Octopus City Blues Preview: Tentacles Are My Grandpa
I’ve worked in the game industry for a long time and have played my fair share of weird games. In fact, video games are a veritable jackpot of weirdness. We’re all living in the same timeline as I Am Bread and Goat Simulator just to give a few examples. But, in spite of the strange timeline that we’ve all found ourselves a part of, no games, at least in my career, have ever been quite as weird as Octopus City Blues.
From Developer Ghost in a Bottle, Octopus City Blues is a psychedelic, strange, exploration game based in Octopus City known as the “last bastion of humanity” in a frozen world. You play as Kaf Kafkaryan, an awkward tentacle trimmer living on a giant octopus. (Hey, I said it was weird, if you didn’t believe me, that’s on you.) He’s bad at handshakes, fully willing to sell off his own mother and, he’s great at getting himself into strange predicaments, or so it seems in the game’s current demo available right now on Steam.
At the start of the demo, Kafkaryan is at a job interview at a company called Curtain Crust Foods. The company is looking to procure octoblood - the blue blood that courses through the mysteriously titled “entity.” Sure, you could just smash up one of the many tentacles that slither around Octopus City, but Curtain Crust is looking for pure octoblood. And, as a (sort of) newly hired employee, you’ve been asked to investigate and try to find a dealer.
Your so-called best friend, Conman, installs Kafkaryan with a Bunker 2X, a digital assistant that will help you keep track of what’s going on in the world, who you’ve spoken to and what items you have available in your inventory. The Bunker 2X is equipped with a gossip function which will allow you to speak with people around the city and gather important facts to get you closer to that sweet, sweet octoblood. Nothing corrupt or dangerous about it at all.
As you play more of the demo you’ll meet some of the other strange and off-putting residents of Octopus City, learning more about octoblood and where you mind find it. You’ll collect your gossip until you’ve got a lead and can investigate it and you’ll even learn more about Kaf himself. Octopus City Blues is truly unique and unlike anything I’ve played before. It’s best played with no spoilers so I’ll avoid going into more detail, but I can’t wait to see what other completely off the wall adventures Kaf will get up to in the main game currently set to release later this year.
Preview by Becca Smith