Journey of the Broken Circle is a new narrative driven platform puzzler from Lovable Hat Cult, out now for PC and Switch.
The game is more of an interactive story, with some beautiful backdrops, some light platform puzzle elements and a delightful voyage of self discovery.
The entire game is designed to be a metaphor for interpersonal relationships, the highs and lows, the fulfilment of feeling complete within a relationship and the sense of insecurity and solitude on the flipside of that coin.
The narrative is well paced in this 4 hour journey. How relatable it is, will of course depend on your personal experiences, but I think it's safe to say most people will be at least a little sympathetic to circles odyssey to become whole.
You play the part of Circle, except he's not quite a circle, more pacman looking, as he has a part missing in the shape of a small triangle. He longs to be complete and is searching for that something, or someone who can make him whole.
Without giving away the story, circle does find things to fill the gap in his life, but this in turn leads to other dilemmas, forcing circle's self reflections to reveal more aspects of his personality along his existential journey.
Visually the game is simplistically beautiful, the minimalist approach to the backdrops and level design serve only to accentuate the gorgeous overall appearance of the game. The synthwave musical score marries with the aesthetic perfectly to create a relaxing atmosphere in which to enjoy the adventure.
There is some platforming to be done and some very simple puzzle elements, nothing that would hold anyone back from completing the story.
The only real difficulty to surmount, comes from occasional inconsistencies of the controls and game physics. Circle can be a little finicky to control in certain parts of the game. This can be frustrating as you can see exactly what needs to be done, but circle just doesn't respond in the way you'd expect him to or the way he should. However this really only happened a handful of times and wasn't anything that would detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.
Journey of the Broken Circle is a really pleasant, short game. The characters and situations are all quite relatable and it deals with the subject matter in a very well balanced way. I'm not sure that it will have you reflecting on your own life and pursuit of happiness, but its a very enjoyable experience that plays out well.
Journey of the Broken Circle is available now on Steam and Nintendo eShop priced $10.
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