Difficult to remain insensitive to the first images of Minute of Islands. A trailer and a few words from the editor were enough to convince me to try the narrative puzzle-platformer from Fizbin studio (already at work on the very nice - and aging - The Inner World) which puts us in the shoes of Mo, a young mechanic sailing aboard her tub to repair her dying world. A trip worth living? Undoubtedly, despite a few hiccups in form.
Robots are a little scary... but are the guarantors of life on the planet
The story of Minute of Islands is rather agreed, since we will direct a heroine who, surprised, must save the world. To do this, she will have to rely on her Omni-Switch, a magic stick allowing her to perform a number of actions. The starting island serves as an introduction to the story, featuring giant robots that are slowly dying out. The concern being that these same robots are the guarantors of life on this planet and that, without them, a yellow gas spreads and kills all forms of life. We will therefore have to go to various islands to find the 4 robots, infuse them with energy and thus continue to sustain life. Nothing very original therefore, except for the themes addressed which are quite heavy and will put our protagonist to the test, by living and reliving past traumas.
It's a bit gloomy, and it denotes a bit with its fabulous graphic style. Everything is painted by hand, and the studio knows how to make each painting magnificent, admirably mixing shimmering drawings with a gloomy aspect, as soon as you get close to a robot. I was afraid at the beginning that certain "creepy" passages were just there for form, but, in the end, it reinforces the idea of a credible and intelligently constructed universe. My only small regret, after the fact, is related to the gameplay phases. Without being bad, these last ones are a little too summary and off-putting, which took me out of the work at a few moments.
We will sail from island to island using this boat
Minute of Islands doesn't invent anything, and that's not what we're asking of him anyway. However, it does not seek to be interesting either. As said above, this is a puzzle-platformer, but the game fails to shine on these two points. The platform aspect is classic, and the various puzzles and puzzles will never keep you guessing for more than a few minutes. Perhaps it is the studio's desire to make the game a bit boring, to better make us experience the daily life of this mechanic! But it doesn't really take, unfortunately, and "complex tasks" are illustrated by pressing several keys on the keyboard simultaneously. Yeah, we will have seen better...
As you will have understood, the Fizbin studio game is more of a narrative adventure than a puzzle-platformer. It's far from being a drama as it is, its artistic direction is simply irreproachable, its story can be followed without displeasure and the game is short enough to avoid that we pick up along the way. However, it would have benefited from having more in-depth gameplay and more complex puzzles to be a must-have. A good adventure then, but not as significant as hoped.
