Plot is the momentum killer, or something

There was a thing about ten years ago in games crit circles (god, maybe it was more than that, time is an onmarching army etc.) where absolutely everyone seemed to be obsessed with the idea of ludonarrative dissonance. This is the idea that the story in a game, and what you’re doing in that game, are misaligned or even in opposition. Saros is a game about a stubborn, stupid man who keeps doing the same thing over and over again and refusing to learn from it. In that regard, a roguelite is perfect for it. No notes, no dissonance here, thank you. However! The game does have a few places where the story, or more precisely the format in which it is delivered, gets in the way of what you’re doing. Saros delivers its story through a combination of cutscenes - which are really well animated and acted, though the dialogue itself is quite wooden - and text and audio logs, which I thought were very well written. It’s the former that cause problems. Saros really wants to tell you its story in a…