mephistopheles
18 reviews liked by mephistopheles
Pony Town
2016
The character customization is fun but oh lord the community.
Pony Town
2016
why is everyone so fucking mean. the art is very cute though, i like decorating my island and looking at the pretty skins people can make! this is a game thats only fun if you already have friends who play bc everyone else hates you and wants you dead
I need to kill myself.
true kino
Dead Plate
2023
ouuuuuu this game was sooooo mid but i'm still giving it 3 stars because of the sheer potential it had. if this game was full-length instead, i feel like half of its issues would have been solved, giving the characters way more depth, more room for elaborating on their motivations + circumstances and overall the story would've been cleaner with far less unresolved threads. i still somewhat enjoyed what we got, but im lamenting what this game Could've been So bad..... there was so much potential that got COMPLETELY wasted on this being a short rpg
also as another user said i feel like the tycoon aspect didn't really add anything to the game? it was fun but really repetitive and some of the controls were a bit buggy..... the mechanics were overall kind of a drag tbh interacting with the environment added little to the story + tended to be overdone. likewise the game is very vague in telling you how to trigger the endings? without a guide i would have been completely stuck
at the end of the day i do understand this is a free game + the visuals and music are amazing, i'm just so sad because i would've loved to see this in full-fledged game form but alas...
also as another user said i feel like the tycoon aspect didn't really add anything to the game? it was fun but really repetitive and some of the controls were a bit buggy..... the mechanics were overall kind of a drag tbh interacting with the environment added little to the story + tended to be overdone. likewise the game is very vague in telling you how to trigger the endings? without a guide i would have been completely stuck
at the end of the day i do understand this is a free game + the visuals and music are amazing, i'm just so sad because i would've loved to see this in full-fledged game form but alas...
Dead Plate
2023
I find myself a bit torn on what exactly to rate this game. Because there are a lot of things I like about it, and I'll start with those first. The general feel an ambience of the game is great, the art style and music come together to make a setting that feels mostly normal but is just a little bit off-putting at all times. It also cannot be ignored that the game IS free, which is a mjor point in its favor no matter what else I may have to say about it. Vince and Rody are both compelling and likably-written characters (if perhaps a bit cliche'd) who catch your interest even in a fairly brief timeframe. So there's a lot of great potential and vibes at play here that pull you in very quickly at the start.
What lets all this potential down a bit, though, is the actual gameplay. I don't so much mind the slightly clumsy controls, I eventually got used to them, but there are some very puzzling design decisions at play which make the restaurant tycoon portion a bit of a pain. First of all, there's the sprint function, the implementation of which is pretty frustrating. There is literally no reason not to sprint. Ever. In fact you basically HAVE to sprint, constantly, to complete the levels on time. I kept expecting the game to introduce some kind of trade-off mechanic, like maybe a depleting stamina bar, or maybe make it so that if you sprint while holding food you run the risk of spilling the food and having to get a new plate. But the game never introduces anything like this, so ultimately the inclusion of a dedicated "sprint" button just means that you spend the entire gameplay section with one finger holding down Shift the entire time.
The gameplay loop itself is quite repetitive since every table always orders the same Appetizer - Main - Side - Dessert sequence and there's only ever one of each on the menu per day. The challenge isn't so much in remembering orders or organizing the sequence of operations as it is just running between the tables and the dispatch window fast enough without getting stuck on something or having the controls mess you up. (With an occasional trip to the back to empty out the trash can which is a welcome break in the pattern even if it feels a bit like an afterthought. The alleyway behind the restaurant where the dumpsters are definitely feels like it could have been used more than it was). And in the middle of all this you have to try and stop to talk with Vince every day, which I believe you have to do to unlock some of the endings (and also because it's the only real sense of plot progression you're gonna get), but which can feel stressful since it's not clear if your gameplay time is running out while you're chatting with him or not.
Another slightly odd choice are the equippable items, of which you can buy six, but of which you can only equip one at a time. This is vexxing because there are quite clearly some items which are WAY better than others (particularly the cologne that increases guest patience, which basically seems like a required item because you WILL have customers walking out in the later levels if you're not wearing it) which makes it so that there are 4 or 5 items which you have no real reason to waste your money on since using them over better alternatives will never be worthwhile. I realize maybe it might be a bit OP if you could buy and equip ALL of the items at once (I do appreciate that your progress on purchased items does carry over from one playthrough to the next, which makes replaying the game to get different endings notably easier), but this feels like something that should have been solved with better balancing rather than just making it impossible altogether. Speaking of balancing, the game never really feels like it's operating at "full potential" so to speak, considering the restaurant has 8 tables and yet you never fill more than 4 at a time on any given day.
There's also quite a lot of things in the game that feel like "dead ends", like they were possibility MEANT to be expanded into something deeper but there just wasn't enough time or budget. For instance, Rody can only carry one plate of food at a time, because his other hand is permanently filled with a tray of wine... that is never used for anything. Nobody ever asks you for drinks, and you never have to serve anyone drinks. I feel like it would have made more sense if Roddy could carry TWO plates at a time, with a potential bonus to tip money if you manage to serve two people seated at the same table at the same time (from a realism point of view, it's VERY weird that you bring two people their food separately, often even with one diner already eating desert by the time their partner gets their appetizer. I'm also not quite sure why a table with four people places all of its orders at the same time, while two people at a table have to be served separately?). There's a ton of other little dead ends like this as well. You can look out the window of Vince's bedroom to see a creepy silhouette staring up at you, and then if you look again it's gone, but it's just... kinda there to be spooky. Nothing in the plot ever explains it. Same thing with Rody's window, where you can see a person in one of the windows opposite on some days, but not other days, and it's just kinda there to be a thing you click on between shifts at the restaurant. You can even steal money from the restaurant cash register one night, which has absolutely no consequence whatseover, despite Vince supposedly being a very strict boss, and seemingly serves no purpose other than to reward those of us wicked enough to do so. (Speaking of Vince the strict boss, the feedback you get from him doesn't change at all based on your performance, even if you're losing customers during the day, though there may be a plot-related reason for this. You only face some unclear consequences if you don't meet the quota for the day, at which point you immediately restart the shift).
As for the plot itself, despite an intriguing and promising start it ultimately goes down a pretty predictable route, which I thought was a shame. There are four endings, of which two are fairly short fail-states, one is a sort of neutral ending you get if you accidentally avoid the main plot for too long, and one is the actual climax. I definitely would have appreciated a more diverse array of possible outcomes, and it would have markedly improved the game's replayability. In particular, while I won't go so far as to say the game NEEDED a romantic element, I do think it was pretty heavily emphasizing that Vince and Rody have some kind of unique, burgeoning connection if you take the time to actually talk to him every day, which ultimately winds up basically not mattering at all in the final outcome of the story, which seems like a shame. The game throws quite a lot of subtle details at you about these two characters, especially if you really explore all the dialogue options and interactable items, but by the end you don't really feel like getting to know Vince and Rody mattered all that much, and I personally didn't wind up with any particularly strong feelings about how either of them ends up in any given ending.
Overall the game is still pleasant enough, and certainly worth the hour or two you'll need for a full playthrough, especially when, again, it's FREE... But ultimately I find myself a little forlorn thinking about what could have been.
What lets all this potential down a bit, though, is the actual gameplay. I don't so much mind the slightly clumsy controls, I eventually got used to them, but there are some very puzzling design decisions at play which make the restaurant tycoon portion a bit of a pain. First of all, there's the sprint function, the implementation of which is pretty frustrating. There is literally no reason not to sprint. Ever. In fact you basically HAVE to sprint, constantly, to complete the levels on time. I kept expecting the game to introduce some kind of trade-off mechanic, like maybe a depleting stamina bar, or maybe make it so that if you sprint while holding food you run the risk of spilling the food and having to get a new plate. But the game never introduces anything like this, so ultimately the inclusion of a dedicated "sprint" button just means that you spend the entire gameplay section with one finger holding down Shift the entire time.
The gameplay loop itself is quite repetitive since every table always orders the same Appetizer - Main - Side - Dessert sequence and there's only ever one of each on the menu per day. The challenge isn't so much in remembering orders or organizing the sequence of operations as it is just running between the tables and the dispatch window fast enough without getting stuck on something or having the controls mess you up. (With an occasional trip to the back to empty out the trash can which is a welcome break in the pattern even if it feels a bit like an afterthought. The alleyway behind the restaurant where the dumpsters are definitely feels like it could have been used more than it was). And in the middle of all this you have to try and stop to talk with Vince every day, which I believe you have to do to unlock some of the endings (and also because it's the only real sense of plot progression you're gonna get), but which can feel stressful since it's not clear if your gameplay time is running out while you're chatting with him or not.
Another slightly odd choice are the equippable items, of which you can buy six, but of which you can only equip one at a time. This is vexxing because there are quite clearly some items which are WAY better than others (particularly the cologne that increases guest patience, which basically seems like a required item because you WILL have customers walking out in the later levels if you're not wearing it) which makes it so that there are 4 or 5 items which you have no real reason to waste your money on since using them over better alternatives will never be worthwhile. I realize maybe it might be a bit OP if you could buy and equip ALL of the items at once (I do appreciate that your progress on purchased items does carry over from one playthrough to the next, which makes replaying the game to get different endings notably easier), but this feels like something that should have been solved with better balancing rather than just making it impossible altogether. Speaking of balancing, the game never really feels like it's operating at "full potential" so to speak, considering the restaurant has 8 tables and yet you never fill more than 4 at a time on any given day.
There's also quite a lot of things in the game that feel like "dead ends", like they were possibility MEANT to be expanded into something deeper but there just wasn't enough time or budget. For instance, Rody can only carry one plate of food at a time, because his other hand is permanently filled with a tray of wine... that is never used for anything. Nobody ever asks you for drinks, and you never have to serve anyone drinks. I feel like it would have made more sense if Roddy could carry TWO plates at a time, with a potential bonus to tip money if you manage to serve two people seated at the same table at the same time (from a realism point of view, it's VERY weird that you bring two people their food separately, often even with one diner already eating desert by the time their partner gets their appetizer. I'm also not quite sure why a table with four people places all of its orders at the same time, while two people at a table have to be served separately?). There's a ton of other little dead ends like this as well. You can look out the window of Vince's bedroom to see a creepy silhouette staring up at you, and then if you look again it's gone, but it's just... kinda there to be spooky. Nothing in the plot ever explains it. Same thing with Rody's window, where you can see a person in one of the windows opposite on some days, but not other days, and it's just kinda there to be a thing you click on between shifts at the restaurant. You can even steal money from the restaurant cash register one night, which has absolutely no consequence whatseover, despite Vince supposedly being a very strict boss, and seemingly serves no purpose other than to reward those of us wicked enough to do so. (Speaking of Vince the strict boss, the feedback you get from him doesn't change at all based on your performance, even if you're losing customers during the day, though there may be a plot-related reason for this. You only face some unclear consequences if you don't meet the quota for the day, at which point you immediately restart the shift).
As for the plot itself, despite an intriguing and promising start it ultimately goes down a pretty predictable route, which I thought was a shame. There are four endings, of which two are fairly short fail-states, one is a sort of neutral ending you get if you accidentally avoid the main plot for too long, and one is the actual climax. I definitely would have appreciated a more diverse array of possible outcomes, and it would have markedly improved the game's replayability. In particular, while I won't go so far as to say the game NEEDED a romantic element, I do think it was pretty heavily emphasizing that Vince and Rody have some kind of unique, burgeoning connection if you take the time to actually talk to him every day, which ultimately winds up basically not mattering at all in the final outcome of the story, which seems like a shame. The game throws quite a lot of subtle details at you about these two characters, especially if you really explore all the dialogue options and interactable items, but by the end you don't really feel like getting to know Vince and Rody mattered all that much, and I personally didn't wind up with any particularly strong feelings about how either of them ends up in any given ending.
Overall the game is still pleasant enough, and certainly worth the hour or two you'll need for a full playthrough, especially when, again, it's FREE... But ultimately I find myself a little forlorn thinking about what could have been.
Omori
2020
This game is the worst. It steals concepts from better games and doesn't even understand how it made those other games good while also not citing its inspirations. OMORI is uncreative trash and all the games it's stealing from cost less altogether than this stupid excuse for a game title. Not to mention the person who makes the game is an utter weirdo who uses sweatshops to make the shit for her shop and I can most definitely say that, considering this is an rpgmaker game, she ran off with the money from the kickstarter and it is not even worth the 20 dollars. Don't even pirate this game, play better rpgms.
Zeno
2021
awful
Zeno
2021
This review contains spoilers
ok i decided to review this after having played it just a year ago because i just have so many thoughts on it despite my general distaste for it. this isn't a bash on zeno fans, this is just how i feel.
firstly, i'd like to talk positives: the gameplay. it is your general rpgmaker with an interactive narrative, exploration mechanics, and puzzles. but what really stands out that i don't really see in other rpgmakers is the random chase scenes. it was thrilling to randomly hear chase music and be chased by an assailant. while it was easy to avoid, simply by running into other rooms until the music died, it added to the horror aspect. and the puzzles were fun. that is all i can pretty much say about gameplay.
and now the story. i am very disappointed because the premise was so, interesting. there are so many things you can do with waking up handcuffed to someone and amnesia. it is straight and to the point. however, the story does not pick up until about the last half of the game. you're given hints through documents and reports hidden around the facility, detailing zeno as a disease characterized by bloodlust and cannibalizing others. while edgy, it is not a dealbreaker as i can see this being written well. near the end of the game, the sweet-natured, black-haired character has a complete and sudden change in personality; he becomes manic and murderous when his life is threatened by your blue-haired assailant. as you explore the second floor (you start from the bottom 5th floor, and are going up), you find out more about zeno. the more i read about it, the more it felt like there was not much research done on cannibalism at all from marutoku (i could talk prion diseases all day), but that is beside the point. it is entirely unexplained WHY one of the cures to zeno is eating another infected with zeno; it just does. if i were to cure a cold by eating the flesh of someone with a cold, it would simply make me sicker. it doesn't really make sense to me. in all honesty, i would have preferred it to be described as a parasite rather than "genetic disease." it would make more sense that a subject would have sudden urges to eat meat or partake in murder if something had taken over the brain. it is understandable that this disease is in progress of being researched, but the world building feels so lazy because there is lack of biological terminology to explain such things. every observation is more about what the disease is doing externally, rather than researching what was happening on a molecular level. it felt like these people were not allowed to own a microscope in the facility. there was little to no effort in the research to make this aspect of the story, the literal title and main plot, interesting.
while the main plot twist was fun, i don't think it was enough to carry the rest of the story.
now this part is just a personal peeve of mine. the other way to cure zeno is...to completely erase one's trauma. i know i shouldn't think too hard about this because it's a marutoku game, but trauma has to be written very carefully in order to be portrayed correctly. if this is how to cure zeno, then the implications are that zeno patients are trauma survivors. and trauma survivors are dangerous and violent. i am not saying marutoku meant to write this way about trauma survivors. i am saying it is sloppy, and it is insensitive just to throw trauma in for an emotional moment. the cure also sends the message that one should simply "forget" trauma and be over it to end violent tendencies. it was not written with care at all.
the main draw of the game came from the characters. the main two are handcuffed for a majority of the game, giving them plenty of time to interact with each other. however, their writing comes off as rather unsubtle. it felt like there was not enough time for these characters to get to know each other, gaining intimacy rather quickly. this is a normal aspect of marutoku games, i have noticed. these two are perfect opposites, one hotheaded and the other pleasant (but watch out! he's fucked up). it is almost trope-like how that works. a lot of lines between them are one-liner, "i will come back for you" kind of dialogue when things get dramatic. it felt like a dating sim almost, except you only had one character to romance. i have a sneaking suspicion that this writer wanted to write shounen ai in the form of a game but wanted to be dramatic about it.
i talked very negatively about this, i know. it wasn't a fantastic game, but it was fun overall. and as i prefaced at the beginning of this, i am not bashing zeno fans. i simply found this story badly written, and honestly just an excuse to write two men close to each other. ok have a great day everyone
firstly, i'd like to talk positives: the gameplay. it is your general rpgmaker with an interactive narrative, exploration mechanics, and puzzles. but what really stands out that i don't really see in other rpgmakers is the random chase scenes. it was thrilling to randomly hear chase music and be chased by an assailant. while it was easy to avoid, simply by running into other rooms until the music died, it added to the horror aspect. and the puzzles were fun. that is all i can pretty much say about gameplay.
and now the story. i am very disappointed because the premise was so, interesting. there are so many things you can do with waking up handcuffed to someone and amnesia. it is straight and to the point. however, the story does not pick up until about the last half of the game. you're given hints through documents and reports hidden around the facility, detailing zeno as a disease characterized by bloodlust and cannibalizing others. while edgy, it is not a dealbreaker as i can see this being written well. near the end of the game, the sweet-natured, black-haired character has a complete and sudden change in personality; he becomes manic and murderous when his life is threatened by your blue-haired assailant. as you explore the second floor (you start from the bottom 5th floor, and are going up), you find out more about zeno. the more i read about it, the more it felt like there was not much research done on cannibalism at all from marutoku (i could talk prion diseases all day), but that is beside the point. it is entirely unexplained WHY one of the cures to zeno is eating another infected with zeno; it just does. if i were to cure a cold by eating the flesh of someone with a cold, it would simply make me sicker. it doesn't really make sense to me. in all honesty, i would have preferred it to be described as a parasite rather than "genetic disease." it would make more sense that a subject would have sudden urges to eat meat or partake in murder if something had taken over the brain. it is understandable that this disease is in progress of being researched, but the world building feels so lazy because there is lack of biological terminology to explain such things. every observation is more about what the disease is doing externally, rather than researching what was happening on a molecular level. it felt like these people were not allowed to own a microscope in the facility. there was little to no effort in the research to make this aspect of the story, the literal title and main plot, interesting.
while the main plot twist was fun, i don't think it was enough to carry the rest of the story.
now this part is just a personal peeve of mine. the other way to cure zeno is...to completely erase one's trauma. i know i shouldn't think too hard about this because it's a marutoku game, but trauma has to be written very carefully in order to be portrayed correctly. if this is how to cure zeno, then the implications are that zeno patients are trauma survivors. and trauma survivors are dangerous and violent. i am not saying marutoku meant to write this way about trauma survivors. i am saying it is sloppy, and it is insensitive just to throw trauma in for an emotional moment. the cure also sends the message that one should simply "forget" trauma and be over it to end violent tendencies. it was not written with care at all.
the main draw of the game came from the characters. the main two are handcuffed for a majority of the game, giving them plenty of time to interact with each other. however, their writing comes off as rather unsubtle. it felt like there was not enough time for these characters to get to know each other, gaining intimacy rather quickly. this is a normal aspect of marutoku games, i have noticed. these two are perfect opposites, one hotheaded and the other pleasant (but watch out! he's fucked up). it is almost trope-like how that works. a lot of lines between them are one-liner, "i will come back for you" kind of dialogue when things get dramatic. it felt like a dating sim almost, except you only had one character to romance. i have a sneaking suspicion that this writer wanted to write shounen ai in the form of a game but wanted to be dramatic about it.
i talked very negatively about this, i know. it wasn't a fantastic game, but it was fun overall. and as i prefaced at the beginning of this, i am not bashing zeno fans. i simply found this story badly written, and honestly just an excuse to write two men close to each other. ok have a great day everyone
Zeno
2021
(Just a small edit to say I happened to enjoy the game a little more after making it to the true endings good for them)
Okay, so... Pretty sure the wacky translation has a lot to do with the overall experience, but this game was somewhat average for me. Before starting, I gotta say many people is in love with this game, so don't take my opinion too personally because I'm probably in the wrong.
I love RPGMs with all my heart, but this one felt... dull, so to speak. It's like your local intended horror RPGM, but the horror part does not deliver well. Even though the different floors and the vibes suit the themes perfectly, and even though there's a lot of effort and care put in CGs and sprites and such... the gameplay still feels empty and wacky to me. Same goes for the main plot points- as if it was forced and didn't make too much sense in the end. To put it simply and making this review spoiler-free, I feel like making the "two different states" as separate scenarios, not actually influencing the other, spoils the whole thing a lot. Their personalities seem slightly artificial because of that.
Puzzles are cool, though, and the exploration part matters a lot in order to get different endings, specially the ones actually telling you what's the game about.
I think I'm saying too many undeserved bad things about this game, but I'd say it's really enjoyable, so please try it! Let's wait for other games from the same author as well, they look sick!
Okay, so... Pretty sure the wacky translation has a lot to do with the overall experience, but this game was somewhat average for me. Before starting, I gotta say many people is in love with this game, so don't take my opinion too personally because I'm probably in the wrong.
I love RPGMs with all my heart, but this one felt... dull, so to speak. It's like your local intended horror RPGM, but the horror part does not deliver well. Even though the different floors and the vibes suit the themes perfectly, and even though there's a lot of effort and care put in CGs and sprites and such... the gameplay still feels empty and wacky to me. Same goes for the main plot points- as if it was forced and didn't make too much sense in the end. To put it simply and making this review spoiler-free, I feel like making the "two different states" as separate scenarios, not actually influencing the other, spoils the whole thing a lot. Their personalities seem slightly artificial because of that.
Puzzles are cool, though, and the exploration part matters a lot in order to get different endings, specially the ones actually telling you what's the game about.
I think I'm saying too many undeserved bad things about this game, but I'd say it's really enjoyable, so please try it! Let's wait for other games from the same author as well, they look sick!
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