Recent reviews by yarow12

Having finally finished my first playthrough, I can finally say this: "Yeah, it's pretty good." 👍🏿
It's also a bit addictive, so take breaks to avoid burnout. If you aren't willing to, do harder missions than you normally would.
One thing it does really well is, during story missions, surprise dahell outta me. I'm talkin' "wtf, y'all actually did that?" ♥♥♥♥. Just "what in the actual hell, that looks so dope compared to the usual" vibes. These changes really help spice things up.

Oh, do yourself a favor and turn on combat's fast mode in the settings. It might end up feeling like normal speed halfway through anyway and you'll wish you could make it faster. 😅

Interesting short solo game worth giving a try if you don't mind a few bugs (play in windowed mode). It doesn't actually
get interesting until people move into Midchester, so consider heading West as soon as you can and getting those repairs started after selling your loot.
You'll get to the post-game within 3hrs, and judging by the screenshots there's still content I haven't gotten to yet. 🤷🏿‍♂️
My favorite part, though? The worldbuilding. 🤔

Keep in mind that this was the 2nd Spiders game I've played, and I was already a fan after Mars: War Logs. At 33.75hrs (including time spent distracted), I've finally beaten it on Hawk difficulty as an axe-wielding pyromancer. Yeah, the endboss was some bs with its difficulty. Actually, it wasn't that hard after a re-upgrade of all equipment to accommodate for the fight (and changed tactics; see Steam Discussions for advice on how to cheese the first phase). But when I tell you this game threw me once dat track kicked in? 👌🏿
Y'all, it was surreal.

As for the rest of it, the story's interesting and they've made an interesting world with lore I wish I could read about tbh. The main characters are very much their own people with contrasting interests from time to time. The companions all compliment different playstyles (and boss fights). The combat and upgrade system's a progression from MWL, which I love to see.

Only complaint I can recall is that I had to take a break from the game once I got to Chapter 3 since... they chose a particular method to crank the difficulty up. One that was exhausting at that point. Did it bother me after my months-later return? Barely.

Is there anything I'd want changed? Make the endboss a bit less needing of cheese and remove a single enemy from (almost) every combat area of Chapter 3.

There are some bugs here and there, though, unfortunately. Mostly in dialogue with half of (or an entire) line not being read by the voice actor. Chapter 2's got a quest bug of sorts involving the blacksmiths that... basically makes the decision for you. That wasn't fun, but I don't recall any others.

Oh, let's be real here. In both BF and MWL, Spiders has a single woman scantily dressed in tattered clothes revealing her body. 😐
Initially, "Okay... whatever. Just make her interesting and not a damsel atleast." And they did.
Problem is... in one of the routes... they handle her final scene in [unfortunate] taste. Slightly inappropriate and a bit concerning. 😑

Love the soundtrack.
One thing the game did well is just almost not stretch itself out or overstay its welcome. While it can end with room for a sequel, I do appreciate the developers saying "alight, we'll stop it here" and letting things be as they are even if vague. Like others say, that's what fanfiction is for.

​While this did send my mind places that I would've preferred it hadn't, I'm glad to have experienced it (and survived). Thanks for making this. This relatable game that I took 8 years to finally play.

4.2hrs & 10 years later review
I never finished playing this game because it's terrible. Not terribly made, but terrible to experience. It's just too damn scary. And the immersion doesn't help. ♥♥♥♥ that dog. And ♥♥♥♥ that spider.

Do not play this game. It's so addictively fun that you'll end up wanting a story mode, which you'll only get a taste of in this crack edition of sorts. Trust me. Do not try; you'll only want to buy.

On a more serious note, I did find myself strategizing every turn even though my team was effectively unbeatable. So yeah, it's a lot more fun than it may look at first glance. Again, crack.

So, this game is pretty good. Its strength lies in its dialogue primarily, its artwork secondarily, and its soundtrack tertiarily.

The dialogue has a realistic feel to it with the way the characters interact and discuss politics, strategy, and their own lives. It's consistently interesting enough for me to wantingly talk to every NPC twice in order to see what else they'd reveal about the game world, their lives, and other characters. Speaking of which, the conflicts between the main characters and certain NPC's were always thrill to witness. I'm going off on a tangent, though, because the best parts of the dialogue are the intriguing political and tactical discussions. The Big Three's discussion of how best to proceed with the upcoming battle caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting the writer(s) to present much of anything in that regard, really.

The artwork is so appreciable. It accomplishes two things: 1) Impresses me with its lovely intricacy and 2) Maintains my interest by being distinctly different from most RPG's of similar style. It's got such a look of something that was carefully crafted that I often gazed upon it in appreciation. I'd like to see how it holds up in ten years' time. Should be an interesting contrast to other games.

The soundtrack caught me off guard a bit. Didn't expect it to fully take me in like that from time to time. Totally buying it on Bandcamp after this review, btw. Do yourself a favor, do not listen to the OST before defeating the Enders. You'll ruin atleast one hell of a moment for yourself if you do.

As for the rest of the game...
The game's Easy mode feels unchallenging until the Enders, as intended. Hard mode was ridiculous at first, but I eventually realized it was designed to force players to think about every action before they make them. I'm gonna save it for the second playthrough.
The combat in general is simple but not without forethought. It took quite some time for me to settle on character builds. While I initially chose my main party based on personalities (for the roleplay), I found myself switching one of them out everytime I hit the third mark, with one of my original mains (Ylianne) coming back in just before the end-game.
The ending was definitely something to think about, but I felt somewhat deflated by the way the game stops. While the developers clearly put some work into it, I'm gonna suspect spreading that very-ending across 6 different characters had a lot to do with the lack of... well, what the game does best. Still worth it, though. Tempted to skip the second playthrough and start Howl of the Ravager so I can get on dat sequel from last week.

I should give a warning about the game. It's not action-heavy. This is the type of game one plays to relax a bit and enjoy a plot while engaging in challenging combat (if not set to Easy mode). If you're on Easy mode, do not expect any adrenaline rushes outside of key battles. To make this more clear, I halted my Howl of the Ravager DLC playthrough so I could enjoy something more action-ey for awhile--The Last Remnant. Still recommend the game, though.

It's a very enjoyable experience with a few minor bugs and some noticeable variations in voice quality. I'm only two hours in, and they weren't joking in the Store page's description when they said it "follows ['Spice and Wolf' and 'Maoyuu Maou Yuusha''s] tradition of placing emphasis on relationships, money and politics."


I recommend this game in its Early Access state, but not without a warning. It's hella interesting, a surprisingly fun ride, and all around worth checking out (after the next patch). It starts off odd, caught my interest in the third scene, and captured me by the fifth. Favorite character so far: Merchant (with Violetta a close second).

There's definitely some degree of love put into this game's characters and artwork. I admire it to a degree. Even chuckled a bunch with Violetta's personality being what it is and all. You'll probably warm up to her by the 4th scene. The music is pretty good too, btw. It really helps immerse me into the scene at the times.

About the warning. The game has very minor problems before Violetta makes it to Farmer. Like, very minor. Not even worth listing. Then you meet a certain someone whose audio is non-existent, but her presence is somehow causing Farmer's audio to become non-existent too? Whatever. The problem leaves with her and doesn't return. Besides, it's not like you can't just read the dialogue boxes. But that brings me to the next problem I encountered: entire sections of a dialogue box won't have audio. It can be anywhere between a fourth and three-fourths. This lasts for a few scenes after Violetta enters Farmer's home. I assume the developers re-did the lines and haven't released or received the new recordings yet. Regardless, these are moderate problems.

The major problem didn't get to me until it persisted for a bunch of scenes. A certain sprite doesn't disappear like it should in a scene after the previous problems cease. It just stays there. Haunting you for two whole scenes. Then, the game switches over to the other sprite and the previous one haunts you for scenes to come. How many scenes? I don't even know. I stopped playing because it became too bothersome after two more, especially since it was way~ more visible than the former sprite. Like, stare-you-in-the-eye visible.

But you know what, I'm still glad I backed it on Kickstarter and finally gave it a solid 3hrs of my time. I want to finish this, so I hope the developers manage to release the next patch soon.

6/10 with the problems. 9/10 without the major one.

Yeah, this is pretty solid. Think Darkest Dungeon's sudden banes/afflictions mixed with the need to memorize Dark Souls: PDE's enemy patterns. Now add more pixilation and a random loot system that seems to scale to... your items?

It's the kind of game that wisely rewards long dungeon runs. I find myself not wanting to stop for the sake of keeping the all-powerful items I've accumulated over the hours... and then I die. Then I head straight back in out of spite... and eventually die. For those who aren't aware, dying means losing everything but your boons/blessings. Restarting the game in any way means losing everything entirely. Your progress through the dungeon and interactions are seamlessly saved without any notification, mind you.

Other than the joy of finding better items and defeating bosses, I really dig the lore. There are letters, books, NPC's, and item descriptions to read through for those interested in the plot. The game even has an unlockable library that stores all of the first two.

Bug-wise, I think I've encountered on or two, but nothing major.

Recommendation: Don't treat it like a hack & slash, do exhaust NPC dialogue, and do pickup (most) equipment even if it's just to switch back to the previous. That is all.

Life is Stange is a game for people who enjoy engaging with diverse characters who all have their own lives to deal with. It's a game for people who love character studies. For people who prefer to reload a save just to see what would happen if they chose the other option. For people who prefer bright-colored, dark-themed experiences. It's a game for people who want to hurt.

And at the very end of Chapter 4, with 25 hours on record, I realized something: Right now, I just can't.