ever since until dawn back in 2015, i’ve been waiting for a new full game by supermassive. the dark pictures anthology (i only played the first 2), is so far meh, it just doesn’t hit the same spot as until dawn. i was sooooo excited for the quarry because i thought it’s THE game i’ve been waiting from them. i bought the game months ago and i’ve been waiting for spooky season to play it - popcorn, blanket, the full preparation XD

but… this wasn’t it. it came so close but no. the dialogue options are so limited, the game forces you to play a certain way. you want to be friendly towards a person? you can either be rude or a bit less rude. i mean it scratched the itch i had for a choose your own adventure horror game but it wasn’t sadly THE game i’ve been waiting from supermassive :(

you can really judge a persons personality based on their rating of this game. like i can't believe there are so many people that lynch this game? i mean yes, visual novels are a genre of video games too. i'm tired of hearing "it's not even a game" please get over it already.
okay i'm calm now, let's get into the actual game review! i loved the art, it felt like i was watching a cute emotional cartoon, and the soundtrack was the best part of it all. i also loved scrolling on twitter, it was done sooo well. i loved the characters. ofc there were shallow bits, character writing isn't perfect, plot is far from perfect, but who goes into this type of game expecting it to make full sense? it's a game about teenagers. for me, it's all about the feels, and this game gave me all the feels<3

this was definitely the best one in the anthology so far! i kind of lost hope for this anthology as the previous games were very meh, but this was really good (except the weird control issues and visual bugs)
it started off slow but in time i started really caring for the characters, especially salim! i just wish clarice or merwin was a playable character as well, we have 6 playable characters but 1 of them you only play with at the start of the game for 10 minutes, so my partner had way less playtime than me because he basically played with 2 characters while i did 3.

ever since i played a little to the left and unpacking, i’m always on the lookout for more cozy puzzle / organizing games and i finally found a really cute one! we play as amelia, visiting our grandmother and helping her with cleaning and organizing - during these tasks we come across interesting items from our grandma’s past and she shares her old stories about these items, which were all so heartwarming. my only criticism of the game would be that some of the puzzles were way too easy, and some felt like they didn’t have any logic to them, the playtime is around 2 hours so it’s perfect to be played in one sitting.

really cool puzzles and atmosphere but i wasn't into the story at all. the ending felt very cheap, which is a very unpopular opinion i know. not going to be a long review since i feel so dizzy and nauseous right now lol

ah but i'd like to add while usually my least favorite parts in games are the scary parts since it's really hard for me to play through them, i really loved it in this game and thought it was genius how they designed that level in such a way that our brains did the rest of the job. i loved the `die die die - diet soda`

this was the coziest, cutest game i’ve played so far in 2024 and it was so unexpected?? it wasn’t even on my radar. seriously i adored everything about it, it never gets boring, it is the perfect length, the mechanics are always fresh, discovering the environment reacting to your music was one of the most satisfying gaming moments i’ve had recently 🥹 (like the white flowers with the drum or the ferns) and the soundtrack was SOOO GOOODDD, especially when the character little my was on the screen~

i easily recommend snufkin to everyone who wants a short & adorable adventure!

a very cute little educative game but i would say it's suited more towards children, i wish i had this kind of games to play when i was a kid... i would absolutely love it. but now as an adult, i would say it lacks many things - my biggest complaint being the lack of description / information on the guidebook. it would be amazing if every animal had their description (i think it should be a default with this kind of game, i thought i just didn't know where to check but turns out the option is simply not there) - this way we would be able to learn actually cool facts and possibly memorize them but the way it is in the game, i forgot about most of the birds 20 minutes after scanning them. one other thing that struck me as weird: there is no achievement for scanning every animal? i am not saying this is bad, it just felt like a different choice to me since i was 100% sure there would be an achievement for this from my previous gaming experiences. to end on a good note, the sound design was absolutely amazing and i loved learning about each animal's unique sounds!

i started my adventure on launch and just now completed my first playthrough at 270 hours - there have been times where i almost got caught up in the hype, seeing all my friends beating it in a week or two, or a month if they're slow.

i also wanted to rush through the game and see everything and be able to watch the spoilery videos and read the subreddit and check fan arts and start my new playthrough, but i knew i would never be able to experience playing this game for the first time, ever again. so i took my sweet time, read every book, clicked on every crate & jug, spent 40 minutes on a casual dialogue choice that wouldn't even change anything, thinking `what would katniss everdeen respond to this?` (yes i am a roleplayer) - and ahhh i'm so glad i took my time with it. it turned this already amazing game into something so so so special to me, i completely got immersed in this world, even the random NPC's that only have 2 lines of dialogue have so much depth to them, with such sad letters you find in their house, or in their pocket, or a random letter that involves a treacherous plan from an uncle to its niece that you find laying around and then when you see those NPCS you feel like you know their life stories even though they only speak the same 2 lines.

oh especially the companions, if i feel that way about the NPCs, please imagine how i feel about my companions. it's like i know these characters since forever, and i don't even like all of them, just like irl! some of them are everything to me, some of them i find very annoying & i dislike them, but i still care for them after everything we've been through.

i have huuuuuge respect for larian studios for achieving this at this level!!! i mean i already had huge respect for them but it just went through the roof with BG3.
having already played DOS 1 & 2 (which are also on my favorite games list) i knew this game would be their best yet and bought it as soon as it released on early access, BUT EVEN THEN, I DIDN'T EXPECT THIS MUCH, THIS IS PURE MADNESS. i am soooo happy they helped so many people give a chance to this genre and see what an rpg adventure game truly is (and i hope this will stop some studios from marketing every game that has a skill tree as a rpg game already)

spoilers for act 3:
in the final fight, i decided to summon zevlor and his allies to help distract some of the enemies and i immediately regretted it. almost all of them quickly got killed by the red dragon, except a cleric, who had 8 hp left against the 400 hp dragon, and oh my god i wanted to save her so much but i just needed to get to the netherbrain and save the world, BUT AHH MY HEART IS STILL BREAKING FOR THAT MOMENT LOL. and most of the time i didn't even want to fight the enemies because i had empathy for them (definitely not for shar or bhaal worshippers etc though, nope nope nope.) like i didn't even hit a single time to the red dragon, or idk it was so hard to kill ansur... he was such a loyal friend... this game is a masterclass on helping the player connect to the characters with its writing, i mean it is a masterclass on almost everything actually. thank you for making AAA games great again (indie games are mostly great though, give them a chance if you usually don't)

also if you're new into the RPG genre with BG3, please consider also checking out `Disco Elysium`! it has no combat and it is purely written dialogue. i mean yes i am recommending it BUT it is nothing like BG3, so don't go expecting an epic fantasy game with crazy combat mechanics. they're both my favorite RPGs, and nothing even gets close to them, and i don't think anything will top them (except maybe these developers new games lol)
they're both masterpieces, but disco elysium sadly didn't get as much love, so please do yourself a favour and check it out especially if you're into storywriting! :)

Rest In Peace Jim Southworth, Lead Cinematic Animator. Thank you for everything. ♡

the beginning was so cute, i loved the idea of a summer bucket list and completing it, discovering the town etc, so i wish the game had more of those moments. the way the story was told didn't really pull me in, i would prefer if the story was told in a more casual way instead of the magical elements. my favorite part was completing the bucket list, petting every cat, beating the high score in the arcade, juggling the ball, doing the quizzes, i enjoyed those moments a lot but got super sleepy whenever the spacedive button appeared honestly. spacedive was used too often especially towards the end... also should've been a 5-6 hour game, my playthrough was 13 hours and there were many times where i almost fell asleep BECAUSE I HATED THE SPACEDIVE MECHANIC :(

follow your heart and you'll be safe ♡

my favorite gaming moments are when i discover a new favorite and i am shocked by everything i am feeling / seeing / feeling. sayonara wild hearts is a new favorite. i love how the story is vague enough so the player can interpret it to what they're going through in their life (transgender main character, heartbreak, drug addict, and many more interpretations i'm sure)
my favorite levels were, well most of them were 10/10 honestly but i loved "begin again" and "parallel universes"
annapurna interactive never publishes a bad game, they're almost always masterpieces or if not they're clearly trying something new and i love them so much for not going out of their way with the games they publish ♡

after 63 hours in game (played for 60 days, everyday for roughly an hour, sometimes a bit longer or less) i think i am finally done with this game (the story is not nearly done but, playing this everyday is starting to be a chore for me), i will probably go back to it to decorate / play on offline mode when i'm traveling with the deck because i can play it for hours without charging the steam deck, i'm burnt out and would rather do something else with my 1hour everyday. but don't get me wrong, i enjoyed every single hour i had so far! i was shocked at how much care went into this game, so many different flowers, hundreds and hundreds of them!! the item descriptions, the furniture! i love how decorating your island is basically a puzzle! this was such a refreshing cozy game. not everyone's cup of tea, if you're looking for something to binge-play, this is not it. if you are looking for a relaxing everyday routine, this is totally for you though