Svoboda 1945: Liberation
Svoboda 1945: Liberation was created by Charles Games in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. It blends fiction and historical accuracy and uses a diverse range of gameplay and storytelling techniques to recount experiences in Svoboda, a village near the Czech-German border during and after WWII.
The game includes historical documents, photographs, video footage and an encyclopedia that ground the stories in reality making the often harrowing accounts all the more emotive. In addition to the various real elements and factual information, the game also uses a mix of fictional aspects such as FMV video clips and conversations, explorable scenes, animated comic strips and mini-games to deliver the narratives.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Emotional War Games.
Svoboda 1945: Liberation is the newest game to come from Czech developers, Charles Games. Following the critical success of Attentat 1942, the developers continue to convey history in innovative and engaging methods. Integrating FMV interviews, minigames, comic-style scenes and an abundance of factual documents to read, the game was fascinating from start to finish.
Pros
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Varied gameplay and minigames throughout.
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Immense collection of factual documents to read (optional).
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
LOVE - A Puzzle Box Filled with Stories
Love is a fun, relaxing, and emotional experience. From the first moments I found myself drawn in. The first story you solve acts as a sort of tutorial for whats to come, and it also acts as a primer for the excellent storytelling you are in for. The game has no dialogue, the stories of each tenant are told through pictures and animations. The emotions and context that the game is able to convey with these two tools is stunning. As you progress through the apartment building solving stories, you will undoubtedly find one or two that speak to your specific life experience. I found several stories that I related to and they were the highlights of the game for me. I was enthralled by the emotions and situations the tenants are each going through and was driven to solve each puzzle because of the emotional attachment I felt to them. Love is a fun puzzle game, but I think for me it’s more about the story and emotions that it successfully tries to convey.
– Real player with 26.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Emotional Indie Games.
LOVE - A Puzzle Box Filled with Stories was a fun relaxing series of puzzles with a nice soundtrack. Some of the clues/puzzles you knew exactly where to go while others made you do a little more thinking and exploring. For me, made for a nice balance and leaves me looking forward to what Rocketship Park launches next.
Not a very long review, mostly just wanted to show my support with a recommend.
– Real player with 4.2 hrs in game
Oknytt
Storyline: On the darkest of nights when creatures and spirits rarely seen by man abound, a lost(?) traveler/wanderer is invited to join a campfire and listen to a tale. The tale told by the invisible narrator is about a small insignificant nameless creature born out of darkness on the darkest of nights much like that night. This epic journey of self-awareness and discovery turns into a magic strewn and danger filled quest which takes place in a single night full of magic and spirits taken from Swedish forklore.
– Real player with 11.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Emotional Old School Games.
You follow a little creature on his journey for fulfillment, wandering through nightly environments that are inspired by tales of folklore. Gameplay is quite standard to the point-and-click genre where you collect objects to interact with your surroundings and overcome puzzles. A nice addition though, is that you’re equipped with four elemental runes (earth, water, air, fire) which activate and produce different outcomes depending on the scene. You can also interact with entities in a few different ways, such as touching, observing or talking to the person/object. Although not all interactions are entirely necessary, it can lead to some humerous/extra dialogue and is a nice feature nonetheless.
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Sea of Solitude
EA is usually known for two things: microtransactions and more microtransactions. As a result, many gamers overlook their EA Original lineup, which features unique indie titles. One such is Sea of Solitude.
Shallow Sea
It’s always amazing to see developers find creative and unique ways of tackling themes surrounding mental health issues. Some succeed, some fail. Sadly, Sea of Solitude falls in the latter camp.
It fails for a couple of reasons. First, the writing. Instead of providing a more in-depth commentary on a particular issue, it opts for quantity over quality. As a result, it only skims over them and does a rather shallow take that boils down to “this is good” and “this is bad”.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
There are a bunch of short little 5 hour games or under now that you can play on the EA 5 bucks a month deal. This game and Unravel 1 and 2 etc. If you pick up the monthly pass to play these games you will knock them out in a single session or a week at most and will still have 3 weeks left to download and play a bunch of other neat games. Sea of Solitude is a once and done game for me so it is a perfect candidate for the monthly pass. But we are not here to talk about whether the EA pass has value or not we are here to talk about this game. So what can I tell you about it? Unfortunately not a lot. Spoilers.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
The Babysitter
Wow!! What a cool developer! He answered my message and even changed the game to make it more user friendly. Now I can finish the game. Thanks.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
i cant find cheats ANYWHERE for the door code and im stressing out and confused and upset. what is the code for the tent in the game? the door code with 3 numbers. i cant find or figure it out. im rage quitting, after an hour of research and racking my brain for answers ive given up. i hate that part so much, but i dont know about the rest of the game, because i cant get to it!!
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
The Last Campfire
The Last Campfire is an adventure game created by three people at Hello Games, primarily developed for mobile devices and later ported to PC and consoles. Compared to their first ambitious game (No Man’s Sky), The Last Campfire has a smaller scope, being more like a bedtime fairy tale filled with short puzzles. The story is told through a brilliant narrator who describes in a fable-like manner actions, thoughts and emotions of all characters, reminding me of Bastion’s marvelous storytelling. We play as a cute little Ember who is suddenly separated by his companions during a boat ride. Lost and confused, we must find our way back, while also trying to help those we encounter.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
“How can you be a lighthouse for others, when your own light has gone out?”
This is such a beautiful game that I’m at a loss for words to describe it.
It’s a children’s game. Puzzles, beautiful graphics, and a lot of thought & care went into the diverse design of the characters, environments, and puzzles & themes of scale both great and small. It’s also possessive of a level of emotional depth and innocence that is simply totally absent in many childrens' titles today. Contrast this with, say, any of the Lego Star Wars or Lords of the Rings or The Hobbit game (the latter of which I own) which rely on special effects and violence to tell a story. Its refreshing to find a game that doesn’t find lazy ways to tell a story, but gently tugs you along as you yearn to see more. A guiding light for you to follow, if you will.
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
A Museum of Self & Space
A Museum of Self and Space should be a reminder of not only the beauty we can bring into the world, but how cruel that beauty can be.
A museum about our inner demons and how they’re reflected in the world around us. A Museum of Self & Space is a first person narrative game where you will explore a surreal museum of about a failed architect. It is about life, love, success, and the lack of all three. Explore a house that won’t stop changing, a collapsing apartment, and avoid eye contact in a locker room.
In A Museum of Self & Space you will interact with narrative vignettes each with their own novel mechanic, while learning about the life of Jules, the fictitious creator of A Museum of Self & Space.
Dear Mom: My Letter to You
_Dear Mom: My Letter to You_ is a slice-of-life/dating sim visual novel that combines an emotional story with a calendar system in which players can gain stats to initiate and develop relationships with other characters. Your choices and stats heavily influence the outcome of the game. The story emphasizes the impact of family grief, building meaningful friendships, growing as a person, and reflecting on past mistakes.
Genre: Slice-Of-Life / Dating Sim / Romance (Yuri/GxG) / Visual Novel
Rating: 16+
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: Windows / Mac / Linux (Steam & Itch.io)
Content Warning: Dear Mom: My Letter to You may contain content not appropriate for all ages, or may not be safe to view at work. This game is intended for a more mature audience (16+), as it contains sensitive topics like bullying, suicide, and blackmail.
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Female Protagonist & 4+ romanceable characters, each with their own unique personalities and side chapters
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Story-rich narrative that explores the meaning of friendship, family loss, and self-reflection
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Point-and-Click adventure where you can explore various areas of interest, each with day/night variations
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Partial Voice Acting
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Stat system that heavily influences the story’s outcome and form bonds with other characters
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Diary-style Interface to capture the feeling of recording your life’s stories
This is an emotional journey of loss, acceptance, and the bonds made along the way. The story stars high school student Ayame Kawasaki who blames herself for her mother’s suicide. Having closed off her connections with her friends for a whole year, Ayame is finally restarting her life, repeating her second year at Yamada Hoshi High School. Since her absence, students have been spreading rumors about her, claiming that she’s a selfish person hungry for attention. Ayame struggles to fit in as they start shunning her and calling her out when she does something wrong. When she thought there was no chance of making friends, a kind classmate steps in to turn her life around–
It’s up to Ayame to build and maintain her relationships, new and old, while coming to terms with the reality of her mother’s death.
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Developer/Character Artist/UI Artist: Mangoku418
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Lead Writer: Renkka
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CG Artist: RyThae
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BG Artists: kjkjmulo, KeiraWorks, Ari Angga
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Isometric Map Designer: Arctic Fox
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Smartphone Template: ds-sans
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Music Composer: Red Robotix, Ankit22
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Sounds from Zapsplat
FINAL FANTASY V
This version does not have the additional content found in the GBA and Mobile versions, but I still think it is a great experience.
The redone music is a real treat, and the upgraded backgrounds during battles are also very nice (especially in ExDeath’s Castle after the illusion is removed).
The colors and graphics are sharp, as are the new cutscene animations (ie. crystals shattering, etc.).
Some features included in all FF Pixel Remastered editions:
►Hold down B (on a Nintendo-type controller) to run, and in this game when you learn the Thief’s Sprint ability, it makes you run even faster when you do this. Granted, I find both of these can make your character run a little too fast, and you might make mistakes in some situations. For example, when you are trying to escape Castle Karnak before it blows up while getting every treasure chest and learning Aera and Death Claw on your way out, your character might dash past turns you meant to make. Update: This was patched on Nov 24, 2021.
– Real player with 103.8 hrs in game
–-{ Graphics }—
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
—{ Gameplay }—
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It’s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don’t
—{ Audio }—
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I’m now deaf
—{ Audience }—
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
—{ PC Requirements }—
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
—{ Difficulty }—
– Real player with 77.3 hrs in game
FINAL FANTASY VI
The original FINAL FANTASY VI comes to life with completely new graphics and audio!
A remodeled 2D take on the sixth game in the world-renowned FINAL FANTASY series! Enjoy the timeless story told through charming retro graphics.