Little Big Frenchgame: The Returnening
It probably sounds like my hair is turning grey as I write this but I just got hit with a wave of nostalgia I wasn't ready for in the form of a soon-to-be-released remake of one of my favorite DOS games from the 90's that I've rarely ever met anyone in real life who has even heard of it.
Developed by French studio Adeline International and directed by Alone in the Dark creator Frédérick Raynal, in 1994 the game released as 'Little Big Adventure' in Europe, but got a US release published under the name 'Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure' which like, is one hell of a vibe change in title lmao.
My first experience with LBA was a demo that came with Electronic Entertainment (E2) Magazine's demo disc. It featured the first area of the game; and god damn did this blow my mind. The soundtrack, the isometric view and almost toylike or claylike quality to the world (I can't see Tunic or the Link's Awakening / Echoes of Wisdom era Zelda games and not be reminded of LBA) - it looked stunning - but the gameplay was the shine.
This was an era where controls weren't necessarily standardized, so unlike modern games where everything has a WASD input or follows a convention - you used the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate your character in an isometric world - and then used your function keys to switch their 'mode'; Normal had you walking at a regular pace and allowed interactions with objects and people. Athletic (renamed "sporty" in the sequel) gave you the ability to run and jump. Aggressive made you drunk-walk but turned your action button into a punch, and Discreet allowed you to sneak and hide.
The demo opened with you - a humanoid character with a choice shaved-head-except-the-ponytail look named Twinsen in a cell in what appears to be an asylum; your goal is to knock out the orderly who comes into said cell and then sneak around until you can steal a nurse uniform and escape to get home to your girlfriend. Escaping the facility and exploring your hometown a tiny bit more or less ended the demo - but the gameplay had me hooked; it was something totally different than games I'd played before (especially in 1994).
The full game's release would see some (again, bonkers for its time) additions: full voice acting and CD Audio; meaning instead of a midi score (which was an option) the game's CD-ROM had a rearranged soundtrack built into the audio portion of the CD that would play instead if you opted for it. (Plus you could pop it into a CD player and listen to the soundtrack so long as you skipped track 1, which was the data of the game)
I played the shit out of this game and bought the sequel (localized to Twinsen's Odyssey in the US) on release day in 1997. It maintained the previous game's view and mechanics inside structures and dungeons, but replaced the outdoors with a wholly 3D world. (Or rather two worlds, since you planet-hop later).
A thing that always stuck with me was how at its core, it was a kids game - but it was about the overthrowing of a fascist state run by a dude who learned how to make clone soldiers and took power.
Your character in the original had a prophetic dream which resulted in the planet being destroyed, so you're locked in the asylum - and once you escape, even in that opening area your friends and neighbors will express concern about wanting to be seen with you because you should be in jail, some going as far as outright collaborating with the cops and turning you in.
And you can kill them if they do.
Now granted, they respawn like enemies do if you leave an area and come back but there's something cathartic about having an alarm get sounded by the local pharmacist, cop clones of the elephant people showing up to try to arrest you - and not only do you get to put a stop to those clones, you get to beat the absolute shit out of the narc for pushing the button.
I'm happy to say - the above scenario from the original can still play out 1:1 in the new one.
I spent a little time with this new Twinsen's Quest demo and it's amazing how faithful to the original it feels with additions that feel welcome. There are new characters, there's clearly a similar-but-different story playing out so players of the original still have something new; the story beats are similar but involving different characters entirely which tugged my curiosity. Oh and speaking of the soundtrack, they got the original composer Philippe Vachey to come back and do not only new arrangements of the existing soundtrack but also new songs entirely.
It also has a fantastic visual coat of paint that keeps the old art style alive.
The control scheme has done away with the modes, sadly but it keeps it in spirit as each mode exists as its own buttonpress. For example, in LBA 1 - walking up to a chest to open it required Normal mode. If you were in Athletic, using your action button would frustratingly have you jump in place in front of the chest.
Jump and interact are now separate buttons, and run is your default movement. There's a third button for punching without a need to switch into Aggressive. There are prompts in places where you can hide. It feels like they tried to keep the spirit while modernizing and I don't fault them for it. The original games are there with both original dosbox versions and re-released ports if that's what I want. (Hell they even open sourced the engines for 1 and 2 back in 2021)
A thing they kept though - the full voice acting and the incredibly stunted and awkward dialog...and I'm glad??? The wild thing is it's not even re-used audio from the 90's, they seemingly re-recorded all of these lines and bizarre interactions so it still feels like a 90's title. I think this'll probably annoy the shit out of modern players but it made me feel like I was home.
Anyway - I'm excited to dive back into to the world of Twinsun (the planet, not the character though it's pronounced almost the same) and see what other changes the devs have in mind for this classic.
Little Big Adventure: Twinsen's Quest releases November 15th on Steam, GoG, EGS, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch.