little_lagomorph
2019
it's like, fine and fun to play because i like logic puzzles, but it feels weird about mental illness in a way i'm not sure i appreciate
2019
i didn't get very far into it til i realised there's absolutely zero gay options. be straight or go fuck yourself. don't love to see that in 2021 personally.
2019
the 6/10 on this one is more about my personal feelings than the objective quality of the game. it's a perfectly good, cute game and has a satisfying enough puzzle experience. it was a good three hours and i recommend it but i'm not like, overly passionate or excited about it. also, the inventory is kind of annoying to navigate, so there's that i guess.
enjoyable gameplay loop and actually genuinely funny sometimes but it does the annoying thing that a lot of sex-comedy stuff does where it can't commit to either sex or comedy and ends up falling flat on both counts.
like, there's nudity, but it doesn't feel particularly sexy? the nudity feels more like i'm at a life drawing session. additionally, all the "love interests" kind of have the same body type with a notable exception and some incredibly surface-level differences like bust size which i find lazy and boring. it might just be because i'm not attracted to any of the men's default looks and i'm not attracted to women period, but the Sex Stuff gets exhausting pretty quickly and i ended up just kind of coasting through it.
it's like the game expects you to find nudity inherently sexy which ... i just don't? all the other sexual stuff seems like it's expecting you to take it as goofy-sexy, which i would be all for if it actually landed, but it's like the mannequin version of eroticism - too clean and polished.
the comedy i did generally enjoy, but the Sex Comedy all falls sort of flat because there wasn't really a punchline with any of it. the punchlines were like ... "heh, penis." i love dirty jokes and sex comedy but again, found that pretty lazy.
oh, also, one of the outfits turns one of the characters into markiplier, which is a full star off. i hate that.
like, there's nudity, but it doesn't feel particularly sexy? the nudity feels more like i'm at a life drawing session. additionally, all the "love interests" kind of have the same body type with a notable exception and some incredibly surface-level differences like bust size which i find lazy and boring. it might just be because i'm not attracted to any of the men's default looks and i'm not attracted to women period, but the Sex Stuff gets exhausting pretty quickly and i ended up just kind of coasting through it.
it's like the game expects you to find nudity inherently sexy which ... i just don't? all the other sexual stuff seems like it's expecting you to take it as goofy-sexy, which i would be all for if it actually landed, but it's like the mannequin version of eroticism - too clean and polished.
the comedy i did generally enjoy, but the Sex Comedy all falls sort of flat because there wasn't really a punchline with any of it. the punchlines were like ... "heh, penis." i love dirty jokes and sex comedy but again, found that pretty lazy.
oh, also, one of the outfits turns one of the characters into markiplier, which is a full star off. i hate that.
This review contains spoilers
it's fine i guess but after a certain point it gets really moon logic-y and not in a fun way. the writing also really doesn't respect nuri at all to the point where she doesn't even get to talk at the end lmao
This review contains spoilers
well, i can't say i'm that surprised, but i am disappointed.
i want to start off with the positives: this game is really fun! i really like the gameplay loop of both innocence and requiem, and this is the first game i've managed to play straight to completion in a long time. the first ... i wanna say 14? chapters are interesting and pretty well-written!
unfortunately that's where my positives end. the ending message of this game is "everything is actually hugo's fault and he needs to die". the ending message of this game is "being chronically ill and/or grieving and/or traumatised is burdensome to your loved ones. have you heard of MAID?"
like, you could say this is a bad-faith reading, but the macula is quite literally described more or less as a chronic illness exacerbated by trauma. like, textually. i did not realise, probably because i'm a normal person who doesn't think traumatised children who lash out are demons, that every time hugo goes on about everything being his fault that the narrative is siding with him and trying to get you to believe that the child, who is only put into these situations by adults who use him or take advantage of him or otherwise refuse to listen to his wants and needs, is actually the cause of everything wrong and needs to die for the world to not end.
like, for most of this game i THOUGHT the story was about thriving against the odds, but then the last hour happens and it turns out it's about letting go. which would be fine if "letting go" didn't involve executing your brother with a slingshot. like ... what the fuck lol
i want to clarify: i think this ending would be fine if it didn't feel extremely cheap and contrived and if it didn't send such a deeply unpleasant message about trauma and grief and chronic illness. and if the actual death scene wasn't literally "kill your brother with a rock". i LIKE sad endings. i LIKE endings where things aren't magically okay. but when the entire story rhythm is predicated on "things get bad but then they're ok again," it feels very, very weird to suddenly go "but not this time because uhhhhhhhhh." like, come on.
i want to start off with the positives: this game is really fun! i really like the gameplay loop of both innocence and requiem, and this is the first game i've managed to play straight to completion in a long time. the first ... i wanna say 14? chapters are interesting and pretty well-written!
unfortunately that's where my positives end. the ending message of this game is "everything is actually hugo's fault and he needs to die". the ending message of this game is "being chronically ill and/or grieving and/or traumatised is burdensome to your loved ones. have you heard of MAID?"
like, you could say this is a bad-faith reading, but the macula is quite literally described more or less as a chronic illness exacerbated by trauma. like, textually. i did not realise, probably because i'm a normal person who doesn't think traumatised children who lash out are demons, that every time hugo goes on about everything being his fault that the narrative is siding with him and trying to get you to believe that the child, who is only put into these situations by adults who use him or take advantage of him or otherwise refuse to listen to his wants and needs, is actually the cause of everything wrong and needs to die for the world to not end.
like, for most of this game i THOUGHT the story was about thriving against the odds, but then the last hour happens and it turns out it's about letting go. which would be fine if "letting go" didn't involve executing your brother with a slingshot. like ... what the fuck lol
i want to clarify: i think this ending would be fine if it didn't feel extremely cheap and contrived and if it didn't send such a deeply unpleasant message about trauma and grief and chronic illness. and if the actual death scene wasn't literally "kill your brother with a rock". i LIKE sad endings. i LIKE endings where things aren't magically okay. but when the entire story rhythm is predicated on "things get bad but then they're ok again," it feels very, very weird to suddenly go "but not this time because uhhhhhhhhh." like, come on.
2019
really, really good game to play with a friend or partner. boyfriend and i played it together and it's one of the best co-op experiences we've ever had tbh. took us maybe 17 hours to beat, but we committed to finding all gems and boos and as many secrets as we could in general.
2022
a couple frustrating levels in here but overall very cute, polished, and fun to play. really, really enjoyed this one.
top notch co-op escape room game. really, really enjoyed this one.