I wanted to get a clean 130 games beaten this year, and I figured this one would fit the bill very nicely. I bought this game years ago on sale, but just never got around to playing it. I'd heard it was great, but a pretty heavy game narratively, and I was just never quite in the mood for that kind of thing when I had my Switch hooked up. It took me about 5 hours to play through the English version of the game, and then I spent another 1.5 hours going through and getting all of the collectibles I missed.
The Missing is the story of J.J. and her best friend Emily. They take a trip to the Island of Memories on a vacation, but then their first night there, J.J. suddenly blacks out and wakes up to find Emily gone. She takes her stuffed animal F.K. with her as she runs to search for her missing friend, running from a weird monster here and there, only to be struck by lightning in a field and die. However, after a tortured revival process, she's able to regrow her skin and get back up and keep going. So begins J.J.'s quest to find her save her lost friend. It's a little bit of a spoiler to say so, but The Missing's story is a pretty raw narrative about the difficulties of being transgender. As the story slowly unfurls through text messages you get from F.K. in the present as well as ones from the past from J.J.'s friends and family, you slowly learn more and more about the people her and Emily are. They lay the metaphor on pretty thick, but they also aren't afraid to elevate it up from sub-text to just plain text when they need to. It's a heavy story, but it knows to keep a good balance of tone with the friendly and funny dialogue of the text messages alternating with the more serious ones appropriately. It definitely isn't a story for the squeamish, given all the body horror in it, but for anyone looking to perhaps understand their trans friends and family a little better, The Missing is a pretty good step in that direction, and it's one of my favorite stories I've played this year. (It's also made by Swery, of Deadly Premonition, and it makes a lot more sense after playing this why so many of my friends were SO upset with how virulently transphobic Deadly Premonition 2 was given that The Missing predates it by over a year). The gameplay of The Missing is a puzzle platformer where you as J.J. run, jump, and dismember yourself to get over and through obstacles in your way and solve environmental puzzles. Now this isn't a clean or funny game about it, really. You can't' just pull off body parts like it's a silly zombie game. If you need to throw an object, like an arm, at a box to make it fall down, you need to get J.J. mutilated by taking damage to do it. Getting dismembered to just a head, getting your neck broken to flip gravity 180 degrees, being set on fire, and then healing back to normal at the push of a button are all puzzle elements you'll need to get the hang of to get through The Missing. It's a really well put together puzzle platformer, although while I do appreciate what they do narratively, I do kinda wish that the dismembering or instant healing animations were a little faster so the gameplay loop could be a little quicker. The presentation is really beautiful. The game isn't 2D, it's 2.5D, but everything in the graphics still has this pencil-drawn and painted style to it that I loved. The soundtrack is also excellent, underscoring the action excellently. It especially knows how to use a vocal track well, and that in particular is what had me crying near the start and crying a lot more near the end ^^; Verdict: Highly Recommended. I figured I'd be ending 2021 (the video game part of it anyhow) with a bang with The Missing, and damn if I wasn't right. This is easily one of my favorite games I've played all year. It captures the experience of me and so many of my friends and loved ones so well, it's also easily just one of my new favorite games of this/last generation. If you don't mind a game with a heavy story, this is absolutely a game you should not miss out on.
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AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
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