AWAY: Journey to the Unexpected
AWAY: Journey to the Unexpected is a love letter to japanese animation made by a two-person team. It invites you to a very unusual journey to a charming and wacky 3D world populated by 2D characters. AWAY is a short light-hearted story mixing action, silly discussions, rogue-lite elements and smashing a bunch of cute creatures to overcome every obstacle in your way. A 3 to 5 hours journey around a colorful world featuring unique visuals, with 2D characters living in a 3D world. Unravel a funny and light-hearted story, with just the right pinch of rogue-lite elements. Recruit up to 8 quirky characters, each with their own unique abilities An anime-themed soundtrack composed by Kazuhiko Naruse and sung by Aya Majiro! “Dear Villagers, we may have released some evil forces while working. Sorry, be safe”, say the Labiworks signs all around.
Game Discussion
Steam User 2
Incredibly underrated game, yes it's simple but the gameplay loop is flawless!
Earthbound mood meets first person dungeoneering is an interesting mix that feels weird at first but ramps up pretty fast and in the end works really well!
My only nitpick is that the game feels very barren for the first hour or so but after that it's smooth sailing.
Pick this up, though!
Steam User 1
A short and sweet game that took just over 3 hours to beat! Really good art style, though the gameplay isn't the most exciting, A bit too easy for me as I'm used to more difficult games, so I ended up having to die over and over again to get the last few achieves! Beat the game on my 3rd full run!
Overall an enjoyable time, but once you've played the game through 1 time, there's no need to play it again!
Steam User 0
READ THE FULL REVIEW (Steam has a word limit) HERE:
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Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
GAMEPLAY
For brevity, I’ll call the game “Away”. “Away” is a first-person adventure game with rogue-lite elements, featuring randomized encounters and dungeons. Controls feature movement, attacking, jumping, and sprinting. The game comprises of levels with enemies to defeat and secret areas to explore, presenting challenges such as… Deciphering damage mechanics.
Players can recruit non-Player Characters (NPCs) with unique attacks, functioning as power-ups. The game incorporates items, chests, coins, and shops, providing a currency system for purchasing helpful items and recruiting the aforementioned NPCs.
The experience leans on exploration and item discovery, although combat feels simple and uninteresting, with a reliance on NPCs and fireworks (as in it is merely visually stimulating). The game requires resets for progression, introducing a reset currency, and also featuring a levelling system (connected to that reset curency).
Despite issues like collision detection and PC weaknesses (making the game a bit sloggy), the game is more enjoyable than not, seeing as it doesn’t drag on and is quite brisk.
2/3
PRESENTATION
"Away" is a game that gets on with it quite quickly, presenting logos and seamlessly integrating the intro with the main menu, thus allowing the Player to jump right into the action. That’s good! The game boasts stylish, anime-inspired visuals, featuring neat environments and peculiar 2D Character sprites… Though the human Chaacters seem off-putting. The story is presented in typical JRPG fashion, utilizing text boxes for dialogue.
While gameplay instructions are generally clear, minor issues like depth perception with enemies and interaction methods arise, though they are easily overlooked. The sound effects and music are decent, inspired by anime (as can be expected). The main “funky” mechanic of Character switching introduces a captivating visual filter. Overall, the game's presentation is fantastic, with only slight exceptions.
3/3
STORY
The Player assumes the role of a Character living with their grandparents, who discovers a mining company causing chaos in the basement. The company's actions are not environmentally frienly an so, armed with a stick and the help of affected individuals, the Player addresses the situation, involving table tennis.
The narrative is nonsensical and, while it serves as a vehicle for the gameplay, it lacks significance or impact, offering minimal choices that do not greatly affect the experience at all.
1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? While it looks fantastic, I have been unconvinced to give it the point, so no, it does not get the Legendary Point. 0/1
CONCLUSION
6/10. A very pretty, and decently entertaining, game. It is a bit tedious to get through, but I’d recommend it to more casual gamers, or I’d suggest getting it for your children (no younger than 7, if you’re letting your kids do anything on a computer and they’re 7 or less years old, you’re doing some silly stuff).
It’s more fit for the bag of mediocrity, yet I feel as though it shines brightly enough to warrant a spot under my belt.
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READ THE FULL REVIEW (Steam has a word limit) HERE:
Steam User 0
Silly lil game. Don't expect much, buy it on sale, and be rewarded a talking frog in a toilet.
Recommended!
Steam User 0
Great little game to play through. Loved it.