So I wasn't really gonna do a Bugsnax impressions thread because I felt like the title (free on PS5) was kind of a throw-away little game. A charming, but still throw-away game.
However after beating the shit out of Demon's Souls, I needed something a bit on the easy side and Bugsnax was certainly there for me. If you don't remember Bugsnax was the weird game that was revealed during the PS5 presentation in which a bunch of bugs that where also foods ran around a Chuckee Cheese robot animals ate them, and then their bodies parts changed into food, and nobody really had any clue what the fuck this thing was supposed to be.
Well it turns out, that Bugsnax is an existential melodrama wrapped up in the package of a strange Pokemon game. You play a Journalist looking to do an interview with a famous explorer, only problem is that explorer went missing on her latest adventure. Everyone know's where she went, but nobody has bothered to go looking for her, so you insist that you want this interview so bad that you'll go to a potentially crazy, dangerous island to try and bring this lady back.
The moment you get to this island you crash (because video game law states that any vehicle in the opening scene must crash), and boom your are on Bugsnax island. The game begins and you are immediately recruited by part of the missing expedition team to capture Bugsnax, thus the Pokemon game about foodbugs can begin.
The core gameplay is divided into two parts, interviewing the missing members of the expedition team with the ultimate goal of finding the famous explorer lady (who is still missing on the island and all the residents have no idea what happened), and the finding/cataloging/capturing of bugsnax. The gameplay loop remains mostly the same for the first opening hours of the game and from what I've heard it stays this way
You need to get all the Grumpus' (that's the "people" of this world) back to the little town they made for themselves, but they all scattered about the island when the explorer lady vanished. So the main goal is to get all of the Grumpus' back to town, interview them, and find the explorer. The way this is done varies slightly from person to person but ultimately you find them on some part of the island, they'll give you a quest that has something to do with cataloging, capturing, or capturing AND feeding your caught Bugsnax to the Grumpus in question. Once you satisfy them they will go back to the village where you can interview them and not only get to know them but also get a lead of where the next missing Grumpus might be hiding out.
Sounds simple enough right? Well two things make this a bit different than your run of the mill Pokemon/collect-a-thon game. Firstly is that the Grumpus all have very dramatic real-world issues that they are dealing with and through getting Bugsnax or whatever task for them, you help them work whatever their issues are. And some of these stories are really adult, not in an adult way but they deal with things like identity and depression that would go over most kids' heads. Secondly the catching of the Bugsnax all require a different sort of puzzle to it, none are particularly hard, but there are so many different puzzles it can be hard to remember how to catch each Bugsnax, or even figure it out in the first place.
The catching of the game's namesake is the most annoying part of the game, because every single one has some sort of puzzle element to it and once you are a few hours in, the novelty of that wears off to the point of being fucking annoying. However the overall story and the characters in the game are really rather interesting, and what comes off as a dopey kid's game actually goes quite a bit deeper than you would expect.
The experience itself is short 7-10 hours depending on how completionist you want to be. And honestly I probably wouldn't recommend you getting this game unless you can get it for $15, or less.
If you have PSplus the game IS free for the PS5 which you can claim to your account even if you don't have a Ps5 yet. And free is a fantastic price or this game because I do think it's worth playing, if only for the novelty and the surprisingly deep story. Just don't expect your gameplay desires to be all that satisfied.
However after beating the shit out of Demon's Souls, I needed something a bit on the easy side and Bugsnax was certainly there for me. If you don't remember Bugsnax was the weird game that was revealed during the PS5 presentation in which a bunch of bugs that where also foods ran around a Chuckee Cheese robot animals ate them, and then their bodies parts changed into food, and nobody really had any clue what the fuck this thing was supposed to be.
Well it turns out, that Bugsnax is an existential melodrama wrapped up in the package of a strange Pokemon game. You play a Journalist looking to do an interview with a famous explorer, only problem is that explorer went missing on her latest adventure. Everyone know's where she went, but nobody has bothered to go looking for her, so you insist that you want this interview so bad that you'll go to a potentially crazy, dangerous island to try and bring this lady back.
The moment you get to this island you crash (because video game law states that any vehicle in the opening scene must crash), and boom your are on Bugsnax island. The game begins and you are immediately recruited by part of the missing expedition team to capture Bugsnax, thus the Pokemon game about foodbugs can begin.
The core gameplay is divided into two parts, interviewing the missing members of the expedition team with the ultimate goal of finding the famous explorer lady (who is still missing on the island and all the residents have no idea what happened), and the finding/cataloging/capturing of bugsnax. The gameplay loop remains mostly the same for the first opening hours of the game and from what I've heard it stays this way
You need to get all the Grumpus' (that's the "people" of this world) back to the little town they made for themselves, but they all scattered about the island when the explorer lady vanished. So the main goal is to get all of the Grumpus' back to town, interview them, and find the explorer. The way this is done varies slightly from person to person but ultimately you find them on some part of the island, they'll give you a quest that has something to do with cataloging, capturing, or capturing AND feeding your caught Bugsnax to the Grumpus in question. Once you satisfy them they will go back to the village where you can interview them and not only get to know them but also get a lead of where the next missing Grumpus might be hiding out.
Sounds simple enough right? Well two things make this a bit different than your run of the mill Pokemon/collect-a-thon game. Firstly is that the Grumpus all have very dramatic real-world issues that they are dealing with and through getting Bugsnax or whatever task for them, you help them work whatever their issues are. And some of these stories are really adult, not in an adult way but they deal with things like identity and depression that would go over most kids' heads. Secondly the catching of the Bugsnax all require a different sort of puzzle to it, none are particularly hard, but there are so many different puzzles it can be hard to remember how to catch each Bugsnax, or even figure it out in the first place.
The catching of the game's namesake is the most annoying part of the game, because every single one has some sort of puzzle element to it and once you are a few hours in, the novelty of that wears off to the point of being fucking annoying. However the overall story and the characters in the game are really rather interesting, and what comes off as a dopey kid's game actually goes quite a bit deeper than you would expect.
The experience itself is short 7-10 hours depending on how completionist you want to be. And honestly I probably wouldn't recommend you getting this game unless you can get it for $15, or less.
If you have PSplus the game IS free for the PS5 which you can claim to your account even if you don't have a Ps5 yet. And free is a fantastic price or this game because I do think it's worth playing, if only for the novelty and the surprisingly deep story. Just don't expect your gameplay desires to be all that satisfied.
