Mutazione
This game. I don’t know how to summarise it in a way that does it justice, I just loved it so much. Technically, I guess it’s a walking sim with interactive “soap opera” and garden sim minigames? But I’ve played walking sims, I’ve played interactive fiction, I’ve even played garden sim minigames, and this is really something else - even besides the fact that it’s extremely well done and polished to near perfection.
The unique art style, sort of minimal but very expressive. The story about a community of outsiders. The characters and dialogues that feel so real. The way the characters are animated. The fact that they hired someone for wildlife animations, and it was totally worth it. The encyclopedia of local plants that you can browse through. The musical gardens that you can design and tend to as much or as little as you please, then you pass by the gardens you created or sit in them with people, and you can see how you left your traces in that little world. The balance between light-heartedness and serious topics like grief and failure. The light and colours during the different times of the day. The main character’s journal notes. All the cute details. I think I screenshot like half of the game. There’s so much that’s just so immensely adorable.
– Real player with 28.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Relaxing Games.
You don’t play Mutazione, you live in Mutazione
INTRO
Mutazione is an indie gem, a wonderful game or maybe more like an experience. It’s extremely chill game and relaxing experience.
I can’t actually define it by genre, it’s kind of a point&click, narrative, gardening, mystery game?
STORY
You play as Kai – a simple girl who loves swimming. After the meteor hit a small town, mutants started appearing there and they live there on that destroyed island. So Kai travels there to see her ill grandpa. This is when your weird journey begins. You meet your grandpa of course and learn that he has been severely ill and he asks you for help to take care of a garden. You and Kai have no idea why at first of course, but it all makes sense in the end.
– Real player with 19.4 hrs in game
The Cursed Forest
I originally played this game when it was released and posted my thoughts in a review at Just Adventure. It is still accessible even though the site is dormant. At the time, I gave The Cursed Forest high marks.
I just finished replaying the game and my intention was to run through and pick up the achievements I had missed. Instead, I became totally absorbed and played a ‘new game’ all the way through.
The game begins with you receiving a phone call in the middle of the night and rushing off in your car. You are in a hurry and end up crashing in a mysterious forest. Your task is to find your way out. The Cursed Forest has been created in great detail with cabins, swamps, cliffs, lakes, campfires, caves, etc. There is a lot to explore and you quickly find that no people remain in the forest (only their possessions and homes are evident). The story of what happened to them is discovered in dozens of notes that you find along your journey.
– Real player with 15.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Mystery Games.
This game has a lot of problems; it is mainly an exploration game, but areas are big and secrets are sparse. Achievements are fine, I didn’t use a walkthrough and found all of them but two on my first playthrough (and the other two I didn’t find accidentally, I almost did). However, if you like exploring, like me, there isn’t enough in this game to keep you invested with exploration, and you’ll end up getting bored. In addition, there is a bug that makes some notes not appear where they should (I’m not even sure why, seems to be a random thing), and you can lose a lot of time searching for them, not realizing it was a bug (if you miss one note on Section 1 and one on Section 4, try restarting the section; also, the last section says there are 9 Sarah letters, but there are only 7, according to developers).
– Real player with 14.2 hrs in game
Silver Blue
Silver blue is a BL visual novel 15+ with anime style, containing adventure fantasy content.
♦Three love interests and their respective routes, with 10 different endings overall depends on your choices.
♦Around 150k-200k words in content.
♦More than 40 in-game Illustrations.
♦30 original backgrounds.
♦20 original soundtracks (currently we have 6.)
♦OP & ED videos.
♦4 different title screen for each route.
Read More: Best Drama Clicker Games.
Fallow
i’m not one to usually review games, and i’ve been putting reviewing this one off for a while now, but: fallow touched me deeply; it made me feel exceedingly personal feelings that games don’t often make you feel - and i think that you should play it as soon as you get the chance. it’s one of those games that you aren’t going to forget if you’ve gone through similar experiences to the ones presented at all, and the almost 8 years of work put into it really shows. small details, extra content that’s practically longer than the game itself, impossible-to-find dev commentary; a soundtrack that i cannot stop listening to on repeat- i bought the physical edition and am ecstatic about it coming in, if only for the bonus tracks on the cassette alone.
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Took a few days to chew on this after finishing it because it’s hard to write a review of a game that affected you so deeply. I’ll start by mentioning that I’ve followed Rook for a few years now so I knew I’d enjoy this game, but I was unprepared for how deeply it impacted me.
In just a few short hours, Fallow managed to touch on a great many of my own feelings and insecurities about things that I often cannot talk about, not out of fear but because there simply aren’t words to describe them. It did this in a way that felt totally genuine. Fallow touched me in a way I would say is underneath words.
– Real player with 12.7 hrs in game
Wraiths of SENTINEL
A very solid CoG - better than most. I really only have two criticisms for the story:
1. The romance wasn’t handled that well in my opinion. It’s very abrupt, especially with the Sorcerer, and with the limited character exploration of the romance optinos it feels empty.
2. I didn’t like the inclusion of the non-Wraith entities. Magicians, demons, etc. To me it makes the whole thing feel smaller. I get that the author is building a shared universe with MetaHuman Inc. (which is a good game), but… meh
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
I liked MC’s base wraith superpower, I think it was unique and cool. I don’t think it counts as spoilers since you’re introduced to this power at the very beginning of the game: you can walk through walls and other solid stuff (including people) like a ghost, and you are invisible to the human eyes which makes you the perfect spy. It’s cool to see that MC wonders about the extents of this superpower, like can you somehow pass through earth and so on.
There are a number of major choices (at least it looks like it) and different endings (I’ve explored 2 endings, at least). I felt like most of the choices I’ve made had some effect at later stages of the game which is good.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Afterparty
I wholeheartedly wanted to like this game, but I can’t recommend it to everyone.
TL;DR it looks great, the premise is great, the voice acting is great, but it doesn’t feel great.
I’ll start off with some positives:
-I absolutely love the aesthetics. The artwork and the lighting and effects are fantastic.
-The environment is extremely detailed and there are plenty of background conversations to eavesdrop on.
-The voice acting is pristine, with a few exceptions.
-Meeting the Greater Demons was really cool.
– Real player with 18.1 hrs in game
Afterparty
Afterparty is an story driven, supernatural game from the creators of Oxenfree.
Story
The player controls Lola and Milo that just found out that they died and now have to endure hell for eternity – except there is a way to escape hell by outdrinking Satan in a drinking competition. This where the best buds decide to give it a shot and face Satan.
Personal Note
When I’ve heard that the creators of Oxenfree made a new game I was very excited to play it, unfortunately they decided to make it Epic exclusive for a certain amount of time. When it finally released on Steam, I waited a bit to just buy it during this year’s summer sale and I have to say that I really enjoyed playing through this game.
– Real player with 16.8 hrs in game
Firework
Plot: awesome, no chase, great detail 情节：很棒，没有追逐战，细节很好
Puzzle Difficulty: Ok 解密难度：一般
Graphic: great. good enough to give you goose bumps 画面： 不错，足够造成心理恐惧感
This game doesn’t have English version yet! But I translated this game by myself on twitch stream. Welcome to check it out! 这个游戏暂时还没有英文版，但是我自己在直播中把游戏实时翻译成了英文。欢迎来到我的频道！
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/909548449
– Real player with 17.8 hrs in game
距离玩完游戏已经很长时间了，不过决定还是来写个短评。很推荐！！虽然有点点阴森（对于我这个巨怕恐怖主题的人来说…），但到后来还是可以适应，稍微有点胆小的人绝对可以玩，一开始建议自己加个配乐🤦 故事情节很喜欢，主打封建思想的弊端，在玩到芳芳的家庭作业以及她与陈老师对话的时候还是很感动的…如果学校里多一点像陈老师这样宽的人，可能孩子们儿时的天马行空就不会扼杀在摇篮里。另外主要让人脊背发凉的还是赵小娟的家庭，公婆的自私、恶毒、异想天开，把人逼上绝路，记忆最清晰的就是她公婆偶尔露出的监视她的半张侧脸，阴森无比。比较心疼的还是故事中的女性角色， 除了婆婆…最冤最惨的就是赵小娟，就不多说了。很喜欢给陈老师设计的结尾，故事中段太多死亡的悲凉到了她这里正好画风一转，到底是人是魂无从得知，但总体气氛给人的感觉是没有太多波折的平静加一丝有点憧憬的喜悦，还有就是《送别》这首歌真是选得太妙了，瞬间勾起自己小学的回忆，那时候这首歌贴在教室侧边的墙上，语文老师带着我们唱…啊…虽然是灭门案，但最终大家还是从这个小地方里解脱了，各不亏欠，用生命换这个村子一个大整顿。唯一可能有点不喜欢的就是这个人物画风，我咳咳，这个脸有点二次元，来点农村高原红都比这个更搭气氛。哎就写到这儿吧，大家要仔细了解还是去看知乎！
– Real player with 11.3 hrs in game
Natural - Beyond Nature -
super nice and cute anime pc game! I realy liked it + Im realy in LOVE! you can buy/play it! 3
I think this is a ROMANCE between me and my friends and of course the awesome games in steam Im realy enjoying it ;)
My big wish is a good nature walking simolation game that I can play whenever I want like my favorite top pc game wander. of course Im realy realy sad that my favorite pc game Wander doesnt work any more:
I realy miss the flight running and of course the swim actions! so please for all game developers that want to make a good nature walking simolation game: create it like the game called Wander!!! (running; flight + swimming); or maybe create the game WANDER2 pls do it for me it was my number 1 top pc game and the best game that I ever played I realy need it! what also important is that maybe not so much violance include in he the game! It sould be more cute and have a good atmosphere! + the must be a bit mystic that would be nice! 3 I want a game that is never ending and that is to big to finish in my life =D like wander! omg why I cant play it anymore Im so sad ♥♥♥♥ I want it back! Pls bring it back! Ok so make me a better game that is similar like wander maybe WANDER2. this would be awesome for me!:
– Real player with 2151.2 hrs in game
Voices from the Sea is my favorite visual novel of all time. When I heard that there was another game similar comeing out, I sat through every delay and got it the second it came out. I can honestly say I’m not disappointed. Natural -Beyond Nature- is my second favorite visual novel. It’s not quite as good as Voices from the Sea, but it’s still amazing. However, it’s not very much like Voices from the Sea. It takes place on the same island and has similar supernatural being in it. But overall, it’s not the care free and happy story that Voices from the Sea is. Insted, Natural -Beyond Nature- is rather gloomy. It has a serious story with multiple endings. While Voices from the Sea made me feel happy, this made me on the brink of crying at the end. Unlike Voices from the Sea, the choices you make in this game actually do something. Which could really make a lot of people like it better.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Necrobarista
Full review (including score): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnutf8U-ZaE
Summarized review below!
A visual novel with almost Persona-style graphics? Sign me right up for that. I’ve been playing through a lot of visual novels lately with the same 2D art, so it’s about time for a change of pace.
Note: Had to trim review to fit character limit, check video for full version!
Pros:
- Really cool visual direction. Necrobarista may not have the best graphics, but it makes up for this with some of the best visual direction I have ever seen in a visual novel. By visual direction, I’m referring to the lighting, camera angles, framing, and everything else that goes into presenting the graphics to the player. It is some very cool stuff here, with the camera constantly shifting between characters, going wide for certain lines to add emphasis, and even omitting dialogue entirely and just showing little snippets of animation to better illustrate certain scenes. It’s like a movie in a way and was definitely a nice change of pace compared to the usual flat backgrounds with 2D sprites popular in the medium.
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
I waited three years for this game and I don’t regret a thing.
I have some qualms with the “Memories” system- it’s somewhat arbitrary, and some of the short stories have stronger narrative impact if you read them earlier in the scenario rather than later (which will more likely be the point where you’ll get to read them)- and some characters that are more-or-less prominent in the trailers don’t actually stay their welcome long at all, but aside from that this was one of my favorite visual novels to read and experience of all time, and I had high expectations just from teaser trailers. (EDIT: Most of this has been recently addressed. More details at the end of the review.)
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
The Rewinder
I really wanted to like this game, and I finished it, but in the end I can’t recommend it. The settings are very pretty, and the writing is detailed and well fleshed out. The overall story started out interesting but by the end I can honestly say I have no idea what happened or how it all fits together.
The main negative for me though is that the gameplay is mostly not interesting. It is disjointed and the puzzles come in several varieties that feel like they belong to different games. The most fun parts of the game are when you travel into other people’s memories and alter them to change history. Unfortunately that’s just a small part of the overall game. The rest are mostly tedious classic puzzles like magic squares, count on an abacus, etc. There are one or two fetch quests that are amusing, but they don’t fit into the rest of the story very well. There are some “action” sequences that are just annoying.
– Real player with 15.4 hrs in game
The Rewinder is a short, low-stress puzzle game. Almost all of the puzzles are very intuitive and the pacing of the story is incredible. I finished my first playthrough in about 5 hrs and spent the rest of my playtime collecting all of the flowers and finding the secrets in the game, which should be a lot quicker for people playing in English once guides are available (There are guides available in Chinese).
There are a couple of bugs and translation issues that are normal for any video game at release, and is probably already being addressed as I write this. But aside from that, I feel that the introduction of the story really led me to expect a lot more out of this game. The way the story is framed at the beginning left me feeling like the second level was going to be drastically different than the first, or at least, the second level wasn’t going to be in the same village as the first. Once I got used to it, I think the game benefited from staying in the same two villages for most of the plot and returning back to the same places after you have altered the timeline.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game