The OPUS series of games has always been about emotional storytelling told in various ways, from visual novels to a text-driven side-scrolling adventure game. Although every entry has no connection to one another, each has a knack for delivering an original narrative through unique situations, whether that be exploring a planetary system with a woman who can hear mysterious sound waves or helping a duo to launch a space burial in a post-apocalyptic world.
OPUS: Prism Peak is the latest in the series, which sees us meet up with forty-year-old Eugene, a photographer who’s wallowing in his own self-pity. Over the course of his adult life he’s lost his job, friends, business and wife thanks to a series of decisions that went against him and his reactions to these scenarios. Eugene has given up, swimming in his own insecurities and surrounded by a self-manifested shield to protect other people from getting hurt by him.
As Eugene travels home for a family funeral, he becomes unconscious through a car crash, and when he wakes up from it, he finds himself in an unrecognisable world that’s been devastated from an evil force called ‘The Shade’. Not long after, you’ll meet a mysterious girl called Ren who needs to go home to the top of the mountain to find an elusive individual called The Seer. Eugene reluctantly agrees to help, and it’s here that he starts his journey of self-discovery – he just doesn’t know that yet.
Prism Peak is an extremely emotionally charged narrative game. We are treated to many flashbacks throughout Eugene’s life, from a young boy and his teens and through to his adult life. We get to really learn about his relationships with his parents, his friends and his special connection to his grandpa. The narrative touches on sensitive subjects which had consequences for Eugine and those around him, though thankfully the writing does an excellent job of treating these with care while also giving each character depth and space through telling their own stories and experiences.
These memories and important life points are not just handed to you, as you’ll have to earn them through a camera that is given to Eugene by a mysterious sambar deer, a camera that looks just like his grandpa’s old one. The pictures you take with the camera become an essential tool for progressing the game and become the main gameplay mechanic. You can take pictures of whatever you like, though only certain shots will become key pictures which will be needed in many of the game’s puzzles. But with limited pages in your album, it becomes a bit of a balancing act on what you should photograph and what you leave behind.
Eventually, you will be able to earn new features for the camera which give you more control over the shots you take, though I was less impressed with the exposure setting, as I had to change it more than I would have liked. Apart from this, taking pictures has been well thought out, with a quick press of R2 bringing up the camera and another quick press gaining you a photo. It’s all pretty intuitive apart from not being able to move Eugene while looking through the camera. Although you can pan left and right, if you’re too close to your subject, you have to put the camera down, move slightly and try again. Not the end of the world, but a little annoying all the same.
These upgrades are earned through the many firepits you find, which, when you chuck seeds into, will give you not only the mentioned upgrades but also lens cleaning kits, extra pages for your album and other surprises. The seeds you need are earned by just interacting with anything you find. Posters, letters, road signs, etc., will earn you a seed, which, in all honesty, was a marvellous idea. We all have brushed past these types of interactions in games before, missing important word-building story beats along the way, but here you’re encouraged to do just that, to explore, and you’ll thank the developers for including this, as this world is one of the most interesting I’ve encountered in a game and is deserving of your full attention.
The firepits also serve another function, as they are the way to learning more about the characters you come across. Each character you meet represents an anthropomorphic animal who will help you through the various obstacles you will face. As you meet each one, they will be represented through the firepits as wooden carvings and will present to you riddles that need answering by presenting the correct picture. Get it right and you could earn a multitude of rewards to learn more about these inhabitants and about yourself, but if you haven’t taken the picture, you lose out, which really brings home the importance of capturing the right shot. Thankfully, these riddles are based on the immediate area, so you can freely explore to find what the fire is asking of you.
What I found throughout my time with the game is how everything is intertwined with each other. The information gathered from the fire will play into the field notes Eugene takes along on his journey. Here you will record information learned on the characters you meet by filling in the blank spaces, deciphering the mysterious language of this world, and organising photos of the many murals you will find. It’s all about learning. Learning about these inhabitants, learning about this world and learning about Eugene and the bonds he makes, especially with Ren, which is at the heart of the game.
But it’s not just this that intertwines, as everything is connected back to Eugene. Ren’s journey to find the seer and make it to the top of the mountain, the shade, the lost memories and even this world is all brought back to Eugene. It’s commendable that everything works; there are no plot holes, and it’s seamless, and I wish I could really get into the weeds on why that is, but that brings a mountain of spoilers that I wouldn’t want you to experience until you play the game yourself.
What really brings this world to life is the absurdly wonderful anime-style visuals. Prism Peak is a gorgeous game from top to bottom. There’s so much detail everywhere; it’s actually pretty incredible. Everything feels alive from the narrow streets of the Nameless City to the lush green rice fields. Bikes propped up against fences, cherry blossoms falling from the trees and some amazing nighttime skies really heightened the experience. These are only a handful of examples of the beauty in the game and the high-skilled anime on offer. The game blends into cutscenes naturally, which only helps the immersion, and is only strengthened by some great visual effects that are used throughout the game.
The same can be said of the sound design and music. From the satisfying camera clicks and machinery whirring to the exceptional voice acting, which aided in making this a believable world and brought the various characters’ personalities to life. The music also did the job, quietly, in the background pieces playing through calmer moments to ramping up through chase sequences with The Shade or emotionally tense moments. It brought a sense of calm or urgency without overwhelming that particular scene.
With this having such an emotionally charged narrative, I was surprised to not be as invested in the characters as I have been in other games. I’ve openly admitted to shedding a tear after Citizen Sleeper 2, and don’t even get me started with Spiritfarer. There’s enough here to connect to, but I didn’t find myself emotionally reacting to what was happening on screen as much as I thought I would. Though, the more time I spend away from the game, the more I think about it and ponder Eugene’s and Ren’s journey through the Dusklands, which surprised me and makes me appreciate the game much more.
