I’m often found in the weirder side of gaming and Totally Normal Journey – The Interactive Musical definitely resides there. It is a visual novel made by a team of two and its like a passion project school play crammed with nerdy cultural references and amateur on purpose weird performances. It is a chaotic delight that I thoroughly enjoyed but its not for everyone.
You don’t play Totally Normal Journey, you watch it. Across the game there are about 8-10 choices you can make although the story itself is relatively linear. As a visual novel with choices, the game is not really a success as choosing the wrong option often bumps you back to the selection screen again to choose the other option. It’s not very important though as its all about the crazy story and the indie bedroom pop songs.
It’s in the humorous, low budget filming and script that the game is successful. The duo on screen genuinely look like they’re having a blast and the artpop sheen over their on camera acting gives the game a cartoonish poster come to life charm. The sounds range from aliens with nice butts to a love story between a man and his naughty nun, with a devil trash rock number and a totally offkey whiteboard tutorial for the game. They are zany and drunken on the freedom of creativity. If you want polish, its not here. This is about mumblecore dialogue delivery, school play scripts on the big screen and meme culture in a riff.
My only criticism aside from the lack of power given to the player with the choices is its length. A playthrough takes around half an hour and you can play it twice to try different options. It’d be nice to have the songs available separately but this is a great game to play with mates and just laugh along with its stupidity. A much needed breath of fresh air.
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