Pointless Actions

I booted this game up expecting a philosophical treatment of a meaningless existence using video game characters, but once again I was wrong. Well, not totally, but the game's title page makes it abundantly clear that this game is first and foremost about comedy, of the off-kilter sort. And this is something it does it well.

I would describe it as a unicorn in the woods- it catches you off guard, elicits an involuntary "wha?", but you can make sense of it being there. The game does a good job of setting up your expectations and messing with them just when you've think you've got a pattern figured out. Further on you will notice a large variety of inside jokes that grow on you within the space of an hour, without feeling forced. The game relies on these heavily, and I found that I couldn't adequately explain most of them without telling someone to just play the game for themselves.
As long as you're performing all your pointless actions, the game should last over 2 hours. Though if you wanted to, you could walk from start to "finish" in less than 5 minutes. I use finish hypothetically, because there is no real end, story, or progression (though there is a point at which there's no new places to explore).

Like a goldfish, on completing most actions the game tends to forget and send you on your way. Base actions are purposely presented in a way that makes them uniform and meaningless. The predominant message format is: "Would you like to your ? If Yes- You ed your ." It's actually a rather unnerving effect, especially where it's clear the creator could easily add an animation, text, or other bonus (like when character is playing a computer game). Just applying this to actions in everyday life would be maddening- "Would you like to go to school? You went to school. Would you like to eat some food? You ate some food. Ultimately condensing to: Would you like to live? You lived." Fortunately (or unfortunately) there are lots of interesting and unexpected events to come upon. Instead of Entirely Pointless Actions, it's more like Pretty Damn Near Pointless Actions. I can assure you, you'll still find yourself wondering "Why am I doing this?" multiple times only to be slightly embarrassed by your answer. There's a lot of randomness in this game that gets you to say things you would never normally say, like:
"Aww, but I wanted to talk to the chicken sitting across the table from the samurai with a basket on his head!"
Or
"Where can I find that book?"

Your primary game-play mechanics are collecting piles of gold littered just about everywhere, baking bread, exchanging items, and catching stray butterflies. Catching butterflies is delightfully hard, as it should be, since you have to predict their movements ahead of time. More than that though, you'll be mashing the z key trying to set off event flags. My hand was getting sore by the time I figured out most every bathtub and cabinet is the same, this coming from a veteran button masher. The game is almost set up like a gallery of common events, exploring every nook to see what people will have to say. As multiple in game signs will inform you, the game is still a work and progress, and mapping becomes progressively less stable (a feature I would recommend keeping in the final game. There could be a reason, story-wise). Yet almost every time I was able to find a way to bypass it and squeeze more value out of the game, which felt oddly satisfying.

Overall, Pointless Actions is a simple game good at what it does, providing a few laughs. There could be more objects to interact with. There is only one aptly chosen soundtrack running throughout the game and default tiles, which is fine, this being a game that does not take itself seriously. The mapping needs some work, but part of the charm comes from the basic, straightforward mapping style. I left the game feeling genuinely surprised that I was able to experience battle, a quest and a game over screen. I'm not gonna give it 5 stars as there was nothing that made a lasting impression, low production values, and it has it's fair share of rough edges. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to squashing more butterflies and getting my 10k from that cheap bastard by the docks.

Notes to Maker: