XVTM

Maybe a bit too experimental and unorthodox for most readers, but I personally really enjoyed the narrative so far, I thought it had a lot of unusual and strange ideas for the character interactions, highlighting certain reactions using gameplay that otherwise would be impossible to convey through the text. I kinda expected like a short visual novel with some gameplay gimmicks, and at first I was right, but I ended up playing it for 5 hours for a single path, having many complex undertones, constant tension building, and frankly I felt the game often changed its overall tone, sometimes following the choices that felt completely different and would evoke all kinds of emotions out of me. It's a 'minimalist' presentation, and yet the game is anything but simple and takes advantage of many weird gameplay elements to set the tone, the characters project many different traits, and the responses felt very natural to me (at least after the introduction that felt a bit cheesy). It's very emotional and touches on all kinds of ideas, depression, stress, love, desperation, hope, anger, making friends, making enemies, appreciating yourself, hating yourself, looking forward to the future, not l…

I saw an ad for this on an obscure Taiwanese (Not china btw) basket weaving forum, and decided to toss a shekel at it. I couldn't actually get into the game because of a far too long EULA that I'm neither reading nor blindly agreeing to. The title screen is neat though. 10/10 Plaiting is the best basket weaving technique.

This game is sorely--criminally--underexposed. The simplistic yet welcome vector graphics mask a world built lovingly with hidden depths, with characters that are equally as deep. Every choice, even down to something like the kind of liquor you're getting that day, feels impactful, in a way that might come up later unexpectedly. The game is written in such a manner that it is comparative to the efforts of giants like Disco Elysium and Cyberpunk 2077, in that you aren't handheld and treated like an imbecile in the writer's own world. You are fully immersed from the start, and little is explained outright--you are expected to just trust in the worldbuilding and pick up as you go along. I appreciate the developers' trust in the player's own intellect in this regard. There's enough room to speculate and let your imagination run wild, but with clear guardrails for what the creators intended with the world they've built. The save system is something I was wary of, as a deeply indecisive person under pressure (I spent well over half an hour mulling over a certain decision midway through), and the save points can be frustratingly far between, but it added GREATLY to the immersion, an…

Just finished this game. Slow burn, 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 scenes, definitely isn't for everyone. But for me, I loved this damn game -- the characters, the artstyle, the world, the story -- loved all of it. I doubt there's plans for another installment judging from how little traction this got, but I'd drop a grand to see this world and it's characters expanded on in the future. Also, the EMOTIONS I went through while playing this. It's been a while (if ever) since I've felt this attached to fictional characters. The game mostly consists of reading and selecting dialogue options with the occasional minigame thrown in, yet there were parts where my hands were actually SHAKING and SWEATING on the mouse, heart beating out of my chest, I wanted these simple vector art characters on my screen to make it out alive so badly oh my GOD no other game has done that to me. If you're really concerned about the EULA, read it over yourself in the game's directory. It's only six pages long. I don't think I'm getting my door smashed in or anything. I'm just glazing the game here, so if you want an actual review then check out the other ones (especially American Dove's!!)

I haven't gotten super far into this yet but so far it's sticking with me somehow. I can't explain why but this is a game I keep thinking about when I'm not playing it. Maybe it's because it captures humanity in the stages of a collapse it doesn't understand. There's something interesting about that happening to us despite all our tech. I see now this game is billed as AO but I don't even care about all that. It's somehow a haunting view of a world we inhabit today, sentence deferred by a thousand years. Maybe it gets hornier later on but by then I feel like it'll have been earned. Edit: It *did* get hornier, and honestly, it's great. The human experience generally involves these kinds of things and the scenes are really nicely done. I have plans for a 2nd, 3rd, and maybe 4th playthrough already, and I agree with another reviewer: these are wonderful characters and I'd love to see even more of them. Not like *that*, I mean. It's just been a lot of damn fun to travel the world with them. I encountered one softlock at about the 15-hour mark, but by the time anyone reads this review, it'll likely be fixed and I'll be on to playthrough 2. This is one of the most unique games I've ev…