Recent reviews by parawixlia

this is one of my all time favorite games, and after finishing my 3rd playthrough i think it's about time i contribute to the ratings!

first things first with this game: i'd definitely recommend buying it on sale. while i love it, i think the $25 price tag is a bit much. i think it'd be more worth about $15, so snag it when it's low!
also, while the game is tagged as a metroidvania, definitely don't expect a standard metroidvania experience from this. it does have a metroidvania-like layout, and there are couple parts of the game that let you freely explore, but the game is far too linear to really be called a metroidvania imo.

ok, onto the good stuff:

first, the story. this seems to be an issue for a lot of people, and i can understand some complaints, but i personally love it to bits. it can be a bit hard to follow some times, but it's very much one of those "religious trauma in video game form" kind of projects which i always dig. it's about cultures and their beliefs, icons, and outcasts, and how they clash. it focuses on a world run by a religious government called the One Concern, ruled by a divine medium known as Mother who communicates the will of "Him", the Concern's enigmatic god. there's also the Isi, simply called "pirates" to others, who are a race of people whose culture holds procreation as the pinnacle of their being, and are targeted by the concern for independent fuel mining.
the story has the player assume the role of Robin, who illegally works as a mechanic without the blessing of the One Concern. she uses her skills to help people in her settlement, which soon leads to her getting arrested by the Concern, quickly roping her into a grand conspiracy involving the true nature of the Concern, Him, and the planet itself.
along the way Robin befriends Mina, a queer Isi woman who is alienated from her culture and family for loving another woman, and Royal, the clueless future successor to Mother who believes he can use his power to make things change. the story focuses on the three of them fighting against their cultures simply to lead a happy existence, and against the oppressive control of the One Concern.
i don't know if this does the story any amount of justice, but it's a very unique story and one of the few to consistently make me emotional.

second, gameplay. there isn't a whole lot to say, but this is a highlight for me, mostly cus i just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ love puzzle oriented games. the game has pretty standard platformer combat, equipping you with a gun and a comically large wrench that you can swing at enemies. you also use your tools for puzzles, twisting bolts to open doors and using electrical charges to power lifts and all sorts things. it's nothing too special, but the puzzles are creative and plenty of fun, if only a bit slow at times. there are also a number of very fun boss fights, each with a unique mechanic that utilizes your puzzling skills. the game isn't too long, my last playthrough took me ~8 hours, and that's with both secret bosses completed.

third, art. this is, for me, the best part. the art style is super charming and, as far as i know, the whole game was made by one guy, which is absolutely bonkers for the level of artistic quality at play. the pixel art, the animations, the music, the sound design, there's genuinely not a single element of it i dislike. it's all so creative and high quality that it feels criminal that this game is as underappreciated as it is.

please, get this game on sale, give it some love, i love it so much and want as many people as possible to experience it!

first off: do NOT buy this game at full price. as much as i love it, it's definitely not worth 50 whole smackaroos. if you're interested, wait for a sale!


indivisible is, despite its many issues, one of my favorite gaming experiences. it's fun, charming, and interesting, but it does have a number of things keeping it from being as good as it could be. i don't know a whole lot about what happened with lab zero's dissolution or if any of that affected the development of the main game, but the game definitely could've used a bit more time in the cooker.

it's not a super short game, my most recent playthrough took me about 18 hours, but it's also not jam packed full of extra content.

most of my praise would have to go to the art (in the middle of writing this i stopped to just stare at art on the wiki for a while. it's very poggers). the art direction is incredible, taking inspiration from all sorts of cultures and repurposing them in a fun fantasy way, the character animations are fluid and full of personality, and the character designs are all quite unique and charming. the main antagonist's design is sick as hell and probably one of my favorite character designs in any game! on the other hand, the game's CGs are a bit lacking in many places, feeling a lot more like placeholder, especially towards the end, and certain parts of the map don't mesh all that well with the art style.

the writing is, in my opinion, very engaging! i enjoyed the story a lot, and the characters are all quite lovable. it's one of the few stories in games that had me tearing up by the end. it's good at getting you attached to the characters as they grow! it does have its flaws, though, there definitely are some elements here and there that would have been nice to see more of. for example, the main character's dad has a mysterious past that gives him a unique role in the story, but that is unfortunately not explored at all. we know the what, but none of the how or why. the non-story npcs are also a big issue for me. i assume most of them are backer characters, because 9 times out of 10 i talk to an npc and they just feel either super out of place or like a reference that i don't get, which makes it hard to feel immersed in the world. in that sense, the cast feels pretty isolated outside of the story npcs.

the gameplay, while not perfect, is enjoyable enough for me. it's a combat based rpg and exploration platformer with a lil bit of a metroidvania kick, and it does most of that pretty well.

the combat is definitely one of the more unique rpg combat systems i've seen, but quite fun! it's not properly turn based, and your characters all have a number of actions they can perform using button combos, and these actions regenerate when you aren't attacking or being attacked. the enemies take their 'turn' during the downtime between your actions, which are replaced with blocking until the enemies are done. you also have a special bar that fills up when you attack and block which you can use to perform special moves unique to each character. there are about 20 or so different characters that you can choose for a team of 4 (although 1 is always the main character), and they each function completely uniquely. they aren't very balanced, however. i played most of the game with the same few characters, because the game doesn't really encourage you to switch them out. i have the healer that you get at the beginning of the game, the attack/debuff mage you get at the beginning of the game, and the high damage dealer, who you also get at the beginning of the game. while there are a lot of unique and fun gimmicks from other characters later on, there isn't a lot of incentive to use them (and some of them are bad or just too niche to be viable), but it is still fun to try them out.

the platforming seems to be a lot of people's biggest issue, which is understandable. it's definitely the clunkiest aspect of the game. you start off with a very simple moveset, classic platformer stuff, but you unlock more, stranger movement techniques along the way. the first is what could probably be equated to this game's double jump. after you jump, you can attack to lodge your axe into a wall, then release it to leap a bit higher. this isn't terrible in theory, but it's very slow in practice. the movement doesn't really pick up until the end of the game, where you have the axe, a spear that lets you get more height on your first jump, an omnidirectional dash, and a second completely different dash, which cover for each other's weaknesses that are otherwise a lot more apparent. it isn't unbearable, but it definitely has a few poorly designed segments that bring out its weaknesses a lot.

the sound design is relatively weak, but i'm particularly peeved by the fact that they reused the same clip of the mc yelling for 1. every time you sprint 2. every time you use your second dash and 3. every time you use your slam. that isn't important, it's just a bit annoying. however, the voice acting is definitely a highlight for me. all the dialogue in the main story is voiced, and by a very fitting and talented cast.

all in all, it's a very messy game, but the art, story, and combat make it quite fun! if you're even a bit interested, i'd absolutely recommend it. it may not have realized all of its potential, but there's enough of it there to make an enjoyable experience.

there are a few things i want to say about this, but i'll summarize it by saying this is the first shantae game that i'm confident i'm not going to replay.

firstly: game structure. half-genie hero feels very confused, like it doesn't know if it wants to be a level based platformer or a metroidvania, and it fails miserably at being either of them. the game has about 6 levels, not including the finale, and requires you to return to them frequently as you unlock new abilities. if you're unfamiliar with shantae, the franchise's main gimmick is your "dances", which let you transform into a number of creatures with abilities that expand your platforming possibilities, which usually feels quite natural as you're required to backtrack through familiar areas and notice obstacles that you now know how to overcome. this is completely lost in half-genie hero, since you end up replaying levels with the sole intent of finding something, then quitting the level once you do to go use what you found in a different level. a lot of necessary items are hidden in some very unintuitive locations, so you end up replaying the same 6 levels over and over hoping you find something that helps you progress somewhere else.

second: unnecessary abilities. the amount of different dances you can unlock is absurd and just overcomplicates things. risky's revenge had 3 transformations, half-genie hero has a total of 12 slots, with 8 that you can collect and more that you can swap out of the 4 remaining slots. risky's revenge had the mermaid for water travel, the monkey for climbing walls, and the elephant for breaking things. half-genie hero has the mermaid for omnidirectional water travel and the crab for walking in the water, the harpy for flying and the bat for exclusively horizontal flying, the monkey for wall climbing and the spider for ceiling climbing, the elephant for breaking walls, and the mouse for special mini-mazes (which is the only good addition imo). half of these aren't even remotely necessary and just make the game more confusing than it needs to be. you really don't need two separate transformations for water travel, and the spider and bat are made completely irrelevant by the existence of the harpy. and this doesn't even account for all the extra transformations, which are so many levels of unnecessary, but i've talked about this part enough.

third: visuals. this part is probably super biased but this is, in my opinion, the least visually appealing shantae game. that might just be because i love the pixel art in the previous games, but i also feel like this style is just utterly charmless. everything's been turned into this weird, overly cutesy, uncomfortably jiggly mess, and it's all in an awkward mix of puppet animation with little chopped up bits of hand animation in between. all the characters and a lot of their classic animations have been translated into this new style, but it loses all of its stylistic charm. the previous games' pixel animation was smooth and incredibly satisfying to watch, but this retains absolutely none of that. the game has a concept art gallery that shows a lot of interesting and incredibly expressive character art, which makes me think the game was initially planned to be hand drawn, but what it ended up as is so much more disappointing.

fourth: story. this definitely wasn't a game i went into expecting a masterpiece of a story, but i was expecting a story. but this game doesn't have one until you reach the finale. everything before that is just a bunch of narrative fetch quests, getting pieces for uncle mimic's latest gadget, with no greater threat, purpose, or any other narrative elements at play. the sliver of story you get during the finale isn't even remotely interesting, and has absolutely no setup to make it feel like a satisfying turn. there was one minor story element i thought was interesting enough that they frankly could've built the entire game around it and had it be exponentially more interesting, but they unfortunately discarded it with a one off villain.

fifth: balancing. it doesn't take long at all for health to become a complete non-issue as you collect more heart holders than you need and the enemies' damage stays so low as to be completely insignificant, and by the time i reached the finale i also had a healing dance and an item that gives me infinite magic. for some reason. to say this is overkill would be an understatement. dying would be a challenge with all this. i died exactly once throughout the whole game. eventually you realize nothing can hurt you, and fighting the enemies just becomes unnecessary. you can just run past and through them with no consequence. healing that damage up isn't even an issue, since enemies drop a ton of hearts and occasionally health restoring items.

lastly: so, so many bad game design choices. i'd be typing for a good while if i wanted to get everything out, but to put it simply, there is so little effort put into making this game fun. a lot of it is just frustrating, and the parts that aren't are just unremarkable. do yourself a favor and just go play pirate's curse, please, i beg you

an obvious must for any popgoes fan, but also a good entry point for the series! the game's fun, full of charm, and has the good ol super specific secrets that you love to see in any fnaf title.
i see a lot of people complaining about difficulty, but really it's not bad at all? the biggest challenge everyone's encountering is reaching the last milestone on the endless level which for me, while challenging, was still fun all the way through, and equally rewarding if you care about popgoes' story. it's of course optional, but if you choose to do it, it's not by any means impossible or exceptionally unfair. i agree it's a bit too difficult for something that's required if you wanna get all the rewards, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be imo. regardless, kane has said that balance changes are coming soon.
there are also a number of bugs present, but i haven't found anything that a) makes the game unplayable or unfun, or b) can't be fixed by just reopening the game (which i had to do exactly once).
all in all, a super great experience! i've been excited for it since it was announced after the free version's success, and imo it was absolutely worth the wait!

to be completely honest, i didn't have very high expectations for this, but it's pretty alright! the one thing the game absolutely doesn't fall short on is the environment, and the atmosphere is better than the average mascot horror game. as far as downsides go, it's not particularly scary, and it's severely lacking in any story (plus rambley feels WAY too cute for this game, but i can't really complain about that), but otherwise it was an hour well spent! it's a bit generic, but i'm looking forward to the next chapter.

I haven't fully gotten through it yet, but this game is an absolute gem. I've seen a lot of people complain about how much complex stuff you need to do to get any basic progress, but to me that's so much of the game's charm. I've been playing the game with a text document open to figure out a cipher and my notes app open to write down anything and everything that might be relevant. So far I've only had to look outside the game for answers once, although I feel like this one is a pretty important detail that I otherwise wouldn't have thought of. So, if you're stuck early on, when you're playing the 64 version, fail the different character's levels about 3 times. That's one detail I couldn't figure out on my own, but otherwise, I feel like the game is pleasantly challenging to figure out and I'm having a blast!

I'd been looking forward to playing this one for a while, and frankly I'm pretty disappointed. The game drew me in with the visual style, which is undeniably incredible, but the actual gameplay has a few prominent issues. Namely, too much relies on trial and error, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so tedious. The game starts off as a slow walking sim with a neat atmosphere and some very simple puzzling, but as it carries on the puzzles and rooms start to become a bit random, requiring you to retry things a lot, which especially sucks when you move so slow. The slow movement contributes to the atmosphere for sure, but it gets pretty annoying when you have to redo the same room/puzzle multiple times and have to slowly waddle your way back.
For example, there's a room with 3 buttons, each button cycles between one of about 6 symbols, and when you've chosen your combination you press a fourth button to lock in your choices, which opens a door regardless of if you've entered the correct combination, but 3 lights will light up to tell you whether or not any of the 3 symbols you chose were correct. If all 3 were right, the door leads you to the next room, but if any were wrong, it loads a hallway that you have to slowly walk down in order to reach the puzzle room again and give it another try. There's no indication of what you're supposed to do here or any hints as to what the combination is, so in order to solve it you just have to keep randomly punching in symbols and walking through hallways in order to try again until you eventually have the combo.
Another room is just a maze of conveyor belts, all splitting off into different paths. It starts with two, one of which drops you off the map and kills you and the other which is the correct one. If you take the correct one, you're greeted with another 3 splitting paths. If you take the correct one there, you're greeted with another 2, etc. And, again, there's no indication of whether or not you're going the right way until you take the wrong belt and die for it, and getting back to where you made the mistake is a slow process, and one you'll have to go through many times.
This game genuinely seemed super promising, and the art style alone is enough to enjoy it, but the puzzles actively work against the game. If they were less reliant on trial and error, or not there at all, the game would be a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

Possibly one of the most artistically intriguing games i've played in a good while. The story is incredibly confusing and i feel like i walked out with more questions than i started with, but it's all presented in such a weirdly beautiful way that i don't really mind.

The basic premise is: you live on the world of "Hjö", home to strange humanoid beings called Raincoat-Hjörians. You assume the role of a mysterious Raincoat-Hjörian named Ülar, who doesn't know anything about himself or the world around him, and he slowly learns the ropes of being a Solver while learning about Hjö.

The game is definitely on the shorter side, as you can see i finished it in under 4 hours, but imo it was definitely a worthwhile experience. Although, part of my adoration for the game comes from my appreciation for Etherane's art and writing styles, so i can't guarantee that someone who hasn't played any of their other works will get the same enjoyment out of it that i did. But, if you are interested in the art style, then maybe consider trying out Hello Charlotte and Tomorrow Won't Come for Those Without ████████. Those games have all hand-drawn talksprites and CGs, but they don't feel as art focused as MRSIS, so they could definitely ease you into their style.

Also, the soundtrack is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ outstanding. I know Etherane used some of Kai Engel's tracks in their previous games, but hearing tracks he made that are actually tailored to the game is a whole other experience.