I don’t live in the past. Well, ideally I’d not like to since you can’t find the future in it. Still, tell that to the me that likes to reminisce in my free time about the “good old days” where the internet was a wild west where new things were popping up and we didn’t quite have the structures set up for corporate perverts and cadavers to mine our data and sell it away. It’s that reminiscing that got me to eye up Kinmoku Games’ and porting studio Ratalaika Games’ novel little visual novel-ish adventure title ‘VIDEOVERSE’, a game that explores the time a young man’s time with the final moments of a cherished online networking service built off a 90s-looking handheld device that could not only play games but also featured overlay notifications. Fancy little kit, innit!
VIDEOVERSE has players take on the role of Emmett, a half-German, half-Englishman who lives in Germany and spends precious, precious time on the “Shark”. The Shark is this oddly advanced bit of kit, not only supporting portable play but boasting network connectivity and what I can only assume to be an always-online background service called SharkOS. When Emmett isn’t gaming, he’s browsing the communities on this service which I can only consider to be a mashup of MiiVerse and Omegle where users can chat with one another over video cam but with no audio—only text. For a console that only holds 32MB of RAM, I was wholly impressed. With a better screen, thing thing could’ve ushered in Web 2.0 (where we still call home today, an internet that never left “beta”).
No wonder Emmett was a fan of this thing, especially considering that “Feudal Fantasy” game being exclusive on here and apparently being oh-so good…
(Kinmoku Games/Ratalaika Games)
Players will primarily spend a bulk of their time on SharkOS, with the majority of the game delivered through visual novel scenes and message board posts. As VIDEOVERSE takes place during final weeks of the SharkOS community as the creators of the kit attempt to usher its users to the new “Dolphin” hardware and networking service, the MiiVerse clone is in a bit of a disarray with some users getting up in others’ business with derogatory comments and all-in-all being unpleasant company. Reporting these posts and interacting with the community boards will unlock special events and let Emmett pick unique dialogue options when video chatting with the rest of the cast. But ultimately, it is a linear ride to the end (albeit with a sweet ending).
VIDEOVERSE’s main driving force is easily its visuals and setting. I think a lot of love was poured into building some oddly modern-ish Web 1.0 system while pulling in early 2000s lingo when possible. I certainly appreciated, anyhow, and the visuals were nothing short of spectacularly done—down to the screen flushes and low-frame scene transitions. You could even type anything you wanted into your little status like it was MySpace or something and I couldn’t help but let out a bit of a “squee” there. Don’t tell anyone I said that.
But I think it was the novelty and sadness of a long-used and appreciated service being shuttered and seeing its final days that drove me to complete VIDEOVERSE, rather than its story. I did like the interactions Emmett had with the supporting cast, but it was obvious the main supporting cast member, Vivi, was the focal point of the story. While it was interesting, being able to interact with the rest of the community board members and seeing their stories (I think some of them will come close to home, like those with dysfunctional families) play out, they only went as far as surface-level interactions and I began to lose interest about half-way through as I persisted to close out the Shark’s final days with Vivi.
I do think seeing VIDEOVERSE’s story to the end was quite worth it and in the context of how the narrator delivers the story, it makes sense how everything came to be. That and, well, it was a happy ending that I wasn’t expecting. Left me feeling a bit fuzzy inside and that certainly doesn’t happen on a Sunday at 3AM. I also do quite like seeing Emmett grow from a shy artist to a budding prodigy, particularly when it comes to sharing those works he spends precious hours drawing up. But how that happens is something you need to see for yourself.
(Kinmoku Games/Ratalaika Games)
VIDEOVERSE’s best moments are in its setting rather than its characters and it’s not often I pursue a game to its finale for its setting and premise rather than the overarching narrative. I found it stretches itself a bit too thin with the number of characters and stories that need to be told, but it is a novel story that’s far more accurate to its connection to the ancient interwebs that even the best of authors can’t replicate. For lovers of Web 1.0 and teenager internet goofs. ■
VIDEOVERSE
Played on
PlayStation 5
PROS
- Lovely visual style and artwork.
- Attention to detail with the
CONS
- Character writing wasn't particularly engaging.
