Fumiko!

As AI becomes more and more of a permanent fixture of everyday life, it will become critical to have material from before its meteoric effect on the world around us as a means of grounding us in what our fears and hopes were for the future. From Sylvius Fischer, Fumiko is a love story, turned horror story, about an artificial intelligence developed for uncertain reasons and the denizens of the I.M. - human consciousness uploaded to a digital realm and the forces that are gradually driving it to tragedy. Mechanically, Fumiko offers the greatest freedom of movement I've ever seen in a game like this - running and jumping gives way to double jumping, gives way to quadruple jumping, giving way to endless running and jumping which is necessary to navigate the worlds you find yourself in. Visually, the game is remarkably gorgeous especially considering the audicious use of default cubes as architecture, because everything is designed to fit in seamlessly with the extreme digital environment. The story is a truly prescient one and it unravels beautifully. Check this one out!

Too much text and the camera feels like its been dipped in syrup. The visuals and levels are interesting and I'm sure the lore is deep and engaging but I just can't get through it as I get bored with all the texts before I'm engaged with the rest of the game. This is a beautiful game, if it had narrative voices instead of texts it would have been much more engaging!

Fumiko is an interesting game. It's far from perfect, but I think it has a clear idea of what it wants to be, and I think in some ways that's enough to make it a worthwhile experience. You should know going in that despite being billed as a platformer the actual platforming mechanics are very de-emphasized. Your movement abilities are pretty powerful out the gate, and they get ramped up over the course of the game, such that traversal, outside of a select few segments is kinda trivial. That means most of the game's meat is in its story and visuals, which are both pretty good. Aesthetically the game manages to do a lot with pretty simple assets, it pulls of some striking and memorable imagery with just cubes through good use of color and scale. It can be a bit busy at times, particularly I think the omnipresent binary code particle effect was a bit much, but it's not enough to outright ruin the gameplay. And the story has a few strong points, namely it deals with a few interesting points about the privatization of the internet and what that entails. It's not super eloquent or deep in its exploration of these topics, it's no Hypnospace Outlaw, but it's entertaining and thoughtful in its own way. Overall, given the price it's worth picking up if you're up for a 3 hour story driven exploration-y thing with cool visuals. it's not incredible, but it's unique and memorable.

First off ...I didn't fight through to the end.
But. I recommend the journey I had. With caveats, as this surely isn't for everyone.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but watching the trailer now, it actually tries to communicate the gameplay quite well.
Fumiko lives from it's 90ties cyberspace appeal. It's easy to see typical manga & anime hacking scenes as it's inspiration and it fully delivers on that atmosphere, environment and story telling, so I enjoyed that hugely.

I appreciate the music and the evocation of a futuristic cyberspace that harks back to ideas on what cyberspace would look like in the future - seen from the early 90ties. It's a brilliant retro-futurism. I love the world-building and design. Earlier levels are weaker than later ones, but it fits the narrative and helps you get used to clues that the game uses to nudge you in the right direction. The aesthetic is great although it seems to be a product of the capabilities of the dev as well. So the animations aren't great although that is diminished by the fast gameplay. There is a charm to it as a whole and I doubt there is much around that'd be comparable. Maybe Rez Infinite might come to mind - but I'd place Fumiko above Rez in terms of gameplay, world-building and atmosphere. Those are obviously very different genres, but if we look for floating through cyberspace, I wouldn't know any other.

Movement itself feels great, specially when restrictions from earlier levels vanish. Traversal itself is huge fun. The puzzles that I found were good imo, probably rather easy for people who are really into puzzle games as I'm usually quite bad at those. I found that enjoyable. I have my gripes with the combat that comes up in later stages, specially a boss fight that I didn't finish - and probably won't. I checked the guide for it - and I simply misunderstood a mechanic. In this fight the usual problems multiply as it's generally difficult to estimate where you land and where you are in space. Shadows would probably help, but those aren't very cyberspacey. Pushing whirling cubes around in 3D space, while it's difficult to read your position in space is really meh. I might come back to it when I got the nerves for such, but I can see myself leaving it there.

I still recommend the game as it's unique and interesting with great atmosphere. It tickles my fancy for the time when the future of the internet was expected to be cyberspace and many expected the web to stay unprofitable, open and weird. It delivers on a niche of cyberspace hacking as you'd see it in Ghost in the Shell or Battle Angel Alita where characters float around as glowing beings. The dev mentioned Lain to be an inspiration. The music is fitting as can be, sometimes a bit corny or distorted to emulate interferences.

If these elements speak to you, it's a very special journey.

## Update
Well I came back and finished the game. I enjoyed it, although I needed the guide (shout outs for the dev himself providing that) for the aforementioned fight as the safe-zone escaped my attention. After that there was another fight where I was just lost. I never got how and why I'd spawn birds & clones. And I wasn't able to connect what to do with them either. So. There is something to be said about the readability of the mechanics of the game in some instances. After checking the guide, it does make sense, but I don't think I would have ever come to that conclusion.
specially spawning birds was not something I connected with fying through the white screens. It might have been an option to let them fly before you and then settle into the wingman position behind you, but I have no idea on how to communicate that they are actually explosives while the clones aren't.
Iwant to add that I did have fun executing the fight.

Over all I stand by my recommendation. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, might come back at some point to get some more achievements. The ending to Fumiko's story was a bit flat. An easy tried and proven ending would have been the typical Ghost in the Shell: I will be everywhere with you. I will be a ripple in the vast sea of information implying that Fumiko will be there in some sort of conciousness.

Nice game, but it can be tricky to understand what is expected of you and extremely frustrating when you think you do. Good game overall, interesting visuals and concept, but glad i finally beat it and can put it to rest.

At first glance this game looked a lil interesting but man once you play it, it's hard to put down. Controls are beautiful (with all the upgrades) and a much better story than I woulda guessed. 9/10 for da price :)

fantastic game except i had it stored on my external so when it sh!t the bed and i bought a new one the entire game's progress reset and i had to start from the beginning which i didnt want to do #pain #johnpork

You can see that A LOT of love went into making this game. especially the music, I was caught off guard by how surprisingly good it was for a game of this size. whilst i wouldn't recommend this anyone, i'm sure that anyone who is open minded enough to try it wont be disappointed.

The tutorial looked promising, but all skills you get (at least in the start) are more jumps. This makes you a sort of hard-to-control helicopter that is very tricky to land. Failing to land kills you more often than not.
I stopped playing the moment it seemed to become a platformer where the only goal is to pickup 'memories' while avoiding dying in levels that are a nightmare to navigate.

---{Graphics}--- 8/10
☐ Masterpiece
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Will do
☐ Bad
☐ Awful
☐ Paint.exe

---{Gameplay}--- 9/10
☐ Try not to get addicted
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Nothing special
☐ Ugh
☐ Bad
☐ Unbearable

---{Audio}--- 10/10
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ Earrape

---{Audience}--- 10/10
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☐ Adults
☐ Everyone

---{PC Requirements}--- 8/10
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Story}---10/10
☐ Doesnt have (Not counting historical stuff)
☐ Something isnt nothing I guess
☐ Not great
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely


---{Game Time}---8/10
☐ Long enough for a cup of tea
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐Long
☑ Depends on u
☐ Playing the whole game in one sit

---{Price}--- 8/10
☐ Just buy it
☐ Worth the price
☑ Wait for sale
☐ Maybe if u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ Dont throw money into a trash can

---{Bugs}--- 8/10
☐ Never had any
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Few bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Ruining the game
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{Overview}---
I recommend this Game ★★★★
Note: Those reviews are based on my opinions :)

Fumiko is a 3D platformer in a colorful low-poly style with a few very basic puzzles and a story told through text dialog and your character's thoughts. In short, I don't recommend it because of the immense amount of frustration I felt due to the overloaded visuals and finicky controls. If it weren't for these factors, it may have been otherwise enjoyable - and the music was great.

Visuals:
While the game does appear visually stunning and colorful, it goes way overboard in many cases. I often found it difficult to locate the next goal due to the chaos of moving/spinning particles and effects in every direction. Also, there is one particular level where obtaining the collectibles requires you to navigate through buildings with semi-transparent walls and very bright lights everywhere. It would be rather beautiful if it weren't for the incredibly frustrating experience of trying to navigate through this 3D environment while not knowing where the walls are and getting trapped inside tiny invisible rooms (granted this would not be necessary if you don't wish to get those particular collectibles).

Controls:
I used a keyboard and mouse.
The controls themselves are simple, but are not quite suited for what the game wants you to do, making navigation even more frustrating. For example, much of the environment makes use of vertical space, but your camera limits how far up you can look. This becomes especially annoying in levels where you must fly directly upward/downward while avoiding obstacles. You are constantly straining at the limit of your camera tilt which makes your view flip and spin uncontrollably, making it very difficult to avoid said obstacles. Additionally, the jump-dash ability you must use to gain height is a diagonal boost, meaning that you constantly hit the edges of the restricted area you must fly in (which then kills you). Overall, it feels like the controls are meant for horizontal maps, while the environment is largely vertical.

All of these little things combine to make it a very frustrating experience that, in my opinion, outweighs the good things about the game.

Although this game is pretty solid all around, the camera is abysmal in some of the sequences with falling and climbing. I wish I could give this a mixed review, but gonna have to put negative for now. I would put it at a solid 6/10, but if the camera in those sequences weren't so terrible, I would definitely give it at least an 8. The rest of the game is captivating and fun to play, with fun mechanics and setting.

This game is a complete master piece. It perfectly executes the feeling of having pure power as you play through the game and yet still feel like your up against impossible odds. Its plot was crafted and molded into something so amazing that it makes you feel like your completely part of it, And the in game views and twists are breath taking and in some cases frightening. The only nuisance in this game like many good non multiplayer games is that its short. But other than that it was so amazing that i actually became depressed for about 6 hours after beating it because i missed it that much. This is one of my favorite games OF ALL TIME.

I'm still near of the beginning (delaying to advance coz I'm searching every memory piece), but Fumiko already made me fall in love!
PROS:
simple gameplay mechanics
very cool aesthetics
intriguing plot that seems straight out of The Matrix
cheap price
CONS?:
simple gameplay mechanics
crazy default controls (I recommend to set X & Y camera speed to 0.5)

Fumiko! starts as a nice trip of a computer on drugs. An hour later however, after leaving the big hub world, the game decides to actually put some obstacles and platforming into the experience and this is where it all falls apart.

Biggest problem, you can't see anything. The art style is so abstract that there rarely is some kind of clear indicator for where to go, what's a platform, and especially what kills you on touch. I jump somewhere on the ground and get killed, no idea why. There are rotating "lasers" but I can never make out whether I'm going to touch them. Sometimes I just die in mid-air because there probably was some kind of almost transparent levitating lava in the way.

About the rest of the game, what is there to praise? The trippy atmosphere maybe. But don't expect any engaging story, or great level design, or tight mechanics.

So I just finished Fumiko! and even though my hand hurts from playing the last level I will write my review for it. Fumiko! is a trippy game that takes your character, Fumiko, through a Tron-like computer world where you need to platform, solve puzzles and uncover the story. The story is good. It is touching, devious and straight up tear jerking at points. I am very much a story junkie in games and I was compelled to push through the harder rogue-like parts of the game that saw me dying over and over again. The controls can be twitchy at times but overall this game's character, atmosphere and level design makes up for it.

_______________________

PROS

+ story. Fumiko! has a nice take on the whole cyber-universe AI thing going on and even though I felt like it should have been explored more, it was enough to keep me interested.
+ levels. The levels are sometimes quite focused and linear but other times are very open. If you like unboxing gadgets and trying to use them before reading the instructions then Fumiko! will scratch that itch. There are so many things you will be like "Oh, what does this do? Let's push this."
+ music and sound. The music for this game really sets the mood for each part that you are in.
+ characters. There are a few interesting characters to meet in this game. They also have very unique and distinct personalities. I enjoyed my interactions.
+ exploration. If you are the type of person that likes to hunt every little bit of a map for bonus stuff then Fumiko! is your game. There was more to explore that I just didn't manage to find.
______________________

CONS

- controls. Sometimes I found it twitchy or hard to point Fumiko in the right direction. But to be honest my brain just adjusted to this as time went by but it might be a problem for people who don't push through the early game.

_______________________

Fumiko! is good value for money as it comes in at under a dollar per hour for me. It is very self-aware as a game and does some really neat things with the whole cyberspace thing. Some parts might leave you scratching your head but I found that when I was lost the answer was right under my nose. The developer is very active on the forums and is always in touch with the community. This game is not perfect but that isn't what we play indie games for.

An excellent cyberspace 3D-platformer. If you are a fan of Tron or Lawnmower Man, then you will be right at home here. A bit of reading, though, and the story progresses slowly, without voice actors. But it makes up for it in the stunning visual presentation. Music and sound is good and fits the setting. As a fan of the Lain series, I was skeptical whether this game could pull it off their steam store claims, but it is the real-deal. The game is very slow-paced, off-putting, and contemplative, just like the anime. There are some frustrating levels, but it is the result of ambitious designs.

You may want to watch a playthrough video before purchasing, though. There is a story achievement that is obtained after an hour or two of gameplay, that only 7% of owners have obtained. Only 5% of owners finished the game. Clearly this game is not for everyone.

Playing on ubuntu 19.04 and 21.04 with radeon mesa graphic drivers, and a xbox-type gamepad controller. The game uses the Unity game engine, and it requires about 700MBs of installation space. Right now the game is on sale for a few bucks, and I highly recommend checking it out. The developer made a very worthy tribute to an underrated Japanese anime series, which you should also check out.

This game could be so good! I love small indie games with novel ideas and cool themes, and i really wanna get to see more of this story.
Unfortunately the camera movement is so bad that it makes me motion sick. i tried using a controller, unfortunately the cameramovement on controller is only up, down and left, right which makes it really clunky to use. Switching to the mouse i noticed that the horizontal sensitivity is disconected from the vertical sensitivity(which is not changable) which again makes it clunky and motion sickness inducing (for me atleast) there is also quite alot of input lag which doesnt help.
I really hope this will get fixed in some way, because i really wanna experience this story, because right now all im left with is nausea and a headace :/

ps. If you can get past the things i listed, you will probably love the music and the artstyle, the dev(s) really did a good job with that :)

Fumiko is such a pretty game. Smooth movement where you feel like floating light as a feather in huge spaces. Beautiful low poly vistas with amazing color combinations. Fitting music too.
But it's strongest point is it's engaging story. The story starts slow (and in combination with getting aquainted with the game at the begining a little disorienting) and then evolves and grows along with your character - Fumiko.
I'm almost never the type that pays attention to the story and Fumiko had me hooked from pretty early!
+1 because the game plays excellent on Linux
+another 1 for the developer who is the nicest dev ever and responds to every possible little problem imediately.

All in all if you like first person puzzles this game is for you and you should already be playing it.

Shame that this game is so underrated. The story is interesting, especially for any IT-related player.
The music and atmosphere is also very good, and the controls are very reactive. Definitely it worths the price.

Where to start? The art. The aesthetic. Fumiko! is at once a simplicity and a pleasure to behold. Its low-poly style conveys exactly as much as it needs to, and its vibrant colors illuminate the world in a beautiful and satisfying way.

Meanwhile, the music is always on point to convey a great sense of atmosphere. Are things chill? Got it. Panicked? Also got it. Focused? Warm? Somber? Check, check, check.

The story is revealed in bits and pieces, sometimes through collectibles called memory fragments, other times through dialogue, sometimes simply through the aesthetic of each world. It is chilling, disturbing, familiar. It conveys grand and simple ideas in their turn. It asks the hard questions. It presses us about identity, artificiality, alienation, will, and many others.

But all of that? Just the warmup, because the real make-you-come-back-time-and-again thing that's pushing Fumiko! from mediocre to exceptional is its world, which every other aspect of the game serves to convey. From its unique art to its perfect music to its gripping story, everything is about conveying the world in which Fumiko! takes place. I visit it every so often and fall in love again each time, and I hope that you will, too.

It's trippy, I like it. If your looking for a casual game with a unique story this game is it. The abstract art style, chill synth music, and exaggerated jumps make the environment seem almost dreamlike. Just what I was looking for on Steam.