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A Rose in the Twilight is a puzzle-platformer, where you solve puzzles by switching between two playable characters. Each character has their own traits and abilities.

The game is set in a cursed world, where everything has lost its color and consequently, is frozen in time. Only by returning something its color you can make it move again.

The main playable character is Rose. One day, she wakes up among the ruins of some old castle and starts to wander around. At first it's not clear why everything's like this, but gradually the story will unfold, revealing the accident which made the place the way you see it now — colorless and still.

The lack of color is caused by the thorns, parasitic flowers which overgrown the castle. These thorns drain color from everything they attach theselves to. They've attached to Rose, too. One of the thorned flowers grows on her own body, like a stigma. People with thorns are considered cursed — commonfolk are afraid of them, and they are also being hunted down by the Order

But this flower doesn't only live off Roses color, it also provides her with some of its own abilities. Thanks to that, Rose can also drain color from objects, freezing them, and imbue it back to make them move again. Working with color and time is one of the game's core puzzle mechanics. Another ability Rose gained from that flower is that she can now interact with some of the other flowers. For example, a crystal "checkpoint" flower will bring her back to life whenever she dies.

The other playable character is the giant. Rose finds it drained of color, somewhere among the ruins. She then gifts it some color and giant comes alive. The giant perceives as it's duty to follow and protect Rose — and from now on you can switch controls to it. Unlike fragile Rose, giant is invincible to almost all of game hazards. It's also a poweful creature, so it can lift, move and throw different object and items, including Rose herself. You'll soon find it convenient to move through the game world by controlling the giant and carrying the Rose in its hands

As you may've sensed already, the tone and the story of this game is somewhat dark.
Everything around is dead, still and bleak. The red color which you control is also not a random choice — blood plays a significant part in this game, and there are situations where Rose needs to draw her own blood by killing herself there is even a designated button for this in game controls. Another use of blood in this game is for memories. During exploration you'll encounter bodies of the fallen, and Rose will be able to read their memories by taking in their blood. These memories are presented as short cutscenes, arranged as a cutout theatre. Its purpose is to give you more insight into what happened. Another way to get information is via various notes found here and there. You can watch collected memories and read notes at any time from game menu. The game is also nice enough to hint you the rooms with missed memories, once you complete a location.

The game has a flower-like map structure. You have a central room — a hub, from which you can travel to various and unlock other locations, with several linear levels each. There is also fast travel. You can teleport to any visited room through the map screen.

The puzzles in Rose in the Twilight have a very decent variety, and are not boring. The difficulty of the puzzles is ok — not too hard and not too easy. Each location introduces several fresh puzzle mechanics, so you'll definetly be entertained. Developers have really put their minds into this aspect, each introduced mechanic is based on it's own principle. I should probably note that a couple of end-game puzzles took me about an hour to solve, but it was still a pleasant experience — when you get the solution, you realize how simple it is, and after you already know it, it takes only minutes to solve.

As many puzzle games these days, Rose in the Twilight incorporates some puzzles based on physics. Usually, you have to move something, or place something, or create a platform by draining a flying object of color, etc. What's worth mentioning, is that unlike many other games, where half-аssed physics engine only makes a hassle, it's done pretty well in Rose. Interactions are intuitive most of the time and don't require an absolute precision.

Besides regular puzzles, the game also has a couple of bossfights. As Rose is a puzzle-platformer, you'll have to find a special way to beat each of the bosses. Beating the boss often includes a lot of specific actions performed with a decent speed. So it may take you a lot of tries before you realize exactly what to do. Still, you'll like the bosses of Rose in the Twilight. And the sequence before the first boss is almost as cool as the boss fight itself.

The game has three endings. You unlock them sequentially — after you get one of the endings, it unlocks the next one, along with some new locations and more difficult puzzles, to make it more interesting to clear. Beating the game also unlocks time attack mode, which can be very entertaining, when you already know all the puzzles and can concentrate on speed. The game shows you results for each room, so you always know where you should improve your times.

It's hard to review Rose in the Twilight without looking back at its predecessor - htoL#♥♥♥: The Firefly Diary. TL;DR: if you liked The Firefly Diary, you'll definetly like Rose in the Twilight. With their new game, developers took into account all previous experience, made a lot of improvements and streamlining. For example, game story is now presented in a less obscure way, and supported by in-game text notes, to make it easier for the player to interpret and understand what's going on. Compared to The Firefly Diary, puzzles in Rose have more variety, they're easier to understand, and the difficulty curve rises more gradually than it did before. Here Rose won't encounter the same problems, as Mion had with the fourth boss in The Firefly Diary many people complained about that moment

Some changes may still be questionable, though. For example the pallete of sepia and reds here may be not everyone's cup of tea, and some may even see it as bland. Still, it's an imporant element of artistic presentation, but it affects your perception of locations. In the previous game locations had vivid visuals and looked more distinct thanks to different colors. Rose in the Twilight also has distinct locations, but mainly thanks to set pieces, like a garden full of flowers, library full of bookshelves, etc. But in some other locations everything just blends together and becomes hard to tell apart. Nevertheless, a storybook-like artstyle of Rose in the Twilight is great and is a good match for games story-telling.

The music in Rose is nice and soothing, I even have some tracks in my favorites playlist and I've never regretted purchasing a digital OST, but melodies on first few levels sound too similar, at least for my taste. This wasn't the case with the previous game, as each location had a very distinct melody. Still music matches the gameplay perfectly, be it slow-paced puzzle-solving or a slightly faster-paced bossfight.

Overall, Rose in the Twilight is a really good game, and a true spriritual successor to htoL#♥♥♥, with a distinct visual style, soothing soundtrack, good story and many great puzzles. At the time of this review, SteamSpy estimates its sales as around 3k, which is really a shame. This game definetly deserves more attention, at least from the puzzle-lovers.

P.S. For more awesome hidden gems, follow the steam CRIMINALLY Low Sales curator.

htoL#♥♥♥ (or Hotaru no Nikki) is a puzzle-platformer with indirect character control. The character in question is a little girl named Mion, and your goal is to guide her unharmed through the ruins of abandoned industrial plant. To guide Mion, you need something to get her attention. That's where fireflies come in - you have two of them. One is called Lumen, and it radiates bright light, which attracts Mion and helps her fight darkness. Other is called Umbra, and it resides in Mion's shadow most of the time, but can travel through unlit areas, operate mechanisms and distract monsters. You can control Lumen and Umbra either via mouse or analog sticks on your gamepad.

You can also use Lumen to stop Mion at her tracks or to make her pull a lever By hovering over Mion/lever and clicking/pressing a button. It should be noted, that the reason you can't control Mion directly is not just a gameplay gimmick, it also plays part in game's storytelling.

Let's talk about the story then. It's different from what you'd expect from a Nippon Ichi game, as its tone is dark and dramatic, and there is (almost) no comedy whatsover. The
game takes place in a year 9999, many years in the aftermath of a global catastrophe. Naturally, everything is revealed through Mion's perspective. Once, she wakes up to find herself alone in some room. The room appears to be in the middle of ruins of some strange old industrial plant. All around Mion is the darkness, with strange creatures lurking inside. Not the greatest place for a little girl to be, right? Luckily, Lumen finds Mion, and then tries to help her get out. Soon after, Umbra joins in too.

This game doesn't have neither text nor voice narration, the story is conveyed visually, some times directly, but for the most part - through memories of events from the past. These are collectibles which you find in various hidden places and hard to reach spots throughout the level. Don't worry too much if you miss some of them, but you should definitely get what you've missed after you complete the game - you can revisit any stage, and the select menu indicates exactly which memories you are missing. Visual storytelling allows for multiple interpretations of what you see, but it's a double-edged sword, as it can either get you more involved or become the obstacle to understanding the situation. But if you like games which make you want to stop and think about what's actually happening, to connect the dots and to recreate the big picture - you'll definitely like the story of htoL#♥♥♥. The game won't chew the story out for you, but it won't abandon you either - you can always rewatch memories you've already collected from the main menu.

htoL#♥♥♥ has a storybook-like art style, which accompanies its storytelling model. The palette of greens, browns, greys and blacks delivers the atmosphere of ruins properly. Developers dedicated a lot of attention to light and shadow in this game, and it creates a rather unique presentation - for example, in the shadows you can often see something you can't see in the light, and so on. Memories of the past, on the other hand, have different style completely - they use isometric pixel art.

The music is (for the most part) a very peaceful calming ambient. It matches the gameplay well: htoL#♥♥♥ isn't a fast paced game at all, you'll spend most of the time thinking about solving your next puzzle, so having a relaxing and non-intrusive soundtrack is very important.

Speaking of puzzles, it has a fair variety - every new level the game introduces some new puzzle elements and mechanics. Puzzle difficulty isn't very high, but htoL#♥♥♥ can make you think for a while. Still, that's what you come to the puzzle game for in the first place, right? The overall difficulty curve won't cause much discomfort, there are only so many places which demand a certain level of precision or timing from player in the latter part of the game.

Overall, htoL#♥♥♥ is a great puzzle game that has an excellent visual presentation, light paced gameplay and a great story with unusual way of storytelling. According to SteamSpy, at the time of this review it has sold around 11k copies, which makes me sad, as there are not too many good games in this genre, and htoL#♥♥♥ is a good one.

P.S. For more awesome hidden gems, follow the steam CRIMINALLY Low Sales curator.

DEADBOLT is an atmospheric fast-paced shooting action game with stealth elements.
The kind where you evaluate your surroundings, come up with tactics for beating the level, try to execute it, fail miserably and try again. Along the way you change your approach until you find something that works, and it's cool that there is more than one solution for beating each level - you can kill everything that moves (if you have enough bullets), you can break through (if you have the speed and the skill), or you can silently sneak to your destination.
Usually, it's the combination of the three, and you'll have to carefully manage which weapon you should use, which enemy you'll kill with it and when - all in a split of a second. It plays a lot like Hotline Miami, actually. So if you like Hotline, you'll like the DEADBOLT.

DEADBOLT has a rather peculiar setting. The location it takes place in is literally called "this Place". It knows no sunshine and its inhabbitants know no warmth, they only ever feel cold. And they surely don't like it, as one of your first assignments in the game is to investigate a new drug bursting on the streets, "The Ash", which allows its users to feel warm and alive. You play as "The Reaper" - a trench-coated hired gun with an empty skull. Your current employer is "The Fire", in much more literal sense than you would think: to communicate, the protagonist actually listens to fire, by lighting a fireplace in his room. You're not the only employee of "The Fire", they have a whole network of agents called "The Candles", black antropomorphic chandeliers. They will provide you with information and assist you in other ways too. The Fire pays for your work with Souls, and you give your Souls to Charon to buy new equipment.

Speaking of equipment, this game has quite a variety of it. You can buy most items, but some of them you can only find within the levels themselves. The weapons have subtle differences: at first they all seem similar, but soon you'll find out that one weapon is super accurate, the other is super silent, third is super strong, fourth has huge clip size - and it all matters for the gameplay. Your arsenal isn't limited to guns only, either — there are other varieties, like a scythe, stun grenades, etc.

To help you to play through the level in the manner you want, this game also has various features, like:

- The ability to turn light on / off in rooms and break lightbulbs;
- Luring enemies in with a sound, like knocking on the door, enabling the microwave, etc;
- Using furniture as cover in a gunfight;
- The ability to transform into smoke and travel through air vents;

All these features can be used whichever style you want to play, giving the gameplay just enough variety.

Visual style and sound design fit together rather well and create a solid impression of the world they depict. As carnage is always an option in DEADBOLT, developers have tried to make particle effects, like explosions, blood splats and body physics as appealing to the eye as possible. There are four factions in the game, and each of them has distinct visual and sound style.

The weapon sounds are right on the spot, and the soundtrack is also cool, with some compositions you'll probably want to listen to even outside of the game.

The game has 27 levels in total, with an unlockable hard mode for additional challenges after the first playthrough. It also has Steam Workshop integration, so you can always get new maps made by other players.

Overall, DEADBOLT is an action game with good mix of stealth, combat and rapid decision-making. According to SteamSpy, at the time of this review it has sold around 32k copies, and it definetly deserves more. Give it a try if you have an insatiable craving for high-paced action games.

P.S. For more awesome hidden gems, follow the steam CRIMINALLY Low Sales curator.