The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

The Missing is a Puzzle-Platformer released on multiple platforms in 2018, including the Nintendo Switch. This game comes from developer Hidetaka Suehiro, better known as Swery, who has made a name for himself with the Deadly Premonition series. It features a story that has players following the titular J.J. Macfield as she explores a strange island searching for her friend, and it isn’t long before strange and macabre things start happening.

The presentation here is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the visuals are decent, feature a good amount of detail, and are pretty imaginative. On the other hand, numerous elements keep taking the player out of the experience. J.J.’s jump animation, for example, looks really awkward and unrealistic. And the violence here is over-the-top in a way that’s hard to take seriously, but not so over-the-top to make it funny… it’s just cringe-inducing.

Add to that a script and voice-acting that’s… well, I suppose you might as well say “signature Swery”. Which is to say it’s strange and awkward and unnatural in a way that doesn’t push you out of the experience so much as it drop kicks you out of the experience. And the thing is, I know that there is a portion of the audience that loves Swery for this, but given the serious and delicate topic matter this game deals with, to approach it in such a ham-handed fashion just comes across as really crass and perhaps insensitive to the very issues it’s trying to address.

The gameplay here is pretty inventive once you actually get a feel for it. Shortly in her explorations of the game’s bizarre island, J.J. gets struck by lightning and finds herself unable to die – any severe injury simply results in her gradually losing limbs and eventually even getting painfully decapitated, but still able to independently control the main part of her body and instantly reform herself. Making use of this skill, players must get past a multitude of obstacles, at times having J.J. intentionally mutilate herself to get a body part she can toss or to fit through a narrow passage. There are other fun little takes on this theme of self-harm, but I won’t spoil them here.

There are two issues with this gameplay, though. Firstly, it’s not very well explained to players, who may not even realize at first that the game doesn’t actually penalize them for J.J.’s horrific dismemberments, despite her loud and agonized screams and convulsing body movements. And secondly, the core gameplay here is stiff, slow, and awkward.

There’s that word again, “awkward”. It seems like everything about this game is awkward – the gameplay, the story, the voice acting, the level of violence… And yeah, that awkwardness is kinda’ Swery’s calling card, but where Deadly Premonition made it a B-movie sorta’ guilty pleasure, here it’s hard to enjoy in that same way, both because of the topic matter, but also because the game literally requires you to physically torture its protagonist to proceed. In a more delicate and responsible treatment, this could be a heart-wrenching commentary on an emotional issue, but Swery is about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

Still, despite the awkward nature about… well, everything in The Missing, I have to give it credit for its truly inventive gameplay and creative puzzle design. The core mechanics of the game may fumble and mar its great core concept, and its presentation may botch that concept’s emotional impact, but it is undeniable that there are still some very good ideas here that are well worth experiencing if you’re a fan of the genre, even if those ideas aren’t as well-executed as they should be.

tl;dr – The Missing is a Puzzle-Platformer by Swery of Deadly Premonition fame, and he brings the same sort of energy to this story about a young woman exploring a strange island that requires her to repeatedly painfully mutilate herself to proceed. That is to say, it’s extremely awkward, and treats its very delicate topic matter with callous disregard. Having said that, and despite some stiff gameplay, there are some extremely clever game mechanics here that make this a unique experience, and fans of the genre may want to check it out in spite of its flaws… or if you’re a Swery fan, perhaps because of them.

Grade: C+

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