ENA: Dream BBQ (Chapter 1)

I don't really think there is a good way to review anything ENA related because that would require acting like you know what any of it means. That would be impossible because it's a developing world.

That does NOT stop me from talking about the feeling this game gives and the style and manner in which the world is presented to you.

This game feels like you're in a place where you have a gun pointed at your head and they're forcing you to laugh, but eventually you just forget about the gun because everything is funny. Everything is so disjointed to the point that it should be a confusing mess, but the hilarity and absurdity of the whole experience makes everything feel like it's together. Everywhere you turn there is something insane and this never stops. Every NPC you talk to is a dice roll on which language they speak, but they all somehow manage to understand each other. They're all quirky and unique but when they interact with each other they feel like they were made specifically to coexist.

The environments these NPCs exist in tend to help this, as the collage style visuals allow for 30 different looking things to exist on screen in the same frame without seeming misplaced. Giant floating low-poly 3D models exist in the air near cute little 2D cartoon pets surrounded by blood on top of a broken down brutalist building in a desert with tan rivers. Everywhere in this game is so dramatic that it even makes its more minimal environments feel maximal.

All of these environments are perfectly explorable as well and have plenty of funny little secrets and easter eggs scattered about. Lots of games make the levels seem vast and wide but in reality you're trapped in a box. In this game it feels like the opposite. It looks like I am in a box, and then I turn the corner and there is another ginormous funny box that I get to explore and then it turns out that the funny box is actually useless and was just there for fun. That's something I wish games did more of because it can turn a game with a 1 hour story into a longer experience.

Going back to the NPCs, basically every one of the characters you can talk to adds something to this game. There are a few who just say simple phrases or comment on something nearby, but the vast majority of them have something interesting to say. After I made it to the unusual streets, basically everyone I talked to gave me a job. It felt extremely overwhelming talking to 4 NPCs and suddenly I have 4 different tasks that I am supposed to accomplish. That's not a bad thing, though, in fact it adds a lot to the style.

Even the useless NPCs add to the experience. Getting teleported into a beautiful scenic cityscape at night with a man staring out at the night sky like this:

just for him to turn around dramatically and stare at you like this:

when you talk to him was completely unnecessary but also completely necessary.

It's little things like this that show how much time has been dedicated to this project. Without these little details or thoughts the game would feel like it was just trying to be quirky for the hell of it, but instead I feel like everything is on purpose and I'm 100% confident there's a grand purpose that ties everything together. Even if there isn't, that's fine too because the game is still funny asf.

I will be waiting for Chapter 2 hopefully not forever, and will buy it and play it and review that also. As much as I'd like to theorize and talk about what I think it means, I think I'm better off waiting until all the chapters are out.

Love y'all,

I am Dratula