Ib (video game)
| Ib | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | kouri |
| Engine | RPG Maker 2000 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | February 27, 2012 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Ib (イヴ Ivu) is a 2012 adventure video game by the Japanese artist kouri. The player controls a character from a top-down perspective, exploring an eldritch art museum with the intent to escape, solving puzzles to advance. The game employs elements of psychological horror despite the limitations of its engine.
Gameplay
The player moves a character through two-dimensional fields, interacting with and examining various objects. Obstacles come in the forms of blocked paths, which the player must somehow overcome and cross, and enemies and traps which deplete the player character's health. Once health reaches zero, the player loses. The player wins by seeing the narrative through to one of its ends.
The game's English translator has said that the game is not demanding of the player's reflexes,[1] although many enemies are fairly swift in movement.
Story
Nine-year-old Ib is taken to an art museum by her mother and father. With her parents' permission, Ib wanders off on her own. She examines a painting she does not understand as the museum abruptly empties during a power outage, its doors locking before she can leave with the other guests. A series of paint splatters guide her into a different painting of the deep sea, which she physically enters. In an alien, painted world, Ib eventually finds and joins forces with two others, Garry, a soft-spoken young man dressed in tattered clothes who becomes protective and nurturing of Ib, and Mary, a mischievous, eccentric girl roughly Ib's age. Throughout the journey Ib and Gary encounter numerous puzzles, re-animated sculptures, and monstrous paintings that can kill.
References
External links
- Official website (Japanese)
- English translation