Alicemare

Alicemare is a strange game where we're put in what appears to be a kindergarten for children with special needs. It's a standard RPGmaker-style game. First of all, I must talk about the terrible movement system. The environment, like in a typical RPGmaker game, is divided into a grid, with one object per square. But, for some reason, the movement system in game is split into a half-grid, making movement, turns and interacting with environment painfully annoying, specially considering that no object in the game is placed on a half-tile. There is no sprint button either, and the character walks too quickly by default - it makes interacting with objects next to each other pointlessly difficult. The graphics are hand-drawn, unique and pretty. However, the screenshots on the Steam page do not represent just how hollow and empty most locations in the game are. A lot of them are just floor, walls and one singular sprite repeated a hundred times. Whole rooms of nothing displayed on screen but floor. This is especially showing at the beginning of a game - for example, why is the entire front hallway of the beginning location totally empty, other than having a telephone? Have you ever see…

I really didn't like this game. The puzzles were either too easy or totally unclear; I wouldn't have minded if I enjoyed the rest of the game. But for a narrative-driven game, the story wasn't great. The premise is really interesting: travelling to different fairytale worlds. each distorted by the trauma of its originator. Brothers Grimm meets Kingdom Hearts? Sounds dope. Unfortunately, we don't spend enough time in each world. The characters are really interesting, but they're not fleshed out. And there are just too many unanswered questions. Did Ricky ever exist? We see both Letty and Ricky in the end credits, so was he ever a real person? Why was Chelsy obsessed with bears? Who was Cliff? Are the boy and teacher the same person? What's their history? What's up with the murder mystery? What's the deal with the cheshire cat and white rabbit? Why was Allen called Alice, and why was Alice treated as some sort of omnipotent being? As a total nitpick, the fairytale theming was a bit confused. I got Hansel and Gretel and Red Riding Hood immediately, but I had no idea about Stella or Joshua until I checked the other endings. Like I said, total nitpick. But I'm a sucker for a good th…

Interesting and traumatic little RPG-Maker title that shows the dark side to the story books we all knew and loved when we were younger through a dark multi dimentional trauma lense.

I actually played this game once a long time ago, before it even appeared on Steam. I didn't like it back then, but I was still a kid, so I thought I might understand it better now that I'm much older. Well, no. I dislike it even more after replaying it. --- Controls / gameplay It's not all bad, but the gameplay mechanics can be annoying, especially in the graveyard maze. All the objects (graves in this case) are evenly spaced and separated by one grid, but the character moves freely and isn't restricted by the grid. He's also quite fast, so you'll often run into things, and sometimes it takes several tries to get between two objects. I'm playing on Steam Deck and have to use the D-pad, so it's especially annoying. The good thing is that you don't have to be standing exactly in front of an object to interact with it. I'd probably lose my mind if that were the case. The whole game is mostly "go there, interact with something, go somewhere else, interact with another thing, and backtrack." Overall, the controls and mechanics are simple and basic, so there's not much else to say about them. --- Music Honestly, it's nothing special, but it's quite okay. There are some classical p…

A short, charming game with a gothic atmosphere. It is 2D and runs smoothly on a normal PC. It features a bittersweet gothic storyline based on Grimm's fairy tales, striking a nice balance between gothic and nostalgic tones. The puzzles can be quite difficult, so you will need to think carefully. There are multiple endings, so remember to save before making any choices so you can easily go back and explore other paths. Recommended if you like short gothic dark fantasy games.

Played a lot of the free version, and this one doesn't really change anything that I've noticed. I love the themes of it and the art though, so I definitely don't mind paying for it. Dark takes on fairy tale characters are always such a fun concept, and the way this story painted them was particularly creative!