kravina

One of the better experimental games I've ever played here on Steam, and I do mean experimental in every sense of the word. As you play, you begin to feel more and more like a (willing) guinea pig undertaking cryptic tasks while the mastermind observes in amusement from the shadows.

I've been playing Yai Gameworks games for nearly four years now, and I am continually amazed even to this day. You can tell the developer is brimming with creative ideas, as their backlog of unfinished/unreleased games grows right along with a steady stream of finished work. Through it all, they have always been so honest and transparent, which I can appreciate. As a fan it's been fascinating to watch the whole process. Imagine my suprise to find a few hidden treasures in this particular game which harken back to a few of those games seemingly thought lost or left undone. The developer has found a way to re-imagine and re-purpose their projects (even if only in smaller amounts) as part of something bigger.

Like most of their games, I wouldn't classify it as straight horror. I think of it more as a surreal puzzle/riddle game. If you are a particular fan of decyphering codes and digging through the files of your game, you would absolutely adore this experience. It's established this game is best enjoyed as a group brain-storming excercise, but it's not necessary. In fact, this game is no better enjoyed as a group effort than any other of Yai Gameworks games in my opinion- since they all rely heavily on thinking far outside the box. Browse nearly any forum for their games and you will find threads of multiple minds connecting to work their way through countless puzzles and theories. However, this is the first time it's specifically stated this way. You might be highly antisocial, like me, but why not use this opportunity to step out of your comfort zone for the sake of the game. Who knows, you might just fall in love with it.

PHASE 2 & BEYOND EDIT: Honestly, I'm not digging the game as much at this point. It's my least favorite of all of Yai Gamework's releases thus far. The novelty has worn off and the whole experience has become rather frustrating. My enjoyment of it has waned quite a bit. I dislike how difficult or nearly impossible the game is to play solo (now, I say nearly, because a few of us are really trying to go it alone) and how reliant you must be on Discord or Steam forums in order to progress. If we don't have access to GIMP software, are inept with such software or perhaps even have vision or hearing issues, you may not be able to progress at all without relying on someone else for the answers or for having the guts and intestinal fortitude to withstand certain tasks (like the Girl's Graveyard game, or the 101 Floors)
For someone as uncomfortable socially as I am, this whole experience can be incredibly hard and slowly chips away at my love for the game.

I was recently criticised that I go into too much detail in my reviews, even to the extent of exposing what colour underwear the developer must be wearing. I'll try and tone it down a little.

Basically in a nutshell. This game HATES YOU! Trolls of the internet take out a pen and paper and start writing notes. You can learn a thing or two from this bipolar madhouse. She waits taunting you with a man's voice and if that is not creepy enough to halt you in your tracks, the vague purpose of being, as you stand knocking on locked doors will make you feel like you’re at a JW training boot camp.

The game's hostility towards you is showcased onset through...
* Unreadable text notes.
* The game constantly logging you out the closer you get.
* Deafening audio clips.
* Dark paths that cast no light whatsoever.
* Endless aimless wandering of being lost and alone.

The problem is that the above frustrations really felt unnecessary. While I understand since this game is largely a huge metaphor about life, creation and the need to be loved, there is a balance, a fine line to tread from giving an example, an experience and an utter head (I’ll let your imagination fill in the next word). Many times this game just felt like a trolling violation to my senses, more than an enjoyable experience. Personally I felt that the frustrations could largely have been avoided so that more gamers would be beckoned to explore the developer’s concept, instead of feeling so alienated from it all and its pursuit. Like me, many will just look for a walk through and it's really not my fault, or the guy who wrote the guide, instead it's the games fault and how nasty it is towards the gamer.

Basically the game plays out like a treasure hunt. You find a word or phrase which will lead you to a location where you will find another word or phrase which will hopefully either give you the password to one of the locked doors, or tell you where you need to go to find another word or phrase etc. If the game boots you, then evidently you were successful in unlocking more material and when you log back in the game, the game will change.

As the developer has stated these clues are 'cryptic' in two ways. 1) The developer has not limited the hiding of the words needed to inside the game, instead you will also find them in the actual files of the game, on the main store page in the description and trailer video's/pictures and even in the developers comments on the discussion board. 2) While you’re often hinted where to look, you’re not really told what you need to do when you get there. For instance some places require you to use Photo Shop to unlock the word and more often than not your brainstorming with someone else or with the developer in the steam discussion board is supposed to get you there.

This is probably my biggest gripes with the game itself. A good puzzle game should not 'NEED' the developer to constantly be hinting people on how to move forward. Instead all that information should be clearly visible inside the game itself and even if it is outside the game the logical pathway should be clearly discernible on how you get to that fact, instead of just a huge leap of logic being needed due to poor vague clues.

Let me give you a for instance. The first puzzle you come across is a door locked with the words on it 'on our graves'. Since it was placed in unreadable font. I at first assumed that the game required me to work out what those words were and type that phrase in. When that didn't work I assumed it was an answer to those words such as 'dancing', 'flowers', 'tombstone', 'elephant', when all those and the other 50 words I associated with that phrase didn't work I was at a complete loss.

It appears, what I was missing, was in a completely different area of the house. There was a note with 'ww.save' on it and from that note, I should have apparently deduced to look into the game files themselves for the folders 'on', 'our', 'graves' for the password. I'm sorry but that leap of logic is too far for me to draw that connection. It seemed reasonable when I saw that note, that it was to something else other than the pass word on the door and there seemed no obvious connection to the save files of the game.

Wondering if others have had similar problems making these connections I asked around a bit on how others found the six hidden mini games that accompanies the main game. They ALL stated the same thing, they gave up and just flicked through the files of the game until they stumbled upon them, others said they gave up and looked for a walk through.

I applaud the concept, and I applaud the developer’s message, but it really seemed just to be an artful display of an ambitious developer plagued with countless messy ideas. It severely lacked discipline and restraint. Many cumbersome features seeped through and somewhat tarnished my experience with this creation. However its unique abstract grim style and pushing the boundaries to explore new gaming concepts and experiences pulled it back from the grave steam pit it was truly heading.

In fact this Portland developer http://yaigameworks.com/ plans to release a new game every month this year, and with that sort of commitment you just know it's currently these that he is wearing https://binged.it/2GONjDl

Sorry ... couldn't help myself.

In final, what are you waiting for? It's a free game and 'SHE WAITS'!!!

Below a sample from someone else…

https://youtu.be/Kb2Et18VHts

If you enjoyed reading this review please subscribe to one of my curator pages. Thanks...

http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6843548/

Tltr: If you are an easter-egg hunter, or if you love discovering or digging in games, I HIGHLY reccomend this.

I have played it since beta-keys were available on other sites.

I will not talk much about the content itself. It will hurt your experience.
Only what I can say is this game is about de-cyphering and discovery.

First, watch the trailer. You'll find some letters are written in awkward font.
If you can guess at this point like "Ah, this game is about finding letters of the font. After I collect 26 or 52 letters, it's over", then YOU WILL LOVE THIS DEFINETELY.

...I don't talk about the content much, again, It will you hurt your discovery experience. However, there were HUGE things than I imagined just like above, and there were EVEN HUGER things after I found the huge things.
Sadly, I'm stuck now. Still, I have really enjoyed it.

What I want to emphasize is that this game is PRETTY FAIR.

You know, there are "unfair" games all around the Internet. Like, "This game can be solved only by the creator... This is
not challenging but just unfair. I wasted time..."
This game is not like that. It is fair, at least until the point I have reached.
Every puzzle is really challenging and seems unfair at first. But every time I got progress, I thought "Well... this is certainly fair. It was just I didn't notice it... my bad"

Now It's out, so I'm waiting for people to reach the point I have reached. I will never talk about how I solved them, because a conversation like "Oh I'm stuck at XXXX. What should I do?" "Oh then just do YYYY" "Oh I made it. Thanks" is not a good way to play this kind of game.

If you love discovering and digging, you will certainly love this.

However, I have to add a thing. Indeed, I didn't solve puzzles by myself. Some friends like me got the beta-keys, and we worked out together, and everyone's guesses were helpful. Without anyone, I could not have reached this point.
I recommend going to community hub, BUT until you feel completely stuck, you should never.

GUESS. THINK. TRY. EVERYTHING. And above all, COOPERATE.

It’s a very non linear game with tons of secrets to discover, as well as randomized events to keep things fresh.

Recommended if you like puzzle games and find clues.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND
BUT IT'S VERY SHOCKING

comments for free games 107/200

This game is honestly a real treat. It's so frustrating not to figure out the puzzles but it also makes it more fun. Don't be afraid to seek help. Try your best, but do know that the steam community is your friend. I've been playing it on stream, and the dev even gave me a couple hints to get started. And now I'm hooked. Now, give me my letter you cheeky Bastard (I don't really mean that, I love you).

This game is very smart and intriguing, this game is especially interesting when you like solving puzzles. I give it a 9/10 since my brain hurts after playing it more than 10 minutes.

I am a big fan of "yai gameworks" since Close Your Eyes. I greatly treasured and loved the experience given by this developer's games, - it was truly unique. But i've come to notice that with time yai games become less about content and more about puzzles.
Of course, good challenge, when it's involving, interesting and rewarding is always welcomed.
When Red Haze came out, most of its puzzles were a lot harder than in prev games, but still clever and even interesting. Though there was this very annoying custodian issue but other than that the game was, by and large, enjoyable.

Then close your eyes dlc - "Twisted Puzzle". It had very little actual content in it and consisted of mostly just puzzles (thus the name i guess). I thought it was okay, it's just a small dlc after all. The puzzles themselves were not okay for me: they were tediously hard and some stuff was just plain distasteful, like interacting with a trash bin for 50 (!) times.
But truth be told i still felt rewarded by the end of the game, i could even say that the last note riddle was almost good if its solution tip wasn't so cryptic.

"Close Me". Oh here we go... i don't even now where to start. Story short, this game has extremely little substance to it, but has a lot of very questionable puzzles with bizarre, almost anti-intuitive solutions. Sometimes you can't even tell if you solved some random puzzle or not, if triggered something or not; so you have to close the game and do a tedious walk around the map to see if anything had changed. And, of course, the system time based puzzles: some things will happen and some doors might open depending on your system time; and that is necessary to play in a certain time of day to proceed through the "story"; so you need to physically make your time to play or, if you can't, change your system time that can potentially mess up certain programs in your pc. Seems fun? And don't forget you need to figure out the actual existence of time based puzzles in the first place, which is hard if you only play games at a certain time of day...

“Please love my computer game” – not much I want to add. Everything I said before – this game takes it to a whole new level of frustration I didn’t even knew existed.
Very ironic name: game that wants you to love it does nothing to aid to that, - it’s not even remotely friendly or welcoming.

Clearly it's not really a “review” since i haven't said much about actual game i'm reviewing. To be quite honest, I just wanted to vocal my disappointment and… sorrow about this whole situation.
This is my first review ever written, and that is only because of this topic’s importance to me, because I actually still care about your games, yai; and I wish they were something I can enjoy, I really do. But that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

Short version: if you enjoy really difficult riddles that forces your mind to work on different paces, this game is for you. Do you think you are good at solving riddles? This game will prove that you need more people to actually solve it. Extremely cryptic game with lots and lots things to solve.

Actual review:
I did play all games of Yai Gameworks, and this one cannot be compared with prequel to this game: Close me. On top of all, the game simply forces player to get more people to work on it, because each person sees things differently - and that's the key. Could easily say, this game is one complicated ARG. Do you enjoy digging in games, thinking a lot, and creating tons of theories about solutions? If you do, you might really enjoy this game. But it also can be really frustrating. With having one line of text and nothing else, player won't progress in any way till it gets solved. The riddles themselves are smart and unique, and what is important, they forces to make actual brainstorm with other people. This game is NOT made to play alone! This game will also make you stuck in many places till some riddles gets solved. Getting more people means getting more ways of looking at things, which might be it. But above everything: solving in group gives huge satisfaction when finding solution to each of the riddles!

I highly recommend this game only for people that love logical challenges and aren't afraid of thinking hard and intense.

'Dark Souls but for brain' - Kaede, 2018