Kanso
How to describe Kanso? Well, you play with your mouse, and you have to draw a line around a shape! Sounds pretty simple right?
This is one of those relaxing, zen like games, where you think everything is all easy and simple, but quickly you realise that things take some skill. This is a “line following” game. Everything is very bright and colourful and really is a joy to play.
As you draw around the shapes, there are “Koi like Daemons”, they kind of look like giant sperms, or perhaps tadpoles, they are on their own little journey, come into contact with them and you will have to start again. As you draw your line, you cannot go backwards, only forwards, but you can speed up or slow down, or even stop, that will allow you to avoid the Daemons, and finish the shape. As you progress through the levels, the shapes become more interesting and there are more Daemons to avoid, some will try to follow you, some will avoid you, some do not care about you. But you must always care about all of them if you want to progress.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Relaxing Games.
Marginalia
Super interesting. Didn’t quite get the story but I think it’s supposed to be vague in that regard. Really enjoyed the music, atmosphere and environment. I didn’t expect it to be inspiring but seeing the distant pink lights and hearing about an old family story really made me want to start brainstorming a new music project. I don’t know if any of these characters or events are real or based on real events, but I think researching it would remove its mystique, so I won’t. I played it again straight after finishing it (mainly because the ending dialogue cut out mid-way through) to see if there was anything I missed but I couldn’t find anything. A short fun little experience!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Ambient Controller Games.
There’s a moment early on when you’re following the traditional walking simulator flow of moving from exposition drop to exposition drop that you’ll see something… weird.
And there’s a moment where you’ll get lost in the woods and stumble upon something unpleasant but unremarked upon.
And there’s a moment where you’ll realize something is extremely- well… the less said about it the better.
I really enjoyed this interactive story. The writing and voice acting is excellent and the level design is incredible. You won’t understand why I say that at first but… you will eventually.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game