Recent reviews by A_Phosphorus_Invention

The best way to sum up KOTH is as a first-person, single-piece chess game. The movement is point-and-click, with some limitation. However you wish to classify it, it's a fun game. If you read other reviews or parts of the discussion boards, you'll run across the name "The Sentinel". KOTH is heavily influenced by this DOS game from 1986. Having never played The Sentinel myself, I'm coming into this experience with zero experience. The game is very easy to pick up, but has a slight learning curve. There are 2 modes: Classic and Arcade. In Arcade, you have no limit to moving around. If you can see a square, you can move to it. You will need to absorb trees in order to gain energy to build blocks, which are necessary to get to elevated parts of the topography. While in Classic, in order to move you will first need to place an "Avatar" for your character, then possess and snap to that space where you avatar once was. This is a much more challenging version of the game. You will need to absorb trees and place blocks just like in Arcade, but you'll need to be far more mindful of your energy use and re-absorption.

As you may derive from the title, KOTH, is a game where you become King of the Hill. The cyclopic black tower in the center of every level is The KOTH. You must slay the creature by absorption and then replace it to win. This is why I think of it as a single-piece chess game as you move your character across a chess-board like environment with strategically raised plateau and layers. KOTH watches the outstretching board with a beam that destroys artificial structures you place, while leaving trees unharmed. If the beam touches you, you die. You'll respawn where you started, however, anything you collected along the way will be gone.

I absolutely recommend checking out KOTH. If you're a casual player, completionist, speedrunner, or VR-enthusiast looking for an odd title to conquer, KOTH has something for you.

I really enjoyed The Park. I was nervous with not being a fan of horror in general, but I have to admit this was a strong title for telling a short story about a mother reliving her past while struggling with her present situation. The game feels simple in design, you explore a park with 6 locations, which you can explore in no-particular order, and then a maze-like area serving as the game's finale. I highly advise following the narrative in the order that locations "present" themselves for the story to make the most sense. Basically, you can wander on your own, but I think it may actually harm your playthrough if you choose to do so.
I don't want this to come across as pretentious, but I think it's insanely brave of a game to talk about postpartum depression in such a forward way. The game is far more than that, but I think my review would be lacking if I did not say that. The voice actress for the character of Lorraine did such a fantastic job that I tried to find every single note just to hear more of the tone and presentation Fryda Wolff brought to the table. Andrew Kishino's role of the Bogeyman was intensely creepy and well done as well. I'm not at all familiar with The Secret World game via first-hand experience, but from my knowledge prior to and subsequent research after playing The Park I'm led me to believe there's far more going on than what can be seen during this game's events.
In any case, I think this is a really cool experience, even for people who don't like the horror scene like I do or amusement parks which I do not either. The rides are not sickening, but they are intense enough to feel real enough for the sake of the game. I thought they added a charm and misery to an already fear-driven story. The roller coaster in particular is an extremely well executed set piece both in narration and visual spectacle.
I'm sure duration is a worry for players and while I think The Park could have been a bit longer and more details about the land and park's true purpose and the ending could have been more clear, and more robust, I still think it was enough to say the whole experience is extremely worth embarking on. It's entirely up to you though if you want to take a walk in The Park.

Phenomenal. Gorgeous artwork mixed with a haunting sound design bring together one of the most poignant, honest indies I'm proud to own. This is an achievement of storytelling. A macabre struggle of both the innocence of a young girl's imagination intertwined with the brutality of adult addiction and irresponsibility. As each chapter progresses with Lydia attempting to find a monster of her mind, the world becomes more twisted, but far more real. The very flesh of her imagination running wild slides off in a brilliant, bleak ending that caught me so off-guard moments after it peeled my comfort away with the monster's unmasking. This game made me uncomfortable. It made me cry. Most of all it made me feel an almost irrational, unhinged hatred mixed with an unending despair against realities I have never had to face, but know so many must have had to completely alone. This game is an excellent experiment that uses sorrow as a stage and plays a meaningful message that you should most certainly experience.

Pony knocks it out of the park again. This game takes a "Minesweeper" approach to unveiling its puzzles and utilizes that simple detection system to make something really challenging. It's all about breaking yellow squares and revealing helpful black and dangerous red squares; without any explosives involved. Every mechanic introduced stays with you for almost the entirety of the game, so the puzzles most certainly get more difficult as you progress. Puzzles will become multidimensional very quickly, and their structures more complex with superior ways of deceiving you. While you can overcome the complexities with memorization, the in-game tricks of narrowing down which squares were which always made for really exciting moments. This an excellent example of how a short puzzle game can make 50 levels, which may seem like low quantity, a memorable game of quality. Give this one a try for sure. It's a great addition for the puzzle-addicted gamer.

Perfect for a tightly focused game. With only 12 screens, Hostil provides a short narrative about a boy trapped on a hostile alien world. Some puzzles are observational based while others you'll be solving tune. Speaking of sound, this game has fantastic sound design. Objects that are really only there to make the scene look good will give off a noise if you inspect them, even on the main menu. The art is beautiful, feeling like a ravenous world coming apart, but underneath the devastation was once a thriving, lush world. Hostil is not a difficult game and I think that puts it in a perfect place to educate players into the Point & Click genre. Each screen is set up to be a simple math equation, you'll be looking for a lone or sometimes two objects to bypass a blocked or cut off area. Though Hostil is short, I think it's a great title to add to your collection whether you're a veteran to the genre or just starting out. There's heart and a curiosity in exploring this game. I'm absolutely looking forward to more from this developer. Hostil is charming and gorgeous and leaves curiosity and discovery to the player with a satisfaction from solving its dangers. Absolutely worthwhile.

Really solid puzzle game. All of the challenge is derived from movement and eventually placement; both of which are have their individual time to shine, but the real value comes from when Up Left Out marries these two aspects. Movement becomes very strict in some cases and you'll need to think ahead before solving some levels, otherwise, you'll spend most of your time simply rearranging rather than actually solving. This is rare, but can present a frustration. Most of the game is well-balanced and the difficulty has a fairly well-balanced curve. It will, when teaching you a new mechanic, give you a few easy levels, which makes the game thorough in its process. This is not the case by the ending levels, as they are certain challenges of all block shapes and mechanics integrated in much more complex puzzles. Up Left Out is a great game by a dedicated development team that knows precisely what they're doing with each title.

I'm always impressed when I run into a Visual Novel that somehow brings into focus a topic, or in Carpe Diem: Reboot's case, several topics, that I struggle with. Identity has always been a fascinating aspect of human culture. The idea of existence and what it means to physically and mentally be allowed to question the concept of how we can question, how we can attempt to look outside ourselves at our preternatural and/or learned behavior and wonder why they are possible. The art of discovery is a fascinating journey to me. In Carpe Diem: Reboot, I was expecting a story about our main character's falling in a one-sided love, with tension, and eventual understanding. This story is so far deeper than anything I could have predicted. Without spoilers, the game picks up where the first game left off, showing Ai working on digital projects for Jung. Ai's life moves from a program to a physical body and the antics and drama that come from that are really a splendid jumping off point for a really honest, insanely well-voice acted story to unfold. Along the way of learning what it is to be "human", Ai meets people from all walks of life and becomes the bridge for interaction both philosophical and emotional. This is an excellent Visual Novel, with some hard hitting writing fantastically delivered. It is my sincere hope that Moonlit Works has a long career bringing titles out if this is what they can bring together. Your owe it to yourself to read this one.

Adorable Match-3 game. Pretty simple and obvious matching, especially when it comes to matching 4, which gives you a powered up creature and matching 5 that gives you a rainbow shell. Both of these give you much more points in creating further matches, but the rainbow shells can make up the difference for a whole star in completing a level. These are extremely valuable when you get two beside each other and can clear the whole board in a single move. This gave me 3 Stars instantly, though points threshold may differ depending on the level, so be wary about that. The boosters are pretty fair, ranging from single creature removal, to directions, one entire creature type snatched away. You can grind out previous levels to gain some more coins to buy more, as well as extra moves in case you run out. Overall the game is fair, but certainly offers challenges with much heavier goals and points needed to pass a level as you progress. I'd say the difficulty shifts based on goals rather than how deep you go into the game, but that really gives you a variety of levels you need to be prepared for and learn how to make the best matches when tackling them. Mermaid Land puts a cute costume on a relaxing genre. I definitely enjoyed my time.

Really cool puzzle game that appears really simple at first, but is actually a pretty decent challenge. Most of the game's 9 levels really only require precise attention to the order of operations you have to work with. There are several hazards in each level, with complete avoidance as key to bypass them, however, that's easier said than done. You can move a number of characters through their respective layers to exits, but making a clear path for each ball is very delicate. You can easily trap your characters, destroy them, or even invert their layer without needing to. It's a tight game of balancing what each character, button, and object has to do and where it needs to be before thinking about the endgame. Essentially the game feels like a series of strings with different knots or breaks that need to be pulled apart and then reconstructed. I think that's where the most surprising and honestly really fun aspect comes from. It's actually pretty thrilling to get each part in order and then nail the ending. Maybe I'm gushing a bit too much and even found some levels harder because I overthought the order in which things needed to be pulled apart. The game also includes a level editor that can challenge you to make an equation of your own for others to solve. All in all, I definitely recommend you get lost in Layers.

Captive is a chilling game. I was unsure of what to do the moment I saw the timer start counting down. I knew though I had to get the character out and fast. Which each corridor and room containing part of this weird and terrifying mystery, more and more tension built to whether or not she was going to bleed out. There was shocking scenes in graphic detail, which made for a really brutal and bitter story that keeps the focus right on saving your character. Nothing should be overlooked, anything could be a clue or a weapon or something to take the pain away. Maybe that thing moving toward me at the end of the hall. Wait.
Brief energy, dwindling time, and horrifying hallucinations make Captive an awesome horror game for your collection. Get it and get yourself out.