First, I'm going to quickly rate all 8 games one by one.
1) Buried Flower: All text, no audio or visual elements. Yet despite this, you're not given much choice either. Most screens either let you continue exploring or leave, with the 'leave' option taking you to the same screen each time. Not poorly written, but also a bit anticlimactic as it fizzles out at the very end. 2/5
2) Labyrinths: Visual Novel but written like a stream of consciousness. And when I say a stream, I mean a stream. So it's kind of hard for me to grab onto anything because it's all so liquid and slippery. It jumps around a lot from topic to topic in a way that's loosely connection to previous talking points but also a bit nonsensical even without that context. Mildly connected to the first one but a full picture isn't painted yet. 2/5
3) The Aleph Hustle: Okay... a weird Visual Novel/Text adventure hybrid. I say that because although there ARE colors/images displayed but they're like... bare minimum. And like, I'm not a graphics guy, but if you're gonna have a simple, low-effort art style to show off images, why not go two steps further and show off these worlds you're describing just a tiny bit more? The background SFX are really harsh too. Also describes a lot of cool sci-fi ideas and builds up a really cool world, but doesn't really do anything with them, and like with Labyrinths, flows through everything so quick it's hard to enjoy. 1/5
4) Make Like A Tree: Best so far, and not just because it's made in RPG Maker and I have a bias. It has actual cohesion to it and I'm able to grasp the situations it presents. In terms of connections to previous games, once again, very loose. However, four caveats. First, 3D movement sucks. It's grid based 3D movements and the paths are almost identical to the floors you can't walk on. Second, it uses predominantly original assets, yet opts to use some default assets, which feels lazy to me. Third, main storyline makes use of the annoying and frustrating 'forced misunderstanding' trope used in such classics as Chicken Little and the SpongeBob wringer episode. Finally, for better or for worse, this game has a much lighter and more peppy tone than previous, which helps it to stand out but also feel out of place. Also why is sans here. 3/5
5) Another Reverie: A Visual Novel built in RPG Maker, which I feel like could actually work if there were any kind of indication as to who's speaking. No dialogue tags, no name tags, no talk sprites, not even subtle non-identifiers like a color for each character or a side of the screen for each character. Not super bad since it's only two characters, but because the dialogue is so choppy and hesitant and neither character has a strong voice, it can get really hard to follow at times. And if you're wondering, I felt almost no correlation between this one and previous games. 2/5
6) Wet Cemetery: Definitely contender for the best by far. A text adventure with a map to make it more easy to comprehend. Another flow of consciousness, yet one that's much more easy to grasp and much more painful, in a way. So many specific details and a story that hit way too close to home. 5/5
7) Wellness Related Time: More visual novel/text adventure, with the caveat being it's basically just a story that you click through and you have no say or choice in. But honestly, the sound design is really good and the visuals are engaging, so it's actually really fun to read. 4/5
8) Pangea's Error: Ok sorry for the anticlimactic ending but I had to abandon this one in under 10 minutes because the movement system is so atrocious that it genuinely gave me an intense, dizzying headache. It's a top down grid based RPG Maker game but you can only move forward, so when you turn directions, the whole map flips to reorient you. There's no transition or buffer it's so intense I hate it. I swear to god if this was done to not animate walk cycles for other directions I'm gonna lose my shit. 1/5
Okay, so in total I have to say, I absolutely love the idea here. Essentially, this is basically one big game of Gartic Phone, where one person makes a game, and then the next person plays it and makes a 'response' game. But according to the collection's itch page, each game is supposed to respond to ALL previous entries, not just the one before it. And although I didn't always see that 100% of the time, I certainly noticed similarities and common threads. However, the biggest and most obvious issue is that there seemed to be no 'quality control' here. I seriously don't even know how the movement system in the last game was approved. And what I think the logical next step would be here would be if each of the different games here were combined into one big game or shared universe, perhaps one that flashes through different time periods or locations/eras of this mysterious and bizarre world. ESPECIALLY if it kept in the variations in art styles and gameplay styles.
Ultimately though, I can only faithfully recommend this to people who like weird, experimental, or hard-to-parse games.
1) Buried Flower: All text, no audio or visual elements. Yet despite this, you're not given much choice either. Most screens either let you continue exploring or leave, with the 'leave' option taking you to the same screen each time. Not poorly written, but also a bit anticlimactic as it fizzles out at the very end. 2/5
2) Labyrinths: Visual Novel but written like a stream of consciousness. And when I say a stream, I mean a stream. So it's kind of hard for me to grab onto anything because it's all so liquid and slippery. It jumps around a lot from topic to topic in a way that's loosely connection to previous talking points but also a bit nonsensical even without that context. Mildly connected to the first one but a full picture isn't painted yet. 2/5
3) The Aleph Hustle: Okay... a weird Visual Novel/Text adventure hybrid. I say that because although there ARE colors/images displayed but they're like... bare minimum. And like, I'm not a graphics guy, but if you're gonna have a simple, low-effort art style to show off images, why not go two steps further and show off these worlds you're describing just a tiny bit more? The background SFX are really harsh too. Also describes a lot of cool sci-fi ideas and builds up a really cool world, but doesn't really do anything with them, and like with Labyrinths, flows through everything so quick it's hard to enjoy. 1/5
4) Make Like A Tree: Best so far, and not just because it's made in RPG Maker and I have a bias. It has actual cohesion to it and I'm able to grasp the situations it presents. In terms of connections to previous games, once again, very loose. However, four caveats. First, 3D movement sucks. It's grid based 3D movements and the paths are almost identical to the floors you can't walk on. Second, it uses predominantly original assets, yet opts to use some default assets, which feels lazy to me. Third, main storyline makes use of the annoying and frustrating 'forced misunderstanding' trope used in such classics as Chicken Little and the SpongeBob wringer episode. Finally, for better or for worse, this game has a much lighter and more peppy tone than previous, which helps it to stand out but also feel out of place. Also why is sans here. 3/5
5) Another Reverie: A Visual Novel built in RPG Maker, which I feel like could actually work if there were any kind of indication as to who's speaking. No dialogue tags, no name tags, no talk sprites, not even subtle non-identifiers like a color for each character or a side of the screen for each character. Not super bad since it's only two characters, but because the dialogue is so choppy and hesitant and neither character has a strong voice, it can get really hard to follow at times. And if you're wondering, I felt almost no correlation between this one and previous games. 2/5
6) Wet Cemetery: Definitely contender for the best by far. A text adventure with a map to make it more easy to comprehend. Another flow of consciousness, yet one that's much more easy to grasp and much more painful, in a way. So many specific details and a story that hit way too close to home. 5/5
7) Wellness Related Time: More visual novel/text adventure, with the caveat being it's basically just a story that you click through and you have no say or choice in. But honestly, the sound design is really good and the visuals are engaging, so it's actually really fun to read. 4/5
8) Pangea's Error: Ok sorry for the anticlimactic ending but I had to abandon this one in under 10 minutes because the movement system is so atrocious that it genuinely gave me an intense, dizzying headache. It's a top down grid based RPG Maker game but you can only move forward, so when you turn directions, the whole map flips to reorient you. There's no transition or buffer it's so intense I hate it. I swear to god if this was done to not animate walk cycles for other directions I'm gonna lose my shit. 1/5
Okay, so in total I have to say, I absolutely love the idea here. Essentially, this is basically one big game of Gartic Phone, where one person makes a game, and then the next person plays it and makes a 'response' game. But according to the collection's itch page, each game is supposed to respond to ALL previous entries, not just the one before it. And although I didn't always see that 100% of the time, I certainly noticed similarities and common threads. However, the biggest and most obvious issue is that there seemed to be no 'quality control' here. I seriously don't even know how the movement system in the last game was approved. And what I think the logical next step would be here would be if each of the different games here were combined into one big game or shared universe, perhaps one that flashes through different time periods or locations/eras of this mysterious and bizarre world. ESPECIALLY if it kept in the variations in art styles and gameplay styles.
Ultimately though, I can only faithfully recommend this to people who like weird, experimental, or hard-to-parse games.