Revisiting Ecstatica
By Image credit: Eurogamer/SNEG Games
There’s a well-known occurrence in video game development referred to as time-to-penis. It’s a somewhat humorous metric of the duration players, when presented with an enticing array of new customization features, will spend to craft the first unavoidable in-game phallus. Ecstatica somewhat suggests it operates the opposite way as well. That developers – when exuberant with a new tech gadget – often can’t restrain themselves either. But perhaps I’m getting slightly ahead of myself.
Ecstatica, crafted by Andrew Spencer Studios and released by the now-defunct Psygnosis, initially launched back in 1994. It narrates the adventures of a clumsy traveler who unknowingly becomes tangled in the destiny of a demon-affected medieval village after stopping for a drink. Heavily inspired by survival horror pioneer Alone in the Dark (and arriving a full year prior to Resident Evil), it adopted a comparable fixed-camera style for its escapades, yet had some unique features of its own.
Ecstatica in its freshly remastered iteration.Watch on YouTube
Most strikingly noticeable was the choice to construct its pre-rendered backgrounds and characters from ellipsoids; providing the medieval village of Tirih and its surrounding area a gentler, more organic ambiance compared to the angular shapes allowed by the limited polygons of that era. Even today, its audacious, lively, and distinctly spherical style is truly one-of-a-kind.
Ecstatica isn’t, I must mention, unfamiliar to me. I first experienced it upon its original launch. And it’s a game that has never fully departed from my thoughts; largely, I’ll confess, due to the significant prevalence of genitalia and curves. Confronted with the boundless possibilities ellipsoids could render, Andrew Spencer Studios’ inclination towards the obscene was likely unavoidable, and, behold, the moment our tights-clad protagonist dismounts his steeds in the introductory cinematic, neither his prominent front ornament nor his two–large-orbs-in-a-scarf rear leaves much to the imagination. And if you choose the female protagonist, well, she’s got plenty to showcase as well.
And thus it continues: frolicking fauns with oversized bosoms,
