Recent reviews by BattyPrincess

The game is literally peak gameplay, extremely fun and replayable. And what's more important: Different from many of these games that get popular online due to streamers playing them with a group of people, this game is very much doable Solo AND still pretty fun!

Plus, the challenges/achievements (RNG aside for the rope achiev and climbing 50m without touching the ground achiev) are all challenging and fun, but nothing that feels impossible to a more casual audience to get.

This was a really really fun experience and I'm so glad I got to play this game. A long time ago I had been enthralled by its trailer and wanted the game ever since, and finally getting to play it showed me it was indeed as good as I thought it'd be. Basically an analogue horror meets Papers, Please kinda vibes, with you having to figure out what kind of creature is tormenting a poor person on the telephone and give them the proper directions on how to proceed from there.

As an artist, I couldn't help but appreciate every little pixel of the game and the design of the monsters... and it's even better if you access the behind-the-scenes art book that is unlockable after finishing the game! Sound design is great and the voice acting was shockingly extremely professional (it does make sense as for why after reading the behind-the-scenes art book info)

Story-wise, I was amazed at how many lil' bread crumbs of info they drop here and there, and if you're observant enough to notice them, you can piece things together very early and, that to me is the hallmark of a well-written and well-presented story

Again, amazing experience that I wholly recommend experiencing.

This will be a hard review for me to write, as while I did love the game and enjoyed my time playing it, in the end I felt like I didn't like it as much as I wanted to or as much as the rest of the internet does. So... slight spoilers ahead but here we go:

The combat is pretty simple and nothing much to write home about, although I like the idea of the enemies coming back unless you destroy the bodies. We've seen that in other games in the past and it always bring an extra oomph of horror as you navigate the same corridors as you're unsure if and when they'll spring back up to life... but this also adds a negative to the game that I'll mention later.

The atmosphere and graphics are top notch and probably the strongest trait of the game. I couldn't stop admiring the scenery and looking at the posters as I walked around the facility, especially as things get... quirkier, if I could put it in that way. The lighting is also fantastic and adds to the atmosphere

The inventory management was a drag and sincerely I don't know how they could've fixed this. Maybe this is a "me problem", but I felt that the inventory size got on my nerves most of the time. The reason being that I want to carry weapons to defend myself, but I also want to carry key items in case I see where to use it, but at the same time I wanna carry the items that will let me burn the enemy bodies forever... you see the trend? Maybe I *could* have walked around just shooting enemies and burning their bodies, only coming back for the key items after I was 100% sure of where to use them, but at the same time ammo is scarce and I can't go blasting enemies nilly willy... so it creates this bit of an annoying situation where you need to keep stealthing around and backtracking for items or to swap them if necessary, and it felt like it was just adding gameplay time that could've been shortened. Again, probably a "me problem", but hey it's my review.

The story felt to me like the weakest bit of the game... but at the same time not? Rather, I'd say that its presentation wasn't its strongest bit. The story is deep, with lots of different theories you could make about what the heck is happening in the story... but at the same time it felt a bit too vague for my taste, somehow?
I've played many horror games that had a "what the ♥♥♥♥ is really happening?" aspect to them, but you get to understand things better by the end.

With Signalis I didn't feel like that. The story can be quite vague, even after finishing it, for you to know what's happening. How much of it is real or not, how much of it is impossible to fully interpret, how much of it can be read at face value. The story is there, but it felt more like an excuse to keep the player captivated and pushing through an amazing isometric horror game while lacking a punch of satisfaction and understanding by its finale.
Again... this review might just be a whole "me problem" since I refuse to watch those "Signalis story EXPLAINED!!!!!" videos out there because I believe a game should be transparent enough to a certain degree for you to get things on your own either while playing or after thinking a lot about it, which is what I felt was missing.

In the end, I will still recommend this game to any horror game fan out there. Maybe you'll have the same problems I had with the inventory management and vagueness of the story, maybe you'll have no problems at all with these aspects and actually even understand how deep the story's rabbit hole goes. But I think any horror fan - especially of old-school games - would absolutely have a blast with the game, solving the puzzles in the decrepit old facility while trying to piece together what the heck is happening there.

The good: Amazing platform movement, really well-hidden and fun secrets that are challenging to find, the time-trial challenges are difficult but fair and - due to your huge movement repertoire that you can unlock - really fun to figure out your own way of solving it.

The bad: The story isn't really there, it's just a small excuse for cool platforming, and I wish the game went on for longer. But what we had was really fun

Short but amazing experience that will let you reconnect with your inner child... plus it actually got good platforming stuff and the quests are delightful!

As an English Teacher and a nerd for languages myself... this game was perfectly made for me, pinpoint accuracy sniper shot to my tastes. Some of the languages were way more complex and detailed than I thought and just sent waves of serotonin into my brain as I understood their nuances

If you're a fan of puzzle games with interesting but simple plots, great puzzles and gorgeous art, this game is for you!

At the beginning I thought it was just going to be an average platformer that had the same kind of vibes that old platformers had (imagine Jersey Devil from the PS1 kinda vibes)... but then from the third world on the pace picked up and never stopped getting more and more fun!

If you're into short platformers with a stylish and charming aesthetic, coupled with a banger soundtrack and witty writing, this game is for you!

Probably an 8 out of 10, pretty enjoyable! It also made me miss speedrunning because it seems like it'd be a fun speed game

Tangle Tower was an absolutely amazing experience from beginning to end. If you're even remotely interested in point-n-click adventure games, you MUST play it! Also... as an artist I couldn't help but be flabbergasted by every single scene and animation and clue in this game, it's all so good!

If you're here for a little cat simulator game where you get to meow meow around, be mischievous, cause a ruckus AND meet other animals with witty funny dialogues while looking CUTE, you've come to the right game!

It's incredibly charming and adorable, I am in love with all the lil cute animals we can talk to in this game (but our little tiny little kitty is my favorite one shhh don't tell the others!). I also adore the little jokes inserted in the game here and there, some quite obvious (just check the Arcade) while others are more subtle but no less appreciated!

This game did something that a lot of games don't do and it's quite hard to make me do: Laugh my ass off. The writting is so witty that my sides were sent to space multiple multiple times! This was an experience like none other and I'm excited to try out the other routes and see what else the game has in store for me, but the first playthrough (roughly 4 hours of gameplay) was super fun and I had a smile on my face the whole time

The artstyle was amazing to look at, especially the backgrounds! As an artist myself, I can't imagine how much painstaking work and research must have happened backstage for those gorgeous backgrounds. Huntress's shack and Trapper's yacht were the highlights for me with how much detail it had... it makes me curious if some photobashing was used for them because some of the details were life-like they were so detailed

The writting was funny and quite horny at some moments, but I was suprised with how much well-written references there were for the original game itself, including some subtle ones that I could see some folks not catching them, but it clearly showed the developers were really fans of the source material and wanted to make it justice with this game, even if it's a dating sim and such!

The only 3 criticisms I had during the playthrough were:
- One of Huntress's feet looked a bit wrong on one of her poses. Quite minor but as an artist myself it kinda jumped at me;
- No possibility of saving the game on a screen that has decisions to pick. Not that big of a deal having to load a save that was just some time ago considering you can fast-forward the dialogue, but still!
- I wish there was a gallery section of sorts where you could admire the well-crafted art of the characters whose romances you've seen to the end. Huntress's ending screen was literally wallpaper worthy

Tl;dr: Witty dialogue, funny conversations, the romance was great, characterization was well written, the artwork was amazing and it was pretty much a fun experience from beginning to end!