Recent reviews by Amsel in Distress

I played the Remake right after playing the original game - that's how impressed I was by this one. While the Remake adds a certain emotionality to the characters and story, the original sucks you in through its unique atmosphere. It's a fast paced mystery with a little bit of trial and error that feels outdated from time to time, but it's still a really cool story with very interesting themes. You really can't go wrong with these action-packed 3 hours of a game.

I played this Remake right after playing the original game, which I found very interesting and atmospheric. This Remake has not the unique feeling to it, but makes it up in terms of emotions. The characters feel much more lively (especially the main protagonist) and some story bits were added to clarify things that were left open for guessing in the original game. The epilogue was a precious addition where I realized how much these characters grew on me.
I don't know if I would've been so invested had I only played the Remake, but I'm still inclined to rate it as a very cool Visual Novel for itself.
Also, I had no translating issues whatsoever, and everything worked well on Steamdeck.

This might be a short and small game, but it honestly doesn't feel that way. The concept is interesting, there are TONS of different things to do (decisions, minigames, gaining memories, or you can just smoke 10 cigarettes in a row), and it's fun to explore the world with all its possibilities. The personality test seems like the main appeal of this game, but there's actually a "hidden" story in there, too - and not a bad one at that.
Definitely recommended!

Overall this is a really well made tactics game. The menu, the interface, the artworks and the voiceover are of high quality and hooked me immediately. The gameplay was, while a little bit clunky and with a few hiccups here and there, very fun.
At the start, you can choose a class for each of the three characters you have available for a chapter, and while they are all somehow related (like thief and assassin for Lynn), they have unique abilities. And there are many small items and rewards which allow you to customize your characters as you wish. The whole system was very motivating for me.
The battle interface doesn't feel as polished as the rest of the game, but the maps work as intended and I had no bugs whatsoever. The story is also not that intriguing - at least not yet - but the protagonists are all likeable.
I'm going to check out the full game, for sure.

Vom Drachentöten war für mich, die nicht unbedingt große Herausforderungen braucht und ungeduldig lieber vorankommt, als an schwierigen Stellen wiederholt zu tüfteln, oftmals nicht leicht. Vielmehr wurde ich von Anfang an die ganze Zeit von Selbstzweifeln geplagt - soll ich überhaupt noch an den nächsten Ort reisen, nur um wieder im Kampf zu versagen? Wo kann ich überhaupt noch weitermachen, so schlecht wie ich mich schlage?

Naja, der stete Tropfen höhlt selbst den größten Felsen.

Dieses Spiel hat nicht nur eine ganz eigene Atmosphäre, die einen direkt abholt und mit auf die Reise mit den authentischen Protagonist:innen nimmt, sondern hat auch unglaublich motivierendes Gameplay. Jede kleine Entdeckung birgt Interessantes, jede neue Quest fühlt sich bedeutsam an, und jede einzelne geschaffte Aufgabe ist ein Erfolgserlebnis.
Aus dem RPG-Maker als Einzelperson in relativ kurzer Zeit so viel herauszuholen, ist wirklich beeindruckend.
Definitiv eine Empfehlung solange man kein Spiel zum Abschalten oder "mal schnell durchspielen" sucht. Vom Drachentöten erfordert Konzentration und auch ein wenig Durchhaltevermögen, aber es belohnt einen dafür auch mit einem ziemlich einzigartigen Erlebnis.

It's rare for a game this short to leave some impact on me, but Mr. Saitou managed just that - when I think about it, I still have to smile like an idiot. It's a wholesome experience. Don't expect a whole lot of gameplay - the puzzles are stupendously easy - but instead, expect to go on a heartwarming journey, with your everyday guy, who manages to rediscover that the world can be full of wonder.

If you like point & click adventures and love animals, this game is absolutely for you. It's as simple as that.

There are not many negative things to say about this game. It's very polished all around: The art style is wonderful, the writing is very good and super funny, the voice actors are amazing and there are lovely little details everywhere.
Don't expect a murder mystery and detective game gameplay-wise, though. Solving riddles, getting clues and combining items is more about helping Lord Winklebottom and his companion Dr. Frumple (my spirit animal) to move forward, rather than really solving the case (I honestly wonder how those two even solved any cases at all before the events of the game, but okay... xD). The important conclusions come with the story, but that's perfectly fine. It's so much fun to talk to the various characters and suspects that I occasionally forgot that I actually had to find a murderer among them anyways.
It's a little bit unfortunate that you cannot save during some events, and I would've liked to have even more dialogue options with the characters, but other than that, I have no complaints at all. The game is also surprising and creative, and perfectly paced with just about 5 hours.
It's fun and very well made - definitely recommended!

My Lovely Wife can get repetitive, I'll give you that. But it's also easy to understand and that means you can progress really fast, if you want. No reason to get bored.
You can also take your time to unlock and get to know the succubi, which I highly recommend. The succubi (and their georgious artworks) are the main selling points here and it's extremely addictive to try to unlock all 20 of them! They all have there own characteristics, alliances and preferences, so you'll easily find plenty of favorites.
If you don't expect this to be a deep or challenging management & dating sim, but a small scaled and amusing way to unlock wonderfully designed demons, you'll have a lot of fun!

Dear Review-Readers, y'all probably know it already: The game gets more & more linear and philosophical towards the end and then kind of cuts you off while you weren't looking. Roll credits.
I still think the sheer amount of negative reviews is NOT what this game deserves. Why, you ask?
The amount of detail is amazing, I still think much work was put into every chapter, character and location and it shows. I didn't know it at first, but I quickly fell for this corrupted and dark world and its numerous struggling characters. While there's not much to be done other than talking and walking and looking at things, it still feels as if you would do stuff all the time, just because there are these tiny little side things to discover.
So when I saw the kind of rushed ending I wasn't mad or confused - I was just sad. Because the developers made me care for that Raccoon guy in his trench coat and I just wanted to go out on the streets with him again, ask Anatoly about his 12 or what kids, before strolling down to the back alley to meet up with Larry.
Also, I can live with unanswered questions and kind of liked where this was going with Renee, but that's probably, or hopefully, stuff for a sequel.

Magellania is a small tactics-RPG with a unique style.
It's a fun game with some small issues - but if you know exactly what to expect from this game and you're still interested, please buy it. You will have a great time.

So here are the things you should know first:
- There's no proper ingame menu. Settings can be adjusted before loading a save or starting a new game.
- You can only access and adjust your recruits in your home base or at the start of a battle
- No EXP grinding or levels. Your party will only gain stats through equipment (=badges).
- I have lots of duplicate badges already (about halfway through but with optional battles), I don't know if I have seen them all or if I just have a little bit of bad luck with the randomness.

With that in mind, I really want to recommend the game. The character portraits are awesome and dialogues are well written & extremely funny. The battles are challenging and something you really have to think about - you can't just grind your way to victory, and I found that this was a really refreshing take on the tactics genre.
You won't need to put hours and hours of your free time into the mechanics of Magellania to understand the game and make progress, and at the same time the game will never bore you because it always adds new little twists to the battles.

What I really want to say with all of this: This game deserves more attention.