i find myself endeared to this weird glitchy surreal world, with its opaque theology and its cutesy inhabitants. i really love the art style, and all the individual images that come up during bad endings or cutscenes.

there are frustrating moments, for sure. save as often as you possibly can, because you never know when you'll examine something and immediately die. opened the wrong door? immediate death! i don't mind that sort of thing, once i know it's that type of game. additionally, there's a maze with a bunch of enemies with random movement patterns, and if they touch you you have to start over from before a scene where you need to select the right dialogue options, but it's just that one area so keep pressing on. i recommend looking up a guide (there's one on steam for ep1 and ep2, just have that open if you start feeling annoyed, it's very light on spoilers).

should you play this game? if you've played and enjoyed yume nikki and the games it inspired, and you find yourself drawn to the art style, absolutely. if you played nier automata and were delighted by ending k, absolutely. if you grew up in the newgrounds/deviantart/invader zim/keenspot era, absolutely. plus, it's free, and the other eps are only a couple dollars.

i'm looking forward to playing the rest!