Recent reviews by Vahn Seele

Demon waifus. Puzzle make brain hurt. Bosses tough.

Pancakes/10, would do it all again.

I wasn't sure what to expect installing this game. I saw some articles and found myself drawn to give it a try. Maybe I was drawn in with the cutesy character design or the idea of a "cozy hunter gather RPG". Either way, I'm glad that I played it.

PROS:
- The leveling system of passing "time" by doing tasks and using the accumulated time to train stats with a minigame helps to break up the monotony. I found myself keeping an eye on the Training counter in the top left, eager to apply points.
- The story is good. It has some predictable moments, but I think that a story like this, that has moments that can be missed, help to add some layer to an RPG. We don't need someone to reinvent the wheel with every new RPG.
- The combat system wasn't hard to learn. If anything, I found myself manipulating elements of it and becoming overpowered early on. The inclusion of the pets and the easy-to-understand crafting system made it easy to stay ahead of the enemies.

CONS
- Maybe this isn't a con, but I found that I missed things that had no impact on my gameplay style. I committed to a Life Staff early on and never strayed from it. There never came a point that I had to change up my style to deal with enemies. I just kept powering up and things kept dying. I did miss a spellbook that had the crafting recipes for the Support Magic Circles and I was kicking myself that I found it at the very end of the game. It would've made earlier combat easier, but it was obviously not a requirement.

That said, there are things that are not as obvious to you that they need to be done. I missed getting a key for the shipwreck because I was engrossed in the story and I can't be bothered to replay it to get the one thing I missed. There's also a lack of prompting for using certain items, such as when acquiring one of the pets or opening a door. You just have to "know" that you can use an item there.
- I have poor vision and I found myself skipping dialogue, especially when it was light text on white background. I'm sure there are some elements of the story I missed, but I would suggest having text easier to read for those that are visually impaired.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I love this game. I wasn't aware this game existed and I'm happy to see that a game that was on mobile, a platform that I can't play due to my limited vision, was brought to PC. I will be watching this series going forward and enjoying every bit of it (I hope).

There are a lot of good and bad things to consider when reviewing this title. If you are a fan of visual novels with interesting gameplay mechanics, it would be worth picking up. At the time of this review, it's definitely worth it at $16.

Pros:
- Most of the game has voiced lines, with the internal monologue for scenes left silent
- Characters have a lot of unique qualities. Most of them fall into various tropes that any fans of anime will pick up on easily, which may annoy some.
- The branching paths have logical reasoning when reviewed in hind sight. I was only locked from a path twice in my playthrough
- When swapping paths, there are logs to help remind you of what occurred on a path you are returning to.
- The story kept me guessing on what was going on. As I have played a few visual novels from Spike Chunsoft, I felt a lot of curve balls being thrown that led me down the wrong path and kept me guessing about the real story.

Cons
- Some scenes require a lot of clicking around to exhaust all lines of dialogue before you can move on. This leaves some tedium when in a scene for too long.
- If you aren't a fan of anime or visual novels constantly throwing flashbacks at you, some scenes will drag on with a "we get it" vibe hanging over the scene
- The reuse of animations and sets can be tedious. (Watching Ota be spoonfed omelet rice wasn't fun the first time, let alone the other five.)
- Quick time events. These aren't as bad as they could be, but I still hate them.

I enjoyed the 20ish hours of time I spent with the game. It's nice to see a visual novel that allows you to explore multiple routes and has mechanics that give incentive to see everything along the way. The hard locks I hit were not clear on how to bypass them, but I only had to ask for help on one Somnium event.

The game does a great job of telling a story with the environment. Something has happened that has left the world in a state of disarray, but that doesn't matter to you.

You are a cat.

Through exploration and interaction, you gradually progress the story and learn that the world has ended, at least for humanity. The matter of what happened doesn't take the forefront, though. This cat just wants to go back outside, and their robot friend will help guide the way there.

The game has beautiful atmosphere, with a very "show, don't tell" way of conveying what is and has happened. The graphics are great, with only a few stutters for me during moments when the area seemed to be loading in with some heavy blur.

The game is not a long one, which is not a bad thing in this case. There is a limit to the novelty of running around and causing trouble as a cat and the game knows this all too well. With a 4-5 hour playtime, Stray earns my thumbs up.

Neon White is an interesting game. I've never been one for speedrunning, but this is one game that encouraged me to replay levels to try and move faster. Trying levels multiple times, I began to feel the muscle memory kicking in as I went faster and faster on each level. I've always thought I couldn't play a game like this, since I don't have the greatest reflexes for first person games.

The game is very accessible, and it has built-in systems to help people learn to play. I found myself using the game level hints less and less as I played. I found the faster methods of traversing the levels, using my soul cards optimally to fit the run time I was aiming for.

The story is a little predictable, but it captured me, driving me to get the optional gift items to see more of the story.

I don't recommend playing this game on a controller. It doesn't play as well, as mouse and keyboard will get you the precision you need to get faster times.

Overall, this is a great game. If you want to put your speedrunning abilities to the test, this would be the game to get you started. The visual novel moments are good, with voices for the main story and dialogue that stays consistent for each character.

It's a tragedy that I found this game through Humble Bundle. Indie games like this deserve a bit more spotlight.

The Good:

The game has a very light story. I found myself enjoying the interaction between characters. The dialogue was written well and allowed for a bit of development for the protagonist. Every step of the way, the game continues to build on the story of what happened on the island years ago. The combat is fluid and didn't have very many moments that left me upset.

The Bad:

This may be an issue I have with judging distance, but I felt like I was hit by enemies due to my lack of being able to judge distance. This hasn't always been a problem for me, but I found myself avoiding combat once I had unlocked all of the hearts in the game. Combat felt pointless after that, outside of the required sections. The collectibles were a little annoying, but I didn't have to go back to the same area twice to get them all. Without a map, I felt a little lost in some areas.

Overall:

The game is short, sweet and to the point. It doesn't overstay its welcome, giving you enough of an experience to want more, but letting it have a moment of closure. I did find myself sad at the end that there wasn't more, but seeing that the game is $15, I understood. This game gives me a "labor of love" feeling and opens up the possibility for more, if the developer can see some success from the title.

If you can look past the short playtime and absorb it as an indie experience, this would be a refreshing take on top-down pixel art action games.

I've watched a few video essays that talk about this game and they do it better justice than I can. I'll be brief.

Spiritfarer is a game about helping the spirits of the dead pass on. You assume the role of Stella and her cat, Daffodil, to take on the task of befriending and letting go of those you meet in your journey. You'll do various activities to help them find their way, such as cooking, smithing, carpentry and loom-ing.

As spirits pass on, they leave behind their home as a memory, as well as the skills they taught you to gather unique ingredients and craft items. They leave an impression on you, from their stories and the interactions you share.

Each spirit will give a different feeling, with some hitting close to home and others less so. The choice to leave may be theirs to make, but they won't go without you. Do you hold them onboard past the point of their acceptance? As the Spiritfarer, that's your call to make.

The game has no hard difficulty to it. Failing a task doesn't bring penalty. It offers you as long as you need to complete each task, with no timer and no stress of a "game over" screen.

I enjoyed this game a lot. It made me sad and helped me to sort through some things I'm still processing about death in my own life. If you want a game that has a strong narrative experience, with a play at your own pace style of gameplay, give it a try.

I'd say the analysis was a little close to home. Definitely had me getting a little introspective.

Secret Word: Order

Every year or so, a new indie game comes out that stands out from the rest. On the surface, it's a polished game, with an innocent veneer and plain concept. Once that outer layer is peeled away, though, you find something more interesting with every turn.

I recommend going into this game with a few things in mind:

- You don't have to be a brilliant strategist
- Randomness could hurt or help you, but victory is possible
- Be prepared to try different things

For $20 USD, this game is worth every penny.

m o n i k a

111111111111/20