So normally I start with a trailer or a joke. This doesn’t fit for what is to come. Rain World is a beautiful, frustrating, touching mess. I love it and can’t stand it at the same time. You start as a little lost slug cat who meekly ventures out into a ruined and rain soaked world. Unlike other games, Hollow Knight for instance, this game let’s you revel in the atmosphere.

Slowly you learn how to hunt, pounce, and survive. A little yellow friend helping you to get your footing as he points the way to bugs and food. Slowly more and more dangers creep in, but in Rain World you won’t be safe switching screens. The creatures all go about their life freely. Changing screens and fighting each other are common activities for the enemies. You’ll just be sizing up a jump and BAM! sudden lizard fight busts out from the side of the screen. So you duck over those lizards and bail.

Little did you know you just stepped out into a big pile of pain. I mean lizards, you stepped into a big pile of lizards.

Oh and also outside as well. Dangers grows as storm clouds gather. You can’t survive the night outside. So you must hunt down some food to hold you over as you wait for the next day. This isn’t a race, you aren’t trying to save the day, and you don’t have any reason to hurry. Just take your time and take it all in.

Such a beautiful game that sadly I cannot play. It has such small screen elements and real on screen display to speak of. So occasionally Slugcat will grab something without me noticing and won’t eat because the bug I thought I caught was a rock he had been holding.

The map takes awhile to appear on screen and isn’t useful while running or fighting. Even here they give a good meter and a rain is coming counter. Which I would like on-screen or atleast toggleable. and maybe just a little icon of what is in each hand. The little yellow guy points out the way to food with a picture floating in yellow lights. So they clearly don’t mind on-screen elements. As well as the play area, foreground, and background are a bit to hard to tell apart at times. Small openings are almost completely obscured. Lots of times I could only tell because I guessed. I keep pushing on trying to get a little further and then.

A beautiful yet frustrating death. I highly recommend this game. It’s absolutely amazing. I can’t get past the first few areas so I don’t have much to go on. That said I don’t regret the purchase. Games are supposed to be experiences. I’ve lived my whole life with a visual impairment. So much of what I do and how I do it is because of that. My preferences in what screens I use. How I go about editing this site even. Little things like using my phone to zoom in with the camera when text is to small on my monitor when using a video editing software. Little small things I’ve come to just take for granted. This game is the first time I have ever felt helpless because of my eyes. It’s the first time I ever felt lesser because I can’t see. It sucks, and it hurts, but it’s a real feeling.

So this is where my Slugcat’s story ends. 6 Hours of struggling against an uncaring world. It’s no one else’s fault but my own. Well I guess my parents? I don’t particularly know who you blame genetics on actually. To be honest it’s the first time I ever felt bad for being different.