Played version: Demo6.7
The visuals are stellar and the style is really unique, the soundtrack is great (DRINK THE BLOOD, EAT THE FLESH) and the overall presentation of the game is just really nice and unique. The whole idea of gear and story synergy is really interesting, and even just the implications of using some gear affecting the story is great to make you think better about what you equip (even more so if that's actually a thing, or planning to be a thing). The enemy designs are great, the pace of the game never felt too grindy, the encounters didn't end up too repetitive - was able to beat all bosses (and even optional ones that I found) without having to grind, though sometimes only after a few tries (especially bosses that have multiple turns and can either do lot of damage or nothing/statuses can be a bit RNG whether they decide to give you a breather or just continually devour you without a break). Regarding the story, the only thing that's confusing to me is what's James role is supposed to be, as the focus very quickly shifts away from him and staying on Sarah and Billy, though this might be explained and tied up in the end - unfortunately I wasn't able to see the full ending, as the game freezed up after the second phase of the shadow boss (after the two Sarah boss phases) with the following: "Uncaught LoadError,chrome-extension://njgcanhfjdabfmnlmpmdedalocpafnhl/movies/wallslam.webm,() => { this._element.load(); }".
Apart from the overall impression, I drafted up some bugs/findings during my playthrough based on the notes I've been taking:
ACT1
Typo on act name (re-emergAnce), unsure if intentional
"Agency" text briefly flashing during intro transitions before going away
Some items doesn't seem to have their directions locked: the chest south of the house turned into a meatcube during interaction and talkin with the mirror from the side/back makes it disapper (consistent through all the acts)
Map south of the house, i was able to use ladder without picking up from the house, was able to pick up the ladder form the house too to end up with two ladders
Boiling noise doesn't go away after exiting the house, have to go to the south of the tree (or other are that has a BGM set up) to reset the bgm
Not a fan of the Euthanasia fight - shock too op and otherwise the fight is simple, there's no strategy just a binary check of whether you equipped the shock-resistant card (supposed to be a tutorial?)
The muzzle flash for Billy appeared for James, probably because I took off the Deerhunter 3 form Billy and gave it to James (probably shouldn't be able to do it)
SO HAPPY KO'D PEOPLE STILL GET XP
ACT 2
White text in white background during the pc section is hard do read - one of the options (third one I think) seems to be broken
Sad that can't bait enemies into beartraps
Sarah(teenager): muzzle flash shows up at James' place during the deer boss fight if you use her skill
Can equip Farm Girl as James and Billy - in fact only style that is locked for a character is James' suit, the rest can be given to anyone
Crackerlacker is OP, there's pretty much no need to use attack if you have more than 10 SWAG since it's super cheap and generates more SWAG than it uses
Gunsmanship card isn't really great for billy evne though it's implied for him - his only damaging gunsmanship skill is an AOE attack and 90% of the fights are against single enemies (also even after trying to test it didn't notice any change in skill damage)
Generally the team is too much James-loaded: he has the best damage (Crackerlacker), can heal and buff/debuff while apart from Sarah's curse skill the rest of the team is pretty much just there to soak up damage
Sudden Teen Spirit
Chest on the frozen lake south of the house changes when interacted too (direction doesn't seem to be locked)
ACT 3
Knife attack under skills just worse version of regular attack?
Good tutorial combat with the gopniks to explore the new character mechanics with how they keep getting themselves drunk
Interacting with the shelf next to the bed brings up the sleep dialogue (why you wanna sleep on the shelves Sarah)
Second set of blockboxes south of the motel room don't block the hallway fully visually, giving the implication that you can go through
Can equip titslitter on James
Saint of the blind eventually stopped attacking for me and just let me take turn after turn
Rememberance keeps swag at 100 (refills after use)
Exiting the room map I was able to redo the open package event the second time (was not able to reproduce after even though I still had the package in my inventory)
Can talk to the side of the 999 door and then it changes sprite (direction not locked)
Can go back into the black book and fight Memory of Haakon a second time after beating it and doing Sarah's sequence (doing so seems to be breaking things pretty bad, especially if you do it after having flesh-Billy instead of ghost-Billy)
Act 3 James party definitely has lot better synergy than Act2, though ghost-Billy felt more usefuly than flesh-Billy
Phone ringing sound during Sarah's part is reallyquiet
Mosca being the Jack instead of Queen?
Fifth week, Sally sprite disappears in the uni hall before sarah starts talking
Talking to reika (blue haired girl) after getting fucked up from the drinks removes the pink filter
Some core memory is under STUFF, some are under Key Items
Curse status doesn't show on the main menu so you end up just mashing dolls through everyone
After getting flesh-Billy, bit unclear what to do next - ended up clearing the grind pit and getting the 4 locks of hair before finding the stairwell (or was that a requirement for the stairs to appear?)
Even during the second Sarah vs coyote boss fight using the gun is "now not the right time" - framing implies it's out and should be useable