fun little whodunnit! i had this game sitting in my wishlist for years. something about its art wasn't speaking to me enough to pull the trigger on buying it, but a coworker said he enjoyed it, so i picked it up. it really needs to be seen in motion and heard. the performances are mostly great, and the animated characters during conversations is a great choice. the sense of humor landed for me throughout this game, perhaps at the cost of some emotional weight, but that's not to say the characters aren't sympathetic and that they don't have interesting b-plots.

most of the puzzle design worked for me, but not all of it. there's also an element of "try everything on everyone" that you may hit if, like me, you forgot to click something in a room even though you totally meant to. luckily there's a little hint button that points to a room you missed something in, which doesn't simply highlight the object but still limits the time you spend pixel-hunting.

the twists and loose threads are all pretty fun, and this game has a lot of charm from start to finish. i'd love a sequel, or another mystery starring the two protagonists and a different cast of colorful personalities. i might even check out the first game, dated as it looks.

on a more personal note, as an old school newgrounds kid, it was fun to see "sfb games" and realize who made this :)

this remake is an excellent example of enhancing an original game while keeping its spirit and core design philosophies intact. even the biggest change, the pivot from locked off levels to a more open and interconnected design for the ship, is implemented to great effect. i'm likely in the minority here, but i didn't like dead space 2 much, partially owing to isaac being a voiced character. the choice to make him voiced here is the only knock against what is an otherwise incredible horror game, and i think this bothers me more than most. the original dead space is one of my all-time favorite horror experiences, and this does it great service while giving it a freshness i wasn't expecting. my expectations are exceeded.

dreamscaper starts out stronger than the rhythm it eventually takes. i think in a heavily-saturated market of roguelites, you really need a strong hook to keep me coming back. whereas binding of isaac has an extreme level of variety, hades has lots of story and character hooks, and vampire survivors has broken builds aplenty, dreamscaper never quite gets there in any one category.

the story elements are very much tailor-made for me and my life and general vibe, but i don't remember much of what happened. the setting is quite nice, and seems like where i'm from, but that can only carry me so far. the combat is decent, but not as tight or distinct as i'd like.

should you play this? sure! should you play it over any of the other exceptional run-based games dominating the scene at any given moment? i don't know. i'm glad i checked it out, but it doesn't have the staying power or bombast to milk a few hundred hours of my life like so many other roguelites have. that said, if they do a sequel, i'll be keeping my eye on it.

i was pretty interested in this one while i played it, and i had a great time talking to a coworker about our findings, but i hit a point where i just couldn't find literally anything i might've been missing. no audio cues, nothing - yet i never saw credits. and my friend, who did see credits, didn't know half the stuff i'd seen. so i'm really confused about how what triggers those, but it's not an especially fun mystery because i'm still completely stuck.

to speak of the artistic vision, the statement, i didn't find it especially original. it's certainly very interesting to watch it unfold, but i don't know what they could show me that i haven't seen or figured out yet. like, i promise i get it, but it's a fairly tired theme.

what i loved most about this game is, hands down, the performances. it really is an achievement in balancing disparate tones and bringing small snippets into a greater emotional whole. i was genuinely moved by certain scenes, and nearly all the actors bring this whole thing to life with jaw-dropping mastery.

that said, when i look back on this game, i don't feel that i remember it all that fondly. it's good, it's interesting, but what i found when i turned over every stone i could find wasn't quite the climax i hoped they'd been building up to. maybe i'll return to it again someday.

i got this at launch, and i held off on reviewing this. i've got it in my "finish first" steam category, and i stare at it whenever i boot up the app, knowing it's not very long and that i should just knock out the rest of it. but i feel absolutely no desire to, so i'm marking it as shelved.

most of the three stars i'm giving it come from its presentation and atmosphere. the environmental artists did a fantastic job, it's really breathtaking at times. the cat moves pretty well, it's clear the team fucking loves this cute lil orange fella. but moving is a little janky, there are visual bugs, 100%ing would be a drag, and the story isn't really hitting me hard or anything. idk, it's not bad but it's nothing to write home about

good god, this shit runs so terribly on switch. it's also systematically very much pared down from disgaea 5, and disgaea 5 runs perfectly on the switch, a platform where it really shines.

i am abandoning this switch version. when disgaea 6 complete comes out on steam, i may pick it up there because i'm stupid. it's rare for me to care that much about performance issues, but it's genuinely so bad that it makes me nauseous and/or causes eye strain, depending on how i have the graphics options tuned.

fingers crossed on that pc port, i would love to love this