18 Reviews liked by mephistopheles


The character customization is fun but oh lord the community.

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

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...

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.

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

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

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!

AN ELEVATED MEET N FUCK

"but a machine of pure metal is a luxury."

"most often reserved for facades; to insulate the squeamish from uncomfortable realities."


As I am writing this, I am having a very stressful day. So let's destress by chatting about EROSTASIS for a little while.

It’s exactly what it says on the tin, AN ELEVATED MEET N FUCK. So you must be wondering, what is an elevated meet n fuck? What does such elevated meet n fuck entail?

You already know that I cannot answer this without indulging in the opportunity to talk about the Meet n Fuck games. You know, those point n click erotic dating sims that infested Newgrounds back in the mid 2000s? Those games that were completely jury rigged with stolen hentai art, and random assets found on the internet (like the moans from porn videos in 144p). Anyways, there are two things worth noting from these games. One, is obviously the poorly written dialogue that always has a typo, and two, the foreplay. The foreplay is the “challenge”, it is the wall in your way to getting your dick wet. How can it be done, boys? Well, it’s simple. You rub her left thigh first, DON’T DO THE RIGHT, FIRST! That’s a rookie mistake. It's the left thigh, then the right thigh. Then the hips- LEFT SIDE OF HIP FIRST- THEN RIGHT. Never touch the arms, always touch the cunt last, folks. This is the order, this is Meet n Fuck Lady’s way, and you will follow her way. You will serve the Meet n Fuck Lady! You think she’s servicing you? Bitch, if she doesn’t like your vibes, you ain’t getting in! You are constantly comforting her needs, at all times! You think you’re swooning her with the stupid shit you say? No, she loves desperate clowns that humiliate themselves to get her to smile. She responds to your bullshit with incomprehensible shit because she's not really listening to you, she's just thinking about eating you in one bite. Why’d ya think when ya cum, the game fades to black with a “The End” title card? Because she just ripped your head off like a prey mantis. You died, to sustain her desire, and you will be born again to service her at a later time.

Some people reading this is going to have the audacity to think “that isn’t Meet n Fuck at all.”. What are you going to do? Play them to prove me wrong? No, go ahead, go serve the Meet n Fuck Lady then come back, so I as well can put you in your place. I will choke you out like a rattlesnake, you fucking freak.

Ready to talk about EROSTASIS?

Actually, I know what’s best for you. No, I don’t think you are ready to talk about EROSTASIS. Let me just get this out of the way. This play is grotesque, with some vile, intense, and hysterical imagery of all sorts of perversions. Along with tone piercing sonic sounds that fit just beautifully with it. But obviously, this is not for everyone and I will talk more in depth about it (because that’s more fun for me.). If it does not sound like your thing then move on or keep reading so I save you the trouble. IF this does interest you. Then you will stop reading right now and play it. You will come back after playing it.

OBSERVE, PERCEIVE, AND CONTEMPLATE.

Erostasis begins by double tapping the BEGIN CYCLE. button, then your ears are immediately sonically challenged with this sickening high squeal of frequencies. Black waves swarm the screen, bordered by abyssal metal. The second button you double tap is SURVIVE..

You are then punched into consciousness! First thing you see is an open chest cavity with its beating heart, with all sorts of scrap metal and tubes lingering beside it. BWONG, BWONG, BWONG, BING!

“DO NOT
ATTEMPT
TO SPEAK.

IN FACT,
DO NOT ATTEMPT
ANYTHING
AT
ALL.

YOUR ROLE IS
TO OBSERVE. o”

Third button you double tap is OBSERVE..

At this point, you understand what you’re doing here. You’ve done a great job following instructions. You clicked three buttons already!

This entity that’s speaking to you is in full control of your body. You are only really blessed with the perception of it all. As it says best.

“YOU WILL WATCH
AS YOU
SERVICE
THE SHIP. o”

So it’s pretty obvious here. You aren’t a person, you aren’t Paul The Private Detective that’s trying to fuck every woman he sees to find a birthmark on their ass, nor are you some guy fucking your friend at a BDSM club. There are no Charlies or Veronicas here. Just organs, as the ship is nothing but a body of organs, and you are just one of them. So like any organ, it’s got a function that needs to be done for survival. What is your function? It’s simple, because it already told you. Your function is to service. You must cater to the other organs’ “exotic demands.”. You observe, perceive, and contemplate. What does that entail though? Where do I even start?

There’s seven accessible areas on this ship. The play begins in fabrication, duh. Then you must go through five other areas before entering the COMPUTER CORE! Starting at the top is HAEMOPONICS.

HAEMOPONICS

“the human body is a remarkable machine.

self-constructing, self repairing, highly adaptable.


it is by far the most economical form of automation"


I don’t have anything really smart to say about this quote. It’s self explanatory, really. The fuck machine ship is just spitting. Anyways, you’re going to approach this fleshy motherly figure. It’s the heart. What does the heart need? The heart wants maternal intimacy, you are going to embrace the heart and feed from it. Blood is a fuel of life, so is breast milk.(duh) The maternal relationship between mother and the baby in her womb explains the ‘self-constructing’ part of the beginning quote. A baby is constructed inside a human’s body, they share the same blood. She never gets to hold her damn kids. You really are doing this bitch a service.

VENTILATION

“I didn't dare go far
Saving oxygen
For Modern Business Hymns
Before the Warp Guard”


The lungs are dicks. Just because we don’t like to think/be self aware of our breathing, that means the lungs feel we’re entitled. Honestly, everything that happens here is just what it feels like to be sick. The times where your lungs are weak but forces you on your knees, begging for air.

“a desire for power is always a fantasy for the weak.”

Let’s just hope we won’t be needing portable oxygen tanks in our lifetime. Don’t forget to breathe.

NAVIGATION

“The pain, the pain
The pain, the pain
Relief, again, the pain
The pain, the pain
The pain, the pain
The pain, the pain”


The nerves are here and they need something beyond pleasure. Make them base, human, and animal, for a moment. Make them feel pain.

DOUBLE CLICK FUCK.

We made it boys, the service top representation that we’ve been demanding!!!! This is the real meet n fuck experience, right here. You click the word fuck, you click the word hurt, then you hear the aaahs and oooooofs. Then you leave! It’s over in that section! Like a real meet n fuck!

“30 seconds left
In a golden light”


BIOREMEDIATION

I got canceled after jerking off during Sir James Corden’s show, and now I work in the piss and shit factory. I sit in shit and piss and theres fucking ghosts in the waste and want my body. Anyways I’m trying to destroy them. This isn’t even just relief, I’m out right destroying these fuckers with my body. I guess that can count as relief, you’re letting these ghosts, waste spirits(?), move on instead of sitting in shit. Anyways, they get overwhelmed by being in my body and implode. Bioremediation. Worst part of this play? It does nothing for me. I don’t even have an edgy theory for this. Maybe it’s about people who watch porn but don’t even jerk off, they love the audio for it and they just death grip their dick the entire time, eventually cumming, maybe.

WEAPONS

This is the best part of the fucking play, right here. It does EVERYTHING FOR ME. Weapons on this ship are basically obsolete, they never use them! It makes these fuckers desperate! So what do we gotta do? Well, we gotta remind them that these weapons are nothing without us. So what I’m about to describe here, is possibly the most hysterical thing about this play. I sure hope that if you made it this far reading this, that I hope you played it so you know what I mean here. To people who haven’t. This is YOUR SECOND CHANCE! If you continue reading you are about to be robbed of an experience that’s seeing this shit with your own eyes. Okay so immediately you see a woman getting her gaping asshole filled with a TORPEDO, and of course it's making her belly stretch and inflate. These weapons are literally begging you to fill them, bro. They are so empty! What are you gonna do? Not fill them? Let them die? Of course not! Let’s load a round!

“I’ll kill and explode and explode until everything’s broken and i can suck it all in to fill me.”

Cool, I’m convinced.

LOAD TORPEDO

Bitch get loaded, it’s pleased but it wants to be fired. But it needs our permission. Are we? Gross, no fucking way.

DENY.

“you’re so cruel, my tormentor. thank you.”

There’s a world where Suda was making shit like this if he wasn’t so held back and repressed all the time.

COMPUTER CORE

Alright, relief has been given to every organ on the ship. Well, until we learn that this AI has something that needs to be fulfilled as well. Although this AI and its ship is purely amoral, there’s a simmering thirst of sadism that needs to be quenched. Luckily we’re an organ that’s very adaptable to the kinks of other organs in this post reproduction world, meaning we’re absolutely perfect for the job. It’s going to make us discharge, obliterating us completely. We’ve reached erotic apoptosis, folks. That’s right, it’s a cellular system that happens everyday, billions of times, and will happen again. Do you need relief? You got something that needs to be sedated?

Begin Cycle.

"The biggest problem seemed to be that the people we asked didn't appreciate the fact that the game only generated questions and did not supply any answers. They seemed to think of art as a kind of riddle that they needed to solve. But we only asked people who are used to playing games.[...]Despite the fact that games are supposed to be interactive, many gamers still seem to be incredibly passive when it comes to the meaning of their entertainment. They expect to be spoonfed and don't seem to have any experience with literature, modern theater or fine art (or even art films) which require active participation, not just of thumbs and index fingers but also of heart and brain." - Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, creators of the Graveyard

An endless cycle of misery porn that insist upon itself, culminating in one of the most gratifying and cathartic endings I have experienced.

Please please PLEASE give this game a shot. Don't just skip it for the sequel Library of Ruina

Greatest youtube video I've ever seen