This was just ok for me. I don't personally enjoy the 'clean slate' time looping mechanic, especially with such short loops, as the character development and dialogue feels shallow each time. Definitely prefer time looping mechanics where you get to keep more memories and build on that, but I get why it wasn't done here for the most part (they're retained within individual loops, but largely not across new loops). I feel like to counteract that though, the loops could have been longer, so you get more out of them.

You get a LOT of dialogue options, which was actually the biggest negative for me, as a lot of it just feels like filler and half of them feel redundant anyway, with only slight differences. Would much prefer like 3-5 dialogue options each time, where they are unique and each have a distinct impact on the story.

My highlight was the male VO, I loved his work with all the different voices. And that's pretty much it. Didn't hate it but didn't feel captivated at any point or inspired to do multiple playthroughs, which the game clearly encourages. More Scarlet Hollow to look forward to now that this is out at least.

There are so many ps1-style indie horror games in recent years that recreate the graphical look well, but don’t actually capture the magic of what made games of that era so great, gameplay-wise. Signalis does, and it does it without feeling derivative or trite.

Enjoyable puzzles that have you thinking and encourage level exploration, but aren’t impossibly hard. Masterful storytelling that unfolds slowly in dribs and drabs, and remains ambiguous, leaving you to continue theorising after the game is over. Player and enemy movement, level design and sound design that come together to create a sense of dread.

The six slot inventory is tedious, and will have you running back and forth many, many times. The cutesy anime girl art in the cutscenes is also amusing and slightly jarring for a game of this style, but I much prefer that over the low-poly psx-style graphics that are popular. The boss fights are also nothing to write home about combat-wise, but they do help develop the story.

Overall, minor nitpicks aside, this game was phenomenal. If you like older silent hill/resident evil games definitely play Signalis - it is more than just a cheap clone of those games, it stands up well on its own, and has its own story to tell.

It’s here - Danganronpa 4, in a nice legally distinct package. And it’s about 40% gameplay and 60% staring at constant and unbearably long loading screens.
This is really only worth playing if you’re a Danganronpa fan, and if I had to rank it with the 3 mainline games, this would come last by a wide margin.

The game uses a ‘mystery labyrinth’ gameplay section, that’s essentially just the trials in Danganronpa. The trials in those games felt natural within the story though, and here the game bends over backwards to force the introduction of all the same trial gameplay mechanics. I got used to it as the game went on, but the initial introduction of the labyrinth in chapter 0 felt unnatural and forced, which put me off a bit. I don't know if Kodaka just wanted to make Danganronpa 4, but felt he couldn't due to the ending of 3, so he had to stretch this story into unnatural places to force the inclusion of those gameplay mechanics, or if he genuinely thought this was a good application of the same gameplay mechanics within a new story, but the way it was handled just really didn't work for me.

Chapters 2, 4 and 5 were enjoyable for me, but chapters 0, 1 and 3 were unbelievably tedious. Way too hand-holdy and you have no connection to the characters featured in those chapters. And of course, the performance is terrible. I know this is running on switch, but the loading screens are just crazy - even the chapters I enjoyed felt like a chore at a lot of points due to the endless loading screens that you have to endure.

Looks nice and the idea of mixing roguelike dungeon crawling with a colony sim seems like it would be enjoyable. I found the execution lacking, with the two gameplay mechanics at odds with each other, and overall the gameplay is quite shallow. I found playing to feel more like a chore and that I was just going through the motions after the first couple of hours.

The colony management mechanics need some more depth, I found I maxed out all my development trees by the time I beat the third boss. For the dungeons, I actually like the random weapon mechanic, but found combat to be janky and floaty. It was also quite easy on Normal mode. Also bugs galore as my game would crash about once an hour on xbox series x.

Overall I like the ideas in the game, but shallow gameplay and janky combat meant I stopped playing after the third boss. I might come back just to finish it but I haven’t really enjoyed the 12+ hours I played.

Essentially a video game version of Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’. Really well done, the first in-game day is a bit slow, but after the setup there it gets going and remains enthralling for the rest of the game.

The mysteries in the game are intriguing, but the real fun is getting to know the characters while investigating. The dialogue is very thoughtfully written. All the attention to detail is so impressive, from the font stylisation to the meal times in the game. A wonderful game for anyone who has an interest in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance period.

A psychological horror game centered around a woman, a cabaret dancer, on the cusp of turning 30. It touches on themes such as sexual objectification, fears about aging, expectations to start a family, and disordered eating, however I didn't feel these were explored in any meaningful way. I’m not necessarily looking for insightful, revelatory explorations of womanhood in video games, but something more than surface-level metaphors would be nice. It certainly wasn't the worst depiction of these themes I have experienced, and I appreciated that the game didn't feel self-important, but just don’t expect anything too impactful from this. My biggest gripe with the narrative was just that it dragged too much - the game took me about 7 hours, and 2 of those hours could have easily been cut. It felt like there was a lot of padding to the story, and I would have preferred a shorter game with a tighter narrative.

The art direction is absolutely fantastic, with unique art and incredibly smooth and expressive pixel animation, and a moody yet understated soundtrack that bolstered the game (with contributions from Akira Yamaoka). The game is worth playing for this alone in my opinion. Although, in the last couple of chapters especially, there are visuals and scenes that feel like they were included because the developers felt like they looked cool, and didn’t actually contribute anything to the narrative or themes of the game.

The actual gameplay is the major fault of this game. Gameplay here is minimal, which is fine, however when it’s included it’s quite clunky and jarring, feeling like it was shoehorned in so the game wouldn’t just be clicking through text. There are a couple of good, albeit simple, puzzles in this, I wish they added some more and dropped all the random, poorly-executed mini games featured sporadically throughout (especially the terrible and repetitive rhythm game that features several times) and just focused on puzzles.

Overall, I think this is worth playing if you’re a fan of horror games and are looking for a unique and visually delightful experience, just don't go in expecting to get a lot out of this story or scares wise.

Chill, short exploration game in the same vein as A Short Hike, with ample customisation/crafting options, although I found it less charming. I also desperately wanted an objective list while I was playing, and found the lack of a bit frustrating.

Honestly think I might be a bit old for this one, the story didn’t resonate with me at all and put me off a bit. Still a pleasant play on a rainy afternoon in regard to the gameplay, but as someone that’s several years out of University and only has an adult sibling, the whole little sibling bonding/difficulties of growing up/starting adulthood story focus does nothing for me. Definitely a good game to give a kid 8+ and I can see adults that are less jaded than me still appreciating the story aspects here, particularly anyone studying at university, with younger siblings or anyone that has kids of their own.

I have really wanted an English release, even a fan translation, of the Boku no Natsuyasumi games, so I was excited when a western release for this Shin-Chan licensed one was announced.

I like Shin-Chan, and enjoy the style of humour, however this is definitely more of a 'Shin-Chan' game than a 'My Summer Vacation' game, which I found disappointing. For me, my interest in this game series was in getting to enjoy a relaxing, grounded summer vacation experience. The inclusion of the Shin-Chan licensing really shifted the tone, and there were a lot of fantastical, unrealistic elements introduced that I found jarring. The game was still sweet, it looked great, and I enjoy Shin-Chan's humour and portrayal of family, but I wish we got an unlicensed Boku no Natsuyasumi game that offers a more realistic and tonally sound summer vacation experience.

This game has heart and a lot of good ideas, but doesn’t execute them all well. A lot of the game was essentially just fetch quests, which I normally don’t mind, however they felt tedious and required quite a bit of backtracking. Pacing was a bit off around the middle of the game as well, which also dampened my enjoyment of the game. There were still some fun puzzles and I enjoyed the simple combat mechanic.

What I did love was the Indonesian setting of the game. I like when a game is set in a real place instead of an entirely fantasy location, and it was fun cruising around the streets in this game experiencing the culture. The mental health themes in this game also weren’t too heavy handed or overly sappy, and all the major characters were well-written and realistic. Ending was a bit cliche but I thought it landed well. It lost me a bit around the end of chapter 4, especially with the pacing issues over the prior two chapters, and I took a break, but came back to the game and did end up enjoying the last chapter.

Overall a generally pleasant, although sometimes tedious gaming experience.

This was passable, but nowhere near good. Even with a gameplay length of only ~2 hours I was getting bored and finding it a bit tedious before the end. The gameplay is just collecting items and running back and forth between characters to deliver items/messages - I found the controls to be quite janky, so running and jumping around was cumbersome and unenjoyable, which is unfortunate when that’s the entirety of the gameplay. I didn’t find any of the characters or dialogue engaging either. This could be good for a kid, but even then there are better ‘cosy games’ with similar features, like lil gator game.

Normally don’t complain about game price vs length either, as I prefer shorter games anyway and am happy to pay for a good one, but this was AU$23 on a discount as well, which imo is way too much for barely 2 hours of amateur, buggy gameplay.

This is an enjoyable horror visual novel so far - it’s still in early access and there are only 4 chapters out currently, so it’s hard to comment on it too much as it isn’t a complete game yet. I had been wanting to check this out for a while but the early access put me off, however, while this isn’t an anthology series and each chapter is part of a larger narrative, the chapters still feel largely self-contained and don’t finish on any huge cliffhangers, so I wasn’t that disappointed when I reached the end. The developers also give frequent updates on the game and what they are working on.

The characters and mysteries presented so far are engaging, I can’t get a read on exactly where the story is headed at this point but hopefully it doesn’t crap the bed later on, as it’s been well-written so far. This is also definitely a ‘choices matter’ visual novel, where these choices can affect the rest of the game quite substantially, if you enjoy that - I went back and replayed some chapters in different ways and got a bunch of different dialogue and scenes, so there is definitely replayability here. I haven’t found it particularly scary so far, but I think it’s still enjoyable for any fan of horror stories, but maybe not anyone looking for big scares in a game. There are also some fun references in background visuals to horror movies, such as The Thing and Noroi. Overall the art and writing is well done, and I’m interested to see where the story ends up,