The scariest part of this game for me was that I unknowingly started playing the day before I moved to the state it takes place in. Let's hope these plants stay in Bethany's Mirror!!
Vinyis
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Satori Gives You Advice and Drinks Tea
At first it was a cute visual novel about birds, but then it was a heartfelt visual novel about anxiety. This is a double compliment by the way -- I think it was very cute and genuine and all came together really well. The art is lovely and it really feels like the author knows what it's like to work through not just anxiety but, even scarier, pet dinosaurs
An interesting auto(?) kinda game. The difficulty made it feel like there wasn't much point to which upgrades I picked, but I like the idea of strategizing perk selection along a route and the little blurbs that they had. Or maybe I was just a super smart tactical genius and picked all the right upgrades. Regardless, Tokiko was protected.
Any Disco Elysium inspiration probably went over my head, but I still thought the presentation was pretty quality and I liked the amount of descriptive, branching paths you squeezed in for just 3 days. That said, this is a heck of a topic(s) to try for a jam and it felt a bit preachy in ways that I'm hesitant to wonder what the message was really supposed to be. I agree with others that it would land better if certain character writing was given more depth/balance.
At first, life was easy. I had no need to survive in the wilderness running from vicious creatures. I had my impenetrable wall of seeds surrounding me, an unflinching fortress. But in time, the walls fell, and I was forced to flee. At approximately four minutes, it was hopeless to resist. The vast sea of feathers comprising the cataclysmic birdsphere had taken me as one of its own.
Birdtacular. I'm not sure exactly what happened but it's clear you went all in on it, so, respect. At first I thought the bosses were kind of impossible but as I went around I felt out a certain fight order with lots of unexpected synergies and power increases which made the fights much easier. Also some good jokes in there
"You know..." Aya said to Utsuho. "I'm working on a bit of a project."
Still walking, Utsuho looked over at Aya. The trees were still, the only sounds the rushing water of the stream and distant birds chirping.
"A Touhou Project." The perimeter triggered, an alarm blares its klaxon.
There wasn't much opportunity for dialogue, but we still did a little bit of joking around. Some mechanics I'm also still not sure how they worked (projectiles and some other things like reaction or fling interactions didn't feel very thoroughly explained), but all of that considered, I think this was the most polished tabletop entry I've ever played. Having a physical board and tokens adds a lot to the rules, and the illustrations went the extra mile. As a tabletop game on it's own, I like the execution of a Touhou "beat-em-up" co-op game with a story scenario and would love to see it on the Tabletop Simulator workshop or something.
Oh man. This one was wild. Admittedly, I got a bit frustrated with the inconsistency of the clicking and dragging windows, but the concept was just too strong for me to not love it. I've only seen a couple games out there that play with windows, but not like this, and I've never played one myself. Especially with the sfx for piecing yourself back together, it really makes you feel like an unstoppable automaton. I even took it a step further and played with a friend over Parsec, one person repairing and one person shmup-ing, and it was pretty cool!
Grateful for the high life counter as always, cause man I suck at this and these patterns were super hard for me. That's not to devalue them, they're cool designs to look at and I like watching the pretty fireworks (and art, on that note). Also an interesting combination of characters, with a not-quite-forgotten PC-98 classic and a brand new 2hu gal.
Oof, this one had some tough spots but the challenge was worth it and it was dang fun to nail down some of those maneuvers. Smart level design with how close some of that meter management comes! Having the lore alongside stage unlocks matching the scroll collecting is also a pretty cool integration. My one complaint: the spikes blended together a little with the grass for me, so I found myself touching them by accident occasionally. Perhaps Mokou is secretly a nerd and unable to touch grass
Looks like some aspects were short on time, but I like the idea of an immortality platformer where you attempt to find effective ways to die on obstacles. Of course, the water boiling interaction towards the end is a neat bit and a good example of this. Also, this is your first (jam) game? Congrats!
Of course, I loved this and talked about it plenty already in Discord but I gotta leave a jam comment anyway.
Super unique concept with an aesthetic to match! Maybe it's nostalgia but I always think it's neat when people replicate the vibe of mechanics associated with classic consoles, and I haven't really seen anything like this anyway. It was fun to desperately crank out the shapes to try and keep up with the ramping difficulty, although I do kind of wish the high points lasted longer or escalated quicker instead of seemingly fizzling out for so long with taking damage. Skill issue on my end perhaps
Ah, the hardcore picross for real gamers
I unfortunately encountered the audio glitch on my own, it sounds like the volume meter might be multiplying the audio rather than setting it? Honestly pretty funny when it happened while streaming to a few friends.
Anyways, I also suck at picross so I wasn't able to get very far on my own. But programming it at all seems like a technical feat in the first place, and it's a unique entry especially in that I don't think I've ever seen Touhou picross, somehow. My main critiques are that I would have liked to see what I got wrong and what the completed image was, but it seems like you've gotten plenty of informative feedback already. Interesting work!
Even though I had to do the minigames slowly to not softlock, and it still bugged out a bit, and I wasn't sure when it even "ended"... I hope that makes it all the more meaningful to say I loved this and it's an awesome concept. One of the more somber ideas I see touched on less often even with immortality stories is daily life after someone is gone. Writing with Mokou and Keine together usually explores how sad it will be when Keine is gone, and maybe when she dies, but how this portrays the approaching inevitability, and then the monotony and quiet emptiness of a daily routine without the loved one to look forward to through gameplay kinda resonated with me.
Short and sweet. I like how even for an educated immortal, having to think about the end of all things is a bit distracting. The casual mention of even being able to safeguard against entropy but having to set that ambition aside for later to focus on the task at hand felt especially realistic given the setting.