Animal Well is an outrageously dense game. It's a bit hard to be more specific than that without accidentally veering into spoilers, but it feels like every major discovery you find completely recontextualizes everything you thought you could see or do in this world. I don't think I've ever had as many mindblowing moments in a single game before and, even if you ignored the rabbithole this game invites you to dive into, the surface layer of Animal Well stands up on its own as a very well executed Metroidvania. This is honestly a stunning achievement of a game, especially for a solo developer, and I'm glad it's getting the praise it deserves.

To address the elephant in the room, Animal Well can indeed get pretty Fez-like at times and, while I certainly didn't dislike Fez, I wouldn't say I was a huge fan of it either. My issues with the more esoteric side of Fez are twofold, but in my opinion Animal Well solves both of these issues in it's own way. Firstly, an awful lot of the content in Fez is locked off behind one or two major bottlenecks that it's very easy to get stuck on. Animal Well on the other hand is remarkably good at making most of its puzzles have multiple solutions (at least at the lower and mid levels), making this not be an issue until you are literally cleaning up the last few dregs of any given challenge.

I also thought Fez's late game puzzles were too clever and mad for their own good. And... well, Animal Well is no different there. But Animal Well is much better at signalling its off-ramps. In Fez it only became clear right towards the end that I wouldn't be getting all the Anticubes, which made all the time on the ones I did get feel wasted. But in Animal Well, there is a pretty strict hierarchy of madness; going for completion in any of the 'depth levels' rewards you with something and is pretty good at letting you know what to expect from the next level, so you can know in advance whether that layer is for you or whether now would be a good time to stop. Compare it with something like Inscryption; most players will get a peek or two behind the curtain at some of the ARG madness in that game while they play, but the ARG side of things is well-telegraphed, clearly only for a subset of players and has very little impact on the game if you choose to ignore it. Animal Well does exactly this, but refines the formula even more in ways I cannot discuss because of spoilers...

The puzzles in this game are mostly very fun, very clever and make you feel like a genius when you work some of them out. And this is somehow true at every level in the game; by the late-game I was looking back at some of the early secrets I was smug at finding and thinking how foolish I was for thinking that was impressive. The game is very good at giving you reasons to go and explore its entire map yet another time, and this... it's a mixed blessing to be honest. While it is very cool to go back to a room you thought you'd fully explored and find yet more secrets hidden in the cracks, a lot of the mid-to-late game in Animal Well does end up with you somewhat aimlessly traipsing across the map, and it can feel quite time wastey. For the most part the few moments of discovery do make each journey worth it, but often times collectibles are hidden behind illusory walls and the like, which are just a bit frustrating and not always signposted in the best way. But overall, the puzzles are great; I am super impressed by some of the ultra late-game puzzles (which I googled after completing the game, no way was I diving that deep into the Well on my own), and the variety on show in this game is incredible.

The aesthetics in this game are also very strong. The retro art style, bizarre animal theming and droning ambience make this a richly atmospheric experience, and a unique one at that; I don't know of any other game that feels anything like this one. What Animal Well is sorely missing, however, is some context. While there is definitely worldbuilding of a sorts in Animal Well, there isn't a plot or any characters to speak of, and this lack of any real context makes the game that much less immersive and that much more... well, video gamey. To be clear I'm not asking for Disco Elysium levels of writing here; the plot in Fez was extremely thin in the ground but, at the very least, I knew who the PC was and knew why they were solving all these puzzles. I really think a basic introductory cutscene like Fez's would have really helped frame Animal Well in a much better way and made the whole experience that more engaging.

But I think that lack of context is the only thing stopping me giving full marks here really because, aside from that, it's hard to see how Animal Well could do what it aims to do any better. It's one heck of a debut solo game, and I look forward to seeing what Billy Basso goes onto create next.

I have absolutely no idea how to rate this one. Will I pick up season two? Yes. Would I recommend this to others? I don't know??

The art and music are lovely. All the dark blues and the snowy backdrop, the soft character art, cute music... Dreamy and engaging! The core cast of characters is interesting and distinct, each growing as the story unfolds, and perfectly at home in a uniquely surreal setting. The main character, Sayoko, is a cool choice by the author and is very much a figure in natural and intentional opposition to oppressive, dominant social narratives as well - primarily the church, which this story centres around. She's queer, racialized, can mostly see through and stands up against systemic oppression, etc.

Sometimes the writing is a bit clunky or redundant (it tries hard to drive its points home, relying too much on exposition imo), but it's still enjoyable and has a straightforward honesty. The main character is largely not sympathetic, but her struggles with mental health and bitterness feel candid and sometimes relatable. I would have adored this story in high school.

My main struggle with Ghostpia is that it's jarring because of it's contradictory and inconsistent tone. It's dark and melancholic bits were often beautiful, slowing down to reflect on different lessons or aspects of what death, memory, and companionship mean. Most media I love explores grief or loneliness, so I loved that! Sayoko's dark and dry humour is also great.

But. It would follow this up with bathroom humour. So much bathroom humour. And then suddenly hop to a scene that felt like something from a Saturday morning cartoon battle, making things impossible to take seriously when the tone shifted back to emotional. It might do this to appeal to a broader audience, softening its darker tones on purpose. To me, it was just disorienting.

There is also a villain that falls into an ableist trope. They're a strong character, yeah, but it'd be pretty nice if we could stop with those tropes. Although! Most of the glitchy and flashing screen effects in Ghostpia can be turned off! That accessibility feature let me play the game, so I'm appreciative.

Aaaand Clara. She's a warm hearted and eager child in training to be a nun, who the core cast hates and abuses because she is kind and loved by all. She's berated and physically harmed and manipulated as a running gag by characters way older than her. It's kind of fucked up and confusing?

I think she's supposed to be a metaphor for the perceived innocence of the church. Characters react strongly because they know the church is their oppressor even when it is kind... But without that being made apparent, it just feels uncomfortable. The reader is also given no real reason to hate her or see her as more than a sweet kid.

The overall violence people speak of, Clara aside, didn't bother me. In this world if you are killed you simply revive, so there's only so much weight! That was cool to explore in the story. Besides, it's a lot of cops and similarly corrupt figures being stood up against, so, you know. Stand your ground.

Ghostpia is an inconsistent visual novel at odds with itself enough to lose me a few times, but stylistically it's beautiful with compelling concepts!! I'll pick up the second season as I want to know the answers to its mysteries, am curious about the characters, and really wonder where they're taking its themes.

This is a seriously uninspired effort. Kirkhope's score lifelessly plods along, level design barely feels like a consideration, minigames and gimmicks are poorly constructed, and a general lack of polish plagues every corner. The story and characters are such nothings, there was no drama or triumph, and as a corporate satire (I guess?) it fails to say anything meaningful.

Even something as basic as visual conveyance is dreadful. Use "Sonars Splosion" to break glass... except sometimes when you need to roll through it. Pop the balloons? "Buddy Slam" (ground pound) doesn't work. Regular attacks don't work. Explosions don't work. Oh, you need to shoot sonar at them? There were at least a dozen occasions where I had no clue why my solution wasn't working, and the answer was never satisfying.

The jokes were often amusing in isolation, but exhausting in totality, self-referential to a fault and then some. The only things I can praise are the core controls (which still had inconsistencies), the sound design for collectibles and voices, the creative character designs, and the inherent enjoyability of collectathons. That last strength kept me playing to 100%, despite my better judgement.

Amazing what can be accomplished within such a limited mechanical framework. By asking for the simplest of inputs in engaging and readable visual contexts, Edith Finch is able to imbue new meaning into those inputs time and time again. By giving each segment time to breathe and building up the intensity of the visual context, the repeated input becomes more emotionally engaging, not less so, as each segment progresses. I think this attention to pacing and visual creativity allows Edith Finch to succeed where many "walking simulators", or games which adopt the style as a reprieve (e.g. "press F to pay respects"), fail.

I think Edith Finch could easily be recommended to those coming from outside the medium. I know some who are interested in video-games, but are concerned with their lack of competency as a newcomer, or the time dedication required compared to other artistic mediums. Edith Finch should be very welcoming to these people, requiring very basic inputs and lasting 2-3 hours.

What Remains of Edith Finch does a brilliant job at achieving what it sets out to do concisely and with great emotional resonance. I'm glad to see this site has been mostly uninfected by toxic, close-minded, elitist GamerGate nonsense, and seems appreciative of all the medium has to offer. Your parents might not have understood the appeal of Halo, but they might just enjoy this.

I've been playing this with my flatmate over the past 7 months (!) as we both grew up with the originals. We had a good time with this game, but a lot of that enjoyment came from us being such fun and hilarious people. The game itself takes the already flawed original Sinnoh games, outright ignores the improvements made by Platinum, adopts a horrendous art style, and poorly adapts the original's grid-based layout to 360 degree movement.

I will give this remake credit for giving the Elite Four and Champion more competitive movesets. Using underleveled Pokémon turned that part of the game into an incredibly fun challenge, despite some initial frustration as the game had not built the challenge up at all, it was just suddenly very difficult.

That aside, this marks a low point for the franchise before its pair of very good 2022 releases (although presentation quality is still not even close to where it should be). If the old remake team is working on a Legends sequel, as they should be, I fear this will result in a Unova remake of the same quality as this... I guess we'll find out.

Damn, very conflicted feelings on this one. Disappointment out of the gate: the presentation is far below where it should be. I shan't bore with details of performance quality, as that is well trodden ground. Less discussed but still relevant is the story presentation, which is a step above Sword & Shield for sure, but still subpar featuring framedrops, poor and few animations, and a general absence of polish. The region is severely lacking in character, though some towns stand out as quite well-realised.

However, over the course of a game this long I adapt. All these issues become like rain, noise that I barely notice. And what lies underneath that noise is a damn fine game indeed.

While lacking in character, the region is actually really well designed, with great verticality, plenty of nooks and crannies, multiple routes, and true freedom. The open world is no lie; the player is welcome to explore right into high-level areas if they want. Smart decisions are made about how to balance the high-level Pokémon the player can catch, and how experience is handed out by these and trainers' Pokémon, to keep the player from becoming over-powered. This is achieved without level-scaling, thank god. I don't want a smooth difficulty curve in an open-world game, I want pure chaos, and Scarlet is more than happy to oblige. That some objectives were rendered trivial didn't matter to me, as this was the result of pushing myself to do late-game challenges while under-levelled, and thus the ease of these objectives was a product of my agency.

While the story presentation is problematic, the actual story itself contains a number of high-points and is generally well-written. It all comes together at the end, featuring a surreal final area with an atmosphere that actually feels bolstered by the game's unsightliness and poor performance. The climax has pretty great presentation, and is unusually bold and emotional for a Pokémon game. At least one, probably more, of the Pokémon I caught have canonically killed actual humans. Absolutely crazy.

I rinsed this game. I did literally everything. I caught all 400 Pokémon, I did all the main and side quests, I redid the final post-game objective until I'd beaten all the randomised opponents you can fight. Fuck, I even did the exams. I love this game... but I can't give it more than a 3.5/5. It's a great game buried in a miasma of awful, undercooked, unpolished nonsense. While I have much disdain for the Pokémon Company's business practices, Game Freak proved in 2022 that they can do great work, putting out the two best Pokémon games since generation 5 in the same year despite the massive time pressures placed on them. My sincere hope is that Game Freak can now thrive within the awful system they find themselves in to put out even better work, using Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet as starting points to iterate, improve, and polish these two styles of Pokémon game without needing to start again. I'm cautiously optimistic.

NO OPTION TO TURN OFF FLASHING/STROBE LIGHTS

Played fine for 5h until I got to a segment with intense strobe/flashing lights (part of an encounter/puzzle).
Tried to find an option to turn it off but there is NONE. And from what I've read, there are more intense strobe/flashing lights parts down the line, especially in the DLC.
One would hope a game released in 2019 had this kind of accessibility option...

Everyone else I know seems to absolutely adore this game, a perfect, favourite, all-timer. I couldn't get into it the same way, but I was enjoying it just well enough to keep going for a while. However, complaints mounted and mounted, and eventually one really bad spot of design frustrated me enough that I didn't have the motivation to continue.

First of all, not complaints so much, but aspects of it that I know others love but didn't help raise its score for me - The vocal soundtrack just wasn't to my personal taste, and I couldn't get as invested in the characters. I have a complicated relationship with the "wholesome queer indie game" vibe, despite being queer and wanting representation something about it often just puts me off. In particular, in this case, buddying up so intimately, so quickly with the characters made me honestly uncomfortable. "wow we fused was that your 👉👈 first time". haha get it its like sex. girl we just met.

I found the progression to be kind of awkward. There are a lot of small objectives you have to complete across the map, and it's often unclear when one's appropriate for your level. Finding the right arbitrary beasts to capture to unlock traversal abilities is poorly signposted and often out of the way, especially with swimming. And the level curve in general felt quite poorly adjusted at times, especially trying to find your way through the west of the map.

The big thing that made me ragequit was the way the game handles "legendary" beasts. While a small handful of designs really appealed to me, I was having trouble finding enough beasts I cared enough about to want on my team. When I found Glaistain, it was going to finally be a solid sixth. Unfortunately, the game made absolutely no indication that it was unique, how hard it would be to catch, or what the process for respawning it would involve - but I was promised by another player that it could respawn, so when I went in unprepared and had no hope of catching it, I didn't think to reload. Only after it was too late did I learn you have to wait for a rarely-spawning rumour in town, which from my experience is excruciatingly rare before postgame - it's not something you're supposed to be able to rely on, and I'd been left to rely on it with little warning. Unable to complete the team I wanted to play with, on top of everything else grinding me down, I lost all interest.

'i don't want this to happen, and yet it will.'

collages of inner life spread across digital pages: raw thoughts, wishes, guilt & regret. dreading the passage of time, circling mistakes made and words we can't take back. on wanting nothing more than to hold onto something//someone, a connection that won't fade with time. an abstract bearing of the soul in hopes of mending wounds -- of the guilt to subside.

inbetween it all, it gives you the space to express yourself - blank pages to be filled. and i think that's because it doesn't want anyone to feel alone with their problems. because it believes it will be okay in the end. beautiful.

// play in browser here

I struggle a bit when thinking about Indika. Because on paper it does a lot of things I really like. Especially the enviroment design and general weirdness of the whole experience really stood out to me. But it also feels a little aimless sometimes, and especially its portrayal of sexual assault is a point where they should most definitely have gone back to the drawing board. If you're interested in Indika at all, I think it's a very good idea to pick it up. And meanwhile, I'll sit here, in my little corner, thinking about why I don't love it the way I thought I would.

Danganronpa brings some great ideas to the table, but ultimately fails to do anything meaningful or creative with them. While the graphics and music are really great, and the gameplay passable, the biggest flaw is the writing.

In my opinion, two things are necessary for the death-game format to work well; fun characters and solid mysteries. This game has neither. Nearly every character - out of the initial 15 - feels purposefully written to be as obnoxious and boring as possible. By the end of the game, I'd only connected with three of them, two of which had died early on. And if you're not invested in the cast, it's difficult to care when someone dies.

I also thought the intrigue just...wasn't there. Admittedly, I might be spoiled by the zero escape series, but Danganronpa never felt like it could focus on a secret long enough to build it up. Any time a new, mysterious, paranoia-inducing twist is hinted at, it's inevitably revealed in the next hour. You don't spend hours wondering who a masked participant really is, or find a weird clue that rattles around in your head until its relevant twenty hours later. It's all disappointingly simple.

Danganronpa - putting it bluntly - is baby's first death-game. That's not a bad thing, and indeed, I don't think Danganronpa is a bad game in isolation. You can have fun with it, and I can see why its a cult-classic. But if you're already familiar with the genre before you play it, Danganronpa feels a bit disappointing. All it does is wet your appetite, and make you wish you were playing your personal favorites. And while Danganronpa does pull some good story beats in its final hours, its not enough.

If you've never played a death-game before, and you want a friendlier starting point, I'd say give Danganronpa a try. And if you're a bored teenager who wants to try Danganronpa out because you like the aesthetic, then give it a shot. But if you're not particularly interested in the art or music, and if you've already played similar games before, I'd say Danganronpa is an easy pass.

no spoilers as always
I initially was a lil turned off by the art style, but had to try for the queer rep & cause so many folks seem to love this game, & I'm so glad I did! I actually warmed up to the art style quite quickly~ the environment BGs in particular are so pretty!
I thoroughly enjoyed the extensive options for pronouns & other social terms/titles, & how such a wide variety of different kinds of queerness were woven into the characters & their relationships so naturally (whether gender, sexuality, romance, relationship style, family structures etc). I really loved the characters, they all felt real & had interesting arcs, which u really need to do multiple playthroughs to experience, it's designed really well for replayability! I really appreciated that following the kids from age 10-20 was well handled, with everything feeling v age-appropriate.
while it maintains a fairly light & sweet not-too-deep vibe, it definitely doesn't shy away from darker things like death, grief, illness, mental health, trauma, tragedy...
I loved the way relationships between the characters & ur player work!! all the characters maintain their agency & stay true to their desires & needs, even when they change- it doesn't stoop to that gamified/coercive/transactional entitlement zone that games too often do. i do have a few critiques, like how even though there are some open relationship & polyamory options (which is wonderful!), they are still based in a hierarchical relationship escalator ideal (ie: open relationship is less serious/commited than an exclusive "romantic" relationship) & most options are actually quite mononormative, but overall I was quite impressed!
the gameplay is very straightforward & simple, & I found the whole combo of everything to be quite engaging and enjoyable! I may utilize the dice rolls in place of the card game on further playthroughs (which I for sure will do!), a cool option if u wanna focus on story.
that being said, the story is alright? it's nothing groundbreaking that's for sure, it's definitely more focused on the characters, but I felt like it didn't really need to be anything more than it was.
it does touch a bit on the complications of what it means to colonize a planet, & I was sort-of satisfied by the level of critique in my playthrough, though I think it could have easily been focused on more, & I wonder how different playthroughs will affect what I think. I did appreciate that it wasn't heavy-handed & focused more on giving space for u to think on things. however, keep in mind that there is a wiiild amount of different possibilities & variations on how each playthrough might unfold, so I'll see how further playthroughs inform my perspective~
overall, a breezy & cozy game with a simple & enjoyable gameplay loop, adorable characters & a satisfyingly huge amount of choice & variation in how the story could unfold!

Very, very strong Coffee Talk vibes on this one. Concocting different teas in order to unlock new scenarios and use your newly gained information to go back and mix them into different blends. That, and one other detail that I don't quite want to get into to try and remain spoiler free for both games.

Just like Coffee Talk, it's a very cozy experience. Not a very extensive one, but cozy nonetheless. You can only do so much with a few minutes of dialogue between three characters, and I like what they did.

I did have to look up a guide for that final ending, I'll admit. I'm not sure if it was purely my fault or just something that felt a little too vague, but I had tried mixing three of the same ingredient earlier to no avail, so I had assumed that it wasn't possible for any of the ingredients. Not the case, and unfortunately, I had no access to saves of any sort, so after a few failed attempts, I decided I wasn't really willing to trial and error my way into the correct drink. I think given more opportunities to make the drinks, I'd find it a little easier to experiment and find new recipes.

Not bad, though. I'm starting to become a fan of this developer already, and I'll absolutely consider trying the rest of their games. Especially looking forward to the rest of the Year of Springs games whenever I get that opportunity.

i guess i should also thank good buddy Lemonstrade for trying to urge me into playing this game so adamantly lol