Yay! Just saw this on Twitter!
Oh wow, yeah I see what you mean. That’s very surprising given how lovely their previous characters looked!
I played a good bit of this yesterday and… it’s underwhelming, at least so far. Basic farming game mechanics, fine but nothing special. That would be okay if the people in town were a joy to talk to, like the characters in Wide Ocean, but they aren’t at all! It’s almost as if they’re trying hard to make these characters dull and the conversations pointless. I’m really mystified by what they were going for here.
The Good Gardener was a rougher game, but its farming mechanics had a point and reinforced an atmosphere of oppression and failure. These mechanics don’t seem to say anything. Well, maybe there’s an idea of striving to transcend labor and everyday life (by buying your way onto the moon elevator), but that’s pretty pedestrian for an indie game these days.
I can tell I have one or two more things to discover in this game, so I’ll stick with it a little longer, but as of now I don’t think I’d recommend it.
Ah that’s a shame and so… weird. Wide Ocean Big Jacket has such a lovely and expressive visual style with relatable, memorable characters/conversations. I thought at the very least they’d get the conversations right! I never did play The Good Gardener despite loving the look and sound of it.
Another thumbs up for Boneraiser. I actually enjoyed it more than VS which is saying a lot.
Currently on sale, bought! Hey, maybe this will cure my Slice and Dice addiction? Hehe, which would be like switching from cigarettes to cigars or some such. Sure looks like it has comparable gameplay.
Good luck with that snicker
I’ve been enjoying Contraband Police. I discovered it from watching my favorite Twitch streamer Squirrel. It’s sorta like a 3D first person version of Papers, Please. The more accurate you are with your inspections, the more money you make, which lets you upgrade stuff and hire more guards.
Anyone played Big Ambitions? Looks sort of interesting.
I’ve seen some streams of this and while it feels like it starts out strong, it doesn’t look like there’s a ton of variety in the businesses you own. So I think that once you get ‘established’ as a successful businessman the gameplay loop sort of fizzles out. That’s my speculation though.
It IS in EA so there’s hope they can flesh out the gameplay more (though to be honest I dunno if that’s on the radar).
Failbetter Games’s Mask of the Rose has a final release date, June 8. I say “final” because originally they were shooting for April but looks like it just couldn’t happen.
Laura Shigihara (designer of the touching narrative game Rakuen and also composer of Plants vs. Zombies soundtrack) has a new game coming out tomorrow, Mr. Saitou.
As Left_Empty said:
Loved the demo of this so obviously I just bought it. Add it to the 2023 deluge of highly anticipated releases! It’s only March for crying out loud.
The Steam reviews are troubling. I really enjoyed the demo myself, but apparently the full release game is extremely short and doesn’t have many of the alternate possibilities present in the demo - or so say some of the reviews. Will be interested to hear from a reliable source. :)
Aw. I’m fine with short, but the alternate possibilities were all the spice of the demo.
I’m seeing reports about 1.5 hours or so of gameplay, which would definitely be disappointing. I wasn’t expecting long, that wouldn’t really make sense here, but 5 hours or so doesn’t seem like an unreasonable expectation here.
And yeah, the alternate possibilities were where a lot of the fun was.
Deflector has left early access.
Not to be confused with Deflektor.
You’re missed, Ben Daglish.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon (Early Access) is out now.
Why is this worth mentioning? It looks cool! And it’s made by the devs of the crazy dark, gorgeous, addictive, Qt3-approved and now-so-cheap-you-have-to-buy-it-if-you-ever-liked-a-card–game Tainted Grail: Conquest
A Roadwarden… spin-off?
