9.2 hours played
Written 5 months ago
I learned about this game through the Kaiji subreddit. I was interested to try out an indie game based around the series. After finishing a playthrough, I walked away with extremely mixed feelings. In many ways, I think this game successfully encapsulates the spirit of indie games, both the pros and cons.
On the one hand, this game has an impressive amount of care and passion put into it. Despite the simple art style, the game goes above and beyond when it comes to the animation quality. It's got so many moments that made me think: "They didn't have to add all these animations, but doing so added more charm to the game." The game also didn't disappoint in the game mechanics aspect. As a game designed around gambling, it would have been easy for the dev to simply use the familiar mechanics of something like blackjack or poker and create a story-heavy experience with cookie-cutter gameplay. Instead, the game came up with its own flavor of poker to create an experience unique to this game, and they didn't stop there. One game acts as the "centerpiece" for the core of the gameplay, with additional smaller gambles also being involved. The variety on display is remarkable.
The one aspect I wasn't expecting to leave an impression was the story. While the characters and world didn't grab me from the start, this was the type of story where I felt attached to everyone by the end, which is a good sign when dealing with a game where some of them might not make it to the end. The story does a decent job of raising the stakes over the course of the story and making you feel the weight of the lives of you and your loved ones in the gameplay. The game does a great job at making you think twice about going all in when running out of chips means your sister dies.
Nothing about the game feels like it was tested through a focus group. It really does feel like the passion project of an individual making what they want to make. And that's where the game's biggest strengths and weaknesses lie. While the story and gameplay are completely unique, they can also be quite unrefined at times. Sometimes the game feels too easy while other times it feels frustratingly unfair. The game does not hold your hand when it comes to the explaining the finer mechanics of the game. It took me several games before I realized you could hit the sub-menu button to bring up a player's bio so you can read what the status effects and special skills do. I almost missed the fact that the game has equipment stores that let you change your party's equipment. If I hadn't bought one by accident, I would have been playing at a much bigger disadvantage since the upgrades are so useful.
This is the kind of game I would recommend playing blind. I played the game blind myself and found it quite immersive to take the gambling seriously. Since I didn't know what was going to happen, it made the character deaths and survival that much more significant. If you're interested in a unique experience, I would recommend simply playing the game yourself and not reading the following spoiler text. The pros definitely outweigh the bad.
[spoiler]Most of my mixed feelings come from the game's ending. I have to commend the writer for making such a truly contemptible villain and stealing away your protagonist privilege to face them in a brutally unfair death match. By removing your ability to save, you are given one chance to play a perfect round of poker against an opponent stronger than anyone you've faced up to that point. Usually the best strategy is to stack up all your chips into a single player, but anyone that runs out of chips here instantly dies. Never have I felt a game more effectively convey despair and hopelessness than in that final battle, though perhaps other players managed to get the true Kaiji experience of watching that despair turn into hope. Even though it is wholly unsatisfying to have the game end unfinished in defeat, in some ways it feels like playing another playthrough would ruin the story. I think the bad ending where the villain wins helped me to understand what the story was trying to convey. When you lose to the final boss, it's hard not to feel like you were cheated by the game. But then you remember that the entire game is about cheating at poker. Whether the game cheated or you cheated, it doesn't change the fact that you lost. Though it is perhaps a cynical lesson to take away, pointing out the unfairness of your situation doesn't save you from it. There is no power in pity if your opponent doesn't pity you. Just as they say in Kaiji, the only way to survive is to win.[/spoiler]
