Coffee Talk
One Chocobee Miruku please!
One of my all time favorite games is Va-11 Hall-A and ever since, I’ve been on the lookout for similar games ever since to scratch that itch it left behind. The closest I’ve gotten was playing The Red Strings Club which does have you literally pouring drinks to bring out certain emotions in your customers, but it turned out to be disappointing (for me at least). When I heard about Coffee Talk though, I knew I was going to pick this one up and play it as soon as I could. My decision was hammered home even more after I played the demo. Well, now that Coffee Talk is released how does it fare?
– Real player with 22.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best LGBTQ Atmospheric Games.
i stole this template ive always wanted to make one of these hehehe
- DIFFICULTY -
this game was not that difficult at all. as i wanted to work on achievements though, i did use a guide from the start. without the guide, i do not think i wouldve gotten the “best” ending the first time. overall, i think the game is a fairly normal difficulty.
- GRAPHICS -
this game has beautiful pixel art!!! i love pixel art. the art in this game is clean and i like it a lot. i wont say its amazing, but overall i think the art for the game is very nice and i think it plays a large part of the enjoyment for the game. each character is very unique and sticks out to me in good ways. there wasnt one character design that fell flat, they all made good impressions on me.
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
A Day of Maintenance
You’re a distant blip amongst the sands around New Port City; It’s been a long few shifts, but you’re almost done with doing your sweep of the guidance stations for the docking spaceships. Take your Massive Self-Sustaining Installation Repair Truck (or MSSIRT for short); & travel the landscape to fix the last few on your list for the day with your trusty multi-tool crane.
A Day of Maintenance is a new, unusual kind of exploration game, taking cues from In Other Waters, 17776, Signal from Tolva, and Euro Truck Simulator 2
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking:
“I want a kind-of-technical driving game with a little gay romance but also some discussion over robot worker consciousness. (With crane operation gameplay)"
This game is for you.
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Around 8 hours long
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This game is deliberately slow-paced. Enjoy the drive, sip a cup of something warm, fix sites in the distant future.
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Chat with your Robot Boyfriend, 6 workmates, & a couple other characters along the way.
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Best played with a gamepad. But there’s mouse & keyboard bindings for everything.
Chat with Orby about cool stuff like databases, satellite software, and the possibility of having your mind overwritten by a routine check-up.
As you drive the open desert, your crew of fellow maintenance robots will chew the scenery; debating over trains, spaceships, philosophy, and hats.
Oh! You might also uncover a conspiracy.
Read More: Best LGBTQ Story Rich Games.
Speed Dating for Ghosts
As if dating wasn’t scary enough, now there are ghosts!
Speed Dating for Ghosts is a short dating sim developed by Copychaser Games. Essentially you choose from one of three available rooms, each room has three different ghosts for you to chat to and since it’s speed dating. You have a brief conversation with all three ghosts, then there’s a break and you speak to them all again. At the end of the last conversation you can choose which ghost to ask out on a date and depending on how your conversation went you’ll get an extra date scene with them.
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best LGBTQ Choices Matter Games.
Speed Dating for Ghosts is perhaps a little bit different dating sim I’m used to, and I don’t mean it in a bad way. The tone is more existential and less fun, yet hopeful; it is sad but joyful, it makes you laugh but also my eyes got misty on a few occasions. You meet various characters with different pasts and with various outlooks on death, some characters to whom I related more than I would be willing to admit out loud. This game struck me, made me feel many emotions, questioning my own purpose and dealings with life (which I’m already doing quite a lot in my spare time), providing an even deeper level into my playthrough. I like stories, and going through the stories of these beings was a time well spent… on the other hand, what wasn’t a time well spent, was getting “rejected” achievement which was incredibly hard for me, because I am an ass, but not that kind of an ass, especially in video games, so this guide was a godsend. Even with that kind of a playthrough though, you uncovered further glimpses into feelings and mindsets of the ghosts you meet which helped to deepen their characters, and made me even more sympathetic to their fates.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Best Friend Forever
Note: I updated this review after completing the game.
The Good:
This goes without saying but the dogs in this game are just so lovely. Best Friend Forever does a great job of combining the dating sim/visual novel elements with caring and training your dog. Having them be on screen at all times for you to interact with while out and about in the city is one of the standout features in the game, and makes me very thankful to be playing on a touchscreen laptop as the patting mini-feature translates really well to touchscreen input. The art for the dogs and the date options are a lovely soft 2D style. And the cast of characters includes tonnes of diversity, so hopefully there will be a love interest for everyone.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
Best Friend Forever is a cute, relaxing game that I really liked, but it has some issues that make me a bit hesitant to recommend it.
Let’s start with the positives. Best Friend Forever is a super cute, wholesome game that I can genuinely say I enjoyed playing. The art is delightful; each one of the dogs is absolutely lovable, and the human characters all have personality and appeal. The backgrounds are very well-done, though at one point I did find myself wishing there were more variants. Overall, though, it’s a treat for the eyes. I didn’t even mind the loading screens because they were just that cute. It’s very pretty, you get the point.
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
Nowhere New
TLDR: If you like indies, play this game. Its story and atmosphere are well worth a few hours of your time.
This is not a full size game. It was created by a small group of students on no budget, and it shows. However, for that size and scope, it is impressively complete. I greatly enjoyed the couple hours I spent playing.
Narrative:
The writing is very strong. The mystery is intriguing, the characters are likable and complex, and the story is well constructed. There are several emotionally impactful story beats; at various points I felt shock, anger, suspense, horror, compassion, etc. I enjoyed the prevailing theme of identity, trust, and how our experiences shape who we are. Also, LGBT rep is a plus!
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Even though the game has unappealing visuals, I thought that the writing was very strong and I liked most of the characters. However, I ultimately was disappointed with the experience because the ending felt very anticlimactic, a big exposition dump to what otherwise was a mysterious story that could have gone in many ways. We play as a character that crashlands on a mysterious world where inhabitants lose their memories as they share them with other people. The game presents memory share as a mechanic but it’s somewhat cosmetic, for the most part, the story is pretty linear and you can only trade a few memories for a couple of hints, although I cannot confirm that as I decided to keep them. I wouldn’t say that it has any puzzles, you just have to talk to the characters in the right order, it’s not too convoluted. If anyone cares you can complete the game in about 90 minutes.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
ZooSim
not funny and not fun. even if it was free i’d say hard pass.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Hell Boba Café
Get ready to mix drinks and date demons! Prepare delicious boba tea with demonic ingredients. Make dialogue choices and flirt with a devilish cast of customers and build new relationships. Enter the cute & spooky world of Hell Boba Café!
Hell Boba Café is a visual novel set in a boba shop at the edge of Hell. In order to appeal to the local demon population, you’ll have to use mysterious spooky ingredients to make them something tasty!
Over 1400 boba combinations
Make beautiful boba drinks with a medley of flavours that appeal to humans and demons alike, each with their own unique taste profile! Most demons haven’t ordered boba before, so you’ll need to figure out what they like!
Service with a Smile!
Demons can be tricky customers! From rude behaviour to cryptic orders, every demon will present a new challenge. If you can make great drinks and provide engaging conversation, you’ve got a long career as a bobarista ahead of you!
A Chance for Romance?
Some demons are thirstier than others! Improve your relationships over time and get to know the locals. If your dialogue choices impress the four romantic interests, you can take one of these dazzling demons out on a cute date!
Casual Demon City Vibes
With its striking character design and eclectic soundtrack, Hell Boba Café is designed to immerse you in a vibrant world and help you take a break from the day-to-day struggles of modern life. When you’ve got boba and demons, what more could you ask for?
Main Features
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Build-a-boba: Design over 1400 boba creations and serve them to demonic clientele.
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Chat happy: Use dialogue options to provide excellent customer service and set the stage for romance!
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Breathe in the atmosphere: Escape to a neon demon city and lose yourself in its striking art style and catchy chillhop soundtrack.
My Dangerous Life
Trigger Warnings:
Stalking, dubious consent, homophobic sentiments from the MC, invalidating gender, anti-protest.
The Good (boys)
This game is cute enough. I’d only recommend 1 route and 2 love interests out of 3 though, which isn’t promising. Brad the badass best boy, and Alan the Arrogantly Alright, are both pretty cute and have a bunch of wholesome moments with some good chemistry between the characters.
Hinata (Main Character) is a little less 2D than most MCs of BL VNs, I like how he gets frustratedly nervous. While I’m not a nervous person and often feel confused by these kinda of characters reactions, I did feel like Hinata’s nervous reactions were explained at times which made him easier to empathise with, even if he was frustratingly naive and slow.
– Real player with 22.7 hrs in game
The visual novel is fun to play and kind of challenging to get through if you are looking for a specific ending. While the plot may fall into the generic trend of mystery romances and crime escapades, there are a number of notable qualities that make it an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
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Great character design.
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Clear scene transitions.
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Effective choice making.
Plotwise, there isn’t all that much flair but it does make up in terms of suspense. And while the protagonist tends to run into the borderline useless category at certain instances, the interactions with any of the three romances make it an engaging piece all the same. In the case of the romances, I would rank them from best to worst.
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
Flirt
My life changed approximately six hours ago.
I married my high school sweetheart three and a half years ago. I thought she was the one. I thought. Until she started throwing little quips at me just to get on my nerves. Stuff like, “You never do the laundry!” and “why do you smell so bad?” I hated it. I hated my life. How did I manage to get stuck with this woman? What did I do wrong?
Then it happened.
Flirt was released. My world was rocked.
I met the love of my life here, thirty-seven minutes and eighteen seconds ago. She never complains about me smelling bad. She never says my clothes are dirty.
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
Flirt is a good of communication and making new friends to hang out with online or offline. Flirt was created to simulate a dating world that’s not Tinder or any other dating sites or services. I loved Comedy Night since the day I bought it in 2017 and this is now another one of my favourite games by Lighthouse Studios now too! Sure this game was not advertised nor released properly but it’s not the worse outcome. I played for a few hours of release and can say it was good outcome so far. The player base needs improvement and better stuff added such as emotes and perks for the hearts. Overall it has potential just needs some work. Good Job Lighthouse Studios!!
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Game Director Story
Game Director Story is an unflinching and satirical look behind-the-scenes at how big-budget AAA games are made. Based on first-hand accounts by industry veterans, Players will experience the emotional roller coaster of guiding a team through the agonizing decisions and compromises needed to ship a game.
You will take on the role of a newly hired Game Director in this character-driven narrative experience, responsible for balancing your relationship with your team, publisher, press, influencers, and fans.
Decide how you want to handle real industry situations like crunch, technical debt, inclusivity, micro-transactions, sexism, exclusives and more, and be prepared to deal with the impact of your decisions on your team and the game.
- Based on real-life scenarios
Based on real events contributed by veteran game developers, players will experience the emotional roller-coaster of game development. Experience all phases of development, making difficult decisions while guiding your team to the euphoric finish line of shipping a game.
- Balance competing relationships.
Maintain critical relationships and the frequently conflicting interests of your team, your publisher, the press, and fans, all while preserving your vision and staying on budget.
- Characters with heart and soul.
Get to know your team members through their stories and help them to grow as a professional or overcome personal challenges.
- Sit in on a Team Chat to check in on your colleagues
Sit in on the daily Team Chat to get a sense of how your team is doing, what they’re concerned about, and how they feel about your decisions.
- Deal with unexpected and game altering obstacles.
Live through iconic industry challenges or situations that can occur during development like “Publisher requests a last minute E3 presence”.
- Live with the consequences of your choices
With the clock ticking, choose the decisions you believe are important, and live with the consequences on your game and the team.
- Real, but humorous.
While GDS tackles real industry challenges, a healthy dose of humor and satire keeps things light and entertaining, while handling difficult topics in an approachable way.