I excitedly began playing this on November 15th, 2019, the day it released. It started out fun enough — the beginning is cinematic, has some nice music and pretty locations... Exploring the Wild Area was novel and enjoyable for me at the time. I spent a lot of time there, actually, squeezing every bit of enjoyment I could out of that place; camping with my Pokémon as they became inadvertently over-leveled, hoarding items I would mostly never use... until I wound up dropping the game for a few years. Over the course of those years, I saw some of the criticism that this game received, and I didn't really get it. Everything seemed fine to the point that I'd played. Oh well, Pokémon fans can be pretty critical at times.

I picked it back up more recently, and pushed ahead with the main story. From there, it just went downhill. Lower, and lower. This sucked. If I weren't so loyal to the Pokémon main series of games, I probably wouldn't have pushed to complete it, especially with how much of a drag the final parts of the game were, wherein an utter lack of content gave way to anticlimactic repetitiveness.

The main thing I have to say is that everything about this game is so surface-level when compared to the other main-series Pokémon games. They tried putting a coat of pretty paint on stuff, but there's nothing of substance behind it. It might fool you for a bit, but it can't keep it up for long at all. It shows in things like the lack of flavor text after leaving the first town, for objects you'd be able to examine in other games (except Scarlet and Violet, which is similar and even worse in that regard), and the inability to enter the majority of buildings. (Of the structures that can be entered, many look near identical to each other, with the exception of buildings one is required to be in for story scenes. They wouldn't want you to miss the few locations they put any effort into designing, after all.) Where new towns in other games often promised crannies to peek into, small discoveries to be made, or unique features... this game largely presents the facade of new towns, where all you can do is pass through them.

In other Pokémon games, there are optional activities to participate in, some of which have a lot of depth to them! TV/radio programs, contests and performances/musicals, underground mining and secret bases, riding Pokémon, flying through the sky from location to location, the Safari Zone, Trick House, little side quests, gambling, photography, an entire second region to journey through (HGSS was just WOW), optional Legendary Pokémon to pursue, Entralink, the ability to pet or walk with one's party members — I could go on and on. There are no such treasure troves of optional content, locations, and features in this game. The most there is to mention here is like, Max Raid Battles and making curry. And you can play fetch with your Pokémon. (I believe it goes without saying, but I'm judging this game based on the $60 USD full game, not based on paid DLC.)

Once you're done in the Wild Area, I felt there's no real incentive to return — it's all behind you — and everything from there is a straight shot from one Gym to the next, broken up only ever so slightly by bits of an absolutely mediocre plot that had so little thought and care put into it. Pokémon games aren't known for their high quality story telling, but this is a new low. I can't even say that it seemed to me like the writers were trying. It felt so lazy, stingy, and stale, and not once did it touch me emotionally. It's devoid of the adventurous magic I've found to varying degrees in the games that came before it, as well as the more recent Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet. The story lacks imagination... They tried going for some plot twists, but they fell completely flat. Most of the characters have so little personality, you could copy the words spoken by one of them and paste them on another character's text box and it might not be apparent at all that you'd done so. There were a couple of main characters who could have been interesting, but the writers just didn't... really do anything with them.
There are a few nice music tracks, but not much I enjoyed relative to most Pokémon game soundtracks.

Overall, this game is an empty disappointment.

A life of luxury spent observing the fake gato...

They really let me spend 14 in-game days with my cat before they gave me the epilogue. I was expecting something open-ended where I can take care of my chosen cat for as long as I want to, as in some other games from this series. That's just the game set-up — they want to have the player raise other cat breeds, but they make the player start over for every cat without the abilities, money, and items acquired in the last playthrough.

It's cute, but pretty bare bones, like you'd expect from a GBA pet sim. I liked the events inside and outside the house and the little scraps of social sim. It would have been nice if there were more of these, but there's only enough unique events to last for one short playthrough (although perhaps some are unique to the breed or are based on the cat's stats. Having played a little of a second playthrough, it's all the same so far). It grows boring after seeing all of them.
The music tracks with the synth meows were fun, and also the worst music I've had stuck in my head in a while.

I grabbed a $4 copy of this from a used game store, which was entirely unnecessary. But if you enjoy trying out different pet simulators, I think this is worth emulating for a couple of hours~

Also, they make you pick "boy or girl" for the player character, and then never gender the player character---

What? This is so sweet...
At least within the culture in which I've been raised, humans really aren't taught how to empathize with and talk to people about subjects like chronic illness and death. We stumble a lot, and don't give people who have chronic or terminal illness enough space to speak for themselves and openly share what only they understand. Usually we try to avoid it altogether, because it feels uncomfortable and we don't want to think about it or accept reality — and we expect those afflicted to do the same. Even when it comes from a place of deep compassion, it can have an effect opposite what we wish for. I would love to see attitudes around this shift in a big way — for people to get more comfortable talking about these matters, and to get more comfortable listening. I want to learn how to relate better when it comes to this, too. I believe Astra's Garden handled this really nicely, for such a short story, and it was pretty relaxing.

A short, inspirational point-and-click adventure game with some important things to say.
Many problems seem (and are) too big to be influenced and fixed when we are isolated. One may feel it's all they can manage, only to fend for themself or their family. When we get involved with and build our community, we create a supportive network that's there when any of us needs it. The same problems that are too much in isolation can suddenly become surmountable. And I mean, it simply feels better, doesn't it?

Hana Awase -Mizuchi Volume- is comprised of approximately 40% suffering, 25% characters being disgustingly horny for the protagonist, 15% card battles, 15% romance, and 5% school drama. Sound good? Keep reading~

It's worth noting that, although this is a full-length VN, it is barely a complete story. It definitely is meant to be followed by the subsequent volumes. I would say that the full price is quite high for that.

I love the artwork — sharp and stylish, and mostly consistent, with fairly plentiful CGs and lots of different expressions for the character portraits. The music is fantastic. I liked the traditional Japanese aesthetic, the poems, the vibes of the setting, and the presentation.
I came into this experience expecting the hana utsushi card battles to be the biggest hurdle in my enjoyment. At first I didn't like them, but after a while they were a little relaxing, even. There is a notable amount of grinding required, though.
The translation is mostly good, but there was the occasional questionable choice of totally altered meaning for no reason, and the typos or words missing here and there were not hard to come by (and sometimes cheapened an emotional moment in the story haha). It was still comprehendible.
Maybe I didn't play in the most efficient way, but I had to do a lot of skipping through the same previously read portions of the game a lot of times in order to reach all of the endings. There is a "skip to next choice or chapter" function, but having tested it a lot, I can say that it's kind of broken. It very rarely took me as far as the next choice or chapter, and sometimes even took me a bit backwards!

The LIs are all pretty different in personality, but... this first volume didn't give me reason to like two of the four presented here. I was not neutral on those two. I actively disliked them. A lot. Wow. Is it just me? Or did the game want me to dislike them? Unknown.

If you're someone who enjoys extensive "bad endings", you might really like this! Excluding the route for the main love interest of this volume, the routes are all basically relatively well developed, lengthy bad endings.
I have to say that it's really pretty grim, though. There is a lot of physical violence and death. The protagonist gets assaulted a lot, and experiences many threats of sexual violence and otherwise unwanted advances.
There are some flaws I wasn't able to overlook. The emphasis on roles based on sex, the unchecked misogyny of some of the characters, the hetero-normativity... The fact that I couldn't romance Momotose!!!
There is a bizarre significance placed on the concept of virginity (why?), specifically for characters bearing vaginas (a very strict double standard). The protagonist's psychic powers will deteriorated if they lose these mystical "qualifications"! The attitude toward this felt very victim-blaming, which was... disturbing.
Someone reviewed this game in the comments section of a YouTube video. They claimed that "guys thirst after u while are encouraged to f u in the same time u have to remain virgin". I thought they were exaggerating, but it is, sadly, true. The demo cuts off immediately before all the weird horny behavior starts. Who knew!? LOL

In the end, I did this for Momotose. And for Momotose, I will do it again.

Fun and largely intuitive gameplay, and it can get pretty challenging (but if one fails a segment of a track a few times, the game will let one skip past that segment). This game sure has (super queer) vibes! It's extremely flashy, though. It was kinda hard for me to look at, and my partner couldn't tolerate looking at it for more than a couple of minutes. Sound sensitive and photosensitive players are likely to have a bad time here.
I would like to learn other players' interpretations of Little Death... I didn't really know what to make of that part.

I spent a really nice day with this! What a cute, silly, and pleasantly queer game. Jumping and gliding around is pretty nice, but what I most loved was the fun dialogue and endearing little characters (including the artwork for them). The game isn't long enough to give the characters' relationships with one another a whole lot of depth, but to me, the feeling of a silly little neighborhood community was successfully crafted. Feels a heck of a lot warmer and more human than most IRL spaces I've been exposed to these days (yikes).
It's a fantastic helping others simulator. Gotta love spending real time † helping fake people haha. It's not really a complaint, but I wish it were a longer game so I'd have more incentive to make regular returns to Grumblewood Grove.

Mail Time was pleasant and chill almost all of the way through, although I did get frustrated for a bit due to some navigational difficulties. A map might have been helpful, but there's also something to be said for exploring the open space without one.
It has cute character customization, with a sufficient level of complexity.
Optional ungendered pronouns for the player character, and the inclusion of numerous other characters that go by gender-neutral pronouns — and even combinations of multiple pronoun sets — are still relatively rare in video games (especially that same-sentence alternation! Entropic Float might be the only other game in which I've seen that). Both are present here, helping me to feel immersed and as though this world was crafted for my enjoyment too.

It's still a little buggy (as in, programming bugs... but yeah, also actual bugs, wee~) in places (particularly the very ending scene). And on two occasions, I had the misfortune of getting trapped between mushrooms the player character can bounce on... Just rapidly bouncing between them with no way out (other than exiting the game without saving). Decidedly the least fun part of the game LOL.
The developers seem like they're actively fixing stuff, though.

All of this considered, it was definitely a worthwhile time for me~ And if you enjoy the comedic style of Frog Detective and/or Purrgatory, you may similarly enjoy this (I did).

† time is an illusion

(Functions well on Steam Deck. Sometimes the game became unresponsive after manually closing the virtual keyboard -- it's better to use in-game controls to proceed after entering the text for the player character's name. Played mostly docked with a controller.)

A delightful little game! I love the art style, and Nim is exceptionally cute~
The captain feels like a realistic character, and the emotions were depicted well and easy to understand. Even so, the ideal responses were, at times, a bit hard for me to predict. I would love to play a game that expands on this!
I've taken a star off my rating because the flashing lights during certain moments (the opening credits, between in-game days, and even the title screen) were really uncomfortable to look at. I'm sure it looks cool for people who can tolerate it, but I think it's insensitive to force players to either endure it, or stop playing. An option to turn it off would have been appreciated.

(Functions well on Steam Deck. Played docked with a controller.)

A simple point-and-click adventure and visual novel hybrid that reminds me of the internal struggles I sometimes have when I want to form a connection with another human, and the beliefs that would hold me back if I allowed them to. The fear of being rejected, of being alone despite giving someone else an opening to know and love oneself, can be very powerful. I can easily empathize with the urge to protect oneself by creating distance, by not communicating with unshielded authenticity, and not allowing others the opportunity to hurt oneself, although these defenses can leave one the most empty and hurt. I didn't want to see even this fictional character live with the regret that I still feel vividly at times. Despite the text choices being seemingly vague or cryptic, I still got one of the two most desirable endings right off the bat. I knew not the meaning of the choices, but rather the feeling behind them (or maybe I just got lucky haha).
(There is a good English language guide on Steam, fortunately!)

I also want to say that I appreciate that the protagonist does not gender any of the people in the room whose pronouns the protagonist does not yet know. In many video games, it would seem that everyone magically knows everyone else's pronouns without it being indicated at any point, even in the case of characters who go by gender-neutral pronouns (where we can see there isn't even an assumption of binary gender), and that's so unrealistic that it always pulls me out of my immersion. Later in the game, once the protagonist has spent time around the characters, ey is able to use gendered pronouns for the same character who was originally referred to with singular "they".
Also included is the ability to skip to the text options which affect the ending, so it's pretty easy to get the alternate endings.

This game doesn't do anything spectacular, but it resonated with me.
(It's also free.)