I decided to buy this after a dentist appointment and it was a lovely treat! They did really well to translate Kirby into 3D movement (though I'm sure every reviewer has talked about the tweaks the developers put in to make the game feel as responsive as possible). Though it's also a game that makes me realize how bad I am with real-time action games xD

The locations are really beautiful, I love the upgrading of copy abilities, and the mouthful mode is such a goofy time!! I don't think this is my favorite Kirby soundtrack, but I listen to the haunted house music often

I ended up playing with my sister where we took turns on who controlled Kirby and Waddle Dee. We still really enjoyed the game, though since Waddle Dee can't use abilities or elements in anyway, it does lessen the impact on a co-op experience. But the game still offered interesting challenges to get the caged Waddle Dees and secrets that don't have any impact on the game.

The first time I listened to the elevator voiceover sent shivers down my spine! And I was really surprised that Morpho Knight now has a canon appearance in a Kirby game. And obviously you can't forget that there's a fishing minigame and gacha collectables. This is a game that really reminded me how much I loved playing Kirby games, it's been a long while since I've picked one up.

I think this is exposing how terrible I am at finishing things. So this is a game Sonic team shadow dropped on March 31st (for me) as an April Fools game, where you play in a murder mystery party for Amy's Birthday. Still, this was an unironically enjoyable experience for me.

It only lasts for less than 3 hours and free, so I'm not going to say any direct spoilers, go play the game instead. If you like silly adventure visual novels, you'll enjoy this, I promise.

The art style has a vibrant comic book style, and I love the expressions and posing for the portraits. I think everyone written just so right, especially Shadow. I enjoy the main character (or Barry) is just as weird as the rest of the cast, while thinking he's normal lol

The sincere emotions at the end was a really nice touch too, without going too far into it. I think Sonic stories usually have very interesting storylines involving their robots, and that caters to me so much

I think my only critique is that because of the flashing tiles and trippy backgrounds, it can get straining to look at the runner sections. There's some options to mitigate the difficulty (speed, invincibility, getting rid of pits) so you don't have to worry about them as much, but be warned there's no options for the flashing and bright colors.

I heard of this game through one of my friends playing it. Surprising, since it's made by the writer of the Stanley Parable. He plays himself as he narrates a fictional collection of games made by a friend. I never read anything my friend wrote about it until I finished, so I didn't even know about that basic premise until I played it.

It's a little difficult to describe what it makes me feel without spoilers. If you can, it only takes one sitting to finish it all. I'd recommend playing it before you read the rest.

To start off, the sound design really hit this dread into me. To be clear, it's not a horror game, and it is only a walking sim. But the liminal space feeling, and the ambience, the occassional crying and whispering in the background. It overwhelmed me

The surreal imagery and self-contained games I think is going to stay in my head. I love the giant maze at the end, the constant loop of cleaning, and the prisons. The dialogue for the game characters is charming, and I enjoy the talking back and forth of feelings towards creating.

For the story, it's always interesting to experience something with an unreliable narrator (and done right). I was baffled through most of it where he constantly tries to add meaning to something, without any true input from the creator. And as someone making creations myself, I do understand the narrator's need for validation and attention to his work, but there is a larger part of me who relates to Coda. The dread of someone trying to use my work to try and see something in me that is NOT there.

To go along with that unreliable narration, it's amazing seeing the amount of interpretations around the nature of Coda and Davey's relationship. How it could even be seen that Davey and Coda weren't even seen as friends to begin with. Personally, I choose to interpret they were simply because of my own experiences in the past where others have made my work to project their own insecurities in their skills.

Made by my friend, starbage!! It's half an hour at most, so I recommend you play it here because I don't want to say a lot. I love the story and the writing for the dialogue. And I've always been a big fan of pixel graphics of almost any kind

It's about a girl who's been selected to be a tester for virtual reality technology, and her wondering if she's up for it.

Another short game for free, download here. Recommended :) !

It's about a researcher who is researching time travel emails to prove the future is decided, but one of her experiments breaks out and infects the lab. Has a really cool presentation with simple and clean pixel art, some 3d modeling, and glitched visuals. The characters are charming, especially Caroline, I love her !!

A short visual novel (less than an hour), download here! Recommended if you like surreal and artsy games !

It's about the main character who is taking care of someone in a snowstorm. I discovered this visual novel because I follow the dev's art, but a friend reminded me to actually check it out. I love the painterly and pencil art Slitherbop does for their work, and I also enjoy strange writing and dialogue

If you're at all interested in this game, I would advise you to check out the content warning list, it's long! And I'd definitely tell you to step away from it if you're triggered by abuse (especially religious) and violence towards minors. I myself ended up skimming and mashing through scenes with the violent descriptions.

This was a 4-5 hour long visual novel (not counting the bonus content) that was recommended to me by a friend, and also the first time I've read any denpa visual novel, my only experience before was I believe the Serial Experiments Lain anime.

The story hit home in a few ways, being Filipino, raised Catholic and being put into Catholic school, and neurodivergent. I won't get more specific than that for my own privacy lol Though I wouldn't say you should go to the game just for the feeling of representation xD

The writing did really good to set in paranoia. I would say the main character is a little blank for me to truly say I relate to her (though it's not without reason, since she hasn't really had a chance in her life to figure out WHO she is), the writing depicting her mental illnesses do remind me of my own thought processes, and it truly set in the fear of not knowing who could be trusted. And even if I don't like every character, or even if they were horrible people, I do think I've come to understand them in some shape for form.

I played it prior to the update with the redrawn character portraits (though what I saw of them was lovely!), it reminds me of the charm of the original Higurashi art from what I remember of them. And I liked the paintery and fading effects done with the backgrounds. I think it ended up meshing well with the descent of the town and the surrealism towards the ending.

An RPG Maker classic that I somehow didn't check out until this year! But the perk of taking my time with that is I have plenty of classics to flick through. Make sure to check out content warnings if you're interested, there's lots!

The game is about a boy named Russel who was put into an experiment to test a drug to rehabilitate him. It touches on mistreatment on mentally ill patients, as you explore Russel's dreams and uncover what he's been put on death row for.

The art is really beautiful! Though the designs and maps are simple, but there was so much more things for me to explore than I expected! I love the amount of attention that went to the small details like the unique poses for characters and quests to search for.

My absolute favorite part was the amount of dialogue I could get out of the characters. Having the safe rooms to speak to everyone in, and all the optional interactions you can have with them was something I looked forward to a lot. I couldn't believe that effort also travelled into the bonus room. I really adore the party members so much.

For some reason, I was really shocked to learn there weren't any good endings, but considering this game revolves around medical abuse, the endings certainly made sense to me. :'D I just want Russel to get a hug. Maybe I'll have to do it myself.

This is also the first time I've touched any of Segawa's games, I'll make sure to check out more of their work now for sure!

An entry my friends, ophanimkei and ZeddyBear, for VNCUP. It's really beautiful! From the writing to the art. ophanimkei said she chose every word deliberately, and I think it really shows!! I loved the characters, and even when it does tackle some heavier topics, this game feels very comforting and soft, especially with the music choice.

It's really short and free, so please check it out here.

This is a not well known Yume Nikki fangame, so I will give a link to it here. It's been a while since I've decided to check some ynfgs on my own, and the first one I've played that's this lighthearted!

I love the art and designs for the effects, they're so cute! I love how good dmdm-kun is at large scale pixel art. And there's really nice worlds, though there's some with some contrast issues that kind of strain my eyes.

If you're looking for a short fangame with endings, I'd recommend checking it out ^_^

I've known about the vn for a while before I played it, because the artist is pretty well known to my friends. I eventually decided to buy it when I was hitting a writer's block for my own visual novel. It was a really interesting experience!

I really loved the messiness of the style, both the art and writing, the lines that aren't cleaned up, the immediate notice that the writing was filled with typos. And it helped build a lot of character, not just with the surreality of the world, but also informing how the characters talk.

The characters are all incredibly loveable. A part of me was worried that some horrible conflicts would come up, but I enjoyed how the conflicts were handled. Teja and Faroja's sisterhood is definitely one of the biggest highlights for me ^_^

I'm really glad I sat down and read it, it's reminded me of how my own perfectionism can get in the way of creating something. What's way more important is writing yuri between between funny animal girls 💜

Another project by someone I know. A novel game, you can download a free demo here. I plan on eventually playing the full game!

It's a story about two leads (Hanashiro and Lun Kochouran) who are living in a cycle of an apocalypse and reincarnation.

The writing can be a little difficult to approach, it's very poetic, so it can be a lot to parse on what's happening. But it's also not afraid to use improper grammar, which helps add to the tone of the dialogue. And my favorite part is how it uses both Japanese and English for its writing. I think it's wonderful when multilingual writers like me use the different nuances of languages to add to storytelling ^_^ The surreal and abstracted character art adds to the poetic writing as well.

From what I glimpsed from the demo, it's interesting seeing how the two leads interact who have a sense of history and longing from each other. The writing that reflects the fragmented recollection of the main character through trauma and identity. I'm excited to eventuall tackle the first game when I can buy it!

You click onto my site and read a review about a game. And in that game, there's a princess. Slay The Princess is a visual novel about Slaying The Princess, with a narrator who guides you.

I wouldn't say it's the goriest game I've seen, but I'd definitely recommend to watch out for it if you're squeamish. The developers also provide a content warning on their site.

I've known about this game for a while because a video about the demo has appeared in my recommendations. But it's one that I hadn't approached until one day, while working on my game, saw RTGame's video of it to have as background noise. Quickly, I was drawn in when Chapter 2 began.

I'll admit that I've seen a lot of the game because of playthroughs before I bought it, but I think since I enjoyed it so much, I honestly had no problems throwing some money at it. And I decided to go on an achievement hunt to experience new dialogue and moments that were missed.

And I'm glad I did because it's helped me appreciate the game much more than I did. I really adore the characters and there's just so many memorable moments, it's hard to pick one. I will say that the Witch is definitely one of my favorite branching paths.

Not to mention the art and the voice acting is incredible. I don't think I can imagine the game being done in a different way.

It's been a while since a game has resonated with me as hard as it has. From the presentation, to the themes. It's something I want to be able to capture better with my writing. This game is a new inspiration for me.

Got this as a present from my older sister and had a blast playing it with friends. I don't think I need to go over exactly what Lethal Company is about, but as a quick summary it's a multiplayer horror game where you collect scrap from alien planets.

It's as funny as it is scary for it, I've had so many fun and tense moments playing it lol i love how differently you have to deal with most of the enemies and how they also interact with the mic, it makes it even more chaotic when multiple of them pop up. i think all i want from it is more variation in facility types in the future ^_^

I playtested this game for my friend, it's free and doesn't take too long! big recommend ^_^ it's an adventure game made in RPG Maker follows an angel adventuring through different but colorful worlds

I really loved this game, and I cried during the endings. It's not a story heavy game, but what's there is very touching. Many of the side characters feel like people who've lived their own life before the protagonist came along, and the graphics are super cute.

Puzzles can be a little obscure to solve, but I think they're ultimately satisfying when you do. Even the secrets are well hinted at in the dialogue!