If I had a list of games whose whole style and main identity was "a modern game that tries to emulate how horror games were back then with old graphics, tanky controls, silly voice acting, as well as some of the flaws of old games back then" I'd probably put this one in the middle or a little higher.

It's alright, story is kinda nonexistent atm (theres other endings so I'll see about those). I can't tell what basic trope it's trying to do to explain the horrors from "we uncovered something deep down we shouldn't have" to "experiments gone horribly wrong" to "an eldritch monstrosity has created this realm for it's own amusement and we are all its toys". I like the doll aesthetic of the game, kinda wish it did more weird shit with it and it didn't bounce from areas that either didn't make sense or weren't really keeping in theme or style of the game, referring to the water labyrinth part and the steel garden. They were neat, just didn't fit in. There were a good variety of enemies in the game that I liked, there even was a Mr.X style stalker character that was kinda eerie with how she was ghostly and would float towards the player and would cut off the music. The only problem with her was you could go back into the previous room immediately and keep doing it until she respawns. And she also just disappears after one of the bosses which was kinda weird. Speaking of bosses, they're kinda a mixed bag? Pier was kinda neat but annoying, the run back for Edith was harder than the boss, which was kinda basic and didn't really make sense in terms of the story. Isabella was probably the best out of all of them (plus a Sphere Hunter appearance is always nice), my only complaint with her would be some of the camera angles in the fight can be really annoying, with some of them not even being needed at all. I liked the idea of the Alvarez fight, just kinda sucked and I really didn't like that I couldn't aim and shoot separately, probably them trying to emulate how games might do it back then I guess. Speaking of, emulate games of past, it's funny and also stupid you can't use the D Pad in the inventory menu or with puzzles, because gee that would be nice and keep in line what the creator is trying to do. Just to quickly finish, I did like the Dollmaster fight, him being the explanation for the Seller and having a decently creepy design even if it is malnurished man with a loincloth on. His attacks were basic but I still enjoyed him.

Uhh more negativity, yeah the puzzles fucking suck. A lot of them really blow ass or are just unfair, like the timed one you have to do with closing walls and if you die you have a stupid long run back to it, autosave there would've been nice. Book puzzle was dumb as well, and yeah not really a shining piece of stuff for the game. The one stealth section was a neat idea but it kinda fucking sucks with the chosen camera angles, plus you being gunned down and barely able to move without being given a chance to escape is frustrating.

But for positives I like the shop, it's a neat way of giving the player stuff, as well as making them pay for it. Maybe a better balance between items you can find in the environment without needing to rely on the shop, so that way you can still avoid fights if needed. I like the aesthetic uhh its short and I can imagine it being something I could beat quickly, I liked the main character as well as her doll friend and the shop keeper.

But I shouldn't be too mean I guess, game was literally made by one guy who mostly did all the work, kudos to him for that and I guess some stuff just had to get dropped or put off and made mediocre.

Esse não é um jogo que tenta emular o estilo gráfico do PS1, ele É um jogo de PS1.

Foi a primeira vez que eu vejo um jogo que tenta emular o estilo gráfico de PS1 e confundir ele com um jogo da época, esse gráfico consegue roubar muito a cena, ele é simplesmente perfeito e me fez se apaixonar por esse jogo, se tornou um dos meus Survival Horror favoritos.

A trilha sonora desse jogo é IMPECÁVEL, ela é perfeita demais e me fez imergir muito fácil, tinha vezes que eu tava prestando mais atenção na música do que no jogo, ela bota muita música de jogo Triple A pra mamar, não tem como.

A gameplay é boa, ela é bastante parecida com os clássicos do PS1, e, pessoalmente falando, eu curto bastante essa movimentação do tipo tank, é só um pouco difícil de se acostumar no começo. O sistema de tiro do jogo é bem básico e não tem muito de especial, é igual os do Resident Evil clássicos, a única diferença, é que em Alisa o jogo tem uma marcador que fala quando ele está mirado em algo, o que acaba ajudando muito a gastar menos bala. O jogo também tem uma ótima variedades de armas, e isso é perfeito pois dá uma variada na jogatina e fazendo o jogo ter mais fator replay.

O mapa desse jogo é interessante, mas não passa disso. Tem vários cenários que são muito bonitos e que tem sua própria personalidade, mas uma coisa que acaba sendo um saco (pelo menos pra mim), é que o jogo é bastante linear, eu sinto que se eles fizessem um mapa no mesmo estilo do Resident Evil 1, uma mansão gigantesca e cheia de caminhos que você escolhe por onde vai começar seria legal, mas eu até que curto o estilo como o mapa ficou, faz o jogo ser mais curtinho e mais fácil de não se perder.

Os inimigos e os bosses são muito característicos e tem um design fenomenal, eles são cheios de personalidades e são muito diferentes uns dos outros, eu ficava admirando demais os designs que esse jogo tem.

Em resumo, é um ótimo "clone" dos antigos Survival Horror, foi um jogo que conseguiu me imergir muito fácil, eu aproveitei muito cada minuto desse jogo, ele não é perfeito, mas ele consegue cumprir muito o seu papel de homenagear os clássicos, dá claramente pra ver que tiveram muito carinho fazendo esse jogo. Se você quer uma experiência de um Survival Horror da mesma vibe que os antigos do PS1 e que tem bastante conteúdo, essa é uma ótima opção pra você.

Very interesting and satisfying survival horror. The vibe and mood is perfect. The weapons are satisfying to use, and most of the enemies are fun to kill. My few complaints involve the camera angles in some parts; they can be rather confusing and make navigation/combat harder than they would be otherwise. Also near the end of the game is a really dumb stealth section that, while short, is still annoying and weird. But aside from the that, the boss fights are great and the game is good overall. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes classic survival horror.

Muitos jogos tentam copiar a estética dos survival horros de PS1 e poucos fazem algo útil com a mesma, felizmente, Alisa é diferente e dá ao jogador uma experiência digna dos anos 90, com um level design maravilhoso tendo um ótimo backtracking , bom resources checkers, designs maravilhoso de inimigos e uma atmosfera impecável. Claramente se inspirando em RE1 OG pela forma que as cutscenes, ângulos de camera e atuação são feitas, mas ainda sim não se perde no que o inspira e consequentemente não parece uma cópia barata. Jogão.

I have a lot to say about this game. As an old school survival horror fan, this game scratches my itch for some tough as nails experience, well designed levels and psx era aesthetics.

Having said that, I have several issues with the game. I didn't appreciate the action oriented experience. These types of games usually don't have the type of gameplay to be combat oriented, or at least not in this way. It's better when the game makes you evaluate if you're gonna fight and enemy or scape from it, with the downside of the enemy keep being a menace to you everytime you walk past it. In Alisa, in the other hand, it's better to kill everything so you can buy things from Pol like weapons, ammo, dresses, etc. I would've appreciated more if the weapons and most of the ammo was in the levels to find and just buying in case of emergency.

The bosses are quite good, specially when survival horror games kinda lack in this sense, but the experience suffers a lot if you don't have enough ammo and have to grind killing lesser enemies to be able to buy the right amount of ammo.

The enemy design is overall great, but I don't feel a thematic cohesion between enemies, like some of them could perfectly belong to different games.

At the end of the day, Alisa is a great experience that wear its inspirations on its sleeves but that adds enough to make it a fresh experience, even if it stumbles a bit in balance and other things.

this masterpiece is a love letter to the genre...

the art direction and game setting are INSANELY interesting and well done
the storytelling is great
the puzzles are nice too
the game progression and level design are TOP TIER
the ost is TOP TIER

in my opinion, the only thing that needs improvement is the combat
it was quite easy for my taste but that was not a huge problem, did not make the game less enjoyable at all

BUY IT, PLAY IT.
most underrated indie in existence.

Really want to like this game, but as it stands there are two things preventing me from it:
1) The clock puzzle sucks
2) The game has content in it for things that they intend to add, but haven't yet, which to me says "Unfinished".

Call me when it's done.

Maps are too big and not very satisfying to waltz through nor piece together in your mind (the slow ass stair climbing animations omg). For interactions and puzzles so simple, GETTING AROUND shouldn't be so arduous!

Fighting things is THE WORST and lacks good feedback. I feel NOTHING hitting guys with my weapons and am left confused when they hit me! Oh but ya can't ignore combat and just play the resource management game either! Because enemies drop currency! Making combat less about general survival and easy map traversal, and more so just something you HAVE TO engage with periodically in order to keep receiving good items. The knife in this game is also REALLY strong and stunlocks enemies! Grind away! IN MY SURVIVAL HORROR???

uuuughhh OBVIOUSLY itsa noble effort and looks amazing, but like - I'm just kinda tired of playing surface level, emulations of that considerate resi map/decision making gameplay. whateverman

Entre as folhas, entre as barras de uma cela, quase sempre distante, mas sempre observando cada movimento, em cada ação ali estava Alisa, tentando sobreviver... ou talvez superar as adversidades? Superar digo, tomar pra si, tomar o controle de quem a controla (no contexto do jogo).

Entre um papo trans-humanista e surreal, Alisa vai resgatar a estrutura de jogos de terror que foram bem característicos lá pelos anos 90, vide a referencias claras a Resident Evil 1 (e eu sinto um pouco de Sillent Hill 2 também, mas já explico) desde a escolhas da composição de cena a até mesmo a infame piada do sanduíche.

Fato é, Alisa é um jogo muito interessante de se ver em ação, pois eu não tenho tanta familiaridade com títulos que usam da câmera fixa e movimentação por tanque, mas rapidamente eu esqueço dessas limitações da minha parte para me ater aos cenários que condensavam o seu futuro por alguma área.

Foi uma experiência interessante por mais cansativa que estive ainda foi muito valida, e ver o jogo se desdobrando a sua frente aonde você cresce junto de Alisa, é quando o jogo me lembra Sillent Hill 2, aonde seu personagem fica cada vez mais forte e isso está ligado a progressão do jogo. Mas até então (dos poucos jogos do tipo que joguei) usam da progressão de forma narrativa.

James está perdido entre seus medos, mas (dependendo principalmente da forma em que você joga e de seu final) pode os enfrentar e você sente está superando de fato e de novo, dependendo do seu final você toma o poder.

Alisa é posta inicialmente como uma boneca indefesa, você quase como um vouyager observa o jogo se expandir cada vez mais e é ai que Alisa brilha no fim.

I was expecting Alisa to be a modern take on Resident Evil, using modern accessibility but keeping the PS1 aesthetic. Instead, Alisa is a direct competitor to the 90s classics it takes it inspiration from. It's not looking to evolve the genre but just recapture what made the originals so good. With this philosophy, comes a lot of the 90s frustrations just for the sake of "keeping with tradition": A map that's not nearly as clear as anything post REmake, progression locked behind some egregious backtracking (if you miss one little detail), and some rough puzzle logic. However, when Alisa breaks the conventions and limitation of the genre at the time, the results are a mixed bag. The bosses are fantastic, but combat is not the greatest as to be expected. The currency system is a bit too strict in motivating combat over evasion, in a genre defined by its lacking combat. And the stealth section is a nightmare for a game crafted entirely of beautiful fixed camera stills. In other words. Alisa shines with its imitation of the Classics, but falls short in trying to truly distinguish itself mechanically. I really dig the doll house aesthetic, especially when they really lean into the weird and wacky ideas that comes from a "madhouse of fun".

If this game came out in 98', I think it would have given Capcom a run for its money. But in 2023, it's hard to overlook the problems deep rooted in a genre that has transformed tremendously over 25+ years. It's a fantastic period piece that truly delivers the old school survival horror, warts and all.

6.5/10

A great resident evil clone indie, interesting story, the usual resident evil clone shanenigans, i enjoyed, def recomend

Like, the only things i didn't like, like, really didn't like it, was a puzzle that was "inspired" by resident evil where the walls are closing and you have to do a shity made puzzle, horrible AND a boss fight near the end of the game, where FOR SOME REASON the person that created this game decided to make, if you play this game YOU KNOW what boss fight I am speaking about, I have ZERO idea why would you put such mechanic on this game, makes no sense, is so bad that almost makes you just close the game and not play again.

anyway, not a perfect game, but given that it seems to be made by 1 people, its quite the game.

I’ve mentioned in other reviews how throwbacks to retro horror — usually the early survival horror era of tank controls and fixed camera angles — often take the limitations or design elements and crank them up way rougher than they ever felt in their inspirations. Having played a lot more of the survival horror canon now… it’s a case where while there’s basis in these sorts of things being in the originators it feels way exaggerated, in a way that feels considerably worse to play when oftentimes the inspiration was rather simple in application. Like, there’s ‘you can only save with a specific item you must collect,’ and then there’s ‘you can only save at the shop using the in-game currency, which you can only get from killing enemies, but also this in-game currency is also used to get better weapons and medkits and ammo.’ Not to mention things such as mazes or stealth sections that… weren’t really in these old survival horror games and don’t mesh with their constraints (fixed camera, tank controls) at all. There’s credit where credit is due where impersonating the aesthetic of these old games is concerned — especially in Alisa’s case, given it allegedly can be played on period-accurate hardware — but frequently it’s the gameplay itself that betrays that it’s… not a perfect recreation, and in Alisa’s case is what primarily lets it down.

You play as the titular Alisa, a military officer in some western-European country around the 1920s. While chasing down a spy for the “blue prints” they’ve stolen, Alisa finds herself beset by doll-like creatures and taken to a mysterious mansion — one she is trapped inside, and one where everything is out to get her. With nothing on her except what she can scavenge, Alisa must enter the survival horror: explore the mysterious mansion and all its many areas, fight all its denizens, and hopefully uncover its mysteries and find a way out before it’s too late.

I think my favourite thing about this game is how it captures its aesthetic, both in graphical design and gameplay. The game nails the low-poly look of its inspirations, but not in a way that shoots itself in the foot: there’s enough of an eye towards both the graphical artstyle and the cinematography of the fixed-camera-angle that most locations you go through look rather distinct and striking. I’m especially into the gothic horror overtones: it’s a vibe I… haven’t really seen before in survival horror games like these, and I really love the way things such as dollhouses, puppets, and clockwork interweave through the mansion and provide a consistent throughline, even despite how hard each area can vary in look. I also like how this manages to extend into enemy design: there are a ton of different foes you brush up against throughout the game, and in addition to them all looking unique and varied they function as such as well — movesets and movements and special mechanics that make each fight (or flight) different than the one before. I’m a fan of when a nice artstyle manages to stretch into and improve other areas of the game, and here in particular I’m really into how the aesthetic makes each area feel distinct and different to play, in a way that then feeds into the survival horror: you solve puzzles and fight enemies to access new areas of the house, but you don’t quite know what you’re going to see until it’s right in front of you.

I was also super down for some of the ways the game iterates on the PS1-survival horror formula. While you’re still capable of finding supplies such as ammo or medkits through scavenging the mansion, most of what you get comes from a shop you find early on, the currency for which you get… coming exclusively from killing enemies. This introduces a new element of resource management, and works well as a sort of double-edged sword. Unlike, say, the first Resident Evil (or at least the remake) where the threat of resource drain or Crimsonheads encouraged you against fighting enemies, here it becomes a choice: do you want to get that shiny new weapon/want to try and save and find yourself too short on what you need to get it? What enemies are still around? Do you reckon you can kill one efficiently enough to actually get a return on your investment? This all adds a new layer to gameplay, and pairs really well with how varied enemies are. I’m also a fan of some of the other things you can buy in the shop, even if during my run I was often too poor to take advantage of them. Getting your pick of reward after killing a boss is a neat choice for the player, given that what they don’t pick is lost forever for that playthrough. Modifications seem neat — and even if I’m not generally a fan of “you can’t use these cool things if you want the good ending,” I like how it ties in lore-wise. Dresses are fun cosmetics, and the additional effects they give Alisa allow the player to finetune their stats to their playstyle. The shop, and the mechanics regarding money in general were a really cool addition to this type of game, both in terms of the mechanics surrounding them on their own and the additional cool things the shop gives the player access to.

Other iterations, however… fare less well. While the shop, in general, does a lot of cool things with the PS1 survival horror formula, some of the other things mostly just… don’t mesh and are super annoying to play around. It’s oftentimes a case where… the game will stop what it’s doing to become something else but that something else… really does not work well in a game such as this. There’s one part of the game which is flat-out a stealth section — one which comes down to “run to these specific points at this specific time or face instant death,” one which… has no room for experimentation or doing it faster than the game wants you to, and due to the fixed camera angles often results in you being unable to see where the things you’re meant to stealth past… even if the player character themselves wouldn’t have that problem. Right after this is a boss fight, which I’d prepared and stocked my items up for... only to find out that actually this specific boss was actually a rather clunky rail shooter, where you can’t heal, can only barely dodge certain attacks, and one where ‘aim’ and ‘move’ are bound to the same keys, which rather than seeming like a fair challenge just feels really annoying to deal with, where whatever skill you’ve picked up through playing the game is moved to the wayside in favour of trying to figure out this brand new style of play the game has just thrown on you.

Combat… also becomes rough once you start finding more advanced enemies. Some mechanics get attached to enemies, and while sometimes it works and makes them fairly fun to play around sometimes it… doesn’t. There are these mermen skeleton enemies which have a dismemberment mechanic — where depending on where you aim you might just knock off one of their limbs and make them angry — but in practice, it’s not really possible to know what body part the game thinks you’re aiming at, so it ends up with you accidentally knocking off their hand or head rather than killing them… after which they immediately just hitstun you to death because hitstun on the player is majorly jank. There are so many points where you’ll get hit, knocked down… and then you’ll lose much more HP because the enemy will attack you and knock you down again literally the moment you get up. Your best strategy, particularly against bosses or tougher enemies, is to kite them, which… works way too well for its own good. Enemies generally move at the same speed the player does, rather than faster or slower, which can result in loooooong stretches of you and the enemy walking around each other, the fight not progressing because neither of you are in range to actually try to attack. I literally beat one boss because all of their attacks could be easily dodged by… just walking backwards around the arena. It’d be easy to brush off this jank as trying to be accurate to the old survival horrors of yore, or stating that the frustrating/sloggy parts as making the game feel more stressful or tense… but it feels at odds with itself. In, say, Resident Evil or Silent Hill (where fighting felt way more smooth regardless), combat was often a last resort if you couldn’t run from a situation, and added to the tension due to providing consequences, either in the short term (resource drain) or the long term (killing the enemy resulting in something worse taking its place later). Here, the shop system encourages you to try your hand fighting enemies… which then works against itself given how combat oftentimes doesn’t stand out for the better.

Which is a shame, because initially I was super vibing with this game, and even when things started to get annoying later I was still really into the parts that won me over at the beginning of the game. Regardless of its issues, I was still really into a lot of the things it brought to the table, and I still really like the dollhouse, gothic horror puppetry aesthetic. It’s just a shame that I started to notice the strings after a while, and got to see just how many knots were tangling the experience up. 6/10.

Entre o surreal e o real; do sano para o insano. Alisa em meio aos belos planos pré renderizados, acoplados a uma narrativa que brinca muito com o imaginário humano e o transumanismo, cria uma história sobre como a ambição pelo poder pode pôr em cheque os limites da própria humanidade.

É fascinante também como Alisa consegue ser o jogo mais 1990 possível dentre os-jogos-que-tentam-ser-o-mais-1990-possível. Agora, os meios por trás disso... bem... não vou elaborar muito, apenas comentar que a experiência de Alisa vai depender (e muito) da sua experiência com jogos similares.

Aquilo né pai, jogo bom é o famoso filtro do bom gosto.

I backed this game on kickstarter so I'm completely biased. Fortunaly I also hold the curse of always speaking facts to balance that out.
Alise is the closest thing to capturing the experience of playing the classic Survival Horrors from the 90's. A few times it borders a little too close to the territory of Alone in The Dark, but not enough fortunaly.
There are a few closed zones so I'm guessing that's due to Casper having still some work to do on the game (we still don't have the DLCs).

If you think Survival Horror were only good when aiming at enemies was hard as hell, this game is your perfect match.