Aside from its peculiar visuals, which we’ve mentioned before, the first thing to point out about Inmost is that you will be controlling three characters.

You start out as a young girl – though sometimes this part is an old man. Basically, any time you play as one of these two characters, the narrative carries more weight in that section than actual play. You may come across some puzzles but, because the characters move slowly or lack any real abilities, this part of the game is more focused on advancement of the story itself.

Later on, you play as the old man. Despite not being particularly agile, he can do jumps of a sort, move around and use objects. As a result, this part of the game is centred around exploring a limited area in which you have to complete challenges to advance to the next part of the story. In this part of the game, different stories unfold, and it is expected that they have to do with the main bulk of gameplay.

The most agile of all the characters is the knight who, armed with a scythe and hookshot, takes on enemies in the most action-packed parts of the games. While there are also a fair amount of puzzles to be solved in these parts of the game, there is far more action and therefore this section is more dynamic.

Beyond gameplay, however, Inmost’s main message is one of loss, and it is a central part of the game. The message presents itself at the beginning, leading one to think that the game is a kind of a light horror story in 2D. Little by little, though, that is put to one side and we discover what the message really is.

As far as visuals go, the game is pretty ground-breaking. Going off still images, the aesthetic doesn’t look dissimilar to something on Game Boy or even 8-bit computers like Spectrum. But when you see the game in motion, all those perceptions go out of the window. On the one hand, the standard of work, especially regarding animation, is extremely high. Jon Davies, an expert in pixel and animation, is to thank for this – previous work by him can be appreciated in Super House of the Dead Ninjas, 88 Heroes and Blade Strangers. Above all, however, fantastic lighting work gives the 2D game volume and injects what is mostly a black and white game with colour and life.

In conclusion, although Inmost definitely has a certain type of audience, it can be enjoyed by virtually any gamer in one way or another. Those more into challenges and puzzles will enjoy themselves any time they are in the exploration stages of the game, and combat with the knight is as straightforward as it is satisfying. Visually, it’s a gem – it’ll only take a couple of seconds for you to appreciate that – but those who end up playing for three to four hours are bound to connect with the story that Hidden Layer Games has set out to tell.

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