Recent reviews by SebbyPhantom

The Shattering is a very interesting take on the "let's dive deep into this person's memory" kinda game. I enjoyed the overally style of the game, with mostly black and white and little splashes of color. The story is also quite well done and the interactive questioning is a nice touch.

John's story is very interesting and unusual, when i first played it, i was very surprised by the turn of events towards the end. When i played it for the second time i was amazed that there are quite a few clues in the game beforehand.

One run takes about 2 hours and you have to play it twice if you want to see both endings (they only differ in the very last scene though and you don't really need to see both anyways). Still, even with a playtime of 4.5 hours, i think that the full price is maybe a bit too much. I bought the game on sale for a lot less and feel that was an appropriate price for it.

The first tree is an okay game. The story is nothing too special and is easily missed if you fail to find all story elemets in each level.
The levels are to big and often a pain to work through, the voiceacting is off somehow and the achievements a pain in the a**. One playthrough takes about 90 minutes and if you take the achievement grind out of it, full price is a bit much for that. The game looks somewhat pretty but the fox moves very unnatual and weird, the jumping is hard to work with...

On deep sale this might be worth it but The first tree didn't make a huge impact on me.

Before I Forget is a really touching story game about a woman with dementia and her lovestory that she rediscovers.
You walk through a desaurated flat and can interact with certain items that return the color to nearby surroundings. I can't possibly say whether Sunita's dementia is portrayed authentically or not as I have never spent a lot of time with a person with this illness. But I really felt her confusion, pain and anger at herself and the world.

I really liked the experience of this game but i don't think it's a must play. Especially when the game costs 6 bucks and only has about an hour of playtime.

Beacon Pines has a wild and unexpected story. There were so many twists and turnes and i didn't see any of them coming!
For a visual novel, you also have a lot of gameplay as you are moving your character of the map and not only choosing their replies.
Beacon Pines also has an interesting stystem to grant you influence over the story. Over the course of the story you will unlock new words by interacting with people/ the environment and you can then use these words to change the course of the story. It makes for a unique way to go back to a point further back to try out new options.

I am not sure if i fully apprechiate the ending chosen for Luca but the general experience of playing beacon pines was a satisfying one.

The Sokpop games are a bit hit-or-miss and i was really hoping for this one to be good, and what can i say it IS!

This is definitely one of the best sokpop games i have played so far, i liked it better than stackland or sokfest.

You are given clicks as a currency and have to gather ressources, build houses/defense, generate more clicks in order to get rid of the waves of enemies that constantly get stronger. You can unlock more buildings over time, try out different strategies and make your defenses better.

i really love the gameplay and had a blast beating the 100 days. i do have to say tho that once you have made it past ~60 days you are pretty much in the clear as the waves after that are not really that difficult anymore.

As good as this game may be, after YEARS they have not managed to fix their controller support and that pissed me off. If you are playing with controller, the mapping is randomly thrown around between buttons and nothing works as it should.

Short, lovely game game about cleaning up the ocean, bonding with the creatures living on this planet and healing nature.

it is fairly short (less than 5 hours if you don't go after the grindy and time consuming achievements) but really enjoyable non the less. The graphics are really cute and the gameplay is very relaxing. You have to try very hard to die and even when you do, you are not punished for it (other than being brought back to base).

Not sure if i would have bought it for full price tho!

the game is cute and all but for me it was lacking a certain something.
variety of fish, decorations, etc is very limited and it quickly feels like you are doing the same thing over and over again. Fish get hungry so fast that you end up constantly feeding them, the game is lacking instructions, the tanks always look so small that the fish overpower it.
And if you want to get real price money in the pageants you have to seriously SPAM decorations and your tank will be ugly AF.

In the end, Aqua Pals is pretty much a clicker game but each money making click is an animation that seemingly takes forever.

I personally feel like there are better aquarium sims out there.

Murderous Muses is the first game from this developer I've played.
I really do like the idea behind it and the gameplay is interesting to a point. The graphics are good, the acting, etc all pretty well done.

Now the huge BUT: while i enjoyed playing the game the first time, and while i was excited for the case to be different each time (different murderer), even after playing 4 rounds i still don't fully understand why each of the characters would want to kill the painter, what the painter's intention was, what the videos with the little girl mean, how the characters are connected, etc. There is a huge amount of information in the videos but i still fail to see the story as a whole.

I have spent alomst 7 hours being confused by the characters and the story of the painter and even though i have unlocked everything possible in the game i don't feel like it really mattered because everything is so complex and vague that i'm just left out.

Even with the game being fun for the most part, for the above reasons i am not able to recommend it. There is no Aha moment, no pride in solving the murder if there is so much confusion and frustration left.

I have playe4d 4 other games from this developer (Between time, tested on humans, regular factory, palindrome syndrome) and have only semi enjoyed those. When i got Mystic academy i wasn't aware is was the same dev but it quickly became apparent.

Mystic academy starts out quite good, most of the puzzles are fun and can be solved without having to go back and forth over and over again or having to connect 3 different things. Sadly, these over complicated puzzles take over the further you get. Often you attempt to solve something without knowing that you need to do something different first. it is very annoying because you never really know which puzzle you are menat to think about next. The hints are often not helpful at all and there is only one, if you don't understand after revealing it you will have to look up a guide if you are still struggling.
i also found many puzzles towards the end to not really be logical. i still don't understand why the solution to the coat of arms puzzle was what it was even though i think i understood what you were supposed to do.

In the end, i only played for 2 hours and was happy once i had completed the game. Most of my playtime was spent in confusion and frustration, i don't really wish this experience on anyone else.