This game is full of things i didn't expect but the biggest are how earnestly and boldly it leans into its yuri and horror aspects. It pulls no punches when it comes to these girls being textually gay as well as having , while not downright disturbing, very good horror scenes.
the level design is really bad like not even rpgmaker bad but it seems to have been made in a nightmare world where iterations of "get to place in time" are things people look for in games. I think it inflated my play time by actually 3 hours and is the reason that as much as i want to i will not be going back and getting any of the other endings anytime soon (i looked them up on youtube)
i kept trying to formulate excuses for the game but i think maybe astral shift needs to hire an actual game designer.
The only other games I can compare this to design wise are "classic" rpgmaker games but those are excused by the fact that they are free, often short games. I payed money for this so yeah there is an expectation there that it would not employ this shit to artificially make the game longer? scarier? more dificult? I actually don't know what the fuck its trying to do.I compare it to rpgmaker horror games because it is clear (almost textual) that it's where this game comes from, but it really irks me when people call it an rpgmaker game, there is a distinction between aligning yourself with that legacy and literally BEING MADE IN THAT ENGINE. There are idiosyncrasies that rpgmaker has that this game surprisingly captures but its not made in the fucking engine. I dont want this to just become a catch all term because i am a huge fan of things made in the engine and as not all games made in it are horror games starring girls not all games that share its aesthetics and mechanics are.
There is however one thing this has in common with "rpgmaker horror" games : theres something about rpgmaker games and the like being so fucking into their own shit that they forget to think of the player. like this game and so many before it will just have actually hard chase sequences right after cutscenes w no checkpoint in between like yeah fuck it get trapped in the time loop nightmare dimension untill you figure out how to do this very specific movement, bitch. its admirable and in this game has to be intended because no way have 10+ years of rpgmaker horror games passed and no dev has thought hey maybe this is infuriating,lliiiike theres something there right? the games not scary but its oppressive its annoying it makes you feel trapped and i think thats kind of beautiful
maybe im just bad at playing games? But it almost feels like getting 100 game overs is part of the game design
esp on parts that seem like they have no way to predict where hits will come from
and every time i finish a night segment and get back into the main game the comical vein that has been pulsating on my forhead retreats and i enter a state of bliss untill the inevitable next night when i will actually take a bite out of my switch.
My favorite thing in this game is the art and insane creativity in presentation. I audibly gasped when I saw the handmade assets. Not gonna say anything else about the art because its actually perfect.
the level design is really bad like not even rpgmaker bad but it seems to have been made in a nightmare world where iterations of "get to place in time" are things people look for in games. I think it inflated my play time by actually 3 hours and is the reason that as much as i want to i will not be going back and getting any of the other endings anytime soon (i looked them up on youtube)
i kept trying to formulate excuses for the game but i think maybe astral shift needs to hire an actual game designer.
The only other games I can compare this to design wise are "classic" rpgmaker games but those are excused by the fact that they are free, often short games. I payed money for this so yeah there is an expectation there that it would not employ this shit to artificially make the game longer? scarier? more dificult? I actually don't know what the fuck its trying to do.I compare it to rpgmaker horror games because it is clear (almost textual) that it's where this game comes from, but it really irks me when people call it an rpgmaker game, there is a distinction between aligning yourself with that legacy and literally BEING MADE IN THAT ENGINE. There are idiosyncrasies that rpgmaker has that this game surprisingly captures but its not made in the fucking engine. I dont want this to just become a catch all term because i am a huge fan of things made in the engine and as not all games made in it are horror games starring girls not all games that share its aesthetics and mechanics are.
There is however one thing this has in common with "rpgmaker horror" games : theres something about rpgmaker games and the like being so fucking into their own shit that they forget to think of the player. like this game and so many before it will just have actually hard chase sequences right after cutscenes w no checkpoint in between like yeah fuck it get trapped in the time loop nightmare dimension untill you figure out how to do this very specific movement, bitch. its admirable and in this game has to be intended because no way have 10+ years of rpgmaker horror games passed and no dev has thought hey maybe this is infuriating,lliiiike theres something there right? the games not scary but its oppressive its annoying it makes you feel trapped and i think thats kind of beautiful
maybe im just bad at playing games? But it almost feels like getting 100 game overs is part of the game design
esp on parts that seem like they have no way to predict where hits will come from
and every time i finish a night segment and get back into the main game the comical vein that has been pulsating on my forhead retreats and i enter a state of bliss untill the inevitable next night when i will actually take a bite out of my switch.
My favorite thing in this game is the art and insane creativity in presentation. I audibly gasped when I saw the handmade assets. Not gonna say anything else about the art because its actually perfect.