Recent reviews by Kolaya

Just sat through 文字化化 (Homicipher) for 5 hours and finished it at 100% completion. Initially bought it because of a fanart I saw on Twitter and got curious but the game definitely did not disappoint. While the trailer looks ominous at first, the actual playthrough is not that scary except some slight jumpscares and the overall disturbing setting.
The fact that you can add your own words and comprehension to the dialogues will definitely make you laugh, especially at the beginning when some sentences will look a bit out of place, or very robotic-like. This mechanic just makes the reading less passive as you have to type them yourself, additionnally to quickly respond when timers or QTE shows up.

For those who are not a fan of the romance genre, the game is more centered on the action and adventurous aspect of the scenario : it does not have any scenes that are detailed regarding to the couples, it is more like discreet flirting. It also has a LOT of possibilities and endings, aside from many gameovers through the entire story.
Overall it is really just amusing to see absolutely horrific looking characters acting very sweet : Scarlet and Crawler will definitely be even more than they already are the center of many fanarts :D

Hopefully there will be a continuation or some additional content of some sort, cool and very creative game!

Mouthwashing will hit you like a truck, especially if you are a corporate slave worker. This game will respect not only your time in the sense that it is a short game, but also because it is amazingly written. Its atmosphere is absolutely filled by unsettling liminal spaces, ambient sounds that will give shivers, and characters that are highly memorable by both their design and stories. If you are creative in any sense I can ASSURE YOU that you will be inspired by this.

It is better to go blind if you can. It is full of hints and metaphors that will slowly guide you to where the story is headed without directly taking you by the hand. The numerous time skips such as flashforwards and flashbacks will give you no time to be bored because this entire mess goes down even before you have the time to figure out anything. You will just NOT BE able to think about anything else until you finish it and know how it all ends. And sometimes even be surprised afterwards while reading explanations as some elements aren't bluntly talked about.

Been a while since a game actually grabbed me by the neck from beginning to end, fully recommended, have fun and theorize along the way! :)

dont be crybabies yall

excellent DLC, hard as ♥♥♥♥ : as it should :)

https://youtu.be/_9-SgkvM8Mw

Disco Elysium [latin] : I learn from -the world- Elysium.

There might be two kinds of people when it comes to playing Disco Elysium. The first category will pick up the game, and wonder why everyone talks so much, try to push through a little bit, and then drop the game for good. This is what happened to me during my first playthrough. Then I gave it a second try, months later, and suddenly : I was hooked for hours and hours. That being said, before buying the game, you might want to take a look at the current state of the gamedev studio. I was unfortunately not informed about the context of ZA/UM when I bought the game, but I now understand why so many people encourage you to pirate the game.


What is Disco Elysium about? And what is so good about it?

Honestly the first time I clicked on the Steam page, the trailer or the front page generated absolutely zero interest in me. The design of the characters or the overall aspect of the game seemed, on a quick glance, absolutely boring to me. It really looked like another detective story like there are a billion others. Yet, while I do love a good challenging metroidvania, or a nice session on a soulslike, I am also a very avid visual novel player.

In this text-heavy tabletop game, you follow Harry, a detective that lost his memory due to a very VERY alcohol-heavy evening. He wakes up in the Whirling in Rags, a local hotel in Révachol, where he is supposed to solve a crime. He has no memory whatsoever of who he used to be and yet must step into the world. He has to face the consequences of his past-actions, that are, to the most, nothing to brag about.

How does this game tackle mental illness, addiction, and why no other video-game could do it that way?

Harry is not a hero. He might be one of the most miserable protagonist I have ever seen. And he reminded me personally of someone in my close family circle, alcoholism and physical appearance included. It was also the reason why I felt quite weird opening the Steam page of this game, and instantly closed it. The thumbnail gave me a headache.
But we all saw movies or played games with anti-heroes. So what makes Disco Elysium so special ? And how can it tackle mental health this precisely ? The answer is : the gameplay. The narration, and the voice-acting are absolutely carrying this game. The gameplay consists of four sets of skills with six sub-statistics. Intellect(Logic, Intellect, Rhetoric..) , Physical Force(Clair-Obsur, Shivers, Muscles, Electrochemicals), Perception, and Psyche(Volution, Autority...) . Each of those types of “thoughts” will be voice-acted by a deep (sexy, let’s be honest) voice, in conflict with one another, and can help you in the story during dice rolls just like in Baldur’s Gate 3. The higher your skills are, the higher your dice rolls will have a chance to succeed.


But how does this have anything to do with how well this game can portray addiction and mental health?


Because it shows how complex the human brain is. The constant yearn to come back to the said addiction, drugs and alcohol, in the case of this game, while battling it with more resilient and pragmatic thoughts is very VERY realistic. I do not know the background of the devs, but it is impossible to portray something this realistic without experiencing it yourself. The constant battle of different thoughts to become a better person. The constant hell that follows you days in your own body and brain, at nights during nightmares more messed up the ones that the others : you cannot just make this up. It is not only shown in Harry but also in different protagonists during the entire playthrough. The people of Révachol are, mostly, all victims of something. They all have their political opinions, their past, their ambitions, friends and lovers. What Disco Elysium was able to do is create a small little glimpse of what humanity is, in its deep concepts.

So is this game super serious? Is it just depressingly realistic?

Yes and no, Disco Elysium is supposed to be fun. The game is not depressing. If you do want to have fun, you will. You do not have to choose the “serious” path. Some players can just have fun picking the worst lines and just do drugs to have a trippy playthrough. The fun of the game resides in the simple fact that you will NEVER have the COMPLETE same playthrough as someone else on the Internet, or one of your friends that played it. The reason is that the content of this game is HUGE. There are way way way too many different paths and decisions that you can make that will have a direct influence on your story : all of this, while still keeping the main theme & story relevant. You can redeem yourself, be an idiot, help the locals, be a creep, deliver good news or announce the death of a loved one. You get to choose what you do with your awful past : fight through it or embrace being the worst version of yourself.

The art direction :

Last but not least, the art direction. What makes this game so unique is the music as well as the art direction. When I tell you that this video-game that I thought would be the most boring one I have ever launched made me bawl my eyes and that hearing the music will always make me feel a sense of nostalgia even though I barely finished it a couple of days ago.


The future of this game :

Disco Elysium is a game that begs for more. If you are interested in game-development, you quickly realize that this game is a little miracle. It is truly impressive that it actually came out considering the conditions it was made in, driven purely by passion and only passion of creativity. It was only supposed to be an introduction to a bigger project, you can tell once you reach the end. Unfortunately, as stated before, it will probably never happen due to the current state of the studio, which is a bit ironic when you see that the game criticized exactly the kind of incident that happened within ZAUM. I think I do speak for every player that enjoyed this game by saying that everyone and I mean, EVERYONE would love that the artistic team could gather again to do another project similar to Disco Elysium. There unfortunately will not be another game with the same vision than this one. Sure, there could be copies, or people trying to do the same concept. But Révachol, Harry, Kim, all the thought cards and their unique, hand-painted portraits, will always have a place in the hearts of the players.



To the original creators, thank you for making this game. Things turned out in a frustrating way development wise, but every single person this game resonated with has been grateful ever since they pressed the “Play” button. Hopefully, one day, we will see Jamlock and hear those iconic trumpets once again as a soft-hued sun rises upon our protagonist. And most of it all, it made me understand someone in my life and his battles a bit better.

Thank you for reading.

I am absolutely horrendous at FPS. Never played them earlier on in my life, never really took an interest in it except maybe some mainstreams multiplayer ones to have fun with some friends. I decided to buy Ultrakill because I thought that the music was fire and ended up ABSOLUTELY addicted.

Honestly, it is so surprising how much this game is fun to me, every time that I launched it, I just couldn't bring myself to stop playing and wonder : what will happen this time ? What kind of scenery will this door's level open into ? You should have seen my face during the Clair de Lune's stage(just stood there to listen to the music with eyes wide open), or the Gabriel's interlude at the end of Act I.

There is just something about Ultrakill that is just FUN. Regarding of the genre, it can convince anyone to just get into it and make them curious about what will come next. And all of this, no matter how terrible they initially were at shooters.

Cool game! My favorite one in a while. Cannot stop drawing them robots & angels.

I am VERY surprised by how much this game is underated !

It is an absolutely charming experience with GORGEOUS graphics : the characters are full of personalities and each areas are just fascinating to explore. The platforming both has the option to be quite challenging by taking an item that transform your run into a no-hit one, or you can just chill and bounce around.

Seriously, this is really creative : the Belle and Chime duo is so adorable !
I feel very lucky that one of the pixel-artist posted about their game in my livestream chat and very grateful to the friend who gifted it to me after wishlisting it : i can already tell that I will have a blast exploring the areas this game as to offer !

Fully recommended <3

I booted this game expecting a samourai in a dystopian cyberpunk setting that would be slashing people around. Hotline miami type, with just enough challenge and smooth gameplay. That kinda happened.

What I did not expect was having tears in my eyes and finishing this game absolutely soul-crushed.
10/10 would do it again. Will 100% the achievements and wait patiently for the DLC.

A lot of love and craft was put into The Last Faith.
Of course, the first thing that comes to mind for everyone that has played and enjoyed Blasphemous is how much the two games are similar. Yet, The Last Faith will slowly grow into its own thing, heavily inspired by gothic-like themes and costumes. You also have the possibility early on to choose your own class, and the weapon/item system has its own dynamic approach that I personally enjoyed.

The voice-acting, cutscenes, and ESPECIALLY the pixelart is lovely too. Maybe just at first, the way the protagonist grunted each time he jumped surprised me a bit aha
There is challenge as well, and while I didn't finish the game yet, it definitely matches what I love in metroidvanias and I already know that I will have a blast playing the rest of it ! :)

Definitely will follow Kumi Souls Games's next works ♡

Absolutely unplayable in this current state.
Even with the lowest settings, performance is still awful. Road to refund.

I was quite surprised when I got gifted this game as it just came out.
I have to say that everything about Moonstone is lovely, and that an insane amount of precise craft as well as creative love was put into it. The devs really made it with their entire heart, and it shows.

It is a great mix between Stardew Valley, Pokemon, or even Little Woods and many more cozy sand-box type of games. The artstyle especially reminds me of this very dear to my heart Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap. Both music and sounds effects are immersive, and I sincerely think that Moonstone Island will be the new and refreshing 2D Animal Crossing people were longing for.

I saw other people mentionning the potential personalization of the main-character, but I am sure that if it is not something that will be customizable later on in the game, it will be in later updates.

On my side, it is a very well welcomed surprise that comes at a very lovely timing in those trying times. ♡

Happy launch to everyone who made Moonstone Island, and bravo again for this really really pretty pixelart : it is an entire art lesson everywhere I'm looking while playing !! 𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒