Day 13 - Octoquest
Platformer, WTF, Shitpost ·
Sam’s Take:
I have done no research yet, but I’m calling my shot: Octoquest is a school project. There’s a lot of drug-based humor so I’m going to guess it’s a college class as opposed to high school. Okay, I’m going to do some googling and see if I can find out this game’s origins. One sec…
Okay after googling, there is actually no information on this game at all, so I’m just saying that I’m correct. Excellent job me!
Octoquest is a clunky platformer with an original NES Zelda overworld, except each temple takes you to a different NES Mario style level.
It’s possible I’m just being an asshole here, but everything from the amateur music, to the constant drug humor, to the parodying of old classics, to implying some deeper narrative as the game goes on for some reason, just screams school project.
It has that lol-random humor of someone who doesn’t give a shit:
But then right after you’ll collect a mushroom and it will try to lore dump about a the story beyond the platforming:
This flip-floppery between who-cares and I-really-care gives off the strong feeling of something a dev wanted to give full focus to, but several times along the way had to say “fuck-it” and just finish. It’s functional, hell it’s even got a fully fleshed out skill tree system, but all the movement feels excessively sticky. Enough effort was put in to create systems, but not enough to make them feel good.
All this combined with the immature attempts at being “trippy” make the funny octopus game oddly lack any personality. When we reviewed Pig, that was obviously someone learning to make a game, but even then, the choose-your-own-adventure style silliness lent that little project a tone that I can remember. I feel like I understand the creator of that game a little bit. The only thing I understand about whoever made this game is they’ve played Zelda, they’ve played Mario, and they are not as funny or clever as they think they are.
Recommend: No
Replay Percentage Chance: 1%
Time Played: 28 Minutes
Skeeter’s Take:
Octopath Traveler wait
Octodad: Dadliest Catch wait
Octogeddon hold up\
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Davey Jones Squidman hmm
Octopath Traveler 2 that’s still not right
Octoquest ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Octoquest is a game I’ve played before. Well, it’s actually two games I’ve played before. It is NES Legend of Zelda, but you are an octopus and the enemies are not Zelda enemies. With the exception of when you go in caves; then it’s NES Super Mario Brothers, but you are an octopus and the enemies are not Super Mario enemies.
Let’s play a couple rounds of spot the difference:
Can you tell me what’s different between these photos? If you said “Octopus” are correct! (I’d give you a couple points if you noticed they moved one of the question mark boxes up and to the right a little bit. Or that they added a sign.)
The problem with Octoquest is that it isn’t an homage to the old NES era of games - it is just a cut and paste of 2 old NES games you’ve probably already played frankensteined together. At that point you may as well play the NES Zelda or NES Super Mario Brothers if that’s the experience you are after. Unfortunately, this feels like a worn down carbon copy. I do feel that the idea could be taken further. If each dungeon took you to a different game in the NES era, I could see there being some appeal. I also think if the game’s levels weren’t a near 1:1 to their influences and had a bit of original design to them, or some neat surprises thrown in, it would have also elevated it. But hey, it’s free?
Recommend: Do you like the Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Brothers? Then I’d say go play those. I can’t really recommend it.
Replay Percentage Chance: 0.5%
Time Played: 20 Minutes
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