Vibes for days. It's like Inside meets Metroid. Super engaging to explore metroidvania with strong atmosphere. Very promising.
(Never even heard of it and just stumbled upon it now - this why I love Next Fest)

Highly recommend

I don't know the original as I didn't play jrpg games as a kid. But after Chained Echoes I'm starting to pay attention.
This remake looks beautiful and plays very well. Battle system feels weird at first but very quickly becamed fun. Characters and story (so far) left good impression too. I really like this.

Highly recommend

Unique blend of two genres in The Truman Show (like) world. Awesome. Demo is just 20 min, give it a look.

Highly recommended

This recipe is:
Take FTL: Faster Than Light
Add Slay the Spire
Blend it
On top: dodge mechanic
Served with: Endearing style

= Highly recommended

Exploration and narrative focused adventure game. My jam™. Controls need to tighten up. So floaty and unresponsive. Game (demo) as a whole has nice flow and charming vibes. Also runs very well and that's not the case with "big area" 3D Indie games often.
Unfortunately (for me) it seems that this will be closer to collectathon style of games like Omno. As opposed to wonder+atmosphere style of games like Journey or Sable, which is what I would prefer much, much more.

Still, highly recommended

I don't know which visual style impressed me more. The 8bit one, of "in-game" part or surprisingly great looking FMV cutscene. The combat on the other hand...was a bit painful. Too clunky for my skills so I'm hoping for some difficulty/accessibility options in the full game.
Piecing clues together and uncovering "what the hell happened here" was very intriguing. The story seems to be going to the psychological branch of the horror and I love that.

Highly recommended

Moving through hexagonal map with 4-member caravan, exploring and managing supplies is quite engaging and enjoyable. Turn-based combat uses special abilities of each member only, so no simple attacks and no MP management. Pretty fun, but not annoyingly difficult. Due to the somewhat rogue lite nature though, supplies are scarce. Writing isn't bad but it feels a bit weird in places. Due to the translation from non-english original perhaps? Maybe it's just my english idk.
Recommended

Survival Horror with over-the-shoulder camera and it isn't RE clone! Infact it looks very unique. Playing the detective, basically, is great even if a little overwhelming for the demo.
I don't know how i feel about re-shuffling of the town streets after death. And definitely not a fan of constant threat that kills you in one hit.

Nonetheless, recommended

Mesmerizing style and so much of it.
I'm torn though, because the act of playing this game is straight up agonizing. At least for me it's very hard to see - where I can go, where is that shower, where can I take the clothes off etc. And everything is so slow. Like why that shower before the bed takes like full minute during which my controller almost constantly vibrates? And that cutscene at the end is so long without giving anything to the viewer to hang on to.
I wish I could but I can't. Not for me, not with a controller in my hands. But. I would love to watch stream/let's play of this. Looks too cool to not see more of it.

Recommended

Driving model is way more fun and also more complex than I was expecting. It surprised me so much that it took me a minute to notice frame rate in cinematic depths. It's quite janky, as you would expect. But it's like a glimpse of what a cool environment would Japan be for the next Forza Horizon.

If you have a decent PC, give it a shot

Idle game. Didn't know that going in and now I'm sad because that type of game is not for me.
But this is charming little gem. Art is inspired by Dragon Quest while the whole game looks like it was for Game Boy. And what little writing there is, is wonderful.
Recommended

Neat and...weird? I like weird, love it in fact (like '1000x Resist' from last Fest). But this doesn't really work for me. This game seems to be made for those who are just starting to play games.

Not really recommended (for anyone who played more than 3 games in their life)

Atmosphere is so thick you could chew it.
If small dev team tries to make Immersive Sim type of game, you can expect a lot of jank. But oh boy this has tremendous amount of jank. Even if I could get through that, there is another problem. Bigger problem.
Visuals of this have that awful thing, where everything is dark and shadows are pitch black. Most of the time, one to two thirds of the screen are completely black. Gamma setting doesn't help. Screen brightness doesn't help either.
I can't see out there.
I'm digging the vibes so much, but that visual part is total dealbreaker for me.
Try it though - recommended

God I love the concept so much.
Chill game where you travel beautiful world, from city to city, and deliver things. Scale is very small and gameplay is very passive. You set on a patch and have almost nothing do to during that. It should be gameplay right there, like in death stranding or euro truck simulator. But it isn't.
Love the concept but execution is very poor.
Would love game like this done right.
Sadly, not recommended

Melee combat focused action game. With a sparkle of a story.
I mean, it's decent. But it's also a game which gives you 15min of mediocre fun and then you never look at it again.

Not recommended unless you crave this type of a game

What a disappointment. I remember trailer from years ago and always kept an eye on it during every Next Fest.
Controls aren't up to this type of a game. Not only in terms of responsiveness but also reliability when jumping and grabbing the ledge...when explosives are flying towards you. Easiest way to kill enemies is to button mash.
And it's so much like Bloodborne, even music is just like it, that it lacks its own identity, big time.

Not recommended...what a bummer

Maybe a good game but who knows. As a demo, this is horrible.
Thrown into disjointed narrative and a real time battle without any tutorial. Cannot even tell which army is mine and which is enemy's. Also runs like crap. Art is magnificent though.

Not recommended

Don't want to be mean, it's not even close to the worst games I've played. But. Just. How does anybody expect to win people's time/money with something like this in the world where it will be released among like 100 games on just that day?

Not recommended

This is even weaker than Weko.

Not recommended