A Yume Nikki fangame that just released at the end of 2023. I discovered it while searching through tumblr to queue up my rpg maker blog, while looking through other ynfgs i found a singular post with a character i didn't reconigze. So I immediately looked up the game title and decided to download it based on the small amount of details ynfg.wiki gave on it.

There were a lot of beautiful maps, and there were some empty, but the former made up for those. I think my biggest criticism was the amount of deadends i seemingly encountered, but with the nature of these games, it can always be hard to tell, and they could be planting the seeds for future updates. Which I'll absolutely be looking forward to!

There's some interesting things to set it apart from YN, like the nexus having a conveyor belt and a computer to easily pick one. And also that it uses its own language, which adds to the dreamlike quality of it. I also love how the custom menu looks.

I've heard of this game for a while, but I never touched it until now! My younger sister recommending it to me felt like the final straw to check out the series lol

The game is pretty simple, but I think it had an interesting concept where the player plays the role of being the "rational" voice for the protagonist, mixed in with interalized ableism and self-deprecation. So it was really easy for me to see myself in the protagonist especially since I relate a lot to her disordered thought patterns.

The presentation is really simple but really effective at conveying a distorted reality. I think the most charming part to me, even though it's small are the text blips.

Played this immediately after the first game! But warning that the game delves deeper into ableism, including the use of the R slur.

What stands out the most is the huge upgrade in visuals while remaining close to the simple palette of the original. It was such a good surprise to see the animated cutscenes. Or the animated portraits for the protagonists.

There's a lot of charming aspects to using visual novels or point and clicks as a medium. The small bursts of music (listened to the ost prior to playing and i love it btw), pauses when the protagonist wants to lay in silence.

Overall, this and the first game were really neat experiences. And I'm glad to have finally gotten to them

Butterfly Soup is sapphic visual novel about Asian American teens who play baseball by Brianna Lei, and it's also free and takes a few hours! I got recommended to play it by a friend while looking for more visual novels to play. Though if anyone has been keeping an eye on my game tracker through updates, despite the short length it took me a while to get through this

Butterfly Soup isn't a bad visual novel, it just didn't appeal to me personally, I think I'm a little too old for it. But I think if I'd played it when I was younger, it would've resonated with me a lot stronger, as someone who is Asian Canadian and struggled a lot with my feelings of gender and sexuality and feeling seen in media. I think what hurt it the most for me was its humor (pointing at the yaoi paddle joke 😭), the constant comedic tone, and how incredibly on the nose everything felt (even if there's plenty of relatable points).

That being said the way the characters were written are very on point with how junior high/early high school kids act lol Especially in the time period this game took place in. And I thought the relationship between the leads Diya and Min was cute. I enjoyed having the sporadic point and click sections and I think the art looks great

I think it could still be worth checking out if you want to read a slice of life gay vn, maybe it'll appeal to you more!

I was made aware of this game through a friend on discord, and after a little bit of asking, I decided to buy it and play it. The title is pretty self-explanatory, but it's an RPG Maker game (that's actually an rpg) about sapphic furries who save the world from a strange mage. The game isn't very long, but some games ended up catching my attention before I could go and finish this. And honestly? I regret not playing more of it sooner. The game is short but I had stopped right before the game could hit me right in the spot I needed for the story.

Gameplay wise, this game is really well balanced. I loved the mechanic of star power to prevent you from spamming your most powerful attacks, and the spellbooks to give your party some different abilities. It's a game that I think is good enough for people who aren't familiar with turn based rpgs, while leaving a lot of room for people to optimize their strategies. I ended up forgoing the healing ones once I got better at managing my party turns.

Art and story wise, this is one of the most pretty RPG maker games I've seen (though there are some effects that could definitely cause eye strain). The characters are really endearing!! There was a character who I thought would be my least favorite in the party, but I ended up loving her the most. But I want more people to experience this game so I want to talk about it as little as possible ^_^

this game has been on my radar for months now, before it's release since last year when it released. But I finally decided to play it after watching the experience it put my friend through. After finally going through it, yeah it's a good game. It's a timelooping rpg about 5 heroes trying to take down the King, who is freezing the country in time. And if you're familiar with me personally, I love stories about time manipulation. They're a fun way to explore characters and have so many fun and painful twist and turns

I debated a while if i should make this a spoiler filled or spoiler free review. But I think if keeping it spoiler free is enough to encourage someone to play it, then i'm gonna contain myself lol

The gameplay uses rock, paper, scissors for it's weaknesses. But more interestingly and fun for me is the system it uses for skills. No magic points, but rather turn cooldowns. It was really fun managing them in order to get all out attacks set or to find the perfect rhythm to optimally fight bosses.

Now for the story. I will admit that the first half of the game is probably the weakest part for me. It was kind of frustrating for me to be spending most of the timeloops to look for keys simply because a main character overlooked something that I wanted to check. I think it made some interesting character moments for Siffrin, but I think it also made the game longer than needed. But the game is incredibly strong with how the protagonist handles the timeloops otherwise. I think all the characters are incredibly loveable, and it was fun to discover what their deal was as the game progressed. (Putting it out there that Odile is my favorite.) Though I also think the writing could've been so much stronger, I was left wanting a lot more out of the characters and the journey they've been on prior to the story.

The art and character designs are really charming. I think the visuals of the enemies even when they don't have hands, are well done to keep it transparent what type they are. (Even if you can't, the game provides a scan ability which doesn't use a turn! Best scan ability ever.) The expressions of the characters are really cute and fun. I loved them so much

Back when I had twitter, I found the account of the development Froach Club and was really amazed by the graphics for this game. Which imitated the gameboy with its limited green palette. So I wishlisted the game, and eventually got it alongside a few other games. It's an exploration about a worker of a melon soda factory searching for their friend who went missing.

In gameplay, it's really simple, you simply walk around and inspect items or talk to characters, it's really involved aside from looking around for option quests. But it's still a pretty solid experience thanks to the fun side characters and their own quirky stories, to the point I was more invested in them than the main story. lol

The main plot honestly feels a lot more thin, and I think even just knowing the friendship between Honeydew and Cantaloupe would've improved my engagement to it.

That being said, if you're looking for a short exploration game in a quirky world, then I'd totally recommend it! Even if it's just to see the visuals instead of the story.

And I'll still be looking forward to checking out the original sometime!!

You Will (Not) Remain was a short and free experience recommended to me by a friend! About an isolated person trapped in their apartment during an apocalypse, but their loneliness is soothed when they find a dog.

Because it's short (around 30 minutes), I feel like there's not a lot to say without spoiling the experience. But I think it was a succint experience about the monotamy and sadness of isolation, and about how having someone or something else to care for is sometimes the only motivation to keep on going.

If it sounds up your alley, I'd say to check it out :3

Found this game through Dream Diary Jam 8! It's free and short on Itch.io, so check it out here.

Rather than the top down walking sim most YNFGs have, this game is a first person point and click game. And it's really charming with its artstyle! I don't actually have much to say, but if you just want some weird and cool art to look through, you should!

Found this while searching through RPG Maker devs on tumblr where I saw the trailer. After a while of its release, I finally sat down and played it, but I certainly haven't found everything and instead got an early ending. I'll definitely play it again someday!

SWOLLEN TO BURSTING is about a quirky town where a UFO crashed, and you play as a delivery worker. The goal is to deliver your packages, explore the town, and get effects (similar to Yume Nikki in that way). While I wouldn't say the humor makes me laugh personally, I love the atmospheric side of its presentation. The game looks amazing.

If you play, one thing I'll suggest if you check it out is to make sure to save often, there are some "battle" encounters that will catch you off guard. And the battles are literally just a level comparison on who has the highest.

A short vn made for a jam my friends are judging for, you can read it here. It's about an android who explores newly gained emotions through playing a video game. I really adore this vn, easily one of my new favorites.

Despite the pretty minimal visuals, it, the writing, and sound is used greatly to create a strong atmosphere. I was endeared to the characters from the start, especially how Navarro explored her emotions. And I liked that this game explored another character playing a game for its meta narrative in a way that helped put me into Navarro's shoes even more.

If you have time to spare (1 hour for me), I'd definitely recommend giving this a read!

Took me a while to finish up what's out of the game! Especially since an update came out, and I usually could only play one level at a time because it's a real strain on my hands (as such I play on a easier difficulty and sometimes a slower game speed). Shooters generally aren't my kind of game (Splatoon being the only one I've actively played before picking this game up), but I respect my friend's tastes. So I decided to give this a shot. And long story short, it's a blast!

The game follows a blood fueled robot after the death of mankind, invading hell in order to find fuel. You get a lot of weapons (currently my favorites are the coin pistols and the jumpstart magnet gun). It's chaotic, but not needing to stock up on ammo, fairly generous checkpoints, makes the game pretty stress-free and fun to experiment with the loadout! And toughest part are some of the level unique challenges.

Really glad I played this! And I look forward to playing more of it!

I've seen screenshots or official art of the game before its release, but I didn't remember about the game until later down the line until I saw a video review about it's early access version. On a whim, I bought it because it sounded like I'd enjoy it, and I don't regret it! As of now, it's still in early access, and I've gone through most of the story quests.

If you're familiar with Stardew Valley (which I also enjoy), Fields of Mistria doesn't deviate too far from its farming sim forumla. What it does change makes things more appealing to me to play single player though. I love having access to cooking from the jump (and using it to help get me money easier lol), I like fighting the enemies in the mines, and I enjoy seeing how involved the characters are with each other (and QOL features that help facilitate that)!

I really look forward to the upcoming updates, especially to interact with the town more. ^_^

A short RPG Maker game made by my friend starbage. While the game is older, I think it still holds up nicely, and I found the story to be very sweet. It was nice to see how tiredspace's formula would get expanded upon in HALOPE.

This visual novel was recommended to me by my friends. As of playing it, it's currently incomplete. But what's there makes me so so excited for the full release. It follows a loop of two days, between a tense group of people who hang out at an abandoned institution.

Visuals are gorgeous, I loved the paneled portraits, and the color choices added to the atmosphere. The characters have interesting relations to each other, and there's something sooo deeply wrong with them LOL

I'm very intrigued to see how the story will continue.

My new favorite game, and I'm so mad that I put off playing it for so long. But maybe it was also better for it because there was a chance I might've watched someone play instead of doing it myself. For anyone not in the know, Inscryption is about a deadly card game, with some rogue-like elements. But there's always more going on.

There's a lot of things that I enjoy about the game: from the visuals, the excellent and eerie sound design, to the ever changing card game. Being a Yugioh fan, it's possible that I found learning the game to be pretty easy, since I've heard my friends had a harder time, but it scratched the itch I'd have with homebrewed game modes for it.

Thinking of checking the dev's other games in the future ^_^