aw hell nah tahlemmeme really turned dat pig into a cake

But seriously though, I unironically like this a lot more than OG Bubble Bobble (which people unfortunately usually draw unfavorable comparisons to, even though this came out a year before that), so much so I'd say it's one of my favorite video games, and is one of the games that made me look into Taito so much deeper beyond their surface level classics such as Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble. It's the bloody source of my profile picture and username for crying out loud. Extremely underrated.

It's a very nearly perfect blend of puzzles, platforming, enemy-killing, and risk-taking all wrapped up in a very cute package. Also surprisingly has a lot of attention to detail for an 1985 arcade game, particularly in the graphics and sound design. While there are some weird blips in difficulty here and there, and feels almost unapproachable at first for a game like this, I still love it for what it sets out to do, especially for the time, and succeeding in most of it. Also, you can't go wrong with a funny witch, and Ptolemy is very much one of those.

I'd also advise at least playing the Arcade Archives version, or even better, the Sharp X68000 port since those allow you to save your progress when playing it through like a normal game, without as much of the weirdness of early arcade game design the arcade version has. It feels a lot better that way.

ACTUAL SUNLIGHT REVIEW

I don't want to dislike Actual Sunlight the way I do. The creator makes an admirable attempt at telling a very real and personal story, putting his heart on his sleeve in the process. Unfortunately, authenticity alone does not make something good - and the authenticity is exactly why it's difficult for me to acknowledge this game for what it actually is. That is to say, very bad. Miserable to play. Even borderline pretentious.
It's one of those games that desperately wants to say something. It's not trying to be an ENJOYABLE experience; the goal is to make you think. It aims to leave a lasting impact after the credits roll. But it loses itself in self-serving angst and overwhelming pessimism.
These things are undoubtedly purposeful, of course. The entire point is to depict a realistic downward spiral, and the heavy thoughts that accompany it. There's plenty of media that tells similarly tragic stories in poignant and beautiful ways. Two of my favorites of all time, LISA and Bojack Horseman, triumphantly do.
I'm saying this because I want it to be clear that my problem with Actual Sunlight isn't in the dark nature. My problem is that its presentation and writing completely fail to make it a worthwhile investment of your time. There's nothing to it EXCEPT that depressing narrative; it eventually gets tiring to read one pitiful, wordy, poorly-written inner-monologue after another. And it quickly becomes obvious that there is nothing else for it to show you.


SHORT REVIEW

Visuals: 1.5/5
Sound: 1/5
Story: 1/5
Gameplay: 0.5/5
Worldbuilding: 1/5
Achievements (Does not count toward overall score.): 2/5
Overall game score: 1/5


IN-DEPTH REVIEW

Visuals:
I understand that RPGMaker is a useful tool for new devs. I just can't pretend like I'm a fan of its pre-made graphics at this point. They're ugly and overused.
What's even worse is that Actual Sunlight DOES have some original models, but only for one specific setting! The custom-made stuff looks so much better, but the fact that it's only present half of the time makes the whole thing feel unfinished.
On top of that, there are multiple instances where pre-made stuff is used to improvise for something else. The bus is just a normal room with benches in it. The work computers are just TVs sitting on the floor near desks.
I will say that there are really nice pieces of artwork occasionally mixed in with the story. It's a very appealing style and one of the only real positives of the game. Unfortunately, it's still not enough to make up for everything else done wrong here.
Overall, 1.5/5.

Sound:
There's very few pieces of music. Even then, they're all generic and loopy. There's some sound effects. At least there's sound at all, right? And it's not actively grating or anything. Still, it's very underwhelming.
Overall, 1/5.

Story:
Actual Sunlight focuses on Evan Winters, a 30-something white man working an office job in Toronto. He is also horribly, horribly depressed.
The depiction of Evan's depression is VERY real. Nothing is terribly wrong for him, except his weight. He lives a pretty standard life otherwise. Yet, his mental illness and self-image issues still control him. The way he talks to himself and thinks about things is extremely sincere. That's commendable. It's obvious that it comes from a place of deep understanding from the dev (again, why it's so difficult for me to critique this game.)
But it all starts to fall apart with the execution.
First off, the writing is completely insufferable. It often comes across like someone who's trying way too hard to sound smart and deep. The inner-monologues that Evan has throughout almost always ended up feeling unnecessary and senseless - largely because of how long-winded they are. There's a lot of lines that just made me cringe, too, including the very first one in the game - (NSFW warning) "Why kill yourself today when you can masturbate tomorrow?"
On top of that, as I mentioned in the intro, I quickly became overwhelmed by the absolute misery that permeates Actual Sunlight. There's nothing to balance it out. No humor or good writing, no fun gameplay, no beautiful visuals or sound. It gets so tiring to just watch a man be pessimistic and cynical (oftentimes only for the sake of it) with nothing else to keep the player engaged.
None of that is even mentioning how weirdly obsessed Evan is with pointing out his own white privilege - while simultaneously trying to imply at points that he doesn't benefit from white privilege as much as other white people.
I feel like the dev had way too much confidence in his writing, too. You are pointedly told at the beginning to interact with EVERYTHING - this way you'll see all of the monologues. He also leaves a message that's directly from himself early on; it seems to assume that his game will affect people in a deeply emotional way. Now, I'm not saying that there AREN'T people who were affected by it, but it didn't do that for me at all. As a result, that came across as very arrogant.
That message as a whole is a point of contention for me too. The dev basically tells young players that they can still change the course of their life, while implying anyone older than 25-30 are stuck on the path they're currently on. It's an awful outlook that just doesn't sit well with me. No one is 'stuck'. Change is possible no matter how old you are. You're not suddenly trapped being like Evan just because you're in your 30s, are depressed, and made mistakes in your past. You can get better no matter what, not just if you're young.
The only thing I like here is the office portions. You visit this setting twice to interact with your coworkers. Seeing how they (and their individual relationships with Evan) evolve over the years is interesting. I think they are humanized in a nice way. It's the only time I found myself half-invested throughout my entire playthrough.
Overall, 1/5.

Gameplay:
The only thing that constitutes gameplay here is walking through the world, interacting with objects, and hearing Evan's thoughts on something tangentially related. Now, I'm fine with games that deploy minimal gameplay. I think it can be done well. But as I've already said, the writing isn't good, so there's no reason for me to want to engage the world in the first place.
Overall, 0.5/5.

Worldbuilding:
There's very little context given to Evan's life. In fact, the game actively avoids acknowledging certain things about him. For example, it fails to say what his exact job is, implying that it doesn't matter since they're all the same anyways. I do think that vagueness like this can be done well to play on themes. But, I don't know, here it just reads like 'I'm too lazy to think of something'. It's probably that I just loathe the writing so much as a whole.
The environments feel totally bland. There's very little going on in them visually. There's no good sound design to add atmosphere. It just feels very thrown-together.
I will say that the side characters do help to add a bit of life to the world. As I mentioned in the story section, seeing their individual evolutions is cool. It does make the game feel slightly rounded.
Overall, 1/5.

Extra Category - Achievements:
There's only one achievement, and it's not for finishing it, weirdly enough. It's for interacting with a random cabinet in Evan's house. Random and not fun, but easy 100% I guess?
Overall, 2/5.

Overall game score: 1/5. I could excuse the lackluster visual and audio presentation if Actual Sunlight had anything going for it with the story, but it doesn't. While I respect the dev for trying very hard to make something worthwhile, I just can't pretend like I think this game is even a little good.
I find it hilarious that Emily is Away, another snobby indie title I hate, seems to take inspiration from this one. It references it in two easter eggs and says that you should play it if you haven't. Well, I replayed it for you, and I can soundly say that I hate it about as much as I hate Emily is Away.