Unbeatable, for me

We all have our limits, that goes without saying. There never seems to be enough hours in the day, never enough days in the year… never enough chips in the bag. Listen, we all have our battles, some more important than others. Deciding what games to enjoy in our free time can have its own set of struggles. 

Time management is a learned skill and boy am I a slow learner. There are so many incredible works of art and engaging unique experiences in gaming already, the seemingly daily new release can be overwhelming. With all this variety it’s difficult deciding how to navigate the vast sea of options. Feeling regretful for time spent is a terrible feeling, and one I strive to avoid. This likely being a major contributing factor for my effort cataloging and tracking what media I experience.

One of the more complex aspects of working through my backlog is deciding if I need to make the often difficult choice and put a title down. Some decisions to drop a title are easier than others. Generally if a title just isn’t hitting for me after a few hours, or if the majority of my time with it is not enjoyable I don’t feel at all bad about dropping. When the time spent is a mixture is where it gets tricky. Especially if the good comes and goes. 

Unbeatable, the debut title from indie developer D-CELL GAMES, is a multi-genre, VN adjacent, rhythm game focused romp of non-stop color and banging tunes. A little bit Scott Pilgrim, a little bit anime, and maybe a touch of Jet Set Radio. It’s covered from head to toe in compelling art, bombastic character designs, miles of attitude and a soundtrack that absolutely hits. I’m no rhythm game pro but the songs seemed pretty well mapped in the sections where they’re needed.

While I have many positive things to say about this title, unfortunately the negatives weighed so heavily on my experience with it I’ve made the decision leave it unfinished.

It’s truly a unique game and I can see that the devs have some really interesting idea and a lot of great and important things to say. The story attempts to bring in a lot of crucial and relevant topics to the forefront. However it’s the execution of the story specifically that has pushed me from seeing it’s conclusion. For every one moment of great compelling narrative beat there were a dozen clunky, slow, disjointed, nothing moments on either side of it. As much as I want the great moments I mentioned to pull ahead, I fear the negatives are just too much for me to enjoy. 

So instead of pushing through to what I’m told is the last few sections, I’ve decided to put this title down at least until I’m in a better space for it. I love a lot of what it’s trying to do but the combination of the bugs and jump-cut story telling is too much for me to get invested enough to finish. Issues with dialogue overlapping, both intentional and moments where it’s clearly a bug were jarring and broke up the pacing of several scenes. Throughout the story and chapter changes the sense of time passing was very difficult to parse, making me feel disconnected from the flow of the narrative. I was almost always waiting for the game to answer questions it began posing from the very beginning. Very few were answered, dozens more questions were added to the pile.

<Beat saying exactly how I feel after 8-10 hours of gameplay>

I don’t want anyone to think I’m just listing the faults and focusing on the detracting moments. I can tell there are aspects of this story that are absolutely for me. The execution of it however is not one I am engaging with. 

I’m trying to use this example to explore the concept of a sort of “On hold… for now” idea. Not writing off a title completely based on a narrow window of experiencing it. Not the most novel idea I concede, but given a lot of my gaming focus is on smaller scale more focused independent games I think it’s worth figuring out the best method of engaging with these titles.

I really look forward to when I’m in a better space to pick it up, and hopefully some of the dialogue/pacing issues are addressed or maybe I’ll like them next time. Who knows, we’re all changing every day. My taste may well change next time I come around. All the love in the world to D-CELL GAMES, you clearly are doing the things you want and I want nothing more than for you to pursue your own visions.

So for now, Unbeatable will be just that…. for me.

<Until next time>