The incredible fascination of watching a blockbuster is that every second of it costs tens of thousands of dollars to produce. Every minute, a few million dollars of production glam is poured into your sparkling eyeballs, while you stuff popcorn into your sagging jaw. Papetura exactly like that and nothing like it at the same time.
Produced primarily by lone creative Thomas Ostafin, Papetura exploded onto crowdfunding site Indiegogo in 2015, but it fell short of its funding goal. However, after more than 4 years of not giving up, the game made it to Steam in 2019. If there was a clearer example of a gaming geek project, we don’t know what it is. So while huge sums of money don’t fly straight to your face as you play, every in-game setting, every animation, every puzzle, and every scene is made up of pure, focused pieces. high. And it’s like a passion and a privilege to play.
What draws you to the screenshots of this novel graphic adventure is that it is built entirely out of paper. All content is carefully photographed paper structures, lit up in the air, animated, and then embellished with effects, button prompts, and image-based character dialogue. The endless complexity of these richly textured physical objects is a unique delight, especially on the big screen. The level of polish is breathtaking, and the deep yet varied tones are amazing. As a result, while it is reminiscent of the jewel of the 90s Neverit’s less irritable and gentler.
The simple story is based on the heroic scroll Pape and his companion Tura. Starting with a prophecy/request that Pape will save the paper world from fire, the two travel through some eerie environments and encounter briefly outlined characters along the way. It again resembles an average blockbuster in terms of duration, about two hours.
While Papetura is a point-and-click game on Steam, it’s, of course, Switch-ready for a controller. However, instead of feeling like a compromise, using a controller actually turns the game into something else. Its puzzles are special in that they often include action elements, and there are skill tests that can sometimes fail (when restarting is quick and easy). For example, you may need to avoid falling obstacles or time your use and spin to catch fish. Tura acts like a cannon that fires small bullets like Yoshi in Super Mario World 2and some puzzles that involve careful aiming or planning trick shots. The movement of the left stick combines with the aim of the right stick and activates to shoot most of sometimes make this Switch version feel brief moment, like an action platformer. However, some unfortunate scenes where you can’t move in any clear direction, combined with Pape’s slow shuffling, can make exploration difficult.
Papetura is a million miles away from being a blockbuster, but it shares the same sense of energy and intense visuals, which it distills into every second of gameplay time. Every fold and wrinkle of the scene and the character shines with Ostafin’s passion. The story is crude and vague, its very short runtime, and control issues make it a bit stifling, but nothing can completely overshadow its compelling presentation.
