The Big Con (2021) is a game with some charming 90's aesthetics and clearly had a lot of passion put into it. so,, what even is it?

(story premise spoilers ahead)

essentially, you're a teenager named Alison (goes by Ali) who plays the trombone and lives alone with her mom in a "mom-and-daught" video store. every year, Ali goes to band camp to work towards her mom's dream of her getting into a prestigious arts university. however, the eve before she leaves, she learns her mom is being extorted by a gangster of sorts for approximately $97k, and if they can't pay it off, they're completely fucked and will be bought out by a chain video store. taking it upon herself to gather the funds, she takes to the streets and quickly meets a con artist named Ted, who claims he has the solution to her money problems and becomes a mentor of sorts teaching her how to pickpocket and get extra change out of cashiers and such. they set off on a cross country journey together to pull off a Big Con (holy shit !!!! title reference !!!) and go from locale to locale stealing and grifting their way into riches.

this is where we get into the gameplay. generally speaking, you'll enter a new area and be given a blanket goal, usually in the form of some money threshold to reach. achieve it, and you can talk to your partner and move on. essentially every npc can be pickpocketed, performed by holding down a button until the oscillating arrow lands in the shrinking zone on a pop-up UI. it's a simple, timing-based minigame that scales proportionally to the amount of money on the mark, but it gets old quickly thanks to how frequently you'll need to steal shit. to the game's credit, there is an accessibility option to completely disable the pickpocket minigame, though i never used it. you walk around, talk, and eavesdrop on people to gain information that is automatically added to your journal kept in your fanny pack. it tracks your goals, as well as exploitable characteristics of people that you can use to your advantage in conversation to con people out of their money. overheard someone's anniversary date and learn that their bags are sitting unattended in the lobby of the hotel? hop on over there and use the date as the combo for the luggage! shit like that, basically.

a lot of this sounds like it could be pretty cool and as though it may have a lot of depth, but in practice, i don't really think it does. after a while, the gameplay feels pretty one-note and almost pointless. it got to the point that it felt like i was wasting my time every time i actually engaged in the core mechanics, which isn't a good sign to me. although i felt it eventually devolved into chore territory, it's still a goofy little time. conversations take place on a very 90's background and Ali frequently makes jokes about literally everything that happens. is it hit or miss? yeah! is the game extremely camp? yeah! there's a fucking option in the settings to enable a laugh track. Ali frequently hallucinates a talking bedsheet-ghost (Rad Ghost) who constantly reminds her not to do drugs and functions as a hint system of sorts. that's a silly little concept! the story is predictable, yet it's strangely comforting with how dedicated it is to pulling off the vibe of a 90's teen adventure flick. it hits so many common narrative beats of the genre. there's a little bit of minorly gay content (wahoo!), and it's extremely casual and normalized, which makes me happy.

overall, this game is pretty silly and lighthearted. it's nothing too special, but if you're looking for a silly little 90's con movie-like experience without a deep plot, this could be a good fit. maybe i woulda enjoyed it a little more if i was actually alive and conscious during the 90's, but that's just like my fucking bad i guess. oops!

this game is very chill, and pretty cute! the characters are sweet, and there's some intersecting storylines that satisfied me reasonably with their resolutions. there's some pretty good worldbuilding from the dialogue of the customers and the newspaper at the start of each day that help fill out information about the world. yeah, you can know "vampires drink blood" from experiences with other media, but for different specifics about how werewolves work in this world and the interracial politics, it's a nice touch and i thought it was done well. it's a pretty relaxing experience overall, but it does get into some more 'gritty(?)' topics such as fantasy racism and minorly sexual discussions. the characters are expressive and the art looks decently nice, but the music is pretty lackluster and sometimes distracting. it's just a shuffle playlist of a bunch of chill tunes, so the vibes will sometimes be a little disjointed, such as when characters are having an argument. it's a little silly to have characters effectively yelling at each other while the music is going: mmmm yeahh im so chill im a chill non-memorable instrumental track,,

the drink making is nothing special at all. the drinks that you make based on requests do actually end up affecting the story (mostly just near the end of the game), but i felt like there were some times when there was no way i could reasonably figure out what drink someone wanted me to make. most of the time someone will flat out tell you the three ingredients involved, but there are also some times where someone will ask for a specific drink by name, and if you don't know how to make that, then you're basically shit outta luck. in some cases, not figuring out the correct drink will completely fuck over the storyline for that character, which i can totally get, but it also just feels kinda bad. there's also an endless mode where you just make drinks to people's specifications, but i played about two minutes of it before saying "nope, this is really boring and pointless" and stopping.

i did two playthroughs. for the first, i was just going along blind and trying to figure out all the drinks. for the second, i followed a guide to make sure i got everything right, and ended up with some better results plot-wise for some characters. although i have yet to play it (someday soon, i hope), i would feel remiss to not mention VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (2016). i have no idea how the two compare, and i recognize that this game probably took a lot of inspiration from the former. i personally liked this game, but i can't say whether or not this game holds a candle to VA-11 Hall-A.

i have never really consumed any mikudia (miku media) or really any vocaloid music in general, but when i saw this get announced, i was so hype. this was essentially my reaction.

she's really funnnn!! she's got a very unique playstyle and it's really quite enjoyable to have another character on the roster that doesn't make my blood pressure way too high. this shit make me feel like im playin checkers! for a long time i would play this game with the sole purpose of doing the next most difficult thing i could. once i beat all the other characters and aria, i was like okay, now i guess i have to start practicing for an all characters run. but then, of course, the character i would need to practice the most would be aria, so then i'd just keep practicing aria forever and become really really sad.

miku is the cure!!! i haven't played this game in a good while (probably since around the time synchrony came out in EA) but it's so refreshing to play something new and fresh again in this game i love dearly. she's a little difficult to get used to, but essentially plays like an even more chaotic version of suzu, which is really fun. she's got her little leek and her outfits are so damn cute!!! i pick up leather armor and normally id be like oh wow,, yay,, 0.5 defense,,, but now im like yayy cute miku outfit!! the sounds she makes when you get hurt or die make me feel like i am the worst person on earth and i am so sorry miku,, im sorry i couldn't play better for you,,,

the music is really fun and fits the game pretty well! there's not really parity with what zones they're in, but i don't think it really matters. i have a minor gripe with some of the songs from a gameplay perspective, but it's just that: minor. a couple of the songs start without a solid downbeat rhythm and are semi quiet, so i feel a little frantic for the first bar or so, but you can totally still find the beat and leek the fuck outta skeletons and ghouls and shit. maybe this dlc made me into a miku fan?? idk. pretty fun stuff.

for just TWO (two) American MikuBucks™, Crypt of the NecroDancer: Hatsune Miku (2024) is a slammer jammer, and you should play it if you like CotN and are at least just a little partial to vocaloid tunes.

how the hell did that donkey kong feller fit through that fucking keyhole

the definition of adequate. no levels are too hard, and the game functions exactly how you'd expect. i never played the original version, and i did have some fun with it, so what more can you really ask for? i beat all the main levels with stars and might come back for the bonus levels later, but i don't really feel driven to at the moment. Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2024) is nothing special, nor anything to cheer about, but it's a game and you can play it and it's decent.

positive wildlife conservation themes and pretty wholesome.

the gameplay isn't anything too insane. most of it is just taking pictures and pressing A until you've interacted with everything in a given area, but it's clearly created for a younger audience and so i don't think its fair for me to say "wow gameplay chugs" or anything like that. definitely the best part is trying to get all of the animals scanned on your phone, as you can listen to the sounds they make in the wildlife guide and then recognize that sound in game to figure out where they are if you can't easily see them.

unfortunately, i feel like so many birds look like each other (lmao) and that's kinda just a fault of reality, i guess, but when they're flying in the air and such it's very difficult to actually tell what a bird is unless you're pointing the camera at it. as such, a large portion of this game is spent looking at birds with your camera that you already have logged, which ends up feeling a little silly. totally could be a me problem though for sure. also, the wildlife guide is disappointingly bare. it has all of the creatures, what they look like, their scientific name, and their sound, but that's it. there's no fun fact or diet or wingspan or anything listed about the creatures, and that ends up making them feel more like checks on a checklist as opposed to creatures that you should strive to conserve, which i feel reduces the effect of this game overall.

there is a website called Ecologi that supports reforestation, and the creators of Alba, Ustwo Games, commits one tree to that mission for every game downloaded or sold. as of my time of writing, they're currently in place 5th on the leaderboard for businesses with just over 1 million trees funded, which i think is pretty neat. to conclude: Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is a cute and simple game without much mechanical depth, but one for a good cause. i think it's pretty easy to get behind, and definitely deserves to exist.

Bastion (2011) is cool. i like it! it's got tight controls, it looks gorgeous, and the SOUNDTRACK goes sooo hard. seriously. there are some bangers. we need more sounds of hammers hitting anvils in songs, because that is the soundbite of my dreaaams.

by far the best part of the game is the soundscape: Darren Korb's sweet sweet bangers and Logan Cunningham's sweet sweet narration. the world of this game feels so full of life and yet so utterly ruined thanks to these two facets. the narration feels so natural and is so adaptive that it is almost as though it is completely tailored to your specific experience playing the game. if you fall off a ledge, the narrator will make a little joke about your journey ending there. there's unique voice lines for every combination of weapons you leave the arsenal with. in one area, the narrator even reminded me diegetically that i could use my specific special ability if the swarms of enemies were too much. it felt insanely organic, and as though it had to be planned that i would have that specific equipment in my loadout, but no! i could've had literally anything in that slot. the narration is so frequent that you may think it'd blend into the background, but i found it to be engaging the whole playthrough and it made me feel like the lore of this world was being transmitted into my brain via osmosis.

there's a pretty great sense of progression as you both build the bastion and build up your arsenal. there's always something to check up on, upgrade, or swap out every time you finish a level, which feels nice. there's a good number of weapons, and i'm partial to a good number of them. they're not all great, but i imagine there's some i don't care for that others swear by, so your mileage may vary. however, the final portion of the game where it forces you to use a different weapon was dreadfully boring and anticlimactic. it spits on all of that building up that i just gushed over and instead gives you the most clunky, unfun piece of equipment in the entire game.

the story and gameplay aren't all that crazy, but the narration and vibes are fantastic, and i would recommend this game based on those two factors alone.

at the very least, i learned a little bit more about the death industry with this one. i appreciate the informational emails about green burials and such, as i was not previously really all that familiar with what everything is like surrounding the logistics of burials. the actual 'gameplay' is absolutely nothing special, but i also didn't expect it to be. there is a narrative here, and i think it's neat that it's told through reading your email. however, the titular mortician you play as never has any dialogue and you never get to read any emails she writes. i ended up feeling like i knew a good bit about the people i was receiving emails from, but not really anything about Charlie herself. you can definitely infer how she feels about certain issues and the like, but it didn't really feel like "A Mortician's Tale" as much as it was a tale about a funeral home.

overall an informative game, but not one that particularly moved me outside of simply thinking about death.

pretty short, but a free and overall enjoyable hour.

the visuals and sound are by far the best part of the game. the gameplay and 'story' didn't really do much for me, but i appreciate its unique qualities. the controls seem like they worked perfectly fine for most of the game, but once i got near the end, i began to have some problems (that im assuming are most likely rare).

the game explicitly told me that it was better with a controller, and i like using a controller for games when i can already, so i had no issues there. however, every popup tutorial for a new ability seemed to think i was using a controller (which i wasn't) and i use this x-input controller for everything with no problems. in the final area when the game bugged out and left me in the flight state for a bizarrely long time going straight upwards. i thought it was just a particularly lengthy cutscene segment, but nope! the visuals eventually began to get buggy so i started fucking with the controller and accidentally moved the control stick. apparently you can change direction mid air with the stick but not with the d-pad, which is just kinda annoying. i can understand wanting 360 degree movement for a mechanic, but not telling me and not even letting me do 8-directional movement with the d-pad with one specific mechanic is a little annoying. overall, the game is visually polished, but not very mechanically polished.

to be perfectly clear, this is a very minor issue, and i'm assuming i experienced a rare bug with the infinite flight. regardless of this experience, i would still consider this to be a 3/5 game. it's pretty, moderately fun, only an hour, and free.

i really really loved this game. well, at least most of it.

i thoroughly enjoyed the plot and the relationships between these characters. i appreciate how the game feeds you information in a way so that you can actually figure out what's going on before the end. a lot of it is really quite beautiful, emotionally intelligent, and incredibly funny. i'm already pretty emotional when it comes to media, but man, i lost count of how many different moments in this game made me cry. and,,,, then there's the excessive horniness.

i wouldn't necessarily say im a prude or anything like that, but the amount of times that Date gets bricked up over nothing got kinda old eventually. some other characters get really fucking horny too and it's like-- why?? i get that Uchikoshi is just kinda like this, but i can only take so many mentions of "porno mags" before i'm praying at my screen for the section to pleaaaase just end already. the game is usually pretty good at knowing when to hit the brakes on the jokes down in its emotional moments, which is a boon of the writing. buuuut then i will still sometimes get a piece of internal monologue that can sour the mood a little bit. if the horny jokes were at least reduced by 50%, i think that i would say this game would be pretty close to 5 stars for me. definitely my biggest critique of the game by far.

yet despite that, i still love a lot of these characters. i really truly do love Date when you look past his perverted nature. Mizuki is awesome. Aiba rules. Iris is great. it's really quite a great cast when you look at it as a whole, and i think most of them compliment each other well. backstories are thorough and significant to the plot and motivations.

after just finishing Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (2016), getting to experience character models and animations and environments that do not look like petrified burnt toast is a real treat. there's a whole lot of visual flair and style here. excellent english voice acting! everyone is so expressive and the fact that the models appear next to their textbox with the facial expressions is a really great touch, especially given that it lets us see our main character way more than we would have otherwise. even when they're not the person talking or appearing next to a textbox, characters look around and react to the things others are saying. it's a really really nice touch.

the "puzzles" are generally neat and inventive, but actually 'solving' them is sometimes annoying. it wasn't so hard that i needed to use a guide or anything, but sometimes it feels less like you logic'd out the solution and more like you just so happened to pick the correct option. the best somniums are the ones that truly lean into the wacky or emotional side of a character. they added a lot to the experience for me, especially with the branching paths.

in short: great game. loved it and most of the characters. excited to play the second one eventually! please less porno mags.

Intro
i really like this game. i think this is the metroidvania with the most horizontal progression i've ever played, and i fucking love horizontal progression. there's a fuckton of equippable 'relics' and equipment that changes what your parry does, and a ton of different spells to swap out. additionally, there's a lot of abilities, with many routes you could possibly get through the game and tons of optional abilities. i got all 3 endings on normal difficulty, and i still don't have every single ability.

Bloat
now, while i think it is awesome to get new unique things your character can do for exploration as opposed to just a "damage up" or something else vertical/numerical, it can start to feel a little bit bloated at times. personally, i don't really have an issue with it, as i think it will make the game more replayable for me in the future, and if an item randomizer ever gets created for this, i'll be lining up at the door 8 hours in advance. yet, it's possible that some people might have a problem with the amount of things in this game.

Movement
the movement in this game is unique and fluid, and there's a large amount of emergent techniques gained from combining different movement mechanics. while there's often an 'intended' way to get through a platforming challenge, there's a lot of synergy with the abilities that let you free style your way through some of the obstacles after enough practice. there's even some mechanics that feel reminiscent of celeste speedrunning tech, which is quite fun, and i think would make speedrunning this game quite interesting from both a routing and movement perspective. some of the optional platforming sections are very difficult, and i have a lot of experience with difficult platformers, so i don't expect doing all of them is widely accomplishable by people that are not as versed in precise platforming as i am. an incredibly nice feature is the generous usage of 'red spikes' that will damage you back to your last stable ground location, but will not damage your HP, so you don't have to be stressed about finishing a movement based room in only a few tries. additionally, the game tutorializes a lot of these more complex movement mechanics in a way that is analogous to Celeste (2018) mod Community Collab gyms with in depth explanations, input sequences, and even in-game recordings in easily retriable obstacle courses that are organized by movement ability.

Combat
combat isn't the most insane, and the bosses are mostly just serviceable (no real standouts). however, as you progress, you get more and more movement options that also double as combat options and even expand the attacks that your spells can do, such as the difference between hitting a spore spell normally and spin-slashing it. as such, i was pretty satisfied with the combat and enjoyed stringing together random attacks and abilities against bosses, but it's nothing special. at least there's a parry which works fine enough.

Interface and Art
my biggest issue with the game is the interface and art. in the relic select screen, if you don't have enough points to spend on equipping a relic, its sprite will be greyed out, which is a pretty normal way to signify something isn't selectable. however, because the sprites for all of these SIXTY relics total aren't very distinct even with color, it is very difficult to look at them on the screen and know "oh that's [X] relic and that's [Y] relic." here is an imgur image showing this with color. it's not very distinct, and the similar variations even within the effects make it a little agonizing to use the interface and discern between your massive inventory. the map is large and expansive, but the map interface is lacking detail or landmarks. in Hollow Knight (2017), for example, if there's a significant statue in the world, or a small village or something, it's represented with a little drawing on the map. while Lone Fungus has shaped rooms on the map, there's none of this detail, so it's dreadful to match the map to your visual memory of the rooms. also, the achievements on steam visually look gross and muddied.

Conclusion
in short, i think this game is fantastic for movement and platforming, and i suspect has a large amount of variance in the order of completion with numerous sequence breaks possible. i am definitely going to go for all steam achievements eventually (which includes a permadeath 100% file completion), but i'll probably give it a little bit of a break before then. however, if you're looking for a good looking game with an interesting story and engaging combat, this probably isn't the one for you.

Ittle Dew 2+ is an alright zelda-like that both soars and fails because of its nonlinearity. it's cool to be able to go to any dungeon you want in any order, and the inclusion of intentional shortcuts in prior dungeons that you can use with later dungeon items is neat. however, i feel like the whole of exploration isn't all that engaging. if you explore outside the dungeons, you'll find copies of items before you've even been to the dungeon the item comes from. if you're truly trying to get everything, you aren't really going to want to skip or use shortcuts anyways. so many puzzles are incredibly basic and easily 'cheesed' by having items you "aren't supposed to have" (even though it's intentional). sometimes, you will find a key you can use in any dungeon, which is essentially rewarding your exploration and optional puzzle solving with the option to play less of the game.

if you're trying to do a speedrun, this sounds cool, but to me, there didn't seem like anything too exciting to explore for. i cleared every cave i saw, and even did one optional dungeon. the bosses were repetitive and highly derivative of each other, and while the combat is better in this game as opposed to the first, it's not all that exciting.

maybe i'll consider going back for what appears to be a better ending, but i doubt i will. i'm also aware of there being a good number of optional puzzles that test your puzzle brain while explicitly locking off specific item usage to prevent cheese, so maybe those are neat, but i didn't play them personally.

overall, it's a fine game. it's really silly and quite funny sometimes! it just wasn't very special to me specifically, and there's nothing here that has me wanting to play more.

gosh. i have a million things i could say about this game, but i'll keep it fairly brief. (or at least, i have MUCH more i could say)

this game is so fucking insane. there's SO MUCH going on here, from the hilariously shitty animations, to the environments that look like they were rendered on my car's key fob, to the out of nowhere over the top plot twists. there's also SO MUCH about this game that i dislike. some reveals make things in other games uncomfortable, and some character personality changes are undesirable. it's not all bad for me though. i had a much more emotional experience playing this game compared to VLR. while i do still think VLR is better than ZTD, i enjoy the character moments in this game far more. also, the characters in this one are so much less gross personality-wise, and i didn't feel absolutely disgusted by random sexual harassment like i did in VLR. of course, there are still characters in this game i dislike. overall, even if the directions personalities go in and everything feel haphazard and arbitrary, i will not lie that i sobbed several times in this game and don't feel cheated out of enjoying those moments.

the structure of the game is cool!!! no notes there. at the start of playing the game i was like "oh fuck this is,,, yeah, huh.." but as i kept going, it makes sense why the game is like this (fragments, etc).

i think ZTD had really big shoes to fill after VLR. that's not to say that VLR was a masterpiece that can't be topped (because i do not hold that opinion), but because the scope of the Zero Escape series grew so goddamn much with VLR. you could argue that the whole series after 999 doesn't really "have a point" in more ways than one. but, at the same time, i think there's not really much else you can do to rectify everything. instead, we get a absolutely nutty bonkers game that had me saying "oh my fuck i love this game" to "oh my fuck i hate this game" every other hour.

puzzles are fine. that's it. they're fine. not enough of them, tho. i finished all of the puzzles like halfway through my playtime. worst puzzle design of the series for sure, but nothing is egregious.

i'm glad i played it, and i still had a good time, despite the numerous issues i have. i was consistently excited to play this game, even if i could tell that it kiiiinda sucks. zero escape is over. what the fuck.

🐌oops!

this game was really fucking great. it has definitely the most unique combat system in any game i've ever played. i love a lot of the characters (i have a special place in my heart for Shiki and her arc) and the whole vibe of everything is immaculate. it's honestly kinda crazy that this is a DS game in terms of the production value here. the soundtrack is full of bangers, the voice lines are nice, and there's a lot of variety with all of the equipment and fights. some systems in the game are a little weird to me, such as gaining PP for however long you don't play the game, the "trends" system, the way you're limited by how much you can eat in real world time, and the friendship system with shopkeepers. however, for the most part, those don't really negatively affect the experience, so they just end up being little oddities about the game.

i wish i got a little more time with each of the partners, as once you're past their section in the game, you're onto another, never to return (at least for a playthrough straight to the end without using chapter selection). as such, it doesn't feel that worth it to level your partners or give them incredibly lucrative gear or food, since you're not going to even be able to salvage that equipment from them later. i imagine those systems are probably more worth it on higher difficulties, but from a casual playthrough on normal the entire time, they didn't seem to have too much of a point.

i was a little worried that the touch screen gameplay was going to feel weird and janky, and it definitely did at first, but by the end of the game it felt natural. the same goes for the top screen partner gameplay. i turned off auto-play for my partner around halfway through the first week, and while it is incredibly difficult to get used to, once you gain a good grasp of how to effectively dodge attacks and get fusions, it's some of the most satisfying combat ever. the inclusion of the "light puck" mechanic that incentivizes alternating between finishing moves of Neku and your partner is absolutely brilliant, as it lets you shift your main focus ever so slightly for whoever has the puck in order to optimize your damage. i can definitely see how some people could fall in the trap of just blindly spamming to the side for all the partners, but getting over that hump in the learning curve was super worth it, and going for fusions is such a fun little diversion as you tap the shit out of noise on the bottom screen.

the story isn't the most insane thing in the world, but i love the concept of the reaper game. there was a surprising amount of philosophical and intellectual arguments for both the importance of individuality and connections with other people, and i'm here for it. i really enjoy the sentiment of how letting our worlds reach out and collide with other people's worlds isn't something to be afraid of, but something to strive for that can make each of our worlds more special.

overall, i had a fantastic time with this game, and i will consider going for the secret reports and playing the side story "Another Day" in the future. for now, though, that shall wrap up my time with this game. that shit ended with me. loved it.

it's fine. the closet thing that i can compare it to is Journey (2012), but while Journey is visually striking with diverse areas and garners a deep emotional connection with the player without using any words, this game comes nowhere close.

Omno looks "nice" but on the whole is pretty bland to look at and explore. it's formatted as a pilgrimage across the world, but several of the many areas in the game are just repeats thematically. when i got to the final segment of the game in the sky, i thought "wow, this area is neat and goes beyond just being a desert or a cold biome like the previous areas" but then the game proceeded to make the two following areas the exact same visually. nothing is really special about this game, and while i feel there was an attempt to make this world feel diverse and novel with its inclusion of 41 different unique species, they don't actually do much of anything in terms of gameplay or story outside of giving you "energy" which you need to get one singular collectible in each area. of course, there's a couple exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, they're inconsequential. also, there's 'glyphs' which are tablets with some lore on them, but they all felt faux-deep and pointless.

puzzles aren't anything special, and the movement is serviceable. i appreciate that you gain new abilities as you progress, so there is more freedom of movement, but it doesn't feel particularly satisfying. i don't think there's really anything worth playing here, but it is wholly playable, and i did get some enjoyment out of it, so i can't in sound and fair mind give it anything less than 3/5.

visual novels can be cool, and i love picross, so i figured i would give this one a shot, especially considering i got it for free.

the character designs are cool sometimes, and i think the game has some charm. however, the actual plot happening here really wasn't interesting to me. the cases are formatted as murder mysteries, but none of them really feel like murder mysteries with satisfying conclusions or complex methods of execution that you have to put together yourself. for a long time it felt like the game was promising something better would be up ahead repeatedly, but by the time i eventually made it to the end of the final case, the game just kinda,,, ended. the most fun characters that i enjoyed early on weren't even present for the majority of the final case, and its conclusion really soured any enjoyment i had of the plot previously. i didn't think it would be peak storytelling or anything, but i was hoping it would be at least mildly satisfying.

i will say this. i knew nothing about this game going in, and i was surprised by the quality of the representation. the main character is a strong and independent recently divorced woman of color (hell yeah ???), and there's a pretty strong queer presence, especially during the third case. i thought it was all handled with tact, and it made these characters feel normal, which is something i really like.

if you like picross, there's better games to play for picross. i got S rank on all four cases and solved all of the unlocked puzzles in "SCOUT's memories," and the largest puzzles ever get is up to 20x15. there's no zoom, and there's not as many nice QOL features as something like in Jupiter's Picross (Picross S, etc.) or Pictopix on steam.

i liked moments in its visual novel portions, but seeing as you're mostly just going to be playing picross, especially if you go for 100% like I did, you're probably just better off playing a dedicated picross game.