Decadent Thinking
Interesting premise, but the translation isn’t really serviceable. Maybe skip this if you can’t read Japanese.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beautiful Indie Games.
Eliza
Eliza is an insightful experimental visual novel that revolves around the life of Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey and her interaction with a digital therapy service. Evelyn, returning to the world after a three-year depression fog, doesn’t feel invested in much of anything that she does. She wants to reboot herself, she tries in different ways but she fails. As part of re-entry to society, she takes a job at Skhanda as a proxy for Eliza, a therapy service that’s powered by an artificial intelligence.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beautiful Emotional Games.
For the first two hours this game had me thinking it’d be one of the all-time greats. By the time the credits rolled, it ended up still being great but not without flaws. It’s absolutely worth playing, and I’d recommend it to pretty much everyone as an almost must-play, but the story and its lack of interest in adequately exploring the many big ideas that were presented early on left me just a little bit disappointed.
Those first few hours saw the game flirting with issues such as the gig-economy and the McDonaldization of formerly professional jobs as a means of generating cheaper labour. These topics were cleverly commented upon through the interface and theme of the mental health app - “Eliza”. These game-play sections see the player occupy the role of an unqualified therapist instructed what to say and do by a smartphone application named “Eliza” that’s hailed to be the the latest and greatest form of psychological care. This painted a pretty grim and all too plausible picture of mental health-care as imagined by tech companies and technocrats of today. The problems of crunch and abusive work practices within contemporary corporate culture were also interesting topics to see explored. I especially liked the blatant hypocrisy of these supposed corporate pioneers advocating for these new mental health treatment practices (and a freer market for them to operate under) while treating their staff like crap and (spoilers) literally working them to death under the guise of this martyrdom being for the greater good.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
Koral
Side scrolling environmentally conscious educational puzzle game about coral reefs and oceans, and the human impact on both. A family friendly learning experience for any age. There is enough educational content it could be used in schools as part of a lesson. Now before anyone thinks an educational game is not fun, think again. The education is hidden among the 32 collectibles (shiny white sparkly glow balls) which explain coral reefs and oceans, and the devastation humans are causing. These collectibles can be found over 9 different oceanic environments of the 10 chapters. Each chapter has puzzle elements to them: sea currents, pollution walls, various plant and coral life, volcanic vents and cavern systems.
– Real player with 13.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beautiful Casual Games.
There are things every medium does well; each with their own potential and set of virtues. For creators, it’s about finding the best way of utilising a medium to amplify their message, whatever that may be.
The proof of gaming’s potential—be it narrative, thematic, or even educational—is now all around us. It has enormous value as an artistic medium and its growth continues to show us what games are capable of. Every year we see games taking on bolder, more innovative, and challenging forms.
Koral, a modest puzzle game with a potent environmental message, is one such form.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Waking
If you already liked Continue?9876543210 or Skrillex Quest, then better odds of liking this.
If you like existentialism but find walking simulators insufficiently stimulating, Waking may be a good fit for you.
Waking is a strange game. It’s what I guess you’d call a modern 3D platformer like Dark Souls or God of War. And in most games like this, you are the main character, i.e. you are Adam Jensen, Kratos of Sparta, or Sonic the Hedgehog, or the descendant of Erdrick/Loto, or whomever, but in Waking the main character is…you, of [your hometown], descendant of [your parents], etc. Also there’s guided meditation, and no, there is nothing on the screen when she tells you to close your eyes, so just do it.
– Real player with 37.9 hrs in game
I played Waking for 25 hours and completed around 75% of the game.
Gameplay Overview
Waking is a gamified SELF-REFLECTION EXERCISE, that has 2 big parts: gameplay and meditation. Being the main character of the story, you will fight your way out of a coma by killing mobs and rebuilding memories. You will run, pick-up objects, aim, shoot, and continuously select different spells to fight.
As objectives are completed, a voice asks you to CLOSE YOUR EYES and invites you to travel deeply into YOUR PERSONAL MEMORIES. Waking is not a traditional action-adventure gaming experience. To experience the game as it is meant to be you need to be opened to a self-reflection experience.
– Real player with 25.9 hrs in game
A Summer with the Shiba Inu
Disclaimer: I helped edit A Summer with the Shiba Inu, so my review will not comment on its writing or editing. However, all other aspects are fair game. XD
A Summer with the Shiba Inu is a visual novel in which dogs are the intelligent beings in the world. Yup, that’s right. There are no humans around. We take on the role of Syd, a Shiba Inu who had been living in Canine-da and has only recently returned to Shiba Inu island. The reason she has returned is to find her brother Chun-wen and to learn what has happened to him. However, upon immediately returning to the island, Syd is almost immediately approached by Quei-li, the only Labrador on the island full of Shiba Inus, and Quei-li offers her help to search for Chun-wen. Of course, Syd is suspicious but ultimately decides to accept her help. During this journey to find her brother, Syd is accosted by a few dogs, those who want to “rechallenge” her for the right to the Feather of Truth. (Oh, did I forget to mention it? Syd had run away from Shiba Inu island after having won the Feather of Truth, having defeated many dogs in many ARInas, which are virtual reality arenas where dogs fight to earn their ranking and place on Shiba Inu island.) What will happen to Syd? Will she find her brother? Will she lose in one of these rechallenges? And what is the deal with Quei-li? I’ll end my story synopsis here, as to avoid spoiling the story.
– Real player with 21.6 hrs in game
Shiba Inus meet Sword Arts Online
What I really liked is that “A Summer with the Shiba Inu” is an actual Visual novel with about 70,000 words. Despite its length, the story is smart, interesting and kept my attention to the end. The writing is not overly complicated, so even if your primary language is not English, it will be easy to follow along.
I could tell that a lot of love went into little details like sounds, shakes and various special effects to make this Visual Novel feel alive (there is quite a lot of action) and its obvious to me that production was not just rushed and received a lot of care in the making.
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
Metempsychosis
**You think you heard something?
You are wrong.
You can’t find the way out?
You’ve always been lost.
Escape is ephemeral.
Existence is temporary.
Remember.
The light is changing.**
Key features:
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first-person adventure game
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immersive environment
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layered story
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exploration is dangerous
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survival is impossible
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choices shift rules
What Happened
Curator page here-- [url] DaRevieweD 56 [/url] -- [i]New review every Sunday[/i]
Genius Slackers debut is loosely based off a real-life tragedy where a neighbor of game director Arash, took his own life. The incident left family and friends lost for words as everything seemed fine with the victim. And to think I only got knee deep in research because curator connect offered it to me- otherwise I wouldn’t even realize I already possessed it from a previous sale XD. Granted, themes dealing with mental health are more widespread in video games. Though they tend to revolve around fictional premises (up for debate) such as in Town of Light, The Missing or Detention.
– Real player with 14.1 hrs in game
What Happened
After about seven hours of play I was asking myself the same thing so read the entire review.
I disliked this game when I started it – and yet, I kept playing. I wanted to know more, the art and stunning visuals kept me going. Stiles kept me playing.
The game opens with a teenager in high school dropping acid. Then he gets a swirly and is beaten up. So yes, the subject matter is very dark: suicide, bullying, depression, drugs. Just being a teenager is hard enough. Add all those things together and it is not going to be an easy comfortable play.
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
Heal
I am disappointed with the game, I think it just wasn’t for and was not what I expected. If you can’t handle clunky controls think twice before buying this. In every single level the game annoyed me with its controls in some way.
I understand that it’s a port, but it could have been done better.
EDIT: Turns out the game is not a port, but a multi platform release. Which does excuse the controls somewhat, since releasing on mobile and PC is difficult. However since PC is the main market for the game, I still believe it could have been done better.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
This piano melody seems vaguely familiar…
Heal sets you in the shoes of an unnamed old man as he wakes up from a dreamless sleep. However, the house he wakes up in is different from what you’d expect. Instead of waking up to the same old room, the door is locked and the only way to unlock it is to solve some puzzles around the room. From here, you guide the old man through seven different rooms where you’ll solve many puzzles along the way.
Heal is pretty easy to pick up, both from how it controls and how the puzzles are designed. You control the old man’s movement by just clicking where you want him to go with icons popping up for items or areas that you can interact with. These icons do require you to hold them down for about two seconds, but you’ll pretty quickly get used to it. Usually, this includes zooming into a puzzle (where you’ll be able to click or drag moving pieces), but it also includes looking through a cracked door or a window to see a puzzle hint/solution and walking through a door to get to the next chapter.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Into A Dream
An interesting and touching psychological story with you playing as John… a man who has entered the mind of Luke Williams in an attempt to save him during a personal crisis.
The art, music, and voice acting are well done. For the most part, the game is a black and white side scroller with strategically placed touches of color. There are several platforming sequences with one at the end that took me quite a few tries to get through. There are some puzzle elements (turning on equipment, advancing time, etc.).
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
Into a Dream is a heartbreaking journey into a man’s bleeding soul; the more you know this man named Luke, and try to disentangle the circumstances of his life, the more you get attached to him and the urge to help him escape what he believes to be his fate is inevitable. He needs us and I just could not help feeling empathy for him.
The whole atmosphere builds up as you progress in the game and the relaxed dreamlike and apparent uneventful scenes in the first levels advance to more intense and dramatic moments as the story unfolds and Luke allows us to go deeper into his dreams. As in a dream, timeline is not linear, information is provided in bits and pieces by the characters you encounter along the way and the player has to connect the dots in order to make sense of it all. The story is brilliantly written and left me emotionally shaken.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Midnight Scenes: The Highway (Special Edition)
This game is rather a short game, which is fitting for the price. The games horror elements are rather mild when compared to other horror games I’ve seen which is good if this is your first time or if you’re just getting used to playing horror games.
This game is also good to play for cheap in a short amount of time.
Also, if you are not used to playing point & click games, keep in mind while playing to be very observant of clickables and drag items in your inventory over each other to combine them.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
The game is put together really well when it comes to art and atmosphere, that being said, it’s $3 for a 15-minute inconclusive story, so it’s more of a donation than anything else. I had a little ‘deja vu’ playing it, the pixel art in the game is really good, and there are only so many people that are that good, turns out it’s the “artist on games like Thimbleweed Park and Photographs” - I thought the godly skills looked familiar. The ‘Special Edition’ comes with the artbook and soundtrack which is located in the game’s folder. I have to say that the ending didn’t impact me in any way, probably because the story just didn’t have enough time and build up. I wish the developer would have expanded upon the original game, maybe a few secrets or an alternate ending if the game was replayed. Obviously, the developer is very skilled in multiple ways, but as far as this little game goes, not a lot for me to evaluate beyond seeing that it had the potential to be an interesting story.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game