Recent reviews by 0llyMelancholy

Fantastic, FULLY-voiced (yup, even the optional side-scenes) visual novel with plenty of interesting, morally ambiguous choices to make, and an adorable, furry cast of characters. The performances on show from many of the voice actors were great, with a couple emotional moments being particular standouts that had me on the edge of my seat. The soundtrack does a good job in setting the mood without being so noticeable as to detract from the dialogue happening at the same time, with the super special treat of a full song with VOCALS playing just as the world really opens up to you -- it was so good that I listened to the whole thing before continuing on to start new scenes (the vocal track (smartly!) did not play during any scene with dialogue). What stood out most to me though is this game's worldbuilding. Whoever was responsible for the worldbuilding went HARD; at some point it just feels like you're really THERE, that these places and their respective peoples' cultures actually EXIST. Winds of Change is an easy recommendation to make to VN fans, and a wonderful addition to the OELVN scene at large.

Does precisely what it says on the label. 🍌 Unfortunately, I can't recommend it, as there are many other clicker/idle games (even free ones) which do what this game does but better.

So I played the demo for an hour and a half, and unfortunately, I don't think I'll be buying the full game. Some of the harder areas in the desert made me feel like I was playing Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (very much not my kind of game). Like, it's expecting you to make use of *every* tool and ability you've got in order to do *extremely* precise parkour moves to scale up *extremely* tall areas, and while I was able to do some of it some of the time, there are *many* times where I ended up plummeting all the way back to the bottom because, for example, a wall was slightly sloped so my wall jump sent me in a different angle, and having no way to correct for that, being forced to work so hard to climb alllllll the way back up there again, only to plummet *again* for some *other* bulls**t reason...ugh. Just, ugh. What a demoralizing experience. It's *worse* then running back to the boss in a Souls game, because unlike in that scenario, this game will cause you to fail even in instances where it *isn't* your fault.

Like, there's so many place where, I *get* what the game wants me to do. And I'll *do* it, and somehow *still* not clear a gap even though I did *exactly* what it wanted me to. That's just a really awful experience. Like needing to do a slide jump into a wall run into a wall jump into a grappling hook into another wall run into a wall jump. Now, nothing about that sequence sounds too difficult, right? I've done similar maneuvers in other games before, like some sequences in Mario Odyssey. I've been playing platformers like that for many years. And yet, unlike Mario Odyssey, The Big Catch isn't precise enough in its physics and movement controls, which leads to being, for example, slightly too low on the wall to cast your line to the grapple point, even though you *are* close enough to *lock on* to it -- it still won't let you cast your line!

That's just bulls**t, dude. If I can lock on to a grapple point, then I should be able to cast my line to it. But it turns out, nope, the lock on feature must have a slightly longer ray-cast than the grapple feature, so you can be in a situation where you can lock on to a grapple point, but *not* close enough to actually grapple it. It shouldn't be that way. Many times in this demo I did what it clearly wanted me to do, but somehow failed a sequence anyway, and every time that happens I get more and more frustrated at the game, because you have to clear all the previous obstacles all over again to get back.

I can't even say that the difficulty/skill-ceiling is too high, 'cause I can *do* the moves it asks of me. And fail the platforming challenge anyway. And I'll keep doing it, and somehow, without changing anything, doing *exactly* what I'd been doing the whole damn time, it will work. For seemingly no reason at all! Like I'll grab onto a ledge when every other time I tried to reach it, my character *didn't* grab the ledge. Even though my distance to the ledge was the same as before. It makes no sense.

Oh yeah! Another issue I had with the game is, even though it's a collect-a-thon type platformer, there's no way to see where collectables are or how many of them there are. Like, to unlock the vault door and get the only achievement in the game, you have to get several hundreds of coins, which as far as I can research is basically *all* of them? But there's *nothing* to tell you how many coins there are to collect in each area, making it impossible to know if there's some straggler coins in places you've already been. It should be more like Mario where it *tells* you how many Stars/Shine Sprites/Moons there are in each area. Otherwise...how the hell are you supposed to get that achievement? We're not the devs, we can't tell where *all* the coins are! And some of them are in ridiculous places too!

And the fish! Those damn fish. In order to get enough coins for the vault, you have to bring many fish back to the NPC. There's nothing to tell you where the fishes are either, just like the coins themselves. And then actually catching the damn things is another frustrating experience. Had a "great" time trying to catch, for example, the green one where the bungee pads are. Struggled to hit the damn thing for fifteen minutes! Unlike the blue ones, the green one is as fast as *you* are, so you can't ever catch up to it chasing it around, you have to try to pre-empt it, which is easier said than done because its AI seems to be completely random; it will change directions unpredictably. Try to cut it off and it'll run in the opposite direction immediately as well. The only reason I ultimately caught the stupid thing is because the AI glitched out at some point and it ran *into* me instead of away from me, not because of any strategy, not because of my parkour skills using the environment to my advantage -- just completely random chance. That's stupid.

Just...a frustrating experience all around. Eventually I got ticked off enough to just stop playing and uninstalled it. Definitely didn't sell me on the game. It did the opposite. I hope they fix the pain points, because despite all I've said, despite all my frustrations, the game *has* potential. But as it stands as of the date of my review, I imagine most people will find it a very frustrating experience. To like it as it is, you'd have to be a masochist.

The trailer leads me to believe this isn't *supposed* to be a Rage Game, that's not the vibe it gives off anyway, so why does it feel so much like one? If I wanted to play something that makes me this angry, I'd play Jump King or Getting Over It.

Satisfyingly difficult at higher levels and tons of characters and items to unlock to keep you going. Very addictive!

My favorite Rogue-lite is back and better than ever! Thank you, Hopoo Games!

A Hololive V-tuber fan-game has no right being one of the best horde survivor games ever made, and yet...it really is one of the best. With a massive cast of characters, all of whom have different skills to level up unique to them making each one feel different to play, and tons of unlockable content to keep runs fresh -- not to mention a few mini-games like fishing and farming you can do in your down-time -- there's plenty to love about Holocure. An easy recommend to fans of the genre (and fans of anime and V-tubers alike). I've had an absolute blast achievement hunting in this one!

Should've called this "Hold Right to Win Simulator," because that's all you'll be doing. Just hold right and you'll beat each stage in less than 10 seconds. No strategy, no thought at all; the most brain-dead excuse for a "game" I've ever seen -- and that's coming from a numskull who plays frickin' idle games, for crying out loud!

I also hope to never hear a bell ding or that Stage Cleared fanfare ever again.

Stay away from this one.

If you've played Melvor Idle, and you enjoyed it, then I can say that you will also enjoy Idle Clans. It takes a similar formula to Melvor, but adds the unique spin of being multiplayer. As of this review, there are no PvP elements; the multiplayer is entirely cooperative play with your clanmates. This is an extremely important facet of the game, and many things are balanced around various members of your clan taking on certain roles to most efficiently grow. If you're the kind of person who enjoys idle games and factory-building type games because of experimenting and finding efficiencies in systems, you'll really enjoy the added challenge presented by Idle Clans of cooperating with other players to make it all happen smoothly.

I can tell you though, that if you are someone who doesn't play nice with others, this is not the game for you. The Co-op play is practically required to get the most out of it. Personally, I've had a genuinely a great time playing with my clanmates in the clan END -- all of our members have been wonderful to play with, and we get along great in our clan's Discord server. But it must be said, your enjoyment of Idle Clans will be HEAVILY dependent on your fellow members of the clan of your choosing. Don't feel boxed in though; you can join or leave a clan at any time. You can of course also make your own clan and invite whoever you want to join you (grabbing a handful of your friends would be a great, obvious start).

With regards to the so-called "pay-to-win" controversies presented by some other reviews here, I really fail to see the issue. This is a cooperative game, not a competitive one, so there's not really anything to "win" in the traditional sense here. The Premium membership token is not required to access any particular item in the game since any item can be purchased from the player shops with in-game gold, INCLUDING THE PREMIUM TOKEN ITSELF. Spend a week or two playing the game casually, and you'll have enough in-game currency to not have to pay the $10 for the premium token ANYWAY. It really isn't a big deal. And Idle Clans, being a multiplayer game with a web provider who the dev has to pay every month to keep it all running, must -- by necessity -- have SOME kind of monetization to stay functioning. Personally, I paid the $10 day one, and I don't regret that decision. I've certainly gotten my money's worth in the enjoyment I've had strategizing and working together with my clan. I've also already seen my money go to improving the game in various ways; the dev is very active on the official Disc. server and is super transparent on what they're working on at any given moment. I look forward to seeing the game continue to grow and evolve, adding new features and content over time. Even in its current Early Access state, I feel it's worth $10. And it will only get better from here.

I recommend Idle Clans to anyone who enjoys idle games and working with others to achieve common goals. If that sounds like you, give it a try! It's free to play, after all. You have nothing to lose.

Idle Spiral is not just an idle game, it's an interactive art piece. Math is beautiful.

I like how the different layers of mechanics allow you to tackle efficiency bottlenecks from two different angles; by which I mean, this isn't a game where you just care about making small numbers bigger, but also about making big numbers smaller! Each side of the coin are equally satisfying. When it comes to games in the idle/incremental genre, this is one of the good ones. It gives you an excellent sense of progression each time you unlock a new mechanic and experience that sudden rush.