I guess if using anthropomorphic animals to tell a certain grounded story about healthcare problems, then I guess I could get into it. This is something I've been wanting to check out myself after realizing the subject in regard is something I've struggled with too.
A German studio makes a game similar to Night in the Woods, but has a more sunny side up outlook with a variety of characters, each having their quirks and personality traits. It's not something I found with a lot of subtleties, nuance and deep sense of mystery that compels it to be highly engaging. That's because Fall of Porcupine is much grounded when it comes to its premise.
This is not going to be everybody's cup of tea, and is certainly not screaming "Play me now!", it's lacking quite a bit on the fun department. It does have a good moody atmosphere, and while I am not a fan of dialogue focused types generally, I wanted to see where this took me.
Dr. Finlay wakes up to a dream of him on some beach, interacting with the plant given to him by a local florist. Turns out, he has friends in this place too, Finlay does some light platforming like jumping on leaves and vines, before diving into the water, and coming out into a flashback.
A flashback which takes him to his hospital where he tries to find a patient with dementia escaping his room, only to find the guy bleeding nearly to death. That's quite a tonal shift, not surprising about a doctor, but it made me consider that its is being more bold about tackling mature themes along with this animal dress-up of people with jobs.
So right after being knocked by boxes, he wakes up from his home with a bandage on his head. Implying that the flashback is a recent event. He wakes up late for his shift in St. Ursula's hospital. The bus also turns out to be not around, so the game makes me trek through the streets of Porcupine to reach the destination.
There was light platforming in the dream sequence, and that is present through the town. Problem is, it offers little to no incentive, as there's no diverting path taking me elsewhere. No reason to look around to find something noteworthy outside the main story focus.
Also, there's a thing it does where I go to the next level, I have to wait for a 5-second loading screen. Just why? In modern gaming, Indie games aren't supposed to have loading screens such as this. At times my ADHD kicked in, and so I made my own fun. Witness thus.
Yeah, there are fun moments, but not to the actual designation Porcupine provides. Anyway, going towards the hospital, there were places to interact like eulogies, shops, signs, and so on. These gives more background about the town and its people, all read from Finlay's head bubbles.
Right after making it inside the hospital, and dawning the doctor's coat, I get a lip full from Dr. Panther lady, who seems pretty strict on her doctor trainees under her residency. Obviously, making it poignant that my character being late is bad practice, before we continue our rounds and interact with the patients. The past 30–40 minutes have been spent on dialogues and exposition. Still bored.
Panther lady in charge then tasks me to look after the visited patients by checking up on them, each of them has a specific mini-game. Interestingly, they are unique and pretty challenging. First is where I have to play Twister, but with my fingers on the controller to press the button prompts quickly as possible to attain higher grade. Getting grades determines the impression that I live for both the resident, and the hospital in general. It's not a clear system, but it shows progress in time.
My main reason for being in the hospital is to play the mini-games, for the first few rounds. Each patient has dialogues, where I get to talk to them in a friendly manner. Finlay is pretty empathetic and lets each of the patients tell their stories, before getting to the mini-games.
When it came to the main storyline, there are glimpses of problems within each of the patient that are slowly beginning to unravel, and don't seem like normal diagnostic procedures and medication would treat them right. Finlay, already having the incident with the runaway patient from his flashback be a constant reminder of how things aren't going to be ok, has a lot to work through.
Not sure if Slice of Life is the phrase I'd use for this game, but that's kind of how it was. There are choices for certain things. Like for going to work, I could choose whether to take the bus or not. In one point of the story, I had to choose between meeting the bartender, whose mother is a patient recently admitted, or hanging out with my colleague, Mia, after our shift was over.
I would have guessed that doing so, each had a mini-game, and this one was where we started shooting hoops on the basketball court in the town. Wasn't as interesting, since this played like some advertised mobile game. But there was a fun conversation that came afterward.
As a central character, I would say there's a lot going on with him. He has an active imagination, he talks to his plants, does well-wishes to inanimate objects, pays his respects to old people and the one who passed away with their memorials placed around town, and is generally a person looking out for other's wellbeing, regardless if it's from his job or not.
The big draw to this title entirely are the relatable and grounded characters in the town of Porcupine. Even if I got bored just playing it at times, interacting with them were sort of the highlights in the overall experience. One in particular is rediagnosing the Bartender's mom, as she tells her story about the time when electricity didn't exist.
There is a conflict in the main story, as everything unravels, including about the hospital's fifth floor which was abandoned due to leaks from the pipes and so on. Patients admitted to the hospital could have been contracting illnesses based on a number of reasons, maybe leading to how the hospital's condition is. The mini-games make me become focused into taking the game seriously, as it evokes this sense of how a doctor's job works.
And then the caveats, this is a game made by German developers, so the translation can be rough. The dialogue is overused to create subtext for the story and world. I already mentioned how much it misses the opportunity to create other fun activities to distract from some of the boring parts.
I will say this, though, the game's cover and how it presents itself are no fluke, the characters are great, the premise is well-built, the mini-games are crazy fun but atrocious sometimes, and I really do dig the artwork. It's not going to be for everybody, I know that, but maybe people itching for another NitW kind of game could go for this.
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