Sally Face Review for Nintendo Switch

Sally Face is a horror, mystery and dark-genre game that can be played on Nintendo Switch and PC. It was first introduced  by Portable Moose and adapted from 1990s cartoons and scary dreams.

The game Is divided into five segments like TV show episodes, covering everything in the episode such as mystery, adventure, mini-games and puzzles to solve. The story revolves around a shady boy named Sal who´s face is tide up with bandages covering almost his whole had. In the game, he uses a device to talk to ghosts and hear their stories, which is basically a mysterious kind of video game.

While using these mysterious devices and knowing the ghost stories, Sal and his friends discover something really absurd going around their town. They learn about mysterious murders occurring around town. The game becomes increasingly scary and horrifying as you progress in your adventure, and each episode presents puzzles to solve and new stories to discover.

Origin:

The game developer, Steve Gabry, began working on his creation for “Sally Face” in 2006-2007. The development aimed to incorporate a lot of elements into his creation to build a story inspired by 90s cartoons but with a mature theme. The story of Steve Garby  successfully came into existence in the year 2015.

At the beginning of Steve Gabry’s journey, he wanted to create an animation named “Sally Face” with the help of his few friends and animators. However, due to their busy schedules, no one was available at the time, causing unnecessary delays in the project. It took years to complete and ended adapted in story-mode game.

Sally Face’s Synopsis:

The story begins with a scary dream of a young boy walking through empty halls, his face covered in bloody bandages creating a sense of unease and creepiness. He has visions from his past that tell him that he had did something really gruesome and his dad was calling him a murderer. Later, he ends up seeing a dead woman, who is his mother in a hospital bed, and his nightmares came to an end. As the story progresses, we come to know that the dreamer is Sal Fisher, a prisoner who is talking to his therapist. The therapist is consulting Sal to discuss about his childhood things, and he started elaborating his horrifying journey involving murder, cannibalism, magic and paranormal activities.

In the next part, story continues as we see, Sal and his father shifts to a new apartment in a called Nockfell. Sal has scars on his face from a past accident, so he wears a prosthetic mask to hide them. He soon becomes friends with Larry, who lives in the basement with his mom.

Larry tries to warn Sal to beware of a murderer who has committed a crime next door. He saw the culprit, and by knowing that, Sal agrees to help him to find evidence against the murderer.

In another episode of the game, we get to see different time periods in Sal’s life in Nockfell. As the story progresses, we see Sal and his friends growing older giving it a realistic feel.

In later episodes of the game, we learn more about things that happened in earlier episodes (making it easier to follow the plot). As the story goes on, Sal meets new people, and his circle of friends grows bigger, including Todd, who is a tech freak and talks like he knows a lot of words, and Ashley, who’s an artist and likes to uncover mysteries.

They navigate mysteries surrounding Nockfell, such as ghosts appearing and a teacher keeping a secret from them about cult-related events happening in the town. They also notice strange things happening with their neighbors as if they’re possessed by some supernatural being.

They also discover a renowned sinister organization named “the Devourers of God” that may cause chaos in their town.

As they delve more into the story, you may find yourself questioning why Sal’s adult self is in prison, and whether or not the stories he’s narrating to his therapist are even true.

Gameplay:

The game is a simpler version of those point-and-click adventure games. The graphics are all flat, and you are only allowed to move in one direction. You don’t have a pointer to move around or click on things as you see in other adventure games. Instead, you see messages on the screen when you have to perform some activities along the way of the story.

The most difficult part of this game is that some hidden or optional things won’t have these messages, so you have to use your brain to complete missions. Most of the gameplay revolves around talking to spiritual and spooky things and discovering their stories.

There are also some cool things, like where you can use Sal’s portable game device to communicate with the spirit world (a video game of Sal that lets you talk to spiritual things or ghosts). You can also come across a few mini-games. The puzzles might take time, but mini-games are fun because they will let you discover dark secrets about the things surrounding the town and the people living there.

Graphics and Audio:

The graphics of the game feel quite similar to a visual novel, or you could say it’s more like a 2D cartoon rather than 3D graphics. However, since it is something that directly aligns with the theme of the game and effectively conveys the story, it naturally becomes a good choice.

The audio used in the game is quite diverse. It varies significantly depending on the situation in the game. For example, For example, in dream sequences, it sounds eerie with synthetic tones. In the Addison building, it features audio reminiscent of early 2000s electric guitar. When Sal and Larry are together, the audio resembles headbanging metal. The audio does a great job capturing the mix of sad feelings, hopes, and energetic excitement that teenagers often experience during their journey.

Important points to keep in mind before beginning to play:

Spiritual Content:

As we already mentioned, Sally Face is a game with spooky elements like ghosts, demons, and supernatural events. If you are not used those things, we would recommend you to not to try this game because it will not suit your taste. The main characters aren’t in a cult, but there is one in the game. There are also many scenes where they deal with ghosts and spirits. So keep it in mind it is not your regular horror game but with a very intense plot with darker theme so it may not be suitable for everyone.

This Game features violence:

As we mentioned previously, story is really dark. It includes violence, suicide, bloodbath, dead bodies and scary faces that can be quite intense at a times. It’s a warning for those who get scared easily, but the art style is like cartoon, so it’s not too scary to look but maybe few scenes can horrify you.

Incorporating Quite Mature Themes:

There are few scenes of couples who aren’t married but have kids, and also a gay couple in the story. There is a scene where a person is shown naked in one of the scenes, but it’s not mandatory to be looked at; you can simply skip the scene.

Overall Review:

The more you delve into the story of Sal and his friends the more you discover about the strange things happening in the town.

It becomes deeper and more complex as you continue navigating the true personality of each character in the story. There are different dimensions, diverse versions of reality, some places shown after death, and also evil spirits often referred to as demons in the game.

There’s also a lot going on in Sally Face that’s hard to explain, and it can be confusing sometimes because the characters narrated from the beginning doesn’t disclose its true personalities. In the conclusion of the story, many storylines are happening, and new information about the game’s chaotic world is constantly being unveiled.

It’s even more confusing because you mostly play as Sal, but sometimes you also control other characters, which in turn makes it hard to remember where everyone was and what they did.

Overall, Sally Face is a great choice for people who enjoy dark and spooky tales (like me). The story build up in game is fantastic and to put never  your guard down.