A Hat in Time Review
Table of Contents
I played A Hat in Time, an action game that's been generating buzz on the Steam store.
Overall rating: +1 (Recommended)
It was an excellent action game. The puzzle elements with just the right difficulty and the world-building were particularly well-done.
The characters have strong personalities, so you're guaranteed to enjoy the story as well.
Overview
This is a 3D action game released on the Steam store in October 2017.
Currently, it has nearly 8,000 reviews and boasts an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating, making it a bestseller.
The protagonist is an alien who uses the power of hats to progress through stages.
Good Points
Overall, it's a pop and cute action game.
It's not just cute, but also has solid content.
While it's a stage-clearing action game, puzzle elements are well-integrated.
You progress by utilizing the abilities of the hats, but the balance is well-struck, requiring you to think a bit or introducing unknown objects as foreshadowing.
The puzzles aren't as strong as in Zelda, but the fact that action is the main focus and puzzles are secondary helps reduce stress.
The story is appropriately loose, with the mischievous protagonist causing and roughly resolving incidents.
It shouldn't require much brain power... in theory, but the experience might be slightly different for Japanese players due to the English.
However, it's by no means shallow.
There are equipment and environments inside the spaceship that hint at the protagonist's life, and memos suggesting the protagonist's lifestyle, but much of this remains a mystery as it's not elaborated on.
This encourages speculation and anthology creation.
The resources can also be said to be well-crafted.
(Especially) the protagonist's motions are cute, and in certain stages, there are performances that could pass in a horror game, which is excellent.
Additionally, the BGM uses arrangements of the main theme for each stage, creating a sense of unity.
The effects when hitting enemies and objects are also fun, playing a role in reinforcing the world view.
While a lot is packed into this work, the overall volume is just right.
You can progress through a fair amount of content in about 20 hours, and the high degree of freedom allows you to skip stages.
Not-so-good Points
While the overall quality is good, there are some rough areas in the craftsmanship.
First, in some cases, puzzles can be brute-forced.
While it's interesting that puzzles can be solved through action, it felt a bit like a lack of polish.
Also, it causes motion sickness like early PS 3D games.
While it's an action game with many perspective changes, there's no particular compensation, so it might be difficult to play for some people.
Furthermore, the English pronunciation is very noticeable.
I'm not sure if it's native English speakers doing it intentionally or non-native speakers speaking normally, but the conversations are quite difficult to understand.
Depending on the character, the excessive rolling of R's makes you feel like you've gone to Europe (?).
Overall Evaluation
It's an excellent action game with a cute world view, and you'll likely enjoy playing it.
Those expecting hardcore puzzles or prone to motion sickness should consider carefully.
The overall rating is around +1.5, but I've kept it at +1 because I ultimately didn't buy the DLC.
