At some point, growing up, I developed a fear of dead bodies. I've always been afraid of death, ever since I was young. But, the development into being unable to touch the body of a dead fly came later, a fear I'm still unsure the origins of. It's a fear that caused me to put off playing this game for some time - despite now owning it from many bundles.

The game treats death with a lot of care. As Charlie, your job is to prepare the bodies for the funeral - whether this is through cremation or embalming. The graphics are simplistic, not shying away from the medical nature but not marvelling needlessly in it either. The bodies don't show any injuries from how they died, and the use of blood is minimalistic. It doesn't treat tragedies as a source of entertainment.

The game holds your hand through each step, not allowing you to go wrong. I didn't mind this, but it may eliminate the feeling of 'gameplay' for others. The use of colour to guide your eye is well executed, and the UI and controls are minimal and easy to understand.

The game consists of a few stages for each day you play. You can check your emails, as well as an extra tab on the computer (one of these days involving a Minesweeper esq minigame.) Upon accepting the job, you prepare the body. After this, you move to the funeral, where you can listen to their loved ones and pay respects.

The story throughout the game is interesting, and one reflective of real life. I knew where it would likely end up. I found myself engrossed into the snapshots of other people's lives at the funerals, however. Learning from only a brief moment their relationships, their worries or fears.

It's a very poignant game, yet a gentle one. I think I've come away with a better understanding of death and the process, and a respect for this.

One of my all time favourite games, and one I've played many times on my Switch. This is the first time I played it on my Steam Deck, and the experience was just as enjoyable.

The game is crafted masterfully. The UI is easy to navigate, the OST reflects the mood, and the sound effects are so enjoyable! It all comes together to create such a relaxing experience that gives as much as you want to take from it.

For those who enjoy story, it's told here in so many unconventional ways. From the music, small photos, items appearing and disappearing. Even what plays when you turn music players or game consoles on! It all tells the story of the character, but gives enough room for detachment if this is an element the player isn't interested in as well.

The achievements are fun and silly, a lot of them things you'd discover naturally during a playthrough. The gameplay is also intuitive to understand - though it take me several playthroughs to realise I could activate objects whilst not holding them!

The only thing I don't like is that the zoom of the camera often feels too close, or too far. This is something I'm happy to overlook though, as the game has given me so much joy since it was released.

A fun, narrative puzzle game which tells an engaging story in an interesting way!

As the player welcomed to the theatre, you're introduced to four characters. Each of them follows the same story, with a different story branch. As you go down different routes you unlock new behaviours, which then affects what the character does in other runs! Only one thing remains the same: there are no good endings.

There is also a second story that begins once you start to complete the story branches. I found this one sweet - though a bit corny at points.

Mechanically the game is structured nicely! The menus are easy to navigate between, and the fast forward option works well. The branch menu gives enough guidance for you to work out what to do next, without completely holding your hand.

I greatly enjoyed the art style of the game, and though there isn't lots of music, what was there elevated the mood really well!

There's only one or two achievements that might be easy to miss, most are achieved simply through playing the game.

It's a sweet game, with a surprisingly heartwarming story at its core and fun gameplay to back it up <3

This is a game I've owned and intended to play for years but have always been waiting for the right moment. That right moment ended up in a tent that was interrupted by needing to takedown due to strong wind.

The game is a masterpiece of narrative. I enjoyed the twists and turns throughout, even the ones that were more predictable. Plot hooks are set up and played out throughout the narrative and it's so satisfying to watch it all come together at the end!

The way the game plays is interesting. There isn't massive groundbreaking gameplay, but the puzzles were interesting. Much of the enjoyment comes from the unfolding narrative. I found some of the movement in the zero gravity area of the spaceship clunky. I know this was the intention, but sometimes it made it difficult to get into areas. A bit frustrating, but not a big deal overall.

I did find nice attention to detail with some mechanics as well. One example of this is how the sensitivity of the mouse reduced when inputting numbers into keypads. There was also some nice accessibility options, like subtitles and turning off head bobbing.

As the story picked up, I found myself hooked. I stayed up far later than I expected to keep playing because I needed to know what happened next. Reaching the ending felt so satisfying! I was so excited by it.

I spent a little while afterwards chasing down achievements I'd missed. None were particularly difficult, however I don't know how you'd find some of the hidden ones without looking it up.

Overall, I had such a fun time playing this game and uncovering the story within. It is very much the feeling of finishing a satisfying book and I think well worth the play. In the future, I may play through with the extra commentary because I'm interested to hear what it has to say!

A light-hearted and silly game with an addictive mechanic and fun puzzles.

This game is a joy from the very start. The characters and dialogue are great fun, and I love the sense of humour the writing has. I enjoy the low poly style of the graphics. The game creates stand-out, characterful locations that are fun to play in.

The puzzles are a lot of fun! Some provided me with some challenge, but I was able to figure them all out without needing tutorials. There was only one occasion I thought I was stuck, which I eventually figured out myself. The way the game guides you to the solution is done really well. The achievements provide a good amount of challenge too, though I'm unsure how I'd complete some without looking up guides. The game introduces new mechanics at a pace that keeps you engaged and stops gameplay becoming too stale.

The gameplay is so addictive. There's something incredibly fun about growing the donut hole and wreaking havoc. The psychics engine can sometimes be a bit awkward, leading to some wiggling, but it doesn't massively impact enjoyment.

The story of the game is light-hearted and fun, with a nice message of friendship. I think you very much have to appreciate the silliness at the core of this game, otherwise you won't enjoy it.

An easy-going puzzle game perfect for unwinding.

The game introduces you with a simple story that's entirely for flavour. The main gameplay is swap tile puzzles for each sign of the zodiac. There are two difficulty levels, where the difference is the size/number of tiles.

The puzzles are all well designed. There's lots of reoccurring motifs and patterns that assist you – even the weathering on the paper can guide you to the right place! The artwork itself is pretty to look at as well, with a variety of different cats on each one. After completing a puzzle, you get some information about cats of that zodiac, which I found sweet. There's also a light and dark mode for the puzzles, which I felt was a nice touch.

There's also a 'fortune telling' mechanic, where you can select a zodiac. I selected mine and it told me what type of cat I should adopt. The main purpose of the game is this: encouraging people to adopt cats, which I find sweet.

I did find there was very little depth to the game outside of that. It would've been nice if the hard puzzles had a bit more variation. And, as much as I enjoyed the music, I would've liked different songs for each puzzle as it grew repetitive over time.

I found it was best played using the touch screen of my steam deck, where I could simply tap tiles to swap them. I had no issues with the controls or navigating the menu.

A sweet game, good for relaxing with no stress, pressure or time limits.

I'd been following this game through Wholesome Directs for while, and decided to pick it up during a sale!

The game is very quaint. The art style is simple and pleasant to look at, I really enjoy the texturing on objects. The sounds are well done. I did have some difficulties with picking up and moving objects, but imagine this would be easier using a mouse. On some levels I simply used the touch screen of my steam deck, which worked well enough.

The main campaign of the game isn't too long. There's a variety of chapters with different theming for the puzzles within it. Some puzzles have multiple solutions, meaning there's a bit more to do to perfect the game. I found the hints ranged from hints to simply showing the solution which I didn't mind (I had a tutorial up already.) The method of uncovering hints I found fun, and levels can be skipped if needed without consequence. I liked some puzzles more than others, but thought they were all well-designed.

I found the UI charming and well-designed. It was easy to see which levels were not fully completed and navigate to them.

I did feel like the game lacked a bit of substance to make it truly stand out to me, though. I can't place why because I found it very charming, but a very average experience. I do still think it's worth playing if you enjoy puzzles, as there's plenty of content to be enjoyed. It might connect to others more than myself.

A fun idle fishing game with a surprising amount of detail!

The main mechanic of the game is fishing, with two different levels of difficulty. There's no punishment for which you pick – the full game and achievements can be experienced regardless! As you play, you unlock more options for passive income, which also bring life back to the islands. As you complete tasks, you upgrade your items, creating goals and a sense of progression as you play.

The story of the game is very simple, but doesn't need to be anything more complicated. The characters are full of life and personality. The animation and art complement this, making it enjoyable to complete each quest!

The game unlocks new elements at a nice pace. This means there's more to consider as you get further into the game. I did find fishing became redundant at a certain point, as other resources were needed and I had an excess of leaves. I only fished to collect new fish, or complete with quests.

The game did also involve some idling with nothing else to do, as money wasn't needed and there was no faster way to gain a resource. Instead I waited around until I'd collected enough to complete the quests.

Overall, a short but enjoyable game that has a lot of flexibility in how you play it! Incredibly cute art and a light-hearted, fun adventure <3

A cute game, but lacking any real substance.

The positives, the assets are well made – the bunnies and objects are super cute! It made decorating fun and my main motivation for playing was to buy different items. The actual art is very well made and cute.

Sadly, it's outweighed by the downsides.

There was no real sense of progression as I played. It didn't feel like I was earning money faster, or achieving any goals. The gameplay felt aimless. Even getting new bunnies didn't feel rewarding, since there was no obvious unlock requirements to work towards. Decorating was fun, but the options quickly felt limited and I found it hard to fill the space.

I also found the butterfly bots often got caught in the ice rink decoration, and I had to pick it up to free them. I ended up moving the rink mostly outside the fence to prevent this as much as possible.

There was several features that lacked quality of life polish. Firstly, the lack of hints on how to unlock the bunnies means there's still one I haven't unlocked (despite having full stats and multiple of each food farm.) I didn't like how picking up a farm didn't move the food items with it. Rotating the camera often wouldn't end up in the same angle as I started it, which was annoying.

Overall, a fun game to waste a few hours on. Probably best open in the background whilst you do something else. I might play in the different seasons to unlock those achievements, but I don't plan on replaying.

This game was a somewhat impulsive winter sale purchase, and I wasn't sure what to expect going into it. I ended up absolutely adoring it.

Summer Catchers is full of charm. The characters are mostly two-dimensional, but fill their role perfectly for this kind of game. The humour is fun and the main character is easy to root for. The gameplay has a learning curve, but I found going back and replaying earlier worlds considerably easier than I did on my first play through.

The art and music is what elevates this game to another level. It is beautiful. It explores beautiful moments alongside more eldritch, scary experiences, and they're all treated with the same kind of care and beauty. The soundtrack is one I could find myself listening to often in my free time. I looked forward to each new area, excited to see what they had to experience.

Though I struggled with the gameplay at first, there were no punishments for setting it at an easier difficulty. I found my skills grew as I played and explored new strategies. Some of the bosses were genuinely challenging, and I grew frustrated once at one. It turned out this was because an item wasn't explained very well, and upon realising this, I found the game much easier going forward.

I also found myself engaged with the story. There were moments that made my heart race, the final boss battle being one. I love how connected the world is. Looking back and realising how much of the future game had been shown to me off in the distance was incredibly excited.

And though I usually dislike the type of ending this game had, I feel like the foreshadowing and storytelling throughout the game led up to it well. It was expected, rather than a surprise from nowhere.

This is definitely a game I'd recommend to others.

A fun, light-hearted game with intuitive mechanics and a fun take on its inspiration!

The game combines text based adventure with match three gameplay. Each section of story is split into an 'episode' (each one on their own VCR tape.) There are two main challenges for each episode: getting a high relationship with characters (unlocking cosmetic items at the end of the episode) and achieving hearts during the match three gameplay!

The relationships are determined by the responses you pick to different lines of dialogue throughout the episode. I found the cosmetics cute, although I wasn't a very big fan of a lot of the colour combinations. Additional colour combinations and sparkles could be unlocked in the occasionally appearing Shoppe – but top end ones are a grind to afford.

The heart rating is determined based on how well you perform against a certain goal during the match three stages. This could be good quickly you complete it, or how many of a certain object or type of match you get. There's no fail state, and different options for gameplay, but enough room to challenge yourself and reach higher goals if desired!

I found the anime inspiration very endearing in the tropes and characters. It felt like a lot of love went into the game, and it was delightfully cheesy. The pixel art style quickly grew on me and I enjoyed the story!

An enjoyable, laid back game marred by a few awkward mechanics.

This game follows the usual tropes of the cleaning genre. The main gameplay is cleaning piles of mud, growing plants and collecting items to repair things. You go from area to area, themed after places around the world, summoned by an appropriate animal. As you destroy mud piles, you collect trash. This can be recycled into experience, letting you level things up on a small skill tree. I found the levels helpful and there's a lot of ability to tailor it towards your gameplay! The process of cleaning the level was satisfying, with beautifully stylised animals and surroundings. Discovering you could pet various animals was a delight. Despite very little change in gameplay, I didn't find myself getting bored. Each level was a relaxing experience and hidden achievements added some excitement into exploring.

However, I did encounter a few things that diminished my experience. Firstly, the end abilities that need activation (wave and cyclone?) Simply didn't work for me. As they weren't marked with the button to activate them, I couldn't figure out how to on my Steam Deck. This was disappointing since I was looking forward to using those abilities after saving so many points.

Similarly, being able to place the hoover and sprinkler without picking them up was useful. But I found that if the hoover was placed, I couldn't place the sprinkler until it was picked up. I'm not sure if it was another Steam Deck problem, but I couldn't back out of placement mode either, which meant I sometimes had to track back to find the hoover. This voided the benefits of this ability completely at times.

The final problem I encountered was that one of the hidden achievements simply hasn't unlocked for me, despite me knowing I've fufilled the requirements. I've started the process of replaying levels to try and redo each animal, but my motion sickness kicked in before I could finish. Hopefully I'll come back to it in the future and succeed this time, because it's frustrating not being able to 100% the game when I know I did.

This game overall is a very fun time sink. I often found myself retreating into the relaxing gameplay at the end of a long workday, simply enjoying the satisfaction of a good clean up.

This is a game I've wanted to play since buying the enamel pin, back when it released.

A story that first seems like two separate but intertwining lives develops into something much more in this deceptively simple looking game. The gameplay follows two primary mediums: painting, where you colour in portions of a painting based on a guide, and point and click, where you solve various puzzles to progress the story.

I found the gameplay and story complemented each other well. It never grew too monotonous, as there was enough variety in tasks to keep things fresh – especially as you got further into the game. I particularly enjoyed being able to paint/sketch using the touchscreen of my Steam Deck. It made the process very tactile and fun. I found the controls worked well, the only problem I encountered was occasionally I'd back out of a painting instead of the journal I was checking. This was never a massive issue in gameplay, though.

The story was intriguing and I am glad I went in blind. It let me experience the game to its fullest as I realised the foreshadowing hints that I'd previously missed as the game progressed. The game's mood is overall bittersweet, but left me feeling pleasantly fulfilled. There were some questions I wish I had answers for by the end of the game too. The bonus chapter was similarly a pleasant experience, and allowed me to embrace a lot more of the details in the main story as well.

This is certainly a game worth discovering for yourself.

A heartwarming game following the story of two families in the town of Bellariva. The gameplay takes the form of minimalist puzzles, repairing items that have significance to the characters in the town. The puzzles and mechanics are fairly intuitive, and there's an unobstrusive hint system if you get stuck – which repetition's can become annoying if you're on the same part for a while. The gameplay does evolve in interesting ways throughout the game without becoming so distanced you can't tell what you're doing. This, and the variety of items, keeps the puzzles fresh through each chapter.

The characters fit into well-worn tropes that feel appropriately safe for a game of this length. I found each person distinct and likable, growing invested in their stories and excited for the conclusion. I also enjoyed the growth of the main character throughout, though I wish there was more development about the relationship with her family. I also enjoyed the voice acting for the other characters, but couldn't get into the main character's voice sadly.

My main criticism of the game is that some of the controls were difficult to understand using the Steam Deck. After adjusting your sensitivity the joysticks are much more usable, but I often got annoyed when things would place down or move when I didn't want them to, and a few times confused why I couldn't progress, only to realise I was in rotate mode. I attempted to use the touchscreen but found this difficult and quickly gave up. I grew more efficient the more I played, but was still bugged by this occasionally. I don't believe there's much that can be done to improve the experience, it's just something to be aware of if choosing to play on Steam Deck. And, ultimately, didn't detract too strongly from my experience of the story.