Yeah, no. This is not a good game. The visual aesthetic is amazing, and the concept is cool, but the mechanics are pretty trashy. Extremely weak and flighty guns that have no weight behind them, combined with generally simple level design and unintuitive controls.

I love me some weird, dystopic, and artsy-fartsy games. But the game actually needs to be good for me to commit. This game is all substance; it's all meat and no veg. It's gleeful in how post-modern it is with its presentation, but the actual game under the hood is just drab.

This is awesome as an art project. It's lame as a game. This is insanely overrated. It's not offensively bad, but it's certainly not a fun experience unless you already have a long, cylindrical object up your butt.

It's kind of wild that an erotic noncon game is somehow also one of the most deep, complex, impressive life-sims ever made. There is so much to say about this game that it's kind of hard to put it all into words. From the fact that you can play the game for well over 150 hours and still be encountering new experiences. The way that the game somehow blends both scripted events and RNG in such a manner where you may never know if you've encountered a rare event or if that was intended to happen. The way that it has a brutalist social commentary on a dystopic world where morals are entirely decayed and your body is every freak's prize to be stolen.

All this on top of the raw freedom the game allows. You can play this any way you want. Want to play a purist, virginal person in the sex game, who resists every sexual advance in the game literally about how the world wants to defile you? Do it, in fact, here are special items and buffs to keep you safe. Want to instead lean in and live the exploitative, nightmarish hell of Saki Yoshida? Go for it, you'll have a wild ride, and there are almost infinite atrocity scenarios to rabbit hole down. Want to play a hyper-violent route, where every molester is met with fists of fury to the face and teeth kicked out? Not only will we give you special buffs, but you can even jack yourself up with pepper spray charges. Want to just be a lil cutie who goes to school and works a part-time job? Sounds fun, and we'll give you loads of social connections, romance options, and dozens upon dozens of casual gameplay encounters to enjoy.

There's a hyper-detailed body system, where all parts of your body affect physical and mental gameplay. There's a detailed fashion system, where you can decorate your absolutely adorable pixel-art sprite in the cutest and raunchiest outfits you can imagine. There's a detailed social structure, including with how popular you are at school, with students and teachers, with the police, and even with animals that you tend to. It has 12 separate fame mechanics, with additional hidden ones in the background, affecting how everyone - strangers and people you know - see and react to you. It has an increasing difficulty curve, so you can never get too comfortable. It has multiple end-game scenarios, along with multiple villains and quests. It has ongoing seasons, including weather and holidays. Bro, it even has farming mechanics.

On top of all this, it is also surprisingly sex positive, despite its noncon theming. It has an extremely in-depth fetish checklist, and if you don't like one of them, turn it off. The game compensates for your preferences. But maybe you specifically don't want one gender or the other to interact with your character. Simply change all the genders. Maybe you want an intersex character. Easily done! Only want big-boobed people, or maybe you prefer a certain size of penis. There's a toggle for that. Don't like the gender of a named NPC? Customize them to your whims. Don't want to get pregnant or get anyone else pregnant? Turn it off! Want to get pregnant the moment you hold hands with someone? Turn it on! It's as if the dev has literally thought of every possible interaction and outcome, and everything has been accounted for in one way or another.

All on top of this being an early access game, meaning that it is still being actively updated, even though the game is feature-complete three times over. And if that's all not enough for you, the game is also a sandbox RPG. You can play one character for as long as you want, or roll up a different character, and do as much as your heart desires, with no end. It has a rewind function in case you want to retry a scene, and it also has an "ironman" mode in case you want to be forced to commit to your run. Would you rather an easier difficulty, or to have cheats turned on so you can customize every detail of your character? The game allows you that accessibility. Does this game have an achievement system? Of course it does, what doesn't it have?

It's so hard to recommend this game based on its subject matter alone. Because, yes, it needs to be emphasized that this game knows what it is: it is an extremely explicit noncon erotic game. If the idea of non-consensual sex or lewd experiences upsets you, this is not for you. But if you can accept this game for what it is, it gleefully offers up literally hundreds of hours of content for your perusal. It may be hard to recommend this game, but if anything that I've said above seems even remotely interesting, I literally cannot sing the praises of this game enough.

Wholesome and heartfelt. It's a very short, kinetic visual novel. There aren't any fancy bells and whistles here. Just a simple story about a family caught in a strange moment, one that's cracked and frayed because of decisions.

The writing can be a little bit obtuse, and it felt like there were a few plot threads I would have liked to get resolved. But given the scale of the game, it's not too big of a deal. The conclusion is full, while the individual scenes are very dramatic and evocative, which is good enough on its own. The music is also nice, and although the art isn't stunning by any means, it's pretty and serviceable.

All in all, this is just nice. It's a pity more people haven't played it. People who likes introspective, heavier, broodier stories about family, siblings, divorce, and coping with loss will really enjoy this. And clocking in at little over an hour, it's a nice chance to wade into an emotional story without any deep commitment.

I'm really conflicted on this one. On one hand, it's a very creative, quirky adventure series. The randomization mechanics are fun, and seeing different journeys from a similar mindset is interesting. I also think the narrative is interesting at its core. This is just a very engaging topic to explore, and the framing of going on this journey as different kids, experiencing crazy adventures to reach your goal, is in itself very intriguing.

But there are also a lot of problems. Firstly, this is a narrative game, at it's core. Even if the narrative is interspersed over multiple playthroughs, this is a complete story. But because the story is not entirely told sequentially, things feel a little muddled. Some scenes will be striking and very emotionally impactful, but others feel like goofy jaunts, which gives this bizarre juxtaposition to everything.

The other problem is that this is definitively a game. Your main mechanics in this game are dialogue choices and minigames. There is a meta-game of managing your funds, but it's also not that important. Thus, because your main engagement with the game is either talking or playing minigames, they both have to be really strong. And while the game never lingers in one place too long, just like these migrants, it also never really builds a sort of consistency that you can really appreciate.

Additionally, the narrative itself is a bit messy. It is good, and at it's core, I think it's a fun time. But I'm gonna be honest, 75% of the cast is super unlikeable and stupid. A cop loyal to the state with a rebel child who scorned them? That's a great concept. But in an actual playthrough, the cop in question is just kind of a jerk most of the time. The cool rebel, rocker, trucker man with a heart of gold? Sure, good idea, but when he's screaming at you to shoot at people against your will, or getting blitzed out drunk and needing to be babied like a 5 year old, that's not really a vibe. And we do not speak on the idiotic thieves. They're completely irredeemable, and every scene they were in made me actively annoyed and angry at the game. In a story about totalitarian regimes and migration through political persecution, there is no room for slapstick comedy, robber duos.

Zoe and Alex are perfect in every way, even if the voice acting left a little to be desired. It was clear a lot of time, effort, and thought was put into their characters and their characterization. But when 2/7 character are actually entertaining, even the best characters can't hold up the weight of the world.

Then there are just all the little bits of weirdness and jank that come with the game. Some of the explorable worlds are HUGE, but there's nothing to explore in them. Sometimes you'll engage with hostile characters, or will be put in situations you don't want to be in; however, because the game is dialogue based, you're forced to participate, even if you don't want to. The game constantly flip-flops between wacky roadtrip comedy and serious political commentary, and it feels like it has a hard time to stay on topic. And sometimes, the game shifts out of "game mode," and goes full "narrative mode," where you get extremely long, extended cutscenes. These scenes really are good, but it basically ignores your character entirely, which makes your actions feel irrelevant. You're not the main character in this story; you're just a conduit for all the much more interesting, cool things happening around you.

The game is entertaining but confused. It feels like the devs wanted to make a really interesting roguelike about escaping a corrupt nation, by roadtripping and completing minigames to reach your goal. But then, halfway through, it feels like they got really intrigued by the worldbuilding and story they made, and abandoned the roguelike idea halfway to focus on the narrative. Then, it feels like they ran out of time or budget, and had effectively two different games that they were forced to smash into one thing, hoping that it would be coherent in the end.

The roguelike mechanics by themselves are really interesting, and I would love to see a game that focuses on random adventures to escape a totalitarian country. And the narrative is sincere and interesting, and even though it can be sloppy at times, I did appreciate my time with it, and liked what it had to say and explore. But because the game was never able to pick a lane, it never was able to make either piece of itself excellent. This makes the end result extremely sloppy, unbalanced, and clumsy.

It's fun, but smudged and flawed. And inevitably, no matter how entertaining something is, if you're constantly distracted by all the flaws, you can never truly enjoy what it has to offer.

This is really hard not to love. You have to go out of your way not to have a good time. Although there are flaws just under the surface, every bit of this game goes out of its way to make you have a good time.

Firstly, this game is a joy for your ADHD addled brain. I cannot exaggerate how much STUFF is going on. The gameplay loop is so fast. There's always something happening and there's always something to do; it's like Stardew Valley on steroids. The difference here is, by nature of the passage of time - and that passage of time being relatively short - your time is valuable. What you do, when you do it, and how you do it, and in what order, can really make a difference if you love optimization. And because all the tasks are different - from dungeon crawling, to town management, to villager decorations, to fishing - none of the gamplay loops outstay their welcome. You're bouncing between 9 different tasks, and because all of the tasks are different, you never really get bored.

Which is where the actual problem in this game lies: it's deceptively shallow. It feels like there's a lot going on here. But in reality, everything is based on timers. With the exception of dungeon crawling, and some side mini-games like fishing, and the mini-game knucklebones (otherwise known as addictive), most of the actual management tasks are really superficial and simple. Regarding attention again, they definitely hold your attention. But only just.

Cult of the Lamb uses lots of dopaminergic responses to make you feel good, more than any other game I've ever played. Everything is in a constant state of making you feel good, from the animations, to the art, to the satisfaction of the combat, all the way down to making your villagers happy. It's designed, top to bottom, to make your dopamine swim. The issue is, it's almost rude in a way; it's almost like the game is tricking you into believing that waiting-mechanics are fun. It's very good at doing this. But at the heart of every mechanics, except for dungeon crawling, you'll be waiting. Waiting for a villager to complete a task, or the building to be built, or the thing to be completed. There's nothing inherently wrong with this. But there's a lot of it, and it's concealed under a giant layer of quaintness and cuteness. That is to say, if you played this game and bounced off of it, disliking it incredibly, you are super valid and there are a lot of reasons you might not like this game.

But I liked this game. It's addictive tendencies suit my tiny brain perfectly. The management systems, although they are not complex, are fun and rewarding. I basically maxed out my village before I even half-way completed the game, because I was so obsessed with making everything perfect that I overdid it, and hyper-optimized everything. The fact that the game continually rewards you for that, and also doesn't punish you if you don't optimize in the way that I did, is a testament to its own design.

And also, like, c'mon bro. This is fun. Play this game for 10-20 minutes, and you'll be smiling. Even if you don't like this, you can't knock it for being FUN. It's just cute, and neat, and silly, and sweet. And we need more nice things in this cold, cruel world of ours. Even if something isn't perfectly, sometimes something being pretty neat is all that's necessary.

... AND THEN I PLAYED THE POST-GAME...

It's impressive how much work was put into this game. Here I thought I had finished, and there was still so much to do. Once you get into the post-game, and the level-requirements of your followers and their very lives are at stake, and there is still so much to do, explore, and challenge you, with all new content... man. This really is a labor of love. It was already impressive as a complete experience, and it just keeps giving, willingly. It has a little something for everyone, and that's awesome. If you read this far wondering, "Is sex good?" Yes, sex is good, consent is mandatory, and babies are adorable and poop everywhere. You're welcome.

The real tragedy of this game is that it wasn't ambitious enough.

This seems like a really great concept. A timed photo shoot in an abandoned, decayed, weird sci-fi city? Sign me up. The problem is that it completely stumbles over its own feet in the execution of that idea.

The biggest struggle is that there's just not a lot to see. This is a very large world, and was somehow surprisingly empty. Because the game uses the same assets over and over, any time you find something really interesting in the world, if you walk a few feet, you're guaranteed to see the same thing repeated twenty times over. I remember coming upon a strange, Greek temple on a shoreline, and thought, "wow, what an interesting design," only to see the same temple copy-pasted 3 more times past the next building. It's because of this reuse of assets, and very minimal amounts of unique variety, that makes this a bother. Very rarely does the world offer interesting vistas, and even then, it's a chore to find them.

There's also the fact of the mechanics. Again, a timed photo adventure seems really appealing. Get in, get out, and only take what you find important. The problem is that the mechanics are a deliberate wrench in your fun. First, why is there a sprint button? I'm already limited by the time of day, so why should I be further limited by my ability to navigate the world? Perhaps the idea was to force people to choose paths, and come up with unique experiences. But when everything looks the same, and there's only a smattering of narrative bubbles, that you're not guaranteed to see, this mechanic isn't serving its intended purpose. The time also doesn't stop when you're taking pictures. The game seems to relish in you playing with your lenses, exposure, and grain. But you're not really given the time to explore the artistic process, because you're on the clock like a wage-slave.

Then there's the narrative. It's steeped in mystery, which is kind of cool. But again, because a player can wander any direction their heart desires, the odds of them finding a collection of good narrative bubbles is low, and this is exacerbated by the size of the world, which is large. The note feature helps, allowing you to place Dark Souls style notes on the ground for other players to find. But again, it's hard to find something creative to say with a note when the world is just the same buildings ad infinitum. And, if you choose to write a note, that's precious in-game minutes spent forming the perfect sentence and not taking photos.

It's best to compare this game to other photo games. Umurangi succeeds by giving you infinite time, a clear objective, but allowing for artistic freedom. Pokémon Snap gives you limited time, a clear objective, and reduces artistic freedom for the sake of gameplay. Dear Future, by contrast, gives you limited time, no objectives, and restricts artistic freedom through its mechanics. And that's just a shame, because there are the bones of a really interesting game here. But the bones are scattered on the ground like the assets in this world. Maybe you can find beauty in those bones. But I did not.

What can I possibly say about this? I guess the art was decent. And the voice acting was quite good. It's also interesting that the whole thing is voice-acted, and that it autoplays. That's rare for a VN.

But wow. You have to be very charitable to find enjoyment in this. There's so much garbage here that it's kind of hard to rationalize. If you like dumpster diving, you have found the trash heaps at the junk yard with this game. And if you're some weird, edgy dude on an incel forum, this might be right up your alley.

Otherwise, stay very far away from this stupid game.

This game seems like one that's better talked about than played. There's nothing much here beyond the message, and even then, at best, the message is, "do your best to make decisions that are important," which shouldn't be that big of an ask. It's all panache and weirdness, and no substance.

Also, the trigger warning at the beginning of the game for trypophobia is no joke, if you're sensitive to that. There is an unavoidable section of that stuff right near the end of the 20 min experience. Approach cautiously.

Yes, this is my sweet, little demon daughter.
Yes, she is adorable.
Yes, her freckles are super cute.
No, you may not use her in a dark ritual to bring upon the second destruction of civilization.

Because she is BABY. Must protect. No notes.

This is not good. It's bordering on offensively bad. It's a short, simple, direct story about unaliving yourself. And sure, okay, that could be neat. It would be fun to get a game dev and artist's perspective on that very serious topic.

Instead, this is just... kinda stupid. It feels like some edgy dude wanted to represent a subject while neither knowing anything about the subject or having any ounce of creativity or artistry. It represents itself as this oddity, this weirdo interpretation of a dark subject. But in reality, it's just lots of disconnected thoughts that are both unexplained and irrelevant.

Maybe you could say that this is a really cynical take on this subject matter. But if so, it's so cynical it comes off as snide. And maybe you could say this is just abstract art, surrealism. If so, what do any of the parts of the whole mean? What message is it trying to speak?

In reality, this is nothing. It's a vapid drivel by someone either too pretentious or too deluded to understand what they, themselves, were trying to do or say. Even if this game weren't addressing some serious subject matter, it's barely competent enough to tell you the daily weather.

Adorable! This is a little 2D walking simulator. It's short and sweet, and will only take about 15 minutes to complete. It's about a person's experience in a rural Japanese town that has experienced population decline.

You can tell it's really heartfelt and personal. The music is also great, very much evoking Joe Hisaishi. The art is also very wholesome and pretty. In terms of a game, there's not much to see here, as it's mostly walking in one direction, and saying hello to various village folk.

But this is just a sentimental little true story about a small Japanese town. And it doesn't need to be more complicated than that. If you play, you might think it's a bit silly and simple. But just wait til the second big song really kicks in, and you might start feeling a bit emotional. And hey, it's free, so just enjoy a little journey.

A cute little piece. You can tell that the devs wore their hearts on their sleeves this one, really drawing from their inspirations, such as Ghibli and Amélie. It's a quaint puzzle game with a lot of good art and simple yet touching animations.

The biggest struggle with a game like this is that there's just not a lot to it. It's a simple, straightforward narrative, with some very simple puzzling elements. A few of the puzzles are finnicky, but are pretty straightforward and easy to solve. The plot itself is also very straightforward, and you'll probably realize what happened by chapter 2. This can make the game feel a little slow and plodding; it's as if the writers revealed their hand too early, and maintaining an air of mystery would be more interesting.

But for what it is, this is fine. It's a nice, wholesome, cozy game, and it'll pluck a heartstring or two on its way. Definitely a pleasant experience, but there's also not much else to say beyond that.