Blue Wednesday, developed and published by Buff Studios, takes gamers into the world of Morris, a jazz pianist navigating the perils of a mundane life. The game offers a blend of rhythm gameplay, mini-games, and character-driven narratives, all set against the dreamy backdrop of Morris’ jazz-infused universe.
Story
The game begins with Morris, a struggling musician, facing eviction from an apartment he is renting from his aunt, and unemployment from a job that is sucking the life from him. The beginning of the game slogs along, but also perfectly captures the reality of trying to be a creative independent. Frustrated and dissatisfied, Morris struggles with ennui bordering on depression.
Frustrating, dissatisfying, boring and depressing? Yes, that exactly sums up the beginning of Blue Wednesday.
The first hint of the magic the game holds comes when Morris is walking home late at night from his job and gamers suddenly watch the city come to life, the sounds morphing into a neon electric music filled scene that shows the best the game has to offer in terms of music and art work.
From here, a la Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, Morris is fired from his job at the grocery store and finds himself with an opportunity to join a house band in a jazz club. Strangely, Morris is as excited at the prospect of playing music for a living as he is bagging groceries. I’m not entirely sure the story does a good enough job of explaining Morris’ lack of interest in performing, but that might be a story that gets developed later on in the game.
Gameplay
Blue Wednesday primarily revolves around rhythm and mini-games. The rhythm aspect of the game is decent. There are a max of four possible notes players need to hit, whether playing on the keyboard or with a controller, and while the notes sometimes come in clusters, the input seems relatively forgiving. And hey baby it’s jazz, there are no such things as wrong notes.
No seriously, I don’t think there are any actual “wrong” notes in this game. Even if a player completely bombs a song the story continues with no real consequences. Gamers will not need to try and try again to get things right. This is one of the game’s aspects that makes me confused about where the story might be heading. If there are no penalties for failure (at least in the demo I’ve played) then how is the game going to develop any sense of tension? As someone who pretty much uniformly plays cozy games in which I can while away hours farming space carrots, and who absolutely hates even mild suspense, it is really saying something about Blue Wednesday when I’m the one asking for a raise in the stakes.
Besides the rhythm and mini-games, gamers will spend a lot of their time talking with the different characters who inhabit Evans City. Each day Morris wakes up and walks to work, he has the opportunity to advance the story lines of all his neighbors. I really enjoyed this part of the game, as the developers offer just enough story advancement each day to keep me interested in continuing the conversation the following day.
A Couple of Cons
Two things need to be called out for gamers interested in playing Blue Wednesday. First, the controls for walking are a little bit wonky. Morris’ movements can feel unnatural, and selecting options for dialogue and entering and exiting doors can get mixed up (especially in the coffee shop). I don’t know if anyone else has had this issue but sometime after I would release the joystick, Morris would stop walking, but start sliding. He would slowly hover from across the screen, finally bumping into the bottom or some piece of furniture.
Also, the translation is… well, I’m not sure actually. Some of the dialogue, and many of the signs seem to be clearly translated from another language into English. The language is overly formulaic, stilted and sometimes uses the incorrect preposition. But, I found myself wondering if this was a feature not a bug. The overall feel of the game, especially in the early sections, leaned heavily into absurdity. Could the strange translation be one more aspect that is immersing gamers into Morris’ perspective? Or did the developers just not spend enough money on a good translator?
Overall
7/10
I think there is some strong potential here, but the fact I can totally blow the mini-games and not have any consequences at all really decreased the momentum of the game. I absolutely loved the music and the art, but I am really uncertain of where the story is going based on where the demo left off. The wonkiness of controlling Morris, mixed with the lack of attention to detail in translations took me out of what could otherwise have been an immersive experience.
Still, the game is soothing, and I think it does a good job of highlighting and featuring jazz classics.
Blue Wednesday is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Michelle Jones
I'm a completionist gamer who just needs to find that one last object and clear that final dungeon. I love all video games, from open world sandboxes on a console to a mindless match three on my phone. In addition to gaming and writing, I am a graduate student working on a thesis about the ancient Icelandic Sagas. Feel free to ask me anything about Vikings.
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