thatdiesel
2021
When all is said and done, Cooking Companions is quite the wild ride, albeit not the most cohesive. It’s rough around the edges with the design choices and narrative direction, but it nails the slow churning horror and dreadful anticipation and that alone is worth squirming about in your chair for a few hours to see a prime example of how VN horror can be done, with maybe a little less on the plate next time around.
2021
Chasing Static pulls a very neat premise together, and most people agreed with its intriguing and interesting demo in the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc. But what has been brought together is a good idea poorly realized; sonic exploration is Chasing Static’s blessing and curse. With a little tweaking, and maybe some more scares, I’d be chasing (and rooting for) this title a little harder.
2021
Emotionally, I’m exhausted. But mentally, I’m so happy I spent the time diving head first into Impostor Factory. Kan Gao shows once again the supreme talent and direction he’s used over the past decade to tell a funny, imaginative, and emotionally crushing tale of living life to the fullest no matter the obstacles thrown in front of you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put back on the OST and try not to cry.
…I’m gonna cry a lot.
…I’m gonna cry a lot.
2021
I want to recommend Tunche for the beautifully drawn art and its smooth and simplistic combat. But I can’t recommend Tunche for it’s artificial inflation of a game that just does not feel finished. Putting so much to unlock behind the luck of the draw loses its luster when most of the game is seen within an hour or two. Having extra modes, harder difficulties, anything to give a different angle to what was shown would’ve done wonders to have me keep playing and buy-in on everything to see in the jungle. But with the one trail available to be retread ad nauseum, it’s not worth buying in.
Even when a properly earned “bad” ending cuts your time short with her or the structured “good” ending leaves you with more questions than answers, that this is just one day for her. One scenario that provided such dissonance of emotions, attacks, turns that concluded with a flatlining conversation and the prosaic return to shelter. It’s an emotional slap in the face, the moral victories that get overshadowed by the realistic turmoil of everyday life, that holds long after the game ends.
A life left recluse and tears draining from the eyes of a girl who has seen too much and experienced more than She should. A story that doesn’t provide a happy ending, but a story that needs to be told. That there are many dangers in the world, but none as frightening as a helping hand from an unknown body. For Her, she just needs to find the purpose of the milk.
2021
Date Night Bowling is a fun little trip to the past with a modernistic dash of Visual Novel/Slice of Life Romance flavor, but Way Down Deep asks the player to fill in too many blanks to make a full product out of its title. There never feels like enough character to fill the frames, but the on-point retro arcade bowling and the cute and quirky mini-games save this night out from being a complete gutter ball.
2021
Martial Law taught me some things and took me to a historical point in time I didn’t know much about. It’s simple, to the point, and leaves its impact all in the time it has available. It’s what game jams are for, and I’m happy I got a chance to see life through the eyes of another.
2021
A wiggly party brawler that took itself from interesting to convincingly broken in under an hour.
2022
Shredders plants itself on the first step on the long staircase that Skate started on back in 2007: an interesting concept shoddily built that will need time, improvements, and a devout fan base to see it become what it truly wants to be.
2022
Let yourself become immersed within the sultry tones of a band facing the tough challenges of a dream forged by miles of asphalt and you’ll see what a hidden gem A Musical Story really is. Easily providing a Soundtrack of the Year bid behind enough interactivity to keep you engaged, this is absolutely worth an afternoon to sit down, tune your instrument just right, and follow the notes of a path well worn to a dream into the great wide open.
2022
When you look at all you’re getting for only $5, it’s hard to turn your nose at what Checkmaty is offering. Nightmare of Decay is a fun if slightly stale survival horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously and gives you plenty to come back to if you want it bad enough. While the enemies could use more variety and the bosses could be more “boss-y,” the 2-3hr campaign and all the extra goodies behind it is an absolute deal and worth a “good night’s sleep”-amount of your time.
2021
Even though there are some missteps along the way, and its plot feels a bit bloated trying to provide a decent quantity of endings, Lily’s Well provides a decent depth of content and a stout amount of unsettling horror. But most of these issues are sidestepped with the fact that Lily’s Well is absolutely free, so all it will cost is your time…
…and maybe a few nights of sleep.
…and maybe a few nights of sleep.
2022
It’s a real shame, because on the surface Trek to Yomi absolutely dazzles with an astounding palette of movie-quality audio and visuals, stout camera work, and a world that was engrossing and beautiful and left me wanting to see what was next. But with combat becoming stale, second-thought, and essentially broken by its own devices, Trek to Yomi falters in a way no game should ever: by being no fun to play.
2022
As you reach the mysterious structure at the top of the forest, you’ve encountered creatures that don’t feel of this world in a place that has transformed into a sarcophagus-like tunnel projecting you one way deeper into its tomb. It’s a small, bite-sized piece of unsettling horror that provides enough questions to want more than what is given. But what else could you want? Viltnemda is here.
Just look up.
Just look up.