Aspire: Ina's Tale has just released onto PC, Switch and Xbox. Developed by Polish developers Untold Tales it's a puzzle platformer that essentially tells a fantasy version of the Matrix.
You play the part of the eponymous Ina, who is trapped inside a living tower, that feeds on the dreams of it's victims trapped within. Ina has awoken from her slumber and now must find a way to escape the tower.
Aspire is bitter sweet....
On the one hand it is beautiful, it has that handmade look that blurs the lines between art and entertainment. It looks stunning. Gorgeous backdrops with cutout animated characters and some nice digital effects all blended seemlesy together. The music too is instantly striking, a beautiful piano centric track, a perfect fit for the environments as it's beats and crescendos seem to have been perfectly orchestrated to follow your movements.
Then on the other hand, there are it's glaring gameplay issues. Ina herself controls well enough but just won't turn to face the other direction on the spot, you have to move in the opposite direction to make her turn which is incredibly frustrating when trying to position her during the puzzle sections.
The puzzles too are frustrating, rather than being cerebral in nature, they are all pretty obvious as to what needs to be done. Then you have a lot of trial and error, trying to position blocks and ropes in the correct places so you can traverse. This again it's very annoying, having to keep adjusting parts ever do slightly and retrying.
Then we have the respawn points. While these are fairly plentiful, they fall meat short of respecting your time, often with you having to re clear obstacles to get back to where you died
My time with Ina was like being trapped in an abusive relationship. I'd happily be drinking in the environments, story and music, when poor puzzle design or a shitty respawn would slap me in the face with frustration. After I'd overcome the tiresome task, Ina would once again wow me with breathtaking visuals and promise me it would never happen again.
This went on for about 3 hours until a respawn point was to just too far away from where I died. I quit the game in a final bout of exasperation and uninstalled it.... The cycle of abuse was broken.
Overall Aspire: Ina's Tale is a really nice game as long as you have bags of patience. For the easily irked however, it's an easy pass. Given the visuals and music I also found it quite seasonal and festive.
However for the majority of us, poor puzzle design and uncharitable respawns make for a tedious and infuriating experience.
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