It aims to feel like a product of the 80s, with all the typical story beats and the preconceptions of the time. I feel it could have done something more with it, rather than just portraying it, but they wanted to play the tropes straight, with all the good and bad they have.

As for the game itself, it is a rather involved resource (time) management busy work game. If you've played Papers Please, it's a bit like that, but with much more varied interactions, and more focused on managing influences and relationships, and less on detailed "work". That part was interesting and had a few nice concepts.

Now where it really fails is in the narrative throughline and the bugs. I had a pretty much bug free experience up until the end of the game, the very last day. I had to repeat the level 3 times, with all the unskippable dialog it has, because of game ending bugs. It left a sour taste in my mouth, which was only worsened when I noticed that the game just ended for me, with no real "ending". My particular ending came out of nowhere, and felt very unrelated to any of the things I did for all the hours of game. It was unsatisfying and didn't feel earned, or even fitting for the game I had been playing.

I get that this is a game with multiple endings, and not all can be "good". But they should still feel related to the events and feel like a natural conclusion to what happened. My particular ending didn't feel like that, perhaps if I had gotten another ending and didn't encounter a few of the bugs, it would have a much higher score, but that didn't happen.

The vibes are immaculate, both in the art style, with its adorable polygon jank, and the soundtrack, with many songs forever etched in my mind. I was also surprised that there is a pretty thought out story with a lot of mystery, and it was pretty engaging. I recommend you pay attention from the start.

My only complain is the fact that the boss fights (there aren't many) are pretty simple and repetitive, however, one in particular in the last third of the game is terrible. It introduces mechanics out of nowhere, that will never be relevant again, without any hint. If you get stuck in a certain fight at an orange arena (you'll know the one), save yourself the 15 minutes of frustration and look it up.

Aside from that, playing on switch was pretty smooth, but the game would have some frame drops here and there on a couple of busy places. Also I experienced 4 crashes, always after main story cutscenes.

Tl;Dr: aesthetics, humour and social critique are the great highlight, and worth the price for that alone. Gameplay is challenging and engaging. Had some minor annoyances but they don't hinder the experience. Recommended.

Great little roguelike with a very interesting and unique art style and great writing. The music was fitting and some of the songs are worthy of going straight to my regular playlist. Personally I liked the art more in concept than in practice, but that is a matter of personal preference, and in time it grew on me. I give extra points for both the dialogue and the descriptions of skills, items and NPCs. Both charming, funny and sometimes a great satire and critique of corporate environments, hustle culture and surveillance capitalism.

In terms of gameplay, the combat mechanics are really simple, and the complexity of the system comes from the different skills and items that can be used as weapons (virtually anything that can be grabbed, can be used as an item). Now one thing must be said, the camera does not cooperate sometimes, and can make finding enemies and dangers before they find you annoying at times. Nothing too bad, but you might get reminded of it every once in a while.

The game is rather difficult. Knowing the different timings and patterns of different moves and items will be the main way you get better, as well as quick and resourceful thinking, as items break rather quickly and you need to scan the room and plan what to use as your next weapon. Despite the difficulty, there are some elements of progression with the unlocking of new skills and more maximum HP. There are also somewhat flexible "difficulty" settings that allow a more customizable challenge level.

Overall, a great game that doesn't overstay its welcome and ends on a high note before getting too repetitive.

tl;dr: charming little game about time loops and exploration. Buy it if you find it for cheap. If not, but you like retro exploration games or speed runs, also get it. It is short and sweet, but isn't for everyone.

Bought it with a crazy discount that made it less than 2€. I'll spare you any further reading: if you find it for such a bargain and do not mind a ticking clock, it is five stars and a great game.

Now onto more about my experience. I cleared it in just under 2 hours with a 56% completion. There are 2 extra game modes, new game pluses of sorts, which i might try eventually, however they will not be taken into account for the rest of this review. I ended up using no guides and had little to no previous information about the game itself prior to buying it. However I played this right after finishing the original The Legend of Zelda, which i think had the in the right mood and mindset for such a game.

I felt quite satisfied with the game. It is very charming graphically and the sound fits the game quite well. Given the premise, there can't be much of a narrative or text, but the dialogue that exists is very good and quite funny at times, given the context.

The gameplay loop itself is interesting however it can be very frustrating and repetitive if you find yourself lost, however if one pays attention to the dialogue and the environment that shouldn't be a problem. Also the ticking clock and the time loop probably makes it very appealing to speedrunners.

In the end, had a great time and might revisit it in the future.