2024
It's Tribes!
Still charming as all heck but I just don't dig roguelikes much.
The AI art is really distracting (everyone looks like a fucked-up fashion model) but the game is pretty great.
2023
What a nice surprise! The climbing mechanic is surprisingly satisfying, nothing outstays its welcome. Gorgeous visuals, incredible music and audio design. Perfect length for a single-session game. I played it on stream with two friends and we all had a really great experience.
Damn, this was really good! An actually well-written VN! Astonishing.
A few unintended anachronisms here and there (nerd alert) but a bunch of delightful characters and a really neat setting. Looking forward to Volume Two.
A few unintended anachronisms here and there (nerd alert) but a bunch of delightful characters and a really neat setting. Looking forward to Volume Two.
2023
Wonderful.
2021
It's pretty but the story doesn't have a hook, and I just don't enjoy the whole "it feels great as long as you're 100% perfect but any mistake and everything feels like shit + start again" style of gaming.
2023
Absolute top-tier puzzling.
2023
The core mechanic is such that the gameplay often feels a little laborious but the puzzles move along pretty briskly, the environments are fascinating, and everything is polished and smooth.
I kind of wish it had gone even weirder, and only the puzzles in the last 10% or so seemed to make much use of the signature mechanic - but this is intended as an accessible thing, not a true brain-melter, so fair enough.
I kind of wish it had gone even weirder, and only the puzzles in the last 10% or so seemed to make much use of the signature mechanic - but this is intended as an accessible thing, not a true brain-melter, so fair enough.
2023
It's cute!
2022
Wow took me all summer to actually finish this. It feels looooong. I definitely enjoyed it, and think it has superb writing and acting which generally translates to "great story!" but I have no idea what to make of the pacing. I feel like I spent the first 30 hours with no real sense of stakes, just rambling from place to place, meeting a bunch of new characters who seem to not really have much to do. They're all great characters! But why is this happening?!
Need to go read some narrative postmortems I think. It's very character-driven, all about personal growth and personal journeys, which ought to be great. Maybe it's just an expectation mismatch. I really do think there's some fantastic character work going on.
I also continue to think the "no camera cuts" thing is simultaneously one of the biggest technical flexes in gaming while also largely being a colossal waste of time, given that you go into a menu every minute or so anyway. What an odd commitment.
Need to go read some narrative postmortems I think. It's very character-driven, all about personal growth and personal journeys, which ought to be great. Maybe it's just an expectation mismatch. I really do think there's some fantastic character work going on.
I also continue to think the "no camera cuts" thing is simultaneously one of the biggest technical flexes in gaming while also largely being a colossal waste of time, given that you go into a menu every minute or so anyway. What an odd commitment.
2021
The unfortunate thing about this game is that almost none of its interactions feel good. The core mechanic is neat enough to sustain it's short runtime, but at no point did it every feel really satisfying to solve or intuitive to perform the puzzle-solving required.
The entirely unnecessary story is a generic breakup tale that never feels connected to the gameplay or meangingful.
The entirely unnecessary story is a generic breakup tale that never feels connected to the gameplay or meangingful.
2023
CALL YOUR MOTHER
2023
Much too restricted a possibility space to be very as a good puzzle game, but it's a chill way to spend 2 hours.
2023
Creepycute done well.