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Hey agora bros. Let's talk about games with soul, at least those of which you consider to embody that trait. Preferably, let's keep it to games with a small budget and development theme, but if you consider that a project from a larger studio just oozes soul, say something like Yakuza, No More Heroes, or Drakengard, that's perfectly fine.
Here's one of my picks:
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa:
A game made by a 30-something ruski with a passion for martial arts and delinquent manga. A passion project above all, developed through years and several iterations until it found its proper voice. It was made on basically no budget, stringing together whatever resources the dev could find. And it turned out amazing despite its limitations. The sprites were made by the dev's boomer dad, the martial art moves were referenced from pictures of the dev performing them, and the soundtrack is an extemely well selected array of royalty free music. Even with these constraints the sublime direction and taste of the developer managed to stitch together a coherent atmosphere and tone for the game.
The gameplay is beat-em up style inspired by river city ransom combined with an open world and some simulation aspects. Besides fighting and progressing the story you need to take care of the protagonist's needs, social life, training, and schoolwork.
The main attractive of it, in my opinion, is that it paints a vivid vignette of the turning point in a man's life where he must conciously abandon his youth. Friends drift away, opportunities and circumstances twist people's lives onto strange directions, and as much as someone may struggle against or try to avoid reality, the comforts of known life have to be dropped at some point and one must step onto the unknown. Even when relying on others for support, the burden of living must be carried alone.
Here's one of my picks:
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa:
A game made by a 30-something ruski with a passion for martial arts and delinquent manga. A passion project above all, developed through years and several iterations until it found its proper voice. It was made on basically no budget, stringing together whatever resources the dev could find. And it turned out amazing despite its limitations. The sprites were made by the dev's boomer dad, the martial art moves were referenced from pictures of the dev performing them, and the soundtrack is an extemely well selected array of royalty free music. Even with these constraints the sublime direction and taste of the developer managed to stitch together a coherent atmosphere and tone for the game.
The gameplay is beat-em up style inspired by river city ransom combined with an open world and some simulation aspects. Besides fighting and progressing the story you need to take care of the protagonist's needs, social life, training, and schoolwork.
The main attractive of it, in my opinion, is that it paints a vivid vignette of the turning point in a man's life where he must conciously abandon his youth. Friends drift away, opportunities and circumstances twist people's lives onto strange directions, and as much as someone may struggle against or try to avoid reality, the comforts of known life have to be dropped at some point and one must step onto the unknown. Even when relying on others for support, the burden of living must be carried alone.
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