Recent reviews by Vibishan

If you are OK with mature content (sex, violence and other mature content items) and enjoy a romance-themed visual novel, this game may be for you. I'm doing a blind playthrough and have just completed Chapter 3 - so far, I'm really enjoying it and excited to see what comes next for the growing circle of friends.

THE SETTING:
This story centers around a character, Jonas (default name) that you direct through basic dialog trees. The year, I think, is 2017 (the romantic pre-COVID days), and Jonas has just recently made a small fortune in cryptocurrency back when crypto was still an innocent fad. Jonas quit his job (the first of your fantasies you get to play out LOL) but still continues to invest as his "day job". He seems to be a cis-het chad of a guy (caucasion?) in his late 20s and who is getting over his breakup with his long-time fiancee Ana (for cheating on him). He has a close friend, Liam, who still wants to take Jonas out and party hard and hook up with some beautiful women. You live in a city in the US, maybe LA? In my head it's NYC (I don't think they specify). You soon find yourself in a chance meeting with a beautiful brunette & aspiring actress named Megan (pictured on the cover art) - and things rapidly escape from the dull and ordinary! Lots of other women and dramas enter the story and you have options to pursue Megan or others - maybe even simultaneously, if that's how you'd like to play Jonas.

COMMENTARY (SPOILERS):
You seem to have three templates for Jonas you can choose at the start of the game: Well-Read, Athletic or Charismatic - I chose Well-Read since I like my protagonists witty. I have also found that you have a lot of flexibility with how you want to play Jonas - most games like this really shoe-horn you to be a real player but I'm playing him forthright and romantic only for Megan (since I'm a hopeless romantic). Megan seems to be a really sweet girl who's had her own betrayal backstory and seems slow to commit to getting physical - which I like because I'm all in for the slow-burn longing and flirtation before consummating the relationship :)

So far, I'm generally proud of Jonas but he sure gets his torture-boners when all of the other girls around Megan are quick to give him the green light for sex. The game starts off with some "freebies" with a flashback to a sex scene with Ana and two dream sequences. After that, you'll find that Megan has NO REAL FRIENDS who respect her territory - even her childhood BFF Melissa tried to make some moves on Jonas before you set some boundaries! And Megan seems to offer some temptations too - yoga stretches, walking around your house in her underwear, bathroom doors ajar during a shower, and so on like a list of teen anime cliches (I still love it tho!). In my playthrough, she gets financially dependent on Jonas so that has a plus/minus to it, so there is the whole power dynamic making it hard to get her to feel free to be genuine with any romantic overtures but it's easy to show her how much she can depend on Jonas respecting her feelings & sense of agency in the blossoming of the relationship under her own terms and helping her feel safe around him.

I also like the thought put into the storyline. For example, the acting themes - the improv sessions are a great way to have fun with the characters. I also used them to communicate Jonas' romantic feelings (and receive some from Megan?) with some plausible deniability. At the end of Chapter 3, it looks like our relationship is now official but I don't think there has been any sex yet - once again, it's how I wanted to play Jonas (as a friggin' gentleman!) and I am *HERE* for it! Also, there are lots of art details I like: the "snail mail" truck, the quirky quips and interactions between friends, and a detail I love is looking at Jonas and Megan holding hands. The choice for contrasting skin tones is good here, their hands reminded me of a yinyang - visibly different as they swirl around each other, but incomplete if they aren't together. The music is basic fare but really helped set some scenes, it was well done in my opinion. There are some serious themes in this game - domestic violence is one I was surprised to see. I think sickness & dying loved ones will be another. I suspect the play in Chapter 3 may have had a dual meaning should Jonas have been played as sleeping around while Megan pined for him unrequited (like I said, I'm playing it blind). And yes, everyone is very anatomically correct LOL.

A few criticisms: I'm in healthcare, so seeing the nurse check on Jonas while not wearing scrubs made me shake my head (of course it was to entice him, I get it). Medically inducing a coma, though? Is that a thing for head trauma or did I read the dialog wrong? A few times, I needed the helping guidance text to understand the scene and the significance of Jonas' response options, so I really like being able to back out a bit if it doesn't pan as I thought. Sometimes I want to see a response not listed, but overall the options were really satisfying. I wish I could customize Jonas more, but I can understand that there are some limits - and picking the form for our protagonist was a pragmatic choice. So far, nothing seemed anti-LGBTQ (there was a play about a lesbian couple and it seemed to be treated OK by the audience, so that's nice) but there aren't more options than this to play Jonas? Once again our protagonist was written pragmatically and at least for me it's fine.

Finally, I have to say that the ability to say NO to being a pervert or a cheater was really nice. I like seeing Jonas mature out of his wild years after having a near-death experience and meeting Megan, it works for me in my playthrough. I also like seeing him treat Megan nicely and to see her like him back sincerely. This is the romance story I wanted to play, and this game is delivering - thanks so much for all of your hard work on this!

A classic isometric RPG by Larian Studios - it has its own fantasy world, along with its own magic system, and the characters are interesting and memorable. It also can play on Linux, and was designed for two people to play together.

Nice storyline and music

Playing my first playthrough blind, and my goodness this is a fun, CURSED card game! Great experience and well worth it for all of those MtG fans...

This game has a LOT of potential! It's still in the early stages but the options are fleshing out well to be a fun space co-op that gives a Star Trek/Babylon 5/Star Wars/Firefly/Battlestar Galactica feel. As other comments noted, there is not a lot of people on at any one time, and buying & sharing a pack of licences would be nice to encourage friends to join. It doesn't take long to get familiar with the controls, I did it in one evening. The game includes multiple play styles: tactical fps, fighter simulator, and starship simulator. I also like how you can easily jump from one duty to another and controls are intuitive to grasp with minimal on-the-job training. Worth a try for the cost!

This game has been out for a while, but I've finally come around to playing it - and it's good!

My impression: a very thoughtful sci-fi horror game - the puzzles weren't too difficult (for the most part - I referred to a walk-through a few times to get me through the more confusing areas) and the game had a very immersive storyline and atmosphere. There are plenty of clue drops, so the game gives plenty of hints how to proceed if you're clever and thorough. The details were excellent, from the chromatic aberration of the deep-sea visor glass to the subtleties of the background music and vision blur to key in on when you're in danger. Thankfully the game doesn't require you to navigate through a lot of difficult moves, but you'll need to know when to crawl, when to hide, and when to run like hell.

Without giving away any spoilers, let me say that this game also includes an interesting diversion into the nature of existence, and lots of side information all along the way that hints at how the game will end - but you take forever to finally put it together on a first time play through. The details are strewn about as you play, so when I watched a Let's Play by Geek Remix afterwards there were a LOT of things that finally made sense the second time around.

Overall, this game was well worth the 20 hours or so I spent completing the game. Hope this review is helpful if you're thinking of giving it a go.

I was a big fan of the Paper & Pencil RPG since its first edition for its unique and immersive world of cyberpunk-meets-fantasy. I just finished playing both pre-made campaigns (yes, you can also write & share your own campaigns) called "Dead Man's Switch" in the original game and "DragonFall" in the DLC update. They fully deliver the atmosphere of the shadowrunner experience in these campaigns, and both storylines play out like good novels - I *highly* recommend playing this game, especially with the DLC update to allow mid-scenario game saves.

It is generally a turn-based combat system where you have several "classes" but you are free to hybridize. The archetypes include an offensive-spell-wielding Mage, a spirit-summoning Shaman, a computer-hacking Decker, a drone-controlling Rigger, a Chi/martial-artist Physical Adept, and of course the cyberware-laiden Street Samurai. You also have a choice of playing a human, a dwarf, an elf, an ork or a troll - each with advantages and limitations. Scenarios are written with multiple ways of success, but choosing a well-suited team for each mission is still critical. I personally played a human detective-type character who was generally a Physical Adept but with a more diverse skillset, and made sure I had at least a spellcaster and Decker on my runs to cover my bases when possible. The character generation system is not as detailed as the RPG but you will find the balance and flavor of the development makes the same kind of characters with most of the possible character concepts reconstitutable if you wanted to relive your gaming heydays.

All dialog is text-based, so you only need speakers to listen to the theme music and sound effects. I am a Linux user, and being able to play this game without a reboot was a *big* plus for me (but I still need Win 7 to make my own campaigns). The storyline really flows, and I often found myself spending hours non-stop trying to unravel secrets and plan out a larger strategy. Expect a game to take 50 hours or more to complete - I did Dragonfall in just under 60 hours on Easy without any redos of battles.

One big drawback - this is Single Player only. No co-op or competitive play.

One word of caution - you play street-savvy shadowrunners (i.e. black-ops for hire) so it is a gritty world with lots of moral grey zones, foul language, blood-spilling violence and innuendo. This is supposed to be a dystopian future of the mid 21st century, so be ready for some hard-luck stories and tough choices between jepardizing your pay or your conscience, with no hope of making a dent in the struggle between the urban poor and the ultra-rich puppet-master megacorps. Also, be careful with your choices - they will impact later game play. Fun times! :D

Take a gander at the game, and review some Let's Play videos to see if you'd get into a game like this. Personally, it was well worth the price. Thanks for reading.

(Edit: fixed some typos.)