Desta: The Memories Between

This is one of those games I'd love to give a "mixed" grade. I love the art, and the gameplay is nice: I know there's nothing new in hitting-people-with-stuff, but I found it cute that she throws balls as she plays with her "opponents". Sadly, as other reviews point out, the gameplay loop is not good enough for me to keep coming back to this: the rougelite mechanics seem a little farfetched, and the game feels too slow to actually enjoy the repetition. The dialouges also feel odd and cringe at some point, but that may be me (I don't mean the themes, but the actual words they speak). As much as I'd like to enjoy this game, I appreciate the effort, but sadly it's not good enough for me.

Desta: The Memories Between, developed and published by ustwo games, is a thoughtful and emotionally driven title that merges narrative introspection with light tactical gameplay in a way that feels both deliberate and personal. Rather than chasing scale or complexity, it focuses on intimacy—telling a story about grief, identity, and reconciliation through a structure that turns internal struggles into playable moments. It’s a game that doesn’t rush to impress; instead, it slowly draws players into its world, asking for patience and reflection rather than quick reactions. At the center of the experience is Desta, a non-binary protagonist returning to a place tied deeply to unresolved memories and strained relationships. The loss of a parent looms over everything, shaping not only Desta’s emotional state but also their distance from the people who once mattered most. Instead of presenting this narrative in a straightforward way, the game filters it through dreams—abstract, symbolic environments where past events and relationships are revisited in altered forms. These dream sequences act as both narrative progression and gameplay arenas, allowing the story to unfold indirectly while…

Desta is a weird game to categorize. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the gameplay loop, though I can acknowledge it's simple at its core. Maybe too simple. That said, I find it fun from the very beginning & I played through the whole game multiple times inspite of the fact I absolutely hate the dialogue. This isn't a roguelite like Hades where you're getting new dialogue constantly; you're hearing the same thing over and over again. No skip button, you have to manually skip each line even if it's your 15th time seeing it. I'd just mute the dialogue and set the music to max, which was made by Mansur Brown for this game and is definitely a highlight. Another highlight were the challenge levels, which force you to approach the game in a new way. Also probably my favorite because they had minimal dialogue to skip. Some levels are too easy, others require replays, one I spent probably over an hour on and then realized the developers wanted me to approach it differently. I enjoyed the game so much, I went through the effort to get all the achievements, though you won't see it here because I played the game for free through Netflix. Having played both on a touchscreen and on a mouse …

Es un SRPG sencillo, original en el que juegas a balón prisionero. Como juegas a balón prionero, para atacar necesitas recoger el balón, lo cual le da un plus estratégico. Tiene un control malo, tirar es un suplicio muchas veces. Los niveles son tremendamente injustos, siempre estás en desventaja numérica, los enemigos tienen habilidades especiales parecidas a las tuyas, y contra los "jefes", tienes que jugar varios niveles seguidos. Al basarse en un sueño, la historia no tiene importancia. La protagonista Desta vuelve a su ciudad natal para reconciliarse con su pasado. Pero como estas dentro de un sueño, y como te recuerdan a menudo en el propio juego, no sabes el desenlace real de esas conversaciones. Por cierto, es el juego más "woke" que he jugado nunca. No me suelen molestar esas cosas, pero hay un capítulo que da hasta vergüenza ajena. Los desarrolladores lo deben de saber, porque al principio del capítulo te dicen que puedes cambiarlo a una historia alternativa. Completamente doblado al inglés. Me ha hecho gracia el acento británico cateto que tienen todos los personajes, con la mecánica woke es que no pega ni con cola. En fin, como sólo se le puede dar voto posítivo o…

Well the ball tactics gameplay is interesting indeed, it is fun don’t get me wrong, but the problem is that the whole game is based on it, nothing changes. Take another tactical game like FF Tactics let’s say, now imagine playing it only with 1 class (for all characters) but each character has 1 ability (passive or active). And now play that whole game with this set-up, sounds fun? That’s the thing about the gameplay, it is fun for a while but it eventually gets stale fast. Now I for the story. At the core it is a wholesome one, with the main character, Desta, going back to her/his/they/them/it (I don’t know anymore, or care much) home. The main character fights through the anxiety of reuniting with friends, relatives, acquaintances via dreams. You recruit those people by fighting them in dodgeball, once you beat them, they join your team. After you recruit them you can also level them up to gain not only a few extra stats and abilities but also short dialogues with them (this is how you get to know em better). The main problem of this game, in my opinion, is the fact that this is a rougelite. So, in order to level up characters you need to grind, you can do so with 3 (1 of th…

[b]"ever since you left, the house has been empty"[/b] 💖🖤🖤 🟩 good art style, some real nice visuals 🔷 dodgeball concept is kinda neat 🔴 but it just doesn't lead anywhere interesting [b]vibes:[/b] dreamy [b]loops:[/b] turn-based tactics battles with dodgeballs, occasionally unlock party members and abilities [b]ramblings:[/b] i really liked the visual style and designs of this game, and that's just sort of it. it really feels like it's just taking this one mildly interesting gameplay gimmick and trying to build an entire game around it but it just isn't enough. battles at the very start felt much the same as battles at the very end, there just never seemed to be any meaningful growth in mechanics or depth. there's also rarely any reason or reward for difficult or interesting shots, it seemed the best tactic often was just surrounding someone and smashing the ball into their face to have it bounce right back into your hands.  it has like very lite roguelite mechanics, it's kind of eh. the abilities you get are random and you can lose them if you die. some of those abilities are fairly inconsequential, some are neat, and others just sorta break the game like tr…