The Inner World series takes place in a world quite different from our own. Asposia is a world inside a sphere surrounded by grains of soil, hence the title, The Inner World. Four wind mountains maintain Asposia’s air supply, but their activity has depleted in past years. Coinciding with this is the appearance of the wind gods, called the Basylians, who have been petrifying the Asposians. They believe this is punishment for their sins. Now, only one wind fountain spurts forth any air, protected by the de facto religious leader Conroy. The story focuses on his deformed, adoptive son, Robert. Follow along as he explores a beautiful world, meets entertaining characters, and uncovers a vast conspiracy in these puzzling adventures!

The Inner World: The Last Wind Monk follows the story of the first game, three years later. The game gives a brief recap of previous events, so the first isn’t required to play the second. But why would you pick up the second chapter in a story heavy game before the first? Besides a new story, new environments, and updated mechanics, the two titles bear many similarities.

The Commonalities

The first feature of The Inner World I noticed was just how gorgeous the game is. Each background is handcrafted and beautifully detailed. A major driving factor for me going through the games was to see more of the beautiful Asposia. Not relying on realism or 3D graphics, the artists use their unique style to craft the world. Additionally, the characters are not only well drawn, but also have fantastic voice acting. Almost all of them are unique in their portrayal, with varying colors, body shapes, and voice acting. The exception is the guards, but for good reason — they’re the faceless upholders of fascism. Speaking of which, despite the bright colors and cute characters, the games deal with some dark themes.

One of my favorite rooms in the series. So many details, great use of color.

Robert is our innocent, little cinnamon roll protagonist, who is too good for Asposia. In The Inner World, Robert tackles issues such as fascism, the lasting impacts of child abuse, and how the collapse of a fascist regime doesn’t necessarily make way for something better. The writers handle these issues delicately and tastefully. Nevertheless, the games had me laughing often with their absurd sense of humor. I’ve played my fair share of adventure games that tried and failed to have a zany sense of humor. The Inner World (and its sequel) tries and succeeds!

The Inner World does dark humor well.

The game didn’t have me always laughing though, there were moments of frustration. The first game lacks touch controls, despite the classic “point and click” style. This would have improved my experience, as the controls are somewhat awkward. Typical of the “point and click” style, the focus of the gameplay is collecting objects, combining them, and interacting with your environment in order to solve puzzles. I often found the solutions non-intuitive, but The Inner World expects a gamer like me and compensates in kind. The game conveniently provides a help menu, which reminds you of your tasks and provides hints towards accomplishing them. Rather than just outright giving you the answer immediately, the system feeds you relevant hints one at a time. This system helped maintain immersion, as I didn’t have to rely on outside help when I was stumped.

A great summary of puzzles in The Inner World, or really any “point-and-click”.

The Differences

The biggest difference between the two games is obviously the story. I thought the writing and world-building in the first was superior, but the second did a good job of fleshing out Asposia further. The Last Wind Monk also tackled the darker themes more head-on but maintained delicacy in doing so. The sequel introduces more characters to the mix but does a good job of making them feel unique while maintaining the original characters’ voices. The most jarring difference between the two was how much more cursing was in the second. There was only one instance of cursing in the first game, which felt out of place. I chalked it up to translation since Studio Fizbin is German. The second game had about a dozen instances of cursing, but this didn’t make it feel any less out of place.

If those hanging banners aren’t a direct allusion to a certain historical regime, I don’t know what is.

The Inner World: The Last Wind Monk makes improvements on its predecessors’ mechanics. You can now toggle between party members when everyone is together. In addition, Peck the pigeon becomes a playable character. Also, rather than playing individual notes on his instrument, Robert remembers specific songs. These additions allow for somewhat more complex puzzles. However, the puzzles in the sequel are more difficult simply due to their design.

Not all the humor in The Inner World is dark.

Summary

The Inner World and The Inner World: The Last Wind Monk were an absolute delight to play. Studio Fizbin did a good job porting the titles over to the Switch, save for the lack of touch controls in the first title. The art and writing kept me coming back for more. Meanwhile, the help system kept me from staying stuck on any particular puzzle. I highly recommend the series to fans of the genre! However, if anyone is hesitant about buying both, the first is better bang for your buck in my opinion.

Like deep themes in your point and clicks? Check out 1979 Revolution: Black Friday! Looking for more point and clicks on the Switch? Check out The Wardrobe! Consider buying us a coffee if you’d like to keep our reviews ad-free!