DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For South of the March, Woodo, and Penguin Colony

Author's Note: I return once again to inflict another edition of DEMO-lition Derby on you, my readers! This time, the games I will be discussing are:

• South of the March

In case you missed any of the previous entries in this feature, here are some handy links:

• DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For Culdcept The First, Pixel Washer, Hack '95, & About Fishing

• DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For XenoFeels and Echoes of Aincrad

South of the March

What is it?

South of the March is the debut game from indie game developer Small Gray Games. South of the March is a mix of a visual novel, turn-based RPG, and a pen-and-paper tabletop campaign. After a brief introduction of your core duo, you explore a map that functions similarly to a tabletop hex-crawl. While doing so, you can encounter questgivers and random encounters. If and when you initiate combat, things work in a turn-based structure, but the game displays a turn order list much like Final Fantasy X or the Grandia games. And similarly to the Conditional Turn-Based Battle System in Final Fantasy X, one of the keys to getting through combat is either to off enemies as quickly as possible, or to inflict upcoming enemies with status effects or attacks that throttle them to the bottom of the turn order. Doing so can result in you having multiple uninterrupted turns with your characters without either party member taking damage. In terms of the story, your characters are tasked by the leader of a work camp to investigate a cave that has resulted in suspicious and supernatural activity. You have to investigate leads, interrogate NPCs, resolve multiple battles, and move on the map to conclude the demo. There are also side quests to complete, which was a pleasant surprise.

What's in the demo?

The demo is, I assume, the first act of the main game rather than a custom-made vertical slice. This allows you to control a party of two mercenaries as they assist the company stooge of a work camp in figuring out what's up with a suspicious cave near their camp. As you explore your surroundings, especially the camp, you need to press NPCs on topics to progress the story. Something that impressed me in this demo is when you discover a new piece of information about the situation at the cave, call bullshit on the quest giver, and get to revel in the dialogue as you press the dagger into them more. And while the gameplay and combat have a hook that may have mileage if the developers expand on it without messing up the balance, this game is a storytelling vehicle first and foremost. The quality of the writing and dialogue is beyond belief, especially as a rookie work from a new outfit. You meet some of the expected fantasy standbys such as a gruff tavern owner who only gives you the time of day if you pay them and a mystical older woman who lives in a carriage and sells magical items. Still, the larger-than-life characters really stand out, and when you start to peel off the veneer of the main story, that's when the prose and adventure really shine. I won't spoil things, but the turn or reveal at the cave really sets up a story I want to see more of, as well as makes me curious where things go later down the road. I don't suspect the full game will be especially long, but if South of the March can maintain even half the quality of writing it shows in its demo, I will happily sign up for the two- to four-hour rollercoaster ride it ends up being.

In terms of the combat, it shows a ton of promise, but I do have a few concerns. Personally, I'm a sucker for conditional or timeline-based turn-based combat systems, with Grandia II and Final Fantasy X being some of my all-time favorite RPGs ever made. Much like those games, when you unleash some of the special abilities of your characters and can create chunky blocks of uninterrupted attacks from your characters, the game feels fantastic. When you pull that off, you can melt away even the bosses without too much difficulty. Nonetheless, that does lead to a slight fear that the combat can become too puzzle-like, as the key to success, especially with the bosses, overwhelmingly seems to be about you dolling out specific combos of moves or attacks until you win. Also, the game is a bit too stingy with giving your characters the action points you use for those moves. After using those abilities twice or three times, I often had to rest my characters because their action points were completely spent, and while level-ups restore that, the growth of that pool didn't feel as tangibly great as I would have liked. By the end of the demo, I found myself never using those abilities during random encounters and withholding them for bosses or harder encounters, and unleashing a flurry when those combat situations happened. As a result, the combat feels more like a routine than a strategic exercise, with the random encounters slowly becoming a chore. On the flipside, having a non-lethal "gear check" boss at a camp right before you start the main storyline dungeon is an inspired gameplay choice. More of that, please.

I'm also a bit mixed about the encounter system. When you explore the map, the game, similarly to most tabletop RPGs, rolls for combat to determine if you have a random encounter or not. Even if it does roll for an encounter, you can skill check your way out of it using one of your characters' stats to avoid combat. Nevertheless, you only want to do this a handful of times because, as I discovered during the last leg of the demo, the game does have skill checks and capstone encounters that you really can only complete if you unlock new special abilities through level-ups or have larger pools of HP. Relatedly, exploring the map is a bit slower than I'd like. For example, if you decide to explore some of the side quests, which you should, moving from one end of the map to the next feels like an ordeal, and I wish there were a "speed-up" option, especially if you're revisiting previously visited locations. Furthermore, much like my earlier point about the stat upgrades being stingy, the monetary rewards for random encounters are way too scant. If you end up in a fight you're not prepared for and gobble down too many potions or healing items, you might find yourself grinding away on encounters, not for the EXP but just for money to buy more restorative items. Finally, I find the metal music that plays in the game completely discordant and off-putting. I recognize that some people love it, at least based on what I have seen on bsky, but the louder tracks rarely matched what I experienced in combat and really pulled me out of the adventure, causing me to mute the music entirely. And even when I adjusted the audio levels, there was something unpleasant about listening to aggressive and shrill metal riffs while whacking at a large bear or a trio of bandits; things you do all the time, even in the demo.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Yes, but I definitely want to see how this game develops more mid- and late-game grit without it completely bogging down the gameplay. I bet that with more than two party members, the pace of the combat improves somewhat, but the overall structural gaps between major combat encounters remain a potential concern. Nonetheless, the quality of the writing is great. Conversely, there's a lot of it, and with random encounters being tied to encounter rolls with opt-out options at every turn, there were a few times when a solid ten to fifteen minutes separated my last two battles. And with the game having a hint of traditional tabletop grit here and there, that could be a problem. Likewise, I understand the indie RPG scene has raked trope-appropriate fantasy music over the coals, so now everyone is trying to experiment with non-traditional fantasy music in the background of their RPGs, but I did not jive with the music in this game at all. Some of the piercing guitar riffs and forceful metal drum solos were in stark contrast to incredibly boilerplate random encounters or battles. All of that grousing aside, the world of South of the March is enthralling with plenty of interesting storylines and characters that I want to see more of in the future. If the combat and music aren't too abrasive, I'm happy to give this narrative romp a shot.  

Woodo

What is it?

Be aware, Woodo is a cozy game. To be transparent, I am not a big cozy game fan, but the core gameplay of Woodo was satisfying, and its visuals are strong enough to warrant a discussion in my mind. In Woodo, you take control of an anthropomorphic fox that has decided to go on a road trip or cross-country adventure. However, they are a loner who has only ever lived in an urban environment, and their first attempt at exploring the countryside doesn't go exactly as planned. The full game actually has two storylines, each led by a different protagonist, and as you progress, the connections between their narratives become clearer. However, the demo only showcases the introductory moments of the fox character, who is named Foxy. The game itself involves dioramas that are at first colorless. After an opening narration, you affix various pieces presented on the right side of your screen to paint the dioramas and hear additional narration as you make progress. Some of the items and objects you need to place in the diorama might be difficult to figure out where they go from one perspective, which is why it's important to look at any screen you are on from multiple vantage points. Like many cozy games, there's no timer, and the game has a handy assist option that highlights where a piece goes if you can't figure it out on your own.

What's in the demo?

Woodo's demo shares the complete first chapter of Foxy's narrative, with the game even having a brief tutorial mission where you need to complete a diorama for a treasure chest before you can even use the game's menu. As I mentioned earlier, Woodo is a cozy game with no high score or timer breathing down your neck, and the game's hint system does not penalize you for using it. Nonetheless, completing the dioramas without any assistance is part of the appeal, at least for me. If you are too judicious in your use of the game's assists, you'll blow past the game and its demo without being able to appreciate some of its smaller details. As you inject color into set pieces and levels, you'll see brief animations, and upon reaching milestones you'll even be treated to short snippets of narration that detail some of the objects and their relation to the story. The game's core message is about finding tranquility in outdoor life. If you inject too much video-gaming orthodoxy into your playthrough of Woodo, you'll completely miss the point of its primary lesson. While some tricky pieces can sometimes only be found if you look at a set piece from a highly specific angle, there's something about finding those harder pieces that reminds me of the old "I Spy" books. Sometimes the "tricks" Woodo employs can feel cheap, but the satisfaction of finally finding something after toiling away at it for a while is greater when you manage to do so on your own. And as an adventure game aficionado, that aspect of Woodo speaks to me.

The story, on the other hand, is the same self-help "screens are bad, nature is good" anti-zoomer/anti-urban life jazz we have seen in countless indie games before. The fact that Toy Story 5, regardless of how successful it was, is now in this exact crease, saying the same thing, doesn't do Woodo any favors. Look, I get it, Woodo is coming from an honest place in showing an urban fox experiencing the great outdoors for the first time, and things don't go so well at first. But man, we have been around this block so many times that I honestly do not know how much new ground this game will actually cover. And even during the demo, every time the game made its main character self-castigate herself for trying to use their cellphone to get directions instead of just going with the flow, I wanted to puke. Some of these lectures about the importance of unplugging are completely valid, like removing yourself from social media when things get toxic or going for a hike when you feel like all you have done for three straight days is look directly at a computer screen. But as we all know, this is all about self-regulation and having limits rather than viewing things in black-and-white terms. On top of that, I'm tired of games and movies characterizing urban life as being demonstrably inferior to rural life and that everyone who lives in a city has this giant gapping void in their life that can only be filled by leaving "the big city" and going on a massive adventure. It's an insulting and meddlesome over-generalization that I've seen one too many times at this point. And with the game itself, I'm really unsure how long it is going to keep up this fuzzy mittens puppet show before it comes across as smarmy. If anything, it's a perfect fit for Mento to cover two years after its release.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Maybe, but I need a clearer sense of the scope and sequence of this game, as well as its price, before even considering adding it to my library. If not for the platform now being coated in icky corporate slime, Woodo is a perfect Game Pass game. It's unlikely to last too long, best completed in one or two sittings, and coasts largely on cozy vibes and relaxed principles. It's a tough traditional sell, but on a streaming platform where you can access it and play it on a whim, it makes perfect sense. But as you all know, it's morally and ethically unconscionable to recommend Game Pass and everything it represents these days. So, I really struggle to assess the personal value proposition Woodo poses beyond saying I thought it looked incredibly cute when the dioramas were fully completed. Also, I rarely bring up the topic of games that have been stuck in the "demo phase" in this article series, but I will make a brief note that a version of the public demo for Woodo that you and I can play has been circulating the gaming circles for a while. Most notably, it received a nomination for Gamescom's 2024 "Most Wholesome" award, as well as other smaller indie convention awards. With Woodo's release date still listed as "To be announced" as of the publishing of this article, it's anyone's guess how close the game is to its full release. Finally, the game's publisher is Daedalic Entertainment, which is a big "woof," too.

Penguin Colony

What is it?

Penguin Colony is the latest work from Origame Digital, the makers of Umurangi Generation. Like Umurangi Generation, Penguin Colony employs a stylized yet limited cel-shaded visual style while a heady, serious story plays out. The theme or topic this time is that you are in the Arctic living your life as a penguin as various teams of human scientists have unleashed or discovered a massive cosmic horror. Various factions and nations converge at the research station that first discovered the wretched monstrosity, and you swap between penguins of varying sizes to learn about the aspirations and plans of these various groups, while seeing what happens to them as they descend further into a tomb. The core gameplay of Penguin Colony, at least from the demo, is taking one of your penguins, marching it to a roadblock or environmental impediment, and swapping between different penguin types or sizes so your present player-character penguin can move forward and progress the story. At its heart, Penguin Colony seems to be a puzzle narrative game. When exploring interior environments, you can interact with audio logs and other primary source documents to peel back the mystery of the narrative. Origame Digital has been fairly transparent about Penguin Colony being a reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, even using the font from John Carpenter's The Thing for added measure.

What's in the demo?

So, this demo is short. It's really short, and I get why that's the case, but it poses a bit of a problem for me when trying to assess how I feel about what developer Origame Digital has shared with this demo. Ultimately, you face one or two real impediments that require you to swap between penguins, the most prominent example, in this case, being a fence, which necessitates a penguin chick rather than an adult or juvenile one. Sliding around as a penguin is fine, but I wouldn't exactly characterize the act of playing Penguin Colony as a big highlight, even if I got a little glee from belly sliding on glaciers during a blizzard. I'm also slightly concerned about how obfuscated the game will be about some of its audio logs, primary sources, and world-building pieces. Based on the demo, I got the sense that the game is a slow burn, and until you start spying on the human NPCs, things are purposefully skeletal, with little narrative hand-holding. Nevertheless, the game has amazing vibes, and its mood and tone perfectly fit the bill for a story centered on cosmic horror. Even during the early phases of the demo, you get a taste of a handful of camps and teams that have these high-and-mighty hopes and aspirations of conquering or controlling this looming eldritch abomination. You just know every one of these motherfuckers is going to get completely wrecked, and I can't wait to see these human characters get their comeuppance.

It's safe to assume that this game isn't going to be your typical interpretation of At the Mountains of Madness, and I'm not just talking about the fact that you control a colony of penguins to learn more about what's happening. One of the factions is Nazis, and another team is a group of imperialistic British explorers. And even if you feel an inherent ickiness with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, which is an entirely acceptable reaction, I think you should still consider giving Penguin Colony a shot. Obviously, from the fine makers of Umurangi Generation, you expect a game that has one of its factions being actual occult-obsessed Nazis to say something beyond "Nazis were bad, you know?" Will that deft touch extend into an introspection on H.P. Lovecraft's real-life character and the seedier origins of cosmic horror? Or is Penguin Colony only going to be about the characters we encounter within the scope of the game and a handful of bigger-picture connections to our present world? I don't know, as the demo only provides the briefest sense of what to expect in the full game. I should note the demo, and likely the full game, starts with a land acknowledgment, so while the balancing act of the game and its story might be tight, I have confidence the team behind it can pull it off.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Probably, but I do hope there's more to the game than what they have hinted at in this demo. Swapping between penguins to duck under fences or make bigger leaps across chasms is cute, but it doesn't feel like it is enough to sustain my interest throughout a whole game. Umurangi Generation was deliberately unintuitive in its approach to taking pictures. Still, I eventually came to enjoy how things worked and felt in the game, even as the game's narrative dagger jabbed further into my heart. Thus far, I'm not entirely sure I get the same satisfaction from Penguin Colony's animal-based platforming and environmental traversal, even if its premise and framing entirely enrapture me. And I do have to raise the same point of being slightly concerned about Origame Digital's intention of moving from a game with as much real-world potency as Umurangi Generation to a game that, at least at first blush, seems like an indie game developer's nuanced take on the most influential work of cosmic horror, which has already been sliced, diced, and minced a hundred plus times already. I'm not going to go so far as to say it comes across as "punching down," but with a demo that barely conveys a solid glimpse of what this game is all about, I'm slightly miffed about where things might go with Penguin Colony.