Recent reviews by Hermit

♥♥♥♥ the swamp

i have 52 cats. every winter, we run out of food, and my colonists starve. the cats eat their bodies and last long enough until the next summer. if we are lucky a raid of many tribal men will arrive and the cats will have food for months. the cats have kittens, and then we have more cats and need more food. i do not think we will leave this planet

homer, the original pet of the colony has been made fully bionic and will now never die. he is our true leader

Hustle Cat is one of the most enjoyable games I have played in a long time. I was immediately attracted to the project; being a cat lover and appreciating its nonbinary options (and Graves having an uncanny resemblance to my husbando) made me back the kickstarter right away.

Some basic info:

• You can pick your pronouns (She/Her, He/Him, They/Them) and what Avery looks like (you have between masculine presenting and feminine presenting and a range of skin tones) but you cannot change the name. You can change which pronouns you want in the menu, whenever you like.
  
• You can romance any of the characters regardless of any options you pick, however one character is a secret option.
  
• One play through lasts about 2.5 hours to 3 hours. Any subsequent ones will take less if you skip. There are 6 routes in total. There are bad ends.
  
  The good stuff:
  
• The writing is incredibly enjoyable. It's certainly on the meme-y side of things, but the jokes were great, many had me giggling out loud. A lot of scenes made me cry; but YMMV. The characters are all very likeable and have great chemistry with each other. There are so many scenes I enjoyed, and honestly it was just such a fun experience playing it.
  
• The routes are fairly flexible. Some visual novels I have played tend to lock you in pretty early and with obvious choices, but with Hustle Cat they have a points system. Don't feel like picking one option will lock you in to that character.
  
• The art is mostly great. I really like a lot of the sprites, many of the characters have great poses and expressions that really reflect their character. Art is always important in visual novels as it tends to be what people judge the game on, and I think for the most part Hustle Cat does a great job.
  
• The characters are all great. I was immediately draw to Graves, but then began to love Finley and Mason too. And then Hayes, Landry and Reese… Unlocking the secret route involves putting time in with everyone, but I don't believe any one of these characters routes was anything less than enjoyable.
  
• This is an incredibly inclusive game! The fact that you can choose your pronouns and date anyone regardless of gender is incredibly amazing and honestly something that just cannot be faulted, unless you are against anything vaguely 'SJW-like'. The inclusivity is not harming you in any way and you don't have to romance anyone you don't want to; if the games inclusivity bothers you in any way then this just isn't the game for you.
  
  A few issues:
  
• The screenshot button and steam overlay do not work. The game is easily tabbed out of, but I found the fact I couldn't take screenshots with steam really quite disappointed. I wanted to share things with friends who had already played the game and had to use a different piece of software to do so.
  
• This is more or less severe depending on taste, but while I thought the majority of the sprites were good, some of the CG were disappointing. In particular I think of Mason's end CG, which seems to be unshaded and just looks a lot worse compared to the other CG. It almost seems like it was a time issue; the CG simply looks a little unfinished.
  
• The skip button is okay, but could be better. The transitions still take a while and so spamming space bar is often a bit quicker.
  
• The story feels a little disjointed in some places, and the pacing is rather quick. At one point Avery started talking about their crush; I had no idea who it was and how it happened! I know that it was because of a choice I made, but it doesn't make much sense if you play it without realizing that you effectively skipped a scene. I suppose this gave some suspense as to who I was actually romancing… I would've liked it to have been longer so I could spend more time with the characters, but of course I would have expected the price to be more too. In my opinion, this game is good value for money at full price.
  
• There are so few save files! Having played a fair amount of visual novels I am used to having pages and pages of save files, but I found Hustle Cat a bit lacking.
  
  
  I enjoyed Hustle Cat immensely and am so glad I backed it on kickstarter. Whether you're interested in the plot, the cats, the characters, the inclusivity, or something else, you will find this game enjoyable. Visual novel purists might be turned off by the game's elements that are atypical of the genre, but I believe anyone interested in the premise or any of the game's aspect will find it enjoyable. If in doubt, wait for steam sale, but if you're in any way excited by the game, buy it now. Thanks Date Nighto, I won't be forgetting Hustle Cat for a long time.

im still bitter about friendzoned all those years ago: the game

It can run on a toaster and look fantastic while doing so. It's super super fun to play both single and multiplayer. Easy to work out the basics and actually interesting to get the hang of. Plus, when a quick game is 3 hours you know it's got to be a great game.

whop your wallet
whop your wallet
whop your wallet on the counter (to buy this game)

What a super fun game. Enough added features to call it an improvement from the second.

Play this game if you want your heart eaten, chewed to shreds and then spat back out on your face

this game is fun buy it now