For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of On Your Tail, from Memorable Games and published by Humble Games .
This game knew it was a demo and i enjoyed how it leaned into it. where ever there were invisible walls, the game had something to say. even tho effort had gone into this demo version of the game, it was a little surprising that the title screen didn't have a link to the game's #eShop page to pre-order it.
There isn't too much to do in this demo. i don't think it starts from the beginning of the game, but it's fairly close to it. we're given a short list of things to do and let loose into the world to do them. there's no map and no markers pointing the way. but there's also no time pressure to get things done quick. some areas we couldn't explore because it's a demo, and it wasn't too difficult to find our way.
But the first thing i did was find a guy and talk to them. they offered to be my tour guide, and then preceded to never lead. we had to lead and the guy quipped in now and then with things not too useful or he talked about things we weren't looking at. if it was meant to be a way to introduce us to the town, it didn't work. but it's difficult to know if that's because it's a demo or because that's how it is.
The other thing we had to do was talk to a restaurant owner about a theft. this was far more interesting as it showed of the game's core mechanic. we have a timepiece that lets us look at items in the past. we had to find 3 that had been changed in the past. one we did, we had to put them onto a timeline and watch the crime take place. this may sound complicated but it was surprisingly simple. i failed a few times and there's no punishment for it. it would've been nice if it was clearer what had succeeded and what had failed. especially as this is a demo and i suspect the first time we've done this sorta thing. i expected a bit more of a hands on tutorial for this, or a tutorial via inner monologues.
After we solved that mystery, that seemed to be the end of the demo. and yet it didn't end. so i explored the town and met as many of the people living there as i could. i was wondering how the demo expected us to end it. would it end the demo, treat us to a trailer or screenshots before putting us back at the title screen. or did it expect us to end it by quitting the game. unfortunately i never found out as it crashed and that's where i ended the video.
Overall i had a good time with the demo. it did feel a little rough in places with textures taking a long time to load, and some popping in and out once they did. it also felt a little bare bones at times. i feel much from the background noise and would've preferred a more calm, relaxed, maybe even lo-fi background music instead. there wasn't much life in the town. very few people out and about. whilst i enjoyed the core detective mechanic, i worry that the bits between that may not be as fun or exciting. with the demo being this short and this bereft of content, i just don't know.
So i do recommend people checking out the demo, it's not quite enough for me to say it's an instant whish list or pre-order. but it's well worth checking out reviews and then getting it and it does have some nice ideas and it was a nice time.
