Secret Agent Allan Martin in … Phoenix Erupting
This is a very well thought out comedy game. I have enjoyed this game very much I like it. Very good
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Visual Novel Games.
🧠 OUT OF THE BOX
It really is a shame that this game doesn’t seem to be getting much attention. I think it is quite a hidden gem.
I really like the art style. All the character sprites just ooze personality. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that the idle animations in some cutscenes look a bit exaggerated, with some characters constantly headbanging for no reason. Less animation would have been more here. But I am willing to overlook that minor flaw because I just enjoy the style so much. Also, don’t let the cutesy look fool you. There are some really brutal scenes in this game.
– Real player with 12.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Choices Matter Games.
It’s a good game where you play a bouncer hired by your maffia boss after being released from prison and no one else will give you a job, while all the while trying to stay on the straight and narrow and keep your bills paid. You have to check people coming into the night club for simple stuff to start with (dress code, ID, correct tickets, not under age, not drunk etc) but as things go along, you start getting extra requests and criteria to meet.
There’s a basic storyline. It doesn’t have many ways it can significantly branch from the linear storyline (so far the majority I tried don’t make a lot of difference or cause you to hit dead ends (sometimes literally.) So unless you enjoy the ticket checking side of things, replayability is limited. Checking tickets is fun and challenging for the first round, but does have threshold where it starts to lose its shine. (I kind of wish it was mixed up a bit with more variation.)
– Real player with 12.0 hrs in game
The Yawhg
Initially, when I first heard of this game, I just figured, “hey, this looks kinda neat but I’m not paying $10 for it becuase I’m a lousy cheap-ass.” It looked like a cool concept to me and if it looks like a cool concept to you, then you’re perhaps in for something of a treat.
Now, when I first played it on my own, I wasn’t particularly entertained. I mean, yes, the different story paths were somewhat interesting and the various different endings were kinda cool but I wasn’t really absorbed into it. It was just something I used to make a good 45 minutes pass by one day when I was feeling bored. Then, while with some friends the other night, I decided to pull it out because we all needed a game to play and this just so happened to be multiplayer and seemed like a nice change of pace from the usual stuff we always tend to play (e.g. Genital Jousting, Jackbox Party Pack, etc.) What I didn’t expect was for us to keep playing over and over again for several more hours, as we found ourselves unusually entertained by this strange little game.
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Indie Games.
The Yawhg
The Yawhg is a quaint little game. The premise is simple, you control up to four characters in the weeks leading up to a great disaster known as The Yawhg. Nobody knows the Yawhg is coming, and you can only command your characters so far in that you pick an activity for them to complete each week.
Your characters will gain stat points for the activity you choose. For example, chopping wood increases strength. But random events will also happen, so while chopping wood you might meet a dryad, and they’ll ask you to dance. If your character has a high finesse score, you can impress the dryad with your dancing and receive a reward.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Space Court
This is a well written story that does a great job of not taking itself too seriously and not wearing out its welcome. That’s are in these days – where writers will often beat a little too hard on one theme. And don’t get me wrong, there are some serious topics and issues discussed in this game, but the way they are presented via aliens bringing their grievances to a space judge ends up being pretty hilarious. There’s a lot that can be explored with comedy, and this game does a great job of it. Definitely recommend. A full play through won’t take much more than an hour but I’ve been happy to try it a few times just to see what dialogue options I missed.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Well… that was a nice episode of… oh wait.
It’s a game… I almost forgot. It just feels like a 90s sitcom! And that’s awesome!
It’s a short game, you can finish it probably in less than an hour. Or you take your time, enjoy the humor, plan a re-play or two and try out different decisions.
It entertained me REALLY well! Totally worth buying it.
Would be great to see more games like this, or DLC, or an update, a sequel.
In short: I love it!
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Who Are You, Mr. Cooper?
Update Nothing new. Dev abandonment. Game is short as heck. If you’re bored and want a game ONLY worth $1, buy it. But it won’t entertain you for that long. Otherwise, DO NOT BUY. Not a lot of content.
Update 1 Review Better. But stillvery repetitive. Dev fixed the robbing issue constantly happening as well as improving the minigames. Try Your Luck Money game still fails me more than anything.
It’s still work work work sleep get robbed work work shop sleep work work sleep buys an item work sleep work work, repeat with an occasional time of going to the Inventors area.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
More frustrating than fun. The minigames are chaotic, way too fast, and tediously repetitive. Constantly being robbed, blocked, and attacked is both boring and tiresome. I guess the story is interesting enough, but for a primarily text-based game, the quality of the writing is very poor – an editor would be a great investment here.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
80 Days
This interactive narrative of the steampunk variety encompases the adventure of Passepartout, a french valet who provides service for his master, Phileas Fogg - of whom has wagered £20,000 that he can travel around the world in 80 Days. This immensely dialogue rich game immerses the player in a world (with a little imagination) not too dissimilar from our own. Set in the 1872 it explores not only the geological but plunges into the philosophical and ethical as you converse with people around the world in every country.
– Real player with 78.1 hrs in game
I bought this on a whim in a sale and then didn’t play it for a little while because looking at the screenshots on the store page didn’t make me super enthused for it. I know the description and tags show that it is heavily narrative-based but I just want to emphasise that because if I had seen more narrative screenshots, I probably would have bought and played it sooner.
The things I love the most are the setting and the writing. I don’t normally get very enthused about steampunk but I really liked this universe. Part of what can make me iffy about things taking inspiration from the Victoria era is the colonialism, but this game addresses these issues and doesn’t just hide them away. The world is full of anti-colonial conflicts, revolutions, and discussion of slavery and you can often talk to characters directly impacted. There are also plenty of women in the world doing non-traditional things (which you can choose to be shocked by, usually). The writing is of a very high quality and the narrative choices frequent (with impacts ranging from minimal/non-existent to huge). I can’t even imagine the full extent of the script, although I’m sure it will become apparent if I play it many more times! I really love being Passepartout and I find myself very engaged by the narrative.
– Real player with 42.4 hrs in game
The Orphaned Soul
A short visual novel about a young woman who was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a couple who raised her like their real daughter. When she reached her 21 birthday, she decided to set off for a journey to find her real parents. This journey depends heavily on your choices and of course, there will be huge consequences that might also cost your life. The writing style is good, as well as the voice over which is only in the intro of the game, the voice actress did a good job.
There is a health system that can be affected by your choices, it can be raised or lowers depends on what you choose. Each scene and encounter may have two or more choices, you can take the dangerous route and your health be affected or can, of course, take the safe route which sometimes can be longer. You have the option to save your game before making any choices which are pretty handy and allows you to explore the game even further.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Very short but it is also very well made.
The art is lovely and the music for each scene is excellent.
It can literally take about 10 minutes to complete successfully, though I managed to complete it only on a third attempt.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Death and Taxes
In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#509 out of 700+)… it’s time for Death and Taxes.
Maybe it’s the Terry Pratchett fan in me, but I am instantly attracted to any game where you play as Death–or a grim reaper–and doubly so if an otherworldly bureaucracy is also in the mix. Unfortunately this game never really fully embraces its premise–you may play as a grim reaper, but one very clearly written from a human perspective. The ultimate goal of the game is to save humanity from extinction: the narrative frames this as an inherently positive goal, because this is what the (expectedly human) players are likely to think. This is, to me, an enormous missed opportunity. Instead of taking this for granted, how much more interesting would the story be if the player character had the opportunity to learn about humanity and then decide for themselves whether or not they should attempt to divert fate?
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
Let’s talk about Death… and Taxes!
This game is as remarkable as it is breathtaking. The visuals are a blend of muted charcoals, discarded ash and vivid pastels. It grants a sense of life crushing through a somber reality, lends itself to the joy just under the surface of the macabre concept of being a 9-eternity desk worker in the office of annihilation.
The beginning opens with an animated comic, gray, yellow, red. The tone is whimsical and aggravated, the agitation of your future employer evident from the outset. Lemon, spice and everything ni- human eyes. A slightly different recipe from the Power Puff girls was used to create you! A Grim meant to choose who lives and who dies. You take an elevator, you enjoy an in-office bed chamber, there’s a basement with a deranged merchant of questionable origin and that’s life.
– Real player with 10.9 hrs in game
Grotto
A Game Has Never Made Me Cry Before…
First of all, I want to say that this game is extremely well-written. The characters all have their own unique voice, a manner of speech unique only to them. You don’t always know how they will interpret the answers you give them. Sometimes the outcome remains the same, regardless of what you tell them; rather than a stiff railroad, though, the narrative comes across more like a river delta, with lots of little branches that ultimately lead to the same destination.
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
This game is a delightful experience filled with heart, joy, sadness, anger, and hope. Worth a purchase for anyone looking for a low-key game with simple, straightforward objectives and controls.
But what is it? In Grotto you play as the Soothsayer, the Stranger, the Startamer, and a bunch of other nicknames given to you by a primitive tribe for whom you read the stars, assigning them meaning and purpose in order to give guidance to those who seek you out. Over the course of the game you’ll see how your guidance affects the state of the tribe and their future, with many consequences unforeseen.
– Real player with 12.0 hrs in game
Choose Wisely
Pretty boring game that fools You with the title and dialogues into thinking that Your choices matter. They don’t, big spoiler:
! at the end of the game only 1 character survives despite many choices that fool You into thinking if You could save other characters. Level design and story are boring after You know Your choices don’t matter that much. You have to backtrack through many areas which just makes the game longer. The description says the game has “great replayability” but after finishing it once You won’t touch it anyway because of how boring it is. The only people I believe replayed the game 2+ times are achievement junkies like me. I’m still trying to 100% this but it’ll take me a long time because I don’t feel like touching this game anymore right now. I completed 2 playthroughs that took me around 6-7h excluding some afk breaks I had even though I used previous save that was around 60% completion I believe. Basically game save to choose which character keeps the key item. I cannot believe how much developers tried to make the game longer. Even without backtracking the final 30minutes of the game are pure bs. You get to fight all the bosses that You fought already before You get to the final room and have to make final decision. The fact that road to the room was filled with many smaller mobs that would use up Your health, mana and useful items that would help You in these boss fights didn’t help at all. I completed the game at normal difficulty so I don’t even want to imagine how bad it is on hard or masochist. I don’t recommend this game even for its low price. “Choose wisely” is an illusion that gets repeated many times throught the game, there’s a lot of backtracking which doesn’t even help on normal difficulty, I had no fun playing this game. Save Your time and money unless You’re a real masochist though I think masochist difficulty might be too much even for real masochists.
– Real player with 27.7 hrs in game
This is probably the most artistic short RPG I’ve played. I’m a perv and I play the game because of… you know… those ‘melons’. I bought it using a coupon I got from crafting my nekonin game badge.
So, this is a short RPG about some characters with different personalities and backgrounds trapped out of nowhere in a mysterious dungeon. The choice you make along the game will decide which may live and die. For those who just want to enjoy the story, there’s the casual mode. If you seek more challenging adventure, you can choose between three levels of difficulties.
– Real player with 18.6 hrs in game