STRAY |OT| CYBERPAWNK

[roguesquirrel]

Finished the game & while it definitely would have been my GOTY in 2012, in 2022 its just okay. Didnt regret playing it but its little too rigid in a way that feels dated in a 360-era kinda way & I think theres a lack of imagination in the playing as a cat aspect. For long stretches (particularly in the backhalf) you're interchangeable with any other third person protagonist except small. Loved doing stuff like using the meow to lure Zurks away from where you need to go, loathed the third person shooter sequence in the sewer.

Once you meet B-12 they basically become the plot's protagonist but the game wants to keep acting like its the cat leading to imo weird gamey disconnects. For example, I wouldve been fine accepting B12 was the one going through its inventory menus instead of the bizarre implication its the cat doing it. Its fun to knock over a painting to find the 4 digit code you need but it begs the question why a cat is finding keycodes at all. I will be the first to admit I'm being nitpicky but it routinely stood out to me & contributed to me feeling like less of a cat & more of a lil man, just a small kinda guy, as the game went on.

Also (ending spoilers) as someone who cared about reuniting with the other cats but didnt really care about the companions & b12, the ending was really hollow for me. I was hoping the game would be one long side story in the cats journey to reunite with its friends instead of that aspect being completely dropped.

 

[PARAdoja]

Finished all the trophies except the sleep one. Chose to replay chapter 4, find the 6th music sheet and take a nap listening to Morusque playing Cool Down until the trophy pops. What a great tune, didn't realize it was a Nujabes cover.

Awesome, awesome game.

 

[DrForester]

So we're in Gravity Falls.

 

[RossBob]

-

 

[BarryFishFinger]

Finished it in around 5 hours. The fact that I finished it at all means it was doing something right - overall though I liked it, but didn't love it. I won't ever want to play it again.

I love the world and visual style, the cat animations etc were very good, very atmospheric. I thought the writing was a little simple perhaps and broadly none of the game presented any sort of challenge, even for me, the puzzles such as they were were basic.

But I enjoyed my time with it though.

 

[reclaimerzzzzz]

Just finished, the timer said I finished in 3hr 46 mins, not sure how accurate it is as it felt longer to me. Very fun experience.

 

[Sande]

Well, the trophy popped up as soon as I did the scratch on the final level during the speed run. Not sure if there was an autosave during that scratch (there could be since it's like a story-mandated scratch), but it'd be strange if the trophy requires an autosave after scratches on the other levels and not on the final one...

Guess all there's left to check is if it autosaves on scratch at the final level.

Edit: forgot to note that the trophy should have popped up as soon as I did whatever scratch I was missing and not on the final scratch, since I'd already done that one.

Click to shrink...

I'm not gonna speculate how it's done in Stray specifically, but instant trophies and events persisting only on the next save are not mutually exclusive at all.

 

[crespo]

I'm not gonna speculate how it's done in Stray specifically, but instant trophies and events persisting only on the next save are not mutually exclusive at all.

Click to shrink...

I understand that, however I definitely scratched on every level in my first save file, but did so out of order and quitting right after doing the ones I know I was missing. No trophy.

Speed run, different save file, did them all in order in a single run and got the trophy the second I completed the scratch on the final level. So... Whatever *shrug*

 

[Sande]

I understand that, however I definitely scratched on every level in my first save file, but did so out of order and quitting right after doing the ones I know I was missing. No trophy.

Speed run, different save file, did them all in order in a single run and got the trophy the second I completed the scratch on the final level. So... Whatever *shrug*

Click to shrink...

Different save file probably explains why you needed to do all of them again and quitting immediately probably explains why they didn't add up on the first save.

A pretty typical way to do it would be that you're on 7/12, go to a new level to scratch, get to 8/12, not enough for a trophy so that doesn't trigger (also why it triggers immediately on 12/12 without anything to do with saving), quit to menu, progress goes back to 7/12 because it hadn't saved yet.

 

[HylianSeven]

Finished today. Very cute game that didn't overstay it's welcome. Puzzles were fun as well as just running around as a kitty being fun and also adorable.

Few things I wondered about for the story:

Spoiler: Whole game

Maybe I didn't pick up a vital memory or something, but there was a Companion that said something about "Electric Zurks". I expected I would face these inevitably but there was no such thing. Did I just not explore some area where I would find these or did they just not exist or what?

B-12 had no memory of being a human long ago until he was reminded of it by the memories, but wouldn't the implication here be that all the other Companions have originally been humans too? I assumed that was the implication during the reveal about B-12 (which I think was pretty guessable before), but they never brought it up beyond B-12.

Was a little lowkey disappointed we never got to see kitty reunite with their kitty friends they were with at the start.

I remember being stuck for a while on two puzzles:

1. Stealing the worker jacket. By the time I got there, I had forgotten about the cassette tape in the residential district and assumed the player in the back was just a for funzies thing. I had been trying every way to try to get that jacket and ended up having to look that one up.

2. In the nightclub, it took me a while to figure out that I had to stand on top of the holodancer pod to go up. I got the missing lever pretty early, but I assumed I needed the record and didn't immediately find it on the table, and then when I did, I found out that it was just a "for fun" thing. Eventually I realized I had to jump on top of it, but I had assumed given that there were two holodancers that you had to distract the DJ and keep both shut down for a period of time.

 

[Sande]

Finished today. Very cute game that didn't overstay it's welcome. Puzzles were fun as well as just running around as a kitty being fun and also adorable.

Few things I wondered about for the story:

Spoiler: Whole game

Maybe I didn't pick up a vital memory or something, but there was a Companion that said something about "Electric Zurks". I expected I would face these inevitably but there was no such thing. Did I just not explore some area where I would find these or did they just not exist or what?

B-12 had no memory of being a human long ago until he was reminded of it by the memories, but wouldn't the implication here be that all the other Companions have originally been humans too? I assumed that was the implication during the reveal about B-12 (which I think was pretty guessable before), but they never brought it up beyond B-12.

Was a little lowkey disappointed we never got to see kitty reunite with their kitty friends they were with at the start.

I remember being stuck for a while on two puzzles:

1. Stealing the worker jacket. By the time I got there, I had forgotten about the cassette tape in the residential district and assumed the player in the back was just a for funzies thing. I had been trying every way to try to get that jacket and ended up having to look that one up.

2. In the nightclub, it took me a while to figure out that I had to stand on top of the holodancer pod to go up. I got the missing lever pretty early, but I assumed I needed the record and didn't immediately find it on the table, and then when I did, I found out that it was just a "for fun" thing. Eventually I realized I had to jump on top of it, but I had assumed given that there were two holodancers that you had to distract the DJ and keep both shut down for a period of time.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

The companions are AIs that eventually gained sentience. B12 is presumably the only uploaded human consciousness.

 

[monketron]

Mod Turns The Cat From Stray Into CJ From San Andreas

'After five years on the East Coast, it was time to go home'

kotaku.com

The video is just amazing.

 

[roguesquirrel]

Spoiler

The companions are AIs that eventually gained sentience. B12 is presumably the only uploaded human consciousness.

Click to shrink...

This doesnt track to me because

Spoiler

Why would the second machine that spurs B-12 memory of uploading themselves even exist if they were the only one?

 

[Sande]

This doesnt track to me because

Spoiler

Why would the second machine that spurs B-12 memory of uploading themselves even exist if they were the only one?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

It could be that the machine was for something a little different and the scientist modified it to do what it did. In any case B12 seems pretty convinced they're the last human.

 

[Cess007]

Mod Turns The Cat From Stray Into CJ From San Andreas

'After five years on the East Coast, it was time to go home'

kotaku.com

The video is just amazing.

Click to shrink...

 

[Clay]

Just finished it. It's good. The art design is incredible. The two more open areas were fun to explore, though I wish there were more fun areas to find. Maybe you go under a table and see stuff carved into the bottom of the tabletop. Maybe you can squeeze behind a couch and find something that was lost back there. The sense of scale is cool but other than climbing on AC units and stuff like that you don't really do a whole lot that you could only do as a cat.

The gameplay is OK. I do like that it switches things up quite a bit. The little trading games were lame. They don't last long enough to really become annoying, but they're not exactly thrilling either. It's like the devs brainstormed "OK, what are some fun things you can do as a cat?" And someone said "How about the first few hours of Twilight Princess where you have to figure out that little web of puzzles in the starting town. Except you're a cat." And they just went with that.

The art design alone really makes it worth playing though.

 

[CosmicGP]

I love how different people are.
Sable and stary were very fast uninstall for me aka " wtf this low budget shit is this".
I finished my whole backlog ( just graduated medschool ) and tried many inie games on gamepass, playstation extra and I can't play those games.
I can only play those HUGE AAA tittles. I don't know why, maybe because I am books and movies guy and I need perfect voice acting and lip sync, realistic animations blending and some other things that belongs to high value production that immerse me.

Click to shrink...

I'm the same way, 99% of the games I play are AAA.
But I don't get why you feel this way about Stray. It feels polished and high production value as heck, down to the excellent soundtrack. Feels more like a short, mini AAA game to me.

 

[SilentPanda]

View: https://twitter.com/_donlothario/status/1551258247226597377

 

[SunBroDave]

Finished it, really enjoyed it. Short, sweet, pretty clever mechanically and had just enough variety to keep things from getting boring before it was over. Some genuinely emotional moments. Incredible visuals, especially all of the cat animations. Solid 8 - 8.5 out of 10.

 

[zaitsu]

Yup, being a gamer made me realize how different people are. I'll think a game is amazing, and read somewhere else that someone uninstalled it after 30 minutes.

As for me personally, it is not Indie or AAA. I can love both. A good example is Death Stranding. That is a huge AAA fantastical Hollywood cinematics-like game. You either hate that game or love it. I of course loved it. Doing my second play through with the PSN+ subscription director's cut. But I know this game is not for a lot of people.

So what have I learned from all this. I stopped trying to convince/argue with people that a game is good. Life is too short to spend time convincing others that a game is good, because what you think is good/fun/beautiful/etc. might not be what they think is good/fun/beautiful/etc.

Click to shrink...

I loved death stranding my top 5 !

 

[Morrigan]

This game is delightful.

Me playing this game:

 

[Danielsan]

Finished the game this morning. I enjoyed it a lot, but didn't love it. I'm glad I snagged it with a week of free PS+ instead of buying it on Steam.

Visually the game is absolutely stunning, but I found the gameplay a bit too thin and the writing and story weren't good enough to fully make up for that. Unlike some, I do think they're jumping implementation was excellent given that you are controlling a cat. Overall a very solid experience, but I expected something a little bit more special.

 

[Enrico Pallazzo]

Finished Stray on PS5 yesterday. What a beautiful little journey. Perfect pacing and length, graphically just insane on my OLED TV. Congrats to the devs!

Does anyone know how many people work at BlueTwelve?

 

[Ezel]

24 in-house + 3 contractors and 3 outsourcers!


View: https://twitter.com/hkdevblog/status/1535261259003830272?s=21&t=97tK-qLVrnG5rDUY73KCsQ

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

I knew the developers were cats

 

[phonicjoy]

Just finished it. It's good. The art design is incredible. The two more open areas were fun to explore, though I wish there were more fun areas to find. Maybe you go under a table and see stuff carved into the bottom of the tabletop. Maybe you can squeeze behind a couch and find something that was lost back there. The sense of scale is cool but other than climbing on AC units and stuff like that you don't really do a whole lot that you could only do as a cat.

The gameplay is OK. I do like that it switches things up quite a bit. The little trading games were lame. They don't last long enough to really become annoying, but they're not exactly thrilling either. It's like the devs brainstormed "OK, what are some fun things you can do as a cat?" And someone said "How about the first few hours of Twilight Princess where you have to figure out that little web of puzzles in the starting town. Except you're a cat." And they just went with that.

The art design alone really makes it worth playing though.

Click to shrink...

The trading puzzles reminded me of Links awakening AKA the best Zelda. Loved that part.

 

[Zep]

Enjoyed it. Music was a nice surprise and helped set the mood in a lot of scenes.

 

[Smelck]

Great game and enjoyed my time with it. Beautiful in motion and the music fabulously complements the art style and asthetic.

Played nicely, with a good mix of puzzles and traversal ...but the camera and control particularly in tight spaces combined with a no fail controlled jump was a bit annoying at times..but yeah a great time and a heartwarming journey and story....wish it had ended in different (and expected) way....

 

[cvbas]

I liked it much more than I expected to. The pacing is *great* and no segment overstays its welcome. Honestly, more games should be like this -- short and with new mechanics coming at you fast. A lesser developer would've padded this game into an 8 or 10-hour affair, thankfully this didn't happen here.

Also, the 'no jump button' complaints are pretty nonsensical to me, as it would make no sense in this game. Maybe if it was something else altogether, but then your problem with the game is much deeper.

Anyway, need to do a second run soon so I can get the speedrunning trophy. It's the only one missing for the Platinum.

 

[PARAdoja]

Spoiler

It could be that the machine was for something a little different and the scientist modified it to do what it did. In any case B12 seems pretty convinced they're the last human.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

I don't know, in MidTown you recover one of the memories in that fast food restaurant that says something like "I remember the guy who ran a place like this but I can't remember the name. I think it starts with M..." And then you go and check the robot in the counter and their name starts with M too. I think it's something of an unreliable narrator.

 

[Poldino]

24 in-house + 3 contractors and 3 outsourcers!


View: https://twitter.com/hkdevblog/status/1535261259003830272?s=21&t=97tK-qLVrnG5rDUY73KCsQ

Click to shrink...

Few people and yet they managed to make such a wonderful experience

 

[Chibs]

Cleanup time, only have to get the speedrun trophy for the platinum.

What a joy this game has been.

 

[Sande]

Spoiler

I don't know, in MidTown you recover one of the memories in that fast food restaurant that says something like "I remember the guy who ran a place like this but I can't remember the name. I think it starts with M..." And then you go and check the robot in the counter and their name starts with M too. I think it's something of an unreliable narrator.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Maybe. But considering we get most of the lore from B12's memories, I don't know how I would feel if he could be wrong about basically everything.

That M thing could be just another example of robots mimicking how people used to be.

 

[jroc74]

Mod Turns The Cat From Stray Into CJ From San Andreas

'After five years on the East Coast, it was time to go home'

kotaku.com

The video is just amazing.

Click to shrink...

Click to shrink...

Omg...

I dont know what I expected, but I literally laughed out loud watching that clip.

 

[iamandy]

I didn't expect the story to be so good tbh. The world is also beautifuly realized. Got my platinum, loved every minute.

My only complaint is that the cat lacks personalite. He is just a veichle to B12.

 

[Dan Thunder]

Completed it and pretty much deleted it straight away as it's not something I'll likely ever return to. It was ok but I jut wasn't hugely engaged wih it from the start. It got a bit better at the end but for me there just wasn't enough gameplay to it. It's odd as Journey is one of my favourite games of all time and that has even less gameplay, I suspect it's because a lot of the narrative is implied in that title so you fill in the story yourself and, of course, the multiplayer helped it greatly.

I think it's a title that with a bit of a rethink could have been a terrific multiplayer experience but in the end it's left me feeling pretty indifferent towards it.

 

[Yuuber]

All in all, I absolutely loved the game. While I thought the ending could be better, it's also a game about a cat. The simplicity of it was kind of in-line with that.

In my opinion, the art direction, visuals and sounds are 10/10,but gameplay-wise it's a 7. When I got to the first area I thought the game would be more a point-and-click adventure with item management, but that goes down the drain pretty fast and becomes a linear adventure game. It's still an incredible journey and well worth the admission price.

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

Also finished it and even as a cat person who has two, it left me pretty much disinterested and bored after the novelty wore off very quickly. The gameplay just bored me to tears fast. I mean playing the kitty, it's cute for a bit and who doesn't like to meow at shit, but ultimately I was expecting something way more engaging. The lack of a dedicated jump button and real exploration baffled me nonstop in a game you play as a cat. I think I'm just burnt out on this style of game, I played enough of it in the 2010s and it feels too passive for me.

 

[Batatina]

I think this is probably my second favourite game of the year. It's the opposite of Elden Ring (my favourite) in the best way. A moody game, simple on gameplay but rich on music, visual style and charm. Loving every second.

 

[DJChuy]

Finished it. Took me about six hours. I love it. Yeah the gameplay is simple, but it switches it up every now and then. Atmosphere, music and the little story we get are great. It also looks great visually.

My only complaint is the playing as a cat novelty wears off halfway though, but my cat was entertained throughout the game.

That one trophy is BS though.

 

[Messofanego]

I knew the developers were cats

Click to shrink...

I wonder if there were any anti-cat developers and how they would wrestle with that cognitive dissonance. Or existential despair. "I hate cats, I hate animating them, I hate them making a mess, why am I doing this?!"

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

On another note, my cat was curiously disinterested and I was kind of annoyed at him for it lol. I literally sat him in front of the TV and pointed and went LOOK LOOK! like a fool while hitting the meow button over and over

 

[Serpens007]

I've hit two issues

One is that I got the "hold lb to use the defluxo" glitch where the button doesn't work. Restarted the checkpoint many times and it doesn't work. I've read that re-starting the chapter fixes it but it seems that it also reset collectibles progress soo... ugh


The other one is that I gotta wait until one of my cats is asleep to play this. As soon as I start the game, dude runs to the TV and, what once was very cute behavior, became dreadful the second he attacked the TV and a whole big square became white for half a second. The biggest issue is that now it doesn't happen with just Stray. If the TV is turned on, this guy stares at it waiting for that damn cat to show up. He became vigilant and when there's another game playing he's trying to see if hitting the TV makes the cat to show up. I don't know if he's loving or hating Stray, but it def is making him feel things.

 

[The Gold Hawk]

Played for 2 and half hours so far. It's fine?

Being a cat is cute and some of the world interaction is fun but I got over it real quick.

It's nice to look at and has lovely music (It's Annapurna so that tracks) but I dunno. I'm just not feeling it. Like a lot of very hyped up games, when I find it to be merely okay or bad then I feel worse when playing it. Like I'm the one playing it wrong. Sours my mood. That's not the games fault of course.

On another note, my cat was curiously disinterested and I was kind of annoyed at him for it lol. I literally sat him in front of the TV and pointed and went LOOK LOOK! like a fool while hitting the meow button over and over

Click to shrink...

Same. Cat could not give a shit. Checked the TV once or twice when it first booted up, but that could have just been the lights and noise for all I can tell. He just laid down, faced away from the TV and nodded off. Only ever moving to loudly wash himself. 😕

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

This is such a tiny annoyance because so far I'm loving the game but whoever thought it was a good idea to make square the button to advance the dialogue boxes but then having to press circle to exit them is a dickhead.

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

I've hit two issues

One is that I got the "hold lb to use the defluxo" glitch where the button doesn't work. Restarted the checkpoint many times and it doesn't work. I've read that re-starting the chapter fixes it but it seems that it also reset collectibles progress soo... ugh


The other one is that I gotta wait until one of my cats is asleep to play this. As soon as I start the game, dude runs to the TV and, what once was very cute behavior, became dreadful the second he attacked the TV and a whole big square became white for half a second. The biggest issue is that now it doesn't happen with just Stray. If the TV is turned on, this guy stares at it waiting for that damn cat to show up. He became vigilant and when there's another game playing he's trying to see if hitting the TV makes the cat to show up. I don't know if he's loving or hating Stray, but it def is making him feel things.

Click to shrink...

I'm gonna go with hate...

I have cats, 95% of their internal lives is finding shit to hate on.

 

[MegaSackman]

Also (ending spoilers) as someone who cared about reuniting with the other cats but didnt really care about the companions & b12, the ending was really hollow for me. I was hoping the game would be one long side story in the cats journey to reunite with its friends instead of that aspect being completely dropped.

Click to shrink...

I liked the game, had a really fun time with it exploring and solving light puzzles but yeah, the story while it was nice it was quite straightforward and simple and I believe they wanted me to have an emotional investment that I didn't have, I couldn't care less about the drone. I was expecting the same thing as you (altho it kinda makes sense it didn't happen considering the journey we were on)

 

[Haloid1177]

Did PC performance improve since launch? Wanna play this but not really wanting to buy it on my PS5.

 

[Jedi2016]

Did PC performance improve since launch? Wanna play this but not really wanting to buy it on my PS5.

Click to shrink...

PC performance is fine. Don't listen to all the people just parroting the DF video, they haven't played it.

 

[SoloTerran]

I really appreciated that this game didn't overstay it's welcome.

In an age of videogames where it seems like every developer is trying to artificially pad the length of their games with boring missions and fetch quests, this game was really refreshing to play. It gives the player the agency to stop and take in the world and do some side-quests or move on to the main story that's appropriately paced.