Recent reviews by Shoji

wonderful storytelling, amazing writing, beautiful artwork; this is an EASY buy for anyone who loves a good story. go in blind if you can, it is the best way to experience this hands down
easiest recommend of my life

the voice acting and music is also A+++

This game is definitely an out-of-nowhere hit. Came out seemingly all of a sudden and had all the properties of the Zero Escape / 999-esque game style and aesthetic that I personally love, and for $20? Sounds perfect, and the story can be completed in a good few nights. It felt like watching an anime show at times, which was fun too. I'd definitely bought it knowing that even if the story wasn't something mind-blowingly amazing, I knew I'd at least love the time spent with this game.
And I was correct, it's definitely worth it.

First off, this is a visual novel, but it can be pretty spooky/scary at times. I'm not the best with horror or things that are meant to scare/unsettle you, but it wasn't too bad. There are a couple scenes where it's obviously bait for a jump scare, but it's not very often. Honestly the game synopsis and previews sort of lead me to believe that it was primarily a horror visual novel when I played it for the first time. However, once the story gets going, it starts to lose the horror vibes for the most part.

Without going into it giving away too much - it starts with questions, leads on with more questions, and then delivers most answers in satisfying and clever ways. The dialogue and characters are fun, and even without voice actors I was finding myself voicing each person in my head with my own inner voice I'd give them; which is arguably the better way to handle voice acting in certain genres of games, in my opinion.
The artwork is beautiful and the animations are really good for what it is. For being such a steal on the price, it's kinda surprising to see how great everything visually looks.

The only downside I'll say, is that the latter half of the story seems to lose some of its steam out of the gate. It only took me about 14 hours or so to reach the ending, so it did not overstay its welcome at all, but I feel like the story could have used a little more time in the oven before releasing this iteration as the final draft. I'm not sure if that means making some things longer, fleshing out some story beats a little more, shortening/cutting some content out, etc.. but regardless it still was a lot of fun to go through.

Once again, the absolute steal of a price makes that one downside not really matter too much in the grand scheme. It's a very fun time playing/watching, and if you have any friends that love these types of games, or the genre(s) in general, I very much recommend playing through this blind and bringing along a friend or two that can experience everything with you.

This game is pure art. The gameplay is pretty mediocre, the graphics aren't the best, but the story and characters and setting just oozes so much personality, and it just feels like this game was made because of someone's weird idea(s) that they wanted to put out there for many people to see.

I played this back on the Xbox 360 waaay back in 2009 or so, I don't really remember. I just remember totally falling in love with everything so weird and quirky about it. The controls take a bit to get used to, but it's not horrible or unplayable by any means.

HOWEVER, I do not recommend this port. It's a terrible port imo, and many other people have agreed. I was only able to get a few hours into the Steam version, just because there are so many issues that I doubt will ever be fixed. Playing it with a controller seems to be hit-or-miss, at least for me. I was able to use my Xbox 360 controller plugged in for a while, but trying again recently has just been total failure. I'm not really a fan of the keyboard controls, but I guess it's better than nothing if nothing else will work.

There's also a really annoying issue with when you're driving around, where this obnoxious screeching/breaking car noise just keeps happening over and over and over again. Apparently it has something to do with audio drivers or something, I have no idea. It's just something that I guess there is a fix(?) for, but as far as I know, and as far as my experience is, it does not work all the time. That particular bug/issue doesn't seem to happen when I play through my speakers, but that's just one of the many issues I've seen and/or heard about this port.

Once again, this game is a cult classic and definitely worth checking out, but I'd say get the Xbox 360 or the PS3 version if you can. The controls are always gonna be janky and bad, but it just takes a few hours of getting used to and they don't seem to be too much of a problem, at least the way I remember it.

...What did you think of that, Zach? Was that a good enough review?

For the love of god everyone needs to play this, it's inexpensive and it's yet another AMAZING indie game with such a good story that's just.. I love it.
I get a bit excited after finishing games and stuff that have an enriching story and characters and etc, and sometimes afterwards I'll maybe think that I was going a bit overboard and it really wasn't THAT great; and hell this may even be one of those games again after I look back on it in a few months or so.

But as of right now, this is one of the games that I've played where I will look back on it and think fondly, and almost wish I could experience it again all from the beginning, knowing nothing. It's not long at all, can maybe just take you about 10 hours to finish it all, if that. But it's totally worth it.

I would have paid $20 for this, no questions asked. Immediate buy, 10/10.

This game... this game.. this GAME..!!
I can't even begin to describe how I feel about this game. I don't even want to in case I accidentally spoil something! The main point is that if you even like visual novels a TINY bit, you have to buy this game, it's amazing!! And if you like dragons/furries/reptiles/whatever, then you HAVE to buy this game. I would have paid $20 for this and it would have been worth it 100%

I am too afraid to say anything else since I don't want to spoil anything, but please don't let the cover art or synopsis turn you away; if you even just like a good story and don't mind the visual novel format, you must own this game. There's a reason there are so many positive reviews, and they're all right on the money.

BUY THIS GAME NOW.
SPREAD THE WORD.
TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

12/10 would buy again

So let me start off by saying that I'm a bit biased when it comes to these types of visual novels. I don't play them as much as I used to anymore, but this one was one that I just had to pick up when I heard about it and saw the kickstarter for it.
In short, it's one of those visual novels where there are 9 or so different people trapped in a place that's locked down for a certain number of hours, and they have to escape within a certain amount of time or else they die and etc.

But there is so much more to it than that, I tell you hwut.

Like I said I'm a bit of a sucker for these types of games, but depending on what kinds of stories and scenarios and cliches you like/are okay with, you may like this game as much as me, or you might just find many of the tropes and cliches kind of annoying. This is an anime visual novel, so the typical anime tropes will be here. I do find some of them kind of annoying, but it doesn't really get in the way of the good parts of the whole thing overall, in my opinion.

I've heard that people thought that this game starts off slow, or it had a good premise but they feel if goes too slowly or there's not a good payoff in the end? And to that I say that it's somewhat true, but I believe the payoff is well worth it in the end.
It has good characters, a good story, good plot, good twists.. I couldn't be happier. Like I said in my little review of the 3rd Zero Escape game, this is the type of game where I do look back on when I first played it and didn't know anything about the story or characters or all that, and I wish I could go back and replay it without knowing anything.

So without rambling too much about nothing, I do recommend this game if you like visual novels. It was even recommended by the guy who made/wrote the 999/Zero Escape games, so that's basically all you need to know if it's good or not!! Definitely recommend.

It's alright, but it definitely wasn't the GRAND ENDING I was hoping for. The first two games were amazing and brilliant and I look back on them wishing that I could play them through again for the first time, but this game was just.. okay. Not terrible or horrible, but no where near as amazing as the first two games, in my opinion.

A little disappointing to be perfectly honest, but still. It was alright.

This game has to be one of THE best games I have ever played in my entire life, and I am not exaggerating. If you haven't heard already, Undertale is a recently new RPG-type game that brings many new things to the genre. As the tagline of the game itself says, it is "a friendly RPG where no one has to get hurt," and that's true! Challenging it may be at times, but you can truthfully get through the entire game being good and not hurting anyone/anything, or you can be as mean as you like and just destroy anyone that gets in your way.

Without spoiling too much, this game does feature choice and consequences in such a way that is a refreshing change from what we see normally from games that advertise that same thing. There's not really much consequence in choosing Option A or Option B, but it's more like how you play the game. If you play it a certain way, the characters might pick up on it, and in some cases, they may comment on how they feel you're progressing through the game, and the choices you've been making so far.

The story is amazing, and frankly I'd be perfectly fine if this was just a game where you walk and listen to the story laid out before you, piece by piece. But the RPG elements do help in keeping things interesting and not boring to the player, as I'm sure it wouldn't be as interesting to some people without some fighting and action in it, along with you actually DOING things, rather than just mashing the Enter key while reading text. But still, the story itself is just so amazingly written and just so.. unique. You definitely need to play through it yourself to understand and fully appreciate the characters and the surprisingly complex story that is going on.

The music is outstanding; catchy oldschool style chiptunes that'll be caught in your head for a while. The soundtrack itself is also worth the $10 price tag as well, if you choose to buy it separately.

All in all, I can't gush about this game enough. It's short enough to where it won't take up too much of your time; I'd say about 5 hours or so for a normal one-time runthrough of the game, but it does encourage a second, or maybe third, runthrough if you so desire. This game will make you laugh, it'll make you tear up, it'll even make you eerily unsettled at some points too, I'd say!
But mostly, it'll make you look back on it and reflect on how refreshingly new and different games like this can be. The best $10 I've ever spent.

First off, I just have to say that I thought this game was awesome <3
I'm a bit biased, since I'm a fan of visual novel/exploration type games, and this is one of them! It does kind of seem like a first person horror-esque game, but it is NOT that at all. A lot of people on the Steam Community who are talking about this game and "reviewing" it are mostly people who are upset that it's "boring" or a waste of money or whatever.

I would recommend you get it on sale, because $20 does seem a bit steep, but I was able to grab it for $10, which I think is fair.

The game is more of less just you walking around and exploring your family's new mansion house they've just moved into, and trying to find out what's going on with the family you've been away from for about a year or so.

If you seem to enjoy a game's story more than gameplay, then I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy this game. If you're more into gameplay and you don't really care much for talking and reading and stuff like that, I'd advise you steer clear of this one; since the only "gameplay" in this game is walking, opening doors, and reading little notes and excerpts from books. To the rest of you who are interested, I recommend this game definitely! But try to get it on sale, if you can.

Holy crap I didn't think that I would like this game at all much, but it's just.. wow, I just love this game, haha.
It's so awesome, but it's just a.. it's almost a shame how this game can have such a better.. "story" than many other games I've played. It's just.. I don't know how to put it into words, haha.

It's not perfect, obviously, but oh my goddd the music is so great and it seems to fit so well. The personalities that the narrator gives to these little shapes is just.. I dunno, I can feel myself imagining their expressions and their faces. I don't know, haha xD

All in all, please buy this game! Even if you're not super into narrators talking a lot and story and whatnot, it's a fun and decent puzzle game! It'll keep you entertained for a while, and I'm sure it's worth whatever price it's at; which I'm sure isn't TOO much.

BUY THIS GAME!