I want to preface this by saying that making a video game is a tough process regardless of the scale you're working at. Programming is hard, writing is hard, animating is hard, et cetera. A lot of work went into this game, and as far as I can tell, it's developer AsleepOnStream's first game ever. So I want to start with what I liked about the game and then go into some constructive criticisms.

First of all, I enjoy the premise. It's almost like a reverse isekai, where the adventure comes to the protagonist and not the other way around. I think the characters work well for what they are, mostly archetypes. You have the tsundere, the stuck-up boss, the tired service worker, the creepy guy, the happy-go-lucky sidekick. They all do a good job of providing interesting dynamics for the world since they're so different. I also like the animations that precede each chapter of the game, particularly the Kamen Rider send-up. The music was also well-done, and each track incorporated recurring motifs that added life to the game. The aesthetic, while simple, was very fitting and gave me PSX vibes.

Now, I want to get into the things I didn't like so much. One major thing was the gameplay. The game billed itself as an RPG and even had RPG stats in the menu, like HP and MP, so I was expecting a combat element to the game, even if it was just for comedic effect. But there were no combat encounters to be had. The titular RPG tropes utilized in the game are quests and a shopkeeper. The quests are okay in theory, but they're a bit of a hassle in practice. The first quest can easily softlock your save if you don't do it correctly. The second quest is incredibly oblique, as it asks you to spot visual differences in a hub world you were just introduced to no more than ten minutes ago. Some of the differences are obvious, granted, but some are so hidden that it took me forever to find them. The rest of the game is more or less like a visual novel, which is fine, but I would have liked to see more interactivity in the latter chapters.

The writing could have used a bit more polish, in my opinion. The game has a very tongue-in-cheek tone, which works for the most part. However, the commentary from the characters on the video-gamey tropes and archetypes never evolves beyond "I can't believe this is happening" or "No thanks, I'm too busy for that." Not to suggest that satirizing RPG tropes is inherently bad--as I said up front, I love this premise! But I feel like the moment-to-moment dialogue never fully capitalizes on the potential of it.

The game also tends to state its themes directly rather than let the characters convey them through their actions. The credits sequence, which includes an extended dialogue scene, flat-out explains the entire thesis of the game in very plain terms. The lack of subtlety sticks out like a sore thumb for a game that relies heavily on its writing to hold player interest. I'd like to say that this criticism, in particular, comes from a place of love; I am a screenwriter, and one of my biggest vices is telling rather than showing. I want AsleepOnStream to keep this in mind for their next project, so if you don't hear it from anyone else, take it from me.

Overall, I am intrigued to see more from AsleepOnStream and fully support them in their next endeavor. This game was pretty ambitious for a first title. If they can carry on that ambition in the future with a bit more polish, they have the potential to make something truly great.

This was an enjoyable experience. It is a straightforward story with a meditative message. I appreciated the atmosphere and the clever characters. I was particularly pleased with the episodic effect. The main music made me merry. Even as I peck out this poor prose, I perceive that I am persuaded to play it again. JUSTICE KICK!!!

Also, don't smoke.

The premise of the game is so much better than the execution. I was expecting something completely different when this game was maybe at best a lackluster visual novel. The actual artwork of characters and especially the scenes between "levels" was good. The music was also good. The actual art of the game during gameplay, not so good but it could have been forgiven for this being more than just walking back and forth with a few point-and-click actions. Also I have to dock points for actually having a character say "lol" in what definitely wasn't an ironic "this character is so zany" type of way.

a short charming very fun adventure game. also, it has a pretty thoughtful story.

a bite-sized adventure filled with cute characters and a humorous yet thoughtful story to tell!

I wanted to like this, as it sounded like a fun concept for a short game with an important message to send, but throughout the whole thing, I honestly didn't really feel anything. Presentation beyond the chapter intros, UI graphics, and overall aesthetic felt empty, hardly any interactivity (maybe that's intentional), and not much buildup toward the ending. As a result, the protagonist's concluding words just don't land. It even feels conflicting with what she's been through, making it hardly convincing to me as someone who also feels like their actions just aren't rewarded enough.
I'd like to add that there is a couple bugs where giving the slime multiple food items softlocks them, and proceeding out of your home on the semi-final chapter without talking to "yourself" also ends up softlocking. Let me know when these are fixed and I can update the review to reflect that.

The game feels rushed out, but I hope the dev can improve from this and make greater games (that are also short). They have something good going with the charm of character designs, and again, not all of the presentation was bad. It's other areas like the storytelling, visual indicators, and emphasis on creating atmosphere where I think this work fell shorter on.

I really enjoyed the story, other than the cat getting out of my reach for pets!!
10/10 would love a DLC pack with more story, but it's a cute story even without.

A nice fun short story. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and the world.

I will unfortunately go with the not recommending for this game.

There are a few problems:
- First of all, the game is somehow kinda laggy. It should be quite clear that the game is not high demanding on the hardware, but somehow the gameplay kinda stutter at all time, probably due to poor optimisation.
- Following the first problem is the controlling. The stutter plus the wonky control make the game kinda hard to play.
- Next is the NPC and items. They are placed weirdly so interacting with them is not as straight forward as it seems. For example, NPCs are mostly a paper thin cardboard like figure that you can pass right through, so if you try to talk to one, it's kinda hard to move to the NPC correctly, where you will often overshoot hence passing through them. Combine it with the wonky control and stutter this issue is really bad.
- The game is really short. So short that the trailer has basically shown everything. In fact, quite a significant portion of my play time comes from trying to find out why the game is lagging,entering and leaving full screen etc. I think the actual game is probably less than half an hour even if you try to interact with everything.
- The text doesn't actually all display properly within the UI. Some of the text overflow out of the textbox. If I try to use fullscreen, the situation is far worse, distorting and causing the text to fly everywhere.

With that being said, I look forward to the announced remake and hopefully the issues listed above can be addressed, especially in term of longer story.

There is a snazzy in it, so its pretty good