Dominic Cichocki

However, this is also where we start to run into issues. A large part of the game’s narrative is music: the characters are musicians, they use their art to express their grief, and the creation of the music box is part of that, too. The central mechanic of the game is to place notes and wind a music box so those notes tell a swan how to get from Point A to Point B. So much involves music, yet it’s clearly not a rhythm game or even interested in music on a practical level.

Over a year ago, I reviewed the horror visual novel Distress, giving it a 9.0/10 and later naming it one of my favorite games of 2018. Though this indie title is still not well known, it was the subject of a successful Kickstarter, and received free DLC for months post-release in service of the niche fanbase that supported it. However, just because its target audience may be smaller than that of a modern AAA title, that doesn’t mean Distress was any easier to make.