PEGBRJE: Vision Soft Reset and The Müll Littoral
Time and space seem so bendy today.
Vision Soft Reset is a futuristic Metroidvania made by Mark Radocy, a Tools Programmer and indie developer out of Massachusetts. Players follow Oracle, a peculiar robotic individual that contains an organic lifeform within, and their companion Wally. Oracle is tasked with scouting out this science facility on a foreign planet while uncovering what may be going wrong with the Endoplanetary Shield. Thankfully, Oracle has a few tricks up their sleeve, all thanks to their namesake: the ability to see time as not a fact, but as a bendable object.
At it’s core, Vision Soft Reset is an homage to the core of Metroidvanias, something that I’ve been slowly learning about as the bundle has introduced me to many different variations on what the genre means. Players are given a simple set of controls to fire their weaponry, run and jump through each area, shooting down enemies to avoid taking damage and figuring out which path to take. Levels are purposefully designed to ensure that players cannot get to certain regions of the map without certain abilities, but rarely give explicit instructions on where to get those abilities or where to go next. The point is to explore the maps and learn, after all.
Where Vision Soft Reset begins to bend the rules is with Oracle’s inherent ability to see the future. All enemies will have silhouettes that indicate their future movements and attacks, giving players the ability to ‘predict’ their movements and dodge projectiles with ease. It removes a lot of the possible frustration that can occur when players are attempting jumps and suddenly an attack comes through that they hadn’t seen before, but this does open up to some brain bending overthinking, which I was definitely guilty of. The attempt to dodge, but in reality I dodged the silhouette and got hit by the projectile. Never fear, because Oracle’s second ability is to rewind time itself. Some may have seen this from Braid, the puzzle platformer using time rewinding, to which it is very similar. Players have a meter at the top that is used to rewind time back to the previous spot Oracle was in to redo a certain instance, like reversing back to avoid missing a jump. This bar can be refilled at checkpoints or by collecting triangles that can be dropped by enemies or at boss encounters, so using this mechanic sparing is important unless one ends up with no rewind powers left.
This bridges into the most intriguing mechanic that Oracle has in their arsenal; rewinding timelines completely. Every checkpoint Oracle reaches is not only a save point for Oracle to return to on death, but also a save point in time itself. Players can teleport to these checkpoint locations, but in reality they are actually rewinding or forwarding time to exact moment in time when they used the checkpoint. This can lead to bizarre time-bending in which players can gain information from 10–15 minutes in the future to return to a checkpoint and input the commands as if they knew it all along. Wally makes a comment on this ability, as he too is effected by the time rewind; the only thing that is retained is the information that Oracle gains. This means that any health upgrades picked up along the way? Gone, players will have to recollect them. This mechanic is so interesting to me, having players split up their actual timelines into multiple instances to solve puzzles and maneuver throughout the map, gaining information how to solve prior puzzles without the world state seemingly changing at all.
Vision Soft Reset takes a solid foundation, and instead of just sprinkling on a simple time-bending mechanic it treats players to a full-on multiple timeline shenanigan. Thankfully information is retained, explained that power-ups are simply accessing abilities Oracle already had, but the fact that I can actively lose health upgrades is so interesting to me. This alone makes it worth trying out to anyone that enjoys Metroidvania titles, and is a fantastic example of expanding on an already established mechanic to make it their own. If this sounds like something you’d like to give a whirl, then let the timelines begin.
The Müll Littoral is a point and click narrative adventure made by Librarium Studios, a solo indie dev, illustrator and web comic artist out of the USA. Players follow the story of Juul, an individual who sits by the ocean watching it endlessly, only to be informed by a strange person named Glasswalker that their mind has been tainted, cursed by something that cannot be understood. Upon confirming this utilizing a spyglass, Juul and Glasswalker set off on a journey to see if there is a treatment for her curse, even if it isn’t in a conventional way.
In a gameplay sense, The Müll Littoral follows Juul’s attempts to overcome challenges along the way after interactions with Glasswalker and the surrounding surrealist world she has found herself in. After the narration fades, a challenge arises with some context based on the events prior, and it is up to Juul to use the Awe Lens to discover a sequence of events that will save the day. These little event puzzles are reminiscent of point and click adventure puzzles, where clicking on certain items will trigger events, and they need to be clicked in a certain order to have these events align with the solution. The difference is that the Awe Lens allows for Juul to peer into the very essence of the interactables before the need to interact with them, learning of their backstory and what they may be capable of. These objects can be creatures that reside in this dream world, or simple aspects of the landscape that may be altered if something happens to them, like a pile of snow that moves upon a small nudge. Some of these puzzles were a lot more difficult to understand the sequence, but thankfully there were hints to assist during mytime of confusion. These events occur all thanks to Juul’s special ‘abilities’ linked to empathy, explained more fully throughout the adventure between the two.
Which leads to the main heart of The Müll Littoral, the narrative; a tale of overcoming a curse to the mind. I’ll keep spoilers to a minimum, but I will say that it deals with many elements that revolve around mental health and the internal struggle many go through, so those that may be a tad uncomfortable with these themes or wish not to have anything spoiled may skip to the end.
As players progress, they learn more about this curse that afflicts Juul, not only through her interactions but through the conversations and reactions between both Juul and Glasswalker. She suffers from many things, but the primary focus is on her anxiety and it’s ability to utterly consume one’s life. Juul’s mind curse is not one of the supernatural, but is on display as a supernatural entity to match with the aesthetic of a dreamlike surrealist state. Her constant yet unintentional desire to simply stay by the ocean until Glasswalker arrives is not just for show, and slowly as the game evolves players learn more and more about her debilitating struggles to cope. While my anxiety has never been to the paralyzing extent of hers, having lived with someone that has had similar experiences I can empathize with not only Juul’s situation, but also Glasswalker. They truly wish to assist their friend, but there is no guidebook to helping another’s health. Sometimes, all one can offer is a shoulder and an ear.
I wasn’t expecting a trip down this road today, nor was I expecting page 10 to be so relentless, but The Müll Littoral is not to be underestimated. Along with it’s gorgeous visuals and intricate soundtrack, it tells a simple yet meaningful tale of attempting to come to terms with one’s mental health. Not to mention the multiple endings that can decide the future of Juul’s life and health. If you are looking for an engaging story with a heartfelt message wrapped in a metaphorical dreamlike state, then this is one to try.
Also…
Oh god I wish.
