Introduction

As a reviewer—and gamer—I’ve long come to an understanding that we shouldn’t judge a game based on their title. Look at Metaphor ReFantazio…that title is odd as anything else yet it is one of my favorite RPGs ever made. That’s why when we here at SunsetNerdVerse were given a review code for The Perfect Pencil…yeah I re-checked my email and titled my head a bit. When I booted the game up and it warned to avoid playing if you have issues with real-world concepts like death and suicide…I this time went “what” out loud in surprise…mostly because I was still wondering about the name The Perfect Pencil. Still, I jumped into this quirky titled 2D adventure platformer and wow…I was quite surprised at what awaited me. Is The Perfect Pencil the next big indie title or is its name the only good thing about it? We find out in my review of The Perfect Pencil for the Nintendo Switch!

Gameplay

The Perfect Pencil may scream a game about writing—trust me reader I thought the same—but nope this isn’t a writing based game. Instead, you assume the role of a headless body who then gets a strange spotlight head. You also then get a literal pencil which acts as your weapon in this dream-like world. Are you dead? Is this the afterlife? Whose hand caresses my spotlight head from the trees? Let’s find out together.

You are John—if you are a John reading this I don’t mean you but the character in The Perfect Pencil—your goal is kind of unknown but you do know you need to move forward and that isn’t going to be a simple task. In The Perfect Pencil, almost everything in this odd world is either trying to kill you or wishing to talk about tea, life and being quiet. To say The Perfect Pencil is weird would be an understatement…this is one of the oddest narrative platformers I’ve played in some time. Yet, the gameplay is what we want to focus on for now. The story will come in due time.

Controlling John is simple enough, he can jump, slash at enemies with his pencil, use a healing attack by charging said pencil and climb simple items. The goal is to make it from one place to another, nothing that radical but what I liked in The Perfect Pencil is its very reminiscent of games like Hollow Knight or Castlevania, with a bit less back tracking. I even feel you can say The Perfect Pencil harbors the soul of a Dark Souls game with the constant death you’ll face but the various shortcuts that make the move to the next area feel like an accomplishment.

Seriously, you’re going to perish a lot in The Perfect Pencil. I think in my first two hours alone I died maybe 20 times. That’s because The Perfect Pencil is quite tough and not always due to the enemies being hard to beat. John is equipped enough to fight back and keeps his health consistent but there’s so many threats in The Perfect Pencil that I often died not knowing something was an enemy. From “people” that throw pillows under a fort from a distance, to toxic mushroom-like objects, The Perfect Pencil is filled with deadly entities.

I won’t deny I loved this concept as it makes you really pay attention to everything. When you die two things happen. One you are forced back to a tree-like hotel which is where you save you get a checkpoint. The other is a strange laughing fairy-man steals some of your currency and takes it. If you can find him via your projector light, you can get it back and usually he makes it obvious where his location is by laughing and seeing two big eyes in some odd little area.

Another element of The Perfect Pencil is the light John has which lets him explore the environment finding new story themed items and just random goodies. The game will let you know when you’re near one of these areas so don’t be too worried looking for them. Your biggest concern should be finding some form of shortcut like ropes you can tie together to climb or breakable walls to make the next death a bit easier to digest.

Back to the currency, from killing enemies to finding green orb-like items, your currency can help you purchase new skills. These skills usually are powered up moves or attacks but this is where I ran into my first major issue with The Perfect Pencil. The skills while cool and sometimes can be helpful, often didn’t help me much outside some major enemy fights. Most either didn’t work well enough to be useful or got me damaged trying to use them against the sometimes super-fast entities. I kind of wish there were significantly better moves to buy as most felt unneeded.

My other issue in terms of gameplay is The Perfect Pencil will question your ability to not get lost. Seriously, I got lost so often in The Perfect Pencil that it was more of an accomplishment just realizing I finally made it to a new area. Expect to get turned around a lot while playing and don’t feel bad. At the very least, there’s always something to find in every nook and cranny of The Perfect Pencil.

Graphics

Where The Perfect Pencil excels without missing a beat is the visuals. Despite the warnings and darker themed story lying in wait, The Perfect Pencil is gorgeous. Yeah, it feels a bit like a fever dream at times but a colorful one that mixes cartoon themes with hand drawn art. Nothing feels cliché in The Perfect Pencil and that’s a rarity in games like this. There’s also plenty of muted and darker images hiding in The Perfect Pencil and it helps remind you this isn’t a great place to be in…it’s a world that has hidden truths and lies.

Sound

I’m not going to say I dislike the OST and tones in The Perfect Pencil but I don’t care for them either. Maybe its trying to match the tone of the story and setting but the music in The Perfect Pencil is just weird and not that engaging. I did like some of the music, especially in some areas but overall I wasn’t a huge fan of the OST. Still, I can’t deny it fits the setting.

Story

As someone who loves psychological themes in games—when done well—I do judge games that make that initial comment The Perfect Pencil has harder for them. I won’t spoil anything in The Perfect Pencil—as it would ruin the experience greatly— The Perfect Pencil’s story is pretty good. Yeah it can be occasionally like trying to unwrap a gift that is wrapped 10 times. I believe this is on purpose to make John’s tale not have just one result but still it’s a tad confusing at times. I did enjoy the story still and always wanted to see what awaited me next.

Overall Impression

The Perfect Pencil is quite different and I kind of liked that. It does clearly have multiple inspirations from other games but clearly The Perfect Pencil is trying to be different and for the most part it works in its favor. I do have minor gripes here and there with The Perfect Pencil but I overall enjoyed the story and the gameplay was fun, tough and engaging just enough to push me. I didn’t know what to expect from The Perfect Pencil but what I was given was a solid game that really shocked me.

Conclusion

The Perfect Pencil is a fun platformer with a surprising story waiting for those willing to keep going through this bizarre landscape. While it isn’t the next Silk Song, The Perfect Pencil has a strange but intriguing story and some vibrant designs all around. While The Perfect Pencil doesn’t do everything right and trips here and there, overall I enjoyed my time with it and think those who need a competent 2D platform adventure title will find The Perfect Pencil a solid game to buy.

—Aaron