Recent reviews by Silvashadow

ABZÛ is a very simple game, pretty much a swimming simulator with a basic 'story'. It shows off a gorgeous world with the ability to make you feel excited as you swim around. The fish have realistic movement and behaviour and the environment has it's own fluid motions. Add to that some nice calming music and you kinda get swept into the world. I must admit I spent so much time simply exploring and watching the aquatic life and it's entertaining antics.

While the game does recommend a controller, you can get away with keyboard and mouse as I did but swimming can be a bit tricky to master, especially going up. Overall a stunning little game to chill and relax to, there's no risk of dying, and achievements are very easy to obtain. It is very short if you don't explore, and can complete it in around an hour or so. I don't think it's quite worth the $29 (AUD) but definitely worth a play so grab it on sale.


7/10 ★★★ would breach the water on the back of a great white again ... and again...

The Companion is a gorgeous game, filled with a beautifully detailed world, gorgeous music that fits perfectly with each scenario, and a story that is heartbreaking but full of hope and leaving you wanting more with unanswered questions that could only be answered with a sequel.
There are a few bugs here and there, nothing gamebreaking, mostly either annoying or highly amusing. The jumping animation is a bit wonky but I'm not complaining. One that I would call more a design flaw though, is it's so easy to get stuck underwater as there's no way to to swim up or down so trying to get out over steep banks is near on impossible and incredibly frustrating. FEAR THE DEEP WATER. I've also gotten stuck in a tree after dashing into it somehow made me climb up it like a bear going after honey. A quick exit to main menu then back in fixed it.

Achievement hunters be aware that to get the 90 rune achievement you CAN'T miss a single rune through your playthrough. And if you do, it isn't matter of revisiting the level, it means starting a new game as you can't save if revisiting. So get them ALL from beginning to end. There's 15 in the entire prologue, then 15 in each act.
Unfortunately I didn't realise this until getting halfway through the game. Definitely a good challenge trying to find them all. Some are well hidden and the wisps don't always help.

I'd compare this game somewhere around that of Firewatch and Lost Ember. Can be a little confusing to some with the out of order visions, but you can piece this together as you go. Overall a great first game from this developer. I definitely look forward to the sequel.

8/10 Would dash through stunning fields of grass again and again

This is one game I'm on the fence about. It is neither good, nor bad, but I'm not recommending it because overall, the game is very empty.
The world is quite large, but there's nothing to do, see, or interact with really. And while it is beautiful to look at, it doesn't keep your interest for long as you are running running running across vast, empty places (filled with nothing more than some trees and bushes for the most part). Having more animals wandering around would help make it feel a little less devoid of life (or shrink the maps a bit). In saying this, the empty world probably ties in with the emotional roller coaster Joseph is going through, so I can see what the developer is trying to show. But there needs to be more of something...

On the plus side, the music is beautiful, and the story told by Joseph and Rachel is heartfelt and pulls on the strings of sadness and regret. Playing as a fox is also an awesome little novelty. I also love how you can find objects from Joseph's memory littered around the world, giving you a bit of insight into what's being narrated.

Being made pretty much by one person, the developer did impressively well. It does need improvement in a few areas however. If you want to try it out, I'd recommend grabbing it on sale.

5/10

Another great little game to end the series, and of course has to pull at the heart strings (even more so if you're a parent). The story just amazing, and if you enjoyed the previous games from the To The Moon series, you'll love this one. At first I thought it wouldn't have any ties to the previous games, but it did, in surprisingly more ways than I thought. And to that, a perfect way to tie everything together to wrap it up into one big beautiful story with a great ending.

Music again is just beautiful, as expected from this series. I honestly could sit here all day listening to Kan Gao's tunes. Mate, you are a legend with your music! And also Laura Shigihara, she's made a couple of gorgeous songs for Kan's games.

Don't forget to read the DLC comics after you complete the game, they add little extra tidbits following the end of the game.

9/10 Long Cats

To follow the story in this series, play:
To The Moon
Sigmund Minisode 1
Sigmund Minisode 2
A Bird Story
Finding Paradise
Impostor Factory

What a quirky, fun-filled little game this is, and one I would say is a hidden gem. Very simple, easy puzzles that you won't be stuck on for very long. Each area is relatively easy to navigate and it's a lot of fun finding out what each little interactive bits for each area does. I explored and played around with everything so it took me nearly 7.5hrs to complete (also going back through for some of the achievements I missed).
Now I must admit the one thing in this game I absolutely love are all the 'hand-made' sound effects. They're so darn adorable!! Made this game really come to life, paired along with the simple art style. I found myself constantly re-clicking on some things that made a hilarious sound.
The story is wonderful, told well through the game's actions. There's no understandable words in it (just cute mutterings), but everything is explained as you go via visual stories. I got right into it, thoroughly enjoyed it. You can tell this game was made with a lot of love.

Definitely a game for the young and old. If you enjoy the simpler types of games, I recommend giving this one a go. My 4 year old girl found this game amusing, and although she doesn't quite understand the purpose, she sure had fun clicking on everything to see what would happen. Worth the dollars to hear the kids laugh and giggle too!

The world of AER is a beautiful one, with the delight of exploration on the wing and harmonious music to accompany you. You play as a human who has the ability to shapeshift into a cool looking eagle to explore a shattered dying world and trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The story behind this game is left mostly up to you to find and discover the little tidbits of information scattered around the many islands, but you aren't missing much if you decide to skip most of the exploration.

Controls for the flying take a bit of getting used to, especially landing, but easy to master once you get the hang of it. Overall it's a very smooth experience and enjoyable learning how to control the bird. The human form is decent on speed too. I noticed a lot of people complaining about how in the ruins you can't transform into a bird so you're stuck walking around and it's slow. Well, it's not. The speed on foot is quite good, you're not walking, you're running quite fluidly like as if you're light on your feet. Being a bird in such places would make it more frustrating anyway as many areas are narrow or full of things you'd easily crash into (and touching anything while in bird form throws you back into human form).

Music in the game is a beautiful mix of ambience and other styles that work beautifully with the world. When you turn into a bird, the music smoothly adds an extra layer of upbeat tunes that gives you that little extra thrill of "I'm flying through the air and I'm free and aaahhh this is awesome!". Turning back into human removes this added musical layer but the ambience is just gorgeous. Each section of islands has it's own unique music too and fits perfectly with the area.

Exploration is really more for if you want to find the memories that reveal a tiny tiny piece of what was happening to the people but otherwise if you're not too keen on wasting hours exploring islands that are, for the most part, empty of anything significant, you can simply search out the keys and temples and get the game finished in a much shorter time. I enjoyed flying around, seeing what the islands had and making my own challenge of seeing how fast I could fly through the small holes and crevices found in many of the larger islands without touching anything.

There is one downside I must sadly put to this game - the ending...
Throughout the game, it's slowly building you up to confronting something bad and when you finally get there, expecting some finale, some meaning, some context, description, SOMETHING, you instead get: It's coming it's coming it's coming it's here it's roll credits... I was expecting something more to it. Such an abrupt ending. Maybe it would make more sense if perhaps this was to lead to a second game but I don't know if there is a sequel in the works. So yeah, a very unfulfilled and disappointing ending.

Overall, a lovely game with amazing bird flight controls, fascinating lore and superb music with a terrible ending.
I give it 6.5/10 ★★★ (would be 8/10 if the ending had meaning)

Do you want more quirky humour from our favourite doctors? Would you like to learn the complex life behind their current patient? Do you crave more from these awesome developers? Yes yes a hundred times yes! Then jump into Finding Paradise, another well written game with a rather fascinating look into the memories of a man on his last legs and a peculiar dying wish.

This story is just as good as the first and I found myself not wanting to stop playing as I delved deeper into this old man's life. The developers did really well here, changing the style of how the memories are linked due to the patient's past experiences and how that shaped his mentality. Seeing the game done this way makes me think what other interesting ideas the developers could come up with in regards to each unique person and how those memories might be discovered for each story. The possibilities are endless.

I can't wait to see what the next story might be about. As the ending to this one finishes on a bit of a cliffhanger, teasing you, making you want more! And the music perfectly accompanies the game throughout with more amazing tracks! That piano playing. If someone played these tracks on a piano at a concert, I would pay to see it and literally be whisked into another world, soaring away to these heavenly sounds.

8/10 Would power up again!


To follow the story in this series, play:
To The Moon
Sigmund Minisode 1
Sigmund Minisode 2
A Bird Story
Finding Paradise

Another lovely, albeit very short, game to add to the series. A Bird Story doesn't follow our two favourite doctors, but it does reveal a lot more back story to the next game following this - Finding Paradise. So playing this will definitely help you understand and follow the events of the next game.

A Bird Story follows a boy who sadly seems an outcast in the harsh life of school and spends much of his home life alone. When he finds an injured bird one day, his world brightens up with the prospect of a new friend and his reality starts to blur with his imagination as he tries to take care of it.

It's a touching little story and like the first game, it tugs at the heart strings to make you feel, and even relate, to the boy who is crying inside. And let's not forget about the music. Yet another gorgeous set of tracks to whisk you away from this world.


To follow the story in this series, play:
To The Moon
Sigmund Minisode 1
Sigmund Minisode 2
A Bird Story
Finding Paradise

A funny little glimpse into the company our two doctors work for. While there's not much story to this one, it's great for a few giggles and a closer look into the personalities of Neil and Eva. This minisode follows on from the first minisode and both come after the main game's story. I'd recommend playing the 2 minisodes one after the other. Each one gives about 20min or so of extra gameplay content.

** Something to note on the DLC Sigmund Minisodes: **
You can't access these through the main game. You'll need to open the executable (.exe) file inside the game files (by right clicking To The Moon game in your library and browsing). It's very easy to find and gives you about another 40min roughly of extra gameplay content to enjoy.

A funny little glimpse into the company our two doctors work for. While there's not much story to this one, it's great for a few giggles and a closer look into the personalities of Neil and Eva. This minisode follows the story from the main game and the second minisode follows very closely after this. I'd recommend playing the 2 minisodes one after the other. Each one gives about 20min or so of extra gameplay content.

** Something to note on the DLC Sigmund Minisodes: **
You can't access these through the main game. You'll need to open the executable (.exe) file inside the game files (by right clicking To The Moon game in your library and browsing). It's very easy to find and gives you about another 40min roughly of extra gameplay content to enjoy.