In the opening moments of Obscurant, I don’t immediately understand why what seems to be a typical top-down adventure game is placed on a grid. Why every step the android-like, amnesiac protagonist takes through the desolate sand of the first desert area feels laborious and rhythmic, as if they have to pause and think before each one. Then, I meet the “Little Round Guys.” They are strange, robotic little creatures, not unlike the most basic machine enemies in Nier: Automata in shape. They walk back and forth in a pattern – two steps in one direction, then back two steps the way they came, then repeat. After a few cycles of this, they pause in the middle of their path to recharge for five beats, before lighting up again and resuming their pattern. If they see an enemy, aka me, they give chase. They are faster than me and will always catch me. Which is, immediately, where the grid and my character’s hesitant stepping motion clicks into place. When I make a move, they do too. Each s