Recent reviews by robinrescues

Tiles don't match up visually with other tiles the way they look like they should. Attempting to play this is just an exercise in frustration right now.

Far better to play Tsuro, a similar game that actually works correctly. The paths clearly show what tiles match with no guessing.

Overall it was an entertaining story. There were 22+ different paths, but I would have preferred more depth to fewer stories. Art was lovely and music fit well with the story.

I felt that Tyrna was way to eager to flirt up the first guy she sees, especially right after her father's death.
I felt Gavin was helpful but annoying. He was way too eager to declare his love for someone he barely knows.
Most endings wind up with Tyrna and Gavin together.

Still, I literally don't understand why Tyrna's supposed to settle for a half elf ranger with a speedy horse when she can have a frickin DRAGON.

A strong dragon.
A powerful dragon.
A magnificent dragon.
A dragon who can conquer the world.

Like, zzeerroo contest there boy-o.
Sure, her father wouldn't approve - but he's dead.
Sorry Gavin, it's time to get my Daenerys on.
and unlike Daenerys, there will be no arm candy to stop me.
Dragon Queen has a lovely ring to it.

Slag and Tyrna forever!

I got this game for the rainbow letter/number achievements, but was pleasantly surprised to find the game was more fun then I thought it would be.

There are photos of girls that are covered by the ocean. You need to section off the majority of the water to reveal the girl underneath, who smiles when you clear the board. The girl's outfits range from elegant kimonos to super skimpy swimsuits. There's no nudity, but it's pretty suggestive.

The cute little sea creatures went from mildly inconvenient hazards to actively trying to stop your progress, and it was fun to clear boards.
The music was pleasant and not distracting or jarring, and fit the relaxing tropical vibe of the game well.
I didn't like the girls voices , but there is a way to turn off the voices.

When I bought the game, I thought I would play for the achievements then delete it. I'm happy to say I've changed my mind. The game has grown on me, and it's a fun way to relax. It's really fun to just pick up and play anytime, and it doesn't require a huge time commitment. I continue to enjoy playing it long after I got my 100% achievements.

TL;DR: Gritty zombie survival meets hidden object game - Yes Please! As a fan of both zombies and HOG games, this game was exactly what I wanted.

There's two modes of game play - casual and expert. There is a tutorial, and I found it was very helpful. I enjoyed the hidden object scenes, and was able to complete them all without hints. I enjoyed most of the puzzles, and was able to complete all but one of them without hints.

PROS
The story is interesting - you wake up in a hospital bed feeling awful and holding your daughter's stuffed bear. Except the hospital is deserted, and the place is a total wreck. Something is very wrong here. You must find your husband Stan and daughter Emily; and discover what happened. Bits of the story unfold through hospital memos, newspapers, etc along the way. Eventually you can read the emails on a computer and put the entire story together.
The overall setting was done very well - everything had a gritty rust-toned color that constantly reminded you that you were in a post "things-gone-bad" town. Objects often were worn or broken, and the overall atmosphere was well done.
There was good attention to detail in the setting - leaves were falling from trees, a fire was burning on an overturned car, bugs flying around an open trash car, police car lights were flashing - all these small details helped the setting to become immersive - so much that in the sporting goods store I actually jumped when I had to get the power tool and the zombie sat up and scared me.
I loved that your character had a health meter, and that you needed a certain level of health to do some actions. It reminded you that you were just coming out of a coma and feeling poorly, yet were on a search for your family and had to press onward as you were unsure of how safe it was to stay in an area of infected zombies with little chance to defend yourself. I found the health stat was an interesting game mechanic that helped me to stay immersed in the story. I also felt that looking for health packs seemed directly relevant to your character and the overall story, as opposed to some other HOG's where you search for faeries, snow globes etc.
The music is really well suited to the game. It's nothing I would want to listen to as a soundtrack, but it's appropriately tense creepy vibe came through and made the game immersion even better for me.

NEUTRAL
There was no voice acting, but I didn't mind that because the silence seemed to bring out the idea that you really were along in a town full of infected "zombies" and had no one to talk to. However, I would have appreciated voice acting for the few conversations that did occur - like seeing Stan in the theater and when you finally found Emily. Adding this could have really emphasized how important it was to reconnect with your family, even if only briefly.
There's no achievements and no trading cards/emotes/backgrounds. YMMV on if you like or dislike this. I appreciated the lack of achievements, but would have liked to see trading cards as an additional way to support the developer.

CONS
There is a map, but it is static with no animations and it does not allow for fast travel (you have to walk everywhere).
Although you didn't have a lot of interaction with other people during the story, the few times that you did the characters looked unnatural. This was most noticeable with Stan in the movie theater - his hair was so shiny and stiff it looked like a helmet, or like he used an entire can of hairspray on it. I felt that this was a result of him being close to turning but it would have been nice to have this explained in-game.
It's a minor nitpick, but I didn't like that if you need 4 items for a puzzle and you have 2 of the items in your inventory, you can't leave the 2 objects at the puzzle and come back later with the other 2 items. You have to have all the items to start the puzzle, and until then the partial items must stay in your inventory.

VALUE FOR THE MONEY
I got this bundled, so I defiantly got my money's worth out of my purchase. Grabbing it on sale can help to offset the short game play time.
I also own the other two games in the "Small Town Terrors" series, and I look forward to playing them.

TL;DR: Ami's coming out story is short but quite relatable. Her story is a good first attempt at creating a VN and is fairly priced. I'm looking forward to more of the author's games.

NOTE: Please keep in mind the game was updated and redone in Ren'Py. Some things mentioned in older reviews (saves don't work, display issues, lacking full screen, etc ) have been fixed along with a new character and route being added.

This is the story of Ami, a shy socially awkward girl who is a lesbian and in the closet. It's the story of Ami's coming out to her parents, her friends, and her love interest(s).
The story takes place at Goddess of Peace, an all girl's school. It's recently been decided that all seniors must join a club, and on the advice of her BFF Ria, Ami decides to join coding club. While working on creating a video game with the club president Lise, her catgirl character Starla comes to life.


PROS
The VN is short so we didn't get to know the characters as well as I'd like, but all the characters were likeable.
There are 4 yuri (female + female) romances - best friend Ria, coding club Lise, catgirl ninja Starla and catgirl farmer Eiko. I found all the routes to be adorable.
All routes have a happy ending.
The art is cute - characters expressions (mostly) change to fit what they are saying, reacting to, etc. It could have used a few more body poses though.

NEUTRAL
It appears that different artists used? There's places where characters bodies change - example: Ami went from rather busty in the scene where she's playing video games to nearly flat chested in the kissing scene with Starla.
Because the story is short, the character development is limited. However, I think it was ok for price.

CONS
I had difficulty unlocking the "Oops I made it again!" achievement - I was able to unlock it after deleting 2 files then restarting the game. Instructions here
The length of the story means the 2 catgirl routes feel somewhat rushed, like insta!love.
As with most VN's, there's not much "replay value" as the endings don't change - however, like a favorite book I do enjoy reading certain routes again.

TRADING CARDS / BADGES
Badges are 3 objects from the story and 2 paw prints.
There's 1 emote for each character, and they're cute.
The backgrounds are the characters on a solid black background. They're a bit plain but nice enough. Still, I wish the characters were on the pink paw prints or game locations, instead of being on solid black.

VALUE FOR THE MONEY
For the price (currently $3 USD), I feel it was a good VN story and I enjoyed reading it.

I enjoyed the music, and it's nice to listen to in the background. While it was pleasant with a bit of a jazzy vibe, nothing was particularly memorable though.
To me, $4. USD does seem a bit pricey for 27 minutes of background music.
I'm going to give this a cautious recommend, but ONLY if you can get it bundled or on sale.

TL;DR: True Lover's Knot is a short slice-of-life about being treated to a cruise by your best pal and finding love (or not) along the way.
The premise and writing were okay, but the repeated non skippable match 3/4/5 game jars you out of the story.
Getting achievements requires rolling back to an earlier build, which has broken images for controls and looks awful.
I can't recommend buying this when there's several free VN's with better writing, better art, and more features.
If you really love match 3/4/5 games and don't mind them repeatedly inturrupting a story, then I would change to "cautiously recommending".


Step into the shoes of Emma, a London tech girl who is being treated to a cruise by her best pal Lucas. Aboard the ship you will have a second chance at love with your college ex Scott and be romanced by cruise guest Santi.

PROS
The premise and delivery of the love story on vacation was good. The writing style has improved over some earlier VN's.
The characters are varied, and (mostly) likeable.
The character art is nice, and some characters do change clothing during the story.
There is a (skippable) local tour you can take in 2 port cities, which gives you local facts on 2 towns you visit during the cruise.
The soundtrack music is good, and fits the scenes well.

NEUTRAL
Achievements do not trigger unless you install the old version, available by right clicking the title in your steam library, then selecting properties, then "oldversion". The controls are broken images, so navigation will be difficult. It does accept saved games from the current version, so you can read most of the story right up to the final choice point, then switch to the old version for achievements.
The game isn't voiced, but there is a point in the game where the 2 male love interests leave you voicemail messages. That's it.
There isn't much character development as the cruise takes place over a week.
The video cut scenes are skippable.
You're not able to take screenshots, but the dev posted a workaround, here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/416630/discussions/0/492378806374551762/

CONS
There's no CG gallery.
The characters have only 1 static pose, which can look a bit out of place in some situations.
There are only 2 love interests, and both are male. Personally I found Santi repulsive after that disgusting pick up line. I'm also not a fan of Insta!Love between characters. That leaves only Scott, who I did like. Not liking 1 of the 2 love interests made the game even shorter then expected for me.
The story is really short, and the attempts to hide this with one sentence per page just means sore wrists from the repeated clicking.
Your choices don't affect the story until the end, where you choose your partner (or not).
Once you pick a love interest, the endings are rushed and not detailed very well. There's a few quick sentences of wrap up and that's it.
The non skippable match 3/4/5 mini game was okay for the first few times, but when it keep repeating over and over it became annoying. It stopped being a fun break and became a chore. It also really jars you out of the story, and the constant interruption did impact my enjoyment of the story. If it wasn't for the mini game, I might have read the story again. With the mini game not being skippable, I uninstalled as soon as I got all 4 achievements. There really needs to be a skip button for those who don't enjoy match 3 games, or for those who prefer to be immersed in the story.
The match 3/4/5 mini game has no effect on story. It's not skippable and although it's not particularly hard, you must beat the game to continue reading. I think it would have been better if your success at the mini game was relevant to the story - perhaps by giving Emma extra money to buy clothes, or adding new dialogue options later on.


TRADING CARDS / BADGES
Badges are nautical themed, and look nice. Five emotes are summer beachy themed, done in blue and white. Three backgrounds are characters on a black background.
All are pretty inexpensive.

VALUE FOR THE MONEY
I found True Lover's Knot to be a Terrible Value. I'm a slow reader, but $7 USD for about 2 hours of reading and repeated interruptions to play non skippable match-3/4/5 mini game, with no replay value is pretty overpriced to me.

If the VN was $2 and the match 3 was skippable, this review would be positive. As it is, I really can't recommend TLN to anyone.

TL;DR: If you enjoy jigsaw puzzles and cats, this game offers many different puzzles of adorable cats. I feel the game was a good value for the money, and I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys jigsaw puzzles and cats.

PROS
Adorable Cats!
Family friendly, safe to play around or with little ones.
There's nothing too complicated about this game, it's just a fun way to enjoy beautiful cat jigsaw puzzles without worrying about my cats hiding the puzzle pieces on me. :D
It's really easy to pick up and play any time, as each puzzle is fairly short. So when you find yourself unexpectedly waiting for 15 minutes and are looking to pass some time, this is a great game as it's fun without requiring a long time commitment to play.

NEUTRAL
Puzzle pieces do not require turning, and are facing in the correct direction. This can be a positive for those liking a more relaxing game or a negative for those who wish more of a challenge.
There are no achievements. You earn stars based on how fast you complete the puzzle, but no one sees your stars but you. So while there's some pressure to complete the puzzles quickly, you can also ignore it if you like.

CONS
Honestly, I can't think of anything bad to say about this game.

VALUE FOR THE MONEY
I was entertained and had fun playing this game. I feel the game was a good value for the money, and I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys jigsaw puzzles and cats.

TL;DR: Journey to a remote polar base in Greenland and step into the shoes of Rune, a Norwegian biologist studying polar bears at an oil refinery base. Get engrossed in a creepy story about an evil lurking just beyond the northern lights in this point and click adventure.

PROS
I loved the story! The ambiance builds slowly - as the aurora brightens up the night sky, the crew has nightmares which cause paranoia and madness to set in.
Puzzles were logical and made sense. There's no time limit to finish them, so you can explore as much as you like.

NEUTRAL
The ending wasn't what I had hoped for, but I can see how it made logical sense given the story arc.
Some reviewers have mentioned poor graphics and choppy cut scenes. I experienced neither of those issues, and my windows PC is rather low end. Perhaps that was some of the issues fixed along the way?

CON
I had difficulty on a specific puzzle and I couldn't figure out how to move forward. When I had checked a guide, it turns out I had to click rather precisely on a certain area of the object.
It would have been nice to have an adjustable difficulty scale to the puzzles - so casual players can relax and hardcore puzzle veterans can be challenged.

I enjoyed the soundtrack, and found it pleasant and enjoyable to listen to.
The main theme has a very cute, playful feeling, it's probably my favorite
I could pass on the "club scene" track (La Bouteille Rouge) though.

One down side - I couldn't find a place to listen to the director's commentary from within the game.