REVIEW : Say No! More (PC)
Who has never happened to be the last wheel of the wagon? Whether at school, in a group of friends or at work, whoever arrives last always has the most thankless tasks, to which it is almost impossible to say no. We arm ourselves with all the patience we have and we try to endure and suffer all the oppression that comes from direct superiors.
Even the developers of Studio Fizbin must have often found themselves in such situations, with a great desire to refuse yet another absurd request, and dreaming of being able to say, or rather shout, a healthy and peremptory “no”. That’s exactly what Say No is about! More, how in life sometimes a therapeutic, almost cathartic “no” would be more useful than yet another assent.
Just feel the power of No
But let’s go in order: Say No! More puts us in the shoes of an intern on his very first day in a new company. Our unfortunate protagonist can’t communicate what’s inside, not even talking to his friends. Imagine then, being able to rebel in a hostile work environment, between a veteran colleague who asks him to make photocopies and an executive who steals his lunch basket.
His passivity is interrupted by an unexpected discovery, a Walkman with a cassette of almost magical powers. This somewhat sui generis Aladdin’s lamp has a weird gym trainer inside, with an important lesson to bestow on our hero: knowing how to say “no”. The two letters are prohibited in the company, where the sacred law of yes is in force in all conditions, so the protagonist’s “new ability” sets off a series of increasingly unlikely and absurd events.
Yes, because as you will notice even just watching the official trailer, in Say No! More is all exaggerated, crazy, permeated with an atmosphere worthy of the best Japanese humorous manga. The game has a deliberately 90s graphic style, in which, however, the expressiveness of the protagonists was obviously worked in a specific way. It will be impossible not to smile while you live the vicissitudes that follow one another in the course of history.
Scream No in all the languages of the world
For starters, the game offers a rather basic, likeable and context-appropriate character editor. You won’t be able to create your own carbon copy, but surely you will find something for yourself. If you don’t want to go through the editor, you’ll also have sixteen pre-built characters to choose from. Finished with the creation, we move on to the choice of the no closest to us. There are 17 languages to choose from: we go from the very Italian “No”, to Japanese and even to Irish Gaelic “Ní dhéanfaidh mé è”. All in double option, with both male and female voices.
After the initial tasks, you will find yourself in front of a crazy prologue, in which you will be taught the rudiments of gameplay. The title is entirely playable with a single button, the one used for no. You will then have the opportunity to choose the tone, passing for example from a cold no to an indolent one and carry out actions, assigned to the left analogue, useful to irritate your interlocutor, such as laughing in his face or slowly applauding in a sarcastic way. However, these choices only complement and are not strictly necessary to move forward in the game, which does not include game over.
Say No! More is a kind of platform shooter. The movements are all automatic, we only have the task of “shooting” our no to anyone who comes in front of us. There are small variations on the theme, not all colleagues deserve a no and sometimes staying silent is the best choice, but that’s it. The excellent work done by Studio Fizbin on the sound deserves a mention, both for the soundtrack (always perfect for what you see on the screen), and for the commitment in making the various tones of the no that are pronounced perfectly perceived. This, combined with an excellent full dubbing (in English only), helps to make us enjoy our adventure to the fullest.
Is the game good when it is short?
All right then? Not exactly. The main mode (which is also the only one) ends in just over three hours and longevity is the sore point of the title. In a long game session, the title is completed easily. There is no endgame, you can replay the chapters that make up the game, perhaps with a new character or by saying your “no” in another language, but there is nothing else.
It should also be emphasized that, given the intrinsically repetitive nature of the title, excessively lengthening the stock would have been more of a defect than a virtue. Say No! More has a sometimes surprising story, full of cut-scenes, funny and well told. You will not be bored even for a second, indeed you will not be able to help but laugh out loud, shouting your cathartic “No!” to the whole world.
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