played the demo
the gameplay is pretty fun, i found it kinda weird for the intro to put emphasis on your character's card considering the main character's one is a dinky sword you never use. aside from that, I really liked the levels
but man oh man, once you finish a level and have to be subjected to the plot... the writing is TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRIBLE. the voice acting is pretty bad too, Ian JQ is really bad in this.. the writing is just TROPE TROPE REFERENCE TROPE BAD JOKE TROPE like huh?? who wrote this?!!!! then they even dared to put dating sim mechanics on this ☠☠ what were they thinking!!
the gameplay is pretty fun, i found it kinda weird for the intro to put emphasis on your character's card considering the main character's one is a dinky sword you never use. aside from that, I really liked the levels
but man oh man, once you finish a level and have to be subjected to the plot... the writing is TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRIBLE. the voice acting is pretty bad too, Ian JQ is really bad in this.. the writing is just TROPE TROPE REFERENCE TROPE BAD JOKE TROPE like huh?? who wrote this?!!!! then they even dared to put dating sim mechanics on this ☠☠ what were they thinking!!
Playing Neon White casually when I have several friends who consistently rank in the top 50 players in the world is very strange. My personal impressions are clouded more than a little by the secondhand excitement of watching someone grind out better and better times, cheering for them when they overtake their rival, laughing as they look at the excellent names on the leaderboard. I love Neon White the milieu and I've seen up close and personal why someone would adore this game.
I don't adore this game.
There were moments when I thought I might. In the early-middle chapters, the game achieved a graceful balance of complexity and precision that had me excited. The levels were bite-sized without being simple, the weapons were cleverly placed to introduce possibility without breaking the game, and I found myself improving my route run after run until I found something close to the best possible (even if my execution could never measure up to my friends').
But this joy was short-lived. New weapons were introduced that ran against the grain of the game, doubling down on onerous precision and execution requirements in a game that by its nature has plenty of both already. Optimal routing started requiring me to comb the screen for pixel-perfect shots, or (as I actually did for the last chapter) simply look them up online.
Even in its failures, there's a compellingly homemade quality about Neon White. It has such an excellent core idea that it's easy to forgive the various flawed design elements. And although Ben Esposito is a veteran game designer, this project requires a different kind of design than anything he's published previously, with crucial elements of play unfolding from tiny decisions—how many frames should this take? how much ammunition should that have? how will this type of gun inform the level design inform the player's experience?
I spent the latter third of this game waiting impatiently for it to either end or get better, so I doubt I'll pick it up again even if DLC drops. But I'm glad it exists, and I'm glad I played it through, if only so I'll have the context to fully appreciate watching my friends shave milliseconds off their personal bests.
I don't adore this game.
There were moments when I thought I might. In the early-middle chapters, the game achieved a graceful balance of complexity and precision that had me excited. The levels were bite-sized without being simple, the weapons were cleverly placed to introduce possibility without breaking the game, and I found myself improving my route run after run until I found something close to the best possible (even if my execution could never measure up to my friends').
But this joy was short-lived. New weapons were introduced that ran against the grain of the game, doubling down on onerous precision and execution requirements in a game that by its nature has plenty of both already. Optimal routing started requiring me to comb the screen for pixel-perfect shots, or (as I actually did for the last chapter) simply look them up online.
Even in its failures, there's a compellingly homemade quality about Neon White. It has such an excellent core idea that it's easy to forgive the various flawed design elements. And although Ben Esposito is a veteran game designer, this project requires a different kind of design than anything he's published previously, with crucial elements of play unfolding from tiny decisions—how many frames should this take? how much ammunition should that have? how will this type of gun inform the level design inform the player's experience?
I spent the latter third of this game waiting impatiently for it to either end or get better, so I doubt I'll pick it up again even if DLC drops. But I'm glad it exists, and I'm glad I played it through, if only so I'll have the context to fully appreciate watching my friends shave milliseconds off their personal bests.
This game has a number of moments where the player is very clearly meant to find something cool, funny, sexy, or endearing, and it is extremely clear to me that the creator and I would disagree on these concepts as not a single one of these moments "landed" with me.
That I kept playing is more a testament to the strength of the gameplay, because despite the slightly floaty controls, running through these levels is actually a treat. The guns feel punchy and the parkour moves provide useful traversal options (save for a few levels that are a little more on-rails), making the choice between "machine gun" or "double-jump" a little more interesting than you might expect at first glance. I don't think anyone's going to sit at home writing about how this is the most innovative set of time trials they've ever played, but it's clever enough and the levels are stylish enough (they all feel like Kaizo Slumber cover art) that I don't feel like I'm getting robbed for 25 USD.
With a different story, I'd be singing the praises of this game a lot louder, but as things stand it's just a neat way to blow $25 if it's burning a hole in your pocket. It's a good time, but don't sacrifice rent money for this.
That I kept playing is more a testament to the strength of the gameplay, because despite the slightly floaty controls, running through these levels is actually a treat. The guns feel punchy and the parkour moves provide useful traversal options (save for a few levels that are a little more on-rails), making the choice between "machine gun" or "double-jump" a little more interesting than you might expect at first glance. I don't think anyone's going to sit at home writing about how this is the most innovative set of time trials they've ever played, but it's clever enough and the levels are stylish enough (they all feel like Kaizo Slumber cover art) that I don't feel like I'm getting robbed for 25 USD.
With a different story, I'd be singing the praises of this game a lot louder, but as things stand it's just a neat way to blow $25 if it's burning a hole in your pocket. It's a good time, but don't sacrifice rent money for this.
Another game that I loved at first and slowly dribbled away my affection for it by outstaying its welcome. Neon White's gameplay of speed puzzle platforming through levels prioritising visual clarity of the intended path over aesthetics (well, until the later levels when seemingly the opposite approach gets introduced) and trying to optimize your times to get better rewards in a way giving players the taste of regular speedrunning but without the massive time investment. The levels are short and as such (generally) avoid the frustration of making you replay a 10 minute level to then fuck up at the end and have to do it all over again.
Not that Neon White is without its frustrations, certain sections were kind of annoying in all the bullshit they threw at you, and the inherent anger that comes with messing up on a run where you were going to get an excellent time but due to a weird quirk of the physics engine, or a genuine fuckup you arent able to. For the most part though, I was hooked, trying over and over until I could get the ace medal for every level (of the first 8 Missions) and even combing through to get the collectibles needed to advance the side character storylines which also open up new levels.
This was until mission 9 when quite frankly the game started to lose me, as well as in general I started finding the conceit and mechanics of the game kinda tiresome and repetitive. I just stopped aiming for ace medals, I'd take anything I got (as my rank was sufficiently high enough) and honestly started to just fast forward through most of the inane dialogue. So I honestly don't know what goes on for most of the last 5th of the game but given the first 4/5ths, I doubt it was anything worth experiencing.
Also why does this game have boss fights? They're bad. Its a poor idea executed poorly
Not that Neon White is without its frustrations, certain sections were kind of annoying in all the bullshit they threw at you, and the inherent anger that comes with messing up on a run where you were going to get an excellent time but due to a weird quirk of the physics engine, or a genuine fuckup you arent able to. For the most part though, I was hooked, trying over and over until I could get the ace medal for every level (of the first 8 Missions) and even combing through to get the collectibles needed to advance the side character storylines which also open up new levels.
This was until mission 9 when quite frankly the game started to lose me, as well as in general I started finding the conceit and mechanics of the game kinda tiresome and repetitive. I just stopped aiming for ace medals, I'd take anything I got (as my rank was sufficiently high enough) and honestly started to just fast forward through most of the inane dialogue. So I honestly don't know what goes on for most of the last 5th of the game but given the first 4/5ths, I doubt it was anything worth experiencing.
Also why does this game have boss fights? They're bad. Its a poor idea executed poorly
people who only "enjoy cringe" when it's metal gear rising are weak
Bom jogo.
Speedrun em jogo de FPS é sempre algo gostoso. esse jogo tem o efeito flow muito forte, que combina bem com o tema.
A parte social do jogo é beeem superficial, mas entrega bem. o jogo quer ser um anime nesse sentido e funciona tendo até "episódios fillers".
Não espere nada demais, sendo um tema póstumo o jogo deixa bem a desejar nesse aspecto ao meu ver, não espere reflexões.
A gameplay tho... delicia e bem competitivo.
Speedrun em jogo de FPS é sempre algo gostoso. esse jogo tem o efeito flow muito forte, que combina bem com o tema.
A parte social do jogo é beeem superficial, mas entrega bem. o jogo quer ser um anime nesse sentido e funciona tendo até "episódios fillers".
Não espere nada demais, sendo um tema póstumo o jogo deixa bem a desejar nesse aspecto ao meu ver, não espere reflexões.
A gameplay tho... delicia e bem competitivo.
This review contains spoilers
100%ed the game(all ace medals + gifts + true ending)
neon white is the complete opposite of post void. to succeed in post void, you need to forfeit all thought and just do. neon white, however, is a thinking man’s game. you need to constantly be thinking two steps ahead at any given moment if you want the best times and medals. one mistake can utterly ruin an entire run, and with how fast you’re going you need to always be thinking ahead. in post void, you fail if you exit autopilot. in neon white, you fail if you enter autopilot.
the game plays like a dream, it’s honestly the most exhilarating gameplay experience i’ve had since ultrakill’s p-2(still need to p-rank it lol). especially in the book of life levels, oh my god i was staining the walls neon white. the gameplay loop is just so perfect. learning routes for better times, what cards to discard, perfecting your skills, god it’s just so fucking fun.
i would be remiss to not mention the ost. my favorite machine girl album is reporpoised phantasies, and the neon white ost is almost entirely comprised of that style of machine girl, i love the ost in this game. there is not a doubt in my mind machine girl could create an amazing song for p-3, something like tenebre rosso sangue. TRS got me through the gauntlet of p-2 and i guarantee a machine girl song for ultrakill would have the exact same effect. i love the ost here, some favorites include hellion, thousand pound butterfly and glass ocean. the only complaint i have is that it started to get old when i was going for ace medals, but that happens to me with MG a lot, and i started listening to it outside of the game before i finished it so there’s that. i don’t really think it’s a flaw.
the art direction of this game is also amazing, the demon designs are all whimsical and unique, each stage has a unique (and beautiful) environment/backdrop from lower heaven to the hanging gardens to the ??? of thousand pound butterfly. the ost once again helps each stage stand out.
onto the gifts. i was initially skeptical of the gifts you need to get for true ending. i remember tattletail being some big thing back in the day, at least in fnaf youtube spaces. it was cool to realize esposito made that game and turned it into an easter egg lol. outside of getting a bit burnt out on finding them by the end they were really nice. (though the same can be said for the ace medals, i think both are a side effect of 30+ hours of a single game in a week) the “side quests” which were really just awesome bonus levels with a gimmick were great, i loved them. violet > yellow > red for their quality. and the dialogue you receive as another reward always seemed to get a chuckle out of me, at the very least. i seriously don’t get people who hate this dialogue, if you embrace the cheese these characters are endearing.
now for the story/dialouge. everyone says it sucks and yeah its kinda cringe but in an endearing way. its very anime inspired and i have no doubt people would call this dialogue good if it were recorded in japanese. anime dialogue just doesnt sound that good in english. but i mean you got steve blum voicing the protagonist and everyone else is doing a great job as well, so it levels out to endearing rather than cringe. it's not that bad, honestly. the story and world is also genuinely good, too. i like the themes and direction they took with it, there's not often an anime game where god is portrayed as good lol, so that was refreshing. and the twist with the believers being fake angels/deities was also completely unexpected. the believers whole shtick being that they wanted luxury in heaven and were so upset when all they got was eternal peace THAT THEY OVERTHREW GOD. thats a damn good twist, id say. might be unintentional, but it certainly felt like they were critiquing a certain sect of christians. you know the ones
the only complaint i really have is the burnout/fatigue i got late game.
out of the few 2022 games i’ve played, this is definitely goty. i can only see it being surpassed by elden, xbc3, or live a live. though i’ve been known to be blown away by things i have no expectations for, so who knows what could surpass neon white.
this game’s a gem, it’s dialogue and story get hated on way too often, and the gameplay is an exhilarating test of skill. i enjoyed almost every second of it. if not for cs1 or spiderman, this would be the best game i played this year.
ill try the eternights demo next and if i like it then thats whats next if not uhhh gaming break me thinks
neon white is the complete opposite of post void. to succeed in post void, you need to forfeit all thought and just do. neon white, however, is a thinking man’s game. you need to constantly be thinking two steps ahead at any given moment if you want the best times and medals. one mistake can utterly ruin an entire run, and with how fast you’re going you need to always be thinking ahead. in post void, you fail if you exit autopilot. in neon white, you fail if you enter autopilot.
the game plays like a dream, it’s honestly the most exhilarating gameplay experience i’ve had since ultrakill’s p-2(still need to p-rank it lol). especially in the book of life levels, oh my god i was staining the walls neon white. the gameplay loop is just so perfect. learning routes for better times, what cards to discard, perfecting your skills, god it’s just so fucking fun.
i would be remiss to not mention the ost. my favorite machine girl album is reporpoised phantasies, and the neon white ost is almost entirely comprised of that style of machine girl, i love the ost in this game. there is not a doubt in my mind machine girl could create an amazing song for p-3, something like tenebre rosso sangue. TRS got me through the gauntlet of p-2 and i guarantee a machine girl song for ultrakill would have the exact same effect. i love the ost here, some favorites include hellion, thousand pound butterfly and glass ocean. the only complaint i have is that it started to get old when i was going for ace medals, but that happens to me with MG a lot, and i started listening to it outside of the game before i finished it so there’s that. i don’t really think it’s a flaw.
the art direction of this game is also amazing, the demon designs are all whimsical and unique, each stage has a unique (and beautiful) environment/backdrop from lower heaven to the hanging gardens to the ??? of thousand pound butterfly. the ost once again helps each stage stand out.
onto the gifts. i was initially skeptical of the gifts you need to get for true ending. i remember tattletail being some big thing back in the day, at least in fnaf youtube spaces. it was cool to realize esposito made that game and turned it into an easter egg lol. outside of getting a bit burnt out on finding them by the end they were really nice. (though the same can be said for the ace medals, i think both are a side effect of 30+ hours of a single game in a week) the “side quests” which were really just awesome bonus levels with a gimmick were great, i loved them. violet > yellow > red for their quality. and the dialogue you receive as another reward always seemed to get a chuckle out of me, at the very least. i seriously don’t get people who hate this dialogue, if you embrace the cheese these characters are endearing.
now for the story/dialouge. everyone says it sucks and yeah its kinda cringe but in an endearing way. its very anime inspired and i have no doubt people would call this dialogue good if it were recorded in japanese. anime dialogue just doesnt sound that good in english. but i mean you got steve blum voicing the protagonist and everyone else is doing a great job as well, so it levels out to endearing rather than cringe. it's not that bad, honestly. the story and world is also genuinely good, too. i like the themes and direction they took with it, there's not often an anime game where god is portrayed as good lol, so that was refreshing. and the twist with the believers being fake angels/deities was also completely unexpected. the believers whole shtick being that they wanted luxury in heaven and were so upset when all they got was eternal peace THAT THEY OVERTHREW GOD. thats a damn good twist, id say. might be unintentional, but it certainly felt like they were critiquing a certain sect of christians. you know the ones
the only complaint i really have is the burnout/fatigue i got late game.
out of the few 2022 games i’ve played, this is definitely goty. i can only see it being surpassed by elden, xbc3, or live a live. though i’ve been known to be blown away by things i have no expectations for, so who knows what could surpass neon white.
this game’s a gem, it’s dialogue and story get hated on way too often, and the gameplay is an exhilarating test of skill. i enjoyed almost every second of it. if not for cs1 or spiderman, this would be the best game i played this year.
ill try the eternights demo next and if i like it then thats whats next if not uhhh gaming break me thinks
Skipped the dialogue and had tons of fun!
This game snuck up on me and kinda took over my life the last week. Neon White should not even be a real game. It's been such a long time since such a unique idea for a game, combining 5 different genres and influences meshed together as perfectly as this one AND was presented in an excellent way as well.
The writing isn't really for everyone, but I personally enjoyed myself. Extra shoutouts to Mikey, and Neons Red and Green!
What I didn't expect was the twist about halfway through the game. It was presented in an incredible way and only makes the story a lot more interesting. There are aspects of this new complex element that I think should've been explained a bit more, but we'll get there when talking about my only issue. For now, though, let's talk about how pretty this game is.
The art across the board looks excellent. The white, Greek-esque Heaven locations are the kinds that a lesser game would use the whole way through with almost no variation. But this is not a lesser game and some of the later areas look incredible! The same can be extended to the soundtrack. Its across the board really stylish and interesting, with some really great tracks.
The main appeal for me though is the deck building, speedrunning, platforming FPS gameplay with RPG and Dating Sim elements. Did that sound like a random combination? Well, it seems like that until you actually play it and now I want more games like this. The movement is a little floaty, but just smooth and fast enough to where I still think it works! What really makes the platforming fps stages are the weapon cards which you can either use as a weapon or discard them for a unique platforming ability.
This is like the Cappy mechanic in Mario Odyssey in the way that it already takes an excellent gameplay system and adds an extra awesome gameplay feature on top of it.
Going through levels and trying to 100% never gets boring and the levels themselves are just designed super well. You are also rewarded with playing quickly and also for exploring for gifts.
The only issue I have with the game is the length, but it's a more hopeful one. I really wish the game was longer. I 100 %ed the game in 12 hours. I wish at least one or two more chapters were in the game to both add more excellent content but also to maybe explain some obtuse parts of the twist. That being said, I was able to understand them after a bit of time.
That being said, I genuinely had to debate with myself if this was my game of the year. Because it honestly might be. If the only issue I have with the game is that I wanted more, then this is a damn excellent game.
Also because I love Neon Red so fucking much I swear to god.
Update - 11/10-2022:
Wow this story is not as good as I thought it was. Still decent though.
The writing isn't really for everyone, but I personally enjoyed myself. Extra shoutouts to Mikey, and Neons Red and Green!
What I didn't expect was the twist about halfway through the game. It was presented in an incredible way and only makes the story a lot more interesting. There are aspects of this new complex element that I think should've been explained a bit more, but we'll get there when talking about my only issue. For now, though, let's talk about how pretty this game is.
The art across the board looks excellent. The white, Greek-esque Heaven locations are the kinds that a lesser game would use the whole way through with almost no variation. But this is not a lesser game and some of the later areas look incredible! The same can be extended to the soundtrack. Its across the board really stylish and interesting, with some really great tracks.
The main appeal for me though is the deck building, speedrunning, platforming FPS gameplay with RPG and Dating Sim elements. Did that sound like a random combination? Well, it seems like that until you actually play it and now I want more games like this. The movement is a little floaty, but just smooth and fast enough to where I still think it works! What really makes the platforming fps stages are the weapon cards which you can either use as a weapon or discard them for a unique platforming ability.
This is like the Cappy mechanic in Mario Odyssey in the way that it already takes an excellent gameplay system and adds an extra awesome gameplay feature on top of it.
Going through levels and trying to 100% never gets boring and the levels themselves are just designed super well. You are also rewarded with playing quickly and also for exploring for gifts.
The only issue I have with the game is the length, but it's a more hopeful one. I really wish the game was longer. I 100 %ed the game in 12 hours. I wish at least one or two more chapters were in the game to both add more excellent content but also to maybe explain some obtuse parts of the twist. That being said, I was able to understand them after a bit of time.
That being said, I genuinely had to debate with myself if this was my game of the year. Because it honestly might be. If the only issue I have with the game is that I wanted more, then this is a damn excellent game.
Also because I love Neon Red so fucking much I swear to god.
Update - 11/10-2022:
Wow this story is not as good as I thought it was. Still decent though.
I love this game to death. Oh my god. The movement makes me feel insane and I get so hyperfixated on getting the best times that each world had to have taken me 3 hours at least. It's incredible. The Switch version does tend to lag near the end of the game just as a heads up. Machine Girl on this too.
Listen to some of these:
https://youtu.be/f8Kjn9qw-rw
https://youtu.be/rZsL05JueJ4
https://youtu.be/oMpoQiiwE7Q
https://youtu.be/IcbcLwf6HP4
https://youtu.be/FZgdu-8YTrI
I can't praise this game enough, try it out and compete with some of your friends on the times. It's great.
Writing has some pretty bad moments im ngl lmao but I liked the overall plot. A lot of it can just feel really out of character for the characters sometimes. Or just cringey all together. It doesn't really matter to me though
also why does he say "no-scoped it" sometimes i dont want him to say that
Listen to some of these:
https://youtu.be/f8Kjn9qw-rw
https://youtu.be/rZsL05JueJ4
https://youtu.be/oMpoQiiwE7Q
https://youtu.be/IcbcLwf6HP4
https://youtu.be/FZgdu-8YTrI
I can't praise this game enough, try it out and compete with some of your friends on the times. It's great.
Writing has some pretty bad moments im ngl lmao but I liked the overall plot. A lot of it can just feel really out of character for the characters sometimes. Or just cringey all together. It doesn't really matter to me though
also why does he say "no-scoped it" sometimes i dont want him to say that
O jogo é bem frenético e gostoso de jogar. Tem uma história interessante, com discussões sobre perdão, esse que sempre serve como ponte do presente para o passado. Os personagens são carismáticos o bastante pra levar bem a história, principalmente os gatos anjos como o Mikey.
Uma coisa que eu não gosto em jogos é a canseira que alguns nos fazem passar, quero experiências divertidas do começo ao fim e infelizmente o game te faz coletar todos os coletáveis se você quiser o final verdadeiro dele, embora o outro final não seja ruim também, apenas um tanto anticlimático.
Além dos coletáveis estarem escondidos em cada fase, também estão em lugares de difícil acesso, que fazem com que você use a cachola para alcança-los, o problema é que é um por fase e existem quase 100 fases. Isso acaba com o ritmo do jogo e portanto me força a tirar meia estrela da sua nota.
Uma coisa que eu não gosto em jogos é a canseira que alguns nos fazem passar, quero experiências divertidas do começo ao fim e infelizmente o game te faz coletar todos os coletáveis se você quiser o final verdadeiro dele, embora o outro final não seja ruim também, apenas um tanto anticlimático.
Além dos coletáveis estarem escondidos em cada fase, também estão em lugares de difícil acesso, que fazem com que você use a cachola para alcança-los, o problema é que é um por fase e existem quase 100 fases. Isso acaba com o ritmo do jogo e portanto me força a tirar meia estrela da sua nota.
they bimbofied the half life xen levels
fantastic fast forward button just an incredible fast forward button never seen innovation at this level before hats off to the fast forward button what an incredible feature
É MUITO bom nas primeiras horas, depois fica um pouco repetitivo, a história não é boa nem os diálogos, mas a gameplay e a trilha sonora seguram o jogo.
Neon White proposes the ultimate dilemma: will you shoot gun, or discard gun to use a sick parkour move?
The level design and movement in this game is incredibly satisfying, and grinding times down on each stage is super addicting. Some levels are cruelly simple and force you to perfect your movement and aim to improve your time, and others are broader with tons of potential to find shortcuts.
The story exists and does its job of keeping you chugging along through the missions, but ultimately games like this I don't play for that. It's just a nice bonus that there's a handful of fun characters with their own side missions and dialogue.
If you like movement shooters, give Neon White a try. I don't think it will disappoint.
The level design and movement in this game is incredibly satisfying, and grinding times down on each stage is super addicting. Some levels are cruelly simple and force you to perfect your movement and aim to improve your time, and others are broader with tons of potential to find shortcuts.
The story exists and does its job of keeping you chugging along through the missions, but ultimately games like this I don't play for that. It's just a nice bonus that there's a handful of fun characters with their own side missions and dialogue.
If you like movement shooters, give Neon White a try. I don't think it will disappoint.
One of the few games where I can say that the gameplay is so gripping and the music is so good that I'm only continuing to play despite the story being total dogass.
Counting this as mastered because I got Ace rank on every level and don't care for any of the visual novel stuff
I feel that it's important to note that I'm currently halfway through the game with only 3 hours in, I'm expecting to beat it at 6-7 hours which leaves the VN sections taking about 10-11 hours of the game's time which really annoys me because so far it's just poorly written.
I was right i beat it at 7 hours and 20 minutes lol
Counting this as mastered because I got Ace rank on every level and don't care for any of the visual novel stuff
I was right i beat it at 7 hours and 20 minutes lol
the first video game with card based gameplay that is actually fun
I'm sure this is 10/10 in a timeline where p5 never released.......
Jokes aside, I think the gameplay and soundtrack are amazing and the visuals are good too. The dialogues are weak, I think it felt a lil' better when there was no voice acting too, maybe I'm bad at judging dialogue but it felt like people reading twitter threads out loud. The dating parts are what bothered me the most, I ended up ignoring them altogether (sidenote I did the golden ticket thing that exists for some reason???) and it turns out the social links affects the ending lol.
It is a pretty fun game to try out though.
Jokes aside, I think the gameplay and soundtrack are amazing and the visuals are good too. The dialogues are weak, I think it felt a lil' better when there was no voice acting too, maybe I'm bad at judging dialogue but it felt like people reading twitter threads out loud. The dating parts are what bothered me the most, I ended up ignoring them altogether (sidenote I did the golden ticket thing that exists for some reason???) and it turns out the social links affects the ending lol.
It is a pretty fun game to try out though.
If the dialogue was better it would get that last half star. I still love the shit out of this game though
People gonna compare this to P5 like they aren't two completely different games lmao. It's more comparable to a Suda title than anything. What happened to y'all? lol
Yeah, the writing is seriously not good and the same can be said about the voice acting, but literally everything else about this game is amazing and incredibly fun. I love good gameplay more than anything else (the silent hill games are probably the only exception). The story could be mediocre but it could have the best gameplay ever and I wouldn't hesitate to give the game close to a perfect score.
The gameplay loop is addicting and I've just been playing the same levels again and again to try and get in the top 100. And the best part is, it doesn't feel like it's forcing me to. I actually wanna do that shit. I actually wanna get better at the game instead of blaming the game. Each card or mechanic adds variety to the level and to the game itself. Giving the player more things to think about in the moment.
The level design is fantastic giving the player multiple routes to tackle, making them feel like a puzzle. While sure, you could finish each level in 10 seconds and move on, I spend up to an hour trying to master it and I'm sure many others will as well.
The visual novel aspects are plain and unintresting but it unlocks really fun platformer challenges so I'm fine with them because of that alone.
The art direction is nice, every character design is pleasing to the eye and the enemies and levels look great as well.
And of course, the soundtrack. Done by our favourite digital hardcore artist, Machine Girl. It's just a really well rounded soundtrack filled with addicting breaks and drum & bass. I have only praise for the soundtrack.
I'm still playing through the game so these are just some thoughts 20 hours in rather than a review. Watch this space.
Yeah, the writing is seriously not good and the same can be said about the voice acting, but literally everything else about this game is amazing and incredibly fun. I love good gameplay more than anything else (the silent hill games are probably the only exception). The story could be mediocre but it could have the best gameplay ever and I wouldn't hesitate to give the game close to a perfect score.
The gameplay loop is addicting and I've just been playing the same levels again and again to try and get in the top 100. And the best part is, it doesn't feel like it's forcing me to. I actually wanna do that shit. I actually wanna get better at the game instead of blaming the game. Each card or mechanic adds variety to the level and to the game itself. Giving the player more things to think about in the moment.
The level design is fantastic giving the player multiple routes to tackle, making them feel like a puzzle. While sure, you could finish each level in 10 seconds and move on, I spend up to an hour trying to master it and I'm sure many others will as well.
The visual novel aspects are plain and unintresting but it unlocks really fun platformer challenges so I'm fine with them because of that alone.
The art direction is nice, every character design is pleasing to the eye and the enemies and levels look great as well.
And of course, the soundtrack. Done by our favourite digital hardcore artist, Machine Girl. It's just a really well rounded soundtrack filled with addicting breaks and drum & bass. I have only praise for the soundtrack.
I'm still playing through the game so these are just some thoughts 20 hours in rather than a review. Watch this space.
Reasonably fun 3D platforming romp with some pretty memorable peaks, but feels like it stumbles at trying to be a good time trialler. As someone who has played exactly one time trial game in my life I am here to unload my infinite wisdom and genre knowledge to tell you exactly what the problems are with this game
- Ace medals seem weirdly easy, a ton of levels I scored the ace first try and was kind of just confused when I saw it. But it's definitely not me skill-gapping the game (as much as I'd love to say it is) because there were still a fair few levels I didn't ace, and others I sat and chipped away at for a while. I've heard there are author medals but since the game never even hinted at their existence, I think they effectively won't exist for a majority of players (i.e people who don't immerse themselves in neon white fandom or don't grind the game enough to accidentally get one). A lot of the game's meat gets lost when I don't feel like I have a reason to replay a majority of the levels.
- A lot of levels seemed really linear, with very limited or no room for improvement outside of just improving your line (in the context of what the game actually expects of you, which is scoring aces - I'm sure the actual speedrunning crowd managed to tear this whole game wide open). These levels only really offer movement micro-optimisation, which can still be fun, but feels a bit lacking when the game's movement options are clearly more built to emphasise larger shortcuts and skips.
- Seemingly no reason to actually go fast? Getting medals makes your "neon rank" (i forgot what it's called already sorry) improve and I don't really know what that does or if it matters for anything. After I beat the final level I had a dialogue choice where one option was locked and idk if that was because I didn't ace every level or because I didn't participate in the dating sim part of the game (yeah) but it didn't exactly encourage me to clean up the rest of the aces to find out. TrackMania games lock progression behind scoring well enough within each set of levels, which I think is a good way to do it - it's leneint at the start so it might take a while until you're forced to grind out times, but it *will* hit you eventually.
- For a game that's ostensibly about speed, you sure do love slowing me down to try to make me read your story. You do get to fast-forward through it (instead of just skipping), but it still takes a while to get through because surprisingly there's a pretty hefty lot of dialogue in this game.
I want to make it clear that I don't dislike this game at all, and I think especially near the tail end of the game it had some really fun levels to blow through (if they made a standalone game just with book of life I would eat that shit up in a heartbeat, those levels had the most unreal sense of flow maybe more than any platformer I've played). I just think it's a little lacking in what should be its biggest strength.
- Ace medals seem weirdly easy, a ton of levels I scored the ace first try and was kind of just confused when I saw it. But it's definitely not me skill-gapping the game (as much as I'd love to say it is) because there were still a fair few levels I didn't ace, and others I sat and chipped away at for a while. I've heard there are author medals but since the game never even hinted at their existence, I think they effectively won't exist for a majority of players (i.e people who don't immerse themselves in neon white fandom or don't grind the game enough to accidentally get one). A lot of the game's meat gets lost when I don't feel like I have a reason to replay a majority of the levels.
- A lot of levels seemed really linear, with very limited or no room for improvement outside of just improving your line (in the context of what the game actually expects of you, which is scoring aces - I'm sure the actual speedrunning crowd managed to tear this whole game wide open). These levels only really offer movement micro-optimisation, which can still be fun, but feels a bit lacking when the game's movement options are clearly more built to emphasise larger shortcuts and skips.
- Seemingly no reason to actually go fast? Getting medals makes your "neon rank" (i forgot what it's called already sorry) improve and I don't really know what that does or if it matters for anything. After I beat the final level I had a dialogue choice where one option was locked and idk if that was because I didn't ace every level or because I didn't participate in the dating sim part of the game (yeah) but it didn't exactly encourage me to clean up the rest of the aces to find out. TrackMania games lock progression behind scoring well enough within each set of levels, which I think is a good way to do it - it's leneint at the start so it might take a while until you're forced to grind out times, but it *will* hit you eventually.
- For a game that's ostensibly about speed, you sure do love slowing me down to try to make me read your story. You do get to fast-forward through it (instead of just skipping), but it still takes a while to get through because surprisingly there's a pretty hefty lot of dialogue in this game.
I want to make it clear that I don't dislike this game at all, and I think especially near the tail end of the game it had some really fun levels to blow through (if they made a standalone game just with book of life I would eat that shit up in a heartbeat, those levels had the most unreal sense of flow maybe more than any platformer I've played). I just think it's a little lacking in what should be its biggest strength.
Neon White good as hell when you dont have a bitch in your ear telling you the writing sucks
the writing is good actually
Neon white is one of the weirdest games I’ve played in a while. It’s kinda rare to see gameplay this fresh. It’s a platformer, FPS, Parkour, card game, puzzle game and visual novel all rolled into one. Super cleverly designed gameplay. Speed running element also got some monkey ball vibes weirdly enough. Dialogue is a bit cringe at points, but if you’ve ever watched dubbed anime it’s nothing crazy. Story is cool tho! Fr check this unique game out
"goo goo gaga im a little baby who cant handle good old fashioned danganronpa so im giving this a 1-star" thats what you sound like, if you pass up this game because its cringe then you are undeserving of its incredible OST and amazing gameplay/level design. do better
the games good but the story is soooo shit, it feels like its pandering to weebs with blatant irony so it can be defended via "parody" and "satire" card.
its 2022 writing is one of the oldest forms of art we practiced how tf are we still stuck on this level of quality
its 2022 writing is one of the oldest forms of art we practiced how tf are we still stuck on this level of quality
This review contains spoilers
Yeah in a nutshell this game was pretty much made for a Hot Topic-ass motherfucker like me. I wanna delve into my thoughts about the story because that's definitely the spiciest part, but I should definitely talk about everything else first.
The #1 thing that makes this game worth it for me is the gameplay. While trying to explain it in concept is a bit daunting (it's a mixture of card playing, platforming, shooting and puzzle solving), its execution is smoother than the glass ocean White runs on to pick up speed. All of the previously mentioned elements work in my opinion because they work like pieces of a puzzle, and the picture is to beat the level as fast as you can.
Of course, a game that wants to do that has to subtly encourage the player to want to try and beat their records, and Neon White does that well. The medals that can be unlocked doubly serve as a benchmark of skill and help open up more of the level's secrets so you can try and work towards a faster time, such as shortcut hints, ghost data, and leaderboards.
Of course, these are just the sprinkles to the delicious cake that I enjoyed within the gameplay itself. The platforming was super responsive as it should be, and the environments are extremely readable. The jet-black enemies contrast well with the brighter environments and served as points on the map that I should be paying attention to. The "FPS" portion of the game isn't really so much FPS as the enemies don't really do much save for being the rails that the player must follow in order to beat the level. But that's fine because it means the gameplay can continue being tight. The cards work well as they both serve as shooting mechanics and as extra move options when discarded. I found myself being able to use these controls with ease. Highly recommend using mouse + keyboard. Performance was never an issue for me either as the framerate stayed consistently smooth on PC.
I will say, White kinda felt a bit too floaty for me at first, but that in turn made for some fun mid-air sections. It's also kinda hard to check whether where you'll land will be solid ground or the unforgiving void of glorified water vapor. I also didn't really bother to try and figure out most of the solutions to the hidden gifts throughout the levels, but they were worth it to listen more to the characters and especially for those fun challenge levels.
Also, big shout-outs to Machine Girl for the soundtrack on this game. It really adds to the idea of speed being a top priority with its fast drum n' bass tracks. I highly recommend listening to this soundtrack while working out. Virtual Paradise continues to live in my head it is HEAVENLY.
Now onto...dramatic pause the story. Understandably, a lot of people aren't fans of it. However, in knowing that the writer for it did stuff for OK KO and that the game's tagline is literally "For Freaks, By Freaks" I can see that this was done as a deliberate decision in order to give itself a sense of campiness like no other. Being the autistic nerdy kid in elementary school, this tone is secretly my guilty pleasure. I found myself chuckling to the over-the-top tropiness of the characters. Of COURSE the protagonist is a brooding and ill-prepared showoff. Of COURSE his friend is a lovable himbo. Of COURSE his love interest is a mysteriously sexy mistress. Of COURSE the antagonist is a flamboyant bisexual asshole. Of COURSE Violet is both a yandere and a fujoshi. It all just makes sense! It saves itself from being too annoying with its top notch voice acting (I mean come on, Steve Blum??) I also adored the character designs and if you're anything like me you too wanna be a big-tittied alt trans girl that is Violet. Or maybe you wanna be the tall step-on-me queen Red. We don't judge.
I actually found myself unironically enjoying the story from a narrative perspective later on as I started piecing together White's memories and the stakes got higher. Towards the end I was thinking, man these characters don't deserve what happened to them. They all deserve to be happy hanging out together, eating ice cream and watching cheesy action movies/soap operas. Just because of one petty plan they got themselves killed. Remind me to never simp for overly macho men anytime soon.
But for the rest of you people, the skip button is also a nice touch that you can just click once and never have to think about again.
So yeah! Overall, really big fan of this game front to back! I'm not really motivated to get Ace medals in all levels as my dumb lil girlbrain can't process all the shortcuts in the later levels but I had a great time with this game and being relentlessly petty with my friends on the leaderboards. If you wear black nail polish, this game is completely for you. For everyone else that uses a different color, I'd still recommend you give the gameplay a try.
The #1 thing that makes this game worth it for me is the gameplay. While trying to explain it in concept is a bit daunting (it's a mixture of card playing, platforming, shooting and puzzle solving), its execution is smoother than the glass ocean White runs on to pick up speed. All of the previously mentioned elements work in my opinion because they work like pieces of a puzzle, and the picture is to beat the level as fast as you can.
Of course, a game that wants to do that has to subtly encourage the player to want to try and beat their records, and Neon White does that well. The medals that can be unlocked doubly serve as a benchmark of skill and help open up more of the level's secrets so you can try and work towards a faster time, such as shortcut hints, ghost data, and leaderboards.
Of course, these are just the sprinkles to the delicious cake that I enjoyed within the gameplay itself. The platforming was super responsive as it should be, and the environments are extremely readable. The jet-black enemies contrast well with the brighter environments and served as points on the map that I should be paying attention to. The "FPS" portion of the game isn't really so much FPS as the enemies don't really do much save for being the rails that the player must follow in order to beat the level. But that's fine because it means the gameplay can continue being tight. The cards work well as they both serve as shooting mechanics and as extra move options when discarded. I found myself being able to use these controls with ease. Highly recommend using mouse + keyboard. Performance was never an issue for me either as the framerate stayed consistently smooth on PC.
I will say, White kinda felt a bit too floaty for me at first, but that in turn made for some fun mid-air sections. It's also kinda hard to check whether where you'll land will be solid ground or the unforgiving void of glorified water vapor. I also didn't really bother to try and figure out most of the solutions to the hidden gifts throughout the levels, but they were worth it to listen more to the characters and especially for those fun challenge levels.
Also, big shout-outs to Machine Girl for the soundtrack on this game. It really adds to the idea of speed being a top priority with its fast drum n' bass tracks. I highly recommend listening to this soundtrack while working out. Virtual Paradise continues to live in my head it is HEAVENLY.
Now onto...dramatic pause the story. Understandably, a lot of people aren't fans of it. However, in knowing that the writer for it did stuff for OK KO and that the game's tagline is literally "For Freaks, By Freaks" I can see that this was done as a deliberate decision in order to give itself a sense of campiness like no other. Being the autistic nerdy kid in elementary school, this tone is secretly my guilty pleasure. I found myself chuckling to the over-the-top tropiness of the characters. Of COURSE the protagonist is a brooding and ill-prepared showoff. Of COURSE his friend is a lovable himbo. Of COURSE his love interest is a mysteriously sexy mistress. Of COURSE the antagonist is a flamboyant bisexual asshole. Of COURSE Violet is both a yandere and a fujoshi. It all just makes sense! It saves itself from being too annoying with its top notch voice acting (I mean come on, Steve Blum??) I also adored the character designs and if you're anything like me you too wanna be a big-tittied alt trans girl that is Violet. Or maybe you wanna be the tall step-on-me queen Red. We don't judge.
I actually found myself unironically enjoying the story from a narrative perspective later on as I started piecing together White's memories and the stakes got higher. Towards the end I was thinking, man these characters don't deserve what happened to them. They all deserve to be happy hanging out together, eating ice cream and watching cheesy action movies/soap operas. Just because of one petty plan they got themselves killed. Remind me to never simp for overly macho men anytime soon.
But for the rest of you people, the skip button is also a nice touch that you can just click once and never have to think about again.
So yeah! Overall, really big fan of this game front to back! I'm not really motivated to get Ace medals in all levels as my dumb lil girlbrain can't process all the shortcuts in the later levels but I had a great time with this game and being relentlessly petty with my friends on the leaderboards. If you wear black nail polish, this game is completely for you. For everyone else that uses a different color, I'd still recommend you give the gameplay a try.
Neon White is a game that's categorized primarily by it's excellent aesthetic and it's overtly amateurish game design.
The gameplay of Neon White is genuinely brilliant, if not groundbreaking. The way that the different abilities and weapons attatched to them are constructed is something special, i love the card game seetup of it.
The level design was something i found myself more and more dissatisfied with the longer the game went on. In the early levels i found myself having a lot more fun due to the faster, shorter nature of them, as well as the fact that a lot of them felt more open and less rigid. The later levels feel almost on-rails with how little room for variation or mistake there is, every level has an exact way you're supposed to play, and the only real difficulty in them comes from figuring that out with the sometimes obtuse mechanics. It's far too steeped in trial and error for me to find that muh satisfaction from it, even the boss fights are so limited in what can be done despite having such a well-designed moveset, it doesn't feel like it's reached it's potential.
The narrative is, as you can probably guess, paltry, and almost obnoxious in how unambitious it is. I want to give credit to an indie game for even having a story of this calibur, in addition to having voice acting for most of the dialogue, but as soon as i'm ready to ignore the cliche-ridden dialogue and poorly-defined characters, they throw in an almost insulting nod to the audience in the form of a joke or an out of place pop-culture reference, the tonal dissonance in this game is absolutely ridiculous. Just like the levels, the more and more the plot went on the less i found myself interested, it doesn't jive with the rest of the game, nor does it stand on it's own.
The aesthetic, for the most part, is atleast very well executed, it has a problem with a lot of the areas after the first third of the game not looking nwarly as good as that which was designed to be shown off in trailers and used in promo material, but the game never looks actively bad. The character portraits are actually pretty impressive in sheer number, they compliment the excellent designs. Neon White has such a firm hold on looking a certain way, but only some of the time, and i love the way it looks some of the time.
The soundtrack was an excellent addition too, and it made repeating the same missions over and over again a lot more enjoyable, it definitely adds to the vibes of the game a lot, one of my favorite game soundtracks in a while, just off the top of my head.
The thing that strangely bogs this down is the optional relationship-building and bonus level segments, which are required to acquire what is surely going to be considered the superior, and possibly, canonical ending, are such a drain on the game i can barely even articulate it. The scenes aren't particularly fun to unlock, take a lot of time of aimless wandering, and aren't entertaining to watch at all, they are a tremendous waste of time, and i can only see tying the true ending to them as a massive mistake. The game doesn't even account for narrative change that would, in other games, cause these scenes to be inaccesible for the time, once again the game undercuts any emotional significance it might have.
Overall i felt that Neon White was undercooked, but worth playing. I'd say this is a great first attempt for a studio that's only just finding it's footing, and hope that they can either improve upon this idea, or move on to something else that i happen to enjoy more in the future.
The gameplay of Neon White is genuinely brilliant, if not groundbreaking. The way that the different abilities and weapons attatched to them are constructed is something special, i love the card game seetup of it.
The level design was something i found myself more and more dissatisfied with the longer the game went on. In the early levels i found myself having a lot more fun due to the faster, shorter nature of them, as well as the fact that a lot of them felt more open and less rigid. The later levels feel almost on-rails with how little room for variation or mistake there is, every level has an exact way you're supposed to play, and the only real difficulty in them comes from figuring that out with the sometimes obtuse mechanics. It's far too steeped in trial and error for me to find that muh satisfaction from it, even the boss fights are so limited in what can be done despite having such a well-designed moveset, it doesn't feel like it's reached it's potential.
The narrative is, as you can probably guess, paltry, and almost obnoxious in how unambitious it is. I want to give credit to an indie game for even having a story of this calibur, in addition to having voice acting for most of the dialogue, but as soon as i'm ready to ignore the cliche-ridden dialogue and poorly-defined characters, they throw in an almost insulting nod to the audience in the form of a joke or an out of place pop-culture reference, the tonal dissonance in this game is absolutely ridiculous. Just like the levels, the more and more the plot went on the less i found myself interested, it doesn't jive with the rest of the game, nor does it stand on it's own.
The aesthetic, for the most part, is atleast very well executed, it has a problem with a lot of the areas after the first third of the game not looking nwarly as good as that which was designed to be shown off in trailers and used in promo material, but the game never looks actively bad. The character portraits are actually pretty impressive in sheer number, they compliment the excellent designs. Neon White has such a firm hold on looking a certain way, but only some of the time, and i love the way it looks some of the time.
The soundtrack was an excellent addition too, and it made repeating the same missions over and over again a lot more enjoyable, it definitely adds to the vibes of the game a lot, one of my favorite game soundtracks in a while, just off the top of my head.
The thing that strangely bogs this down is the optional relationship-building and bonus level segments, which are required to acquire what is surely going to be considered the superior, and possibly, canonical ending, are such a drain on the game i can barely even articulate it. The scenes aren't particularly fun to unlock, take a lot of time of aimless wandering, and aren't entertaining to watch at all, they are a tremendous waste of time, and i can only see tying the true ending to them as a massive mistake. The game doesn't even account for narrative change that would, in other games, cause these scenes to be inaccesible for the time, once again the game undercuts any emotional significance it might have.
Overall i felt that Neon White was undercooked, but worth playing. I'd say this is a great first attempt for a studio that's only just finding it's footing, and hope that they can either improve upon this idea, or move on to something else that i happen to enjoy more in the future.
I haven't played a game that truly made me feel like I was good at games in a long time, which is a testament to how sharply Neon White's gameplay is designed. Executing perfectly on a level feels amazing and is totally achievable thanks to smart level design, tight controls, and how easy repetition is in Neon White. Being able to smack one button and instantly restart the level with no downtime was such a boon and takes all of the bite out of failure, instead pushing me to aim for quicker and quicker level times. The biggest downside, as I'm sure is the consensus, is this game's writing. I didn't hate the overarching plot or the characters, but the dialogue is often grating and immature. The backstory is particularly juvenile--I found myself mostly tuning it out. Aside from this, the game is sharp and focused so it didn't greatly detract, but it's an area where the game could have been better.
big day for weebs who can't stop posting hentai in #general