There aren't many games that can emotionally move me as much as this game does. It starts off as a slice of life story between a high school couple and a simple date to the movies. The story then quickly spirals into a mystery where strange occurrences appear throughout the town. Lots of supernatural and fantasy elements here.
The story deals with some serious and mature themes and even starts off with a warning of such nature. Despite the colorful tone and atmosphere early in the game, there are a lot of dark heavy moments hiding beneath it that left me uncomfortable at times. The emotional journey does end with a satisfying conclusion albeit leaving some plot points up to interpretation.
Other than the main characters, there's a lot of NPCs to interact with and a decent chunk of them are involved in the main story. Their personal stories are decently developed despite their small screentime. The writing as a whole is well executed.
The art direction and the pixelated graphics looks great with a decent range of animation.
The music is on the pleasant side with many well composed piano pieces. There are a few vocal tracks that help supplement the emotional moments.
The gameplay is similar to point and click adventure games. You move a character on a 2D plane and enter different rooms or areas on the side. There's a large amount of NPCs roaming the area that you can talk to. Puzzles are placed throughout the game and range from incredibly simple to more complex ones. The latter are not very common.
There's a mechanic that allows the player to dive within the mind/soul of a character to help resolve issues. All of these involve solving puzzles in some form.
Despite how it seems, there are actual combat moments which mostly involve inputting QTEs. These aren't difficult in general fortunately.
There are collectibles and a few optional sidequests in the game. However, getting all of these collectibles can be a hassle if you want to view a bonus scene at the end of the game. Many of the collectibles are chapter locked so there's no way to go back and get them if you missed out the first time other than do a completely new playthrough. Fortunately, Youtube exists.
Overall, the gameplay is decent and relaxing most of the time. Just a few frustrating moments on some of the QTEs and puzzles. The gameplay is actually very similar to 13 Sentinels' story portion of the game for those that are familiar with it.
The game takes about 10 hours to complete on a blind playthrough and recommended for those that want to experience a strong emotional story.
The story deals with some serious and mature themes and even starts off with a warning of such nature. Despite the colorful tone and atmosphere early in the game, there are a lot of dark heavy moments hiding beneath it that left me uncomfortable at times. The emotional journey does end with a satisfying conclusion albeit leaving some plot points up to interpretation.
Other than the main characters, there's a lot of NPCs to interact with and a decent chunk of them are involved in the main story. Their personal stories are decently developed despite their small screentime. The writing as a whole is well executed.
The art direction and the pixelated graphics looks great with a decent range of animation.
The music is on the pleasant side with many well composed piano pieces. There are a few vocal tracks that help supplement the emotional moments.
The gameplay is similar to point and click adventure games. You move a character on a 2D plane and enter different rooms or areas on the side. There's a large amount of NPCs roaming the area that you can talk to. Puzzles are placed throughout the game and range from incredibly simple to more complex ones. The latter are not very common.
There's a mechanic that allows the player to dive within the mind/soul of a character to help resolve issues. All of these involve solving puzzles in some form.
Despite how it seems, there are actual combat moments which mostly involve inputting QTEs. These aren't difficult in general fortunately.
There are collectibles and a few optional sidequests in the game. However, getting all of these collectibles can be a hassle if you want to view a bonus scene at the end of the game. Many of the collectibles are chapter locked so there's no way to go back and get them if you missed out the first time other than do a completely new playthrough. Fortunately, Youtube exists.
Overall, the gameplay is decent and relaxing most of the time. Just a few frustrating moments on some of the QTEs and puzzles. The gameplay is actually very similar to 13 Sentinels' story portion of the game for those that are familiar with it.
The game takes about 10 hours to complete on a blind playthrough and recommended for those that want to experience a strong emotional story.