PLATONICA SPACE

The only other game I've played by this dev is Girls Made Pudding. I'd say the only thing they have in common is the fragmented way the story is told; this one is way more ambitious and not really "moe" by any stretch of the imagination. The plot goes like this: in the far future, a group of people wake up in a dream world without their memories and realize that they can see each other's, and the goal is to find out whose memories belong to whom. Unlike the former game, it seems to have a more manageable way of handling missables: after the plot is done, you have a post-game where you can go back and see more memories including the stuff you missed, so don't worry about them. Okay, since this is a visual novel with extra steps, what is the writing like? The closest thing to this game setting-wise is probably Petit Depotto's "Gnosia." Both games imagine a chance meeting between a group of people within an interstellar humanity that is unfathomably weird and diverse. There's even a shoegaze ED: I guess it's just the sound of that kind of world. But while Gnosia is lightly placed within that setting, this game banks a lot on its worldbuilding. Whereas the driving engine of Gnosia i…

[hr][/hr] [h1]This game is very interesting but flawed in some respects [Eng and Pt-BR review][/h1] Some people complain that it’s just a "walking simulator" where you have to place the right item in the right spot; while that’s true, I really appreciated the game's subtlety and metaphors, nuances that those lacking patience might miss. First, regarding the "gameplay": this is essentially a visual novel with some interactive elements. In a way, it reminds me of Zero Time Dilemma, much shorter and simpler, yet similar in that you navigate 3D environments and piece together a disjointed plot. This is where a problem arises: the gameplay actually does the game a disservice. The story unfolds through brief memory sequences where the identities of the people involved, and even their names, are withheld. This creates confusion and dilutes the emotional impact. The characters feel hollow; there is no voice acting, and the dialogue is simplistic. No one really displays emotions; everything feels robotic. Because there is no real connection to the characters, learning about their pasts doesn't quite achieve the intended effect. Another point is that the narrative could have been better deve…

Another cool game by Kazuhide Oka! This a VN adventure game with some puzzle, mystery, roguelite elements that explores humanity. Although not perfect, the imperfections don't ruin the experience. Pros: [list] [*]A cool story with twists and turns. [*]A theme that makes you think about things. (Can't say due to spoilers) [*]The item based puzzle and roguelite elements are fun to engage with [/list] Cons: [list] [*]The puzzle elements can be done better. Namely the memory choice parts. At times they are too obvious. [*]The roguelite bonus stuff is a bit buggy. Although it seems to work, there seems to be UI bugs. The most obvious I could see is when I choose vigor+1, but the UI does not update. [/list]

Platonica Space really lives or dies on its memory system, and luckily that's the part I liked the most. You find one of these memory spots, get a broken fragment of something that happened, and then have to figure out what item belongs there to fill in the rest. The interesting part is that the memory might not even be yours. You might watch someone get shot and then realize you don't actually know if you were the one holding the gun. The fake ID and stowaway memories work the same way. You're constantly trying to separate "this happened" from "this happened to me," and honestly, that was enough to keep me interested all the way through. This game has this weird way of making completely normal rooms feel sad or important just because of what happened there. Everything looks pretty cozy and harmless, while the memories you're piecing together keep getting darker. I actually liked the consciousness system too. Every action uses some of it, and when you run out, you pass out, wake up somewhere else, and lose whatever items you had. I can see why people don't like it, but without it you'd basically just search every room and click everything until you solved the memories. Having to …

Played Moonless Moon before this and there's that same feeling of being in a strange world, filled with fragmented memories and strangers that might not remain that way if you let them. But I much prefer how it was done in Platonica Space for some reason. Matching the items with the correct memories could be a bit of busywork at times but piecing everything together was so satisfying. And the visuals in general are on point, particularly the "unknown space"; even if the characters look a little creepy when their eyes start moving lol.

nice