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Welcome back to Describing the Skybox! Today, as our first episode in Mystery May, we’re going to be talking about Fez, a now shockingly 14 year old game. Fez is a puzzle platformer, emphasis on the puzzle, but not a complete dis-emphasis on the platformer, in which you move around on a 2D plane, but have the ability to rotate the play area, adding a bit of 3D thinking as well as some perspective-based puzzles to work through. This carries the game surprisingly well, with it feeling very clever but also surprisingly intuitive. Along the way, there are numerous hints and secrets to find which could lead players to an ultimate secret about the world of the game, but are more often than not just additional collectibles to pick up. This cleverness and emphasis on secrets in the exploration are both the game’s strengths and its weaknesses, as it does create an atmosphere that makes you want to explore, bolstered by the fun, cartoony art direction, but also asks a lot of the player to even get from place to place. Navigating can be a little stilted as your destinations aren’t clear and exits to each zone are not necessarily immediately visible with multiple angles to look through. If you’re looking for a fun, light, platformer game, don’t be fooled by the game’s visuals and presentation, but if you want to dedicate some time, Fez does feel like a kind of pioneering game in the indie space.
Thank you for joining us again this week! Fez has been on the list about as long as we’ve been doing the podcast, so we thank the Mystery May die for finally pushing us into doing it. Fez is such a hot and cold game, emblematic of the indie scene at the time it came out, with equal parts misguided ambition as well as genuinely clever design. Did you fall down the Fez rabbit hole when it came out, or did you bounce off of it? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord server! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Dreams, the game development software slash game browser for the Playstation 4, so we hope you’ll join us then!