Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt
This is a relatively short RPG/Shoot-em up/Bullet Hell sorta hybrid with a Gameboy aesthetic that’s similar to games like Undertale that play with genre-bending. While not as in depth as Undertale takes it’s narrative, gameplay and morality system, it still feels as fun to play, boasts a great soundtrack and offers one heck of a good time!
Starting with three difficulty options, Princess Remedy leaps from Saturn(?) and safely lands in A World of Hurt. In this world almost everyone is ill and Princes Remedy is the only one who possesses the cure. Enter “Healing Mode” after talking to a disease stricken NPC and get ready for some action! Ms. Remedy only shoots forward, which happens automatically. She just shoots nonstop. It’s kinda funny. She’s also equipped with healing flasks that act as grenades when pressing the action button. Don’t worry, the action button is every button on the controller.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
An hour-long game with some nice retro gameplay and a story with some cute twists.
Play as Remedy, the princess of Saturn and graduate of Healing School. Your goal is to heal the prince of Hurtland who is said to suffer from EVERY ailment to exist, but to get to him, you need to heal many injured/sick/emotional people along the way.
You will heal flowers, clay people, monsters, a dark lord, animals, confused people, and sad people through the power of very short danmaku sequences. Destroy all the “monsters” of the sequence and the healing will be successful.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
Kaze and the Wild Masks
Although not quite innovative per se, it does manage to excel at doing things.
To start things off, the game just “feels” great from the get go. The controls feel great (although the devs do need to fix the input for Jumping Stomp Attack, it caused me many frustrating deaths)(What do you know? The devs already fixed Air Smash input just one day after my review!), the visuals are great, and the audio is great.
I love how the levels were designed, it feels like every level has its own “gimmick” and with the Wild Masks, they never feel boring. I also love the devs' decision to remove Lives.
– Real player with 26.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Female Protagonist Platformer Games.
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Review by Gaming Masterpieces - The greatest games of all time on Steam.
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Friends of classic platformers have reason to rejoice - this is a top representative of the genre. An ancient curse turns the peaceful vegetables of Carrotland into deadly monsters. You play Kaze, a young rabbit lady who must save her friend Hugo. Hugo has been sucked in by a collar while exploring an ancient temple together with Kaze. Grave robbers live dangerously, Indiana Jones or Lara Croft already had to learn that! And background stories in action games are almost always stupid, so what the hell.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Princess Remedy 2: In A Heap of Trouble
GAY SPACE PRINCESS 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
it’s all the same type of shooting-them-up from the original game, but this time with added variety in the gameplay through the use of abilities gained through “dating” one NPC at a time, which replaces the flask system (although flasks work as the first game if you don’t have a date).
the bosses are very interesting to see too; the first game only had one at the very end, although with some kickass music. the only thing this game was missing was some kickass boss music
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Female Protagonist Retro Games.
Have you ever dreamed of being a doctor, but were turned off when it involved more cellular biology than throwing flasks of questionable liquids at your patients? Have you ever looked in your mirror and thought, “Wow, I’m hot stuff,” and wanted to date an exact replica of yourself? Do you frequently like to flaunt that you are a “Princess” on your attire? Then Princess Remedy: In a Heap of Trouble may be for you!
Princess Remedy: In a Heap of Trouble features YOU! The Princess of Saturn. Everyone in Heal Land gets sick and they need you, a student of the healing arts, to come treat them. Yet school has not only taught you how to heal, but also how to love, and the game features a dating mechanic wherein you can not only mend bodies, but also break hearts. You see, each individual you date gives you a special power, and you can date or dump anybody to give you certain advantages in battle. But, “Wait!” You say, “Isn’t this taking advantage of other people?” Who cares, you’re the Princess of Saturn! You’re the hottest stuff in the land!
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
It’s not often to discover the games that manage to tie concept, world design, and story together perfectly. It may fly under people’s radar because of weird preview trailer and self-harm concept that could be very sensitive for someone. “The Missing” is a puzzle-platformer game with story driven narrative developed by White Owls Inc. which is directed by Hidetaka Suehiro (a.k.a. SWERY).
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
The gameplay isn’t super spectacular or anything but it’s good enough and a good execution of the concept, there’s just a few hiccups (a pretty cryptic puzzle, Route 65 is a bit bugged, in my playthrough i clipped through 2 different walls, one of those instances was a softlock, some achievements sometimes not working properly) If your’e a fan of other 2D puzzle platformers you’ll probably like the gameplay, the movement is very limbo
If the heavy concept of this game isn’t something you aren’t sure you’d be able to handle, do be cautious, the warnings on the store page are very well warranted
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Contrast
Before I begin the review proper, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge what a complete f*cking idiot I am.
When I first played this I went through it entirely using mouse and keyboard, despite the fact I was frequently grumbling about how heart-breaking the controls were and the slight but still awkward disconnect between button press and character. But I still persevered because, well… sure, I do have a control pad, but since the mouse and keyboard were already hooked up and I was already in my pyjamas, I was hardly going to lean over a couple feet to my right to grab and connect a controller now, was I? But before writing this review I decided to give it a shot just to be sure, and damn, am I a complete f*cking idiot. It was a revelation. The difference might be small but the impact is massive, and that tightening of movement and control pretty much eradicated the major complaint I had about the gameplay. So I’ve learned my lesson, control pad for 3rd-person games from now on. Though, whichever control method you use, you should still find a lot to love about this game.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
Take a moment here to remember your childhood. Remember how afternoons after school could be filled with fantastical worlds brought forth from the trees, the rocks, the tall grasses in the backyard or the field near your neighborhood: all you needed was your imagination. Remember as you went to sleep at night and stared at the shadows in your room, sometimes in wonder, and sometimes in fear of the shapes they made. Remember how life could be magical in the most ordinary of things and how, as you grew older, you longed for the days when reality didn’t have to be so damned real all the time: homework, bills, politics, relationships, family…
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Ninja Pizza Girl
Color me amused. I am not someone who considers themselves good enough to be a speedrunner. I never will and am at peace with that. I may have been as a youngster but not anymore. However, if I were to pick up a game and recommend it to them and players like me it’d be Ninja Pizza Girl. This may well be one of the more underappreciated games released in the past twelve months.
Ninja Pizza Girl is a game that I’ve had sitting on my wishlist since its release last September. That’s really not saying much as I tend to have a wishlist containing every game that has trading cards that I don’t own. And so it sat there until I was recently recommended the game by a regular Steamified reader. He suggested that I may want to feature it given the popularity of the genre among readers. I didn’t even know that the game was funded by the Queensland State Government, the state in which I live. I’m particularly critical of games that are from the place I call ‘home’. This is because I don’t want my personal cheerleading to persuade you to buy a game you’d be unhappy with. However, due to how much fun I actually did have with the game it’s impossible not to recommend it to you.
– Real player with 18.9 hrs in game
Me: Ninjas and Pizza? This is basically every mans dream combination.
Distant voice: What about the girl?
Me: Gemma? Oh she’s cool, BUT THE PIZZA! mouthwater intensifies
Ninja Pizza Girl is a game about a girl named Gemma, who helps her dad deliver pizza… the cool way, by jumping over roof tops like a true ninja. But Megaco, a big company who monopolises the industry in the game, hired ninjas to stop Gemma from delivering pizzas (ps: the ninjas are jerks).
What I like:
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Cally’s Caves 3
8/10
Although Cally’s Caves 3 was released before Cally’s Trials, this is actually the sequel to Cally’s Trials (Cally’s Trials is actually Cally’s Caves 2). And just like Trials, Cally’s Caves 3 is a mobile-to-PC adaptation.
Like Trials, this game is a solid platformer, but this time with a lot more content. The story is that, yet again, Herbert kidnaps Cally’s parents and she once more sets out to find them. Lloyd returns to help her again, but this time she also gets help from Rupert (Herbert’s son) and Bera (a cub bear, the daughter of Mama Bear from Cally’s Trials). While the story is once more kept simple, this time there’s actually a little more development, including the ending, which is pretty cool.
– Real player with 38.0 hrs in game
Overview
Cally’s Caves 3 is a single player, 2D action platformer that was introduced through Steam’s Greenlight process in late 2015. You’re put into the role as Cally, on a quest to save her abducted parents from the evil Herbert and his army of minions. While a platformer at heart, the game does host various RPG elements in the form of upgrading armor, health, character abilities, damage output and an ever-increasing array of weaponry from swords and pistols to lasers and rocket launchers. The game boasts over 300 levels over ten varying regions across the game and NG+, as well as a survival mode with 150 levels.
– Real player with 22.6 hrs in game
Cibele
“If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
There certainly is a lot to say about Cibele, good and bad with a cumulative total ending up being “the naivety of the superficial”. Cibele is so superficial, so excruciatingly ordinary and basic, yet so real in that manner; it ends up being naively beautiful. Wait a minute there, I will properly explain what I’m trying to say as the review progresses, I promise.
If we are to establish a definition, Cibele is the combination of a clicker game that serves as a placeholder for an MMORPG, and a collection of FMV scenes, telling the story of Nina and her online romance, Blake. The story is based on real life events, coming from internet personality, game designer and new generation punk poet Nina Freeman’s experience. The game retells Nina’s first love and sexual experience with a guy she meets in a MMORPG game, through some FMV scenes and a symbolic gameplay. We witness 3 separate scenes, observe ongoing events in Nina’s life through her computer desktop - mainly centering Blake/Ichi - and call it an artistic contemplation when it comes to an end in an hour.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
One of my favorite horror novels, Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves, begins with an unforgettable dedication: “This is not for you.”
This game may not be for you.
However, if you spent your first years of college staying up until three in the morning chatting with online friends instead of going to parties, and if you have ever experienced friendship or love online, and especially if you have ever been a nineteen-year-old girl, this game is for you.
In Cibele you play as the MMO player Cibele (Nina in real life), an autobiographical version of the game developer herself, as she falls in love with another player, Ichi. Following in the tradition of other confessional genres, Nina Freeman uses her own old notebooks, fanart, chat logs, and, yes, lingerie-clad selfies to create a realistic history for her character. As a result, the haphazardly organized photographs, poem drafts, and archived personal websites on Nina’s laptop could easily have been taken, with only minor changes, from my own computer when I was a teenage girl.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Kimmy
The latest game from designer Nina Freeman (Cibele, Tacoma), Kimmy is a visual novel with a quirky style courtesy of artist Laura Knetzger (who had also worked with Nina on Freshman Year). The game is very simple to play, with the player primarily making a few choices through dialogue and who to interact with. You play as Dana, who becomes a babysitter to younger girl Kimmy. During the days that you babysit, you have a limited amount of time to play with other kids, buy toys and games, and learn more about the residents of your town. As with many of Nina Freeman’s games, what appears on the surface to be a normal 1960’s summer is in fact a dark, mature tale of the struggles that many families face. The game moves along at a good pace, taking you from interaction to interaction without much fuss and hardly a single wasted word throughout the entire game. It is very interesting to see the world through the eyes of a young girl at that time – I can’t think of any other game where the player takes the role of a middle-school-aged-girl.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
I’ve had this in my library ever since getting it in the January 2017 Humble Monthly, and I was initially drawn to the unique crayon-like art style. Up until the point where I installed and launched the game, I honestly had no idea what kind of game it was. It’s a VN starring young kids (maybe 4-10 y/o). It’s a story about a little girl, the titular Kimmy, making friends with other kids around her neighborhood by playing games and conversing with them. The whole game is probably 1-2 hours. While the overarching plot was heartfelt, there was no gameplay at all, which is to be expected from a VN, but would have been nice since the main way that you’re building relationships in Kimmy is by playing games with other kids. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the dialogue with the characters (kids) at all, which is make-or-break important for a VN. So, by the end of it, I was honestly just ready for it to be over. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’m glad I played it, and I really don’t think I could even say I enjoyed it. I would not recommend.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Lucid Dream Adventure
Lucid Dream is easy to recommend for anyone that likes a point&click adventure with creative puzzles and psychological narrative. The developers have been very active during this Early Access, constantly updating the UI and changing the logic behind the puzzles – making this experience more intuitive. It takes about 6-8 hours to beat, it really depends on which difficulty you start and how often you will rely on optional hints. The best part of Lucid Dream is a compelling story that has a very immersive narrative, music and visuals. You play as Lucy, a disabled girl that travels into her dreams in order to find a way to save her mother. Overall this has been one of the best Early Access titles that I have been a part of. Its awesome developers have absorbed all of the criticism and improved the game as much as they could; they even reworked the soundtrack several times just because a few individuals complained about it (mostly me).
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
So, this game is an absolute bug-fest. It seems right up my ally in terms of atmospheric design, puzzles, etc., but I was unable to get any enjoyment out of it due to the frustratingly game-breaking bugs. In short - it’s a point-and-click puzzle which has a tendency to make your items (yes the ones you need to progress and solve puzzles) disappear. On top of that the select level function is broken - at the moment of writing this review I am half way through the game (on my third restart noless) and only the first chapter is unlocked from the chapter select menu. There is no “restart” or “retry” level option, which means that if you happen to have an item randomly deleted and the game decided to autosave then you have to start a new game all over.
– Real player with 10.6 hrs in game