Anna needs to find friends and a new job in another country. But she also has to battle strange monsters and visions that haunt her in Pill Baby.
Anna has had to move to a small town – a place that seems to have some unsettling secrets. Besides those eerie elements, though, are the struggles many immigrants face when they move someplace. Anna has to deal with the stress of meeting new people, the loneliness that comes from leaving your old life behind, and the challenges that the language barrier brings. Anna also seems to be going through many other personal challenges, including a difficulty with the drugs she takes for her job. Her life is very hard, and you’ll experience it first-hand alongside her.
Reality seems to be built on sand for Anna, though. As if she needs more challenges. There are times when she’ll find herself fighting twisted creatures in live action combat sequences. She has an array of moves that you’re encouraged to build into combos, keeping enemies pinned down by leaving them with no opportunity to fight back. You can also equip some gloves for added nasty elemental attacks, giving yourself even greater power. However, you may find yourself taken aback by the things you’re punching every once in a while. The monsters seem to have some connections to her feelings and life, and may tell you more about Anna and her struggles if you pay attention.
Pill Baby is an intriguing mixture of bleak storytelling about life as an immigrant AND a challenging action title. They seem like an odd combination at first, but tying the struggle of living life as an immigrant to a physical struggle against strange creatures (that tie in to the challenges in your life) does make for an interesting game.
Pill Baby is available now on itch.io and Steam. A Nintendo eShop is coming at some point in the future.
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