As an amateur game developer myself, I hold a great deal of respect for Studio Sai. I get anxious just mustering up the willpower to email indie publishers to try and get funding, and there they went (somehow) getting a big PlayStation feature. It's rather inspiring…
And now I say this with the mindset of an athlete set on surpassing those who come before…
I bet I can do better.
Someday 😂
Content wise, I actually found the game rather endearingly dorky and it even shows some real promise at moments. It's surprisingly well restrained for how big of a project it became and it doesn't feel unfinished or rushed.
It's just rough
The biggest, biggest problem for me was how they managed transitions. From my experience with the Unity engine, I suspect that they used individual "Scene" assets (Unity's concept of a level) not only to manage which environments were loaded, but also to "organize" each small section of the cutscenes. Or otherwise they tied their save system to a full scene reload because lordy that loading spinner has more screen time than the main character and yet it's only ever there for a second or two at a time. This turns almost every scene transition into a slow fadeaway and music cut which drops whatever atmosphere the scene was trying to build.
I have friends who say they didn't notice and enjoyed the game, so I can't say it ruins the game for everyone, but it was incredibly jarring for me.
Combat is also a bit rough, though it can also work fairly nice at times. The use of hit stop is excessive and some of the frequently used ability animations are far too long relative to the rest of combat. You're usually invincible during the animations in question, so it's not a matter of balance but responsiveness and flow. Input in general is a bit finicky feeling, though I think half of that at least is because of the hit stops eating inputs and requiring you to mash to use your moves reliably.
Other than that, it delivers what it promises on. So if it seems vaguely entertaining to you, either legitimately or as dating sim adjacent junk food, it's not the worst you could pick. If you have weeb friends, it may aslo be worth playing if only for the conversation and story around it.
And now I say this with the mindset of an athlete set on surpassing those who come before…
I bet I can do better.
Someday 😂
Content wise, I actually found the game rather endearingly dorky and it even shows some real promise at moments. It's surprisingly well restrained for how big of a project it became and it doesn't feel unfinished or rushed.
It's just rough
The biggest, biggest problem for me was how they managed transitions. From my experience with the Unity engine, I suspect that they used individual "Scene" assets (Unity's concept of a level) not only to manage which environments were loaded, but also to "organize" each small section of the cutscenes. Or otherwise they tied their save system to a full scene reload because lordy that loading spinner has more screen time than the main character and yet it's only ever there for a second or two at a time. This turns almost every scene transition into a slow fadeaway and music cut which drops whatever atmosphere the scene was trying to build.
I have friends who say they didn't notice and enjoyed the game, so I can't say it ruins the game for everyone, but it was incredibly jarring for me.
Combat is also a bit rough, though it can also work fairly nice at times. The use of hit stop is excessive and some of the frequently used ability animations are far too long relative to the rest of combat. You're usually invincible during the animations in question, so it's not a matter of balance but responsiveness and flow. Input in general is a bit finicky feeling, though I think half of that at least is because of the hit stops eating inputs and requiring you to mash to use your moves reliably.
Other than that, it delivers what it promises on. So if it seems vaguely entertaining to you, either legitimately or as dating sim adjacent junk food, it's not the worst you could pick. If you have weeb friends, it may aslo be worth playing if only for the conversation and story around it.