“Studio Ghibli” is a game genre, just like “Aliens” and “Blade Runner” are game genres. Blue sky, green grass rustling in the wind, absorption in flight? Welcome to Ghibli City, my friend.
All of the above and some other familiar iconography can be found in Europa, a story-driven mystery and adventure available now.
Europa claims to offer 3-4 hours of adventure with secrets, puzzles and hidden dangers to discover. There seems to be a lot of focus on improving Zee, Europa’s android hero’s, move power, from being powered up with a jetpack to fully flying between sky islands. Kaan liked the physicality of this move when he played the Europa demo last year.
The Ghibli-inspired landscapes in Europe are the work of Helder Pinto, who started the game as a side project while working as an environmental artist at Blizzard on Overwatch and its sequel.
I’ve played a lot of Ghibli-style games, but I’ve yet to play one that, by mimicking the iconography of these films, didn’t strip them of their meaning and impact. I’m currently playing Ni no Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch, a Tier 5 JRPG that features Ghibli-animated cutscenes and a Joe Hisaishi soundtrack, and while I’m enjoying it, it’s even guilty of becoming something of a Miyazaki Ready Gamer. (I have just arrived in the city of maybe-pigs, whose leader is named Porco Grosso.)
Maybe Europe is different! Perhaps he will breathe up-to-date life into the tropes or combine them with his own visual ideas! Or maybe it doesn’t matter, because 3-4 hours of traveling in a jet and solving Zelda puzzles can’t be that bad. The demo version no longer appears to be available, but the full version will set you back just £11.51/€13.31/$13.49 on Steam.
