It has new added mechanics, such as more opportunities to speak to your companions and, of course, updated graphics and music. The Switch port will release in Spring 2023, and I highly recommend everyone with an interest in pixel RPGs to check it out if they haven’t already. Just like when I was a teenager, this all seems perfect for our dear little Ib. As it turns out, Ib managed to break 2 million downloads as of 2014, attracting the attention of indie publisher PLAYISM, who went on to remaster the game for digital distribution.Ĭompletely under the radar (unless you were tuned into this niche set of news, which, by the way, makes you Very Cool imo), Ib was rereleased on Steam earlier this year (April in Japanese, May in English), and now it’s getting the coveted spot for all indies: a Nintendo Switch port. I never saw Ib as being any more or less popular than its contemporaries, and if anything, I figured it’d just always remain as one of those games you either heard about through the grapevine, or got a highlight on YouTube once and was forgotten about. While things have reminded me of it ever since, I never thought it’d manage to crawl its way to modernity.Īnd the fact that it did is nothing short of remarkable.

Ib was locked away in my adolescent subconscious of random media I’d consumed and forgot about, from the webcomic Todd Allison and the Petunia Violet to various artists and animators I used to watch on Vine. But even though it was personally strange for me to see, I couldn’t help but feel so wildly impressed to see it at all. It almost felt wrong to see it in this context, with an affected voiceover ruining the suspense and buildup of the narrative, and all the bright colors of Nintendo’s advertising making it seem like a more childish game than it is.

How to download ib the game