Recent reviews by Jacq

This game is a cute match-3 with a load of charm, nice writing, and a lot of ways to change up the gameplay. Unfortunately, it's really let down by its mechanics.

The biggest issue is the actual match-3 gameplay "under the hood". The strategy here mostly involves trying to deny you opponent from getting the gem colour they need. The enemy will always make the highest-value match and use a skill they have the mana for. I think to make up for the poor (nonexistent) AI, the game is super unbalanced in favour of the opponent. Most games, you'll experience the following multiple times
- There is only one match on the board you can make
- Matching those orbs causes an opportunity to match-4 to fall from the top. Match-4 gives you a free turn.
- Opponent takes the match-4, and about 50% of the time this causes a combo where they get the mana they need for their abilities. About 25% of the time (though it feels like more) they also get another match-4.

I still recommend this game, because this creates a different sort of strategy. You know the board will unfairly favour the opponent, but the opponent is stupid enough that you can still work around it most of the time, and you can cheese your stickers and power-ups to stomp all over them anyways. Maybe this is actually commentary on the way the corporate rat rat allowed managers to fail up, idk. The point is, it's could be SO much more if it were balanced so the gameplay could be challenging without feeling cheap. As it is, it's OK and more frustrating than it should be. But if you can overlook that for the cute aesthetic, it's worth a few hours of your time.

After 5 hours, it won't launch anymore. I've tried every suggestion to get it working again, but nope. I guess I'll watch a Let'sPlay on youtube. It was a nice game, the puzzles were fun and not too difficult, and the story seemed amazing. It's a shame I cant' keep playing it.

It's good but not great. The balance is off, with difficulty spikes (e.g. at the 20 minutes mark) that are just meant to serve as roadblocks to justify grinding money for upgrades. Some weapons are obviously better than others, and loads of the cards aren't really situational, they're just bloat, so you end up with an experience where it gets worse the more you unlock. I played this during Next Fest and was excited to play the full version, only to find the demo/early game was the best part.

If you REALLY like the aesthetic it might be worth sticking around for, the art direction and music are great, and the writing is solid. It's a shame it's all in the service of gameplay that's pretty mediocre.

Awesome sequel to an awesome game. Getting 100% is doable but a little annoying (it would be nice if there was better guidance for where to look for missed collectables).

This game is really cute and super chill. The characters are likeable and even though the story is pretty epic, it's all done through dialogue and you never get the sense the stakes are too high. I love being able to put on a podcast and build some ships for an hour as a wind-down before bed. :)

It's incredibly simple, you rotate the fixed squares to create the image, which tells a simple and cute story. It's a nice way to slow your mind down before bed or something. Worth a buck, for sure, if you like a non-challenging kind of meditative experience.

This game is amazing, and in some ways it's unlike anything I've ever played before. The entire vibe of exploring the island and finding waypoints is wonderful, and the sense of scale (you as a player compared to this island) is awesome. However, it's too unstable and crashes constantly. When you combine this with the intentionally spread-out save points, it's basically unplayable. The worst is that sometimes trying to save the game triggers a crash!

Update: This game wouldn't leave me alone and I had to finish it, despite the crashes. If you prioritize lights before anything else (including water, meds, etc), you may not lose TOO much progress (maybe only 10-15% instead of 80%). At some point, my characters right hand turned inside out in every animation, which ruined the mood a little.

Despite these flaws, there's nothing quite like this game.

I would love for this to get a high-def, stable rerelease.

A bite-sized inventory puzzle game that doesn't wear out its welcome and has a few little jokes scattered through the descriptions. Less stressful than the "real thing" in RE4 or Dredge, this game got me through a long and boring wait on hold.

It's lovely. There's a few things to do and unlock but it's really not so distracting. The inbuilt music is nice and you can easily import your own, and customise the look a little. There's even an in-built to-do list, though coming from Habitica there's a lot more I wish I could set up. But ultimately, it's a chill little companion to your work day, that's still getting QoL improvements as time goes on. I may not use it ALL the time when I need to work, but when I want to have just a lil virtual lo-fi companion while I do chores, it's fantastic.

Fun little experience. It's free and worth your 20 minutes :)