played oct 25th for rpgmaker october

went for this as soon as i saw it for half off in the halloween steam sale. this may have the most gorgeous art of any rpgmaker game ive played? took my breath away at points. up there for one of the most mechanically idiosyncratic in the engine too, being a first person point and click thru creepy corridors n rooms--for the majority of the game at least--w battle sequences in which you click on the one icon out of 3 with the color that matches the enemy's eyes. the way the game makes its combat encounters feel unique to each other n often flips expectations through them can give the impression that this is a gothier riff on (stupid as this may sound im being serious) undertale, but i think it isnt held back by that as much you might think. for one theres no real moralizing abt anything here, getting graded on how fast you dispatch demons is the closest thing to that and it doesnt have nearly as drastic an effect on your playthrough (tho on this note there is a sneakiness to the grading system hiding another definition of getting "perfects" on every battle that i kinda love). also the particular tongue-in-cheek playfulness zelle has towards it systems has a gory n darkly funny flavor to it that actually contributes well toward its general nightmarishness, rather than feeling like part of a social media comedian routine youre pushed forward through or something like that. basically i think theres more to talk abt here wrt how probable ut influence shaped this than w other similar games, not always in positive ways per se but for the most part i really did like how it made its own strides w those roots. i do think the last third or so drags a bit, also despite a lot of intrigue it generates for its world i dont think it all comes together at the end as satisfyingly as it could have, and those keep this from being a great game when its soooo close to getting there. but its still a very good one. literally the visuals alone would make this worth playing and i dont say that abt many games.

ps can someone PLEASE translate bijutsu kukan, the rpg fuming made before this that looks just as incredible???