow you, your partner, your cassowary, or your waifu to use them without my consent. Think I'm a smug? Fine by me. Happened before. Hate it if it happen again.