Recent reviews by Sy

Was gifted this game by a nice friend (love you jake) and gave it a go. Wow! What a journey! Amazing storytelling. You work as a translator for different groups of people to connect their worlds. The tutorial eases you right up to the core gameplay very fluidly, the puzzles are fun (even the stealth parts), the language-deciphering itches my brain the right way and makes me feel smort for once, heck the languages themselves were inspired by actual languages irl, incredible! What a game! I wish more games are like these! I had fun! (THANK YOU JAKE)

Actually best game I've ever played. Ticked off everything I've ever wanted in a story. I don't normally review games, but this one I have to give my personal salute to. Everything is beautiful and thought-provoking, a lot of time and love was in this game. The art and writing are phenomenal, the card-designing aspect manages to scratch the itch in my brain, and your choices ACTUALLY matter in the long run. Everything is coded in.

The only complaint I have is I was so happy with how the story I weaved went that I'm physically unable to start a new game to see the rest of the options. It's that good. I'm off to tell all my friends and game groups to play this game now, it's really too amazing. My greatest respect to the devs.

Received a direct message in Twitter from the dev of this game to give it a try, and since I do love visual novels, I decided why not?

Even from the menu screen, I can tell the visuals are completely entrancing! Everything is so vibrant! The backgrounds are all absolutely amazing, the level of detail the artists had done is downright phenomenal. Things even animate in the background as you read the story, it's such a nice touch. I'm a fan of this level of performance.
Graphics are astonishing. 10/10

The GUI design is very creative as well! I was so surprised to see the Settings page even, everything is designed with the same feel of the story! The Save/Load screen is an honorable mention too, as well as the BG/CG page. There were even nick-knacks strewn about these pages that you'll recognize in the background later in the story! I think it's neat! Good lord, I cannot fathom how much work was put into this visual novel, it's so gorgeous.
GUI Design, absolutely masterful. 9/10

I also admire the character designs and personalities!
I particularly find it interesting how Thomas is a victim of abuse and his wary reactions and pessimistic thoughts to things during the first half of the game were tied to how he was treated. He gets better though, and that's commendable. Great kid for a protagonist.
Alice is so scatterbrained and chaotic, I love her. She just gives you the feeling that she has a few screws loose, and that adds to her charm, oddly enough. Just her general air is the "anything could happen" kind. Then again, when she displays her quieter moments, like when she was quietly analyzing the situation and did not speak up until she knows what's happening. I love that. She's an interesting character.
Grimmor is just downright charming, he's such an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I love it. His whole shtick is he's a criminal-turned-cat and that in itself is so funny. Also, his whole dynamic with Alice, when they're lovingly bantering, ugh, love it. Then you realize he's not so bad and helps out Thomas sometimes. He just grows on you.
Overall fun and fascinating cast of characters! 8/10

What I like the most though is the adventure this story brings you to. It really felt something like Alice in Wonderland with how much it throws you all over the place, figuring things out and getting in danger. How the characters react in these situations are also interesting to note. The writing is nice, and the plot started with how they introduce Thomas and his wreck of a home life and meeting his witch aunt is downright enjoyable. The whole hunting for ingredients in the house quests as well as the potion brewing minigame was so fun!! I enjoyed it a lot, especially with how Thomas reacts to things.
As for cons, sometimes the names of the person who's speaking the dialogue doesn't fit with who's actually speaking it, and there are several blank spaces during the dialogues, particularly during the time the Council Hats are bringing Alice, Thomas and Grimmor with Elmara to the Council Tree. I think one of the dialogues was something like "[Another one I don't understand]", with the square brackets, as if it's a translation note?
However, these are minor things, and you can basically get the gist of what the story's trying to tell you.
Overall writing and generally getting the story across could be cleaner, but understandable and fun enough. 7/10

The whole game is just so charming, seeing the To Be Continued page made me whine, I would love to read more! Thank you so much for creating such a treat of a VN! I'll be supporting you!

Likes:
- literally the best survival game I've ever tried
- great replay value
- realistically written
- characters have their own set of skills and weaknesses, they're all extremely interesting
- wonderful DLCs

Dislikes:
- sometimes the characters spins a full 360 around when turning, kinda lethal when in a fight
- being realistically written, it's also understandably depressing
- does not give you the power to save any time, you have to get through a full day for it to automatically save
- no tutorials, so you really have to figure everything out on your own and how to survive
- you might ragequit if someone dies haha rip

By far, the most addictive game I've played. Very good game.

If you're like me and enjoy time-management games, then the daytime shopkeeping routine will charm you. You really have to figure out the prices for each of your items based on your customers' reactions upon seeing your set price, and also beat up thieves who dares to steal from you, of course. The customers will also approach you to order things that you'll jot in your calendar for you to fetch at night.

If you're into more of the rogue-like elements, then the nighttime dungeon-diving is definitely for you. The recommended difficulty is on Hard even, what can go wrong to a Merchant? EVERYTHING can go wrong. Unlike Heroes, you really have to think which moves suit best to each enemy and memorize their patterns. Then you have to decide which loot to bring home in your understandably limited bag space. You also have the freedom to choose between 5 weapons, so really, it's everything goes, as long as you make it out alive. If the bigass invincible green monster that hunts you if you stayed too long in the dungeon doesn't keep you on your toes, then oh boy, wait till you meet the gigantic bosses.

Overall, I enjoyed my purchase and I definitely recommend this game.
The music is fantastic too.
The pixel art and animations are amazingly made, the little details they add are astonishing.
Highly enjoyable. I can't recommend this game enough.