So, Indivisible, huh?
Hmmmm. Hmmmm.
Hmmmm.
I’ll be real: I don’t
really know how I feel about this game right now. I’d say that I need to put more time into it
(and I do), but I get the feeling that it’ll only help so much -- and maybe
even hurt in the long run. Having gone
all in with an impulse buy on release day, I owe it to the game, myself, and my
wallet to go as far as I can with it.
That said, I also owe it to all of those (and the devs on top of that)
to give an honest report on my findings.
If someone asks me “Is Indivisible any good?” then I want to give
them a straight answer.
That’s…pretty hard
right now. This is a weird game -- a
weird game that’s fun, frustrating, charming, plain, deep, and shallow at the
same time. But we’ve got to start somewhere, and it might as well be with an
anime intro.
Lab Zero and 505 Games
are breaking new ground with this story. Stop me if you’ve heard this one
before: you play as a spirited teenager from a sleepy yet cozy village, with
the details of your past withheld from you by a wise elder and mentor. Then tragedy strikes when an invading force
marches in and ransacks your village, which naturally includes the death of
your mentor. Now it’s up to you to crush
the invaders in the name of revenge and justice, all while being forced to come
to terms with your history and identity.
Considering how
fast the game flies through that stock-as-hell setup, it’s almost to the point
of parody. Or just treating it as a
formality. Thank all the gods that Indivisible’s
got more up its sleeve than what might as well be Baby’s First RPG. You play as Ajna, who for one reason or
another has the power (or curse) to absorb people into her mind palace and have
them fight alongside her in combat -- the first of which would be her father’s
murderer. I’d say that you’re out to
take down THE EMPIRRRRRRRRRE, but they’re pretty much dealt with within five
hours, if that. There’s an argument to
be made that you’re playing as the game’s real villain, seeing as how she
bumbles her way into freeing a god of creation and destruction. Whoopsie-doodle.
More than anything,
though, Indivisible is being carried by the sheer charisma of the
production. It doesn’t happen all that
often -- at least not these days, in a world inundated with piddling AAA
looter-shooters -- but this is one of those titles that consistently puts a
smile on my face. Even if you overlook
some sterling designs and animations, a lot of these characters pop and come to
life through their dialogue and interactions.
The game’s drowning in waifu-bait, but tiger shaman Razmi has everyone
beat with her -- well, let’s call them “witticisms” for now.
Then there’s
Ajna. Ajna’s an idiot, and it’s great.
The impression I
had of her before the full game dropped was that she’d be strong-willed,
serious, capable, all of that good stuff and more. Lab Zero’s honest shot at making the fabled “strong
female character”. It’s a noble
endeavor, for sure, and one I’m actually trying to pursue with my myriad
works. But if there’s one issue I
have with the campaign for an SFC, it’s that something gets lost along the way:
character flaws. It’s like some
stories are so dead-set on proving that their ladies are worthy of praise -- of
being powerful, inspiring icons and role models -- that they forget a core
tenet of storytelling. Flaws can help
make a character more interesting, whether it’s for a humanizing quirk or a
dramatic failing that nearly brings about their downfall.
Ajna has it both
ways. Her status as the dimmest bulb in
the box makes for some dialogue and exchanges that add flavor to what would
normally be a pretty stock story. It
helps give her charisma, and a touch of humanity despite being nothing more
than a batch of assets in a video game.
But more importantly, her flaws are an active part of the plot and her
character development. She doesn’t
think, gets impulsive, and is insanely reckless -- traits that lead to her
getting into a fight with her old man, and indirectly pushing him towards an
untimely demise. Rather than take time
out to reflect on what happened or what she can do to get better -- to prevent
tragedies like that in the future -- Ajna thinks that the best solution is to
track down her father’s murderer’s boss and beat him up. That ends up causing a big problem, because
she gets kited and tricked into unsealing the greatest menace the world’s ever known…and
also the menace her late father sealed in the first place.
It's like that old
adage from Kingdom Hearts 1:
Ajna’s still a
lunkhead, but following her bumble she’s at least trying to figure things
out. Trying to come to terms with her
nature as an instrument of (possible) chaos and destruction. Trying to understand the world around her,
and the people in her head. She’s still brash
and stuck in her ways -- she apparently doesn’t carry money because she doesn’t
like it, societal norms be damned -- but she’s got a good heart that’s growing
bit by bit.
I just wish I could
say the same about the rest of the cast.
Sure, they’re good
people and all…well, some more than others, given Razmi. But with the time I’ve put in so far, a lot
of them have had their development -- and the chance for it -- pretty strictly
abbreviated. Papa-killer Dhar’s gotten
the best treatment of the bunch, easily; he started off as a smug sycophant to
his murderous lord Ravannavar, only to have his loyalty tested and trampled by
the man he saw as a father. His early
antagonism gives way to self-doubt, introspection, and ultimately,
evolution. He’s not going to be all
buddy-buddy with Ajna anytime soon, that’s for damn sure. Still, he’s making strides on his own terms…even
if no one else really is.
It was pretty much
a given, because the game’s format isn’t 100% conducive to a rich narrative or
cast. That sounds bizarre as hell, considering
that this has a lot of RPG trappings. Still,
hear me out on this. If Indivisible falters
on the storytelling front, it’s because of two core issues. For starters?
Even if you’re jumping headfirst into JRPG-style battles, this is more
along the lines of a Metroidvania than anything else. It’s good if you want your gameplay rush;
being able to explore sprawling areas with an expanding toolkit of mobility
options has gotten plenty of games into the proverbial pantheon. The problem is that it doesn’t exactly do
wonders for the writing.
Whether you’re a
rookie or pro at platforming challenges, there are going to be decisive
amounts of time spent getting past hazards in the world, and doing what you can
to fill out your map. You’re not going
to have a lot of time to develop newcomers like Kushi or Ginseng once you’re
engaged in the core loop. Bloodstained
taught me that earlier this year, and now Lab Zero’s stepping up for a
repeat course.
The other core
issue is that there’s a lot of characters.
A whole lot. I’ve played JRPGs
that couldn’t even successfully develop a band of five; what chance does Indivisible
have with, what, twenty plus? There’s
a lot of ground that needs to be covered, and so far, it hasn’t. While the opening hours maintained some of
the narrative momentum, the focus has started to dwindle and meander.
Taking the fight to
a murderous zealot helped, but the sense of purpose and importance is missing
in later chapters (such as they are).
That’s probably a byproduct of you getting a pirate ship and having a
choice of three areas to explore; since the game can’t fully compensate
story-wise for your on-a-whim expedition, the only choice is to stall the plot
until all three zones are completed.
There’s no chance
for the characters to get the time they need to develop. That isn’t helped by Indivisible tossing
more characters your way when it hasn’t even finished tapping the characters
you’ve already got. It leads to awkward
situations where you’ve got characters dumping everything you need to know
about them in one or two scenes, particularly in their introductions. Masked shield-wielder Qadira is a major
culprit; during her intro spiel, she came off as less of a character and more
of an exposition fountain.
She’s gotten a tiny
bit more since then, since you’ve got the chance to visit the kingdom
responsible for attacking her brother (among other atrocities). The same goes
for other characters, which implies that their evolution -- such as it is -- is
character specific (like heading to Ginseng’s house to meet the family). But even if these characters are oozing with
charm and my heart’s opening its rusted gates to them, the problem, again and
again and again, is that I’m letting in mites when I should be swarmed by
titans. Even if you go inside Ajna’s
mind palace to talk to these guys, their dialogues are punishingly brief. Changing throughout the playthrough, yes, but
I’m left starving again and again.
I’m not done with Indivisible
yet, and I won’t be for a while. I’m
doing my best to avoid any outside information for fear of spoilers; that said,
I’ve caught whispers in the wind (read: YouTube autofill for search results)
implying that there’ll be side missions for the cast. Maybe something along the lines of Mass
Effect’s loyalty missions, even if that’s just wishful thinking on my part. Regardless, I hope there’s something there
for me to gnaw on.
It’s not just
because I think that without it, Indivisible is irreparably flawed. Quite the opposite. Even setting aside the investment I made in
it (a whopping $35!), I have a stake in its quality. No, let me rephrase that; I have a belief in
its quality, because quality has already been presented to me. I’m interested in seeing where the story
goes. I haven’t met a single character
yet that I didn’t like. And those smiles
I’ve gotten so far? Those were
genuine. Not made from pity or
obligation, but from the fun I’ve had.
Because whether the
story soars or stumbles from here on out, it’ll always have the gameplay. And I can tell you right now that the
gameplay is…
Is…
Uh…
Hmmmm. Hmmmm.
Hmmmm.
You know what? I’ll get back to you on that.
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