Forgive the short review since I already gushed about it on discord. This is one of the best games I've played in recent times and I've played a fuckton of great games. Everything was engineered for me to enjoy it and the frictionless gameplay was the cherry on top. Like you played every adventure game ever and got rid of the little things that make them annoying (no shade intended to great adv games. Every fan knows what I'm talking about). The music, the graphics, the writing had me cackling all throughout its run time. Simply fantastic. I literally have to keep myself from gushing about it too much.
This is the :image126: of visual novels in the best possible way. I mean it. I found myself laughing like a maniac at how deranged (positive connotation) this is. Sometimes it's better to not know the language that well, just like in E.Y.E divine cybermancy.
Only real criticism I can level is that the text is too close to the bottom of the screen, making it hard to read when there's more than two lines of dialogue.
Super inspiring game all the way through. The melancholic vibe and just the rawness of the situation made the experience super tangible; like I was there in that room reminiscing along with the characters about people I haven't met yet.
Visually, the graphics are so abstract it lets the mind fill in the gaps and it makes me imagine something much grander than what's on screen and I love when games do that shit. Only criticism I can level is the handling of the puzzles. Keep in mind I'm a dummy but here are some observations:
The first couple puzzles educate the player into believing all pieces for the solution are in the same room, so when I didn't pick up the lighter it didn't occur to me to explore outside the graveyard.
The ending puzzle almost filtered me for some reason. Once I did it it was obvious what I had to do but I kept tryna combine the magazine and the bullet first LOL. Maybe adding something to the description of each part that implies what should be combined would be good, like the bolt and housing that had a pretty obvious giveaway that they went together. But I spent an embarrassing amount of time attempting several combinations until I had a little aha! moment and made the welrod.
Unexpected format that made me incredibly hype as soon as I fired it up. It's like taking a peek into a world that already exists without my involvement and I love when a game does that. Just drop me in the middle of shit. Great use of title cards; I'm always a mark for those.
Cool moody game making the most out of its set of tools. I think everything being so raw from gameplay to assets helps convey how close to your heart it is and that's something you should never forget in future games. It's a nebulous concept, I admit, but the point is that you'll realize what I'm talking about during a cool eureka moment.
I can't judge it as an educational tool since I already know hiragana (therefore no point to the exercises in my case) but the story itself was rather hilarious and unexpected - even after reading the draft on paper beforehand.
The sprites are cute and the whole thing managed to have some consistency at the end but not quite enough to "feel" polished, which is something more people should aim for when time constrained.
I'm hopeful that the final product will be as ABAP as possible. This is a good start.
I see in this game the seed of a very creative person that needs a lil push in order to blossom into something special. The whole experience reminded me of my own bouts with social anxiety. While it was a bit on the short side (not a bad thing, just that it coulda had more within that shortness) I think the visuals complimented what you were setting out to do and the ending really got me.
By the way, I'd make the video unskippable for the first 10 seconds so people actually get to see it. I skipped it by accident and had to play again to see it; and that was only because I knew there was one from discord.
Great game to smoke to. Reminiscing and coming to terms with the past is always a powerful theme and the way you did worldbuilding + used very natural-sounding dialogue made for an extremely good time that also made me reflect on many a thing of my own.
A very touching tale of someone desperate to move forward at all costs. Hits home quite a bit. The use of abstract imagery really takes it to the next level and makes the player fill in the gaps on the horrors and events happening around this world.
Good shit.
Somehow works as a vignette too. I wasn't necessarily aching to see the journey itself, and was content with imagining what happens next. Crazy how it feels complete despite being, technically speaking, an introduction to a larger narrative.
Super cute and cozy game full of well-developed characters that you can easily fall in love with. Romantically or whatever.
Looks and feels more polished than many commercial visual novels from Japan despite being built in roughly over a month, which is a huge feat. Especially considering there's several routes to enjoy. Very beefy overall. Dialogue is quirky and never gets old, each character feels like it has a voice.
Mad immersive with a surprising focus on exploration. Going back and forth between places trying to understand how things came to be made for a very cool time. I recommend playing it with a chill but brooding soundtrack as bgm (silent hill, twin peaks, etc.)
