Hearing that Papo & Yo was about
some guy's relationship with his abusive Dad piqued my interest quite
a bit because that's not the kind of thing that is typically the
focus of a game. Watching a quick video of one of the game's surreal
environment manipulation puzzles sealed the deal for me; I was in
without needing to see or hear anything else.
Papo & Yo is about a boy named
Quico who during a moment of fear and crisis finds himself
transported to a strange world. It's a 3d 3rd person
puzzle-action game. You move through different areas solving puzzles
to continue on.
Typically, these puzzles involve
manipulating the environment and the npc's to get to where you need
to go. The world Quico enters is one of those south-american towns
that is made out of little square house all stacked around each
other. Like the one that Will Smith drives a hummer through in Bad
Boys II. Pretty sure that's the movie where that happens. To Quico, these small square houses are literally building
blocks. Through the use of magical chalk drawings on the walls and
floors of these areas, houses can be re-arranged and manipulated. For
example, there might be a lever drawn on a wall that when pulled
moves a whole building or group of buildings around. Or there could
be a set of gears drawn onto a wall, and when you connect the gears,
a building might rotate or platforms might emerge from the ground. That's the tip of the iceberg of what you can do The game is not especially long, so I don't want to be too specific
about the puzzles, but I'll give you a glimpse of one that can be
seen in videos about the game. There is a part where you come to a
large river you need to cross. There are some cardboard houses lying around that were obviously made by children. If you pick one up, a whole
house gets plucked up into the air and starts moving along with the
cardboard box house. I'll leave the rest to your imagination... These
puzzles are great fun to go through. Some of them are as simple as
what I just described, but they also scale up to some pretty epic and
mind-boggling manipulations. If you're like me, you'll just stare at
the screen in wonder at some of things you end up doing during these
puzzles.They are typically pretty simple to complete, and there are
often pictographic clues nearby inside of cardboard boxes that you
can put on your head. But they are not so simple that they aren't fun
to figure out. I'm going to compare this game to Ico a bit, so using
that metric, the puzzles are a step or two less complex than Ico's
puzzles, but comparable.
The other type of puzzle you'll
encounter involves Monster, your giant companion throughout the
majority of the game. You need monster to activate some giant
switches by standing on them. Getting him to do what you want
typically involves motivating him with food. You can also get him to
go to sleep and then bounce on his belly to get to high ledges.
Sometimes you need to transport him using strange chalk-magic
constructs. But be warned, if monster eats a frog, he flies into a
rage, and will attack and maul you.
The game controls pretty basically.
The left stick moves Quico, who runs around at a fast pace. The right
stick moves the camera. Square is used to interact with chalk
constructs. You can pick up and throw items, such as fruit to lure
Monster, with O. X is jump. In some areas, you are accompanied by a
robotic friend named Lula, who can hold onto your back and let you
hover for a second if you hold down X when jumping, and who can press
far away switches for you if you aim at one and press triangle.
The visuals are very good. The
character design is great, and the environments are surreal and
imaginative. Wherever the world gets distorted by your
manipulations, a strange white substance is revealed, like a layer of
reality that lays just underneath everything we see. There is also a
lot of really great graffiti made by real artists in the game that
adds tremendously to the mood. Unfortunately there are a lot of
graphical and gameplay glitches. There is a bunch of screen tearing
(at least I think that's what it's called), weird camera movements,
and some frame rate problems. There are also problems while playing,
such as Quico getting stuck in the jump animation or getting trapped
on some geometry. One time I even had to reset because the camera
suddenly zoomed out like a mile away from Quico and wouldn't switch
back. These glitches are actually all really forgivable because of
how much fun the game is and how riveting the story and theme is.
Also, not really a glitch, but mouths don't move when people talk,
which is a bit of distracting problem, but you get used to it.
The music is really great traditional
south-american tunes, mostly very upbeat. All of it is pretty good
and really meshes well with the sense of discovery and figuring
things out that the gameplay evokes. Some sequences even have sound
effects when you do stuff that fit in perfectly with the music, which
gives those parts a great feel. There are a couple of really stand
out pieces, especially the song during the game's powerful final
sequence. The game's dialogue and lyrics are in spanish, with word
balloons providing translation to English for most of the dialogue.
You're on your own with the lyrics in the song or two that has them
and a few of the shorter lines of dialogue.
Papo & Yo's story is an emotional
and intense one. From what I hear, it is semi-autobiographical for
the main game designer, and it really goes into some big problems. It
has some really shocking, disturbing moments. However the story is
balanced out nicely by it's tender moments and its overall whimsical
feel. Still, there are a few times when I really felt some strong feels as I
stared at the screen in shock. It's moving and meaningful, really
great stuff. Obviously one of the main themes is the father-son
relationship, but childhood in general also seems to be a big theme,
and there are a few others I won't spoil, including the one
disturbing theme that hit me the hardest... These themes are not only
a part of the cutscenes and audio/visual experience, but are also
tied tightly into the gameplay and interactive elements of the game.
Which segues me right into my comparison to another game that does
the same thing....
I said I was going to compare the game
to Ico. They are quite similar in length, puzzle design, and even in
the fact that you often have an AI character to interact with and
move around with you. Actually, it feels more like The Last Guardian
since you are with a giant monster instead of a person. Also the
game's ending sequence, meaning the last hour or two, reminds me of
Ico's a lot as well as it is very focused, intense, story-driven
while still being almost completely interactive, and near perfect.
Much like Ico, that last 90 minutes or so is intensely riveting;
there's no way I was getting up from my seat until it was finished
(or there was some emergency or something. Or if my mom called for
me). The game is like Ico in the best way possible. It captures some
of that same feel, both in its gameplay and story/ theme. That's one
of the strongest compliments I can give a game, as Ico is probably my
favorite game. Also, you play as Quico. Get it.... quICO.
After you beat the game, there are a
few odd trophies to collect. One of them is kind of dumb. It wants
you to beat the game without using the cardboard hint boxes. This is
done easily enough on your second playthrough, or even your first,
but the hint boxes have great pictograms in them and also tie-in with
the theme and story really well, so it's weird to encourage people
not to use them. One of the other main trophies tasks you with
getting all the collectibles in the game, which are wearable hats
that you find. You can only collect these hats on your second
playthrough, although you can see where they will be on your first
playthrough. There are dolls hidden all over, and in the 2nd
playthrough and later, the dolls will be wearing the hats. It's a
cool way to do collectibles, as you are wondering what the dolls are
for in your 1st playthrough, and then you have fun
scouring every nook and cranny trying to find them during your 2nd
playthrough.
Papo & Yo is not as good as Ico,
but it's comparable in all the right ways. That means it's a really
great game that succeeds in theme and story on a whole nother level
when compared to what usually gets made. It's flaws barely matter in
the face of how meaningful it is. I think it's going to strike quite
a personal cord with most people that play it. It doesn't hurt that
it's beautiful, well-designed, and fun to play, either. It's a great
game, tier 2.
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