Anodyne 2: Return to Dust
Summary: Anodyne 2: Return to Dust has a great plot, solid 2D & 3D gameplay, magical atmosphere & fantastic environments that will keep you gripped from start to finish. One of the best games ever made. 10/10
A full detailed video can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FgS3lkvHiw
Plot:
The plot to Anodyne 2 is fantastic. It is extremely well-paced and very well written, with twists and turns throughout that make you question what is right and what is wrong, all the while keeping you gripped from start to finish.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Indie Games.
After finishing the game and collecting all the achievements, I can say that this was well worth my time and money. However, I will say that this may not be for everyone. I will include more in depth information about the game below as well as a tldr afterwards. I will try to avoid spoiler information as best as I can unless it is needed for an example.
Story
Anodyne 2’s tells its story in an interesting way. The basic plot is explained to you fairly clearly, but it takes listening to NPC dialogue and some item descriptions in order to get a better understanding of all the facets of the story and world. The game also makes use of abstract concepts and wording in order to create a surreal world with strange and interesting characters. I won’t go into too much detail here because a good portion of this will be spoilers. But before I go into spoilers, I want to note that it did feel like I was blazing through the story, and some events felt like they happened sooner than they should have. You can take this as the game only staying for as long as it needs to, but I felt like there could have been more story beats without becoming like filler. There was also one part of the story that felt like filler, but I’ll get into that in the spoiler section. I want to stress however that I still really enjoyed the story and characters.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Lone Land
I’m a speedrunner on this game. It’s really fun to run honestly. The high and long jumps are pretty satisfying, and it’s not too long. I really like the artstyle, and the railway in the water, which reminds me of Spirited Away.
My only complaint, and this is as a speedrunner, is the fact that jumping from the water to the top of 1 floor buildings feels really random, and I tried button mashing, holding jump, crouching at the ledge and all kinds of stuff. I just can’t figure out a way to do this consistently.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Exploration Games.
slightly Refunct or Ascendance like, but no crystal highlighting ala Refunct, with patch 1.1 you have a ingame counter, when you press “escape”. after you gain the highest crystal in skyscraper city, the game spawn multible crystal all over the city :-(.
with patch 1.2, the game save your ingame progress.
well, relaxed game, is a little bit exploration (to find all crystals ~ 45 minuts) and jump around…so, its okay for the price.
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight
Wandering in Eastern Paradise
Tasomachi is a short story of a lone traveler named Yukumo on the way to To-en, eastern continent. Unfortunately, the twilight fog causes serious damage to her airship as she is forced to land on nearby town. She is requested by feline-like inhabitant to search for “Source of Earth” to recover the town and repair her airship.
– Real player with 19.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Fantasy Games.
Reflections on the Aesthetics of Tasomachi
Ever since I first saw Nocras’s concept art for his game, Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight, I felt excited by his vision of a cityscape set in a fictional Far Eastern world. After much anticipation of the game’s release, I am glad to say that Tasomachi aesthetically does not disappoint. His aesthetic vision is realized in the world of Tasomachi, a beautiful, mysterious world to explore and behold. Set in a town enveloped by a strange fog and abandoned by its human inhabitants, Tasomachi introduces a lone girl who finds herself stranded when she crash-lands in her hot-air balloon. She then sets out to discover the town and uncover its mysteries. The story is extremely minimal at best, but it provides the setup to freely roam the urban environment and appreciate the cityscape without the bustle of human life.
– Real player with 17.1 hrs in game
SLUDGE LIFE
✔️Cat with TWO buttholes
✔️Can backflip
✔️Can fart
✔️Can smoke some with Ciggy
✔️You live in a shipping container
✔️You can climb on everything and return to monke
✔️Easy winner of best OST of 2021
✔️Can change whether you want to sit or stand to pee on the fly
✔️Game says “G-G-G-G-GOAST” every time you tag something
✔️Can get high and astral project
✔️Can spit in the bossman’s food, urinate all over his bathroom floor, and steal his diamonds
✔️Weirdos everywhere to talk to
✔️Sick merch on the website (Ciggy ashtray is sold out tho smh)
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Short game sure, but honestly one of the best 4 hours ive spent playing a game.
This game is both incredibly charming and weird af at the same time. Its one of the most unique games ive ever played, period. Soundtrack is awesome too. Every single character is cool as hell to talk to, its just small one liners but still enjoyable. You play as a graffiti tagger and you just go around tagging spots to make a name for yourself, its simple but its almost like a platformer/puzzle game at times. Tons of little secrets to find and weird ass characters to talk to.
– Real player with 4.4 hrs in game
A Tale of Paper
A Tale of Paper is a puzzle-platformer that tells the story of Line, a magical character made of paper who can use origami to change its shape. Transform into a frog, a rocket, a bird and more as Line embarks on an emotional journey to fulfill the dream of its creator.
Can a dream transcend its owner? Follow the beautiful tale of Line, an endearing character formed from paper, in an atmospheric adventure where challenges and danger are waiting every step of the way.
Experience the story of Line and then embark on three prequel chapters, featuring a different paper protagonist with its own origami shapeshifting abilities and tale to tell.
Key Features
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Paper shape transformations: Jump high as an origami frog! Turn into a paper plane and soar! Discover seven forms, each with its own pros and cons
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A small hero in a big world: Overcome challenges, solve puzzles, and escape danger as you journey across beautifully crafted environments
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A narrative without text: Explore each level and find hidden collectibles to unveil the heartfelt story behind A Tale of Paper
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Discover bonus chapters: Complete the main adventure and unlock three prequel chapters, with a new character, new abilities, and new challenges
Dungeons & Cocks
This innocent adventure game has NO d*cks, shlongs, penises, dongs, wangs, pepes or wieners.
8 roosters out of 10. Great experience.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Basically, the plot of the game is aimed at our main character - Matthew Delaney, who was forced to run away from his house, as he was captured by geese, after which our main character decides to go to a new world, but that turns out to be not so simple and just as interesting in adventure plan.
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
Hyposphere Z
i can’t play the game and it says it’s running when it isn’t
– Real player with 57.9 hrs in game
good game
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Praey for the Gods
I’m giving this a negative review so the devs can see what is wrong with their game, and hopefully make changes. Or explain how to circumvent issues if they are integral. I also want to offer guidance to others. While I love many aspects, it is still a long way from being outstanding.
Pros:
-The tracks in the snow are so simple yet so well executed. I know it’s not a big deal, but I love it. So I think it should be noteworthy and praised.
-The grappling hook is underwhelming from what I was expecting. I can’t shoot as far as I wanted. But it still is a very impressive tool.
– Real player with 31.6 hrs in game
Wall of Text incoming, so if you want the short version scroll down to the TL;DR-MARKER. ;)
So i played Praey for the Gods for quite a while now, and now it’s time to share my first thoughts and impressions.
GENERAL:
First of all: YES! It’s kinda like Shadow of the Colossus. You face (at the time of this review: 01.08.2019) 5 bosses. Very big Bosses!
Of course you can’t beat them with usual weapons, so you have to reach certain spots on the creature and use some kind of cylinder/sigil thingy to damage and/or kill it. This takes time, stamina, sometimes some of your nerves and besides it is one of the funniest things i’ve done in the last few years.
– Real player with 22.1 hrs in game
The Fire
love it, great momentum based platforming and a challenge indeed.
nice to look at and a very reasonable price !
*would love to see an optional ingame timer and a framerate cap :))
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
I actually really enjoy this game, the graphics are beautiful and the game if fun and somewhat difficult as stated, personally I look forward to seeing speed runs on this game!
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
The Long Gate
The first thing you notice about this game is the grandeur and mystery of its environment, and it doesn’t ever let up; as I moved through the different sections of the game I marveled at the design of the machinery and rooms. The soundtrack provides an excellent backdrop to levels that are variously organic, mechanical, dark, and alien. The puzzles themselves are unlike anything I’ve seen in a game before. Built on the simple (and very much real) principles of electricity, the puzzles quickly take you from clicking on/off switches to troubleshooting gigantic electromechanical computers. Sometimes the goal is clear, other times not so much. This forced me to experiment and learn the principles before I could really solve anything complicated. The learning curve steps up quite a bit at some points, but not unreasonably so. A very satisfying challenge with plenty of those “oh I get it now” dopamine hits. Highly recommended.
– Real player with 26.9 hrs in game
Ok, so I’ve just finished the game for the first time (replaying soon because I still need that sweet, sweet 100% engineer mode achievement!) but I wanted to get my immediate feedback at 14.4hrs in onto paper :P
Firstly, a bit of my background. I’m a researcher in Computational Chemistry, and have a keen interest in quantum computing and electronics. I mention this as I think I’m not your typical audience, as not every gamer will have my experience with these kinds of things.
Onto the review! Spoilers abound from here on out so don’t read on if you care about those!
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game