this review is spoiler-free
rain world: the watcher is a wonderfully executed story about loss, trauma and cycles of abuse with a few glaring issues. in a lot of ways, it feels like a successor to the original rain world more than an expansion, but in others it significantly falls short of being enjoyable to play.
i've been playing rain world a lot since 2020. i enjoyed downpour, but despite being really fun and adding a lot to the game, it felt like it was significantly disconnected from the kind of game the original rain world was trying to be. in contrast, playing the watcher felt like playing rain world for the first time again. it challenges what you think you know about the world, it forces you to break habits you may have gotten used to as a long time player and it brings in a completely new story and world instead of building on top what was established in the original game, all the while still feeling like rain world.
the story of the watcher feels very well presented and emotional while remaining vague and cryptic enough to make you want to find out more. the world is vibrant, featuring many diverse regions (and aether ridge) and plenty of new creatures that actually feel distinct from what was present in the original. the soundtrack is full of great, unique songs that complement the gameplay. exploring this world for the first time was a genuine joy. the final ending is honestly one of the best endings i have ever experienced in a videogame. it is beautifully executed, and, in my opinion, significantly more impactful than any of the other endings in the game. finishing rain world: the watcher left me feeling a lot of things. it made me cry. it was exactly what i wished for from a rain world expansion, and more. and i really wish that i could just end the review here.
unfortunately, for reasons i truly do not understand, the developers made some really questionable choices in the expansion's design. i reached the first ending at around ~12 hours in. i had fun the whole time i was working towards it, it felt like it was building up to something wonderful, and the payoff was well worth it. by the end i felt like i had seen everything there was to see in the watcher. i had been to every region, most of them thoroughly explored. but unfortunately, there were 3 more endings to get, including the "true" ending. it took me twenty more hours (20!!!) to finish this expansion. this time was spent lost without any direction, then doing tedious, repetitives, joyless tasks. there was nothing new to see, to experience. there were no discoveries to be had. just tedious, menial labor.
by the time i got to the last ending i had long been ready to be done with the game. if it was any other game, i would have dropped out long before this point. this labor contributed nothing to how impactful the ending felt. i really, truly do not understand why the decision was made to include this much repetitive grinding in a game like rain world. not even as a side thing! it's required to reach the final ending. i genuinely wish i could recommend this expansion to my friends, but as it stands, most people are not going to want to spend 20 hours doing unenjoyable chores to reach an ending in a videogame.
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