Benutzer:David0296/Impostor Factory
Impostor Factory (auf Deutsch etwa: Betrüger Fabrik) ist ein Videospiel, das vom Kanadischen Studio Freebird Games unter der Leitung von Kan Gao entwickelt wurde. Es ist der indirekte Nachfolger von To The Moon und Finding Paradise. Wie schon bei den Vorgängern schrieb Gao die Handlung und komponierte die Musik. Das Spiel sollte ursprünglich Ende 2020 erscheinen und wurde letztendlich am 30. September 2021 veröffentlicht.
is a 2021 adventure video game developed and published by Freebird Games.[1] Like A Bird Story, the game was an conclusion as a follow-up and prequel of To the Moon and Finding Paradise, the story revolves around new protagonist Quincy Reynard, who ends up in a murder case inside the mansion but suddenly finds himself experiencing double murders and mysterious time loops. The game was initially planned to be released at the end of 2020, and was released in September 30, 2021 for Windows to positive reviews.[2]
Gameplay
BearbeitenImpostor Factory spielt sich identisch zu den vorherigen Teilen. Der Spieler navigiert die Hauptfigur wie in einem typischen RPG durch die zweidimensionale Spielwelt und kann mit anderen Figuren (NPC) oder verschiedenen Gegenständen interagieren. Durch den verwendeten RPG Maker beinhaltet das Spiel auch typische Rollenspiel-Elemente wie z.B. ein Inventar, die aber keinen Einfluss auf das Gameplay haben und lediglich für Scherze im Spielverlauf verwendet werden. Die Hauptaufgabe des Spielers ist das lesen von Dialogen und Voranschreiten in der Handlung.
Handlung
BearbeitenAkt 1: An einem verregneten Nachmittag folgt der Protagonist Quincy Reynard einer Einladung zu einer Party in einem heruntergekommenem Herrenhaus. Das Anwesen gehört den Wissenschaftlern Dr. Yu und Dr. Haynes, die in einem unterirrdischen Labor die Yu-Haynes Stiftung betreiben. Auf der Party trifft Quincy die anderen Gäste, darunter eine junge Frau namens Lynri, die die besondere Fähigkeit zu besitzen scheint. gleichzeitig an zwei verschiedenen Orten zu erscheinen. Während der Erkundung des Hauses stellt er fest, dass er durch das Benutzen des Waschbeckens im Badezimmer die Zeit zurückdrehen kann. Bei seiner Rückkehr zu den Gästen findet er die ermordeten Gastgeber Yu und Haynes vor. Aus Angst davor, dass man ihn verdächtigen könnte, kehr Quincy ins Badezimmer zurück um erneut die Zeit zurückzudrehen. Dabei trifft er erneut auf Lynri, die ihm erklärt, dass die gesamte Umgebung inklusive ihm nicht real sondern eine Simulation ist und von ihr erschaffen wurde. Verstört durch die Ereignisse wird er von Lynri in eine andere Simulation geschickt, die ihm die Situation klarer machen soll.
On a rainy afternoon, Quincy Reynard arrives at what appears to be a decrepit mansion for a party. The massive estate is owned by Dr. Yu and Dr. Haynes, who run the illustrious Yu-Haynes Foundation in an underground lab hidden deep beneath the mansion. Quincy gets acquainted with the other party guests, including Lynri, a mysterious young woman with the ability to seemingly be in two places at once. As Quincy navigates the party, he finds that the sink in the bathroom can apparently rewind time for him. Eventually, Quincy accidentally stumbles upon the corpses of a recently murdered Dr. Yu and Dr. Haynes. Accused of being the murderer for his strange behavior, Quincy runs away to rewind time in the bathroom, but is eventually informed by Lynri that the murders are not real, the world he inhabits is nothing but a simulation, and that Lynri had created him.
Akt 2: Quincy findet sich auf einer Wiese voller Lavendel inmitten einer Gruppe Kinder wieder, was sich als die Erinnerungen von Lynri herausstellt. Diese hatte als kleines Mädchen immer wiederkehrende Ohnmachtsanfälle, was später als seltene, nicht näher definierte, Erkrankung diagnostiziert wurde, die jederzeit ausbrechen und schlimmer werden könnte. Da sie aufgrund ihres Zustandes ihre gesamte Kindheit von Gleichaltrigen isoliert wurde, entschied sie sich später Neurowissenschaft zu studieren und forschte an einer Methode menschliche Erinnerungen zu codieren und zu speichern. Auf dem College lernte sie Quincy kennen, woran sich der Quincy, der zeitgleich die Erinnerungen erlebt, nicht erinnern kann. Im Laufe der Zeit kommen die beiden sich näher und verlieben sich trotz der gesundheitlichen Situation von Lynri.
Overwhelmed with an existential crisis, Quincy is sent out by Lynri to view another simulation to properly explain the situation, which turns out to be Lynri's memories. As a young child, Lynri was prone to sudden blackouts and was eventually diagnosed with a rare condition that could become malignant with little warning. Isolated from her peers by the knowledge of her condition, Lynri devoted herself to studying neuroscience, specifically researching a method on how to encode human memories into computers. In college, Lynri meets Quincy for the first time. The Quincy observing the memories is shocked, as he has no recollection of any of the events he's seeing, but continues to watch the story unfold. As time passes, Lynri and Quincy grow close. Despite knowing what Lynri's condition would mean for both of them, Quincy and Lynri fall in love and start dating. On graduation day, Lynri is approached by representatives from the Yu-Haynes Foundation over a research paper she had published. Offered an illustrious and lucrative job, Lynri and Quincy move in together. Lynri immediately begins to work with the Foundation on developing technology that would interface with directly with human memories, while Quincy takes on domestic life roles.
Over time, Lynri's job begins demanding more and more of her time, causing friction between her and Quincy. The Foundation offers Lynri to live within the mansion's residential complex to remove the commute, as some other employees do, but she is uncertain. However, on the day where Lynri is to present the Foundation's progress to a group of investors, she arrives late, and finds that the demonstration had already proceeded but ended up killing one of her colleagues. While the Foundation and the investors heatedly debate about the use of memory-interfacing technology that just kills its users, Lynri, knowing that she was supposed to be the one handling the demonstration that day, immediately quits her job and returns home. Overwhelmed with the realization that she could have died right then, independent of her health, Lynri decides to travels the world with Quincy, finally fulfilling a long time goal of theirs. Upon returning home, Lynri learns that she is pregnant. Though Lynri is concerned about how her hereditary condition could affect her and the pregnancy, she and Quincy ultimately decide to go through with it. However, Lynri's condition suddenly becomes acute late into her pregnancy. She is forced to either give birth prematurely to have a time-sensitive life-saving operation, or postpone the operation to allow her child a healthy birth and possibly render the operation ineffective. Lynri chooses the former.
Tobias Reynard is born to Lynri and Quincy prematurely. Consistently wheelchair-bound and on oxygen support, Tobias is raised with all the love his family could give him, but ultimately dies of health complications as a young child. Heartbroken and guilt-ridden, Lynri and Quincy start drifting apart. Eventually, Lynri leaves Quincy without a word to return to work and live at the Yu-Haynes Foundation. She devotes all of her time to developing the memory interfacing technology, and eventually decides to run another simulation test. She samples her own memories to create an early version of Quincy that would serve as a test character, thus explaining the Quincy the player is controlling.
Finished with observing Lynri's life story, Quincy returns to the mansion where present-day Lynri explains that the murders he had observed earlier were flaws in the simulation she was trying to correct. Quincy agrees to help her out and Lynri briefly exits the simulation. When Lynri returns and Quincy finishes doing all the tasks Lynri had set for him, they are both confronted by Watt's AI assistant Faye from Finding Paradise. Lynri realizes that she, too, is not real, and that even her world is the result of multiple simulations of her memory simulating more tests from the memory interfacing machine. Faye tells them that there are too many levels in the current simulation and that she'll have to delete their world soon. However, before doing so, Faye tells the duo that this simulation was allowed to run because it was very close to the real story of Lynri. Faye explains that in reality, Lynri chose to delay her operation to have a healthy baby. This baby was Neil Watts from the previous games, as Quincy decided that their newborn should inherit Lynri's family name instead of his. Lynri would only live for a few more years, so towards the end of her life, she returned to the Yu-Haynes Foundation to use their memory-interfacing machine to preserve her memory for a grown-up Neil. Neil, later diagnosed with the same condition as his mother, would eventually find his way into Sigmund Corp., which had licensed the imperfect memory interface machine to grant wishes to the dying, so that Neil could continue working on a version of the machine that would unlock his mother's memories. Neil was eventually successful, and that machine is the one currently running the simulation the current Lynri and Quincy are in.
At this point, Faye deletes the world they're inhabiting, but offers Quincy and Lynri an opportunity to live a perfect timeline. After some convincing, Lynri agrees to go with Quincy. The two then proceed to live a life where Lynri's condition is permanently gone and she gets to have a happy marriage with Quincy, watching Neil grow up all the way, get married, and have a child of his own. In their old age, when their time is almost over, Lynri and Quincy express their gratitude towards Faye. Faye assures them that their son is still watching over them and briefly celebrates their good life. The simulation then permanently ends.
In the post-credit scene, the real Dr. Neil Watts talks to Faye about what constitutes to a perfect world, and whether or not the simulation just now was perfect by any standard. He is eventually interrupted by his Sigmund colleagues at his door, inviting him for a casual hangout. Neil heads out with them.
Enwicklung
BearbeitenImpostor Factory wurde erstmals im März 2019 angekündingt, wobei nicht fest stand, ob es ein weiterer Teil der Reihe um die Sigmund Corp. werden wird. Der offizielle Trailer feierte seine Premiere im August 2020. It prominently features an unnamed lady in a red dress, presumably the same one featured in the promotional posters.[3]
Im November 2020 gab Kan Gao bekannt, dass der Release auf den Frühling 2021 verschoben wurde. Auf der offiziellen Steampage erschien im Juli die Ankündigung, dass der Release erneut später erfolgt. Letztendlich erschien das fertige Spiel am 30. September 2021.[4] An update on the game's Steam page pushed the release back to September.[5] The game released on September 30, 2021.[6]
Laura Shigihara, die bereits als Sängerin für die Vorgänger tätig war, war bei diesem Teil nicht aktiv, da man ihre Stimme für diesen eher düsteren Teil unpassend fand. [7]
Reception
BearbeitenVorlage:Video game reviews Impostor Factory has received generally positive reception, with a score of 80 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic, averaged from 13 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[8]
Damaso Scibetta of IGN Italia, gave a positive review, saying: "Gao's writing is always impeccable and is capable of never falling into the banal, even when it touches themes already abused in the medium and in narration in general."[9]
Bob Richardson of RPG Fan, also gave a positive review, saying: "It’s akin to going into an art gallery and scoring each painting or sculpture, and while that seems like I’m laying the praise on a bit thick, I genuinely feel this way."
References
Bearbeiten[[Category:2021 video games]] [[Category:Adventure games]] [[Category:Freebird Games games]] [[Category:Indie video games]] [[Category:Role-playing video games]] [[Category:RPG Maker games]] [[Category:Single-player video games]] [[Category:Video games about time loops]] [[Category:Video games developed in Canada]]
- ↑ Impostor Factory website. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ Steam news release date for Impostor Factory. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ To the Moon 3 trailer. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ Impostor Factory delay video. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ Steam announcement. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ Steam release page for Impostor Factory. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ Shigihara's confirmation. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ Metacritic page for Impostor Factory. Abgerufen am 8. November 2022.
- ↑ diDamaso Scibetta Pubblicato: Giovedì 07 Ottobre 2021 09:33: Impostor Factory - La recensione. In: IGN Italia. 7. Oktober 2021, abgerufen am 14. November 2022 (italienisch).