didn't live up to my personal hype but was okay. dragged its feet quite a lot and could've done without the obvious padding to keep the experience consistently engaging, along with very little environmental diversity to keep me in the zone. runtime could've easily been chopped in half with little lost.

decarnation's highlights is in its art direction and subtle, expressive animations. "pixel psychological horror with gore elements" is enough to put many to sleep, but the execution on display really was something special. our heroine Gloria will dance, stagger about a room, perform lithe jumping manoeuvres, and shovel cake into her mouth with shocking clarity and flow.

a major nagging flaw however is the game's implementation of a rhythm game for key moments or scenes (around 5 times). the map notes are nonsensical, poorly timed with little on-beat visual indicators to let the player know they've hit a note correctly; there is a "coin" or numeric system which will float over notes after hitting them ranging from 0 to 100, but otherwise there is no chime or other visual indicator. it certainly didn't impede me from finishing, but it made these song segments horribly tedious and drawn out as i knew i'd be punished simply for trying to hit an organic rhythm.

grotesque, uncomfortable, darkly feminine, quite average. still my favourite coverart of 2023, though.