Tentando buscar um objetivo que molde a rede de nonsense, decido chegar em todos os finais. Tal ato me força a rejogar cada cenário algumas vezes, repetição de seu onirismo calcificando uma bizarra escultura em minha cabeça, revelando modesta clareza - um flash epilético por vez. Michael Jackson, Death Grips; o destino do universo. Um dos finais era um pouco complicado e busquei guias na internet, o único que achei disponível só em mandarim - a tradução bizarra e perdida parecia uma extensão da experiência. Efeitos explosivos que me assustavam e botavam pra rir logo depois. Depois que terminei, tive que ir visitar Michael Jackson uma última vez. Não há nada como ele por aí.

While its aesthetics and visuals are absolutely bonkers and I DO love that.

Critters for Sale just kinda stays in a weird space for me.

It's too consistent in terms of world building (while, yes, insane) for me to just embrace the aesthetics, feel and interpret the game in my own way.

While at the same time, i feel its world building isn't as well established or well executed for me to immerse myself in it, be it in a way where it makes sense within this illogical world's boundaries, be it in a way in where it's intentionally fuzzy and dissonant.

The ending feels a bit off, maybe for being anticlimatic, maybe for being inconclusive in any way, shape or form, maybe because i just couldn't really care too much about what it has done in terms of world building.

It's charming, it's visually interesting, but i just really didn't connect a lot with it.

Would still be interested in playing a new game by Sonoshee, I do believe in the potential of their work and of this series (?), as i presume from the final bit of text.

Embora o jogo afirme que cada capítulo possa ser jogado em qualquer ordem, e, de fato possam ser, existem alguns finais de capítulos que são impossíveis de serem obtidos sem conhecimento prévio dos outros, incluindo o único final do último capítulo. Além disso, senti falta de feedback visual para quais ações o jogador poderia realizar ou não no decorrer do jogo, mas esses dois pontos são as únicas coisas negativas dele. É uma aventura muito interessante e fascinante. A história é instigante, em alguns momentos assustadora, e, mesmo assim consegue ter um bom senso de humor enquanto possui um estilo artístico muito charmoso (que me atraiu pro jogo) e uma trilha sonora muito boa. Vale ressaltar que Michael Jackson está no jogo.

Really cool.

Easy to see this as a young guys homage to the Internet culture he grew up with, and the complicated feelings those permenately embed in one's psyche. We get that made manifest in the wacked out visuals, distortions of photography made to move via digital effects. The writing is flavor text, but reveals anxiety about climate change, the 1% ruining the world for their own short term gain, and the comedy all this chaos generates.

This almost works as a music video for a lot of great music too. All those times you picture a lil video to a song you love, this guy made that real. One should put live death grips concert footage in their game.

Also why does the second top review here say: "but there's a lot of depth and value here if you're willing to look beyond the dithered pixel art and electronic music surface"? I have many quibbles with this, but what does it even mean? Isn't that a lot of the game, it is extremely deliberate and gives most of the game it's affect?? Why would you need to look beyond it, and why are visuals and music a "surface" to games? What happens when we gaze at that very surface?

More proof that people should like my far superior reviews.

Slightly torn on this. Aesthetically? One of the best things ive ever played. A+ in every regard. Some of the greatest funny lookin guys in vidja history in particular. Perfect in every way. Constantly surprised with how much cool shit it does.

Story wise? I dunno. I think it's pretty blatant that there's no real grand overarching theme or much of a consistent narrative, just a collection of fun little vignettes, and I think I'm okay with that. I would've liked if there was more of a method to it's madness, but just being along for the ride is enough when it's this constantly captivating. Nary a dull moment. Reminded me a lot of The Silver Case as a whole, with it's often loose story being told thru a series of questionably connected chapters (tho TSC does it a lot better in a macro sense), the very strong and striking sense of visual storytelling, and how chapter 2 is easily the worst part.

Speaking of chapter 2 the death grips stuff is bad and feels bizarrely out of step with the rest of the game. I wouldve not had a problem with it if it was just stefan being a character in narrative for no real reason like MJ is, but it double / triples down on it and its very, for lack of a better word, cringe. i wouldve tolerated it if this was made in like 2015 or something but near current year is too late to be talking about being noided n shit. easy lowpoint of the game

Imagine a video game with an actual sense of mise en scène, and you get Critters for Sale. I am thankful that it existed for me in this timeline more than I necessarily enjoyed it. Felt a lot like a confident debut album by a band influenced by all of my favorites: cosmic horror, liminal space, warped vaporwave, the occult, casinos, death grips...nailing the exuberant alchemy of it all, even if limited by the production budget of an itch.io solo developer. Color me excited to see what Sonoshee brings to a sophomore effort, which I really really really hope escapes the confines of point-and-click.

I knew this game would be exactly up my alley, and sure enough it completely blew me away. I'm such a sucker for point-and-click games with a dithered and detailed pixel art style like this, especially when translated into psychedelic blends of surrealism and cosmic horror. the way the visuals melt and explode through mysterious layers of visual horror is so insane that you really just have to see it for yourself. also, using icons (won't spoil anything) from pop culture to represent characters in between these worlds was quite genius honestly, and left me very happy in one specific moment. I do think some of the puzzles towards the end are slightly too obtuse, and replaying each story for all the endings is slightly tedious, but overall this game fucking rules. huge props to the dev for making something entirely original and effective.

Games that feel haunted are so cool to me and usually something that will immediately make me appreciate it, and Critters For Sale is no exception in this regard. The mishmash of surreal, abstract twists on a variety of folklore warped through a lens of pop culture from a variety of eras, all closed off with one of the most unique and striking visual styles I've seen makes for an unforgettable aesthetic in any case. It's all further heightened by game's insistence that you immediately know everything that's being talked about while exclusively putting you in the perspective of characters who know absolutely nothing, leaving so much up to you just remembering concepts and making vague connections without truly understanding the deeper consequences of anything that occurs. It's built upon contradictions in a lot of key areas that add a ton to the surreal atmosphere in each chapter, not ever being able to fully trust anything that's said, but always pressing forward regardless to be given context to ideas you haven't even begun to think about.

It's not exactly perfect, as the pop culture elements definitely carefully ride the line between adding to the sense of strange familiarity to see such icons in the context of a world this confusing, while also sometimes unfortunately crossing the line into taking you right out of the experience by leaning into such elements a bit too heavily. This is most prominent with a certain ending in the Goat storyline, where while incredibly funny, the ending pertaining to Death Grips entirely tanked the mystique of the setting you were placed in and felt strangely out of place even in a game as wild as this one. Other than this I really appreciated this though for having such an incredible sense of style combined with gameplay that constantly intrigued, along with playing into a vibe that I've really grown to appreciate where it feels more akin to being a passive observer to the world around you as opposed to being a hugely active force in it. In the context of Critters For Sale this is especially indicative of how distinctly it presents itself for managing to craft such a tone while also having the player save the world multiple times and actively become one of the main driving forces of the trajectory of the world.

Also a huge fan of the ways that a lot of these storylines differ from a gameplay perspective, all sticking within the confines of what you'd expect from a point n click adventure, but emphasising different a different element for each one, often as simple as moving through from location to location or solving puzzles. Providing a sense of variety through nothing but the barest of essentials is just one way that's indicative of how Critters For Sale is able to play into its minimalism to further reinforce the elements it's striving to make the most distinct and memorable, whether it's through the moments of reduced intensity themselves lending themselves towards a vague feeling of formlessly floating through unfamiliar territory, or the contrast with the occasionally nightmarish, maximalist pieces of imagery. In the end though, none of this really matters as much as the simple fact that if you're at all interested in the artstyle of this, you really should give it a shot, because everything the game does serves to push its aesthetic front and centre and entirely absorb you.

Eu achei esse aqui muito massa.

É um jogo que faz uma mistura bem interessante de visual novel com puzzle, além de contar com uma história bem maluca e psicodélica; no entanto, o que realmente brilha aqui é essa apresentação super estilosa que eu pelo menos nunca tinha visto em outro jogo.

Eu gosto que a história tem vários pequenos capítulos cheios de finais diferentes que podem ser abordados em qualquer ordem, e em meio disso essa história maluca vai aos poucos fazendo sentido já que vamos montando as peças desse quebra-cabeça. Tem viagem no tempo, alienígenas, além de vários outros conceitos legais.

É muito daora, mas é um tanto curtinho demais, já que dá pra terminar em 100% em 3 horas e meia. Definitivamente vale a pena ficar de olho se entrar em promoção caso você goste desse tipo de jogo.

Eu quero mais disso, namoral.