I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 30 minutes watching an analysis of Cocoon but I'm glad I did it. Time passed so fast, I didn't even realize the video was just about to end. I really like the game and find it unique but you made me realize how much more special and interesting it is than what I thought. Thanks for the video and I hope you'll do other ones !
The fact they've created a world with dynamic map recursion that the player can manipulate that is so seamless you don't even realise you're doing it until you end up inside green world, holding orange world, with green world nested inside it, is what makes this game special. Not comprehending how interesting this is betrays a complete lack of understanding or appreciation for the complexity of this game's design, which is the whole point of the game, aside from the brilliant visual and aural aesthetics. This game is chronically under-appreciated by the larger gaming audience. Now I understand 'you just don't get it' art critic snobbery.
100%. It was such a unique game with such smooth gameplay and great visuals that just sort of worked, even when it was complicated to wrap your hear around what's really happening and how the devs even did it, or planned out the puzzles. This was one of the best looking games I've played and the freaking models don't even have textures! It was really well done and gradually taught you what you can and cannot do without spelling it out, just like PlayDead games, and I was very impressed.
Spot on with the audio cues!!! I was stuck on a puzzle and when i finally figured it out and started executing it, i got the music playing and thought "they know exactly what im thinking 👀" lol
I have never seen such great and detailed analysis. Not only you capture every aspect of the game and explain it in an interesting way (like the chemistry example) but you also justify your opinion by making great points, which I totally can't agree more. You actually care about each game you review instead of just rushing it and giving it a score, and that shows by the variety of your analysis. Obra Dinn and Cocoon are some of my favorite games, and I'm really suprised you made one on Mirage, just before I was interested in buying it, as a long time AC fan. I'll definitely comment my thoughts on it, as soon as I watch it. Keep growing mate, you deserve a lot more!
Those are some very kind and motivating words, thank you! I'm looking very forward to hearing your thoughts on Mirage, especially as a long-time fan like myself.
I think Tunic does this much better. In case you don't know, in that game you get an old-school Game Guide that's written in a language you don't know and is missing stuff. By progressing, you add context to the guide and understand how things work. You basically unlock knowledge more than you unlock plain old moves. It's not entirely to the point of "Knowledge is power" like Outer Wilds where by knowing where to go and what to do you can completely the game in 10 minutes.
There's a difference between simplicity and elegance. To me, Cocoon's design is elegant, reduced to its essence while stimulating and satisfying. Also, this is a really good video you put out here!
I played Cocoon last month and it always made me think about the lack of a youtube channel where they review the "philosophical/artistic" aspect of games outside the classical conventions of how we usually criticize games. usually when we say "art" people immediately jump to the "graphics" and sometime music and acting, except for very few niche games (Gris, Journey, Limbo, etc..) there are many other "normal" games that has a much deeper artistic/philosophical message that the standard reviewers totally ignore. your channel seems to cover that gap, i hope it continues to grow. [subscribed and notification enabled]
I really don't get the story criticism here. I think trying to put some sort of plot into the game would ultimately detract from the real story it's trying to tell, which is your evolving understanding of the game's world and concepts. The environmental set pieces that imply some sort of history are meant to keep you engaged in understanding the world, not to establish lore. This is just not the right game for some Inside-esque reveal at the end. It would be like wanting more plot in Baba is You.
Your point is valid. What I want to say though is that the way the vague setting was presented felt like it lacked some cohesion. I don't think the game needed an explicit plot with a narrative progression of events outside of the mechanical progression. That's not my point at all. Only that what's on offer feels a bit aimless, especially when the ending cutscene and secret ending have the framing of a story tying itself together.
Great video! I'm also a bit disappointed with the ''story'' of this game. There is a lot to be seen in the worlds of cocoon, but ultimately it all feels disconnected to the story you, the protagonist, go through. I hope you'll make more analysis/critique videos like these in the future, this one was great. Subscribed!
I totally agree, the narrative themes and the interactive themes are pretty different, and it results in the story feeling disconnected. Thanks for the sub! I have plenty more coming.
This is incredibly well done. I finished this game, loved it, and went to RU-vid looking for a deep dive on why it’s great and you absolutely delivered.
In spite of all the comments you've shown, I think the negative feedback and criticism on Cocoon isn't actually about the simplicity of the puzzles. Rather, it's about how it feels. By having the polished and precise design that you mentioned, cocoon guides the player towards the solution in a natural way. As such, nobody ever feels stuck, defeated, like they're smashing their heads against the wall. We've come to strongly associate these feelings with difficult puzzles, which makes it hard to disentangle the two. Whenever I see these comments, what I'm actually seeing is "these puzzles are so elegantly laid out that I never felt challenged despite their complexity". This is obviously some of the highest praise a puzzle game can receive, even if it comes in the shape of crude negative remarks. Yet there's still value to these remarks. What people feel is something like... "now that I've been shown so smoothly how this game operates, I want to indulge in it. Give me something now that makes full use of everything you've taught me, so I can smash my head against it". But because this smooth experience and gradual build-up of understanding is used everywhere, new mechanics are introduced in Cocoon without fully exhausting everything the old mechanics have to offer. Those who say that Cocoon is too simple don't need a harder game. They don't need a less polished, more obscure game. What they need is Cocoon, but with some optional challenges that are clearly communicated to be additional, harder content. At each stage, before moving on to new mechanics, let the player run into an optional brick wall. So that everyone can experience the excitement of feeling stumped and then ultimately prevailing.
You make a really good point. Given that Cocoon took the better part of 6 years to develop for about 3 hours of puzzles, I think the reality is that this kind of very meticulous design doesn't lend itself well to abundant and optional content. But that doesn't change the fact that what you're saying is pretty on the mark.
I'm quite sure most people who say that the puzzles are too easy have played the game for less than an hour. Some puzzles are simple, at first. The whole idea of the game is that you have a few tools and a few rules to keep in mind. These, however, are constantly shuffled around and it's up to you to find the most logical conclusion of how to piece it back together. Some moments were serious head scratchers for me. I got hopelessly stuck twice. When I got the solution I perceived as a true "eureka" moment, because once you understand the governing rule, and after that, how this rule relates to all other rules, only _then_ it becomes simple. And the unstoppable genius comment... yeah that's precisely that. When you enter into the puzzle solving flow the effect is weirdly similar to the frenzy you enter while you play something like Doom Eternal. If you're "fresh" you keep solving puzzle after puzzle because you have all the rules in mind and you're shuffling them around as needed for the context in real time, which is similar to how you constantly change weapons, dodge and perform viscerals in Doom Eternal. Less like puzzle solving and more like "puzzle parkour". My only criticism is that the purple orb is underused. You only truly use it once, and then nevermore. At this point I'm hoping on a sequel.
That's a really cool perspective. Yeah, it's like a flow state of logical puzzle solving. The fact that puzzles blend together so seamlessly helps with that as well.
It always frustrated me how people so rarely saw that the smoothness of the experience was the whole point. You're a space insect in the game. A dung beetle is born knowing how to roll a ball. A spider is born knowing how to spin a web. And we play cocoon hitting idea after idea as if we had always known how these things work.
yeah you're right. The elegance with which the game pulls off teaching you how to play it is pretty astounding, given how conceptually tricky it becomes. I found the 'story' very satisfying, but i agree that it doesn't have a decipherable narrative. Because everything feels so alien--the atmosphere, those giant bug things holding worlds--to me it felt like experiencing some insect-extraterrestrial at work manipulating entire worlds like a set of marbles; i experienced it more like a glimpse into another dimension in which an integral process of Being is unfolding, and less like a narrative in the general sense. I think the final world-hierarchical puzzle is an expression of this: the point is the process of finding the equilibrium of components and functions that make up the Order and interactions of the Worlds, leading to transcendence, and a cyclical process. I'd imagine that the avatar is on his way to becoming one of those big alien-bugs, fighting to organize the worlds, and further transcend.
Really interesting take. I still think a narrative can be alien and vague while still having a stronger sense of cohesion. But I do agree the imprecise nature of it adds to the roleplay of being a creature learning about the world around it based almost entirely on instinct.
Just finished, and yours is by far the best review I found. You are good, I will keep an eye on your channel. I would add my thoughts, but I still need time to process such a piece.
the comparison to Inside is apt - inside is an amazing game, but not really some puzzle masterpiece. The same was true of its equally influential predecessor.
