Recent reviews by Vy'drach

Kinda like lewd Pokemon Snap. Bit barebones atm and not without some (not negative) jank, but I can see it getting pretty solid and can feel the team put some soul into it.

The real Helldivers are the friend(ly fire incident)s we make along the way.

I honestly, truly wanted this game to be great, but for the amount of time and money this game received, it is not. As a visual novel, I've played better, even some free ones, I have also played worse. For the rhythm music sections, I have also played better free ones, but I can respect how they tried to mix up the gameplay style for these segments, even if I feel it was a bad execution in practice. Coupled with a bad choice of engine, Spine2D, for 90% of the character appearances, which can lead to some real Cronenberg moments, and other general technical issues, the game just... honestly wasn't there.

There is also some inconsistencies in writing, issues with continuity, and some discussions that don't really make sense based on previous discussions. Also the game, as long as auto-forward is turned on, play itself almost entirely. A few moments it won't autopick an option after a timer elapses, but 99% of the time it will as long as you just check in now and then. And the music segments, it does not matter to the story at all if you perfect every note or miss every note, the story moves on regardless. Honestly, the choices don't matter beyond maybe a *smidge* of some character backstory, but even then, not really. It honestly seems like certain parts were kept from different levels of the development hell the game went through a bit of, and it led to a mishmash of writing. The quality just kind of bounces around, and it feels like the good parts were things that were there from early on and got to really get the full polish. And then there's some other bits that seem attached to those kinda haphazardly.

Also the voice acting is... not the greatest, especially not when trying to match up with the lip syncing. No one seems to have any real emotion at all, which is actually fair to matching how their body is lacking in, y'know, body language. They tend to just stand there with their arms at their sides, arms half-bent, or arms crossed. There is next to no body language for anything, no emotion, physical or verbal, which is a shame and really detracting from the game.

The rhythm game segments, as I mentioned before, I respect trying to take a new spin on that type of gameplay, but it was only good on paper, not in practice, I feel. It doesn't feel crisp or smooth, and a lot of rhythm games you can kinda play almost by following the beat of the music and just really vibe with it, but not this one. It tends to get a bit... busy with it, especially in the latter half of the songs, which has the unfortunate side effects of making it hard to focus and really notice one of the actually good parts of the game, some of the static CGs or animated segments that aren't done in spine2D. Some of those are actually really good and it's a shame I couldn't actually look and enjoy them if I wanted to do the rhythm game.

Now for some of the good parts:
As I mentioned before, some of the static image and non-spine2D animated parts actually look really good and can be adorable or actually add some of the few moments of characters having emotion in this game.
The background art is almost always really crisp and good, which is kind of jarring with the spine2D character models. Know how you can tell when a rock or a bookshelf is gonna move in the older cartoons because of the animation quality difference? It's kinda like that, but all of the time.
The music is actually pretty decent, I'm probably going to be listening to some of the songs now and then, I am especially a fan of the live version of Don't Call.

Honestly, I was really hoping this game would've been great, I really wish I could love it, but I just can't say that, or really actually recommend it to someone. On a good sale, maybe, but honestly, it's a 6 hour game and it took me over 13 hours to beat because I had to keep taking breaks from it, it was an honest slog some of the time. So again, hesitant positive because of the lack of neutral option. It is a solid there was an attempt/10.
It is positive and not a negative review specifically because I can respect that there was an attempt and in the parts that are good, they are genuinely good. Sadly, such parts are rather few and far between what is otherwise a rather mediocre experience.

It's similar to Stardew Valley, beautiful art style with its pixel graphics (I especially love Gloomhaven, neon Halloween style). Utilize magic to help, interesting cast of characters (could use more elf and monster romance options, however. Hopefully in future updates). My only real complaint with it is that it seems relationships go 0-100 real fast, like at 2 hearts out of 20 is a date. Just has a weird flow, I think it should be toned back to take more to get that point and require more of an active engagement to make it a romantic interest (like giving an item or so to start a romantic level or something) would feel a bit better, but it's not a real biggie all the same.

It's your childhood favorite, back and better than before. What more is there to say?

This game is... an experience, is the only way to really put it. If you are accustomed to guns, don't expect it to really be easy for you, since while learning the controls and getting that muscle memory down, you'll be dropping magazines and fumbling about with the various parts of the gun, but once you get those controls down, the game is just amazing. Plus with the abstract story and environments, just wow.