Code Romantic
I am a rank amateur as far as coding goes, so I was excited about the promises this game made at the outset. I didn’t realize it, but I was prepared by previous experiences for there to be a somewhat solid logic problem element, and then a story that was written around the puzzles that, in the end, I probably could have done without.
Code Romantic is not that game! My expectations were blown away and I had a beautiful experience that I think is pretty uncommon: The puzzles served the story, which served the puzzles. I did not prefer one aspect of the game over the other, and in fact they are inextricably linked. So often, I go into games looking to enjoy some puzzles and practically disregard the writing. This game actually made me cry a couple of times.
– Real player with 76.3 hrs in game
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Disclaimer: I purchased the demo of this game on itch.io but was later asked to test the the final product so my experience was a mix of paid/ free.
Basically this game comes down to - do you want to fall in love while learning to code? For someone like me, who loves romance but also tech and is trying to learn how to code in C### but intimidated- this game is a godsend. No one is creating stuff like this; it is one of a kind. I got to learn to code and read code in the context of a heroic thrilling love story. It is a great mix of challenging with user action and rewarding with story. This game is super fun and fresh. The art and music is fantastic. The story and characters had me swooning, smiling, laughing and gasping like I was a teenager again with a mission, a crush and a bunch of friends and foes.
– Real player with 11.5 hrs in game
One Dreamer: Prologue
Well, the fact that I have more than ten hours of gameplay might scare some people. But relax, it’s completely optional, but you’ll have a long journey if you want to have all the acheviements. The game itself gives you the option to “facilitate”
• The story is simple. But extremely good. So if you don’t want to have all the achievements, the story will entertain you anyway (you won’t regret playing)
• The settings are perfect, and basically, the graphics will make you “happy”. It’s something that brings harmony to the eyes, even being something simple
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
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Depending on what you’re looking for in this prologue, it could be very short, and it could also be frustratingly long.
My first run playing through this game took me 25 minutes. I focused on the story and primarily made the necessary coding changes to proceed through the game. I also unlocked 3 of the achievements then.
I spent a little over 3 hours stuck in the secret area until I finally decided to relent and check the Discord server to find out that I had to close the game to get out of there. I spent around 7 minutes beating the UwU/OwO game fairly and between 5 to 8 minutes for the P/\DDLE game. I spent the rest of the time unlocking the other achievements and looking for the 1D codes.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Chained
I am so close to liking this game, but as it stands currently I wouldn’t recommend it. The rough edges detract enough from the experience that a good chunk of my 2 hour complete playthrough ended up being annoying.
Gameplay:
The core mechanic of the game is actually better than I expected, and there’s a lot of interesting variation that could’ve been done with it. That said, the chosen variations aren’t that interesting, or don’t live up to their potential. The move counter seems like something that would be important, but it’s actually totally ignorable for the entire game. I wasn’t even close to losing on turns once, and even racked up 200+ turns sometimes. It’s possible I just accidentally over leveled, but I wasn’t trying to in particular, and I ended the game at 16 when there’s an achievement for 15, so I think that’s just how it’s balanced. It becomes a game of mashing out anything valid as fast as you can, because there’s no incentive to be turn efficient besides the time extra key presses take.
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
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