Probably the oomfiest game of all time.
Honestly the main reason this game means so much to me is cause it’s about a depressed 14 year old and I played it as a depressed 15 year old. Still, I like it a lot today. I love Nanashi a lot, he’s real cute and needs to get happier. It’s a fairly straightforward game, nothing’s too complex, you could finish the game in a day or two. Much of the friends you can make aren’t so developed, but but it’s still not hard to enjoy them. Friend making in this game is the classic style of “give someone gifts until the affection level goes up.” Possibly a bit simple for a game where the whole gimmick is making friends. Misane’s bonus chapter relationship is a lot weirder than I remember though.

It is baffling to me that Nintendo had found the absolute perfect balance for their Paper Mario games in character variety, fun combat, an engaging and investing story, and really unique levels and gimmicks, and they just never bothered to ever do something similar again.

There is a reason why this title is loved. It has everything you could possibly want in an RPG. It has a great sense of humor and it is fun and unique from start to finish.

I played it over 10 years ago and it is still fresh in my mind to this day. Amazing game.

When I first started playing 1bitHeart, I was immediately enraptured by the game's aesthetics. The aesthetic work of LiEat, from the same developer Miwashiba, was one of its main appeals and this game doubles down on it many-fold. The gameplay started out as a rather simple Ace Attorney-esque adventure game, all of it incredibly cute. I was ready for another really nice little experience from this developer.

Then I reached the "free time" portion of the game, which is something roughly akin to Persona's social link system, and I was instantly filled with terror. The loop of free time is to initiate conversations with NPCs in the world and see their stories, which you unlock by giving them their preferred gifts, which you buy with the in-game currency, which you unlock by... playing not very good versions of either Puyo Puyo or Tetris with pretty lousy payouts. Oh god. Was this the dealbreaker for the game? Am I really supposed to spend several hours grinding out puzzle games to experience more of this? Then save scum so I don't waste money giving people the wrong gift???

After a short period of this cycle, I reached for a guide. Surely there had to be a better way, right? I looked at the top Steam guide, and sure enough there was a header titled "There Has To Be A Better Way"! Turns out, there is a trivially-easy, infinitely-repeatable way to instantly max out your currency, then buy gifts to your heart's content. You even get an achievement for it!

When I give this game my highest regards, I do not claim 1bitHeart is at all some masterpiece in game design (there is a LOT of room for improvement in that regard). I do not claim it has some incredible story its holding that moved me to tears. I do not claim that anybody else who plays it is going to have nearly the experience with it that I did. BUT, the one thing I do claim is that 1bitHeart is one of the most Poochycore games ever created.

As is apparent from the jump, every element of the game is dripping with style. The character portraits are always a treat to see with each new character--jesus christ did they draw a lot of them really fucking attractive. Each of the five areas you visit are so full of their own personality, with a really cool monochromatic silhouette art style to them and wonderful music that sets each area's tone wonderfully. The music in general is, to put it bluntly, absolutely fucking insane, especially for a game of this scope. The variety of music is shockingly wide, with a lot of characters and conversations being backed by unique vocal tracks. At one point in the game there is a club mix of "Hallelujah", so baffling I couldn't help myself from breaking down laughing. It was so great.

The main story itself is, again, not anything incredible. It has a few points that I felt were a bit messy, but overall its nice and sweet and doesn't overstay its welcome. However, the biggest point of attachment though came from the wide variety of individual character stories I experienced. Each one is only 5-10 minutes long in total across 4 different cutscenes, but Miwashiba has shown how skilled they are at crafting these bite-sized stories between this and LiEat. Almost every character story offered something either cute or heartwarming or funny (more than one left me in a state of "oh my god what the fuck is going on" in a good way), and left me with at least a small attachment to these characters despite such a short time spent. I especially appreciated how often the stories would involve other characters you met previously, letting them bounce off of each other and really making the world feel more alive then just a bunch of disconnected NPCs. There was one set of stories which had you experience the same set of events from both perspectives and you learn from both of them, just really cool stuff!

Once I got to the end of the game, I did feel a bit emotional! Despite its issues, 1bitHeart did manage to drag me so deep into its vibes, endearing me so much to its world and characters. It's not my favorite game of all time by any means, but I don't know if any other game has so succinctly matched my vibes. I really wish I knew how to better describe exactly what about it enraptured me so much, what I wrote above may not sound like a true 10/10 experience, but I don't know. It was just pure Poochycore.