Les Visiteurs Dans L'Espace

This review is for the IGMC 2014 version.

Les visiteurs dans l'espace (Visitors in space, for those of you who never suffered through French) is a short game, as are the majority of the IGMC entries, running at a little over an hour by my last save. The intro opens with little preamble, a self absorbed musing confession of sorts from Magus Lin, one of the four player characters followed by the rapid introduction of the other three, Tyrell, Dirk and Alexis. All four are from disparate regions of their home world and in the case of two of them from conflicting allegiances as well, and as is soon discovered none of them know where they are or how they got there. Thus their quest to discover who brought them and for what reason begins.


...and you do say, twice in fact.

Music is custom, with a small but eclectic mix of tracks, most notably from Rayspark Industries and Scott Vallance. The vibe is predominantly techno which does blend well with the futuristic setting and graphics.

The tile, sprites and face sets are all the default but the battlers are custom, and a bit of work has gone into them, they are interesting and creative, it's just a shame the default 'swirly' battle-back detracts from the image. The developer states he borrowed heavily from the generous amount of content provided in the recent RPGVX Humble Bundle, so I'm assuming the battlers are sourced from the resources made available in that bundle.


Mushroom men, they're such fungi's.

Monsters are visible and avoidable, but they do re-spawn if you exit and re-enter an area, so grinding is an option if that is your style of game play. I would suggest doing a bit of it as the first boss you run into does have some high damage attacks. In addition skills are not learned via the level up process but by the application of Skill Points and these are earned at the conclusion of each battle. So in order to gain more abilities, you must engage in more battles.

The battle system itself is the classic turn based with the added twist of the removal of the 'Attack' command, leaving offensive capabilities firmly in the Magic and Technical regions. Every offensive move costs MP or TP and the guard ability not only reduces damage taken it also regenerates 5 TP per round, which is vital in order to continue applying damage to the enemy. The only exception to this rule is Alexis's default attack; which though listed under the technical flag costs no TP and can therefore be used freely. In an interesting narrative twist Tyrell is a healer who has sworn the vow of Pasa, a complete ban on dealing ANY damage for any reason, so he has no offensive capabilities at all.

I quite like the dynamic of a healer that is actually just that, not a paladin who fights but also heals, not a druid who can call upon the forces of nature to damage and also heals but a straight down the line character whose only purpose is the protection and restoration of their allies health and adheres to the oath of Primum non nocere. Though in the case of Tyrell, he's got a very short fuse and an almost violent temper when it comes to his homeland, which makes the choice of refraining from physically harming Lin, who works for the enemies of his people, both fascinating and narratively consistent.

Save is always on, a plus for me, but given the brevity and limited arena of the game, it's not a vital addition, still as always, it's appreciated. In addition heal-all points are interspersed throughout the game, which fully restores HP/MP and removes any status aliments.

Some of the fun of the game is the classic fish-out-of-water syndrome. None of the characters have any idea where they are and the situation in which they find themselves is completely alien to their usual surroundings. The player however recognises everyday objects like computers, flushing toilets and air conditioners and it makes for some amusing moments.


We call that a rubbish bin, dear.

Actually humour is also an element in this game. The characters display some distinct personality traits and as previously mentioned two of them; Magus Lin and Tyrell of the House of Pasamena are from opposing sides in an unseen war on their home world. Tyrell as befits someone of a religious class feels strongly about the atrocities that are always a part of any war and fixates on Lin as a combatant on the side of the enemy for his self-righteous enmity. Lin on the other hand is more of a pragmatic consultant than a career soldier and is snarky and sarcastic to boot. This leads to some fun interactions as Tyrell insults and belittles her calling and her home; whilst she simply takes every opportunity she can to make snide remarks and observations to prick his hide.


Not enough, I'm afraid.

All of this was a bit of a lark and if it had continued in this vein I would have thought the hour or so I played time reasonable well spent on an average but not unlikeable game, but the final scene is quite honesty a let-down. It's a major break of the fourth wall in a game that until that point had been internally consistent, and in fact had relied on the player/character break for some of its humour. It's also rather depressing and a little insulting to both the player's motivation and intelligence. I came away from the 'final reveal' not with a feeling of enforced reality but more the idea that the developer couldn't think of a way to tie together the mystery he'd created in the game so he decided to just throw his hands up and walk away with a couple of dime-store nihilist philosophical statements tossed behind him as he left. I may be wrong and this was the developer's intent from the beginning, if so then it poses the question of why bother at all? If the intent was to deliver a message about the transient nature of reality then it wasn't delivered well, with little exploration of the issues bandied about in that final scene.

If you want to enjoy the game given the premise the developer has promoted, then I'd suggest finishing the final battle but F12'ing before the dénouement, you're not going to get any answers and you may just end up feeling miffed at being taken for a ride, not a journey.


But when you get to the end, give up.