Kairo

[Bruno de Figueiredo]

(Please forgive me if this isn't the proper section of the forum in which to post this topic.)

After having purchased Locked Door Puzzle's Kairo a few days ago, I finally was able to complete it. I'm considering whether or not I should write about it, though in its benefit I would like to hear other opinions from anyone who has given it a good look. I ask because it was featured on the Notgames home page for quite a long time, which led me to believe this would be the appropriate place to start a new discussion. Thank you.

[Tyler Snell]

I thought it was excellent. The first game I've actually finished in a long time.
It has it's flaws. It felt like it could've used some more playtesting. It seemed like it was intended to be pretty modular, but there were a couple puzzle sequences that would've made a lot more sense if I had done them in a certain order. Some puzzles felt pretty contrived, and I got annoyed with a fair amount, but then I don't usually like puzzle games.

Overall I thought it had a great feel to it. I loved the feeling of things being set into motion around you. My favorite parts were There was one puzzle that I actually solved on accident, which at first annoyed me, but I really liked it. Overall, it put me a more interesting spot than just "beat the puzzles and win". It was more about encountering puzzles and setting things into motion. I love that feeling of unknowing. Just moving through the spaces and puzzles, big things seem to be happening, but you have absolutely no idea what.

The visual aesthetic worked really well, I want to see more stuff like this (i.e. unique 3d-based aesthetics rather than retro-nostalgia 2d and realistic 3d). The world felt like it had purpose and history, even though it was completely foreign.

I liked the way it treated the player character. None of that "you wake up in a strange world and don't know how you got there", it's just you, exploring this world. Worked perfectly in this context.

Spoiler:
Not sure how I felt about the non-abstracted stuff near the end. The skeleton, then birds and animals. I thought the birds appearing was really cool, but it cast a "real-world" shadow on it that I don't think I liked. It added some mystery, but simultaneously ruined the enigmatic nature of it. I think I would have preferred it to remain completely foreign and abstract.

[Michaël Samyn]

I love how Kairo allows me to explore a lot of areas without needing to solve hard puzzles. But the world starts feeling empty after a while (in terms of content and atmosphere more so than space). I guess the puzzles are supposed to fill that gap. But I have no interest in solving puzzles.

[Bruno de Figueiredo]

It's strange that you mention content since that is what I was looking for the most. So far, all I have read about it seems to be descriptive instead of interpretative, and Kairo truly strikes me as a game where very little is left to chance. I wanted to hear from someone who has also endured its puzzles and had any ideas as to what Kairo means as a statement. I'm not very certain about the sense I made of it.