Recent reviews by Princess Sofia

in this game you play as "Snake Pass" the friendly snake. this is a fun and (generally) relaxing game i would say. it is focused on learning to move around as and climb on things as a snake, and i think it's good at that, i really feel like i understand being a snake when i play this game. i can think of no other game so decadent as to allow me the true experience of moving around as a snake. this all sounds like i am joking but it really is very satisfying to learn how to maneuver as a snake.

the game is mostly pretty calm and the snake is very cute. there are no enemies (but NOT no challenge...)... and i think it does a good job at gradually raising the difficulty, and i only started to have 'frustrating' moments near the end (but then it ended so it was fine). it is a pretty short game (~6 hours) but im not left hurting for more. i am satisfied with the amount of things to climb and explore as a snake that were in this game.

it is really fun to move around as a snake calming game of snake tricks fun game snake. if you think it would be fun to learn to move as a snake, you should play this one.. you get the hang of it faster than you would think! and there is not time wasted getting to the good part either, so as another reviewer said, you should be able to tell whether you will like the game within the first hour or two of playing.

this is the first game i've ever 100%ed.. and also i didn't like it that much. my recommendation is pretty neutral. the visual aspect was very good, it's clear a lot of love was put into this game, so i don't wish to recommend against it, but i think it struggles in other areas, & the majority of the reviews seem to be congratulating the premise rather than anything about the actual game.

when i played the game, a few big flaws stuck out to me:

there were a lot of bugs. in one of my first runs i had to restart the game during the ending because it wouldn't let me progress. they were noticeable and frequent throughout my ~10 hr gameplay, but they could've been patched by now, i don't know for certain (it's been a few months.)

the game revolves entirely around micromanaging the needs of one specific character. this isn't necessarily a flaw but when a character is so central to the game, if the player isn't able to connect with her, they're not going to be able to appreciate the game as much. while i appreciate the dev's commitment to creating a realistic character & realistic depiction of mental illness, making ame flawed and human etc, and i think there are things to like about ame, i do have mixed feelings on her. it's definitely a hit or a miss for if you will like her or not, which i don't think was necessarily the goal. she definitely grew on me as i played the game, but even after spending nearly 10 hours with her, i'm not even sure if i can definitively say i like her.

that thing i mentioned earlier - a realistic depiction of mental health. i think their depiction of mental illness is realistic to an extent.. but i think it's also irresponsible. the content warnings on this game are very sparse and very vague, and the content is very graphic. if ame's stress & mental darkness reach a certain point, she will abruptly, without warning, initiate a self-harm... minigame?? the only way you can avoid this is by going to the main menu and restarting the day, there is nothing within the game itself you can do to prevent or stop it once it's initiated. afterwards you enter a cutscene where she streams live to her audience of thousands and promotes the act of self-harm. at no point are the risks of self-harm discussed or disclosed. i'm quite frankly baffled at the way they went about this. it has almost no impact on gameplay - with the drug abuse, it counts towards an ending, and it feels like the creators clearly had something to say about it. the self-harm feels haphazardly thrown in by comparison. at best, this is pointless - it doesn't add anything to the game. at worst, this is wildly irresponsible and actively harmful. self-harm is depicted and romanticized with little to no warning for no discernible reason. if you think i'm being dramatic here, look up the increase in teen suicide rates after the debut of 13 reasons why - i don't condemn the depiction of sensitive things but you NEED to be careful about it or it WILL have a negative affect on your audience, and i don't think needy streamer overload was careful in it's depiction of self-harm in the slightest. the lack of care regarding the topic is honestly kind of sickening. i didn't put a spoiler on this even though it arguably does spoil aspects of the game because nothing i've seen mentions this and specific people NEED to know this going in for their own safety and mental wellbeing.

onto a less serious topic - i dislike the chat mechanic. they make you reply with emojis to her chat messages the vast majority of the time. if you use the same emoji often, she will get angry at you. if you use emojis she dislikes, she will get angry at you. there's only like 1 emoji she actually likes and doesn't get annoyed at. the dialogue pool she chooses from to send you chat messages is wide, but not wide enough for 10 hours. you will run into repeat dialogue. if you don't reply to it, she will get angry at you, and if you do that often enough, it will lock you into a bad ending. sometimes the game will glitch out and decide you didn't send a reply even though you did. then she will get angry at you. it's very very tedious.

the entire game is kind of tedious actually - it was more exciting in the beginning, but the game obviously wants you to get all the endings so if you're like me you will end up playing the game quite a lot of times. after a few runs you'll pretty much know the most efficient way to gain subscribers alter mental health stats etc. you will repeat the same patterns for the majority of runs. it was interesting to see the endings but i felt unsatisfied getting them, that's very subjective though.

there is a true/happy ending - i did not like it. elaborations in the spoiler. for those unaware, the true ending requires you to reach 1 million subscribers with a loving and happy ame... and your internet connection turned off. it's been a while since i played but IIRC the ending consists of ame leaving the internet after getting 1 million subscribers, and then the rest of the entire internet also logs off. i'm not kidding. it felt very preachy and patronizing. i think this game is very personal and wants to commentate on issues such as internet addiction mental illness idol&streamer culture etc etc but i think it's view of things is honestly pretty black and white and i can't see it helping many people outside of a specific demographic of "mentally ill people who want to leave the internet already but need an extra push". i take issue with the idea that the only way for ame to be happy is specifically to gain a large audience and then leave the internet. i think there is a discussion to be had about internet addiction, mental illness, social media, ETC, but i don't think this game is interested in truly having it. it strips the nuance out of a complicated issue to push the idea that Internet Bad and the only way to be happy is to log off and while i think the majority of the playerbase and indeed internet people in general will agree that internet usage has it's problems i can't think of a single person who would agree that the universal way to be happier is just to leave and that everyone on the internet secretly wants to leave but they can't until someone like ame shows them the light or whatever. it really did just feel patronizing, and it honestly soured the experience of the game for me as a whole.

i think this game could be a fit for some people. i think it wasn't for me, but this game has aspects worth appreciating. although my review is negative, my opinion of the game overall is more neutral than anything. so is this game the fit for you? take a looksie:

- do you enjoy web & anime aesthetics, realistic depictions of mental illness, multiple endings to explore, and a realistic depiction of social media and the modern internet? what about commentary on internet addiction, mental illness, social media, influencer culture, among other things? do you enjoy depictions of deeply flawed female characters who are absolute disasters? do you kind of hate the internet and think everyone else ought to also? if you answered yes to any of those questions, i'd say this game could be worth giving a shot. read below first though.

- do you dislike tedium, repetition, bugs, or sloppy game mechanics? is a larger cast of characters a must for you? do you want your commentaries on complex subject matter to contain more nuance, or conversely, do you prefer games which focus on gameplay and having fun over gritty and depressing "commentary"? is spending hours caring for a quite frankly kind of mean and nasty girl not your idea of fun? do you actually like being on the internet, or interacting with social media? do you have any sort of sensitivity to depictions of self-harm, drug abuse, suicidal thoughts, sex addiction, or online harrassment? if you answered yes to any of those questions, you might want to avoid this game.

Boy do I love this game! Since only the first volume is out that's what i'll be talking about, featuring characters John and Rose! Since I think it said it'll have 20 characters, i'm assuming that means we'll get to meet the beta kids, the alpha kids, and the alternian trolls.

The game (or at least the first volume) is pretty short, even if you go for all the endings. Since I went for all the endings, I currently have played 55 minutes. I'm also a pretty fast reader, if that counts for anything.

The art is really nice, there are a lot of sprites so nothing feels too static. The dialogue is good and the characters feel in character, with some development! The sprites are very cute.

I think most of the reason that I love it is because I have a deep love of the characters, so if you haven't read homestuck or don't care much for the characters you probably won't be a fan.

tl;dr: Volumes are pretty short, you should play this if you love homestuck & it's characters.