unbeatable thoughts..?

unbeatable is a game i enjoy and am severely frustrated by at the same time. at its best, it has a very strong overall message about identity and asking the question of: why do you make things? why do you create? what drives you?

it's a nice message, even if it's one i've personally internalized already. it's one that might not resonate with everyone, and as a result unbeatable lands or misses depending on that. it's not a bad place to be in, it just means the overall story might not be everyone's cup of tea. and that's fine! i'd say it's just life. nothing's perfect.

at its worst, this game is rife with pacing issues and utter confusion and extremely janky minigames that unbeatable would've been better without.

(seriously i spent WAY too long on the graffiti minigames)

i picked this up on recommendation from a friend after he played a favorite game of mine. i figured it was equivalent exchange, and i'd give his game a shot. fast forward and i genuinely spent the first three chapters baffled he recommended this to me at all. the main rhythm sections were fun and i liked the music but i had absolutely no idea what was going on. chapter one starts and throws you right into things with no explanation. i think that's fine, so long as you get a better feel as the story goes on.

except, you kind of don't. chapter two has awful pacing, which bounces between immediately throwing you into things without a breath or monotonous minigames that overstay their welcome. i didn't even know if i was doing the work one right, and the baseball one was extremely challenging when i had characters trying to talk to me at the same time.

(chapter two starts and immediately jumpcuts you into prison)

and it's sad! because i think this game has something to say and when it gets there by the middle of chapter four, when beat is pulling herself away from her friends, it really started to grab me. but that's midway through four out of six chapters total that it finally got me.

unbeatable has a strong conclusion, even if it's more abstract than concrete. i still enjoyed the imagery and i just had fun playing it! but it's start is its biggest hurdle and i cannot say i enjoyed those early chapters at all. maybe i'm being harsh on the third one, but the antagonists aren't really anything and they're why it's still missing the mark for me.

i like this game, but it's hard to throw at people. in the first three chapters it's one of the most unenjoyable games i've played and in the last three it's one of the best. i see a lot of people walk away from it saying it changed their lives forever, and i see just as many that give up on chapter two.

i guess i fall in the middle. i only pushed myself through because i wanted to payback my friend and because the music is genuinely good! but the story itself did not get me up until the end, and even at that end it is still very unclear and unexplained. i'm a vibes guy, so i rolled with it, but it's hard to tell someone: 'hey! play this game that's all vibes and doesn't really tell you what's up,' you know?

my thoughts are i enjoyed this and i'm ultimately glad i stuck through it, but it's a game i don't know if i could wholeheartedly recommend to someone at the end of the day.