i am ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WARNING YOU as a FRIEND do NOT hover over the level "haunt" for 15 minutes without moving it will produce a MASSIVE JUMPSCARE

It is genuinely astounding the game the developers have created with mere "X is Y" statements and clever level design. When described to others, it seems like almost insulting levels of simplicity - it's a game where you manipulate the laws of each level by rewriting them by physically shifting words around. For example, you might have "Rock is Stop", which will bar your progress, so you must find a way to make Rock no longer Stop, or find an entirely different way around the obstacle. There are many puzzle games that have rather complicated mechanics from the get-go. This is not one of them, and it is extremely approachable because of it.

The puzzles rapidly grow in complexity, leading to headscratchers that can last an hour or more despite a perfect solution perhaps only taking a minute or less. More than any other puzzle game, I really FELT the developers trying to communicate a lesson to me in every level. You must develop deep, intimate knowledge of how each word and verb functions and relates to each other in order to progress far - I'd honestly recommend taking notes somewhere and jotting down your observations. If you don't understand how you just solved a level because the rules felt arbitrary, it is critical to replay the level (or look it up online) to get a good sense of it. The game has a tendency to use things that almost seem like unintentional exploits - like forcing your avatar into a space where it ordinarily could not go in order to push something out, or teleportation between two objects that works very strangely. Noting down each of these (in fact very intentional) "exploits" is important as they often form a key part of later levels.

The actual movement is incredibly simple and requires no reflexes, so non-gamers who enjoy puzzles can still find plenty to enjoy here. It is merely arrow keys to move. The level navigation itself can get a little tricky due to limited space, but effective and efficient navigation is also part of the puzzle, and the game is very forgiving by allowing you to undo movement and actions as much as you want, so experimentation is heavily encouraged. You can throw yourself into spikes and skulls with no fear, as a single button press will undo that death.

I give it a 9/10, overall. My main negative is that I think the game becomes increasingly reliant on the aforementioned "exploits" which leads to unintuitive solutions in several cases, so it gradually feels less like I'm solving it through wit alone and the discovery of a clever solution, and more like trying to remember a dozen obscure mechanics that could apply and trying each in turn before I either succeed, or fail (and then finally have to actually think).

I am terrible at riddles. I am really bad at them. I think my mind lacks of creativity that riddles require, i don't know.

Baba is You made me think about the difference between puzzles and riddles. Because i couldn't easily call this game a ''puzzle game''. It is not really a puzzle game imo. The most solid difference is that riddles mostly use words as a form. And puzzles have more shapes and mediums than riddles. But i dont think thats the whole difference. I see puzzles as more rulified things, like, they give you some tools and they have some solid logics (they give you that logic too) and expecting from you to use them. They have more of a mathematical language. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. Portal games for example; when you look at the levels and analyze them for how to solve them with your tools, you repeat the same logic or a structure/way the game gave you before. They do not make you to think like ''its silly''. You think ''oh, its the way'' or smth.

On the other hand, riddles are mostly about silliness. Even if they have some logic in their own, that logic is not universal all the time and you cant get the idea immediatly. Sometimes (most of the times) you just accept their logic even if you dont understand. In a way, they create a new language for themselves. Baba is YOU. Flag is WIN. They can be more poetical sometimes, or more literary or philosophical or artsy. If you cant guess them, only when you have the answer, you can give their credits.

Because riddles have enigmatic languages while puzzles have descriptive ones. Riddles don't have only one meaning and their highlights are hidden in their agents. Or sometimes they don't even mean what they actually say. Or their meanings are really speculatives. That's the whole point of a riddle already. To speculate.

''+ What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
- The letter ''M''.''

Another difference is, riddles are more about ''creating'', not ''seeing'' like puzzles. In a puzzle, you look at the problem and (if you can) you ''see'' the solution. Of course you do that with a process of thinking but you ''see'' or find the solution. It's a way of understanding, that ''seeing''. In riddles, we think about the answer and create one. If we are talking the same language with the riddle, there's a high possibilty of creating the right answer. Even if that answer is fixed, you can create it only if you can understand/find its logic.

Surely despite these i wrote, these differences between puzzles and riddles can be really a thin line sometimes. There may also be examples where the two are mixed. But i think we can separate them like this, in general. And if you agree with this, i propose to put Baba is You to the ''riddles'' side. Because it really is.

Baba is You is more of a ''riddle'' than a ''puzzle'' game, if we dont constrict the riddles only to the ''words'' shape, which i think we should not. Despite having some tools and rules to solving the problem (and visualizing them), Baba is You has its own language. A language of riddles. In every solution i found and looked up (which are a few, cuz i couldnt solved them), i thought like ''this is silly'' and not like ''oh, its logic''. It requires you to really think out of the box, be creative. Do not obey to the rules, even make your own. Because, unlike Portals, the tools and rules in Baba is You are not enough for you to solve the riddles. You must do more than using them accordingly to find the solution or to ''create'' the solution (even if you dont really create it, you feel like you did that when you pass the levels). And you dont repeat the logic of the game, since it doesnt have a solid/general one, unlike most of the puzzle games.

I want to give another example. I was an education volunteer in one of the foundation in my country. I was taking formation lessons and one time, they gave us a ''riddle'' (which they wrongly called it a puzzle, but i think it was too a ''riddle'', anyway) to solve. And than we were going to do that activity with 10s yo children. In that visualized riddle, there were an island surrounded with another 2 separate lands and 5 bridges. (It was like this as i remember.) It said ''the mayor will visit this island by using one bridge every time when he goes in the island and leave. how should he use the bridges to be outside of the island at the end of his tour. (He must use every one of them.) And the riddle added that ''you cant delete a bridge''. I thought on it so much and couldnt find the solution. Since there were 5 bridges, if he goes in, he cant get out without using the same one. If he goes out, the same problem occurs. And our guides said ''kids find the solution easily'', i felt so stupid. Than somebody in our group found the solution. ''We build another bridge.'' Damn. I felt so stupid again.

So, in a riddle, it is important what it gives you and it is also important, maybe even more important, that what it does not give you. That riddle said ''you cant delete a bridge'' but never said ''you cant add another bridge''. Baba is You has the same game philosophy, which is called ''riddle''. In every level you pass, if you can, you think like ''damn'', or ''wtf'' or similar things. Maybe, it might get repetitive after douzaines of levels, and you might start to see that ''logic'' i talk about and normalize it, that is because of repetitiveness of the game. Since this is a video game format and it must have fulfilling game time, i ignore that fact and go with my theory. It doesn't change the fact that how unique and riddly (enigmatic) is language of Baba is You, anyway.

I played it just one hour, i want to play more but i am so stupid cant play it, and thought about these. It is a brilliant game, created a new genre and deserve to be called a ''riddle'' game. Some other so called ''puzzle'' games are too have riddle mechanics but anyway. Try this even for one hour just to see its game philosophy and admire the developers.

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