i haven't actually played this but c'mon

This review contains spoilers

Very nice game. The small setting and cast make for a place you can get really emotionally invested in and allows for the writers to put a lot of focus on characters and places that you get to spend a lot of time with. The Trade Conference was incredibly good political intrigue and the rest of the chapters all had really good character arc type stuff.
I'd say my only big issue was the combat. Suffers from the problem of regular encounters being way more fun than boss fights. The bosses have bloated HP pools and immunity to all status effects, so every fight is just a war of attrition. Still very enjoyable overall.

On an objective level it's fine and it also has good music but throughout the entire game it feels like something is missing, and that something is the soul.
The combat has potential but there isn't enough variety in the enemy formations so after a while it's just muscle memory with no real challenge to it. The game giving you very little reward after battling also makes enemies feel more like annoying obstacles in your path than something you benefit from. I will say that the bosses were good, though.

At first glance this is an Among Us clone, but while it's inspiration is clear, I definitely think this game has its own identity. I think the main point of separation is that this game does not have a separation between the talking phase and the roaming phase. Talking is always open via proximity chat, killing is possible anywhere, and so on. The other major point is that any side can kill at any time. The defectors (impostors) are as capable of doing any of the tasks the cultists (crewmates) are doing, meaning it's impossible to truly verify someone as innocent. The only way to determine if someone is a defector is if, in your judgement, it seems they are acting against the cult's interest, and/or if the dead players (defectors included, mind you) seem to be signaling to them via lights and possessions, which are quite difficult to read given that you do not know the allegiance of any given ghost.
This goes into some of the problems I have with this game, the main one being that I think in the game's current state, it's not really a Social Deduction game. In this game, you're rather unlikely to have large discussions with the group about who the killer is, since the game is designed for everyone to be busy doing their tasks, and there's no dedicated talking phase unless the players decide to do one themselves (all while the Defector resurrection timer ticks down.) It's much more likely that you will simply figure out who the defectors are when they start attacking you. Defectors have their own private communication channels, but the only use of this I ever found was to coordinate kills/ghost moves, not to set up any elaborate lies, alibis, or other ruses.
The other point I'd make is that I dislike this game's combat. It's top-down WASD movement with left click for a light attack and right click for a big one. The controls feel rather cumbersome (especially if you're trying to use push-to-talk at the same time). Defectors have no combat advantage other than potentially getting the first strike, and even then, there's nothing really stopping a particularly paranoid cultist from doing that instead. The combat also has friendly fire, meaning any attempts at ganging up on someone, using possessed bats to assist an ally, etc. can easily backfire if your ally just walks to close to your target to get a swing of their own in. Worst of all, the combat is prone to stunlocking via the strong attack, making it feel like a more unsatisfying version of an instakill. All's this to say that the process of killing another player in this game feels less like a Social Deduction game's kill button and more like Minecraft Hunger Games combat.
I think the game has potential, and definitely hits the "fun with friends for a couple hours" spot, but it does not hold up to Among Us for me. Still, this is getting updates, so it's worth keeping an eye on.

i love this game so fuckin much, it has amazing characters, themes, and story. this game is not even comparable with the rest of DR in my opinion, idk how kodaka did that but he did

This review contains spoilers

Blue Lions route. I really liked some of the characters in this game, and a lot of that group was in Blue Lions, so that's nice. Dimitri is especially good and is a great take on the standard "Lord" character, though I think even he could've been done better.
this game having 3/4 routes was weird. the way that the early chapters's conflicts tied especially well in with BL characters made me think that pre-timeskip was different depending on your house, but i guess i was just lucky. the game not changing stuff around based on what route you pick in the early game is pretty lame and is the main reason i haven't done a replay. also i was falling asleep mid-combat towards the end of the game and started skipping months just to finish the game sooner. still good but too much content for its own good, i think

This review contains spoilers

this game really introduced 10 main characters to you at the start of the game and expected shit to just work out, huh
it's a good game and i give it some credit because it's the first one in a long arc, but man, that was a very bold writing decision and i don't think it paid off. i also think this game's sidequests were significantly worse than previous games, partly because for 70% of them Rean is the only guy in the party (less screentime for other characters, less interesting dialogue) and because that same percentage has all of them in the same fuckin small town. now, crossbell showed us that focusing on an area can work, but for whatever reason it just doesn't here. i feel no attachment to trista, thors, or the students despite spending a good amount of an 80 hour game with them. it does not improve next game

what if we made xc2 good... haha just kidding. ...unless?

This is the best mario game

Man I wish I liked this game more. It definitely has some peaks, especially with Celes, but I feel like for every hour of good content there's 5 hours worth of boring dungeons, random encounters, and dull plot moments.

This review contains spoilers

This entire game is carried by Komaeda. I dislike half of the cast and only like about 3 characters total, counting him. Komaeda is a very cool character but this game uses him as a crutch for its dramatic tension. Unlike DR1, there's no real "beat the mastermind" thing going on behind the scenes. You're just existing until either Monokuma or Komaeda stirs enough shit for someone to get killed. There's no agency. The ending is a cool twist but the protag yelling the same words at an AI until he wins isn't a very satisfying ending, especially considering that it essentially means the entire plot of DR2 feels like it was meaningless from the beginning.
The only reason this isn't a 0 is because Komaeda is in the game and 2-5 is the best case in the entire series

I can conceptually understand why people like this game. From my perspective, Stardew Valley is a matrix of progression bars from top to bottom. Every aspect of the game feels like you're accomplishing something, from raising your profits, to completing bundles, to raising friendship meters, to getting through the mines, filling up the museum, even harvesting a single crop, it's all Something meaningful, something to make you feel both like you're getting valuable work done but also that there's always more work to be done.
What I can't comprehend at all is how people find this game "cozy". The second you wake up the clock is ticking, NPCs, stores, even the fish are on their schedules, you have to manage your crops, and make sure you set up automation so that you don't spend TOO much time on your crops, and try to get as much of a season's exclusive items as possible so that you can get the community center going without having to wait an extra year, and get back from the mines to Clint's Forge before 4:00, and make sure your energy doesn't get too low too early in the day (and have food ready if you think it will), and...
When I play this game I feel like I need to have a spreadsheet open just to track what things are worth doing, but the thing is, everything is worth doing, and I have no time at all to do it, so this relaxing, comfy, chill game is more akin to the experience of eternally feeling like I'm not accomplishing enough with the limited time I have available in a given day, season, year, play session.
I'm not saying the game is bad. I would ordinarily consider it a good thing to have a game with this much content, to make it feel like everything you're doing is relevant, all while maintaining a comfy atmosphere. It's just that when the game, journalists, and fans all act as if this is a relaxing farming game it drives me a little bit insane, because I think it failed completely in this regard and is at best a game that satirically presents itself with that aesthetic when that couldn't be further from the truth.

I had a good time but it definitely feels like a hurdle to jump over on your way to better expansions, especially at the start. Gameplay is still fun though

idk how they made a minesweeper roguelike good but they sure did. has some bangers too