Recent reviews by shmumbler

An incredibly unique game with the most original and terrifying concept of ghosts and haunted houses I've seen, and a pretty fascinating story, to boot.

Also just brutally difficult on the normal difficulty. Combat is all in the spacing, and sometimes you can't help but get swarmed and overwhelmed. I'd recommend starting on one of the 2 easier difficulties.

tl;dr - Solid game with plenty to explore, but takes a while to adjust to the combat.

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Exploration is the biggest component of this game, and it succeeds at that very well. The Tower is quite big, and it is very diorienting. In my first playthrough, I spent roughly half my playtime trying to backtrack to the starting location and thereby "accidentally" making constant progress.

There is a map which is fairly helpful, especially when trying to find what collectible you've missed. However, it centers on your position instead of on the tower, causing it the camera to clip onside the tower when you rotate it, and unfortunately making it useless for navigating to the opposite side of the tower.

Collectibles consist of spirit grubs and arsenal upgrades. Spirit grubs are traded in to an NPC for small gameplay asides delving into background lore of the tower and the world it exists in. Upgrades grant either capacity upgrades to your healing items/ammo or new equipment for you to use.

As for combat, it takes getting used to. At first it seems like a very simple and stiff "run in, hit, run out before getting hit." However the dash actually serves more functionally as a parry, negating attacks and increasing your Focus for a free damage boost if you follow up your dash with an attack.

Speaking of Focus, it's probably the most important aspect to combat, but never explained as far as I can tell? There may have been a tutorial text, but I had a couple tutorial texts that disappeared a fraction after they popped up. Essentially, the longer you stand still, the more damage your next attack does, up to a point. As previously mentioned, focus also increases with successful dash-parries. This encourages getting up close and personal with enemies in order to maximize damage output. Once you get used to the flow of combat, you can melt mobs and bosses both fairly easily.

Enemy designs and general aesthetics are where I mainly vibe with this game, though. There's a lot of bugs, some of which sharing human aspects. They look cool, and some are downright creepy. The entirety of the Tower, as well, is cast in a soft lavendar, contrasted nicely with giant, magenta plants which become more densely packed as you approach the inner sanctum. Paired with a very minimalistic soundtrack, the tower soaks in a mood of isolation.

What a great game!

Trippy as hell, full of secrets, and just a genuine pleasure to explore the different locales.

What other game can I crawl into my own mouth to turn into a mouse-sized car, water a worm into gigantic size, squeeze a glove over its face to blind it, then fade away into the static?

Exactly what the store description says, as weird as it may sound. Detuned tasks you with dodging "notes" of a song by moving between several different rooms, while also attempting to collect enough "snails" to pay your taxes and maybe buy a buff or two. If you do well enough, perhaps you'll even survive the festival.

The roguelike elements come in the form of "Remixes," random debuffs which occur between rounds that cause the game to get continually harder as you progress. That said, don't be too scared to give it a shot. Despite taking a while to figure out what's going on, Detuned is actually a fairly simple game at it's core. It does get difficult as the different remix effects stack, but if you keep a cool head, you'll be all right. ardware's games in general) imo is the delightful strangeness that encompasses every facet of this game.

Best game from the dev so far. I only wish text was a bit faster, or I could skip to the next line with a key press.

Game's impossible to beat. According to Youtube playthroughs, this door should have a key and be able to be opened. But it doesn't. All I can do is unlock the combination door, which leads me to yet another locked door.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2258056846074015125/31FF940E7A464CF8D2211A1E9DA87FEB7A10BC40/

Simple and a little awkward, but fun. Went through my first playthrough not realizing you could spend skill points to boost individual stats.

While the controls definitely take some getting used to, this was a pretty fun time. Short and sweet.

Staple squirrels. Dress up your wife. Go geocaching. Meet God.

Crazy what happens when you're jacked up on energy drinks and squirrel gizzards