It's not the best Touhou fanmade STG I've ever played, but it is probably the most Raw. Calling a Touhou STG "Raw" is kind of weird as a general descriptor, but let me elaborate: It oozes love for the Nameless Hill and soul out of every bit. Born out of one man's (and a group of others too) love of Medicine Melancholy and their desire to give her the world, by creating their own world around her. When a feeling like this is spelled out so blatantly and forcefully as it is over this entire game, through the dialogue, the art, the music, and the overall plot, it becomes impossible to deny. It is truly a wonderful thing when such passions are allowed to come to fruition like this. That is why it I consider it Raw; the sheer amount of hopes and dreams for the beloved character Medicine and about dolls in general and their metaphorical chains. If the devs ever see this review, I would like to tell them that I hold Ms. Melancholy in a much higher regard than I did previously. Your game really did make a difference, I want you to know that.

The game is pretty good otherwise, as well. I like the artstyle and visuals, the gameplay irt the stage structure and bosses is solid and the music is great (Some of my favorite songs include the stage 4 and 5 themes and the stage 5 and 6 boss themes). Some of the game mechanics can be a bit tricky (some of the poisons are a bit mean, in specific the ones that change your movement speed) but it makes some parts significantly more interesting.
AND the game is free. What a steal!

Horrible sound design, worse gamefeel than the past 3 spyro games, bad powerups (ice breath is useful in maybe 5 instances in the entire game and the wing shield is used once (and it's a horrible, janky use)), visuals are generally worse, numerous weird glitches just on a casual playthrough, minigames are generally pathetic with one single exception (the monkey monastery 2nd slide dragonfly) , game is extremely short, the list goes on and on and on. This game wasn't finished, and it's not the devs' fault. But it's bad. very bad. Some of the ideas are cool and it's still a Copeland OST (my favorite song in the game is the platform minigame theme in Thieves Den, plus it's Spyro; the general game formula is pretty fun, so it's not completely irredeemable. The game is just kind of sad.

this game has some severe issues with structure that really bogs it down from being genuinely good. The premise is insanely good but it unfortunately fails to live up to what was put forth by the source material (A set of novels and Drama CDs). However, important characters such as Mayuri and Daru have a lot more to actually do in this game (Daru isn't just a joke, Mayuri isn't just a plot device, hell even Amadeus doesn't spout generic tsun lines), and as a result are significantly better than they are in base S;G, as well as the inclusion of Maho (Maho is good).
If you're going out of your way to finish this game, please watch the anime after.

The last 6 years of this game being in development were definitely not put to waste - this fan game is really goddamn good. The mon selection is really diverse and interesting (so many of them are actual viable mons), the new mechanics are interesting and engaging, the music is fantastic (there's a legendary theme that feels like it was written for me), there are some absolute banger special areas (not spoiling them in this review you'll have to play the game yourself for them), and the writing inspires joy. Even if you don't know Vinesauce lore you'll probably still enjoy this, I think.

This VN has so much wrong with it that it isn't even funny. The presentation is horribly inconsistent and not even good (except for the (real) anime, the real anime looks pretty good), the porting job to PC is bad (had to plug in a controller to figure out how to leave an area and pause, among other things, and steam achievements literally do not work), The music sucks pretty bad, a lot of the plot twists are absolutely nothingburgers that have no consequence (including the big one), I was never given a reason to care about the characters, the sound design is bad (some songs are way too loud and drown out the character voices and some of the SFX are also way too loud), the gameplay is mostly meaningless and either brainless or guesswork (Shitty ghost trick), and the plot is also nonsensical and bad. Worst of all, it isn't even funny. It could have actually made me laugh a good amount and I would have forgiven some of it, but it is just not. Never play this.

Kirby's Epic Yarn is unironically one of the most charming and beautiful games I've played in my life. Literally every single facet of this game is absolutely oozing with love and care and is meant to inspire a child-like wonder and love for the medium. The presentation is amazing and they literally never run out of cute ideas. The music is wonderful and beautiful. The artstyle is excessively pleasant. The game is so sweet it's almost sickening. The main flaw with the game is that... frankly the gameplay is average. Everything else is 10/10.