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Cannibal not saving his friends

  • Kylaila
  • 08/14/2014 03:39 AM
  • 458 views
"pup" is described as a "cannibalistic adventure", you run around trying to acquire your body parts with the help of your friends.

You are encountered with your "healthy" self, who urges you to get to his state - and thus you set out to find your body parts. You don't know why you ever left them, why can live and walk without them or why your bodyparts are buried, hidden or on other animals, but you can get them there and you will.

It reminds me in many ways of Pen Pals. Pen Pals was a buggy, odd game with distance atmosphere, but managed to deliver the mood and the game's message splendidly.
Pup is similarily buggy game; with ripped, but good music, creating a similar atmosphere, but with no punchline.
It is quite poor technically, certain events repeat, the areas change seemingly randomly, soundeffects are non-existant, music playing only half of the time and the mapping is bare minimum most of the time. The later parts were much better already, though.

It has a theme behind it, but it never comes to fruition. However, it was not possible for me to get the good ending, so I might miss something vital here.

There's plenty of customizations, see the sprites, the character portraits and the tiles.
It is a nice touch to have simple, cute drawn scenes inbetween. Yet they don't really fit moodwise and don't creaty any tension or atmosphere. (perhaps also due to them not having sound behind them).
The writing is .. basic, out of context most of the time, and without any capital letter. I don't know whether this is a stylisic choice, but it certainly did not add anything to the game.

The gameplay is neither rewarding nor interesting, there is no real world to explore as you just travel to one destination at a time by car.
There is a chase scene inbetween for no real reason..and without any impact. You can get some fruit and "gems" without any use or purpose.

And while this game certainly aimed to reward the player with the story and atmosphere, this part is lacking as well. We are thrown into it with no intoduction aside the "go find your limbs!". And the hints the world gives are not coherent.

The pictures are cute, to be certain. So are your characters (aside from pup, perhaps), and your menus (which have an light blue-pink mix) yet the attempt is to screw this up - and while violence is the means for this endeavor, is the general atmosphere is rather melancholic and disconnected. While I realize that fears (and depression as well) which seem to be weaved into this game can motivate violence just as well, is the step between these feelings missing.
Melancholic violence with cute happy faces, humour and chase scenes is too much.
As for the chase scene.. being chased in a single corrider, but being fine in snooping around the rest of the house.. that .. makes no sense whatsoever.

The settings seem as random. Yes, there are Naruto-references among other ones, but it does not make any sense to you. Your friend does not seem like a ninja, an assasin or anything of the like, either. Or is he truly trapped by ninjas? Who knows. No way to know.
There is a group of cult enemies who can instantly kill you. Whyever you should have the fear to be instakilled in this world, when it is not perceived as dangerous - I assume a certain fear and danger component has been attempted to implement here, but it does not succeed. It's just a random death. Not more.

There has been some humour inbetween as well, and while I appreciate it, it does not add anything to the game. The themes and their presentation do not guide towards a humorous, lighthearted game.


I want it.

As you can see, there are far too many directions here. If anything, give us a transition!
There was an attempt to have a cuddly atmosphere at first, and then break it. But there was no change in music, and not even soundeffects to accompany it. Do not forget about soundeffects! Violence without soundeffects cannot be properly portraited in games like these. Visually, you are just being touched. Nothing more. It's a logical disconnection to die without any visible or audiable indication at all (not talking about "this guy might kill you"-lines beforehand here)

And for the game it is, these are much more important than dialogue lines! An atmospheric game does not rely on text alone to create its meaning.
The only transition is unfortunately made by logic flaws, and didn't really work.

Why did you not have to kill your first friends? Why did they have your body parts anyhow? Did they try to lay you to rest?
Since you didn't have to kill your first two friends - and didn't see them being killed - why are they suddenly dead without us noticing?
Why in the world would others know you're coming when the others haven't seen you or are dead - and when you're going straight from one place to another?
Why would they kill themselves instead of fleeing?
What role does the bad boyfriend/family member whatever who chased you play?


You have no real motivation to go about your journey, as you - having your body parts or not - can walk, talk and go about your day just fine. Nobody was even bewildered by your appearance. Nor your violence. Which - due to the lack of sound and music - didn't come through very well. You see it, sure, but you do not feel anything of it.

There are some odd NPCs to find. They are much more interesting than your friends. In fact, they are - aside from the music - the most enjoyable part of this journey, although they play no role whatsoever. But even then do we observe awkward compliments, unfriendly fellows and death-foreseeing horses.


Always these doomsayers..

The music is not driving you either, it's disconnecting you. Yet the story played on decisions that should be heartfelt by the player - such as harming your friends, personal fears and suicide. Or should be viewed indifferently as to dive into this state of mind yourself. In which case the killing part didn't make any sense.
The atmosphere really reminded me of Pen Pals, and while it worked for the themes that were employed there, it doesn't work for the violent matters which occur in pup.

I really like these kind of games, but pup falls very short on what it could be.
While there is certainly potential, the current game offers neither story nor gameplay rewards whatsoever.
The artwork is certainly a nice touch, but artwork does not make a game. I do hope the good ending somehow wraps it up to a more coherent experience, but I highly doubt it. I couldn't think of an ending which would make sense, either.
There are no sounds, no music half of the time, no coherent story, no likeable friends (except the dragon, which is merely a NPC).

The music is nice to listen to should it play. But that is it.
There is no value in playing it as it is.