Overmorrow, the debut release from solo developer PixelMant, manages to be philosophically interesting, evocatively written, visually distinct, and lovingly crafted. Still, the idea of ​​replaying it – which you’ll effectively have to do by design – is a tall order, and therein lies the unfortunate problem with this otherwise commendable first indie effort.
When we reported on Overmorrow’s central mechanism of deleting a player’s save data after 30 days in-game, the comments section was full of discussion about the merits of such a game design. A player’s time is precious, and holding the sword of Damocles over data storage is one of the most provocative decisions a developer can make.
Overmorrow takes you to a seemingly deserted island with 30 days to uncover its secrets before all progress is reset to zero. You gain elemental magic spells that manipulate the environment and are essential for solving puzzles and progressing. But spells can be cast in very limited amounts each day and can only be renewed after a night’s rest by the campfire.
Each passing day brings you closer to the impending doom of Overmorrow, a salvific wipe that serves as a metaphor for the transience of life itself. The play’s suggestive writing is full of fleeting themes that add meaning to the play keep death in mind. Certainly, there is beauty in Overmorrow’s message and inspirations. With a unique triangular mosaic art style, nothing else looks quite like it. As each day passes, headstones appear in the picturesque cemetery, making us think of those who lie below. But the hard truth is that a game like this lives or dies on its fundamentals of gameplay, and there are fundamental problems here.
Chief among them is that the launch of version 1.0.0 of the game contains a bug that prevents the completion of the campaign. The developer is aware of this issue and a fix is ​​on the way. While we weren’t able to finish the story as a result, we saw the lion’s share and spent a lot of time with it to form a clear opinion. We spent up to four hours on each of our playthroughs to see everything, but the game can be completed in one to two hours if you know what you’re doing.
Time loops appear in games like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Outer Wilds, and Minit, each requiring a different way of managing your actions over a set amount of time. Common to these recognized degrees is the risk of wasting time and losing progress while retaining knowledge gained from previous loops. A solid foundation is essential in such games.
While Overmorrow draws strong inspiration from these mechanics, its unguided exploration suffers from flawed design choices that require a trial-and-error approach to solving many puzzles. There are limited options to actually solve its often cryptic puzzles and a lot opportunities for wrongful deaths or accidental entries.
Chances of beating the game on initial unguided play are zero. Apart from a short linear section at the beginning that introduces you to the use of magic, there is little explanation of objectives or hinting. The first few obstacles to progress are not clearly stated at all, and we discovered the solutions mostly by accident. From the start, you can explore the island to find magic crystals that increase your daily allotment of spells, which are granted by holding the shoulder button and pressing either “A”, “B”, “Y” or “X”. Overmorrow doesn’t always clearly specify which button each elemental magic is tied to, which created a lot of unnecessary initial confusion for us.
It doesn’t help that the game’s abstract art style often makes it difficult to discern which elemental magic to use in any given situation, often leading to mis-spending resources and a day wasted. As a result, the initial sense of discovery soon gives way to an all-consuming frustration, which detracts from the overall experience.
There were also many times when we questioned whether something was a bug or a design element on purpose. Traversing a forest of poisonous mushrooms is supposed to kill you in the first place, but we were able to brute force our way through using pockets on the map, which didn’t seem like an intended or elegant way to proceed.
Once we collected all of our basic elemental magic and got a clearer idea of ​​what the game expected of us, we were able to hit the ground running and quickly open up new areas of the island, as well as puzzle-filled dungeons and hidden areas. Overmorrow is best when you are able to explore without too much guessing or friction. It’s designed for multiple playthroughs, with the initial run being one of discovery and failure over time, and subsequent runs becoming easier with retained knowledge. But such a design is based on the idea that the game is compelling enough for you want to do it all over again. Overmorrow assumes too much of you.
As we got further down the rabbit hole on our second playthrough, the novelty of traversing its world and solving its puzzles again wore off and became a chore. Save-wiping can be a compelling thematic and metaphorical tool, but gameplay-wise it felt like too much of a hindrance, especially given the game’s broader lack of direction.
In the second half of Overmorrow, a brief physical contact with obstacles like black holes, jellyfish, or falling into lava after making the wrong control input on a narrow dungeon path costs you an entire day. In theory, one could still have a few days left before saving and not have enough magic to complete the game at all, which is a real hurdle. There is no timer on days in the game, which lasts until you return to the campfire with your magic depleted or succumb to damage from any of the aforementioned threats.
The soundtrack for Overmorrow was composed by Canadian singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie, who worked on the acclaimed Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. His music certainly builds on the atmosphere of the game’s various environments, though you can expect to hear the same tune on loop if you get stuck on a particular puzzle. The game’s sound design can be a little choppy at times, especially in the mushroom forest area, where a discordant melody can suddenly cut in and out depending on where you’re going, which felt unrefined.
While the framerate often didn’t drop noticeably, we did experience at least one crash and two glitches that required a restart: one involved the player character clipping into a wall and getting stuck there, while another section saw the map disappear entirely and we were left wandering around a nondescript blue screen. Yuck.
Conclusion
Overmorrow has its share of satisfying eureka moments, and it’s a compelling concept. While there’s a real purity of intent behind its development, it would greatly benefit from more fine-tuning and playtesting. If its many bugs and issues are eventually ironed out and quality-of-life improvements are added, it would indeed be a journey worth taking for players interested in its premise – but be prepared for moments of frustration.