Youropa Review: Won't Bring You Down

In concept, frecle's Youropa is a city torn apart street by street featuring an unnamed character tasked with solving it back together at his own pace. From puzzle to puzzle, it's clear that frecle's wall walking title has heart and genuine identity but lacks substance and variety. The entire city premise feels more like set dressing than a true story or character motivation. While Youropa is a quality player-friendly puzzle title that encourages thinking creatively at every corner, everything surrounding it feels way too one note.

Soft Around the Edgy Corners

Regarding fidelity, Youropa looks excellent even on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode. Every object and environment appear very glossy, inviting, and extremely eye-catching. Even the most minor item or tool at your disposal feels appealing and engaging.

Youropa features a few tunes, but none of them stood out or felt memorable. It's not that the music featured is terrible by any means. They convey a sense of calm or panic when applicable, but they represent just that and nothing more, considering I heard the same few tunes at every stage I attempted. On top of that, the description of this game lists an angle of "breaking the rules." While you can spray paint walls here and there, the tunes accompanying these private moments don't scream a particularly edgy vibe.

All the Castles (And Buildings) in the Sky

The game opens up with an enticing and dramatic opening cinematic showing these structures floating far above a city in dismay. Yet, in retrospect, this cinematic didn't add much since it was too vague to express any narrative scenario or direction. This scene, accompanied by the minimal additions you encounter as you play, felt more like a premise for premise's sake. Admittedly, this isn't why I would play a puzzle game initially anyway, so it doesn't break the overall experience. However, this set dressing felt like a bit of a miss considering the game's description leaning heavily toward it.

As you play, you are floating above a broken city, but beyond that, there isn't much to imply that these platforms you are puzzling across belonged to a once great city. It all feels like a bit of a stretch.

What is Up is Down Again

As you boot up Youropa, you are splashed with green paint. This paint acts as your health. As you take damage, the color begins to wash off your character. Players can customize their characters at paint stations, which serve as fast travel stations, throughout the puzzle stages. Once your paint is completely gone, it's game over. While you can collect paint at these paint stations as you progress, it never feels like you are supplied with enough. Luckily, receiving game over's never feels like a genuine detriment. You just quickly reboot right where you left off, progress and all. In addition to Game Over’s not carrying a ton of weight, the game's checkpointing is top-notch. They always pull you back to your last destination with your progress intact.

Now, the real meat and potatoes of Youropa revolve around the game's wall traversal mechanic. It lends itself super well to creativity in terms of puzzle-solving. You can stick to sides and continue walking up or down walls that twist and turn with or against gravity. So, simply traversing is a puzzle that lends itself to thinking diversely. The puzzles are high quality and fun to maneuver. Even if you are stuck, the game features organic in-game hints in the form of statue-like characters that mimic your showing walls you can get to. Initially, the 3D gravity-based wall walking messed with my head. After time with it, I adjusted accordingly, which was a non-issue for me. However, I can see it being an issue for some players.

While the central puzzle or objective is maneuvering the landscape via Youropa's main wall traversal mechanic to get to the next door, some ask you to do more, like reaching a specific platform, activating a button, kicking a ball into a lever, etc. Spread about throughout each set of puzzles are a variety of pink cassette tapes that, when collected, add things to the game's creation feature where players can create their own puzzles and share them with other players.

Stages and their puzzles also feature obstacles such as launchers, spray paint, appropriate walls, random knockable objects, slippery floors, trap holes, and even rain that washes away your health. My favorite obstacles are the few enemies Youropa throws at you. Whether it's a massive daunting glob of a creature straight out of Monster Inc., or a dog-like creature, these enemies act as the most fun and suspenseful aspect of Youropa. These painted creatures are often avoidable, but you can combat them when you unlock the appropriate ability. When taking damage from them, you are tasked with mashing the "B" button to break free or wake up. Lastly, these creatures will eventually play crucial parts in traversing and solving puzzle stages, as coaxing them into specific spots proves vital.

I mentioned above how players can unlock appropriate abilities. Players do so by completing what I am coining, star puzzles. I call them this because they are identified on the map with a star, nothing too sophisticated. Once you complete these star puzzles, gravity lightens, and you float to the center to get a better view of the puzzle area to find its secrets.

The first time you finish these star puzzles, it acts as the introduction to the said control, of which you can then view the entire landscape with "x." This is also when you unlock future abilities like grab, kick, jump, etc. Jumping is a late-game unlock. While this frustrated me, it wasn't a game breaker because the puzzles that come before are adequately scaled, and it just felt odd to leave that very mechanic for later on.

Youropa's puzzles revolve around powered or unpowered wires that lead to doors that continue you on your path or circle back to stages you have already partly completed. However, even with a map, these wires are hard to follow. The entirety of the game is very organic, and you learn on your own. Not a single piece of dialogue is said. So, for better or worse, the game is entirely organic in navigation, puzzle solving, narrative, etc.

Breakdown

Game: Youropa

Developer: frecle

Availability: Nintendo Switch, PC

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch

Pros: 

+ Quality Puzzles

+ Player-friendly

Cons: 

- Lacks variety in setting and music

Final Thoughts

Youropa is a puzzle game with engaging puzzles and a killer traversal mechanic, and that alone speaks volumes for the title's quality. While it's true that the game's setting, environments, and premise are merely an attempt at adequate set dressing, the game's overall selling point succeeds and is so player-friendly that the only sense of suspense thrown at the player is the kind that is ultimately intended. For those interested in playing Youropa, what has you interested will most likely shine.

Reviewed by Austin Ernst