a murder mystery with a neat gimmick, that's really all i need in a game tbh. it's a short game, but that's not a bad thing! the story is well-paced and doesn't outstay it's welcome too much, and at $5 it didn't feel overpriced for the amount of gameplay you get.

i had a pretty smooth experience as far as bugs or glitches, maybe the biggest offenders had been patched out by the time i played. the only times i got stuck were due to me missing a line of dialogue or something, which could be a bit finicky at times. but i also enjoy tedious clue hunting, so the downtime was enjoyable for the most part. once i hit the late stages of the game i had to resort to a guide a couple of times and i had a lot of trouble with the big final scene for some reason.

But otherwise it was an enjoyable little mystery game where you get to snoop around a ship. Slowly uncovering each characters backstory and secret as you progress through the main story and unlock different gameplay mechanics keeps the game engaging for the majority of the runtime. as long as you can keep the story moving that is, if you get stuck or miss a vital line of dialogue it can certainly turn very tedious pretty fast. also there's not enough games where you get to solve a big mystery and i just love that shit

"ok i know everyone talks about how this game is like their favorite game ever and they wish they could play it again for the first time and whatever but, it's gotta be like a little overhyped, right?" - me, an utter fool, moments before playing return of the obra dinn

this is like, peak video game. what a cool way to present a story. i'm so glad i avoided sort of story spoilers for 6 years, i literally just thought it was gonna be a murder mystery on a boat with a neat gameplay mechanic. the music, the environment, the visual style, the storytelling and detail in each scene, the tedious clue hunting, gradually piecing together the chain of events and eventually being able to name the entire crew off the bits and pieces of info you can gather. it all just works together so so well. normally i'd respect the creators wishes, but damn if there's any game that deserves a sequel or spin off or something it's this.

(if you're into murder mysteries on a boat, maybe check out Why Am I Dead at Sea, i don't actually remember if it's all that comparable, but i was reminded of it quite a bit while playing this game)

I remember seeing their first couple of development posts in 2015 (probably from reddit) and I've been excited for this previously untitled cat game ever since, i still have the devblog bookmarked somewhere lol

Honestly, I just wanted a game where you get to run around as a cat and i gotta say stray delivered. There's other gameplay segments like stealth sections and very basic puzzle solving, but i'd have been totally happy with just exploring more of the city. Yeah, it's short. But I don't mind shorter games, I think the length felt appropriate for the gameplay and the story didn't feel cut short or anything

also, coming into this game straight after finishing nier automata for the first time was interesting, i did not expect these games to have anything in common but there was definitely a bit of deja vu with some of the robots and their relationship with humanity