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Don't ask questions, just... just go with it.

When your title screen consists of a big pixelated zombie head, with the three menu choices being Blood, Blood, and, my favorite, Blood, with the tinny Final Fantasy theme music playing in the background, you might find that whatever expectations you had going in will be deformed just a bit. Like they just got Brundleflied with something else, something the exact opposite of what you thought this was going to be. Also, I've read that that Final Fantasy music is also the default tune for one of the older RPG Maker programs, the one this one was made one, I guess.

What is Space Funeral anyway? Well it has nothing to do with outer space, and there aren't any funerals, but you do find healing spots in the form of coffins with, what, yourself in them? Honestly if this game is about anything, then it is very well-hidden. John Clowder titles, as strange as their landscapes may be, make it clear what themes they touch on. Yume Nikki, a game as opaque as that, is also very much about, well, dreams, and mostly nightmares, and the painful things of your past that caused them, and caused the situation your character is in in the real world. There is no such sense to make out in Space Funeral.

As far as one can tell, you are Philip, a persistently sad person who cries as he walks. Why is he so sad? Who knows. Maybe because he looks like a pajama'd Charlie Brown if he had even more physical deformities besides an oversized head. I'd be a sadsack too. All the graphics are custom-made with appropriately crude MS Paint-like stylizations, but they're also vibrant with color too. Everywhere are gory, giant corpse/zombie heads protruding from the ground. Actually, skulls, bones, blood, all litter the game's landscapes. Meanwhile you interact with an assortment of colorful characters, most of which have nothing meaningful to say, but they are at least funny. Enemy encounters are even more colorful. Enemies can range from mildly creepy, weird to just plain hilarious. One thing they all have in common is that none of the fights are particularly difficult, like, at all. In fact despite all the items and magic abilities you gain as you level up on the way you'll probably use almost none of them. Everything can be taken down just that easily. Oh, yes, eventually you meet Leg Horse, a horse without a head but still manages to be well-spoken more than most in the game. He also claims to be a prince and needs to save his kingdom (I think?). Once that's over with the game goes back to where it was, on the path through the kind of wildernesses you usually will find in these games, if they were twisted and perverted beyond recognition. Really, the sense you get from playing this whole game is that the planet you inhabit is one of flesh and blood, and it happens to be dead, and you're just walking all over its corpse. Despite the surface morbidity though, the game is surprisingly lighthearted and silly than anything. I mean, just look at some of the enemies and bosses you encounter. The King of Crime, anyone?

And let's talk about another highlight, the music. None of it is original music but rather a series of old, obscure psychedelia by artists not likely to sue or threaten to take down LPs of on YouTube for infringement (not that that'll stop YouTube from doing so). One I actually recognized, the beginning song by Les Rallizes Denudes, an artist I was surprised anyone outside of Rate Your Music actually cared about. They're a Japanese group from the 70s who never recorded an album, just did live shows, all of which are bootlegged since they never cared about recording or releasing material themselves. Very mellow, long tunes with a "heavy" feedback sound to them. (they have a song that's basically a slowed-down version of "I Will Follow Him," at least in its main chords and melody - really!) Also they, or at least a couple members were militant leftists and hijacked a plane. Nobody was hurt, but still. Interesting choice of music there. There's also some delightful stuff from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and one area covered entirely in red with some spooky spoken-word recording running, the one true "horror" area in the entire game probably. Some other stuff too. Nice, overall!

This game may very well be a parody of RPGs and their tropes, as judged by the environments as I've said, and the ending. Oh, the ending. It may have given me the biggest guffaw of the entire game. So simple yet so amazing and biting at the same time. It would be criminal to give it away, but it gives better context as to what the otherwise strange and seemingly random game may be about. But seeing how it's such a silly thing, it's nothing to overthink. Indeed, this is not a game that takes its gameplay seriously, seeing how it's too easily and quickly completed to make use of the ridiculous powers you're given at every level, so really, it's a game to breeze through, explore, and enjoy the scenery. Talk to the man who'll take you to the pyramid. Have a talk with Dracula about how amazing weed is. Flail your arms about environments filled with colors both florid and morbid (Morbid Florist? Hm, I'd wonder how an AxC song would sound in this or the creator's next project). Take in the perfect tipping scale of comedy and horror (more comedy really). Just take it all in, period. Oh and that also includes the awesome music chosen for both battles and battle victories, I forgot to mention those. Just awesome.

Now here's hoping the game's creator will go on to make a game called "Bloody Headland" and it'll actually be about a procession of the deceased taking place on board a station located within the cosmic wilderness.