August of August

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RPG Maker strikes again! "August of August" is one of hundreds of low effort retro-pixel RPG Maker asset/construction kit flips spamming the Steam catalog, made with the RPG Maker video game construction kit... in their own words, "Our easy to use tools are simple enough for a child." Like all RPG Maker "games", this is essentially a bunch of low quality/canned assets from RPG Maker coupled with a cringeworthy high school anime club fan fiction. Notably, the "developer" couldn't work out how to use RPG Maker to make a JRPG (the only thing it can do, and it's terrible at it). Instead, we have yet another godawful more-book-than-game high school anime club dropout fan-fiction... and who can guess what the subject is? Yes, that's right, it's the developers imaginary anime girlfriend, who is an alien. The writing is cringey, full of grammatical errors, and might make you feel a bit unwell... this is normal when reading fan-fictions about a self-publishing Steam Direct "author" and his imaginary girlfriend. As with all RPG Maker games, the poor quality engine displays badly in fullscreen and doesn't have full HD support or any graphics tweaking options, making this unacceptable f…

August of August stands out for its reflective tone and atmospheric storytelling. Its soft visuals and gentle pacing create a meditative experience that lingers long after you stop playing.

Игра 'August of August' – это атмосферное путешествие в прошлое, пронизанное ностальгией и легкой грустью. Визуальный стиль подкупает своей простотой и какой-то особой теплотой, будто смотришь старые фотографии из семейного альбома. Саундтрек идеально дополняет общую картину, создавая умиротворяющую и немного меланхоличную атмосферу. Сюжет, хоть и не блещет сложностью, тем не менее, цепляет своей искренностью и отражает простые, но важные жизненные моменты. Диалоги кажутся естественными и правдивыми, словно подслушаны у реальных людей. Геймплей довольно медитативный и ориентирован на исследование окружающего мира и взаимодействие с персонажами. Если вы ищете динамичный экшен, то это не ваш выбор. Но если вас привлекает неспешное повествование, проникнутое духом ушедшей эпохи, то 'August of August' может стать приятным открытием. Это игра, которая оставляет после себя приятное послевкусие и заставляет задуматься о ценности простых моментов жизни.

I did enjoy the original sprite artwork that was in this game and some other small elements they added, but I would not recommend playing this for most people. I found it's translation to English was not as understandable as it could be. There were a bunch of apostrophes in the text that I could not tell if they were there for aesthetic reasons or genuine punctuation error, and I had a hard time understanding what was going on because of it. I may have to go back through it to possibly put together the text that I didn't understand at the time. If/when I do, I may update this review if something has changed in my criticisms/opinion. I usually don't mind some mistakes like that, but for me it did make the experience more frustrating. Some story elements I was able to understand were pretty good though. I also had to run this game outside of the Steam server to play so if you decide to try this out, do not be surprised if you get an error when doing so. There is a discussion post about how to get the game running that may help you like it did for me.

bruddi of bruddi