Recent reviews by Heathcliff♥

I can't believe William orchestrated the CN playerbase to review bomb this game to progress his schemes again.

Anyway, this game is a really solid product. I'm a huge Girls' Frontline fan but I can say this even besides this fact. As a tactical RPG, the gameplay is engaging but simple enough to learn and adapt quickly. The challenge seems to be paced pretty well too, I felt a comfortable progression of difficulty as I venture further into the game. It's also well designed in the respect that it gives you a lot to work with in terms of figuring out your mistakes and going back to address them accordingly.

Above all else, the game FEELS great. Fluid and easy to navigate UI, amazing soundtrack and sound design, brilliant and crisp visuals. Even without context of other IPs in the series, this story stands on its own legs pretty distinctly. It's not reinventing the wheel in terms of sci-fi war settings, but it doesn't need to. There's a little bit of something for everyone to enjoy here.

Only a few gripes so far. Firstly, microfreezes occur in battle sometimes (which i haven't linked to a tangible cause yet). This could be setup dependent but considering the machine I'm rocking, it might be an engine issue? It's very minor and infrequent though, and possibly only happens for some people.

Secondly, localization is a bit rough around the edges. Various minor grammar mistakes and text not wrapping properly (especially in the collectibles), but it's hardly a dealbreaker.

Thirdly, if you bought the deluxe version with the skins, the game will jumpscare you with small spoilers when you reach your first base camp. This is more a warning to those who care about such things.

Oh, and lastly, anything below 100% accuracy is a coin flip. XCOM players, eat your hearts out.

Caution: Maybe Spoilers. I tried my best to avoid any major ones.

There are few games that properly evoke a variety of emotions of me, and even fewer than can engross me so deeply that I start to obsess over the next session of play I so desperately wish to do. Let me preface this by saying that this game is far from perfect, and it has a lot of things that people will find annoying or downright frustrating. But for me, that was part of the package of experience it offered and it all fit into place so damn well. For me, this is a perfect game suited to my preferences. I was compelled to write this after having spent 142 hours to 100% the game and attain its true ending.

Gameplay: It's a management game, but also much more than that. The game punishes tiny mistakes and poor choices of judgement in brutal fashion. The grind in the later parts of the game becomes arduous, making each day feel like a marathon. Those mishaps suddenly feel like soul-crushing events that make you feel either you have to make an immense sacrifice to proceed, or restart the day and accept that you just wasted a bunch of your time. Sometimes, even RNG factors in and decides that your destiny is to fail and there's little you can do but watch on as things spiral out of control. Things like this break the will to play for many people, and I wholly understand this. It's an unforgiving game. In terms of combat, you literally are just a commander that sends units from point A to B. They handle everything else, including any special abilities they may possess. You must simply guide them in the direction they need to go. It's a lot more work than it sounds like, and at some points, the game becomes heavily micro-intensive. RTS players will feel at home.

However, what this game does is reward you in dividends for keen observation, patience, and over-preparation. In strategy games, I'm the turtle player. I overcompensate my lack of tactical finesse by developing a powerful base and producing a bunch of high quality units. This is what I did in this game. And this strategy was time-consuming, and at times, it was tedious. But it pays off. Oh boy, does it pay off. I went into this game 95% blind. I learned things through trial and error. This game, while it does have a manual, doesn't have an in-depth guide to every other intricacy it possesses. For some people, the best option is to browse the web for guides and tips. This is perfectly valid, considering the nature of this game. But I think part of what made the experience so memorable and important to me was being constantly beaten down by unknowns in the game, only to rise up and conquer them after observing and learning from my mistakes. Maybe I'm a bit of a masochist, but the feeling of satisfaction you receive when the things you learn help prevail over a trial you struggled to bypass, the euphoria is exquisite.

Narrative: This game has an interesting story that is provided through visual novel cutscenes between the days of play. You unlock new cutscenes via simple progression of days, and also completing missions assigned to you. For people that dislike reading visual novels or reading in general, the narrative will probably be a miss for you. There's a lot of reading to do. Even for those that do enjoy those genres, the story is a meticulously crafted one where everyone speaks in a certain way that feels like you're always on the verge of philosophising about existence itself. And most of the time, that ends up being the case.

Personally, as a fan of other series that have similarly overtly complicated storytelling (such as Girls Frontline), this game felt like a natural fit for me. I became so engrossed with the world that they built through the dialogues, and the story of the corporation you worked in. They drip-feed you these details that make you crave for more knowledge, and some characters become unforgettable with the way they poetically speak about their story and how they are now. Lobotomy Corporation is very much a story of facing one's fears to build a future that you can walk into. Yes, the game's slogan is truly relevant at all times. Amazing.

And when it all culminated into the ending sequence, and the true ending... I shed tears. It was full of surprises. I was shocked, but I was also relieved. I was given a victory lap. I was given a sheer spectacle that unfolded before my eyes in a way I didn't know the game was capable of presenting, and I was in awe. A truly beautiful way to conclude a game. I pass my thanks onto the CURRENT english translators (I'm aware of the horror stories of the initial translators) for allowing me to experience this wonderful tale. And let's not get into the chills I got from those final lines...

Design: This game has a simple style that works pretty well, and it even has an in-universe reason for the way it all looks. At first, you will be overwhelmed by the UI and wondering what everything does. You slowly start to learn how everything works, however, and the important things the game will guide you through via the tutorial. You will likely discover new things about the UI as you proceed through the game, and it can only help you. It is very much a game that, once you become adjusted to the interface, everything then becomes second nature to you.

Mechanically, the game doesn't have many complex base mechanics. You primarily manipulate time, and you manipulate your agents. You order your agents to do work, fight escaping monsters, move to locations, etc. This is the majority of your gameplay loop. The variables which change how these function are the Abnormalities. Every Abnormality is unique, and has its own set of conditions to take care of it. This changes what work you do, when you do it, who works on it, etc. It's here that the game truly shines in how varied it can become and how many decisions you end up making. The game will tell you most things about the Abnormalities as you work on them, so you can trial and error before figuring out the correct method of caring for them.

As for the thematic design, the game stands out. It has a unique artstyle that differentiates it from other games, and every single of the Abnormalities are carefully crafted to be exceptionally unique and interesting. Every time I grabbed a new one, I truly wondered what kind of atrocities it was capable of committing. Some designs are unnervingly cute. Some are absolute nightmare fuel. Some are bizarre beyond our wildest dreams. It's a truly colorful roster of entities, and that's not even speaking about the character cast itself. The Sephirah each have their own distinct silhouettes and characters. Many things in the game take heavy influences from cultures and mythologies, such as fairy tales and Kabbalah. Those that enjoy seeing creative ideas and inspirations flourish, eat your heart out.

Conclusion: I don't usually write reviews. I don't consider myself much of a critic (even though I'm probably qualified for it in some ways). Everything I wrote here, take it as a different perspective when approaching this game. Keep it in mind and develop your own impressions. This is a game that resonates with a certain type of person heavily. It isn't for everyone, but you can only really determine this by trying it out. And I truly believe the experience everyone else will have will be unique to them, depending on their approach.

I felt compelled to write a review for this because it became one of my all-time favorite games. From start to finish, and even beyond finishing, it has captivated me and captured my heart. To the extent that I know that there will never ever be another Lobotomy Corporation. Never another game that will be perfectly suited to my desires and that would deliver this amazing experience onto me. And that's perfectly fine, because I already have it right here.

Now, time to hope Library of Ruina will also capture me so deeply.