Very interesting premise. It's set in a bizarre version of Kowloon Walled City. The atmosphere is very strong, and its equally weird denizens are always funny to chat with. However, the gameplay part of this free prequel is the lowest point of it. The combat is very easy and boring, requiring no tactics whatsoever, and grid based movement feels like it slows down the exploration arbitrarily. Despite all that, I enjoyed checking every corner, since there are numerous secrets and easter eggs to find out. If you think this more as an exploration game rather than a dungeon crawler, I think you'll get the most enjoyment. I look forward to the full game!

i love this so much and its so sick seriously the only reason i wouldnt give this 5 stars is its a prequel/demo of sorts for an unreleased game. which im super excited to play when its eventually released. with that said, even as a demo there is SO MUCH content here to find and invest time into if ur interested and each new discovery is even more surreal and strange than the previous one. really really cool ps1-esque surrealist adventure that verges on horror in some settings. the combat isnt the best, easy to cheese and not all that complicated, but its aesthetics and atmosphere is incredible. sergios mix is iconic. also the intro cutscene and the chapter screens have an obvious inspiration from the silver case and thats Awesome

The game starts hard as fuck with a sick cutscene montage, some genuinly impressive in game world TV advertisements, and a well written dark parody image board.
That set my expectations high: Crass but pointed writing, packed in wildly unpredicable aesthetics.

Unfortunately, we never hit those highs again. While I vibe with the visuals a lot (very Umurangi Generations), we never really get any closer to meaning than "Things are absurd and vaguely fucked up" for the rest of this Prologue. The Turn-based combat is very basic and never challenging. Exploration is hindered by the movement system - I am all for novel choices if there is a strong intent behind them, but I dont see what moving in tile based dungeoncrawler style is adding to the game, apart from annoying you.

Special shoutout to Sergio, your sidekick, one of the most hateable characters I have ever seen in a video game. What an absolute asshole, thank god he s dead.

Despite everything I am still interested in checking out the finished game, the vibes are undeniable and there are some occasional pearls in here (standout was the guy writing his name on a Home invasion thread, to then ask you to please not kill him, he just wanted to hang out with someone, look, he even bought snacks), but as a stand alone game it s not very strong