itch.io

Yes, the second file is in English. 

There's something both wonderfully surreal and familiar about Pipo in that it captures the feeling of stumbling around a house as a curiosity driven toddler trying to explore every nook and cranny of their surroundings. We as the player may identify a room or what a specific appliance aught to be used for, but to this little pink gremlin we play as, everything is a colorful abstract mesh of shapes and sounds to be poked, prodded and climbed on. The art style has a very Hylics 1-esque aesthetic to it with all the bright, pastel colors and mid 90s-adventure game style animations. Everything comes together with targeted bits of weirdness that make me question if this game is supposed to take place in a suburban house or an alien planet.

I think anyone who enjoys quirky, indie sprite-based RPGs will enjoy messing around in Pipo, even if the experience is very short and there isn't a complicated battle system or dramatic, involved plot. It all feels very inspired, especially compared to a lot of the other adventure RPGs I see published on this platform, and I'm very interested in whatever game projects shtanishki decides to work on next. Unfortunately the Russian game description and lack of detail on this page in general will probably cause Pipo to be overlooked by English-speaking players who might otherwise try this out. If you're one of those players looking at this page, just use the bottom download link- there's very little dialogue in this game, but the "pipo.zip" file has an English translation for what dialogue there is that's perfectly serviceable.

Spoiler (maybe?):

Is there any significance to Reggie on this page having two arms in the preview pictures instead of one? I'm assuming this was from an older development version of the game or something because everything else seems basically the same. Two armed Reggie is even still in the game files but this isn't something you can actually use in-game, which got me briefly all conspiratorial wondering if there was some hidden alternate reality NG+ mode or something where the arm chopping never happened.

How are you supposed to get past the screen with the first save point? There doesn't seem to be anything you can do to interact with the rock that's blocking the path forward.

I like how limited the block options are, it really forces you to stretch your thinking about how you can creatively stretch some functionality out of a very simple set of movement options. In terms of suggestions, I didn't see any "clear all" button but it would be nice not to have to delete an entire existing block layout one block and connection at a time. 

I think this is a neat prototype, it has that Metroidy feel to it while having its own uniquely punchy visual and audio style. I didn't get too far in the game but I just wanted to leave a couple of points of feedback based on what I experienced:

1. The dash seems to go straight through any sort of environmental boundaries- it's very easy to phase out of the edges of the map accidentally, especially if you dash diagonally. While this is very funny to do there's a lot of instant deaths that can happen this way.

2. It feels very weird and inconvenient having to use the mouse to fire, especially when you can't actually control where you aim with it. I'd prefer just having another button on the keyboard like K or L or something. Also, I don't think Ctrl should be used at all for a web-based client game because depending on your browser or specific operating system these can very easily accidentally trigger a lot of random gameplay disrupting shortcuts (like if you press ctrl while moving right this triggers the "create bookmark" shortcut in Chrome which pops up every single time this happens).

Faye Falling is a story-driven, sprite based RPG with action combat elements reminiscent of games like the Mario RPG games and Undertale. You play as a recently deceased amnesiac individual who turns out to be Only Mostly Dead and stuck in some sort of weird abstract purgatory filled with puzzles, dangers and other ghosts who haven't quite passed on fully yet. Things are not all well in the land of spirits and the player can either be a jerk about it as they wander around and interact with people or spend some time trying to help out the locals. I played a basically lawful good spell-focused character and went through the whole demo, which ends after the first boss fight and took me about an hour to beat.

I don't really need to go into the details of the story here because it's probably best experienced going in blind, but it did keep me interested the whole way through the demo. Visually and musically the game feels very polished, and has a consistently bright, geometric art style which is super impressive for a one-person development project. I didn't encounter a single bug or graphical hiccup during my whole playthrough which is honestly a rarity for many of the indie RPG titles I've tried on itch.io. Technically, Faye Falling just feels rock solid and everything from the ambient music to the font choices to how the battle UI reacts to player input feels intelligently thought out and intelligently crafted. I appreciate little details like the animated trees and bushes blowing in the wind and the creepy wall eyeballs that follow you everywhere which really help to bring the world alive.

I also really like the feeling of moving through the levels in particular. Character movement is usually a very subtle thing that doesn't always get much attention in these kinds of RPGs, but here it just feels good to move around corridors and through hallways. One trick the game uses which I like whenever it pops up in games is how if the player character is halfway running into a wall, they'll automatically wrap around the wall and keep going instead of just getting stuck. Also, the dash you get early on makes zooming past spike traps and breaking glass pillars feel very satisfying. I hope the full game has more of these movement options and some different types of level environments to take advantage of them.

In terms of things that didn't really work for me- I don't think the mana economy in the game really meshes with the amount of combat the game expects you to be doing. It quickly becomes apparent that you're better off not bothering to use any of the mana-expensive utility spells and that the best strategy is to just dodge as many enemy attacks as possible while burning enemies down as fast as possible with your cheap but effective attack spells. Additionally, most save points not restoring mana/health is frustrating as a spellcaster because you're constantly running low on mana but this doesn't actually make the game harder since you can just die on purpose to get respawned with your stats restored. Even with this dying/respawning trick, the game seems to consciously push players towards only using the cheapest spells possible outside of particularly difficult battles. It simply is not worth wasting your painfully limited mana supply with any of the support spells because reducing incoming damage or disabling abilities is never necessary and you're always better off just learning to dodge the enemy attack patterns, tanking with the cheap and powerful healing items you can easily stock up on and landing all those highly damaging dodge counters. 

Honestly, these complaints aren't the biggest deal for me personally because I don't really play story-based RPGs for intricate combat balance. I care mainly about the environment, the music, the dialogue choices, and how the world makes me care about the characters in them and the events of the story. Everything in the demo kept me interested this far and I'm eager to see how the story plays out in the full version of the game.

Wow, this is a really promising looking RPG! I really love the aesthetics and the general feel of exploring the world so far. Unfortunately I can't get past the first battle because of a vertex shader error that gets thrown the instant I land the initial attack (https://i.imgur.com/lYP5Gl5.png). I'm running Windows 10 on a laptop if that helps, but let me know if you need any more information. Would love to play further in the game if this gets patched.

I didn't make it very far in the game- after a good 20 minutes of running around checking everything I can't find this key that I need to apparently need to get through an underground gate- but what I did experience was pretty unique and caught my interest immediately. Animal companions in an RPG are a fun concept and the way the skills are set up gives each party member their own battle identity and flavor. I also like that pretty much everything in the environment is interactable in an intuitive way. You can get healing items from cactuses, money from gold and silver bars laying around the underground mine and commonplace items like ropes and pickaxes just lying around as props are also collectable by the player. A lot of RPG Maker games are loaded with props that look pretty but don't do anything so giving them some purpose is a nice change of pace.

Aside from having no idea where to go next my main concern with the game is some polish issues. One example is that the battle music should probably be extended longer or at least have some variations so we aren't hearing the same relatively short loop multiple times per fight. Also, there are multiple instances of NPCs that don't move anywhere and can't be interacted with even though they're clearly bad guys, which makes me unsure if the game is bugged out somehow or if I'm supposed to do something specific to trigger a fight/conversation.

One of the most unusual features of the game is the ability to use skills seemingly without limit outside of combat. The horse in particular can not only fully heal the party's MP/HP for free after every single battle, it can prebuff defense and agility multiple stages outside of combat which carries over into the next fight you encounter. You can even use some weird skills like Holy Strike (normally just a strong single target damaging attack) outside of combat which doesn't seem to do anything other than drain MP. It seems really broken that you can buff several stats to max before the start of every fight at no cost but I'm assuming there may be some issue with how the some of the skills are programmed.

Anyways, a cowboy/lovecraftian adventure RPG seems like a really neat concept and I really enjoyed the small taste of gameplay I got as well as the presentation and visuals. I really do like the concept of this project and I hope the author continues tweaking the game with some patches in the future.

I just finished a playthrough of Fallout 2 a few days ago so this was pretty neat to see! Even though this is basically a tech demo the movement and controls are pretty smooth and I think with some more texturing and objects you could make a pretty faithful 3D recreation of some of the 2D cities featured in the game. It kinda has that old school Daggerfall feel right now of being in a big open 3D world with sprite based NPCs. I'd be interested to hear what you're adding to the project if you continue to work on it in the future.

the twitter equivalent of goblin mode

In case someone else is dealing with a similar issue, I used WINRAR to extract it.

I went ahead and played through C:\FOR\EVER on the Windows package and it's working perfectly now. What a wild ride of a game that was! The most memorable thing about the experience for me is just how creepy and distinct it feels from the standard RPG Maker experience while still coming off as polished and smartly put together. I see some bits of OMORI and OFF in the aesthetic though the music and interspersed media elements/fourth wall breaking really give the game its own flavor. 

The combat also really sticks out to me as a strong point. It's fun because of how much character the enemies have and just how satisfying the sound and graphics of the attacks are in general. I also really like both the normal and boss combat themes. I got a little overwhelmed by the Paper Mario-esque interactive attacks at first but once I got the hang of using each one they all started to feel pretty natural. My only beef with the system is that having to mash like crazy for several seconds every time Stephen uses a heal skill gets annoying real quick, I'd prefer if it was maybe toned down a bit.

As for the story, it does a really great job getting across the moods of guilt, regret and obsession, and how the main characters deal with them, even if we don't understand the specifics of what's happening in the story. There's so much abstract visual spectacle here that I feel like I'm getting jumbled glances at some bigger picture that would maybe make sense on repeated playthroughs. It's not even clear who the antagonist of the game is or if there even is one at all. 

Normally in a game this would be the point I'd start digging up wiki articles piecing together hundreds of scraps of lore but since that obviously isn't here for C:\FOR\EVER I'm going to have be satisfied with some educated guesses. I've played through enough to get both endings and I still don't really know what we actually accomplished. This is probably going to get expanded upon in the sequel since this is apparently just a demo, so maybe just waiting is the only way to get some real answers.

Probably the biggest mixed bag for me in the game is the puzzle elements. There's quite a few of these, both in terms of figuring out what to do next to advance the story and getting past traditional RPG obstacle rooms. Some of these I enjoyed- the fetus stone hallways and the floor tile puzzle come to mind- but a couple others, like the ghost maze in particular, felt like a lot of frustrating trial and error. I think conceptually this room works it just could be tweaked a bit to help players not have to redo the same passageways so much. I imagine that room in particular is going to be the number one obstacle gating players from getting the alternate ending of the game.

Overall, though, C:\FOR\EVER was a fun and unsettling experience that's a cut above most free RPGs you'll find on itch.io in terms of craftsmanship and creativity. If the aesthetic of the game looks interesting to anyone reading this review I definitely recommend checking it out.

Make sure to turn on Sync Monitor FPS in the options to ON! I couldn't figure out what was going on at first but monitor FPS seems to be the issue.

Hi, I'm really liking what I've seen of the game so far, but I wanted to let you know that there seems to be a minor bug with the Windows package. It seems to be missing some sound effects, specifically Melancholy2.ogg and Deadfish.ogg (there may be others), which results in a bunch of loading error popups when playing the game. I checked the Linux package and sure enough those sound effects are there. 

I tried the latest version of the game and the difficulty curve definitely feels a lot better now.

This is a short but fun little platformer game that's a lot more clever than the concept of simply clicking quick time event buttons might imply. You can't simply hit the buttons at the first possible instant they appear because there is some timing to it and "decoy" buttons that send you jumping into a wall if you hit them without thinking. The music is intense and fits perfectly with the rhythm of the jumps at times and the movement/graphics is polished and fluid.

I would recommend playing with a touch pad or stylus if possible because it's way more comfortable than trying to play this with a mouse. 

(EDIT: A recent update pretty much fixed the issue listed here) Something that really stuck out when playing- the biggest challenge in the game is two button prompts right before the end of the game that are ridiculously difficult to land due to the game inexplicably cutting the reaction time you need to almost instantaneous for these points specifically. If you're playing this game and inevitably get stuck on this part and end up dying over and over in a loop I recommend clicking madly on the screen before the prompt even occurs and hoping you get lucky because that's probably the only way you're getting through it other than playing on easy difficulty.

My thoughts on this game for anyone who might be interested in trying this out:
Quasar is an amnesiac wizard with a cute dog who is vaguely aware of a prophecy to activate three mysterious towers associated with primary colors. Unfortunately, she is also a very broke wizard who can't afford to buy a fashionable enchanted robe or doomsday wand. In her true quest to get enough coin to buy some proper magical drip she will have to violently pummel various strangers for their crimes of loitering, inconveniently standing in the middle of a path, holding opinions unfavorable to the local clown monarch and various other existence-related misdeeds. 

Leveling up isn't a thing in the game and neither is buying potions, but the battles are generally tuned to be so easy that this is never a concern. There are a few moments where you have to use Quasar and her companion's skills to defeat a specific boss, but even if you somehow manage to lose a fight you immediately can try again at full HP/MP. The lighthearted NPC interactions/dialogue are the real focus of the game so it makes sense that the battles aren't taken too seriously.

I thought the whole experience was cute and  goofy in a good way, and despite how simple the gameplay is it doesn't overstay its welcome (except for a speech given by a certain robot). It takes about 2 hours to beat everything so it's something you can easily do in one sitting.

I'm having some weird visual effects in-game because of what looks like some screen resolution issues- the settings menu looks like this, for instance (https://i.imgur.com/99jqZyG.png). I'm unable to get the in-game phone to change menus and I'm assuming it might be related.

Itch.io insists that AsteroidSculptor is "story rich" and I'm prone to believe it, but I don't think by playing it I could tell anyone exactly what that story is. Is it a series of incomprehensible hallucinogenic visions or an extended metaphor for our traumatized, bag-headed protagonist coming to terms with their sexuality? I have some theories, but since this is only 10% of the game's full size I don't want to pretend like I have any meaningful answers here or even that any of this review really matters at all regarding the finished product.

What I do know is that I like interesting experiences, and there's quite a few experiences in this visceral mass of weirdness that I find interesting. I like trying and failing to punch a cactus and chasing down a teleporting NPC that speaks in riddles and occasionally sings. I like exploring this carnival freak show of a town and somehow finding myself inexplicably running down a corridor filled with banana peels. I also like the feeling of making progress through impromptu exploration, even though half the time I'm not sure if I'm just running in circles and wasting time talking with NPCs that want nothing to do with me.

Also I think I'm supposed to be collecting asteroids too, though there doesn't seem to be much sculpting going on. 

What I will say is that the font is somewhat hard to read on my monitor, and it would be nice if I could increase the font size or even the game resolution somehow. Also, if I could just use X to exit menus instead of having to reach up to hit the ESC key, that would make the controls feel a little more convenient.

I like the game, though this sentence kinda baffles me: "Would anyone care to join me for a of desk yoga?"

Very cool demo with some fantastic art design, interesting worldbuilding and an overall level of polish beyond the usual indie projects I see posted here. This feels like a big budget release title with a lot of time and love put into it and I'm very interested to see how the game develops. If you're here just wondering if this demo is worth playing through or not, then I'd say if you like games like Transistor or Hades then absolutely, Brightseeker is worth the download and the time to try it out. It's a free demo and a very well put together one at that.

Since this game is still in alpha and will probably undergo a lot of tweaks, I'm going to give some specific feedback based on my play experience:

It's difficult for me to adjust to the isometric movement of the arrow keys right away, but I started to get used to it near the end of the demo, so I imagine it will grow on me, though I think players used to the controls in other isometric action games will get frustrated. Or maybe the game was mainly designed with controllers in mind? Either way, I tried adjusting the "Isometric North" setting in the options and it didn't have any effect. Once this option is functional I think it should be turned off by default and toggleable for people who prefer the current movement.

Also, the demo really encourages players to spam the dash button constantly while poking away at enemies from across the screen with projectiles. It's way easier than to try to engage enemies in melee (which inevitably results in the player taking damage) or using the extremely tight shield parry window (which feels nearly impossible to get deflected shots to actually hit enemies). It doesn't help that enemies in the demo are incapable of catching up to a backdashing player and have no countermeasures to prevent this. There really aught to be a cooldown on the dash and ways to make using the shield more rewarding, this would encourage the player to constantly mix up their gameplay. I'd like to see some melee combos too to add more finesse in how attacks are executed.

I don't think I'm ever going to manage to extract some sort of hidden message from this, though props to anyone else playing this game who tries. I am no decoding expert but I did dig through the game files to find the transmission signal and tried some tests like an audio spectrograph, morse code recognition and toyed around with the soundwave in Audacity. If this is a reference to something I am not sure what it's supposed to be, though if there's some other puzzle here I think I'm going to give up as I'm just not seeing it.

Okay, thank you for the response. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't being dumb and missing some obvious controls or something.

I'm still getting a hang of the gameplay and I like what I see so far, but I'm wondering if Mass of the Fermenting Dregs is the only song playable in the game right now. I see other songs available from the menu but none of other ones are able to be confirmed.

Since I've pretty much given my thoughts as a whole on the main game page, I'll just give some responses specific to this update.

-I really liked the tweaks to the dialogue in general, especially with the ending text. It's nice to get some more closure to what happened to Werner even if the endings are still kinda just as depressing as before.

-It's funny how much more relaxing the game is playing through it a second time. I really was convinced the first time around that the ship was going to explode if I crashed into an asteroid or wandered into the nebula for too long. 

-I found the coordinates to the secret signal in Dionysus, which I'm presuming is part of the easter eggs you're talking about. I heard something play in the background but I don't know if I'm supposed to make anything out of it or if this triggers some other event in-game.  

-Since you're looking for typos, I spotted one in the intro text- "Crew members for these vessells will spend years, often decades, living alone within the far reaches of space"- should be "vessels"

An enjoyable and surprisingly poignant little story about the bleak existence of a lonely spaceship pilot doomed to spend each day out in the middle of nowhere tagging asteroids... until something unexpected happens.

The gameplay is pretty simple, mainly advanced through NPC dialogue and the inevitable asteroid tagging sessions, and as far as I know there isn't really any way to "game over" or get in any sort of fail state. Asteroid tagging itself is kind of tedious but I suppose that's the point, what with how bleak and lonely the main character's living situation is. Play this game with the same mindset you'd have reading a science fiction short story and you'll get the best experience out of it.

One gripe I have with the game is that the "choices" the game offers at certain plot critical points are clearly meant to push a player in a particular direction with a right and wrong option rather than offering meaningful decisions. If one option just cuts out a boatload of narrative content while the other actually properly advances the story, the choice might as well not be there at all. Luckily the choices the game expects you to make are pretty obvious so I doubt many players will fall for this trap.

I actually started to get emotionally invested in what was going on with Werner so the "revisit the nebula" ending was kind bittersweet and a tad disappointing for me. If there's another hidden ending I'm not aware of that gives a happier conclusion I'd love to hear about it.