Danpire
2011
I am a firm believer that if a game requires me to pull up a wiki to understand how to progress in the game, the game is extremely poorly designed. Factor that in as well as the fact that the gameplay is duller than a sheet of white paper and you get an experience that people will only remember fondly if they spent it in a voice call with friends, chatting about anything other than this unimaginative slog of a game. Playing this over something like Minecraft will never not make you look like a cringey contrarian.
I really wish I was able to give this game a better score, because what it's good at its REALLY good at, and it can be really fun! But when it's bad...
The only other soulslike I have played to completion is Elden Ring, though I've also dabbled with Bloodborne, Sekiro, and DS3. In each of these games, whenever you fail you feel as though it was your own lack of skill or knowledge that made you fail. This game commits the worst soulslike sin: making you feel as though your failures are the GAMES fault. The controls and camera can feel incredibly janky, some level designs make it nearly impossible to fight enemies without falling to your death, there are gamebreaking bugs that can either get you stuck in the environment, or worse stuck in an enemies grab attack, FORCING you to close and reopen the game.
There's also quite a lack of QoL in this game. Your map is stuck EXTREMELY zoomed in, so you are unable to pan to areas around you, and you are unable to mark points of interest on your map. Teleporting between shells requires you to first go to a different shell, which just causes needless backtracking. Acquiring skills can only be done at one NPC location you just need to teleport to with NOTHING else to do there, there is no reason for this, it should have been accessible in the menu.
Overall the game was cute and fun, but the fact that most of the challenge came from dealing with the developer's shortcomings rather than genuine difficulty definitely hindered what could've been a great experience.
The only other soulslike I have played to completion is Elden Ring, though I've also dabbled with Bloodborne, Sekiro, and DS3. In each of these games, whenever you fail you feel as though it was your own lack of skill or knowledge that made you fail. This game commits the worst soulslike sin: making you feel as though your failures are the GAMES fault. The controls and camera can feel incredibly janky, some level designs make it nearly impossible to fight enemies without falling to your death, there are gamebreaking bugs that can either get you stuck in the environment, or worse stuck in an enemies grab attack, FORCING you to close and reopen the game.
There's also quite a lack of QoL in this game. Your map is stuck EXTREMELY zoomed in, so you are unable to pan to areas around you, and you are unable to mark points of interest on your map. Teleporting between shells requires you to first go to a different shell, which just causes needless backtracking. Acquiring skills can only be done at one NPC location you just need to teleport to with NOTHING else to do there, there is no reason for this, it should have been accessible in the menu.
Overall the game was cute and fun, but the fact that most of the challenge came from dealing with the developer's shortcomings rather than genuine difficulty definitely hindered what could've been a great experience.
2011
The aesthetics are awesome, but the gameplay is just... dull and repetitive, to say the least. I can appreciate the thought put into all the different upgrades and enemy designs, but for me, it's not nearly engaging enough.
2024
Yeah this stinks unfortunately. I played all the way until the end, mostly out of spite, but additionally to see if it got any better. On the first playthrough, it was genuinely awful. I was basically bashing my head against the wall at all the overused tropes and gimmicks that were trying really, really hard to be scary, and falling completely flat. Turns out you have to go into the game again to see anything a little bit cool. From here it turns more ARG-like, which does turn out to be more interesting, but the immersion of the original concept of KinitoPet being a rogue program on your computer is completely broken by a reset of progress and features like a "chapter select". Adding features requiring replaying a game to see all of it's secrets is fine and all, but when the "game" doesn't want you to view it as a "game", it feels incredibly counterintuitive when you have to start all over again, and makes the original experience feel meaningless. The ARG elements added during replay weren't that deep either, mostly consisting of finding a few new things popping up on your second playthrough, a few cyphers, a bit of file digging, but it is very much baby's first ARG stuff here. It's an incredible shame that this game ends up feeling like it's targeted at the Garten of Banban/Piggy/Hello Neighbor kids who get scared by the bare minimum, rather than capitalizing on it's technologically interesting gimmicks that had real potential to create something next-level if utilized properly. If you want something scary with old-school tech aesthetics and actually interesting out-of-game elements attached, check out Shipwrecked 64 instead. It released only a week before this game, and ends up being a much better use of your money and your time.
2019
I really wish the braincells I used to have could come back so that I could understand and enjoy this game. I know I will, I'm just a little too dumb at the moment. I'll get better <3
2023
I dreadged playing any more of this game. Just not a whole lot there innit? Got boring after the first town, dunno what all the hype's about
2019
This review contains spoilers
|Non-Spoiler Section|
Zelle is a very... interesting game. It doesn't define itself as a horror experience, instead choosing the term "occult adventure", which is much more generous. However, it does try to create a rather tense atmosphere throughout it's runtime.
This atmosphere never really hit me in the way I had hoped it would. The "scares" were all rather predictable, and though the art is very well done, nothing shown gave me any sense of dread for the situation our protagonist is in. This could just be due to me being intimately antiquated with the horror genre, but I was never shaken by the games' events. I find that games need to give you something within the plot that feels unnatural and tense to achieve the vibe Zelle was going for. However, the premise of "boy goes outside room when he's not supposed to and meets demons" wasn't nearly enough to get me invested.
While the game tries to make some commentaries on sin, heaven, and hell, all it's observations remain surface level, and never dig down to the core of the discussion. Perhaps with a longer runtime this issue could have been mended, but I feel that a longer runtime would also sacrifice player attention-span, with the barebones mechanics of the gameplay not leaving much room to be expanded upon. I wish the gameplay was entirely reworked from what it is, as the shortcomings from this game's tiny length don't end at it's inability to make any greater points.
A major intention of the second half of the game is to try and get you invested in the characters of the world, but again, with such a short runtime it's VERY hard to give any of the characters meaningful dimensions, leading me to not care about what happened to any of them, even our own protagonist. The shift from first to third person that also occurs in the second half is an interesting gimmick, but does absolutely nothing to enhance or change the player experience. The developers seemed to add this feature only so that they could insert short "cutscenes", but with this being made in the RPGMaker engine, all the cutscenes were extremely stiff, and the lack of connection between the player and the characters means I didn't care much for what was occuring in the first place.
|Spoilers|
The boss fight with the reaper (I forget what his real name was because I did not care about him) was the only time in the game the gameplay actually felt slightly tense. However, this tension is INSTANTLY brought down by the fact that directly after, you fight the final boss, which you win with, you guessed it, the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!!!........ Without any explanation or reasoning, a little dragon baby turns into a big dragon and finishes off the final boss for you! Yay!?!? This could have MAYBE been a cool moment if it was explained a little??? But even then, AGAIN, it is SO hard to feel any emotion towards any of these characters when they are so two-dimensional and underdeveloped, so a character-driven finale felt EXTREMELY underwhelming.
As someone with a deep love for RPGMaker games (My #1 game on here is one), I really, REALLY wanted to like this game. It has such a unique vibe, but unfortunately that gets ruined by the shift that occurs in the second half, and it never really recovers or expands upon itself in a way that makes the experience memorable. I wouldn't NOT reccomend the game necissarily, as it's runtime doesn't make it a major timesink to be lost, but I would advise expectations to not be too high while playing, and to simply view this as someone's short-and-sweet art project.
Zelle is a very... interesting game. It doesn't define itself as a horror experience, instead choosing the term "occult adventure", which is much more generous. However, it does try to create a rather tense atmosphere throughout it's runtime.
This atmosphere never really hit me in the way I had hoped it would. The "scares" were all rather predictable, and though the art is very well done, nothing shown gave me any sense of dread for the situation our protagonist is in. This could just be due to me being intimately antiquated with the horror genre, but I was never shaken by the games' events. I find that games need to give you something within the plot that feels unnatural and tense to achieve the vibe Zelle was going for. However, the premise of "boy goes outside room when he's not supposed to and meets demons" wasn't nearly enough to get me invested.
While the game tries to make some commentaries on sin, heaven, and hell, all it's observations remain surface level, and never dig down to the core of the discussion. Perhaps with a longer runtime this issue could have been mended, but I feel that a longer runtime would also sacrifice player attention-span, with the barebones mechanics of the gameplay not leaving much room to be expanded upon. I wish the gameplay was entirely reworked from what it is, as the shortcomings from this game's tiny length don't end at it's inability to make any greater points.
A major intention of the second half of the game is to try and get you invested in the characters of the world, but again, with such a short runtime it's VERY hard to give any of the characters meaningful dimensions, leading me to not care about what happened to any of them, even our own protagonist. The shift from first to third person that also occurs in the second half is an interesting gimmick, but does absolutely nothing to enhance or change the player experience. The developers seemed to add this feature only so that they could insert short "cutscenes", but with this being made in the RPGMaker engine, all the cutscenes were extremely stiff, and the lack of connection between the player and the characters means I didn't care much for what was occuring in the first place.
|Spoilers|
The boss fight with the reaper (I forget what his real name was because I did not care about him) was the only time in the game the gameplay actually felt slightly tense. However, this tension is INSTANTLY brought down by the fact that directly after, you fight the final boss, which you win with, you guessed it, the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!!!........ Without any explanation or reasoning, a little dragon baby turns into a big dragon and finishes off the final boss for you! Yay!?!? This could have MAYBE been a cool moment if it was explained a little??? But even then, AGAIN, it is SO hard to feel any emotion towards any of these characters when they are so two-dimensional and underdeveloped, so a character-driven finale felt EXTREMELY underwhelming.
As someone with a deep love for RPGMaker games (My #1 game on here is one), I really, REALLY wanted to like this game. It has such a unique vibe, but unfortunately that gets ruined by the shift that occurs in the second half, and it never really recovers or expands upon itself in a way that makes the experience memorable. I wouldn't NOT reccomend the game necissarily, as it's runtime doesn't make it a major timesink to be lost, but I would advise expectations to not be too high while playing, and to simply view this as someone's short-and-sweet art project.
I dropped the first game cause it kinda sucked but im so glad I gave the sequel a shot because THIS ONE is the ONLY metroidvania that has ever been able to keep me actively engaged until the very end and therefore it is the best one
2023
The vibes are incredibly relaxing and the world-building has some serious effort put into it for lore-hunters who want to dissect it all, but the gameplay stays rather stagnant throughout the whole experience, never greatly improving upon itself and relying on the aesthetic and world of the game to carry you to the end. If those are the things you value most in a game I'm sure you'll find great enjoyment out of this, but personally I would have wished for a bit more variety. Luckily the game is rather short, so it doesn't have the opportunity to get TOO stale, but nonetheless, climbing through the world does become pretty samey, and lacks the complexity needed to be an engaging core mechanic.
2023
Skipping the tedious puzzles with a guide is really the only way to enjoy this game. The interesting parts of this game get buried under piles of monotonous movement calculations that completely take you out of the experience. I really, REALLY wish the game was even just a little fun to play, as the storytelling here is absolutely phenomenal, and an actual game backing it up would elevate the experience to another level rather than just being mind-numbing.
2023
A project with a great visual style, great premise, and great voice acting unfortunately bogged down by pseudo-intellecutal portions of writing which, in an attempt to say everything, end up saying nothing at all.
2023
Only not giving it .5 stars because of the dope aesthetic. Everything else about this game is so braindead it hurts. No idea who thought a basically completely chance-based game was a fun idea. Even with the optimal move, you could just be screwed because your items suck and your opponent has the optimal items, just leave you feeling frustrated rather than scared. The creator just gives you the WAY overdone premise of "wanna play a game?????" and does nothing to flesh it out during the game or in the ending. Was way more excited that the game was over than excited that I won. Complete waste of time, somehow even worse than Iron Lung.
2024
It's a cute, short game, but the experience didn't come without frustrations.
Firstly, the price is a HUGE detriment when considering the length and quality of the game. Only takes about 2-3 hours maximum with very, VERY little replay value, but prices itself at $15. Compare that to Hollow Knight, a game with the same price, but 3x the development time, over 10x the playtime, and infinitely more replayability-- it's easy to see why this could seem a bit greedy.
The gameplay itself was engaging, but turned frustrating when you found out that the only way to get additional content in the form of follow-up calls was by FAILING to provide an accurate answer. This really disincentivizes players from trying their best, as even when they get 100% accuracy all they receive is a joke coupon for a joke item that doesn't exist. You get a less enriching experience by doing well, which to me felt extremely counterintuitive.
All this wrapped up with an ending that gives the player almost zero closure or answers about the HSH organization, it ended up making me feel very dissatisfied. While this was a fun game to try and I don't regret my time spent (as it wasn't much time at all), I do regret the money spent and would not recommend others to spend theirs on this experience either, unless you can purchase on a DEEP, DEEP sale.
Firstly, the price is a HUGE detriment when considering the length and quality of the game. Only takes about 2-3 hours maximum with very, VERY little replay value, but prices itself at $15. Compare that to Hollow Knight, a game with the same price, but 3x the development time, over 10x the playtime, and infinitely more replayability-- it's easy to see why this could seem a bit greedy.
The gameplay itself was engaging, but turned frustrating when you found out that the only way to get additional content in the form of follow-up calls was by FAILING to provide an accurate answer. This really disincentivizes players from trying their best, as even when they get 100% accuracy all they receive is a joke coupon for a joke item that doesn't exist. You get a less enriching experience by doing well, which to me felt extremely counterintuitive.
All this wrapped up with an ending that gives the player almost zero closure or answers about the HSH organization, it ended up making me feel very dissatisfied. While this was a fun game to try and I don't regret my time spent (as it wasn't much time at all), I do regret the money spent and would not recommend others to spend theirs on this experience either, unless you can purchase on a DEEP, DEEP sale.
Faith: The Unholy Trinity is the kind of game you can get far more enjoyment out of by listening to people talk about it on YouTube rather than playing it for yourself. In lore-based games like these, it's always rewarding to go seek out and try everything you can. In Faith though, this unfortunately results in the game feeling tedious. The story of this game deserves to be praised, and as a concept it definitely shows promise, but as a game it just does not feel engaging to play the vast majority of the time.
I genuinely don't remember if I actually played for quite a while before I dropped it, of if it just felt like that because of how slowly this game drags on