Nobody Nowhere and Games-As-Anime
Sometimes, all it takes is a great story and some stellar animation work to really make a game sing.
Nobody Nowhere is a fairly short story focused game from a small Chinese dev studio. It doesn't waste time at all, which is something more games should be aiming for. Jumping in with a gorgeous animation sequence on par with the best anime, the scene is set for a sci-fi story you just just know is going to take a dagger to your heart.
A classic 13 episode one shot season of anime is the perfect comparison point for Nobody Nowhere. Concepts and characters come hard and fast, yet nothing is ever overwhelming or confusing. Within minutes of character introductions you understand their position in this narrative, and where motivations are left in mystery, they wrap back in to make complete sense by the end of the story. Here you can trust the creators to lead you on this tale, and know you will be left fully satisfied by the end.
Though the story unfolds all at once and can be experienced all in one sitting, each plot beat does a great job of being it's own little "episode", with satisfying answers and further questions raised, creating excellent pacing throughout the story. There's a lot of different concepts presented to you quite quickly, but it's never too much. It very much feels like NieR Automata is a heavy inspiration, both in concept and in storytelling structure.
The game plays out as a sidescroller primarily, with a few interstitial top down "hacking" sessions breaking up this approach. It brings to mind Sigono's incredible OPUS series, in particular the latest Echo of Starsong. The animation work might be in a completely different style, but that combined with the random tidbits of environmental storytelling gives these characters and the setting an abundance of personality and sense of place.
The translation might be about 95% of the way there - there are a couple of lines that are a bit stiff - but this is by no means a machine translation job. Care and thoughtfulness has clearly gone into every aspect of the creation of this game. It doesn't need the flowery exposition of a veteran industry games writer with 30 years of experience to pack in full on gut punches where it counts.
Tie all of this together along a 2-3 hour runtime, and you have a story well worth the price of a movie admission.