Chibi-Robo!

I bought Chibi-Robo! used for $7 one year ago, just a few months before I began my backlogging journey. I was told that it was fun and short. Well, having just finished it earlier tonight, I can assure you that Chibi-Robo! was neither of these things. Which isn't to say that it was chore-like and lengthy. But I finished the game in nine hours flat (not the three to five I'd heard it quoted at) and was never really all that impressed while playing it. It's a pretty fucked up game. You play as the titular character, Chibi-Robo, a rechargeable miniature housekeeping robot. There's a story there, but it's incredibly undefined and I admit to needing to turn to a walkthrough at times to figure out how to "advance" the plot, as the game is full of unnecessary sidequests. As you run around the house exploring, cleaning, and making people happy, your battery drains slowly. It drains when you move, jump, attack, or take damage. The only way to recharge it is to plug yourself into an AC wall outlet. (These wall outlets also functioned as the game's save points.) I know no one cares if I give away the plot, but frankly, I don't even think I need to do that for anyone to understand how silly and unconventional this game was. Suffice it to say that there are talking toys, aliens, marriage troubles, time travel, and a girl who thinks she is a frog, The game's best (most enjoyable) feature was its low-danger atmosphere and laid back "just get out there and explore" tone. It was nice not to worry about thinks trying to kill me around every turn, and aside from one "final" boss, there were no enemies that posed any sort of challenge to my journey throughout the house. I put "final" in quotation marks because even after you vanquish that boss, the game isn't necessarily over for you. Not until you collect 10,000 coins - or "moolah" - to charge up a super battery. Only once you've done that does Chibi-Robo save the day and allow the ending credits to roll by. I was someone who beat the "final" boss with just 5,000 moolah saved up, so for me, the ending was pretty anti-climactic. There was a semi-epic battle that took me three tries to win, and then I was doing house chores for two hours. Oh well. That's the essence of the game I suppose. The worst (most annoying) feature of the game was the snail's pace at which the numerous cutscenes unfolded. In all seriousness, at least one and a half of my nine gameplay hours were spent watching dialogue text slowly appear on the screen. And no, the scenes were not skippable. In the end, this game will be remembered as one of the most Japanese ones I've ever played (Feel the Magic: XY/XX makes for great competition for that title) and not necessarily as one of the most enjoyable. Oh well. It's over, it's done with, and it's yet another reminder for me that a simple impulse buy can equate to ten wasted hours of my life.