ITTA, a new title from Armor Game Studios releasing on April 22nd, is what I would describe as an indie, action-adventure-style narrative game. The game follows Itta, a young girl whose family has been mysteriously killed. ITTA awakens amongst the terror in an unknown world where she must attempt to free herself with the assistance of her guardian, who possesses her cat’s corpse. I reviewed ITTA on April 19th, 2020; these are my thoughts.
The Art-Style of ITTA
ITTA has an incredible art-style choice. The pixel nature of all that surrounds you as well, on top of the ambiance of all the areas you traverse, creates a unique atmosphere. There are times when you barely even think about what is going on in front of you as you face down a relentless boss.
The Tone-Setting of ITTA
When playing through ITTA, the music and ambiance of sounds that the player hears sets up priorities in mind; outside of battles, the music is calm, mysterious, and a relaxing jingle that creates an urge to move forward. That can all change instantly; however, when you enter one of the boss fights. The music instantly switches tone, with a hectic feeling bestowing upon the player. The music for the boss fights makes you forget about the adventure for the time being and focus on the here and now.
There is a lot of atmosphere setters in ITTA. For example, looking for where to go next, and all you can hear is the crashing of waterfalls or the trickling noise of water through rock cracks. It does help give the feel that the world ITTA finds herself in is real and alive despite the perception the game wants you to have of it.
Gameplay Mechanics
One thing focused on in ITTA is weaponry. Players obtain a revolver, the revolver of Itta’s dead father, specifically. With its significance, you’d think the game would want to make the player want to use it. Wrong. The revolver is the most tedious and painful gun to use in the game. It’s one-shot speed, along with the accuracy and sensitivity issues in the game when it comes to aiming the gun makes it incredibly hard to stomach using. What makes other guns better, isn’t that they are easier to use or aim. It all comes down to their bullets doing more damage or multiple bullets spreading across a wider area to compensate for the abysmal aiming sensitivity in the game.
Purposefully, I think, the game gives the player no direction. ITTA leaves the path up to the player. The player can enter a room, and there could be one direction or three or four. The game doesn’t encourage the player to go in any direction over another. This leaves much room for personalization in how you want to tackle the game. There could be a boss on the south side of the map, and a boss on the north side. However, it all comes down to the player which one they want to take on first. The game creates a natural sense of urgency and direction for the player to go toward without specifically telling the player where they should be going or what they should be doing.
The vastness and similarity of rooms in terms of colours and design can make this game annoying to traverse through. However, the music does help to relieve some of that tedious nature of back tracking as you can zone out and listen to that.
This last piece in terms of gameplay isn’t too much to point out, but I shall nonetheless. The rumble and vibrations in ITTA are needlessly excessive. The rumble of the joycons throughout the game will make you feel like they are about to explode. However, luckily there is an option to lower/turn off the rumble entirely in the options menu.
Difficulty
ITTA, a game based on consistent death and repeating of the same fights, you’d expect it to be difficult, right? Well, it is. The calm nature of a lot of the game is misleading for players at times. There is a feeling of constant ‘calm before the storm.’ You know you will come up against a boss and die dozens of times due to the sheer excess that each boss throws at the player.
If you have played games like Enter the Gungeon or Exist the Gungeon then you will be better off than someone who plays ITTA without prior experience of games where the key to winning is consistent shooting, on top of a ridiculous reaction time and ability to dodge thousands of attacks at once. The difficulty can be something to scare off players or invite seasoned gamers who are eager for a challenge. Just be warned, you will die a lot.
Replayability
Unfortunately, ITTA does not have much in the way of replayability for me. Of course, not every game needs to be endlessly replayable, but it would be nice. However, ITTA will offer up enough of your time, as is through difficulty alone. However, unless you want to do an impossible deathless run, you most likely won’t get the urge to boot up ITTA again once you finish it the first time around.
Conclusion
Overall, I loved what ITTA was going for. You cannot help but appreciate the mixture of tranquility alongside the chaos. The visual experiences in games are something that I will never struggle to praise in games. This is something ITTA has in abundance, which is something that sets it apart from other indie titles. ITTA can improve in some places, but for what it is, it is a well-put-together experience that will offer a lot of frustration and deep experiences for the player. It offers up a perfectly fair experience.
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Review Summary
In this review of ITTA, I cover the upcoming release of the title for Nintendo Switch. I cover the basic story-elements of the game, but most importantly, the game’s gameplay mechanics, along with the visual experiences the game offers to the player.
