owlpunki
2021
A simple slideshow of a life, would have been better if it was chronological. Pay attention to the black and red letters/numbers (like this one--> '8.S')....
Enjoyed myself a shameful amount getting my first five endings ---> went brain numb going for the rest using a guide ---> got tired of this shit once I started hunting for the harder endings.
Great writing and translation work carried the game hard for me and is the main reason I stuck it out to see all of Ame's possible fates. The translation honestly deserves quadruple the praise because for the longest just purely going off screenshots and gifs I thought this was a western made game heavily emulating japanese aesthetics but nope it's actually japanese! Everything feels very natural and true to the goofy and dark sides of internet culture and it makes all the shit that happens to Ame hit harder since it feels less absurd and more "yeah, i remember a streamer losing their shit like this a few years ago :/ damn."
Ruined my sleep schedule for a day just grinding out all the endings.
Great writing and translation work carried the game hard for me and is the main reason I stuck it out to see all of Ame's possible fates. The translation honestly deserves quadruple the praise because for the longest just purely going off screenshots and gifs I thought this was a western made game heavily emulating japanese aesthetics but nope it's actually japanese! Everything feels very natural and true to the goofy and dark sides of internet culture and it makes all the shit that happens to Ame hit harder since it feels less absurd and more "yeah, i remember a streamer losing their shit like this a few years ago :/ damn."
Ruined my sleep schedule for a day just grinding out all the endings.
2021
hey, remember--whatever you do...
RESPECT
THE
CRAFT!!
RESPECT
THE
CRAFT!!
2022
I lost my propeller :(
I cried :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
I cried :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
2019
Why did a game where a little girl witnesses a full grown cow projectile shit onto a calf make me tear up at the end?
2023
I think one of my favorite things in fantasy fiction is when very small beings exist alongside modern humanity with their own society, religious beliefs, and terminology for ordinary concepts. Stuff like the Borrowers and an Ant's Life was my shit as a kid and getting into Redwall as an adult was only an extension of that. So when I first saw a gif of a small mouse wielding a human pocket knife like a greatsword facing off against an imperious looking house cat I was instantly hooked into whatever Small Saga was cooking up and getting a chance to play the demo made it a day one buy.
Small Saga is close to perfect as a bite-sized RPG with well thought out mechanics, clever writing, and a realized world that really sells the concept of you being a little guy in a world much larger than you and the cities and towns of rodentia you scamper through. A whole capitol of rodent folk existing beneath the floorboards of the royal palace, a greek styled city settled within a toy store going out of business, most characters wielding weapons fashioned from needles, scissors, and, at point, a lego brick (+2 dmg), and more and more.
Gameplay is your expected four peeps in a row turn-based action with every party member getting their own skill tree and skills limited based on the energy cost rather than straight MP cost. What Small Saga does very different is how it handles non-equip items, instead of being one use consumables they only run out during fights and are instantly refilled after a fight meaning you essentially have infinite health and energy items. In a tougher RPG this would probably be a boon but Small Saga is a game without random encounters with every fight being a part of the story meaning the difficulty ranges from easy to just above middle of the road until the endgame sidequests where the difficulty goes sicko mode for one fight in particular. It's not a real dent to the experience but it does feel unnecessary especially since all health and energy is recovered post-battle.
The writing easily stands above a good majority of indie RPGs but it does have an unexpected amount of real world politics inserted into it in a way that feels clumsy and heavy handed. Before I go on I do have to say politically I lean closer to the game's core politics than not, so happily gay rats and fascist bashing messaging is all up my alley but I also prefer--when modern day politics are interwoven into a fantasy tale--for said messaging to at least be ingrained into the world so it doesn't feel like the author is speaking instead of a random npc. Like keep the pro-revolution anti-fascism messaging but at least have the characters who carry these beliefs feel less like author inserts? It gets better by the end when the writing around this matter starts gaining substance but its jarring for much of the game's runtime and hits with all the subtlety of a brick.
This also applies to weird slips from the medievalish rodent society vibes. The demo/first two hours had a clear and consistent tone but once you get to Murida that goes out the window with a hype beast mouse asking you to check out its fit in a clothing shop and several townsfolk dressed in modern punk wear and random bits of modern slang tossed into conversations. From there the writing dips in and out of this which is funny once or twice but I really would have preferred the style of the opening to stick for much of the rest of the game. Yeah I know its beneath the veil of the modern human world but it's something that felt a bit cringe whenever it happened.
The ending also felt flat after the epic boss encounters before it (oh yeah this game has some bomb ass bosses, like 12/10 presentation and concepts). It probably all had to be cut short for budget reasons but a few slides of the aftermath would have been nice.
TLDR; great short RPG, witty and creative, would smite titans and gods with a pocket knife again.
Small Saga is close to perfect as a bite-sized RPG with well thought out mechanics, clever writing, and a realized world that really sells the concept of you being a little guy in a world much larger than you and the cities and towns of rodentia you scamper through. A whole capitol of rodent folk existing beneath the floorboards of the royal palace, a greek styled city settled within a toy store going out of business, most characters wielding weapons fashioned from needles, scissors, and, at point, a lego brick (+2 dmg), and more and more.
Gameplay is your expected four peeps in a row turn-based action with every party member getting their own skill tree and skills limited based on the energy cost rather than straight MP cost. What Small Saga does very different is how it handles non-equip items, instead of being one use consumables they only run out during fights and are instantly refilled after a fight meaning you essentially have infinite health and energy items. In a tougher RPG this would probably be a boon but Small Saga is a game without random encounters with every fight being a part of the story meaning the difficulty ranges from easy to just above middle of the road until the endgame sidequests where the difficulty goes sicko mode for one fight in particular. It's not a real dent to the experience but it does feel unnecessary especially since all health and energy is recovered post-battle.
The writing easily stands above a good majority of indie RPGs but it does have an unexpected amount of real world politics inserted into it in a way that feels clumsy and heavy handed. Before I go on I do have to say politically I lean closer to the game's core politics than not, so happily gay rats and fascist bashing messaging is all up my alley but I also prefer--when modern day politics are interwoven into a fantasy tale--for said messaging to at least be ingrained into the world so it doesn't feel like the author is speaking instead of a random npc. Like keep the pro-revolution anti-fascism messaging but at least have the characters who carry these beliefs feel less like author inserts? It gets better by the end when the writing around this matter starts gaining substance but its jarring for much of the game's runtime and hits with all the subtlety of a brick.
This also applies to weird slips from the medievalish rodent society vibes. The demo/first two hours had a clear and consistent tone but once you get to Murida that goes out the window with a hype beast mouse asking you to check out its fit in a clothing shop and several townsfolk dressed in modern punk wear and random bits of modern slang tossed into conversations. From there the writing dips in and out of this which is funny once or twice but I really would have preferred the style of the opening to stick for much of the rest of the game. Yeah I know its beneath the veil of the modern human world but it's something that felt a bit cringe whenever it happened.
The ending also felt flat after the epic boss encounters before it (oh yeah this game has some bomb ass bosses, like 12/10 presentation and concepts). It probably all had to be cut short for budget reasons but a few slides of the aftermath would have been nice.
TLDR; great short RPG, witty and creative, would smite titans and gods with a pocket knife again.
2018
An interesting walking---er, "hover" sim, even though it's very much a personal story I did find the game's overall message to be an interesting one and even understandable from an outsider's perspective and the dream world/dying memory vibes were on point. Short and sweet + it's free.
2023
I really, really, really, REALLY wanted to like this game, especially since it's something i've been following the development of for quite a while. Unfortunately, I have to fold--this is too dull especially for the experience it's trying to depict. I'm drawn to RPGs set in the modern world or, at least, in non-medieval settings and an RPG dealing with the horrors of war from the perspective of deserters/ex-child soldiers drew me to LGD years ago and that's not even getting into it's absolutely gorgeous character art, CGs, and sprite work.
Presentation can only do so much however, especially when the writing is so flat. For a game with this sort of subject matter I expected something less saturday morning cartoon. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil, not maniacally laughing at the good guys cartoony but just several paces behind that. The main crew are goody two shoes to a fault with the little gray they have being near nonexistent, they're all morally upstanding people standing on the right side of the game's conflict and who don't seem to have much of a mean bone in their pretty, well-designed bodies. Dark concepts such as human trafficking, gunning down civilians in order to start a conflict between countries, and racism are dulled by how the game treats all of it with kids gloves. The Russia part of the game was the best at keeping the mood from what I saw so far but as the game progressed and the party grew the game lingered further and further away from those vibes of desperation and near hopelessness.
The RPG aspects of the game were actually handled well for the most part. All fights are part of the plot or even avoidable on occasion which was a smart move for a game like this. The way after battle rewards were handled also incentivized strategic and long-term thinking + the absolute lack of shops to buy supplies from made every battle feel like a battle of attrition which was great.......
But maaaaaaaaan the WRITING!!!! WHY????????????
I think I should have realized how 'soft' the writing was going to be was in the game's opening hour. Having the main character so easily shake of lifelong indoctrination just like that was beyond my suspension of disbelief. The writing for the game as a whole (up to Poland, I quit after the warehouse segment) is like that: annoyingly soft and that's the best word I can think of when describing it.
Presentation can only do so much however, especially when the writing is so flat. For a game with this sort of subject matter I expected something less saturday morning cartoon. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil, not maniacally laughing at the good guys cartoony but just several paces behind that. The main crew are goody two shoes to a fault with the little gray they have being near nonexistent, they're all morally upstanding people standing on the right side of the game's conflict and who don't seem to have much of a mean bone in their pretty, well-designed bodies. Dark concepts such as human trafficking, gunning down civilians in order to start a conflict between countries, and racism are dulled by how the game treats all of it with kids gloves. The Russia part of the game was the best at keeping the mood from what I saw so far but as the game progressed and the party grew the game lingered further and further away from those vibes of desperation and near hopelessness.
The RPG aspects of the game were actually handled well for the most part. All fights are part of the plot or even avoidable on occasion which was a smart move for a game like this. The way after battle rewards were handled also incentivized strategic and long-term thinking + the absolute lack of shops to buy supplies from made every battle feel like a battle of attrition which was great.......
But maaaaaaaaan the WRITING!!!! WHY????????????
I think I should have realized how 'soft' the writing was going to be was in the game's opening hour. Having the main character so easily shake of lifelong indoctrination just like that was beyond my suspension of disbelief. The writing for the game as a whole (up to Poland, I quit after the warehouse segment) is like that: annoyingly soft and that's the best word I can think of when describing it.
2023
Man I just really love climbin' in vidya games , got some good climbin' in this bad boy I tell y'what.
2023
A greatly flawed experience that I nearly dropped on several occasions, the definition of pure Backtracking and tedious as hell to push through on account of everything happening in the same environment with narrow corridors and enemies that respawn as soon as you leave and re-enter an area. As an RPG ISAT sucks ass but as a time looping story in an RPG frame it's quite good. The main group is easy to love and the worldbuilding makes me want to see more stories set in it and not even necessarily with the same protagonists or stakes. The psychological breakdowns experienced by Siffrin, the protag, became harder to experience as the loops grew in number and as everything fell apart the game itself went from a tentative 2 and-a-half stars to a solid 3. I remember after playing the prototype feeling that the story worked best as a short experience and I still feel that way after 30 more hours of that same story but more fleshed out. I loved learning more about Siffrin's companions, about elements of the world such as the missing country, the loss of colors, how this world's people used Crafting in their day-to-day. I did not love fighting the same 7 enemies through the same three floors of the same castle. I know everyone likes to say that any RPG made in RPG Maker is doomed to have basic as hell turn-based gameplay but as someone who grew up obsessed with amateur RPG's made in the engine I can tell you now that, that is bullshit.
Enemies could have a timer to determine when they respawn giving the player some breathing room to backtrack especially in the early game and giving the handful of enemy types different AI and gimmicks to keep fights from being samey would have made the first few Acts more interesting (and this is very possible to do in even the base version of RPG Maker MV with some clever use of events). ISAT DOES use a Jackpot mechanic that introduces some degree of strategy soooo there's that but that's really the most interesting thing the game has going on in terms of battles.
I know the repetition is all in service of having the player share in Siffrin's exhaustion and gradually depleting sanity as they go through the loops but at the end of the day I will always feel that there should be some consideration put into game feel since, well, this is a game and not a book.
The last two Acts saved the game for me since I was getting well and tired of the gameplay loop (ayyyyyy) by that point despite finding myself engrossed in the character interactions and background mysteries and the shaking up of the formula kept me going to the finish line.
tldr; an interesting character story masquerading as an RPG, play the demo to get a feel for the writing at least OR alternatively the prototype but buy on sale.
(my review for the prototype)
https://www.backloggd.com/u/owlpunki/review/808002/
Enemies could have a timer to determine when they respawn giving the player some breathing room to backtrack especially in the early game and giving the handful of enemy types different AI and gimmicks to keep fights from being samey would have made the first few Acts more interesting (and this is very possible to do in even the base version of RPG Maker MV with some clever use of events). ISAT DOES use a Jackpot mechanic that introduces some degree of strategy soooo there's that but that's really the most interesting thing the game has going on in terms of battles.
I know the repetition is all in service of having the player share in Siffrin's exhaustion and gradually depleting sanity as they go through the loops but at the end of the day I will always feel that there should be some consideration put into game feel since, well, this is a game and not a book.
The last two Acts saved the game for me since I was getting well and tired of the gameplay loop (ayyyyyy) by that point despite finding myself engrossed in the character interactions and background mysteries and the shaking up of the formula kept me going to the finish line.
tldr; an interesting character story masquerading as an RPG, play the demo to get a feel for the writing at least OR alternatively the prototype but buy on sale.
(my review for the prototype)
https://www.backloggd.com/u/owlpunki/review/808002/
2015
A hefty mystery with a meaty and satisfyingly thrilling first half that turns into a dragging last half. Raging Loop is a top tier mystery vn with solid writing in all of its corners but the path to the end truly is a "make or break" moment. I'm very much a "journey" person who judges an experience based on the adventure rather than the conclusion but on occasions when the conclusion is too polarizing to fully ignore, I can't judge an experience solely on the journey itself hence why an otherwise engaging novel gets an average 3 stars over the 4 and a half that I was gunning for it around the midway point. I still recommend this to anyone itching for a brutally bloody mystery and besides the intro taking a while to get through the story, once it gets going, immediately does its best to drag you in.
2019
AH! I love a good point-and-clicker!! Especially the weird ones!!! Short, sweet, paired with excellent art and audio direction evoking older cartoons of the 90s and 2000s + a few good eerie moments to catch you off guard = a fine way to spend an afternoon.
This review contains spoilers
Start Again as a game is very basic, very simple, and very rpg maker-y in a way a lot of games by art focused creators are. The rock-paper-scissors mechanic in lieu of traditional elemental weaknesses is cute but with the extremely small pool of enemies it doesn't make the strongest of impressions though the worldbuilding around this mechanic and "Crafts" (i.e spells and skills and apparently star signs??) is well integrated into the small piece of the world the player is allowed to see.
Much of the demo's pull is in the writing, the time looping concept, and the party themselves as the gameplay is just kind of there. Luckily everything else in this regard was good to ok. The art for the party and the handful of CGs was consistently charming up until the "final" loop where there were quite a few wonky frames and the banter amongst the party was homey in a way that a real band of traveling misfits turned pseudo family would feel like after months of harrowing journeying even if the main character is having like twelve breakdowns in the background of all the cute exchanges.
The looping itself along with the layout of the castle aids itself to making the player feel the protag's weariness over the repetitious nature of the whole thing B U T...I got the true loop on my second go aaaand i'm not sure if it was intended or not but it does undersell the idea a bit since, if you don't lose against the king (like I did...), you'll be done and miss a handful of fascinating little tidbits that would occur in extra loops like a whole section getting skipped over fast forward style without warning on the fourth loop (I thought that was neat.) and those itty bitty easy to miss scenes do add to the sort of psychological slow torture the hero has to endure.
The true ending was genuinely great in a sadistic way, it could have just been just a happy conclusion after a grueling ordeal but it kept going in a way I wasn't expecting which I love, love, L O V E D <3. The party members are fun and the worldbuilding intrigues me but all of this feels better as a self-contained, 1-2 hour thing than something longer. The only thing I can see benefitting from a full version is the gameplay and more time to learn about the game world.
Despite my wariness towards several more hours of time looping existential horror-terror I plan to try the full release anyways because the potential is there and I want to see what sprouts from it.
Much of the demo's pull is in the writing, the time looping concept, and the party themselves as the gameplay is just kind of there. Luckily everything else in this regard was good to ok. The art for the party and the handful of CGs was consistently charming up until the "final" loop where there were quite a few wonky frames and the banter amongst the party was homey in a way that a real band of traveling misfits turned pseudo family would feel like after months of harrowing journeying even if the main character is having like twelve breakdowns in the background of all the cute exchanges.
The looping itself along with the layout of the castle aids itself to making the player feel the protag's weariness over the repetitious nature of the whole thing B U T...I got the true loop on my second go aaaand i'm not sure if it was intended or not but it does undersell the idea a bit since, if you don't lose against the king (like I did...), you'll be done and miss a handful of fascinating little tidbits that would occur in extra loops like a whole section getting skipped over fast forward style without warning on the fourth loop (I thought that was neat.) and those itty bitty easy to miss scenes do add to the sort of psychological slow torture the hero has to endure.
The true ending was genuinely great in a sadistic way, it could have just been just a happy conclusion after a grueling ordeal but it kept going in a way I wasn't expecting which I love, love, L O V E D <3. The party members are fun and the worldbuilding intrigues me but all of this feels better as a self-contained, 1-2 hour thing than something longer. The only thing I can see benefitting from a full version is the gameplay and more time to learn about the game world.
Despite my wariness towards several more hours of time looping existential horror-terror I plan to try the full release anyways because the potential is there and I want to see what sprouts from it.
Was reluctant to finish this one, a very cozy and overall wholesome visual novel. Feels like the personification of a warm hug. The ability to determine aspects of both yourself, how others perceive you, and that of Cove himself gives the game some replayability especially since Moments have different outcomes based on how you roleplay. I also appreciated the fact you can set your relationship level with Cove at the start of each Step so if you just want to play a cute childhood friend sim without the romance elements you very well can though the romance path is really fucking cute that if I were to replay im not sure I would have the heart to do the "just friends" playstyle. My only critique, and this is more personal taste than anything, is that I wish you didn't have to stay so long in the "kiddie" phase like starting as a little 8 year old is sweet and has some nice call backs later on but it would have been nice to get to the adult phase faster. The next game seems to be fixing this a bit by pushing the ages up for the steps so that's cool.
Not sure what kind of review I can write for this to be honest but it's definitely...something? I liked it, so 5-stars sure why not.