Recent reviews by 🍒 Lilly (🌸◠‿◠)

In 2047, a race of aliens called “the Occupants” arrives on Earth. A deadly virus brought by them almost completely wipes out humanity in less than a year. The only person unaffected is Iris, a teenage girl who remains immune to the virus for unknown reasons. When all efforts to communicate with the Occupants fail, the last survivors recruit Iris to experiment on her. Their attempts remain fruitless and the remaining survivors die before they reach their goal. Overwhelmed by her loneliness, Iris perfects the cloning procedure and eventually manages to create five identical clones of her to keep her company.

Fast-forward several centuries later to the starting point of the game, the player finds themselves in a bunker filled with Iris’ clones, who multiplied over the years and eventually evolved into a new society. They call each other “sisters” and worship Iris as the “Allmother”, the one who birthed each one of them, the only one who is not only immune to the virus but now also immortal. Six sisters were chosen to have special roles that keep this society together: President - administers and oversees the bunker, Fixer - mechanically fixes broken things, Bang Bang Fire - responsible for military defense against the Occupants, Healer - in charge of cloning, Knower - keeper of historical records and ancient knowledge. You play as the Watcher - the last of the chosen sisters, whose task is to observe the world around her and to commune through feelings with others.

The game hooks you right from the first moments with a shocking opening cinematic: we see Watcher stabbing Iris, full of anger for the one who has been her goddess and role model all along. The first part of the game will take you through all the events that lead to this scene, built upon the above synopsis. A floating AI device that follows Watcher wherever she goes also allows Watcher to perform “Communions” with Iris, re-living Iris’ memories. Through these communions, Watcher comes to some surprising revelations about Iris’ true nature and where her immunity and immortality come from. As for what happens in the second part of the game, that’s for you to discover, to avoid any further spoilers.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3286306464
1000xRESIST is a game that is hard to fit in any box. It plays like a walking simulator, but the environments are not really created to be explored and despite them being visually appealing, their purpose isn’t to divert the player’s focus from the story, but to support the immersion. Due to the amount of dialogue and the choices you can make during conversations, it also plays as a 3D visual novel. In some ways, it can also be seen as a narrative-driven linear adventure game stripped of any puzzles. Only one type of minigame exists, in which Watcher teleports from node to node (similar to using an invisible zip line) until she reaches a specific location that triggers a memory. This minigame occurs several times throughout the game but only one instance is timed, and it has a very generous timer. If I were to describe the game in a nutshell, I’d say that 1000xRESIST is a walk-n-talk adventure with light puzzling, perhaps similar to Telltale games or Life is Strange.

The actual strength of the game lies in its unique and innovative storytelling which is bound to blow your mind even from the first few minutes of gameplay. Because of how complex the narrative is, it’s difficult to express it in words. Essentially, the game makes use of all sorts of creative techniques to transform its audience into a Watcher, enabling them to employ mental associations or empathy to understand the story in depth. Playing 1000xRESIST is similar to the feeling you have when you look at a piece of art. You can't understand a painting from a logical point of view. You can debate and analyze it logically but you “consume” it, you “take it in” by absorbing it as a whole. And this is exactly where the mastery of 1000xRESIST’s storytelling resides. By mixing reality and surrealism, the game gives the player information bits like puzzle pieces. Some things are clearly explained, others are left to the interpretation of the viewer or merely hinted at. Until the very end, you will feel confused about some parts, but deeply fascinated and intrigued at the same time about the whole experience. The title itself gives you the first enigma to solve: with “RESIST” being an anagram of “SISTER”, the title directly points at the clones' society and perhaps also at the time that elapsed since the cataclysm (1000 years).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3286306667
The game also likes to throw at you statements that you won’t initially understand, but which you will learn to interpret or comprehend later in the game based on the game’s world and lore. The most straightforward example of that is the dialogue options that Watcher has in the intro cutscene. Replying to Allmother before stabbing her is a choice between three cryptic options: “red to blue”, “six to one”, or “hair to hair“, the meaning of at least one (if not two) being somewhat deductible from the synopsis - in any case, all being later explained.

While the narration is linear (there are no branches), exploring the memory fragments isn’t. Just like in reality, when a memory can trigger another memory, Watcher will scramble through Iris’ memories back and forth, despite them being unlocked in a sequential (ordered) way, one at a time. Navigating the memories also allows in some specific circumstances location navigation (to get past a locked door, you go back one memory, move your character to the target location and then go forward to the desired memory). Like in a Tarantino movie, the memories are not visited in chronological order; they’re scattered over time and space. The game also heavily uses deja vus in two very creative manners. In some dialogue with cryptic choices, these options are actually fragments of what other characters said earlier in the game. Reading them is already enough to trigger a deja vu in the player, who will then try to connect that event to the current dialogue and direct the conversation accordingly. The second one presens scenes already shown to the player, but modified and extended with insights that reflect the realizations that specific characters reached.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3286306514
At deeper layers, the story also has strong cultural and historical references. The Hong Kong Umbrella Movement is a big part of the plot, although not necessarily explicitly stated. Iris’s parents met during one of the protests, several character storylines are suggestive of China’s oppression and express the need to be individualized, to define themselves, while others wear an umbrella. Even the title could hint at the Hong Kong RESISTance.

1000xRESIST is like a diamond with many facets, it’s a deep philosophical masterpiece that reveals something new, a different perspective every time you turn it towards the light. The game is fully voiced in English, the soundtrack is top-notch and the camerawork is also spot-on. For me, 1000xRESIST was a one-of-a-kind experience blending all these together, with a storyline that immersed me so deeply that I couldn’t stop thinking about it even in between my gameplay sessions spread over several days. Even after finishing it and its multiple endings, I had to revisit some bits which allowed me to reach some new realizations. The story is so packed with symbolism that it’s impossible to grasp everything in a single playthrough. All-in-all, 1000xRESIST is in all aspects a brilliant game.

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Deep Beyond is a short and cozy first-person walking simulator about a young sea explorer in search of a mysterious, long-lost artifact. You take the role of Lilly, the daughter of a treasure hunter who went missing some years ago. The game starts as she's about to find the last artifact needed to pinpoint the location of the chalice that her father's expedition was searching for. However, she's not the only one looking for it and a series of unexpected events starts to occur as she gets closer to her objective.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3281106714
While walking simulators are known to be rather slow-paced, Deep Beyond easily manages to keep you on your toes throughout the whole gameplay due to its excellent storytelling. The narrative is dynamic, there is always something new and unpredictable that happens. Several immersive cutscenes make the game look more like an interactive movie than anything else, topped with a great music score and well-placed sound effects that further enhance the experience. The game is fully voiced too, and the voice actors did a great job at portraying their characters.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3281106742
The game is not entirely a walking simulator. It also has several puzzles to solve. They are easy enough to figure out without any help, yet very fun. Additionally, several elements from the environment have flavor text when interacting with them, similar to a point & click adventure (although there is no inventory and no objects can be picked up for puzzles). The game also has nine Steam achievements, most of which are story-related. None of them are missable, as you can revisit any part of the story from the chapter selection menu, which will also allow you to quickly experience the three possible endings (by replaying only the last sequence).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3281106779
Deep Beyond doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, but it’s one of the more enjoyable walking simulators I’ve played. It’s a little gem with an artsy design and compelling narrative, the only downside being that it is very short.

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The Lost Legends of Redwall: Feasts & Friends is more of a spin-off game set in the Redwall universe rather than a continuation of previous stories, although it does build its dialogues upon them. However, the game is designed so that no prior knowledge is required to understand what’s happening in Feasts & Friends.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3275168567
It’s a pretty basic cooking simulator where you play as Rootsworth, the chef of the Lilygrove mice community. Every day starts by greeting your only customer, chatting a bit with them, then preparing their favorite dish. Each character has likes and dislikes and you’ll have to select the recipe that fits them best, using their preferred ingredients and avoiding the ones they despise. Each ingredient then goes through a slicing / dicing / peeling process (represented by a short minigame). When they are all ready, you can start preparing the actual recipe. This is done according to a timed sequence that indicates which of the ingredients need to be added to the pan at which moments of the timeframe, when to shake / stir and when to change the heat intensity. The whole process of preparing a dish (from selecting the recipe to plating the end product) takes a couple of minutes and ends with the customer grading your work. Rinse and repeat the next day, with a new NPC.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3275168589
The way the game flows is similar to going to a friendly therapist, with various characters sharing their troubles and inquiring for advice on how to solve them. Rootsworth is no therapist though, and all the healing he does is through his dishes, which seem to greatly satisfy the troubled mice of the Lilygrove community. The dialogues have a lot of flavor, some of them being written in this specific Rootsworth mice-talk, akin to pirate slang. They’re fun to read, but sadly there are no voice-overs.

The game is really easy to pick up (so are the minigames for preparing the ingredients) and the controls are responsive. Before choosing what recipe to cook, you can see the character’s likes and dislikes, and also the ingredients you are missing from your pantry. These can be acquired on the spot from a merchant. It’s a bit underwhelming that no matter how simple or complex the recipe (or its preparation) is, you get pretty much the same amount of coins as a reward, regardless there is always enough money to get all the ingredients you need for any kind of recipe. What I would like to see as a QoL feature though is for the recipes that match the preferences of a certain character to be highlighted in some way. Right now, for each character, you have to scroll through ~30 different recipes to see what fits and what doesn’t.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3275168625
The Lost Legends of Redwall: Feasts & Friends is a short, cozy and easy game that will appeal to fans of the Redwall universe (as you can see its characters as Rootsworth’s customers) and others alike. It took me around two and a half hours to reach the end of the game. Sadly, there are no Steam achievements implemented, but I would gladly replay it if these are ever added. Since the customers are scripted (and not random), you can’t continue preparing dishes after you finish the game - for that, you would need to start all over, thus the replayability factor is somewhat limited.

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Like the title suggests, Alchemist: The Potion Monger is a simulation game centered around preparing alchemical potions. You gather ingredients from the environment and use them to craft potions. These potions are further used to complete quests or fulfill NPC contracts, but you can also sell them in your shop in town for extra coins. With the coins earned, you can buy new recipes, rare ingredients or various tools needed to produce more advanced potions.

The game has pretty much all the mechanics one would look for in this genre, together with a very basic combat mechanic (just a light attack) and an equally basic farming mechanic (you plant the seeds once and gather them indefinitely every day afterward). Currently, there is no relationship system with the NPCs and all the ingredients are available at any time because there is no seasonal cycle implemented (although a few of them appear only at night).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269674742
On the other hand, the whole layer of crafting alchemical potions is rather complex, which is expected from this kind of game. Each of the four alchemical elements (earth, water, fire, wind) consists of 16 aspects (attributes). All the ingredients, as well as potion recipes, have a specific subset of these aspects. To craft a potion, you will need to use those ingredients whose attributes match the ones required by the portion. However, this is not as easy as it sounds, as the ingredients often have to go through a chain of several alchemical transformations to change their aspects into the ones needed. This is done with the help of several tools that can either morph one aspect into another based on the tiers or elements they belong to or apply other sorts of transformations on the ingredient, such as removing the weakest / strongest aspect or entirely swapping it with the one corresponding to the opposite element.

Your main item to use will be the Philosopher’s Stone, which shows the ingredients the player could use to craft a potion, as well as the tools required for processing those ingredients. While you are not obliged to craft the recipe as indicated by the Philosopher's Stone, nor does it show all possible combinations (there would be way too many possibilities), this is a real help in simplifying the process, especially until the player learns the ropes. The Philosopher’s Stone acts only as a hint, as it provides neither the full solution nor all the steps that a certain ingredient needs to go through to reach the goal attribute. The actual puzzle and the core of the gameplay is figuring out the transformation sequence by yourself, which tools to use on which ingredients and in what order to apply them. While it takes some time to find a solution (and, in some cases, some trial and error too), they are always logical - which is one of the aspects I like most about this game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269674773
Several other quality-of-life features are aimed at increasing the enjoyment of the game. Portals can help you quickly navigate various areas of the world. The locations of the ingredients are saved on the map (and visible at all times) after you gather them once from that zone. There are several furniture items (aside from chests) that can hold ingredients and they add a really stylish touch to your cozy alchemist hut. There is also the feature of saving the solution of a potion to recreate it later with one click without having to go through the whole process again (as long as you have the required ingredients in the inventory). Crafting using such a saved recipe automatically uses the ingredients available in all storages of the house, removing the annoying requirement to transfer them to your inventory beforehand. A tool that can create dyes also exists, allowing you to change the colors of your house walls for example. And you can adopt several pets that will help you identify the aspects of a certain ingredient (by default you know only the element they belong to).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269674624
Alchemist: The Potion Monger is currently in Early Access but it’s fully playable, with around 15 hours of content (quests and achievements), although it can surely be played for much longer than that. The full version will expand the current universe with new side quests, potion types, NPCs, a house expansion and obviously new ingredients.

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Undercover - Secret Management is the second installment in the latest supernatural thriller series, Undercover, published by GameHouse. The central character of the series is Veronica - a feisty journalist whose sister mysteriously disappears one night. Instead of waiting for the police to do their slow investigation work, Vera decides to take matters into her own hands and go undercover as a barista for the club where her sister Lilly was last seen. Once successfully infiltrated there, she discovers that Lilly was transformed into a vampire and joined their ranks, leaving her human life behind. The story of Undercover - Secret Management picks up at this exact spot, and the plot is extended with some new murders committed in town, in which the vampire coven is potentially involved. While trying to escape the vampires’ web of intrigue, Vera attempts to reason with Lilly as the new manager of one of the most influential vampire nightclubs by appealing to her humanity through their sisterly bond.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262789498
While the first game is aimed at introducing the various characters in this universe (as Vera makes new friends as well as enemies along the way) and ends rather abruptly, Secret Management’s story is more fleshed out and gives a new depth to these characters, revealing their background stories and unexpected identities - although it still ends with major cliffhangers for all plotlines. The writing in the second game makes sure that everything the player needs to know about the events of the first game is already explained during the first few levels through character interactions, thus having played the first game before diving into Secret Management is not a must. On the other hand, playing Blood Bonds alone without its current sequel feels more like watching just the first episode of a lengthy series and will only leave you hanging and wanting for “more”. I played both games back-to-back, and I’m really glad to have done so for the narrative continuity.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262789483
Regarding the gameplay, this is the typical GameHouse game in its simplified version (no location or item upgrades). Vera works as a barista in various clubs where her investigation leads her. There she fulfills customer orders, bills them and cleans the tables they used. Because of having fewer items to handle in one location, Blood Bonds gave me the impression that it was meant to be one of the easier GameHouse games. On the contrary, the second installment of the series goes back to the standard difficulty or even slightly higher than that considering that in some locations multiple dishes have to be cooked under a timer are usually situated in opposite corners of the room and one customer often orders several of them in one go. The pathing here is thus much more important than in the first game, or rather than in pretty much any other GameHouse game. On the other hand, in both Undercover games, there are fewer levels than usual (60 compared to 90 which is the standard for Delicious games) because there are no intermediate / secondary levels. The requirements to grind extra levels for the last few achievements post-game have also been removed and now all achievements can be unlocked in one go, without having to replay any level (as long as you complete all their respective tasks).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262789533
Undercover - Secret Management takes between eight to ten hours to complete, and it’s a very enjoyable ride due to its compelling story and addictive gameplay. Like all other GameHouse games, there are three difficulty options, unique minigames for each location, and a special scene where you can spend the diamonds earned from completing levels to decorate Vera’s desk.

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Pine Hearts is a short and cozy exploration game with a small emotional story to guide you along the way.

From an isometric perspective, you control a cute and colorful nugget character as he wanders the tranquil world of Pine Hearts Caravan Park, meets various NPCs and helps them with their tasks. The map is rather vast and the game is heavily focused on exploring it, as there are no quest markers (neither to distinguish the NPCs that can give you a quest from the rest of the NPCs, nor for the items you are required to fetch), nor a detailed map of all paths possible. Available is only a top-level map of the game world that displays the regions, but not the connections between them or any other details such as paths or points of interest.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3260336888
However, the game is split into distinctive regions, and accessing them requires obtaining a specific ability, which is unlocked by gathering enough “droplets”. These can be obtained not only by completing quests but also by interacting with various objects in the game world or simply collecting them from your path, as you explore the maze-like environment. Without a map, navigating the world is not exactly trivial (especially for those without a clear sense of direction like me), as you have to project the zones visited in your mind and obviously remember their location, together with which NPC gives you which quest. Unfortunately, only the quests belonging to the main storyline are shown and not the side quests (which are encountered in much higher numbers than the former).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3260337065
While I could think of several QoL features that I would like to see in the game, I’m deeply appreciative of how much effort was put into accessibility options. There are several color palettes to choose from, and the interactable objects (including the NPCs) are brightly colored to distinguish them from the muted colors of the environment. To be honest, this was extremely helpful to me during the end game (even if I don’t have any disabilities) for gathering those last difficult-to-find droplets required for the hardest achievement of the game: gathering all 1500 of them. While roughly 1300 are obtained through quests and from wandering around, the last ~200 come from object interactions or other areas reachable only after unlocking all abilities. The map is also designed so that even the early zones contain areas accessible only with fully unlocked abilities, thus a full traversal through the entire map will be required for this achievement. I would have really liked to see from which of these zones I can still collect droplets, as opposed to wandering around aimlessly until I find something to interact with, but unfortunately, this information is not available to the player. The rest of the achievements are naturally unlocked as you play and complete quests. None of them are missable, as you can always return to the previous zones to obtain them and they’re color-coded based on the region they belong to, which is quite helpful.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3260337016
Pine Hearts’ story is not the one that drives the gameplay forward, as it consists only of five miniature memories of the character and his father. However, they’re quite emotional and are bound to touch your heart, even if they’re short-lived. These memories, together with all the cute interactions that you can do with the objects in the environment and the colorful, positive visuals give the game a heartfelt, wholesome vibe. Pine Hearts is certainly a chill and enjoyable ride that will take you between five and seven hours to complete, depending on how much you like to dawdle, yet pretty expensive for the content that it offers.

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Purpose 1951 is a short and linear walking simulator narrated by a medical practitioner who reminisces about the hardships of being a surgeon during the post-World War II period.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3243101544
Set in the United States in the 1950s, when medical equipment was scarce and the possibilities of performing thorough medical check-ups were very limited, the surgeon faces a life crisis after a failed surgery on a patient with strong political ties. When a certain chain of events beyond his control leads to the death of his patient, he is wrongfully accused and condemned to resign from his job, resulting in his beloved wife leaving him. While the narrative has a strong dark realism aspect as the doctor reflects on how his entire life fell apart, the overall direction is a positive one, with him finding the strength to move on in the end despite his misfortune.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3243100935
When it comes to creating beautiful environments for his walking simulators, Tonguç Bodur never disappoints. Purpose 1951 even managed to exceed my expectations, quickly becoming my favorite game from this developer in regards to the scenery traversed. The colorful autumnal forest and the dance of violet, blue and pink colors of the sunset sky completely mesmerized me throughout the entire game and strongly reminded me of the gorgeous sights from The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Each frame is a work of art of outstanding beauty, a stunning painting in itself.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3243101275
Sadly, this experience only lasted for an hour and at the end of it, I was left wanting more. Purpose 1951 is perfect to play during a relaxing, contemplative night and the few achievements that the game offers are very easy to obtain. They are awarded for finding eight collectibles, commonly placed outside the main road (yet still close to it) inviting the player to explore this beautiful environment beyond the leading pathway.

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Sanya is a nostalgic slice-of-life story set in post-Soviet '90s Russia. It’s a short and warm point & click adventure about Sanya - a young boy who moves into a new apartment together with his family. We’re shown the day after Sanya arrives at his new home when he discovers a friendly dog that he adopts as his pet, makes friends with the kids around the block and embarks on small childhood adventures with them.

The game succeeds at conveying these childhood memories as the best time of Sanya’s life: when innocence and curiosity intertwine, when ghost stories become real adventures that you have to brave as a rite of passage, or when a simple bike trip turns into a race. A rather subtle education aspect is also present, as Sanya learns to lock the door behind him after leaving the apartment, or choosing between unpacking his toys, as his mother asked him to, or completely ignoring her request. Other times, the game will tug at your heart strings, as we see Sanya being left alone while his parents go to work, with his father being deeply absorbed into his job, thus being able to come home rather rarely.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3219231017
Just like in classic point & click games, interacting with the items in the game world will either produce a flavor text or allow Sanya to pick up an object needed for a future puzzle. Additionally, a few interactions trigger some simple, yet fun minigames. There is one exception in which the minigame is extremely frustrating, namely a platformer sequence with the most horrendous controls ever encountered in the history of gaming. Not only are they unresponsive, but it’s also very difficult to control the character and stop its movement at the right moment to avoid various traps. One of the achievements will require you to explore all areas of this minigame and collect the star found at the end of each zone, which could take over an hour of repeatedly dying, despite the minigame being only a few screens long, just because the controls don’t respond to your input. This struggle-inducing sequence doesn’t fit in any way, in an otherwise a very casual and relaxing game and since there is no skip option, the only thing you can do is to endure it until you manage to traverse it. The frustration I had after beating it fully was almost enough to turn this review into a negative one. What saved it from that was the overall bright and cheerful atmosphere of the game, outside this particular bit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3219230902
The rest of the achievements are a mix of story-related ones and missable ones, the latter being awarded for performing some specific actions. There are also two pairs of mutually exclusive achievements, thus obtaining 100% completion will require you to start (not necessarily complete) a second playthrough. There is no chapter selection and no manual save feature. The game does save from time to time, yet this is not indicated in any way.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3219230756
Sanya is a nice game (with the exception of the dreadful platformer minigame), but an extremely short one for the asking price of $14.99. It’s true that its art style is sweet and its simple story is calming and might even bring you a smile or two, but considering that one playthrough takes around 1.5 hours at a relaxed pace and that there is close to zero replayability (aside from obtaining those mutually exclusive achievements), I would advise waiting for a deep sale before diving in.

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Clean The Sea is a short and very casual sandbox game in which you navigate a ship to collect floating macro-waste and debris, then dump the cargo at a nearby drop point where you can exchange it for money. With the money earned, you can expand the area that needs to be cleaned and eventually move to a new location, upgrade your ship by increasing its speed or the garbage capacity that you can scoop in one go, or hire workers that will automatically help you pick up individual trash items.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3181112819
It’s a relaxing game with very simple mechanics, albeit a tad repetitive. It has infinite replayability, as new waste items keep being generated in the already cleaned areas. This happens at a very slow rate though, slowly enough to not make it seem like your cleaning efforts are futile, but fast enough to allow picking all of them up in one trip around the zone.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3181112947
As you collect the garbage from the surface of the water, the pollution slowly starts to disperse and the aquatic life gradually comes back to inhabit the clean area: you can see fish swimming, turtles and penguins playing in the water. As soon as most of the areas from the current location are clean, you’ll be able to travel to a new one. In its current form, the game offers four different locations of around 8 zones each, with more locations planned to be added in the future.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3181112909
While it’s by all means not a deep game and can’t be compared in quality with similarly-themed games like Loddlenaut, it can prove to be a cute distraction for one hour or so. It also has the advantage of raising environmental awareness in a way that appeals to both younger and older audiences. It offers 18 easy achievements which are unlocked naturally as you play through the game and clean the areas one by one (currently, it takes roughly 30-35 minutes to obtain all of them).

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Nova Hearts is a visual novel that manages to seamlessly integrate a turn-based battle mechanic into the genre. The game is planned to be released later this summer and will have three or more chapters, totaling around 12h of gameplay. The first of these chapters is released as a standalone free-to-play app: Nova Hearts: The Spark.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3167387764
The game impresses through its outstanding art direction. The CGs are exquisitely drawn and unlike most other visual novels where only the facial expressions change according to the current dialog line, here the character models are fully animated. This provides fluidity to the story and allows the player to fully immerse themselves in it.

The story itself is also a bit of a treat. You are Luce, a young girl who comes back home to live with her mother, ten years after her parents divorced. While she focuses on rekindling old friendships with two former schoolmates, strange occurrences start to happen in town, which makes the trio undergo a sudden and surprising Sailor Moon-like transformation, becoming superheroes to fight off evil.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3167388209
The story unfolds through lengthy dialogues and chats on the phone. There is a good amount of choices, but most of the time these deliver only a few extra lines of dialogue. However, they will positively or negatively affect your relationship with the other characters, which in turn can lead to potentially having some additional scenes at the end of the chapter. The way your choices influence a character is visually indicated on the screen through a very pleasant rain-effect of symbols: heart for the romance route, crown for relationship increase, dagger for relationship decrease. There are several characters to romance and the game is gender-fluid, allowing you same-sex relationships. There are no explicit erotic scenes (and according to the developers, there won’t be any in the full game either), but there are kissing scenes even in the first chapter.

The turn-based battles occur while the trio is in their superhero form. The enemies and heroes alternate turns, each of them being able to cast only one ability per turn. While enqueuing their abilities, you also have the possibility to delay them so that they get cast at the same time as one of your teammates, creating combos for added damage. The XP points gained in battles can then be used to upgrade your character's abilities or to unlock new ones.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3167387627
The game was developed using the Unity engine. Unfortunately, this comes with a couple of flaws. In its current form, you can neither skip nor have a history of previously read lines. You can’t go back and pick a different choice to see how it develops, and while a manual save is possible, this is available only at specific points during the game (otherwise, there is an autosave feature, but it’s not clearly indicated when the game decides to autosave).

Overall, Nova Hearts: The Spark is a very promising title. The first chapter alone got me all excited to see it fully released and experience the full story. If Nova Hearts sparked your interest, give the first chapter a try!

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