This game looks and feels like someone asked chat gpt to give them a game with robot dinosaurs in it and that was like the only criteria they gave it. Everything else besides the dinosaurs is so flavorless and uninspiring.

Much more intelligent and interesting take on the slenderman-like genre. The monster AI behaves in a very natural feeling way and the extra game modes are really creative especially the one with the invisible monster. Main turn off for me is the monster just looks like a minecraft block with legs but w/e.

While I have to admit off the bat this was sort of a slog for me I don't think it was a bad game by any means. The art style isn't my favorite but it has sort of a cartoon network kind of charm and really goes hard on the well-loved in Japan trope of "kimo-kawaii" or "gross-cute" or whatever. The gameplay also has some great ideas with the occupants of the hotel who want to do in you in gradually increasing over time. The biggest complaint I had was how mundane and simple so many of the tasks were for setting up a soul steal. I would've liked some more in depth puzzles or more chances to get to know the characters in a deeper way but most of the time I would get a soul and be surprised at how little work it took. I also wish the "horror show" segments and chases were more intense but I'm kind of a glutton for punishment when it comes to horror games.

The relatively star-studed Japanese cast of voice actors do a great job but tbh Judgement boy in English steals the freaking show.
(Played in Japanese, watched a stream in English)

Cosmo D's first game that I accidentally played after first playing the Norwood Suite. The vibe and music are fantastic but the shallowness/slowness/jankiness keep it from being something great.

While this game does improve on the open world format in a lot of ways it's just so empty and the world is so incredibly unbelievable. You can't be gritty apocalypse and have random bowling mini games in the middle of a field of monsters. Not to mention how unlike the rest of the Zelda franchise this was. Biggest frustration point was the weapon durability though. Too bad ToTK decided that was its favorite mechanic I guess.

When your little cousin asks if you have games on your phone he is actually just saying "I want to play Fruit Ninja"

Initially starting this game it felt so stilted and weird. The mouse tank controls feel unnatural as does the writing. However getting further into the game the scares are pretty decent and the writing feeling off makes sense after the twist. The gross feeling movement and constant backtracking to find keys is grating though and prevents the game from fulfilling its potential.

Me? Afraid of heights? Oh no no no noooo....
Heights are afraid of me 😎

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The subway tunnel asset is so insanely spot on in terms of look, sound design, and vibe and I have been through many Tokyo subway tunnels in my days, but for the life of me I had an incredibly hard time enjoying this.
Spoilers I guess below if you want to go into it blind.
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I beat it and found all the anomalies but I guess my personality just doesn't get a lot of enjoyment out of spot the difference puzzles. I respect how well some things were hidden but only a handful of the anomalies were unsettling. Maybe it's my fault for wanting to be scared coming into it. Frustration overtook dread for me in this one.

I tried so hard to like this after seeing all the good reviews but there were just a few big things that were deal breakers for me and I got increasingly frustrated with the game as it went on. First off the things I loved about the game:

Style: A mystery game set on an abandoned boat is an awesome premise and the idea of a modern game with "old school computer graphics" is interesting. The music fits well and it's fun when it syncs up with stuff that's happening.
Mechanics: The idea of a power that let's you travel back to a static point in the past and walk around in it is awesome. Probably the best application of time travel in any media imo.

The deal breakers:
Graphics: While I loved the idea of this, unfortunately this game is the first game I've ever played to make me physically sick because of the graphics. It's hard to explain exactly why and I'm probably quite unique in this case since it seems from other reviews that most people didn't have a problem. Also the graphics really made it hard to tell what was going on. For example, there were several sections where it was important for progression for me to know that something was fire but to me it just looked like light or fog or something.

Inconvenient mechanics: You have to wait x seconds to enter a memory. You're only allowed x seconds in a memory the first time you visit (but you also can't leave earlier than that). You can't teleport back to a memory from the journal so you have to memorize where all the bodies are and which memory they correspond to. Every time you get 3 fates correct you have to wait like 2 minutes for it to go through and confirm all the info you just input. Just lots of random junk that had me twiddling my thumbs.

Sleuthing is tedious for basically no reward: So this is once again probably just me but the most interesting thing about the game was finding all the death scene memories. These taught me everything I wanted to know about what happened on the ship. Why in the world should I be motivated to find out all these people's names? I know its because I'm an "insurance agent" but that's just a made up thing for the game to work. I don't gain any interesting lore or insights from finding out any of their names. I don't get any more information on the monsters (which were the only thing that really interested me) besides who they killed and how they were killed. It's just not worth it to me to scour over and over through 3d scenes that give me a headache just to identify someone by their shoes when I don't get anything for it besides the chance to check off a box.
Unless you count the bonus chapter? I got fed up after about 12 fates that I went online to look up a guide just because I wanted to see if I could get something interesting from the bonus chapter and it was extremely underwhelming and even annoying since it forced me to sit through minutes of me just looking at a really basic scene.

I think that about sums up my experience though. I usually don't review games on steam but with this one having so so many positive reviews I felt compelled to share my very different experience on the off chance that someone is able to relate and/or benefit from it. Many of the positive reviews also list some of the cons that made this a bad experience for me but still recommend the game anyways. For me this was an experience I regret ever starting and I regret even more that I tried to power through the flaws to just find more disappointment.

What I would've done differently:
Add the ability to teleport to memories I've already seen
Let me skip all the forced waiting sections (when you get 3 fates, when you visit a memory the first time)
Let me choose when to end a memory the first time
Unlock some kind of lore upon each set of fates I unlock (as opposed to just eliminating these people from future guesses)
Some other graphics mode for accessibility

If these changes were made I think I would have actually enjoyed and loved the game, because the premise and mechanics really are great and I usually enjoy mystery/sleuthing games, but this one just didn't motivate me.

The only fun thing in this game was reading the hilarious notes people left in the demon compendium.

Why did Google go so hard for this though?

They thought that they could trick me into doing math smh

I had a buddy named Vinny...
He could stuff an entire pizza in his mouth...
All without drugs!
If you're a cool teen...
D-d-don't insert a bean!

Oddjob haunts my dreams. The sound design is pretty great for an N64 game though.