Recent reviews by Kateaclysm

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say this:

This is my favourite visual novel, and it is intensely, personally meaningful to me.

Everything from the characters to the music to the art to the story is incredible, warm, and sweet. This includes the relationships. Good *GOD* are the relationships amazing. I'd give anything to re-experience how this game made me feel for the first time. No other VN has made my transbian ass feel more accepted and loved.

And on top of all that, I'm still listening to the soundtrack a week later.

Please give this a try. It's about a 6 hour read and well worth every minute.

So intensely intimate to the trans experience that it made me cry. A cute, short but insanely heart-felt exploration into the shoes of someone I used to be- and still sort of am.

Highly recommended, even if you just like a well written, well paced story.

A very adult game, with very adult sense of reality, and a very adult cast. It is about escapism, about isolation, and what they mean to us. Before I say anything more, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Firewatch if you're an isolated or largely independent personality. If you're anything like me, the game will speak to you in a multitude of ways.


If you enjoy narrative experiences with environments that tell stories, and traversing pretty scenery as the "Gameplay", you're in for a treat. If you're looking to fight fires with a huge axe and dive into burning cabins to save people from fire, hoo BOY are you in the wrong place.

Firewatch is a game very grounded in reality, so much so, that as much as it helps the believability of the characters, environment, and story, it can also be a setback for some.

Please keep this in mind when you play the game. Try to leave your expectations at the door and just hear it out. Ignore the people who complain about "Walking simulators" unless you really can't stand that stuff. There's so much more here than that.

There is a very, /very/ high chance that you'll need a second playthrough to experience the narrative of Oxenfree to it's fullest. Please keep this in mind. I intend to update this review once I've completed the story again, but I feel like I can give you an accurate representation of what to expect from your first run.

PROS:

- Fantastic characters

- Gorgeous environments

- Radio feature is FANTASTIC & adds to intruigue and horror in a way I haven't seen many other games do.

- Conversation system is excellent, minus a minor, annoying flaw.

- Story is hella interesting, lots of fantastic creepy moments.

- Voice acting is INCREDIBLE. Every single line sounds genuine and full of personality.

- Collectables enhance understanding of story and the island's history; one of Oxenfree's strongest features. Finding them is well worth the time investment.

- Choices influence the game a ton, and there are a /LOT/ of them. The choices aren't dramatic in a way that sway your opinion to be something you wouldn't pick yourself, and they aren't manipulative, either. This provides a really personal experience with the narrative on the first run, something that is INTERGRAL to the overall experience.

- Once you've finished the game the first time, you can immediately hop back in for a second playthrough. The story itself begs for at least a second run, in my eyes, so definitely give it more than an initial run-through.

- Can be completed in one seating, if you like sitting.

- The game does not rely on jumpscares for it's horror genre. (There were like, 2 or 3 that got a reaction out of me in total, all in appropriate areas, mind you). The scenes are unnerving -- frightening, even -- based on atmosphere and excellent sound design alone.


CONS:

- The game requires a lot of backtracking at times in order to progress plot with little to do during the trip, other than admire the scenery or use the radio to scan for your grandma's favourite 50's showtune. This really only applies towards the end of the game, when backtracking through areas no longer yields a conversation between Alex and her companion. (If you stay true to the objective, you'll likely only come across a boring back-track once or twice, dialogue almost always fills the void).

- The conversation system has a minor flaw in which the character's spoken dialogue will often last longer than the time the player is given to choose a response, meaning that you'll have to turn on subtitles to see the entire phrase & answer accordingly, or be forced to choose a response and cut off the dialogue before the character can finish, or before you can hear them out. ( I usually turn on subtitles, so this was less of an issue for me)

- Sometimes, prompts to interact with the environment can be finicky, and you'll have to move in and out of the object's "prompt zone" to get Alex to do something. This is a rare occurance, though.

- Movement speed can slow to a frustrating crawl in certain areas, though the speed is usually appropriate in the context it appears.


If you like story-driven games, truly love to be invested in a story and you aren't driven crazy by a lack of intense gameplay, I can wholeheartedly reccomend Oxenfree.

Horror junkies from all tastes are definitely going to love this.

9/10 doctors recommend Undertale to people who are not yet attracted to fish women.

This game is fantastic. There are an infinite amount of things to do on one planet, and when you're done, you can just find another! This is probably one of the smoothest betas I've ever experienced, and there's an metric ass-load of content already.