Lap of the Gods: A Visual Novel kicks off with quite the intriguing premise: as Marion, you’re working at a factory when all of a sudden, your colleagues, who you have worked with for years, threaten to kick you out, having no clue as to who you are. Confused, you’re escorted off the premises and are even taken to jail! Also, your head is a pair of hands holding an eyeball, and in a surprising twist, ooze has started falling from those hands.
While in jail, you meet Scorial, a cellmate who tells you that you are just the person they’ve been looking for but remains quite vague on why that is. He promises to tell you more if you come with him after being bailed out by his husband 5-7, which doesn’t sound like the safest idea until you consider that literally everybody has forgotten who you are and you have nowhere to go anyway. But after riding along with Scorial, all of a sudden you are jumped by an incredibly strong being who instantly tries to kill you.
Developers Muda Games have created quite the unique setting. In this world, people have random objects for heads; they live in the lap of an actual god, and at times, random people are selected to become the mysterious Gateways, which are gigantic statues that stand in the middle of the world, only for their former lives to be entirely forgotten. Within that setting is where the mystery of Marion plays out, as if things can’t even get weirder. It’s up to her, Scorial and 5-7 to save the day before everything she has ever known becomes undone.
I can’t tell you much more about the game’s story than this, even though I would love to, because it has been so lovingly crafted. But the beauty of this game is in the discovery of what it is all about, bewildering as it may be at times. Lap of the Gods left me scratching my head for a great deal of the time, but it never felt like things were too random: there was a reason behind everything, and both the game’s world and story are intricately designed by the two-person development team.
It helps that the visuals are pretty darn unique. I have played some interesting-looking games even just this year, but Lap of the Gods has an art style that is incomparable. Through creative use of glitchy graphics and out-of-this-world artwork, the Lap feels like an actual place. It feels like a world that has developed throughout time, not like something a writer just invented, and that sense of history adds to the gravitas on display at times here.
That’s not to say that this is just a dry and serious game. While the latter half of the game does ramp things up and tackles some existential subject matter, Lap of the Gods is full of wit, fun and charm. While Marion is mostly confused and unaware of what’s happening, it’s Scorial who is the real star of the show, with an almost ADHD-like energy seeing him dart all around the world and through this story.
Having said that, Scorial does need Marion and 5-7 to bounce off of to make it all work as well as it does. The trio’s interactions are the heartbeat of the story, with their sometimes uneasy alliance being tested over time. But Marion and Scorial seem to be connected somehow, with the former’s ooze-dripping hands and the latter’s smoke-leaking eyes tying them to a similar fate, one that hasn’t happened before in the entire recorded history of this world.
Or has it? Because while there is a lot of history here, there’s also a lot that seems to be forgotten, something that our main characters start feeling the effects of as the story continues. It all adds to the great sense of intrigue that Muda Games have managed to create within the world of the Lap. For most of its runtime, the game will leave you wondering just what is going on and where is it all leading, but you will be drip-fed relevant information throughout, always leaving you with just enough breadcrumbs to get you wanting more.
Luckily, the game only takes about three hours to complete, and it manages to create a wonderful sense of closure at the end. It’s nice to have a story like this that respects your time while also leaving you with this need to see more of its world and characters. Do I still have questions after finishing Lap of the Gods? Absolutely, but none of them take away from the story being told within it. I’m just really interested in the lore of the game, and I would happily play more that’s set within its world.
I do have to add that some people have struggled with getting the game to run smoothly, although I didn’t have any such issues myself. The developers have added tips on how to get performance up to scratch on the game’s Steam page, but if you want to be certain if your PC can actually run it, you can give the free demo a try.
