System Erasure’s Zeroranger was a game that came out of nowhere and clotheslined my attention so hard I forgot what CrossCode was after years of eagerly following its development and even getting to try the demo in person. So when they announced their second game, I was incredibly stoked for it even if block puzzles aren’t exactly my favorite thing. I just had a feeling that if those guys took a swing at sokoban, they would make The Sokoban for Me.
[Disclaimer: the last one I remember really getting into was either Lolo or Amazing Tater.]
I’m happy to say that yes, Void Stranger is good! It takes a very basic set of mechanics (suck up and set down tiles, shove object) and introduces new enemies and obstacles at a pretty satisfying rate, and every so often it doles out story in surprising amounts for what it is. I feel like maybe that’s not the most positive phrasing I could give it, but I do mean it as a good thing. See, while Zeroranger had a story, it was a shmup first and weaved its story segments into two or three main dumps with a lot of visual hinting. It also did some clever little fourth wall breaks, doing a good job of teasing the player’s mind into wandering. What did this mean? What if I don’t pick up weapons? Can I get out of doing this stupid Undertale battle for fucks sake? Void Stranger does the same but has more time to unpack things and flesh its characters and story. It encourages you to take naps, or think a minute when you feel stuck. Other times, it uh, doesn’t!
It’s a difficult game to talk about without heavily spoiling things, since the cool parts are either going to give away puzzle solutions or just say what happens story wise. I’ve only gotten one of the endings so far, and it was hardly a good one so I went right back into a second run. Even just laying out “You are the caretaker of a princess presumably trying to find her” takes a little mystique out of the opening sequence of “serious woman jumps in perfectly square hole.” One of the great things is just hearing what’s gone different for other friends I’ve had playing through it, there seem to be a lot of secrets and alternate paths to see. For instance, there’s an early game obstacle someone said they got past using a sword, but they wondered how anyone could get past it if they didn’t get the sword because it’s easily missable, so I told them what I did seeing as how I didn’t get the sword!
My only real complaint is kind of a nitpick and mostly a problem when streaming, when in the Void state and stopping for a rest, the game actually closes itself when you fall asleep and needs to be relaunched. That kind of thing always hits me as ‘cute’ but not really helping my immersion or anything, especially if the game isn’t pulling some kind of fourth wall creepypasta fuckery to go with it- hold on a sec
ok yeah nothing seems especially off and if the spreadsheet data means anything I am far too peanut butter brained to interpret it. (splash.png is just the title graphic)
My only other gripe is that you can’t just change facing without taking a step, but the puzzles are designed around it, so it kind of falls into the same territory as getting mad at chess because bishops can only move diagonally. Way back when I played Knights in the Nightmare, something either dawned on me or broke inside my head and I realized it’s kind of dumb to get mad at a game for not having the same rules as another game, and when you start playing on their terms, it can be pretty fun! Or you still hate it, but you hate it for what it is. That said, yeah, it is kind of aggravating when you’re *so close* to a solution but you can’t just turn left without stepping into the bottomless void.
Apologies for keeping this one kind of vague, but Void Stranger really is something you have to try out if you have the chance. It’s only $11.99 USD normally and if Zeroranger is any indicator, you’ll probably have lots of opportunities to catch it on sale. System Erasure is 2 for 2 in my book and I’ll be eagerly awaiting to see what they do next. But what comes after shmups and puzzle games…?
