That's it

Thanks for looking into this for us, Ana. Good to know what's going on.

Thanks, Marian!

11. course (source)

Thanks, Marian!

I love Joe Abercrombie. I reread his two trilogies last Fall.

Thank you, BET 🙂

Thank you for your thoughts, flotsam! Glad you are enjoying it!

Thank you Drac!

Ana

My impulse is to dive in, but I'll wait for reviews, too, as I'm still entrenched in my current game. Anyway, I need to see if it will play on the Steam Deck as this laptop ain't going to be working any time soon. (if ever....)

Looks good though, but I wonder how much of the original "eurojank" appeal would be lost. That was part of the joy of it, even in more recent games like Elex.

Thanks Ana.

Thanks, Marian!

Forgotlings are all those objects that get lost and are forgotten. I originally came across them in Forgotten Anne, an excellent platforming adventure I reviewed in 2019 (is it really that long ago!). Here they are again, hailing from the same studio and inhabiting the Forgotten Lands, wanting to be remembered.

As the Steam page says "you play as Fig, a once-forgotten posing doll now captain of the sentient lightship Volare. As shadows stir and ancient divisions crack the land, you must soar across windswept skies and forgotten cities, uniting warring tribes before everything unravels."

I am about an hour in and am very much in start-up mode. Fig is not even nearly a captain, not even aware of who he is. We first encounter him seemingly trapped underground, where shadowy things ultimately result in what brought him here flashing before his eyes and sending us back to his beginning.

This first sequence operates as a tutorial for the platforming that presumably awaits. I have jumped, swung, leapt, attacked, crouched, climbed, rolled and bounced off walls. I haven't blocked yet, indicative of more combat to come. That said, I am currently playing on Story Mode, which "makes combat easier so you can focus on the narrative." You can change it at any time in the Options menu (Normal being the other mode) which I will do as I go to see the differences.

As yet it doesn't feel as lush as Forgotten Anne, but it has the same animated aesthetic. Everything is voiced, and the soundtrack is grand. You largely scroll left and right but Fig can at times walk into the background, effectively changing the plane in which he then explores left and right.

You can map the keys to suit, but curiously you won't find that capacity at the initial menu. I assumed it would be in Options, but it isn't. You need to start the story, then hit Esc which will generate a much more detailed menu which includes Controls. It is there you can remap, albeit it's a bit fiddly (you have to unbind already used keys if you want to map them to something else). I do find that in platforming games, comfort with your keys is important.

It saves automatically and while I haven't yet worked out when that happens, the menu will tell you how long it has been since the last save so just play a bit more until it says something like "less than a minute."

If Forgotlings is only nearly as good as Forgotten Anne, it will be an excellent experience. I look forward to what is to come and to telling you about it.