Otherworldly adventure Forgotton Anne launches in May
We've all lost socks to some bizarre interdimensional vortex, but thanks to ThoughLline Games' upcoming 'cinematic adventure' Forgotton Anne, we also know that these lost and mislaid items have their own world, where they've been granted sentience, mobility and (in some cases) snazzy hats, which are probably also sentient. Not all is well in the land of these 'Forgotlings', however. For starters, more things are exploding than usual.
What we're looking at here is a vaguely anime-styled blend of point-and-click and light platforming adventure (think along the lines of The Fall) with players taking on the role of a young woman, Anne. Unlike the average denizens of this strange world, she's very much human, and has somehow fallen into the role of 'enforcer', which from the looks of the trailer below sounds almost Blade Runner-esque. A little bit harsh for a land of magical talking toys and furniture, but then again, some of them have taken to bombing buildings.
Some slightly stiff animation aside, it looks like an impressive package, technically, although the voice acting in the trailer doesn't quite sell me. Then again, most of the clips seem to have been used out of context, which seldom helps, but there's not much emotional resonance there.
What does entice me is the variety of puzzles on show, with screenshots and streamed gameplay (here's an hour without commentary from YouTuber Dawnwhisper) showing a broad mix of platforming, navigational, pipe and power-rerouting puzzles in place of more traditional point-and-click style inventory wrangling. There are also branching dialogues with multiple end-points, although how much they'll alter the outcome of the story is yet to be seen.
Forgotton Anne will be launching on May 15th and is published by Square-Enix as part of their indie incubator collective. You can wishlist it on Steam here. The developers will be demoing it at Rezzed this weekend, which is also where I'll be. With a little luck, I'll be able to try my hand at this while I'm there.