Although it’s not the vibrant super-detailed pixel art that could attract the attention of art-lovers, it’s still nice to look at. And the squid looking submarine thing on the cover art? It made me want to check the game out in the end.

Verne: The Shape of Fantasy Demo
Verne: The Shape of Fantasy Demo

Pros:

  • There are hints to puzzles if you’re a bit stuck
  • Pleasant sounding voice acting
  • You learn a variety of things from Verne’s Log

Cons:

  • Environment is sparse

I’m definitely not disappointed after playing the demo, though I do kind of wish there was more to the environment–and the only reason I say this is because there are some areas where you can look out over the cliffside and get a bigger picture of the area around you. And with it lacking in environmental detail, it’s just…not that eye-catching.

The art does offer some quirkiness–such as faces in the trees. I’m not sure if they’re there for a specific reason, but it’s little things like that that catch the eye and become memorable.

I do enjoy the voice-acting from the old man–he sounds exactly as I figure an older scholar would sound, honestly.

What really stood out to me were the logs you could find that offered a variety of information for you. Now, I’ll say there’s some truth to those logs, but I don’t honestly know if they’re still fictitious or they’re actually giving you knowledge of actual events–maybe stretched a bit. Either way, I like reading about certain backstory when it ties into a game and there’s quite a bit of reading done in all the logs combined.

With all that being said, though…that shack is definitely in bad shape.