Recent reviews by LittleThiefCat

This one goes out to everyone who's ever known a Savy. Great game, and a breath of fresh air for games about interpersonal relationships.

Solid co-op horror game. Some of the monsters feel a little overtuned-- especially in chapter 4-- but we managed to clear all current story content before any individual chapter got more frustrating than fun. Looking forward to procedural mode.

This game is extremely rough around the edges. But what it lacks in polish, it more than makes up for in charm. This is a very cute, somewhat silly game about running a cat cafe in a pastel-colored magical world. If you enjoy games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, or Littlewood I would recommend giving it a shot.

This was an absolutely stunning game, the kind that reminds me why I love the medium to begin with. You can feel the love packed in every corner to explore and every collectible to find. I highly recommend this game to fans of murder mysteries.

Little Hope is an excellent experience, one that has clearly learned a lot of lessons from Man of Medan. Don't get me wrong, I love Man of Medan-- but when I recommend that game to friends it's with a caveat: play it in co-op. The unique and engaging co-op experience carries Man of Medan through a lot of things I wouldn't necessarily put up with in a single player game. That unique and engaging experience is still present (and highly recommended) in Little Hope, but this game doesn't need that crutch to stand on its own. It's a wonderfully written and well-executed horror game start to finish. The performance and graphics are much improved from its predecessor. The sound design in particular is en pointe and really adds to some of the death sequences. All in all, I fully recommend this game.

There are a lot of things to like about Man of Medan, including the engaging and unique co op experience it offers (for reference, I played shared story but have not played movie night). It also handles choices and branching paths better than any other game I've played-- choices matter and affect the game and ending immensely, and a second playthrough feels very different than an initial one.

There are also a lot of things to dislike about Man of Medan. The story ends up being largely predictable and uninteresting, the characters err toward unlikable and flat, and the controls are garbage. Additionally, one missed cue in a lengthy QTE shouldn't be the difference between a character living and dying-- and maybe it's possible to have multiple saves playing solo, but in co op the collectibles menu won't come up and you're stuck with one autosave. You can't easily retry anything.

Despite having a lengthier list of criticisms, I really think the unique co op experience outweighs all the bad. It was worth a playthrough at full price (x2) for my partner and I.

The metaplot with the Curator is also intriguing, and I hope subsequent games in the series lean into exploring that.

I'm going to preface this review by saying I 100% recommend this visual novel. For the most part it's a fun (if depressing) ride that tells some good stories.

Note that I say 'some'.

Steins;Gate 0, unlike its predecessor, is not a linear experience. It branches out into multiple endings that explore different characters but similar themes. Where it shines the most is when you're entrenched in the mysteries surrounding the deuteragonists of the story, and all the pieces are slowly coming together to tell a story about loss, sacrifice, and perseverance. More interestingly it also tells a story of resentment mired with self-loathing-- in other words, imposter syndrome, something that hits close to home as a scientist myself.

Without going into spoiler territory, the story falls apart where it attempts to resolve these mysteries-- or rather where it doesn't. Plot threads are hinted at and then dropped as red herrings; characters disappear the moment they cease being relevant in any given branch; things are left vague to toy with the player's expectations from other branches, only to never really have a conclusion. Where Steins;Gate was a very tight story where every detail mattered and came together at the end, Steins;Gate 0 is a game where details are thrown at a wall left and right, and some of them stick, some of them don't, and some of them are slammed against the player's head repeatedly until they never want to hear the word 'hard-drive' again.

In turn, Steins;Gate 0 is riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies. Some people will say you need to read extra material to get the full story, but a game that can't tell a full story without supplementary material has failed as a storytelling device.

All that said, when Steins;Gate 0 works, it *works*. While it may take place in the middle of Okabe Rintaro's story, it gives other characters the depth and denouements they deserve. If the true ending is disappointing, it's only because the game built up to something so much greater, and you'll be left wanting so much more.

As much as I loved Hotel and Roots, Paradise is a clear weak link in the series. Many of the puzzles are repetitive and mind numbing. To give an example that's not in the game, think of those wood block sliding puzzles where you have to clear a path to get something from one side to the next. Now imagine you figure out the winning strategy, and then you have to do it 9 more times just because. Instead of leaving you with a sense of pride or fulfillment at figuring out the solution, it ends up just feeling like a chore that you're happy to be done with.

Some puzzles give little to no indication of what the game expects you to do (the drum puzzle sticks out as particularly obtuse). Other puzzles require you to play through the game linearly-- even if you figure out the solution early on (this is true in at least chapter 10, when you have to spell a word.) Even more puzzles require unique interactions with the environment that aren't obvious or intuitive.

The storyline is more abstract than ever, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you're coming into this expecting some kind of denoument for the rest of the series you're in for a disappointment. There are some charming bits; the characters are on the whole more likeable and fun than in previous installments, and some of the secrets in the environment do a good job of building up atmosphere and dread. Between the interactions with the cast and the occassional fun puzzle, the game is worth a playthrough for fans, but it's definitely not worth 100%ing.

Poor controls, a plot that reads like a bad fanfiction, and some nonsensical sequences of events you'll likely need a guide to stumble into. Don't waste your time on this one.

A fun little game that would have benefitted from harder puzzles.