SnowWing
Bio
i love games that make me feel things :-)
characters are the primary thing that makes me love a game, and is probably why my two favorite series of all time are kingdom hearts and tales of. i can care about even a bad story if i love the characters.
how i review games is that i typically give it a base score based on what i think is its objective quality, and then if it has a heavy emotional impact on me, the score can be ticked higher. this is the final rating that you see in my reviews.
generally speaking:
5: masterpiece
4.5: both high quality and personally meaningful
4: objectively high quality but no personal impact
3.5: pretty good, but nothing standout
3: fine; middle of the road
2.5: playable, nothing more and nothing less
2: bad
anything lower... i probably will have dropped.
i love games that make me feel things :-)
characters are the primary thing that makes me love a game, and is probably why my two favorite series of all time are kingdom hearts and tales of. i can care about even a bad story if i love the characters.
how i review games is that i typically give it a base score based on what i think is its objective quality, and then if it has a heavy emotional impact on me, the score can be ticked higher. this is the final rating that you see in my reviews.
generally speaking:
5: masterpiece
4.5: both high quality and personally meaningful
4: objectively high quality but no personal impact
3.5: pretty good, but nothing standout
3: fine; middle of the road
2.5: playable, nothing more and nothing less
2: bad
anything lower... i probably will have dropped.
Badges
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
Full-Time
Journaled games once a day for a month straight
Busy Day
Journaled 5+ games in a single day
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
N00b
Played 100+ games
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
Favorite Games
161
Total Games Played
019
Played in 2024
035
Games Backloggd
Recently Played See More
Recently Reviewed See More
what an absolute SLAM DUNK of a visual novel!!! this is so incredibly worth your time. it doesn't overstay its welcome, has charm in spades, is a lot of fun (adding a lot of new mechanics to the visual novel structure), and has a surprising amount of style and aesthetic vision.
got absolutely NOTHING bad to say about this lil number! super fun!
got absolutely NOTHING bad to say about this lil number! super fun!
i'm seconding all of the reviews that say potion craft simply just gets kind of tedious and unrewarding, although i think the actual gameplay loop is amazing and there's simply no other game like it. i greatly enjoyed the early parts of this game.
potion craft has a system for buying and selling materials: materials will be on sale at random points, so you're incentivized to only buy certain materials, especially in bulk, when they're on sale-- especially because the cost of repairing larger upgrades is quite steep. but that means that you're ALWAYS low on materials to make potions with, and when making potions in later chapters becomes EXTREMELY cost-heavy, it just becomes... more frustrating than fun.
potion craft could've been amazing but is held back by that one simple mechanic. it's really sad, because the art style and early gameplay loop is so unique and fun, but it's bogged down pretty early by what i described. :(
potion craft has a system for buying and selling materials: materials will be on sale at random points, so you're incentivized to only buy certain materials, especially in bulk, when they're on sale-- especially because the cost of repairing larger upgrades is quite steep. but that means that you're ALWAYS low on materials to make potions with, and when making potions in later chapters becomes EXTREMELY cost-heavy, it just becomes... more frustrating than fun.
potion craft could've been amazing but is held back by that one simple mechanic. it's really sad, because the art style and early gameplay loop is so unique and fun, but it's bogged down pretty early by what i described. :(
fundamentally not a bad game, thus my 3 star rating, but after having played prose & codes, the original, which is better in every way, i just don't really want to play this one much more.
ciphers are better in prose & codes, not in the way you'd expect: you get unlimited hints in poems, making solving unsatisfying because you can get lost in a moment of frustration and just use up all your hints, something impossible in prose. knowing you can solve the cipher at any point simply by pressing "hint" over and over makes it also pretty boring. there's no stakes.
something i enjoyed greatly about the original was its ability to entice you into finding new reads: it gives you one quote and then links you to the original work if you so choose. i read many short stories after being intrigued by the quote i solved the cipher for; in poems, you slowly unlock the entire poem section by section. because of this, the final reward of the full poem feels "lesser."
so, in short, NOT a bad game (it's still worth playing if you enjoy cipher solving and/or poems), but quite a poor sequel, in my opinion.
ciphers are better in prose & codes, not in the way you'd expect: you get unlimited hints in poems, making solving unsatisfying because you can get lost in a moment of frustration and just use up all your hints, something impossible in prose. knowing you can solve the cipher at any point simply by pressing "hint" over and over makes it also pretty boring. there's no stakes.
something i enjoyed greatly about the original was its ability to entice you into finding new reads: it gives you one quote and then links you to the original work if you so choose. i read many short stories after being intrigued by the quote i solved the cipher for; in poems, you slowly unlock the entire poem section by section. because of this, the final reward of the full poem feels "lesser."
so, in short, NOT a bad game (it's still worth playing if you enjoy cipher solving and/or poems), but quite a poor sequel, in my opinion.