Marfusha
Girls' Frontline meets shoot-em-up
One morning I was looking at new releases at Steam. Usually I don’t find something interesting, but for some reason Marfusha has caught my attention. I briefly looked at screenshots and without a second thought bought Marfusha.
And you know what? Marfusha turned up to be a great game!
The gameplay is simple but heavily addicting. You are playing as Marfusha, a girl who drafted into the army since the country Kazolmya, where she lives is at war with all surrounding countries. Marfusha gets the duty to protect the wall from different robots who try to destroy this wall. Every day you get salary which you can spend on cards and, of course, paying taxes, which becomes more and more expensive. There are different types of cards, some will increase your stats, some will give you a weapon(which can break so you’ll have to buy a new one, keep that in mind), some will give you useful items like mines or barricades.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Cute Games.
”To protect homeland and someone you loved, what did it costs?”
Molten Iron: Marfusha is an indie project I’ve been following creator/artist for a while and impressed how something simple can be so enjoyable despite some flaws. A 2.5D tower defense shooter game developed by one person named hinyari9.
This review is based on version 1.0.0.3. It contains subjective opinion and partial spoiler.
The World with No Exception
Game title is based on young bakery clerk; Marfusha who is drafted as a border guard due to trooper shortage. Marfusha has no choice but to obey the order and survive to reunite with her younger sister again.
– Real player with 12.6 hrs in game
Black Dream Plus
Play as a voluptuous supernatural investigator named Anna who travels to an amusement park constructed inside the imagination of a friendly gentleman who makes churros, cosplay outfits, and dances for her, where she decides to retire from her job and takes over the park, making that gentleman her father, and a self-doubting coworker tasked with detaining her into her boyfriend, while dealing with the mess a cute, awkward, and equally busty nightmare-fueled girl causes all over the place.
You basically get that and a whole bunch of other things in Black Dream, an adorable, fascinating, and overall sexy and strangely wholesome game. The protagonist is very whimsical but self-assured, and the characters have distinct personalities revealed with an incredible amount of original handmade full-screen pixel art scenes. It feels like something you would discover on the PC-98, or a classic OVA made into an interactive anime adventure. It’s not a visual novel, but not quite a regular RPG. To say it’s a hidden object game is not descriptive enough either I feel. Basically, Black Dream is like a toybox for you to uncover a ton of cute and well-made novelties that combine into an adventure with a comical, quirky, and surprisingly sentimental story.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Adventure Games.
I absolutely love this game. The music is very well done, catchy and fits the mood. The art work is clearly done with verve and style. The story is fetching, amusing and takes a few interesting turns throughout. Combat is handled in several ways adding to variety. Anna, the main character is ultra cute, and dressing her up in the many different outfits is very rewarding as you see her in various and unique outfit-specific poses. Really fun game. I recommend 101%
Are you a dreamer?
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Daylife in Japan - Pixel Art Jigsaw Puzzle
Please add more puzzles!
I love pixelart, so to find a puzzle game that had animated pixelart was great. Love the idea, so would like to see more added in updates or packs.
Agree with some of the feedback here, plus:
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the lack of contract between some of the colours like white and light blue can be too difficult when in Pro mode.
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the discounted price was about right since there are so few puzzles at this stage, I wouldn’t have paid more.
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I ended up muting the music and playing my own lo-fi; getting more of a selection would be good. Sfx with scene could be cool too.
– Real player with 79.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Pixel Graphics Casual Games.
The pixel art is good as standalone art, but work poorly as jigsaw puzzles due to very poor contrast and color variance that turn the higher-difficulty puzzles with smaller pieces into a guess-and-check slog unusual even to real jigsaw puzzles. For instance, picture #4 has objects along the edges, but the middle 2/3 of the image is a completely monochrome sky – no features, only a few very small clouds, not even a gradient, just hundreds of blank featureless blue pieces with no variance in piece cut. Picture #5 has sections almost the same color as the application’s own background, making it nearly impossible to see some of the pieces at all. It was just very poorly conceived.
– Real player with 38.0 hrs in game
Project Kat - Paper Lily Prologue
A pretty interesting, cute and short horror game. The graphics were really nice for pixel art and I loved the character design. The music and sounds were nice as well. The story is also well done, especially for such a short game. I loved the premise and I really enjoyed the multiple endings. I do wish that there was some kind of maybe a gallery or an ending list in-game. It would be nice to see if I had grabbed all the endings or if I ended up missing any. I did like seeing that certain choices did change a few things in-game (such as the blackboard in the theater room). I didn’t have any real issues while playing the game, beyond my own stupidness. For a prologue, I don’t expect there to be much in the game, and I definitely don’t expect a long game. For 3 hours, I was able to look around and beat the game a few times.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Very nice horror game. There aren’t things that jump right at you like a jumpscare but the things that appear from time to time is just enough to send my spine tingling. They played around with the audio as well to give the extra suspense. Puzzles weren’t that hard but I’m guessing these will in difficulty in the full game. With all that said, I can’t wait for the full game!
tl;dr
• scary with no jumpscare
• easy puzzles
• can’t wait for the full game :D
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
ココロクローバー パート１/Kokoro Clover Part1
I do really like it. I am a beginner in Japanese. I do wish that the words were separated. This would help me know when words start and end. I can read hiragana but I dont know what they mean in English. So having words separated and having Particles in a different color would help too. But I dont know if this game is for people that know Japanese already. Anyway cute game. I will keep playing it and trying to translate it.
These are the words I tried to translate myself. haha Its from the story.
– Real player with 41.6 hrs in game
First, know that this game is only the 1st chapter. In a sense, a Demo/tutorial.
Now, the short version:
A pixel art platformer made in the vibe of a true Sunday Morning Anime. It is what it says on the tin. For casual players, those who have never played a platformer, and those afflicted by bad case of nostalgia. The game is fun, not hard, colourful, with good music, and simple gameplay. Being the Demo/Tutorial, promotion piece it is, it has some simple, but bearable flaws. However, they do not hinder the experience. Ideal as a ‘palate cleanser’ after more hardcore games like Ori, Hollow Knight, or the Gunvolt series. Main drawback for many would be that it is entirely in Japanese, with only English subtitles on the cutscenes. Still worth playing.
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Eventide Night
Pretty solid Bullet Hell with fun and challenging levels. I re-binded the keys to C for attack, X for attack (there are two keys for the same attack, for some reason), and Z for the special move or ‘circuit’, as it’s called in-game.
I spotted some bugs here and there ー sometimes the game would freeze up and would only unfreeze once I paused and unpaused the game. Something else similar happened after I lost all my lives and selected “Restart Level” ー the screen would sometimes turn black and would only go back to normal once I paused and unpaused the game. It wasn’t a massive hindrance, but I thought it should be pointed out.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
A beautiful game with a really nice soundtrack. I really like the theme and air of the story too. Default keybinds are a bit odd, using J for fire and K for bombs and WASD/arrows for movement. Can’t seem to find any English language option for the story, not sure if I’m blind or if it’s just actually Chinese-only. But considering the low price, I’d say it’s still worth it for the gameplay and music even if you can’t read the story.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
ココロクローバー パート2/Kokoro Clover Part2
This game got me surprised, is quite cute and fun. The way that the dev made it as if it’s some sort of Sunday morning anime is interesting and different. We also can see the passion he put in doing this, since I imagine is quite difficult for the short staff that appears on the credits, it make me want to support them.
In a way, it’s a quite simple side scroller, no difficult controls or mechanics, is quite easy and there’s a option to just skip and keep watching the story. The focus on this is the story, like a episode of the anime, even the stages are named after anime episodes and play like anime episodes, there’s much more story on each episode than game stages. So be warned, buy only if you are interested in reading and watching the story, if you’re thinking of that, it’s worth of the full price.
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
NO REVIEWS?! Ok, let’s remedy that pronto.
The short version: Casual platformer featuring a “Sunday Morning Anime” style. Simple controls, simple story, catchy music, cute art. Now featuring greater length than its “Part 1”. It is essentially what follows immediately after Kokoro Cover Part 1. No noticeable flaws, except for the length, this is an Indie game made by a 3-4 person team, so they are taking their time. Ideal game for that afternoon when you don’t know what to play, or as palate cleanser after a more serious/meaty game like Monster Boy, Shantae, or Owlboy. English language (cutscene subtitles) are to come on a later patch.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Alicemare
This is by far one of my favorite games, both from an RPGMaker game type standpoint, and games in general. The story and characters are crafted with such love, and all characters have their own story to tell. None of the people you get to know are unimportant, and by the end, i’m sure you’ll love at least one of the characters, if not all of them. The story is so well done, you can tell miwashiba put a lot of thought into the creation of such a world.
Alice_mare is a bit of a classic game for me when thinking about RPGMaker type games, it was one of the first few I played when RPGMaker games blew up about 4 years ago. And it still holds up to this day. Playing through all the endings, getting all the acheivments, I had fun all over again.
– Real player with 29.5 hrs in game
Alice in Wonderland… a tale we all know - a tale that’s been often a motive in many different forms of entertainment and never gets too old or too boring.
This time you will experience a little more creepy take on that tale - and to be fair, I think AliceMare has lots of its own story to tell and the old fairytale was more inspiration than a solid theme. You will still see a cat, and a rabbit, and you will still travel to world possible only in your imagination… or rather, your nightmares. Yet the reasoning behind it, and what background every character has- that’s a completely new story.
– Real player with 14.2 hrs in game
Gurobu
What a fun and in depth game that was love the gameplay and the story very much.
I thought it was the right length too not to long not to short.
I love these pixel graphic 2d horror games and my experience with this game was a good one I would definatly recommened this game give it a try 4/5 for me.
I did a full wlakthrough if you wanna give it a watch.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
I’ve gushed about this dev’s uniquely unsettling visual style and atmospheric storytelling before in my Crimson Ranch review, but WOW. Gurobu takes all of that, cranks it up to 100, and slips in a few hidden layers to boot.
I pretty much love everything about this title. The creepy visuals, the disturbing sound effects, the engaging story, the mystery, and most of all; I love that they address the importance of mental health.
Game runs fine, good framerate, didn’t notice any bugs. Highly, highly recommending, especially for indie horror fans.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
LiEat
After beating this game and each of his 3 chapters, I can say that this is the most splendid and beautiful game I have played in a long while.
It sent me back to the era when I used to download and play RPG maker games like Misao, Ao oni or Mad Father.
The art style is beautiful, the soundtrack is perfect and the story is just magnificent…
This game is so good that I wish that one day everyone will be able to play a sequel, I know this game is great and that a lot of people would play it.
Okay… now to the serious stuff; the game itself is about 5 hours long, or 6 if you want to get every achievement.
– Real player with 391.5 hrs in game
Game Title: LiEat
Achievement Progress (at the time of post): Completed
(My reviews assume you have read about the content of the game in terms of gameplay. I am simply reviewing each individual aspect based on my opinion. This allows for my reviews to be spoiler-free. You may find I rate by different categories in each of my reviews. This is because every type of game is different, and will not have the same content. I think it is pointless to leave a category blank or write ‘unrelated’, or something similar.)
– Real player with 14.9 hrs in game