Recent reviews by Harg Hulud

There isn't enough here to justify Wanderstop. The narrative doesn't come together and there is hardly anything to do apart from the conversations.
Gameplay barely exists and most of what does is undermined by the game resetting the conditions of your tea house. The inclusion of these resets is baffling and actively harms interest in the cozier aspects of the game. Why bother collecting knickknacks or sweeping leaves if everything will get overwritten? The only explanation I can come up with is that they realized the mechanics were not enough to carry the game for its run time and forcing you to start over would hide this but it just makes the experience worse.
On the story side, the focus is entirely on the characters. There isn't an overarching narrative and the story telling consists of conversations with visitors to the store. None of the side characters get enough time to be fully fleshed out and will drop dramatic announcements out of the blue or just have their stories peter out. There are a couple of standouts that have an arc but they fail to make any real impression. It also doesn't help that all character stories end with them suddenly being unable to talk to you so there isn't ever closure in the relationships.
The main character is also an issue They hit you over the head with her burnout early on and while it comes across as a little silly, it is an interesting topic to explore. Unfortunately, it doesn't go anywhere. We spend most of our time on the goofy side characters. What we do get on the topic is mostly through her own self reflection and looking to others for a solution but these moment are few and far between. There is a theme of tranquility and giving your self room to exist without a purpose but it comes exclusively from our wise mentor. The remaining cast of characters fail to create anything cohesive and their conversations feel like a checklist to progress the game. There is also an unresolved plot point with major implications that undercuts the theme. I wont bring up the spoiler but it is hard to understand why it was included at all.
I'd skip this entirely, even at a great discount. I kept hoping it would turn things around but by the end I just wanted my time back.

There is a simple joy in the process of cleaning up this little ocean. The mechanics are bare bone and there is absolutely no risk or challenge here so it's not going to be for everyone. The chill vibe worked for me though. I found myself mindlessly ticking areas off the map as I scrubbed them clean and listened to some podcasts. The $20 price is a little high unless you're aching for it's casual, relaxing, atmosphere but at a discount it's an easy buy.

Carrion is fun twist on a Metroidvania. There is something mechanically satisfying about pulling your meat body through the corridors and vents that make up this underground lab, devouring the employees as you go.
That is the high point though, the upgrades and the unlocking of new areas goes from a simple, straight forward, line to an absolute mess of navigation. There is no in game map and the levels rely on portals to take you from one area to the next. That setup make it very difficult to build a map in your head, which leads to the last 40-ish percent of the game devolving into a mess of backtracking and wandering, hoping you end up at the right spot to progress.
The fluidity of movement and the weird joy of using your tentacles to pull your meat blob around carried me through the frustrating last bit but looking back, I would have preferred to drop it at the 50-60% mark. In an already short game, that isn't much to go on. it could be a fun little distraction at a good sales price but you're really not missing anything by skipping this.

The style and visuals are very well done and are probably the best part of the game. The puzzles, which are the entirety of the game play, have some problems though. The majority rely on some fairly narrow timing so you often figure out what to do but then have to repeatedly retry to to get through. The failure state always results in death and these quickly wore on me. I have no problem with gore but there was something about these that got to me. I think the main issue is a delay in watching the animation and getting to retry but watching a kid get dismembered over and over definitely didn't help. The deaths do at least feel consistent with the art style and tone, something the puzzles never really do outside the opening chapter. It's not a bad game but even at a few hours to complete, I think your time would be better spent elsewhere.