:: Nil's Fine Game Review
For a while, I have been following this RPG called “Nil’s Fine Game”. A demo was released a few days ago, so I decided today was the perfect time to check it out! But what exactly is Nil’s Fine Game? On a scale of 1 to 10, how fine is it? Nil’s Fine Game is an action-RPG about a mentally ill child learning to communicate developed by tayN and his team. Said child also has to team up with his friend “She” (yes, the pronoun) to take down a false god, too. But first, you have to get some bread for your parents.
One thing I must say about Nil’s Fine Game is that it gets humour right. There’s a lot of silliness in the dialogue, and every gag got me to giggle just a bit. The characters are really distinct, with the clash in personalities making great drama and storytelling. Its writing is similar to Earthbound’s, but with a dash of crudeness.
The battle system is a great change in pace from the standard turn-based getup. Instead of just mashing a button and hoping the HP of the enemy just goes down, you time your attacks with a button prompt, deal the damage, and get dropped into an area to dodge multiple projectiles. Sometimes, there will be a projectile you’ll have to hit to end the mini-game, adding an extra layer of challenge. If you’ve played the Mario & Luigi games, this will be really familiar to you. One thing I love about this system is the amount of control you have. If you’re really good, you can time all of the prompts correctly, and dodge all of the attacks without even loosing a single HP. The feeling of satisfaction when you get a perfect blow and knock down an enemy is what I truly love about the game.
I ran into a couple of minor bugs while playing, like the one shown here, however none game-breaking. One thing I didn’t like however, was the small difficulty spike in some of the enemies. While the game is very balanced, sometimes it can get a little rough on you. However, it’s not really much of a problem since you can figure out their patterns pretty quickly and take them out. There was also a bit of awkwardness in collisions. Despite it all, Nil’s Fine Game is really polished for only being in development for a little over a year.
Nil’s Fine Game is one with a lot of charm, passion, humour, and care and really shows what a few people can do when they put their minds to something. The demo is available for Windows and Macintosh systems, although I’d love to see a GUN/Linux version (please, I know Godot can do itz…). The demo is pretty lengthy and will roughly take you 30-45 minutes to complete. Nil’s Fine Game lives up to its name as being a truly fine game. Make sure to buy the full game when it releases!
