Wooden Ocean Reviews

Trump=Murda

Abolutely Breathetaking

thoroughly entertaining in both gameplay and story, and all wrapped up with a compellingly unique art style murda!

Ah Wooden Ocean... I stumbled across this game years ago, and my mind decided to process it as the final boss of RPG Maker games. It looked oddly imposing, with a dark buffeted atmosphere on every screenshot, surreal and often dreamlike visuals and general aesthetics that were at odds with the majority of other games of this kind. I put it off for quite a while, but it was always lingering in the back of my head thinking "hmm, I wonder what that Wooden Ocean game is like". Well, in the last few weeks I decided to dive right in on Hard mode, and see if it was something I could get into. And 76 hours later having made my way to the very end, was it worth it? Was it...murda? (yes, it was murda). Wooden Ocean has you follow the journey of Violet, a witch who is searching for her brother. Along the way, she'll find friends and foes, each wackier than the last, all inside a world with a very strong identity. This doesn't feel like a typical RPG realm for many reasons which become more and more apparent as you progress. And in this realm, a large amount of your gameplay time will be spent exploring it, discovering towns, dungeons, monuments, secrets and oddities, all whilst navigating and adapting to the turn-based combat system, built upon a number of opaque mechanics and irregular systems (sure you can use fire/ice/lightning magic, but how about carbon/silicon/thread magic!?). Wooden Ocean often hits the golden note of RPG system synergy - meaning that it does a great job at making you always feel like you have options, whilst also having seemingly insurmountable walls. The thrill of getting stronger and wanting to revisit those old paths or areas of interest you jotted down 20 hours ago - it's a feeling I always love in games. Playing through it, I had a large notepad file full of areas I'd want to come back to, or general to-do's which I could always reference after I felt like I'd gathered a bit more power. With such a wide range of options to grow your party's strength, it makes just playing the game feel gratifying, like you're always making progress in some way. Whether it be your general party's abilities, some exciting loot you've earned, or the many whimsical buildings that your ghost town will construct and develop over the course of your playthrough, it's a game that feels very well balanced in terms of player options. It does sometimes feel like the world of Wooden Ocean is crumbling beneath the weight of its own engine, and scope. Bugs did pop up, thankfully in my case generally minor but nonetheless noticeable, the main one being buildings disappearing from my ghost town until I re-enter from a certain point. There are also a fair amount of typos and/or grammatical inconsistencies, which bothered me less and less as the game went along. The general dialogue and writing of a lot of NPC's has quite an identity, somewhere between the lines of realistic and overly weird, and whilst I was not too into it initially, I grew to enjoy it and often found humour in many interactions, particularly among the main cast of Violet, Alex and Amelia. I don't feel as though every aspect of the story resonated with me or that I can claim to fully understand it, and in many ways it felt more like an experience than a narrative I was patiently following, although your mileage will definitely vary. It does seem like the world and lore will only grow over time too, so I have to wonder what it may look like a few years (or decades...?) from now. Having finished the game, I already feel somewhat compelled to revisit it and experiment with some things I didn't quite get around to doing on my initial playthrough. I'm also very interested as to how the game will grow in the future, as the rate of updates the game gets seems truly astounding. I can only commend Leif's dedication to his craft - this is a clear passion project and I always appreciate seeing someone devote themselves to their art, whatever it may be. I would struggle giving this a broad recommendation, as I think various elements and the style of the game will not be to everyone's tastes. However, I would encourage at the least for people to keep their eye on the game and give it a try if it keeps eating away at their curiosity. It's quite a unique experience, to say the least. Murda murda.

The game uses AI as a means of commentary; it's only present (to my knowledge) in 1 playable scene that lasts 2 minutes at most, 5 if you chat up every NPC. [i]Be not afraid of the AI slop...[/i] In terms of content, quality, (and even time-to-cost, if you're into that), this game is worth it. After being told off by another guard for yelling at some poor guard, I went to apologize to him and proceeded to spend ~60* hours playing a card game before actually progressing with the game. Between the puzzles, town management and excessive murda, there's lots to do. * - (technically 80 as I lost 20 hours due to not realizing the game could save) Dialogue is fairly campy, but it's actually story-relevant, which I particularly enjoyed. Plus, the characters are endearing/realistic enough that everything felt natural. As other reviews have noted, the story and world at large are a commentary on art as a whole and- yeah, I'm not going to pretend I understand. It's a good story though, with themes that might resonate with more artistically inclined players. I never really understood the concept of a "passion project" until I played this game. The creator is basically updating the game every other week, ranging from gameplay to story. Actually, as of this review, he just added 550 NPCs in an OPTIONAL town you can go to. WHY? WHY IS HE SO DILIGENT??? This game is a live-service RPG Maker game, and I love it all the more for it. Overall, am glad I played it, maybe one day I'll go back and try the aptly named "Infinite Nightmare."