Nyctophilia Let's Play Part 2 | Gamejolt Game | BREATHING! INTO MY LUNGS!
1Are we completely sure there’s no monsters here? That guy seems kinda monster-y...
▼Links to cool stuff!▼
Twitter ► https://goo.gl/P6tnFX
Nyctophilia ► gamejolt.com/games/nyctophilia/122357
(Also on Steam) ► http://store.steampowered.com/app/402890
Nyctophilia is a 2D thriller that ISN'T FOCUSED ON MONSTERS! It's barely even really focused on the supernatural. It is more focused on interpersonal relationships and insanity, blurring the lines between dreams and reality.
*Non-Spoiler Commentary*
Nyctophilia uses a pretty archaic system to interact with the player, but it is no less serviceable than when it was thought up in the late 80s. The player moves the character left and right through the environment using the arrow keys, and interacts with objects using X. Any actual actions are done automatically through the use of items or interacting with objects, so there is no need for animation. Old school adventure games typically lean on the narrative more than the gameplay (as the gameplay is simply combining items and/or solving puzzles to progress). With such gameplay, the interactivity is usually minimal, resulting in the player simply navigating a map and menus in order to affect change in the game - as seen in Nyctophilia. This system still contributes to many of the systems involved in modern adventure games, such as the recently revived King’s Quest.
Because of its short length, the pacing of Nyctophilia is crucial to the tension and payoff that the thriller narrative is trying to convey to the player. Here, the devs try to feed the player a trickle of letters and diary entries that provide just slightly more concrete information than the previous notes building up to a stronger reveal at the end. This is done well in the first two sections of Nyctophilia that we have seen. The player starts off being shown that there is something strange going on with the protagonists dreams, that he is seeking help, and that this cabin is supposed to help in some way. The first day is dedicated to exploring the cabin without any further interruption from dreams, while the second day is much more directed towards the strange occurrences that are taking place beneath the house. We go from a (somewhat rushed) introduction, to a serene sense of calm, to a slow unearthing that something might not be quite right that fits well with the overall themes. However, we will have to wait until the third video to see if the payoff is worth the rising tension that has been fairly well done so far.
*Spoiler Review / Synopsis*
We start this section of gameplay breaking into the false wall to find…. not bodies unfortunately. It is an office, apparently used by the author of the notes / letters we keep finding. We find more notes / letters in the office that indicate that the previous owner has been doing research into a strange labyrinth that he found under his house. The owner learned about the presence of other labyrinths around the world while away at a war, and references an Archibald as someone who has provided information regarding these artifacts. We hear tales of wells at the heart of the labyrinth that houses some unknown entity.
Armed with this information, we of course run off to the previously inaccessible barn in the backyard where we find a labyrinth beneath the house, and a well at the heart of the labyrinth. At this well, we once again see the Tall Man. It’s at this point where the tone starts to shift from your typical horror-thriller to just a bit… weird. Rather than being a menacing entity, or even confirming that the Tall Man is the entity that lives in the well, the Tall Man just…. gives you life advice. After this encounter, the protagonist goes back to bed, noting that it’s awfully strange that he is staying here, and wakes up in the dreamscape.
We once again use the lightbulb to solve a few puzzles (I am grateful the mechanic wasn’t just a one-off) and learn more about the history of the previous owner through old diary entries. Archibald has come to live with the man, and after seeing the catacombs “disappears” with the wife and child of the owner. The man blames his fate on the creature in the well, and it is vastly unclear what exactly happened to the owner or even Archibald and the family.
Before we can learn more, a decaying Tall Man appears and tells us that there will be one more Day, and we are treated to a very long, very strange cutscene. Pure, uncontrolled dialogue.This sheer length of this is a strange turn for the game, and it appears to be a diatribe on fitting in with a society of people that are content to act like they are happy. The heavy-handedness of this contrasts so sharply with the rest of the game that it seems almost shoehorned in, almost like the developer realized they were running out of game and needed to start putting the “moral” in it somewhere. Finally, we wake up from the dream, only to realize that it is still a dream!
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Mister Penguino presently has 91 views for Nyctophobia across 2 videos, with his channel publishing less than an hour of Nyctophobia content. This is less than 0.32% of the total video content that Mister Penguino has uploaded to YouTube.