Squids Odyssey

My first hour with Squids Odyssey went roughly like this: mild confusion, a lost squid or two to spike urchins, then a slow, spreading grin. The Game Bakers built something quietly strange here - a tactical RPG where positioning is decided not by grid squares but by the angle and force of a slingshot fling. You pull back a tentacle, read the bounce, and hope your scout skids into two crabs before tumbling into the abyss. It clicks in a way that almost nothing else does, and once it clicks, you will be there a while. The roster gives you fifteen individual squids spread across four classes: shooters who fire ranged attacks from a fixed spot, scouts who can dash multiple times across the arena in a single turn, troopers who trigger area-of-effect slams, and healers who restore health by physically colliding with wounded allies. That last mechanic alone - launching a healer across a crowded field and hoping she clips your battered trooper on the way past - captures something no menu-based RPG can replicate. Each turn is a small physics puzzle wrapped in an RPG shell, and the action-point stamina system means you are always rationing your ambition. Harder missions pile in environmental traps: water jets that redirect your squids into spike urchins, pit edges that punish greedy launches, pressure pads that shift the geometry of the fight mid-round. The 90-plus missions across environments ranging from Greek citadels to tropical coral reefs and Japanese temples keep the backdrops varied even when the core loop threatens to feel familiar. A Pro Mode with fully redesigned missions waits for anyone who finishes the main run and wants genuine punishment. The RPG scaffolding is lighter than the tactical layer, which is fine. Leveling does not happen through passive experience gain - you rack up combos and hunt treasure chests to unlock stat improvements, spending pearls in the between-mission base and shop to kit your squad out with over sixty-five helmets that provide permanent class-wide bonuses. The story is cheerful and slight: Steev, Vahine, Clint, Sammo, and their fellow squids have personalities and banter, the inter-mission cutscenes move things along with a light comic touch, and the whole thing never pretends to be more than a good-natured adventure. Some players will find the writing charming; others will click through it. Neither response is wrong. It would be dishonest not to flag what does not fully land. Squids Odyssey began life as a mobile title, and the PC port carries residual awkwardness in certain menus. The trajectory physics are deliberately rubbery, meaning even experienced players will occasionally misfire in ways that feel more random than skillful - strategy purists may bristle at that unpredictability. Mission variety is solid but the core action can tip into repetition past the midpoint if you are playing long, unbroken sessions. The soundtrack, remastered by Romain Gauthier with additional tracks composed for the original games, is warm and buoyant - it does the atmospheric heavy lifting that the modest visual production cannot always manage on its own. Steam user reception sits around 80 percent positive, which feels accurate: not a universal love story, but a genuine one for the people it clicks with.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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