Placing here since I can't leave a review yet, for reasons that will be stated.

[A Gamer Who Is Also A Bear]

To get it out of the way? I...yar-har'd the game. I then spent an entire day until this point, from about 10 AM to now beating it to about...95% complete? Quests complete, all shrines scrubbed, many mascots 3/3 Life Satisfaction reviewed.

This is...the way I'll refer people to it is "The best PS2 game of 2025". I know there's hints of Swery to it, hints of Suda 51, but...it doesn't have the same crushing duldrums of something like No More Heroes, where the grind is necessary to a painful degree to get to the plot.

For the most part, the interplay between gameplay and story rhythm is...honestly perfect, the only thing I saw "missing" was some kind of upgrade for the claw game, which Considering that the 16 billion dollar bill isn't actually meant to be paid, it's better that that isn't done .

It brings to mind the sweetest moments of one of those Simple 2000-ready games. It reminded me of Robot Alchemic Drive or the first time playing a GTA3 knockoff where the jank, the physics, the strangeness was all part and parcel. Navigation was a joy, and while at first my tendencies to 'explore and then clear a map after a certain point' didn't end up working in my favor, the breadcrumbing on the maps and the upgrading trees made it all so worthwhile.

The designs, the scripting, the voice acting, the visuals, the utter JOY of watching a mascot melodramatically flop when first getting into a danger, the combos of the cards once you'd done enough help...

The mostly healthy masculinity in playing a character who sees hardship and strive and does all he can to fix it, the ability to be a well of forgivenss, the absolute gremlin energy of Pinky*, it's all...it's all pitch perfect. It's glorious. Getting to just straight up insult a wildly corrupt lying scumbag criminal...especially this year? I needed that.

The only thing I could think to add unless I haven't found it yet is maybe a trash/sin/poster tracker once near a certain point as a purchasable upgrade? I don't know if there is anything else I may have missed in writing this now.

The only misstep I think was at the very end The impossible game thing 3 times in a row was a bit...much? And honestly, so was giving the 9999999 cards. The funny thing is, with all the cards already given...you can combo your entire deck out more or less? Like over 40 cards, if you've grabbed everything. I didn't max out Bear/Kaiju/third dude, or the idol vending machines, but even then I was able to put down cards for like a solid 2 minutes.

If you're able to do that...that's your Overfeels/Fighting Dreaming moment there. You could have maybe done a little cutscene snippet or dramatic cut/audio there? or instead of three button presses, just had one health bar and scene cuts for playing all the cards down, then like every time you lay down like...a bunch of them, it ends up showing the assist. But that would have required a lot more testing and fine tuning for the final fight, so don't hold it against you at all.

I do apologize for yar-harring. I will correct this with friday's paycheck. It was very Mike Miller of me.

But that being said, devs, I want you to know how well you made a game where a fellow left to his own devices on a boring sunday will go 14 hours (with breaks! I wasn't completely crazy), instantly feel bad about it, apologize, and use the next money he has available to buy. You did amazingly. You should all feel insanely proud.

Thank you for this experience.

[Oli Kaizen]

This was a rollercoaster of emotions. I'm glad you enjoyed the game, and I appreciate you promising to buy it.

[MiscOne]

Originally posted by A Gamer Who Is Also A Bear:

Thank you for this experience.

My first thought was like, thats Rude!!!! Isnt Kaizen Game Works a Japanese Company? Japanese Companys and "Stealing" is not going very well even you tell em you will buy the game later...the reason japanese devs love denuvo and put it like for forever onto their games..they gain less and pay even more, if it needs to to keep the non payers out..

but then i realized Kaizen Game Works is a UK Company..damm devs you rly made it so japanese i even forgot that point.

[[HGS]Augardente Guerreiro]

Originally posted by A Gamer Who Is Also A Bear:

you can combo your entire deck out more or less?

I did so in all three rounds! I played my entire 40+ card deck out even though I knew it wouldn't make a difference, and in all three I made sure to end on Pinky*. I want to say my penultimate cards across the three rounds were Shiori, Mieko and Shimazu.

[Devilfish]

Originally posted by A Gamer Who Is Also A Bear:

there's hints of Swery to it

Brother he's IN it.

And when you do buy it, don't forget to leave a review too. Steam reviews are so insanely important for indie games, especially the early ones. Even if you have nothing to say, every thumbs up helps a game out tremendously.

[A Gamer Who Is Also A Bear]

Originally posted by Devilfish:

Originally posted by A Gamer Who Is Also A Bear:

there's hints of Swery to it

Brother he's IN it.

And when you do buy it, don't forget to leave a review too. Steam reviews are so insanely important for indie games, especially the early ones. Even if you have nothing to say, every thumbs up helps a game out tremendously.

No I know! But like, I meant on like the *vibes* level of it. I also didn't expect to love that dude's voice as much as I did.

[Devilfish]

SWERY is the best. SWERY can do anything.