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Murasaki Baby |OT| Purple is the strangest colour

D

daydream

Banned
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Murasaki Baby tells the story of a little girl who wakes up in a weird world, populated by children’s fantasies and fears.
Holding a purple, heart-shaped balloon in her hand, she feels lost, homesick and vulnerable. She wants her mommy.​


Release Date: [US] September 16, 2014; [EU] September 17, 2014; [JP] September 25, 2014
Platform: Playstation Vita (PSN only)
Price: [US] $14,99/$11,99 (PS+ discount); [EU] €9,99/£7,99 - €7,99/£6,39 (PS+ discount) - FREE DEMO AVAILABLE (BUT CURRENTLY PULLED)
Size: 320 MB
Developer: Ovosonico (@ovosonico), published by SCEE
Homepage: murasakigame.com

What kind of game is this?

A touch-based sidescrolling horror adventure experience. The main gameplay revolves around front and back touch. You manipulate objects in the environment while changing the mood of the world by swiping in different backgrounds using the PS Vita's back touch functionality. You can read more about this here (and check out some gifs!).

Who made this game?

An Italian-based studio called Ovosonico, this is their debut title. However, they are not alone on this. Studio founder (and Grasshopper/Suda 51 veteran) Massimo Guarini directed the projected with XDEV Europe also lending a helping a hand.

Where do I recognise this artstyle from and who is responsible for the soundtrack?

Tim Burton as well as the artist Edward Gorey have been cited as main inspirations for the visual design. The soundtrack is by Ovosonico Music Producer and Co-Founder, Gianni Ricciardi. However, Akira Yamaoka, best known for his seminal sound work on the Silent Hill series, also contributed a music track.

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VIDEOS:

Gameplay Overview
E3 2014 Gameplay Demo
Meet The Studio

REVIEWS:

Eurogamer - 8/10 said:
Played with earphones, no distractions and in a single sitting, Murasaki Baby proves engaging and compelling, its brevity and variety leaving you wanting more. There are no hidden collectables or alternate routes through the game and yet its uniqueness is enough to draw you back for a second playthrough, if only to confirm that it's as weird as you remember it. Yes, the touch controls sometimes work against it and, like Baby, the game occasionally stumbles over its own feet, but for the most part it walks the fine line between the weird and the wonderful with aplomb. (Full review)
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Digital Chumps - 8/10 said:
Putting narrative above challenge must have been a tough decision, but it's one that Ovosonico made with engaging confidence. Murasaki Baby doesn't have any menus or overt exposition. It doesn't even have a pause option. The relative ease of its flow is a deliberate decision to trust the player to march onward. Complexity doesn't arrive from a safe navigation from A to B, but rather putting enough pieces together to interpret the severity of a tragic narrative. Murasaki Baby won't necessarily test your reflexes or your brain with the depth and precision of other games in more evident genres, but its assemblage of disparate genres wields its own special power. Whether it's through Baby's endearing conduct or the raw anxiety bleeding from those she encounters, it's hard for Murasaki Baby not to make some sort of meaningful connection with the player. (Full review)
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Kotaku - YES said:
Baby calls for Mommy a lot. It's the only intelligible thing she says. The repeated keening is as disturbing as Baby's waking up without her in the first place. Even in a broad, darkly comedic game like this, the idea that both of a child's parental units have up and disappeared for no defined reason—leaving Baby to wander through an extremely dangerous world—is disturbing. The game's world doesn't look anything like ours but the sense of danger still resonates. (Full review)
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Lazygamer - 9/10

Hardcore Gamer - 4.5/5

VGNetwork Italy - 8.5/10

Pocket Gamer - 8/10

Games Rader - 4/5

IGN Italy - 7.9/10

Gamespot - 7/10

The Sixth Axis - 7/10

Digital Spy - 3/5

Joypad Denmark - 6/10

Push Square - 3/10

Without further ado, let the nightmare begin!

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I

IcyEyes

Member
I will not wait any impressions or reviews. The art alone sold me this game, so it's a straight day one for me!
 
K

KyleCross

Member
This wasn't on my radar until a month or so ago when I found out the director of Shadows of the DAMNED (a title I often credit (falsely?) to Suda and Mikami) is doing it. I want this.
 
G

get2sammyb

Member
I found it infuriating beyond belief, but apparently I'm on my own. Oh well, hope you guys enjoy it more than I did - but hopefully you find some value in my review, too.

Murasaki Baby is a textbook example of style over substance. The game’s twisted fantasy world certainly looks the part, but its touch-based puzzles are the real nightmare at times. There are some clever moments here, but they’re undone by atrocious controls. Nobody puts Baby in a corner – but on this evidence, perhaps they should.
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http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/psnvita/murasaki_baby
 
D

daydream

Banned
Thanks guys, I'm adding every score to the OP (while doing a bit of editorialising so some reviews will feature choice quotes).
 
Castef

Castef

Banned
IGN Italy review is up, here.
Title: Motherly Instinct
Rating: 7.9/10.0
"A short yet fascinating experience, loaded with personality and creativity, with a good art direction. Yet, not fully impressive".
 
G

get2sammyb

Member
sarcoa said:
I didn't have much trouble with the touchscreen stuff, but I totally get your point of view. Out of curiosity, do you play a lot of phone/tablet/touch games?
Click to expand...

Honestly, not really. My bigger issue here isn't the use of touch, though, but the way that it's implemented. The character stumbles and tries to drag against your leadership, which I understand is supposed to convey her reluctance - but it just ended up irritating me. By the end, I found myself playing Twister with the Vita trying to solve puzzles as it mixes so many different input methods.

I think a game like Tearaway fused all of these things brilliantly, but it's clunky here.
 
H

Hanmik

Member
get2sammyb said:
I found it infuriating beyond belief, but apparently I'm on my own. Oh well, hope you guys enjoy it more than I did - but hopefully you find some value in my review, too.



http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/psnvita/murasaki_baby
Click to expand...

You had the same problems as me.. and I can relate to ALOT in your review.. but I scored it a bit higher..

Regarding glitches.,. I had a review copy, so this might be fixed in the retail copy. But I had some very strange glitches last night.. One time I couldn´t complete a level because I fell down to a platform without completing a puzzle, so I had to restart that level.
And on my last playthrough (which lasted just above 1 hour) I kept getting this VERY annoying message that the game can´t autosave. So on top of fiddling around with Murasaki and her ballon, I also had to cancel a message on my screen every minute.

And yes I dropped my Vita 3 times during the last level, and I got my fingers tangled up in the headset cord,,. nice,, (luckily I was playing in my bed, so the Vita didn´t break)
 
K

KimonoNoNo

Member
Am I missing something about the complaints of the lack of a pause option?
It's a vita game just hit the PS button and it's instantly paused, hit start and you're back in.
 
H

Hanmik

Member
KimonoNoNo said:
Am I missing something about the complaints of the lack of a pause option?
It's a vita game just hit the PS button and it's instantly paused, hit start and you're back in.
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who complained about that..? the game is only 2 hours long, so why would you pause..? and yes you can always pause the game with the PS button.
 
P

Portman

Member
I have been excited for this one since it was shown off. Even though I was out of work this month I got a $20 PSN card just for this. Just waiting for it to hit the store now.
 
K

KimonoNoNo

Member
Hanmik said:
who complained about that..? the game is only 2 hours long, so why would you pause..? and yes you can always pause the game with the PS button.
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It was noted in Kotaku's little summary infographic as a minus and I just thought it was rather stupid thing to mention for a vita game.
 
Omnipunctual Godot

Omnipunctual Godot

Gold Member
Ugh...it's between this and Minecraft for me. Never played Minecraft before, but I think the Akira Yamaoka soundtrack may drive me over the edge.
 
down 2 orth

down 2 orth

Member
KimonoNoNo said:
It was noted in Kotaku's little summary infographic as a minus and I just thought it was rather stupid thing to mention for a vita game.
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Honestly, I don't think Evan knew about the pause feature on the vita, because why else would anyone state that not being able to pause a vita game is a detriment? There's two easy ways to pause any game on a vita, and vita gamers tend to learn that pretty quickly.

Ah well. We all make mistakes and that one's not much of a biggie.
 
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