"Ohoho, a game where you date birds? How hi-larious! Surely a silly way to kill an afternoon."

10 hours later

"...I will never be the same."

A masterwork in environmental storytelling, inviting the player to connect the dots in this person's life story by noticing what's changed and what always sticks around. It also does a great job setting the tone as a chill block puzzle game, giving enough free rein in finding the "right" answer that doesn't stifle your interior design choices. My only complaint is that it's easy to get stuck if you don't know what an item is at first glance. However, that's a very tiny nitpick for a game that made me cry in the final chapter when a specific item was unpacked. I'm definitely returning to this one in the future to unwind.

(Played via the Legacy Collection)
So much of this game is rough around the edges. However, it's hard to fault it for that when it's clear that it was taking a huge risk to set up something different in the Megaman universe. The story and characters are barebones, the dungeons are downright confusing (I will probably never replay this thanks to the ElecMan section alone), and even with Megaman or Lan one button press away from offering help, there were some sections where I had no clue where the game wanted to me to go or even what to do when I got there. Yet despite all that, the battle system rules even in this first entry. The boss fights are a highlight, and learning their specific gimmicks while responding to their moves with hair-trigger accuracy is just as fun as it is in later games from the series. This one's the foundation that the rest of the games built off of, and it's a solid one.

In Tacoma you play as Amy Ferrier and have the task of retrieving data and the wetware of an AI, ODIN. from an abandoned station, Tacoma, which was struck by a meteor a few days prior. The crew was rescued, so as you collect the data, which happens automatically, you are free to explore the many different rooms in the station, where you can re-watch interactions between the crew members during and immediately after the meteor strike from a few days ago. Doing this, you find out about each member's role, ambitions, backgrounds and relationships between each other.

As mentioned, the devs are behind Gone Home as well. These games are very similar in that there isn't any threat, you can basically just explore a location and piece together the story and the events that unfolded and so, they place a heavy burden on narrative, world building and atmosphere.

It's possible that you can beat the game without really "completing" the story or finding out every truth but I wouldn't recommend it, because the story is actually pretty interesting (way more than Gone Home in my opinion). Beware that this is a walking simulator, so there isn't much in terms of gameplay. You just walk around, read some notes, listen to dialogue, do a few very easy puzzles and interact with a couple other things and that's it. All the value here is in the story and the characters, so your prior experiences with walking sims should tell you, if this game is for you.

That said, that value is quite high, as the game places you in a narrative that is quite thoughtprovoking when it comes to our current dabbles and battles with AI and how it might look like in the future where AI is more embedded into our everyday lives. I don't want to say too much, because as I said, the narrative is very important in carrying your experience, but this is a game that, while it doesn't take that story theme to an unexplored area, does create an interesting and engaging plot where the player feels actively involved thanks to the rewinding / fast-forwarding mechanic that the player needs to use to gather clues on what happened on this station.

Overall, I can recommend it and it's definitely up there as one of the more enjoyable walking sims I've played. This comes from someone who isn't necessarily a big fan of the genre, but whatever that genre needs to do to make up for its lack of gameplay, this game has accomplished.

Speaking as someone who is not cishet, the male and female soulmates + reproduction premise is more funny or eyeroll-inducing than romantic to me, but I generally enjoyed this game. It was visually and aurally gorgeous from start to finish, with one of the most believable transitions from portraits to CGs I’ve seen in a VN. Often character portraits are intricate and on point anatomy-wise while CGs are less quality, but Olympia Soirée does not cut corners anywhere. And boy, are those character designs fancy.

The romances can be nice and sometimes spicy; the M rating is earned, both for the implied sex scenes and the darker themes present. This is a game you’ll want a certain tolerance level for, and I’ll list content warnings at the very bottom of this review in case you wish to go in blind. Tokisada and Akaza have the most believable romances in my opinion, having a good focus on developing their early feelings, but others have disagreed and that’s fair.

The protagonist has a strong characterization and gets a small portrait to display her expressions throughout the game, which is really nice. It goes a long way toward letting her be her own person, considering she doesn’t have voice acting. The game doesn’t shy away from acknowledging her sexual desires either, refreshing in a niche where the male love interests are usually the only ones who get that.

I also like that this has a canon route instead of a Grand Ending, and one that doesn't try to suddenly fix everyone else's problems in an unnatural way.

My criticisms are:
- How generally weak the gender commentary is (men are Men and women are Women. Basically different species with different places in life. They are soulmates tho❤︎), and lack of acknowledgment of non-cishet attractions in a world where love in general is so often criminalized.
- Bad ends generally rely on getting a certain number of wrong choices instead of a clear single branch, making it tedious to gather more than one ending per character. There is no Skip To Choice option.
- How often certain lines are flashbacked to leads me to believe this game is meant to be played over a year or more. Sometimes the same line is flashbacked to ten lines later. As Douma once said (and was repeated one hundred times), “Uugh…!”
- How skin color is addressed is a little weird.
- The short stories section is good for filling out details that either were not in the game or might have slipped your mind, and generally it’s fine to read them as they are unlocked. However, do not read Kanan’s Memoirs until you’ve completed all routes if you want some reveals to be total surprises. If you don’t mind big hints, go ahead! I’m not your parent.

In conclusion, pretty :)! and sometimes pretty stupid :)!

Content Warnings (if I forgot one, leave a comment!): rape, dubious consent, sexual coercion, drugging, forced impregnation, incest, CSA, kidnapping and confinement, violent misogyny (including murder), suicide, classism-based bigotry, body horror

This game is absolutely stunning looking. Literally any moment can be a painting. In that respect, Gris is fantastic, but I didn't find the rest of it particularly engaging. I've heard how well Gris represents struggling with mental illness, but personally I wouldn't have made that connection if it hadn't been planted in my brain ahead of time. I think that Gris is more of an interactive poem, and I certainly have a hard time elucidating poem meaning, so it tracks that I would need it spelled out for me. That is to say, Gris is certainly a well-made game and I can understand why many people absolutely love it, but I didn't find the moment to moment game interesting enough--the art completely carries it.