Recent reviews by mermandrake

The first time I finished it, it didn't have a lot of the DLC's, and I found it to be an excellent, poetic metroidvania with excellent, fun platforming and combat and platforming combat and more importantly, ASTONISHING exploration. The art style and the map design are so inspiring. The second time I'm playing it, I see they've added so many fun areas and bosses. Amazing game.

It's a great, suspenseful story with tasteful twists and hot characters. It let me express myself, and branches are genuine branches and don't merge in a few scenes and get forgotten. I felt that I've crafted my own way through this.

Good things I can say about this: Great voice performances, cool art style and I never found myself choosing a dialogue option where the character was not as tactful as I thought she'd be. You know how sometimes in visual novels and RPGs you click [Refuse.] and your character does the [Have an absolute meltdown.] instead? They managed to always avoid that, and it's their first game. Kudos.

This is more of a visual novel than a roleplaying game, and not even a great one at that. Unless you're really interested in how this studio specifically approached making a game around voice talent, or you're invested in the performers starring in this, I doubt you'll find it worth your while.

In a very short window (I played for about 5 hours), they tried setting up a murder mystery, a relatable/interesting main character with their own life and things they cared about before all this, a bunch of worldbuilding with their own take on how old-timey gods could be walking among us, and some "romancing" opportunities. None of these elements are very exciting.

I actually felt proud of myself as an investigator playing this game. No frustration where you have no clue where to look next, no obvious hand-holding.

The mechanics force your hand to draw your own conclusions and report them, and the feedback on your report pushes you into discovering the missing pieces yourself.

Even some mysterious gaps that bridge the levels together that I couldn't initially figure out are exposed in the end via another puzzle, the epilogue. I also had the opportunity to figure out the entire thing before the epilogue, so nailing it without any work made me feel proud. Like I figured out a huge plot twist in a detective novel right before the big reveal.

This game does exactly what it promises. You dress up, dish dirt and flirt with socialites to make a nice living and influence history. The game feels more like a board game with a lot of room to express yourself going for multiple victory conditions, and not at all like an RPG. This is not a bad thing. For example, the game doesn't bog itself down with detailed descriptions each piece of cheap gossip you dig up. It's abstracted in a board-gamey way which helps you focus on what matters.

The tactical decisions you make really matter, and you feel like a badass when you can min-max within the few days until the next party to skyrocket your credibility and get everyone to eat out of your hand.

It's a great RPG. Gives you so much room to express yourself. The gameplay is tight and tactical, but there's no combat.

You aren't fighting monsters in this RPG.

You're fighting what comes after late-stage capitalism, and you're fighting for your life.

The thrill of actually getting that "I win" card that you crafted earlier, the game constantly pushing you out of your comfort zone for builds, that's all great. Also, cool atmosphere. Win or lose, there's fun stuff tı mess around with in the room at each run.

I saw the promise pf playing a mage in a lot of games. All they've really allowed me to do was go "pew pew" with lightning instead of bullets.

This is the game that let me feel like a magical person the most, because I'm using my actual hands and eyes to make each magc potion just right. I explore a metaphysical space where mysterious magic effects await.

This is the best video game if you are playing video games to express yourself. The systems let you co-author the main character, and though the past and a lot of the identity is set in stone, there's such a range to what you can steer this person into.

I have laughed out loud and teared up playing this.

I chose to play a good boy, but Kim is best boy forever.

The puzzle part is unique and I guess some people like it?.. The story is gross and problematic, and it's so fake-deep.

I'm here to puzzle-platform, don't ask me "Is marriage where life begins or ends?" like you care. Both answers make me wanna puke, and you force me to answer that so I can puzzle platform. Why? So you can talk about your twisted observation that "Women are so manipulative and obsessed with bagging dudes" or that "Men have such poor impulse control, they can't help cheating on their fiancees sometimes". Gross.