Recommending Linda^3 Again

Linda Cube Again is a game where it looks normal at first but looking at the handprints in the title and some questionable dialogue foreshadows a lot of what you are getting into. It plays almost like a normal turn based RPG but different enough to where you might have to switch up your strategies on certain encounters. I will keep this blog spoiler free as possible, and I do recommend playing scenario A and B as blindly as possible. 

I think a good place to start is the story since you are given 3 scenarios from the start, and each scenario starts similarly. The real differences are within the dialogue and how Linda approaches you. The game is about Ken and Linda being forced into an assignment by God to collect all the animals in the planet in pairs before 1999. When 1999 happens the Grim Reaper will destroy Earth. If you collect the allotted animals before the end of the world you win, but if you don't you lose. Each scenario gives you a different number of animals to collect from.

I think my favorite part about the game is its dialogue. You have characters that are full of life and even deranged, and NPCs that have very interesting things to say to you at times. Some really funny and dumb moments that I think fit the game’s overall narrative and tone very well, and they don’t even interfere with the more heavy and serious moments of the game. What scenes, well you’ll see when you play it. As an RPG it is safe to say that you’re mostly in it for the story, and there is a lot to be had in this game.

Now let’s talk about the part everyone wants to know, the gameplay. The game plan is that you have to capture animals and each scenario gives you a minimum of how many animals you have to capture before you can leave on your funny ark. Sounds simple right? Whenever you get an animal to reach to 0 or close to it animals “stop resisting” so you capture them. BUT if you put too much damage in them they die, and the game will not only tell you that in a gruesome way, you don’t gain experience points from that and also you don’t capture them. This isn’t too much of an issue, but when you’re trying to capture insects and smaller animals later in the game it can be cumbersome. However, I think that’s the point. You can’t always throw a big sword at a smaller enemy in order to accomplish your goal, which allows you to think outside the box a little more, and allows you to use weaker weapons and pay a bit more attention to your stats. 

Speaking of being careful there are also season changes that affect the animals and how you should manage your time and resources throughout the game. I think what’s a bigger enemy than the bosses and animals that are high on attack and HP is time. Yes when you die, you not only get sent to the doctor, you also lose animals. This allows the player to debate on how to approach areas that they’re not yet used to. For example you enter the south side where the dogs are stronger than you are, and you’re given the choice to fight them or go towards the safe option to register and move on with the story until you get stronger. 

Of course as most RPGs you have your inns and your shops, but here there’s a lot of other options as well. You get a dog house with a vet and a tamer where you can buy dogs to help you along the journey. Later when you get to Hospico there’s also a dog trainer that could make you take on a moral dilemma on whether or not you should or shouldn’t take him in. The amount of choices in the game don’t exactly change too much in the game, but it leads into what Ken is thinking when encountering these sorts of questions throughout the game. There also aren't many moral dilemmas in these choices either, so you can either choose the boring answer or the funny answer to get a rise out of Linda. 

In terms of how I feel about the gameplay it may sound intimidating at first but after some trial and error and finishing up the 2 scenarios you’re essentially ready for C. I know people would call scenarios A and B to be “tutorials” for the main meat of the game C but I couldn’t disagree more. Tutorials imply that they can be skippable, and skipping A and B you would be missing out on the story and known animal locations that could help the process of C go by quicker. C is THE gameplay focused scenario and is nothing but gameplay, but not knowing the context of what happened in A and B can really hurt the experience playing through the whole game in general.

Now the million dollar question: why am I recommending Linda Cube Again anyway? This game really is an experience worth having, in both gameplay and narrative. While the gameplay isn’t anything deep, there are animals that require thinking outside of the box but allow us to understand the game itself. The narrative is a wild ride that I think is very much diving into. To that I feel confident that this game plays differently enough to most RPGs that could lead to both looking into a wider outlook, but also rewards you for exploring different methods of capturing animals and the world itself.

The YouTube version is right here