Remember back when Nintendo censored crosses on tombstones and changed blood from red to green? How times change. While blood and gore have been fair game for a while now, religion has remained a sensitive area until relatively recently, as evidenced by The Binding of Isaac’s long journey to Nintendo platforms. Mango Protocol’s point-and-click adventure Agatha Knife debuted last year on PC and arrives intact on Switch, but despite touching on some provocative topics with black humour, there’s nothing much here for anyone to get their knickers in a twist over.
You control the eponymous Agatha, a seven-year-old who works in her mother’s struggling butcher’s shop. She rears animals as friends, playing games and caring for them dearly until the day when they must be butchered – a task she performs with equal care and relish. However, the sight of her coming at them with a big knife elicits fear from her furry pals and it’s getting her down. Upon witnessing the transformative power of faith at her local church, Agatha employs a local company to help craft her own religion. ‘Carnivorism’ is soon conceived and Agatha must gather the accoutrement necessary to launch a full-blown cult, hopefully convincing her lambs to embrace their own slaughter.
It’s a screwy, macabre story which works by the quality of its writing and art style. You’ll meet a diverse cast of characters up and down Agatha’s street, from builders to burger bar owners, each with a clear personality and some cracking dialogue. Agatha herself is equal parts spiteful and loving, and much humour comes from her bluntness or the juxtaposition of the cutesy art with a bizarre story or some good old-fashioned cussing. Text boxes enable you to click through conversations at your leisure and there’s a welcome option to toggle between dialogue fonts to suit your eyes – the default option can be difficult to parse, especially at a distance.
While the writing is amusing, the game’s position on the subject matter gets a little confused after the opening. The narrative of Agatha forming a cult to maintain the status quo for personal gain is ever-present, but there’s little commentary beyond ‘yeah, organised religion is for suckers’. Anyone of a spiritual disposition may balk at the matter-of-fact dismissal of all aspects of faith, but beyond cynicism and the occasional emotional beat, the game doesn’t say a whole lot. If you’re expecting a skewering of the establishment or a treatise on the merits of vegetarianism, you may be left a tad disappointed. Agatha’s journey is enjoyable, for sure, but you’ll find more succinct, biting criticism in a good episode of The Simpsons.
The game looks lovely, with a line-drawn, comic style following closely in the footsteps of 2015’s MechaNika, the first entry in Mango Protocol’s Psychotic Adventures series. Everything’s wonderfully readable in both TV and handheld modes. Control-wise, the right stick operates a chunky cursor while the left moves Agatha directly. It works as well as can be expected, but this game joins the ranks of point-and-click titles on Switch where, frustratingly, pointing isn’t an option. On the plus side, touchscreen controls are fully implemented and represent the smoothest way to play. Touching a character or object brings up large interaction icons and tapping Agatha herself accesses her backpack inventory, enabling you to rifle through the objects you've collected and save your progress on her piggy pen drive. Agatha walks where you tap (double tap to run) and, while you’ll be backtracking a fair bit, nothing ever feels too far away.
By adventure game standards, the puzzles are straightforward and veterans of the genre will have no trouble finding and combining the objects they need. You’ll visit a few different locales, but you’ll spend most of your time exploring Agatha’s immediate neighbourhood, so you should never be stuck for too long. There’s certainly nothing as obtuse as some of the old LucasArts point-and-click adventures to worry about and the character dialogue is diverting enough to make getting clues from townspeople a pleasure rather than a chore. The soundtrack isn’t bad either, with the main street theme being a particular earworm.
Conclusion
Agatha Knife tackles vast subjects with surreal humour and delightful style but when it comes to the big questions, it doesn’t offer much beyond sarcasm and a shrug. Fortunately, the writing is entertaining enough to make the adventure worthwhile regardless, and the comprehensive touchscreen execution on Switch makes it an ideal candidate for anybody wanting to dip their toe into the point-and-click pool, provided you’re not put off by bad language or the odd splash of blood.
Comments 15
Most critique or satire of religion is usually shallow and smug, in love with its own "wit" ("oh you're so stupid for believing something clearly false, look at how smart I am" essentially). But I wouldn't be expecting an erudite essay on philosophy and theology from a quirky looking video game. As long as the game is funny and delivers a good story I couldn't care less for the message (and frankly not being beaten over the head with a moral is a plus).
The grotesque subject matter definitely puts this on my radar. And puts a cravings for burgers in my belly 😀
The adorable art style alone had me pretty sold on this one. Looked into it a bit and then pre-purchased it to take advantage of the sale price. Look forward to giving it a go on my train ride tomorrow.
I love the Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show reference in the screenshot
@BubbleMatrix82 LOL, didn't notice before reading your comment. Also, looking better, aren't the penguins just like that REALLY old penguin show called pengu?
@SmaggTheSmug I agree that you should not expect some kind of erudite revelation regarding the subject matter, given that it is a little bit of indie entertainment.
I will add however that I approve of the themes addition to the game. No one should be looking here for answers but if games like this help get people to at least think about the themes (and therefor come to their own conclusions) it should be praised.
With the industry being stacked to the rafters will morally bankrupt violence and consequence free destruction its nice to know the little guy still gives a middle finger to the accepted norms every now and again.
I see you’ve played knifey spoony before!
As a vegan athiest this seems interesting, will probably pick up one day when my backlog is sorted.
@DeathUriel @BubbleMatrix82
Omg those penguins and the guy in green with crazy hair (even the girl) are from an old science show for kids called Beakman's World. It was kind of like Bill Nye the Science Guy, with lots of gags and comedy but very educational. I loved that show. This is great.
@LastLife I didn't know abou this show. But after some reasearch I think we are both right. While the two characters are clearly from that show and their proximity to the penguins is probably reference to this penguim gag I see in some images, the design of the penguins in itself is really the same as Pengu. Including the fact that the three penguins showing in the image actually appeared in said show.
Just take a look at an image of the main character:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=896148660
He is exactly like the penguim to the right.
I might get this. It looks different.
@DeathUriel
Absolutely! I just ended up watching an episode on YouTube based on how strong a reminder it was 😁
@DeathUriel
Hmm I guess you're right. I've never seen that pengu show but the penguin on the far left with the cone head immediately reminded me of the two penguins that did the intro/outros to the Beakman's World episodes.
Looks like they put a lot attention to mixing many different references in this game. Makes me want to play it just to see what else they threw in there.
@LastLife Yeah, but actually that's just like Pengu's father http://pingu.wikia.com/wiki/File:Hello,Pingu5.png
The middle one I suppose would be his brother.
Got it on preorder and I've been enjoying it. I'll probably play a lot of it today, since I'm now done with Late Shift.
Both satire and black humor are right up my alley, not to mention the lovely artstyle.
@SouthpawGrammar <3
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