Butterflies Reviews

The game is really fun. *To start, it is worth mentioning that I bought all 3 episodes and played all 3 in order, which is probably the intended way to do it. y'know, story and what not. game was definitely worth the $23 at full price for all 3 for me. The controls and movement definitely take some getting used to, and the tutorial level as well as the map layout of Episode 1 aren't the most conducive for letting the player stretch their legs at first, but Episode 1 was still a fun experience (yes, I've bought and played thru all 3). The game has A LOT of classic Jet Set Radio (and JSR Future) DNA in it's core, just executed differently, like you can wall ride on ANY surface it's kinda wild. However, Episodes 2 and 3 definitely pick up the slack with better designed worlds, missions, some music related collectibles, and some more involved story beats (shout-out to episode 2 for having an absolute BANGER track for the final mission). Speaking of, all 3 episodes have a unique selection of songs, and all of them are honestly great, just sucks that you can't really find the music online anywhere outside of episode 1 on youtube. plus if there is a song you don't personally vibe with, you can just press the select button to switch songs (the music in game is on a permanent shuffle mode, so it'll skip to another random song). Story is kinda light, even in the later episodes - you don't even get an idea of what kind of world your in or why you're going around spraying graffiti until episode 2 for crying out loud. That being said, what's there is fun and enjoyable, i just wish there was more. Gameplay is tricky to tackle. The movement definitely took some getting used to, but once I got to understanding the controls and gameplay quirks, that's when REALLY I started having fun. Every unlockable character (and there are 2 in each episode) has some wildly different stats, so you can get some insane speed and air time with the right character. Graffiti and tagging is.... kinda like a rhythm game?? I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, you spray according to the lines that come up by holding down RT, and the line prompt almost always lines up with the beat of the current song (just gonna assume that's the case, and in that case, i think it's pretty neat). I haven't really tested the local multiplayer outside of one instance with some friends. Even on a Steam Deck outputting to a massive TV the game ran 4 players really well, I think the FPS is capped to 30 for that but it's still impressive honestly, and something I personally appreciate having these days. Graphics are pretty cool. Not much to say here, really. Characters look cool, the game itself looks like an old PS2 game, it looks like a game I could've played growing up. I really dig it. Overall,I like this one. I enjoyed the game enough to 100% all three episodes, and have replayed each several times. The game definitely isn't for everyone, and some people might get motion sickness from playing (camera is a bit wonky at times, definitely happened to me a few times). It's jank and a bit clunky, but it's that good kind of jank that ended up being really fun after leaning the mechanics more. I honestly really wanna see more and hope we get an announcement for episode 4 at some point (haven't heard anything personally). There's a lot more I'd like to say, but I've already said a lot. Give the game a shot if you're looking for a fun and quirky 3D adventure game with some surprising depth.