For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of #Guayota , from developers Team Delusion and publisher DearVillagers .
The screenshots on the web eShop page made the dungeons look really cool and that was the main reason why i chose to play it. i also thought the look of the characters was quite interesting and wondered how it would be incorporated into the story and world as a whole.
This demo is rather short and at times it feels like pieces of the story have been cut from it as things don't make too much sense at times. for example, we start on a big boat, and the next thing is we're on the beach with two small boats. at first i thought maybe we're dreaming or ship wrecked, but the other people who have landed are busy working. so did they leave us behind? did they let us rest, and if so why were we on the beach.
Even tho the demo is short, it's full of inconsistences like this that really detract from the story as a whole. we're told our job is to record, and yet the first interesting thing we see on the island we don't record. nor is that something we can initiate ourselves, it's only at specific points the game wants even tho the island is full of new and interesting things we would never have seen before. there are other character interactions too that don't make sense with what they say to us and what they do.
It sticks out a lot as the point of the game is to tell a specific story of the indigenous peoples of the Canary Islands. with the demo as short as it is, i can't say if this carries into the final game, nor can i say if this is specific to the demo. most demos will say that some things are cut to avoid story spoilers, but this demo says nothing.
The gameplay is something worth praising. the graphics are great, it's a stunner on Switch. the areas we visited looked interesting, unique, and clear. then there's the way light moves around the dungeons, too. the controls are tight and simple, and the puzzles were introduced in a way that was simple to understand.
After playing the demo for Guayota i'm left with the impression that it's a fun game to play, but with a forgettable story. it could be described as a good podcast game. if this demo isn't a representation of the final game, then they've failed with it 'cause after playing the demo i'm not interested in getting Guayota. the puzzle side of the game doesn't interest me and with the story being a mess, i'm not interested in that either.
