Terratopia: March of the Demon King
This game is billed like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but to me it felt like Outer Wilds, which was one of my top 10 games of the decade on our podcast we did a while back. Like Outer Wilds, Terratopia: March of the Demon King unfolds slowly, delicately. You will not make it all the way through on your first try – in fact, you won’t even know how long the game will last the first time you play. You won’t fully grasp the mechanics, or the rules of the world, or even how the stats at the bottom of the screen affect the creatures you’ll encounter. But you will be immediately dropped into a fully fleshed-out world that is both small and precise. You’ll meet characters that either need something or can be attacked, and there is only one completely right answer to this puzzle. All the pieces are there for you… if you can just figure out how they fit together.
Despite being made in Pulp, this doesn’t really have that “Pulp game” look like The Keyper or Eyeland or any of the Life’s Too Short games. It has elaborate backgrounds and a first-person view, more like Wizardry-like Under The Tree. (The font might honestly be the only thing that gives it away.) Everything in the game is menu-driven, so you choose to go over there and use this item or that item when prompted. There will be lots of trial-and-error, and the Pulp engine is so snappy that you’ll be able to redo and retry things very quickly. You know how the original Sonic the Hedgehog games didn’t have a save system, but they intentionally designed it so you can speed through the first few levels and get back to the harder later levels quickly? That’s how it is here. You’ll do your best to beat the Demon King, but you won’t quite make it, over and over. But everything is designed in a way that lets you get back to where you were, making minute adjustments, until you figure out exactly what you should do, in what order. You’re juggling time, and equipment, and HP, and everything is interconnected in a way that is very impressive.
There’s a hint system to help you along the way that will update between one playthrough and the next, again like the ship’s computer in Outer Wilds. You’ll discover that some items can be used or traded, but it’s up to you to figure out which is appropriate. You’re only able to accomplish so many tasks in a day, so the game is all about figuring out what is important, what can be skipped, and in what order you should do the actual tasks to best prepare for the Demon King’s approach. You play as the princess, and it’s up to you to save your people.
The first time I played Terratopia, I did run after run for a solid two hours. I couldn’t figure out the last pieces of the puzzle, but I knew I was RIGHT THERE. This is the kind of game you zone out in the shower and think about while staring at the wall as your fingers get wrinkly. Like, “what if I visit the forest BEFORE the vampire instead of after, then I can blah blah blah,” and it’s… it’s the perfect game for someone that wants that out of their games. I took NOTES! I didn’t know if I’d ever figure out the last piece, but luckily the developer put a hint/walkthrough guide on Reddit that is very good at just barely pointing you in the direction you need to go without spoiling it (but you can get it straight up spoiled for you, too, if you’re really stuck!).
I knew Terratopia would be a cool game, because it’s by the people that made Reflections: Nightingale (which is incredible but also incredibly “Maybe Not for You at This Point in Your Life”). I just didn’t know it’d be “zone out while thinking about it the next day” good. I’m glad I stuck with it and got to see the end, because it’s a great ending! Also, the music and sound design, which can easily be an afterthought in any Playdate game, greatly adds to the experience. Overall, just a terrific time on the Playdate, and – if you’re short on cash – it’s Name Your Price on Itch. Worth every penny of the $6 on Catalog, though! And there you can Crank to Buy™, so choose wisely.
(Released November 29, 2024, on Itch as pay-what-you-want, and December 10, 2024, on Catalog for $6.)