Cyanotype Daydream is a fantastic and beautiful visual novel, with a fascinating story, fantastic music, a gorgeous artstyle and wonderful characters.
I also really like how the UI and setting of the first three acts corresponds to the respective first three visual novels from Laplacian. With that, this VN kind of feels like the culmination of what Laplacian has put out until this point.
So overall, this VN truly was a great experience and, in my opinion, definitely the best VN from Laplacian so far.

It was certainly a treat to go through this game again. Now despite my rating, no this game isn't actually perfect. I just love it that much on a personal level. I love the characters, the story, the visuals, the new animated opening, the absolutely spectacular soundtrack and so on so forth. It's a beautiful package.

Gameplay and pacing-wise is where I see people having some problems with this game. Of course some puzzles aren't perfect...the sound puzzle was updated to include visual cues to make it much easier but it's still not very great. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure the mirror maze was made easier but I've forgotten how exactly it worked in the original so it may just be my memory playing tricks on me.

The pacing is a little all over the place. with some chapters being full of puzzles and slow development (Fleta and Harpae's, then the later ones like Lisette's and Enjels are mostly just walking through linear corridors while being given their exposition. It's unfortunate that there was nothing added to fluff these portions up a bit more.

Even those sections are great though. Lisette's atmosphere comes together very well, with the heavy use of symbolism within the area. The circus portion is one of my favorites, even if it is pretty short. Just being able to explore heavily themed areas in this RPG Maker format, it's something I will never get tired of. An immense amount of content, including the collectible pumpkin charms, optional wax records and various endings, and of course a very large story that certainly is one of my favorite parts of this game.

This might sound weird, but throughout my life works of art I've connected the most with have been those I had major doubts about going in. Works that look bad or sound weird from their elevator pitch that do end up being great in the end are those I tend to remember and cherish more than works that promise to be great and just deliver on that, no strings attached. The other kind of thing I usually end up loving the most is the kind that's bold and tries something new and totally pulls it off. If a show has a weird premise or a game is built on some weird gimmick, but then the end-product turns out to be great – those are the kind of products I go back to more often than any other. I guess respect is something I often need to feel connected to something.

When Elden Ring's gameplay was revealed, I was incredibly disappointed. Sure the visuals looked great, but in terms of design a lot of the areas and enemies they've shown off have felt straight out of Dark Souls III or Bloodborne; the combat looked exactly like FromSoft's previous games, down to animations ripped directly from DS3; in general, this didn't feel like anything all that 'new'. The big new thing was the open world, but the descriptions given about this part of the game in particular were scarce and pretty secretive. Really, from reveal to release, I imagined this game to be Big Dark Souls with a new NPC summoning system and a crouch button.

And the crazy thing is, on a basic level – that’s all this game is, but just saying “It’s Dark Souls IV but big” and just leaving it at that would be selling the game insultingly short.

What I didn’t expect is just how well the Soulsborne formula maps onto accepted and expected open-world design. Going through dungeons and forests, fighting weirdly horrific goons, opening chests and battling with the occasional boss here and there – isn’t that just what you usually do in these games? Well, not exactly, having a whole-ass continent to roam around does change things a lot in terms of balancing, discovery, the sheer time needed to go from one big piece of content to another, but it’s still incredible how essentially unchanged the structure is from older Soulsbornes to Elden Ring. If anything, having an open world now feels like the logical next step in the evolution of these games: the feeling of venturing into the deep to fight the evil transformed into the freedom of conquering a whole world. From an adventurer surviving dingy caves and sewers, the Soulsborne player has been transformed into a hero surviving a war for the throne, or at least swording their way through the war’s remnants. Now you feel like you’re on an epic odyssey with a whole world of stuff to find at your own pace, with the quality of stuff generally being the same or better than what was found in FromSoft’s previous outings. And now your journey feels truly never-ending, like there's not even a set in stone final boss or a certain number of fights or dungeons you'll have to go through to reach the end. With how the map reveals itself only a small piece at a time, and how the minimalist UI facilitates real immersion into The Lands Between, for most of my playthrough of this game I legitimately didn't know when will it finally roll credits, and I was digging every minute.

It’s not like nothing has been lost or changed in this transition, though. It’s undeniable that Elden Ring can be a lot easier than, say, Bloodborne, because in that game a challenge was a brick wall that you would either be broken by, or break yourself. But in Elden Ring, a lot of the time most challenges can just be put on the list of things you’ll have to do later, and after you’ll complete all the easier tasks and gain some levels and upgrade your equipment, the initial challenge would be much easier, if not just easy, period. That’s exactly what happened to me with Radahn: after trying to kill him for an hour and a half straight, I just thought “Ok, this isn’t even mandatory, and it kinda sucks, I’m probably underleveled for this guy. I’ll come back later”. And after like 15 hours of gameplay off-Caelid, I came back and pretty much walked all over Radahn’s fight. It wasn’t a steamroll or anything, but using the freedom to essentially skip the fight made it worse for me, and I struggle to say whether this was my fault. A shame, too, ‘cause Radahn is one of the coolest bosses in FromSoft history, and his moveset makes him really fun to fight.

The good thing is, that is pretty much the worst example of this game’s structure working against it that I had personally experienced. Other than that, I actually found this whole “go do something else if you don’t like this” thing to be a really enjoyable part of my journey. If I thought that I was underleveled for an area (like with Caelid, to which I arrived like 40 levels too early through a shortcut), or that the optional boss I’ve been fighting sucked ass and I didn’t want to fight them at all, or that I just wanted to go someplace else for no reason – I had that choice, and it didn’t seem to impede my enjoyment of Elden Ring all too often. In fact, this game kinda introduced the fun of being overpowered in a Soulsborne to me in a way I wasn’t expecting. When I realized literally halfway through my playthrough that there was a whole subsection of Limgrave below the main zone, I was way overleveled for most of it, so I was plowing through enemies in Castle Morne like it was nobody's business. But at this point my character had killed several demi-gods, as well as numerous knights and sorcerers, amassed an arsenal of powerful weapons, and was on their way to conquer The Lands Between capital. So why would this person have any issues with fighting through a castle overtaken by it’s former slaves? Why would they struggle with the local Misbegotten chief, or his underlings, or Castle Morne’s footsoldiers? They are clearly not on the level of danger I’ve seen already, so why would they be any trouble? In a weird way, Elden Ring’s ability to make you an unstoppable force of nature purely because of a lack of level scaling was an additional marker of progress, just like the prowess I’ve shown in killing the main bosses or going through the main dungeons and areas. Now more than ever a FromSoft’s Soulsborne feels like an RPG, where being overpowered one minute and nigh on powerless the next is the norm, and while not all From Software fans will appreciate this (clearly), I enjoyed this part of the game a lot. You may say that challenge is the core of these games, but I really thought that Elden Ring wasn’t about the challenge anymore; now challenge shares the spot-light with a few other elements, both mechanical and not.

And really, this game felt pretty even for me in terms of what elements were core to it. The game is incredible visually, both from a technical and art-design perspective, with a lot of awe and epicness being facilitated by the visuals alone. The mechanics are tighter and more varied than ever, with ‘trying out different builds and weapons’ being one of the most fun things you can do in Elden Ring, with any variation of weapon, spell, Ash of War and consumable being fun and valid. The lore is more upfront and engaging than in any previous Soulsborne, now finally being explicitly about politics (instead of using politics as a soapbox), a struggle between ambitious people fighting for their ideals, as well as a struggle between higher powers vying for control of this world and it’s inhabitants' lives.

It’s been said a thousand times before, but Elden Ring feels like the logical conclusion of most everything FromSoft has done up to that point. It doesn’t just reuse ideas and concepts from it’s predecessors, but carefully utilizes them, transformed and/or upgraded, to craft a new experience that, despite sharing 90% of it’s DNA with it’s ancestors, feels nothing like the games that came before. As it turns out, a developer using years of experience to craft something new out of the best parts of their previous works can only make for a genuine masterpiece and one of the best games of all time. Haters seething, Tarnished – Rising.











P.S.
That Malenia, Blade of Miquella sure does suck huh guys, also have you seen that some bosses are kinda like other bosses from DS3 and Bloodborne? 0/10 game

P.P.S.
I forgot to mention that, but I think that the reuse of content was handled really well in ER for the most part. I liked how the soldiers were given different equipment and coupled with some different enemies depending on the area, it really did make the world more lived-in and believeable. I also liked how some bosses sorta tie your journey together, or bring cohesion to it. Like, The Ulcerated Tree Spirit -- that thing was a bitch to get through when I met him in Fringefolk Hero's Grave, but after that each encounter with him was like meeting an old friend, I swear to god. Helps too that his moveset is fun and exciting, at least in open spaces. And fighting him like 6 different times, each time in a different part of my quest, gave me yet another idea of how far I've come each time we've met. The same kinda goes for the cave dungeon bosses like the cats, it just feels good to bumb into a challenge you've beaten already from time to time, just to see if you can still do it, I dunno. On the other hand, there are definitely bosses that I hate or enjoy much less than I would've if they weren't repeated. The biggest example is Astel having a bigger badder version in some dingy cave, but others include all of the dragons aside from Placidusax, the wyrms after you kill your first one, Loretta, and all the bosses where the boss is just a regular enemy, but now there's two of them, and one or both have a stupid gimmick.

Loved this bundle of miraculous contradictions.
It's a Metroidvania Soulslike, but somehow respects your time.
It's quite hard, anxiety inducing, yet it's not stressing somehow.
It's dark, even grotesque at times, yet beautiful in its own way.
I'll discuss each of those points below.

- It's a metroidvania that respects your time.
I get lost very easily at metroidvanias, and I hate backtracking, as I have a hard time remembering the locked spots.
But this was fully countered by a GREAT map system, showing passages, discovered or not, and secret completion.

- It's a soulslike that respects your time.
I was afraid of raging and getting stuck at the same boss for hours, but it never happened. The bosses were mostly quite fair and at worst I've spent 40 minutes retrying one of the bosses.
Losing progress when you die is also a quite common trope in the genre, yet death has no punishment other than going back to the last safe spot here.

- It's hard and anxiety inducing, but not stressing somehow.
Overall exploration is riddled with enemies, that get progressively more annoying to deal with. Fighting all enemies of some areas is more difficult than some of the bosses, in my opinion. It's not an easy game.
Yet, perhaps thanks to lack of punishment for death and the various safe spots, it wasn't stressing to explore.
The bosses felt fair, especially in the lategame where you're more than powerful enough to beat them on the first try if you have good reflexes. I'm not, but I still beat a lot of them on the second try.

- It's beautiful despite being dark or grotesque.
The environment was perfectly crafted, and most of the time tells the story with visuals alone. It's lonely, it's broken, it's corrupted, yet pleasing to see most of the time.
There are areas at the end of the game that are outright grotesque and unsettling, and I can't say those were pleasing, but they served a great purpose to increase tension and even anxiety.
Also, Lily is cute and the spirits are cool.

Some extra thoughts:
- Movement feels great and the progression for it is also rewarding.
- I could reach max level without any grind, just not skipping enemies most of the time and wearing the XP buff items.
- Getting to 100% achievements wasn't hard, just be mindful of walls and floors that look somewhat different.
- The OST is AMAZING at some parts, but somewhat weak at others. I personally disliked the last area's soundtrack, with gasping and no melody. Felt like a forced way to overwhelm and stress the player. The OST from the start is wonderful.
- Builds are quite relaxed and that's cool, you can go with mostly anything you want, I didn't even use the strongest version of the main spirit to finish the game.

Some of the flaws were:
- The secrets, although optional and most of the time intuitive, force you into a habit of hugging the walls. I luckily didn't have much trouble with it, but it's not that good.
- There are too many enemies on the areas close to the endgame, so I felt pressed to skip them. Some are quite annoying even, especially at the northeast section of the world map.
- There are multiple paths you can take at times, but some are clearly meant to be taken first. I somehow went for the wrong one every time. I'm not sure if I take the blame there or if it was lack of intuitiveness.

Overall, loved the game.
Beat it 100% in 21 hours, while playing relaxed.
Can recommend it.
The credits song slaps.

I’m only on Backloggd occasionally, so I’m uncertain if the mood has shifted away from calm personal essays that don’t focus too much on the game, but heads up, that’s what this one is. You can relax that tension you’re holding in your shoulders.

I’m between jobs right now, in a manner of speaking. My last day of the job I’ve had for the last six years is this Friday, and my next one starts Tuesday. After a few months of interviewing, I thought this would be a triumphant moment, but honestly, I don’t know what to feel. The people here took a chance on a green-as-grass college grad like me and taught me everything I know, so it doesn’t feel great to leave them behind. On the other hand, I feel like I don’t have a choice, with how the market demands you keep up with skills, and how this office’s days seem somewhat numbered. The new role seems nice and all, but there are some pretty loud whispers that things might get hard for everyone soon, and if that happens, being the newest hire isn’t an enviable position. So, I’m in a weird overlap where I have a firm direction, but I don’t know where I’m actually going, or what any of this is leading to.

That’s something that the protagonist of Titan Chaser and I have in common, I think. You might guess that a game about a freshly-hired colossus wrangler would center on action, but instead, the main focus is on their similarly uncertain internal monologue. They wonder about what’s happening back in the city, what their parents are up to, whether this job should be pursued as a career, all the mundane anxieties one would expect to have in real life, just juxtaposed against the backdrop of safely guiding a giant wyvern down the road with an old car. There’s an obvious absurdity to it, like, how could they be thinking about their apartment arrangement when a dragon is just ten meters overhead? Instead, our protagonist simply gets the job done, while learning (and loving) the car’s functional quirks and musing about the future. It makes them come off as a bit distant at first, but it’s a perspective that has a subtle beauty to it. The car is a little wonky, but that can be appreciated, it’s simply a feature of its nature. The dragon doesn’t need to be worried about if the right process is followed, nature will simply run its course. So, the unusual calmness doesn’t signify detachment, but rather, a presence of understanding. After all, there’s no sense in breathlessly trying to get out of a car all in one motion, you turn off the engine, engage the brake, open the door, get out, and close it. You can’t lead a wyvern home by standing miles away and screaming, you gently guide it point by point. The final step that the protagonist and I need to accept is how you can’t take on the burdens of a lifetime all in one day. You may feel like there’s a dragon overhead, but really… that's ok!

Also, this game was recommended by the lovely Lily, who I hope y'all are already following by this point. Thanks for another good tip!