Ib - Nitro Rad

[Music] you ever go to an art gallery it can be a really fascinating experience seeing the works of many artists and trying to interpret the messages that they may be trying to convey but there's an eeriness that comes with these still hulks of clay stone and paint statues that resemble something almost human can be very intimidating when standing perfectly still in such a quiet room mannequins are very commonly used in horror games but what about the whole art gallery itself like I always thought that would be a really good setting for a horror game and in 2012 a Japanese indie dev called Kui decided to make that happen an RPG maker of course I'm talking about Eve it's definitely one of the most popular RPG maker horror games out there and it was actually the first RPG maker game I ever played that wasn't human Ikki related I first played through it shortly after it came out when I was in my final year of high school and I remember around the same time a lot of my friends were taking AI B which was essentially this advanced high school curriculum so when I had a friend messaged me asking if I've heard of and have played Eve I thought he was talking about the IB program and I had no idea what he was trying to ask me it follows a nine-year-old girl named Eve who visits an art gallery with her parents and then stumbles upon this hell-like art world that she then must escape from over the years it's grown one of the more sizable cult followings I come with these freeware RPG Maker games the fans support behind this one is unreal the passion I've seen coming from Eden fans even comes close to rivaling that of you mean Ikki and off this is a deeply loved game that much is pretty clear I haven't really played this game since it first came out six years ago and since then there's been a number of updates fixing minor bugs making subtle improvements and eventually adding a handful of totally new endings it's been a long time since I last played this game and I've been meaning to revisit it for a number of years now and honestly I'm really surprised it took me this long considering that I have a YouTube channel where I review these kinds of games so I probably had more excuse to do that than anybody else in the planet but you know either way with that said why don't we get started this is e in the early afternoon under a grey sky even her family go to an art gallery visiting somewhere colorful is a great way to escape the dull weather after all carrying the handkerchief she got for her birthday he believes her parents at the main desk so she can look at the artwork you get a good opportunity to freely explore the place here admiring each display to your heart's content I'll be it through the eyes of a nine year old sometimes II bow and understand some of the words and I really do mean through her eyes because if she doesn't know what something means you're not gonna know what it means either because the game's not even gonna tell you what the word was this is something I do like I mean like how are we supposed to get into the shoes of a nine year old girl if we're just showing off the words that only she doesn't understand just because she doesn't understand them doesn't mean that we're not gonna understand them so if the game actually keeps them from us well then we're gonna be just as in the dark as she is sooner or later you'll come across a large painting called something world I don't know what it says I also don't know where everyone went where did what happened everybody's gone art galleries are already a fairly quiet place but with the absence of people even there to observe the yard well then it becomes eerily quiet so obviously the first thing I think of doing is going back to the desk to look for Eve's parents and of course they are gone too and the lights go out cool the games then gonna have a couple of scares to break the silence you know a painting of a man coughing some dude banging on a window they're not really jumpscares per se but these small things that are only catching you off-guard because the games gone dead silent I mean some of them are flat-out cheesy like blood dripping over a window and I think the banging on the window was a little bit too unsubtle for the first section of the game I think they should have left it with just the dude walking by like that's that's kind of creepy that's something you might not even notice but then he comes back and actually starts banging on it and I was like whatever anyway sooner or later you're gonna find yourself crossing over into this strange blue hallway where it becomes pretty clear that we've entered some sort of alternate reality where art is alive and art is aggressive expect mannequins dolls and all sorts of art pieces to come after you it's right around here that we'll get to experience our first real chunk of gameplay and this may come as a surprise to some but Eve is actually a full-blown puzzle game there's dialogue in story exposition between areas but the gameplay itself is going to consist of number crunching observing your environment searching for clues and key items and interacting with mechanisms to carve a way forward it's not really like those other RPG Maker games that have somewhat of a focus on puzzles like a crooked man or Misao you're not in a large building but rather in smaller isolated areas or the puzzle solving is more focused and direct it's a lot less of the large explorable buildings kind of like Silent Hill and more of the controlled chambers of a portal I guess well you know like the games nothing like portal but it's a room-by-room sort of deal that's all puzzle rather than a large explorable area that has puzzles it's interesting because I haven't really played any other RPG maker games that are like this and I do think it works really well the puzzles here in Eve felt more frequently well thought out than the ones and games with the lighter focus on them not all of them are just a matter of getting a key item to an object instead there's a couple of actual brain teasers in here like a room full of paintings of different women all of them are lying except one you'll have to cross-reference what each painting is saying to figure out who's telling the truth and then use the advice of the truther to find out what tile to flip believe it or not back when I was in high school I was actually a die-hard professor layton fan like I was a really big fan of puzzles that required real cognitive thinking instead of just matching objects to the keyholes like you know what it means so while brief does manage to capture a little bit of that brain teaser magic that I was so fond of back then I mean like there was even a puzzle that had me getting a marker in a piece of paper to keep track of all the clues and figure it out like that's sick soon after landing in this art hell world Eve will find a red rose which ends up having this strange bond to her well-being this will go on to represent your health you've got a maximum of 5 hit points and taking damage from enemies falling into a trap or failing a certain puzzle will have you take damage if you take too much damage in your Rose wilts away it's / you can use these vases you'll find along the way to restore your health to full typically after finishing a puzzle room he'll get one of these before progressing to the next room eventually we stumble upon this blue rose this one paired to a different person it's gotta be that guy right he looks oh my god is he okay yo dude are you dead I massage shoulders stop what kind of course is this what you do when you see a dude dying on the ground you give him massage this guy's name is Gary after a vinyl izing his rose with some water he climbs back to his feet his character design it certainly is something I'll give it bad he's got the emo purple hair the tattered jacket I see girls go freakin nuts over this guy all the time I don't know it's a little bit too extravagant for me but I will admit that I do at least like his personality a lot Gary's kind mature and rational ieaves a 9 year old girl who needs an adult after all and Gary he's the adult in question he'll accompany you for the rest of the game offering EEB advice support and aid in moving heavy objects he's kind of like a babysitter except instead of out of daycare we're in a nightmare before long we'll also run into another character named Mary like EB she is also a young girl and unlike Gary she's very immature and somewhat annoying what's interesting about this dynamic is that once we actually take control of Gary for a short period his pessimistic reactions to certain pieces of Arts start to make sense everything looks different to him what looked like a cute picture of a bunny - even Mary was a grotesque and crude looking doll - Gary it makes no wonder he couldn't agree that they were cute these dolls even go so far as begging Gary to be played with as he continues to hesitate and refuse it kind of reminds me a lot of how as adults we start to find certain children's toys a little eerie I mean I'm sure you've all seen those unsettling looking dolls but to a child it's probably cute and fun to play with this is one of the earliest examples of the games theme of maturity seeing how the eyes of an adult defer from that of a child and this starts happening when the children gets separated from the adults even Mary gets split up from Gary and what I consider to be the game strongest area here you'll use these panels to switch control between even Gary in this extra large puzzle room changes each character makes to their own room will affect the other characters room so for example Gary will find an umbrella and will place it on a fisherman's hook it'll then get reeled up into a painting in EBEs room where she can then take it and use it in her room with the larger scale there's a lot more to take into consideration and I think it was really well done this was hands-down my favorite area in the game it makes me wish they had a couple of more rooms like this there's not really a whole lot after this point before I get the games ending and for the sake of keeping the video relatively spoiler free I'm going to avoid addressing any major plot points though I will say the game has many different endings depending on your choices and not even in a superficial way either your relationship with Gary and Mary will both be taken into account depending on your actions how much you've interacted with either character and how much damage you've done to the gallery itself it'll all determine who gets to live who gets back to reality and whether or not people even retain their memories afterwards all right Gary this is the final stretch we're gonna get out of here how are we how are we meant to jump into a painting what are you stupid like this dumbass there's a number of different possibilities I think there's like four or five standard endings total and then there was a couple of additional very grim endings that were added in some updates I do really like the idea of your relationships with the characters affecting the game's events especially since it's pulled off in a way that does make a lot of sense for example if a bond with Gary is strong enough she'll feel comfortable giving him her handkerchief to mend his bleeding hand and that choice in turn will affect the ending I'm not totally on board with the execution though basically the game is programmed to have a counter with Gary each time you trigger a certain dialogue or perform a context specific action you'll gain an invisible point but the number it has to be add to assure the best ending with Gary requires a near-perfect playthrough the game doing things you wouldn't really think of doing take this scene for example you have to talk to Gary seven or more times before leaving the room and the dialogue has a chance of repeating so you might not even think there's any reason to talk to him more than once this scene here - you got to talk to him six or more times but here you only get the option to talk to him if you already have the item you need to advance and your first instinct might be just to use the item and if you do that then you miss the chance to talk to him I think your relationships with the characters determining what happens throughout the plot and then affecting the ending is a great idea don't get me wrong it's just that I think the execution is what could use some work either have more instances to interact - Gary - make that invisible value increase or I don't know maybe have a lower requirement though I do think more opportunities to interact with Gary would be the better option other than that I think the rest of what determines the ending is fine like the interactions with Mary they're totally sound and so are the variables that will determine if a character dies or not it's just the Gary relationship value that I think needs work that's all now my second major criticism of this game is the replay value it encourages you to replay it multiple times experimenting with actions and dialogue options to get many of the different endings and that does work because this game is only like two hours long however I don't feel it works as well in an RPG maker game with a large emphasis on puzzle solving I mean the bulk of every playthrough is just gonna be redoing puzzles you already know the answer to and well that's just not something I really enjoy doing over and over as much as I do like simply exploring the same building again like in Misao or something those are my only two real major criticisms of this game the Gary value and the replay value like incentive to replay the game doesn't really mean a whole lot of actually replaying the game isn't that much fun to do but I know what you guys are thinking you want me to talk about what I do like about this game so don't worry there's plenty of that this game has an excellent atmosphere the lighting is consistently dark and the walls being riddled with interactive paintings really does set the mood but what really brings everything together is the choice and music and sound effects in some rooms you just hear these wet sticky footsteps and you stop walking and you still hear the footsteps when you're all alone and you hear something like that it gives you this pretty chilling feeling for obvious reasons the soundtrack is mainly made out of these acoustic guitar pieces which I think go really well with the art gallery setting such an analogue sound pairs up pretty well with all of this traditionally made artwork on display everything eeep sees is handcrafted with practical supplies paint clay stone so it's only fitting that the music is also created without any digital aid this game sets up a really great mood but the scares themselves are usually limited to just these minor jump scares I mean like I'm all for the idea of a painting of a woman coming to life and falling off the wall and crawling towards you because that's cool and freaky as hell but the fact that it always has to be introduced with such an unsubtle and loud smash or bang I don't know I just find it relies a little bit too much unbreaking quietness with a loud sound it doesn't really seem to try a whole lot more than that there is this one fantastic scene that I thought was freaking terrifying though Gary is trapped in this room where he has to tear open a bunch of dolls so we can find a key and get out of there and you've got to do this fast because this freaky looking doll a monster thing is slowly climbing up out of the painting to eat you the way this thing is animated is really unsettling there's this church bell that's ringing in the background and with every ring it climbs one more frame closer to you just the combination of the way this thing looks the way it moves and the pacing of the scene overall it's just incredibly terrifying this spooked the crap out of me in high school and it spooked the crap out of me again all these years later it's a great sequence that is genuinely scary it's pretty sick there's a handful more of these minor scares using the doll and I like these ones a little more than the other scares because these ones are dead silent it pops his head up looks at you and just goes back down what was that it doesn't need this big and loud entrance it just silently pops up looks at you and goes back down and I think in the long run these kinds of scares are a little bit more effective the ones that's just the noise you know the game is full of these fantastic little details some of which even call back to the game steam of maturity at the very end if you do succeed in escaping from the art world re-examining some of the paintings that Eve didn't know some of the words from before will now be legible what previously said a well meaning something now reads a well meaning hell as if this experience taught Eve exactly what that word means Eve is a really nice little game you know it tells a simple but endearing story that has a lot of small details that make things come together quite nicely it's got the symbolism the themes it has all the little things that are very easy to appreciate there are a lot of elements that some people might find kind of cliche or cheesy you know like the the hot boy emo character and some of the scares too but even if I do think it relies a little too heavily on startling the player there are a lot of genuinely chilling and fantastic moments here Eve is a pretty short game so it only take you like two hours tops to get through a little bit more if you really want to get the other endings but I didn't really find the game that much fun on repeated playthroughs that said though it is worth experiencing at least once and it's free so there's no reason not to I'll have a link down below if you want to check it out so yeah that is Eve that is Eve on the RPG maker I've been meaning to do a video on this game for years I really don't know why it took me this long it was actually the last RPG Maker game that I did play extensively before making this channel so yeah I've been getting a lot of people asking me to do this for a long time so there it is I hope you guys enjoyed what I had to say about this game thank you guys so much for watching and I guess I'll see you guys next time with umm something oh this is kind of fun [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Nitro Rad

Views: 377,332

Keywords: nitro rad, review, ib, ib game, ib rpgmaker, ib review, horror, rpg maker, pixel horror, garry, mary, paintings, art gallery, multiple endings, dolls, creepy dolls, mario 64, doc louis, brady

Id: ovRp0KqahlY

Length: 17min 44sec (1064 seconds)

Published: Sun May 27 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/wankthisway]

Excellent little horror game. Despite its simplistic looks there were some genuinely creepy parts. Story's really good as well. Funnily enough I found out about it by listening to the Vocaloid song of the same name.

[u/[deleted]]

Man, I don't know how Nitro puts out as much quality content as he does, but it seems like there's a new long-ass video from him every 3 days. Really hope that he gets the love he deserves after going full time, definitely come to respect him a lot in the past few months I've been watching.

[u/Pseudogenesis]

The first 10 minutes of Ib were straight up the most unnerving thing I have ever experienced. The rest of it felt like a creepy puzzle game with some light jump scares. I did get fairly invested in the story, but found the ending (at least the one I got) to be pretty unsatisfying. That was likely the point, given that it's a dreary horror game, but given that the story is very character-driven I was kinda sad about it.

That said, for the price of free it was better than most other horror games I've played, and that's still impressive as hell. It's a flawed, hidden gem of a game. If anyone wants to know how to do perfect atmospheric horror, do yourself a favor and download it, shut the lights off, put on some headphones and play that opening scene out. My god.

[u/MozillaFiberfox]

God, that name is a blast from my past. I remember years back I watched PewDiePie's series on this game. I should play it again.

[u/Jogami]

I've been waiting so long for Brad doing a review about Ib. Hopefully he makes another one like the Witch's House, that would be sweet.