Stardew with anthropomorphic characters, Including a cat main character named Nyanza....what's not to like, right?

Kitaria Fables Is a game quite similar to Stardew Valley with more emphasis on the Action/RPG elements, or at least that's what It wants to be. You play as Nyanza, a knight from the Empire sent to a small village In the middle of nowhere to help protect it from monsters that have started cropping up as of late. Coincidentally, Nyanza has a relative that used to own a farm In the same town, where he Is able to stay during his mission. Here, he can grow crops which can be used to craft healing items to either use or sell for money and there's also some light crafting elements, like weapon and armor upgrades along with researching new magic spells, all of which require different materials that can be acquired from killings mobs and some you can grow on the farm. There's also the typical fare of RPG features like questing and exploring.

We typically have all the ingredients for a nice and relaxing alternative to Stardew Valley, that Is, we would have, If most of It didn't feel shallow. There's little point to the farming aspect, outside of completing a handful of quests, healing items are nice, but once you acquire an accessory with Lifesteal on It, healing Is rarely an Issue anymore. Unlike Stardew Valley, In Kitaria Fables the social aspects are barely there, questing Is fun, but outside of that, NPCs are just there as decoration, but combat Is probably fun, right? Not quite, It gets the job done, but It's way too simple. You have access to two handed swords, bows and magic spells (fire, water, earth and wind), all of which have 5 skills each (you can only ever have 4 equipped at a time). It would have been nice to get a wider assortment of weapons and more variety of attacks (such as light and heavy attacks maybe?).

Ultimately, It's fun as a time waster, but don't go out of your way to pay full price for it.

This Is one of those games that sneak In, completely unexpected and out of the blue...literally, because It was released on the same day It was announced and to be perfectly honest, THIS Is the Silent Hill I envisioned In the future.

I'm not really going to touch on the story, except to say that there are trigger warnings for a reason, please pay attention to them!

The Short Message basically plays like your typical Walking Simulator, If you ever played Amnesia on PC, you know exactly what you're getting Into here. The game Is short and aside from exploring and a few chase scenes, there's not really much beyond taking In the environments and reading the various clues, notes, diaries, etc that flesh out the plot. But for a free game, It doesn't really need anything else, It does what It sets out to do with almost surgical precision and that Is, to deliver a compelling and relatable narrative for many and showcase what future Silent Hill games could be like, and that possibility Is very tantalizing. Makes me wish Silent Hill 2 was done this way, a lot of fans would probably collectively lose It, but I actually think It would make the game much better.

The visuals and audio are both on point, with the exception of the flashback cutscenes where the lip sync Is off from the voice over, but that's a very minor Issue. The game looks spectacular and the atmospheric soundtrack is perfect, down to how Anita pants while she's being chased along with the music which serves to heighten tension.

I bought this game on a whim during the Spring Sale last week, because It looked like It could be a decent Horror game and unfortunately, this Is one of those very few purchases, that even though It was cheap, I genuinely regret.

Inner Chain's presentation of this abstract, kind of post apocalyptic world Is genuinely good at first glance, It's a very visually full experience, but one that's marred by a very vague, close to non existent story, bland gameplay and technical issues.

All we get as far as story goes, Is a narration at the start of the game, beginning of each chapter and a few times at specific points throughout the game. There are murals throughout the game that help fill In some of the lore, but you have to unlock "letter collectibles" In order to decipher the language and read the text. In theory, It sounds cool, In practice, It's tedious and only hampers the already almost non-existent storyline.

The gameplay Is a mix of Walking Simulator and FPS, I was excited at the prospect of a FPS In this already cool looking game, but the gameplay Is dull and bland, you got 3 guns that you acquire as you progress Into the game. a Shock/Lightning gun, a Flamethrower and what appears to be a kind of Nail Rifle. The world Is littered with sentient traps/fauna that you can often lure enemies Into to make things easier as well as disable/kill with your weapons, which at least gives the player options In how to tackle many areas of the game, but In execution, the guns often feel underpowered (why does a headshot not immediately kill a human enemy? why does shocking enemies not stun/stop them?) and the open ended levels, while cool, can sometimes turn Into mazes.

Finally, maybe other people have had better luck, but running this game on a 2080s and Ryzen 5 1600 at 4k, while playable, I rarely achieved steady 60fps, usually staying around the 45-50 mark. This usually wouldn't bother me too much, but this game came out 7 fucking years ago, cmon!

I can't recommend this game at all, not even during a sale.