Lenna's Inception

Lenna's Inception by Bytten Studio landed on my radar back in 2014 when it was originally going to be published by Chucklefish, but over the years I lost track of it again. The game's appearance in the Itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality was a nice surprise because I had no idea the game had been released earlier this year.

I have slightly mixed feels on this one, I'll start with the positives. The game has 8-bit and 32-bit graphics options (32-bit ftw) and a good soundtrack. I enjoyed the trope subversions on the bog-standard Zelda-style hero story and the use of glitches as both a mechanic and story element. There is a lot of gaming meta and using glitches to walk between maps is an important strategy (this took me back to using the Game Genie to explore the maps of Final Fantasy games). This game was crafted with love, by people who love games, and it shows.

The game definitely feels like the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in many respects but Lenna is accompanied by a familiar or a friend who assists in battle, which makes the journey feel a bit less lonely. In a nod to classic roguelikes the game features potions and armor that are unnamed until you either use/wear them or see them in action, which always adds a fun press-your-luck element. So if you'd like to play through a shortish Zelda clone with cute art and a fun story and multiple endings, or if you are a fan of procedurally generated top-down adventure-style games suitable for speedrunning, you'll enjoy this one.

In the beginning, the biggest weakness for me was also one of the main selling points: the procedural generation. If you are looking for a Zelda clone you may find the procedurally-generated maps lend themselves to cluttered, unremarkable overworld and somewhat boring dungeon design. Dungeon puzzles, which are on of the hallmarks of Zelda-like games, aren't really present here. Most of the time you simply clear a room of enemies to obtain and item or key or unlock a door. The only designed level in the game is the last one, the Palace. My first run I kind of hated the procedurally-generated maps, which sometimes don't make visual sense (you might end up with a screen that has three bridges together surrounded by water, or something equally odd). The procgen always generates a traversable path, but sometimes the maps are non-intuitive to the point it might seem like you're stuck, when in fact you're just overlooking one open block in a corner somewhere.

Toward the end of my first playthrough I decided I wanted to start over to try for the good ending. My second playthrough I found actually enjoyed the procedural generation a lot more because it did a good job of shaking things up and since I knew the maps would be wonky in some places I didn't have an issue with that aspect. I can see how this game would greatly appeal to speedrunners.

I struggled with the last level, which also happens to be the only designed level in the game. Some players will find the use of glitching to access this area interesting, but I found it a bit too maze-like and looping. The good news is the speed runners have gotten it down to a few minutes, so once you've figured out the maze getting past it on subsequent runs will be trivial.

tl;dr This game grew on me and I enjoy it. I will continue to work on my "good ending" run and I can see myself returning to it periodically for a speedrun-Zelda fix. I think fans Undertale will enjoy this one and players who have a lot of experience with the genre will appreciate the subversions. It's tough to gauge how long the game is, howlongtobeat doesn't have enough data yet, it can run anywhere from a one-hour speed run to maybe 5 or 6 hours on your first full-exploratory playthrough.