Recent reviews by Minzoku Bokumetsu

An absolutely immersive point-and-click adventure with stunning artwork and animation! Dive into the mind-bending world of recreational time-travel, and the VERY MANY pitfalls thereof. That thing you liked? That person you liked? That life you spent years building? Whoops, somebody accidentally erased it all from existence. Forever. Nope, no psychological damage here! *cries*

Amazing soundtrack for an amazing game!!

Fantastic steampunk alternate history story-driven point-and-click adventure with a diverse cast of characters and multiple paths through the game: play a teetotalling pacifist, or blow everything up every chance you get! The most distinguishing feature is the breathtaking rotoscoped cutscenes and character animations, even for simple things like the sheriff getting up from his desk. Add to that a fantastic, star-studded voice acting cast and phenomenal soundtrack for an amazing game that every p&c adventure fan MUST play!

Super fun puzzle game that seems simple at first (cover each tile with a layer of slime) but quickly reveals deeper complexity with new gimmicks at each new world! Also, super cute and enjoyable soundtrack!

I recommend this game, but slightly less than the first game. The core gameplay is the same as in the first game, but for the first (Cursed) house, the anomaly reporting effect is weird, almost corny, and breaks the horror vibe. (The disembodied head supervisor adds it back, but idk, still prefer the original "test sequence" noise.)

The second house is fine, even funny. Strangely easier than any of the other houses (first and second games).

SLAY

As a game, it's fine. It's a little more puzzle-/action-oriented than the publisher's other title, I'm on Observation Duty (which is more "spot the difference"), and after getting past the initial immense frustration of the first challenge with the simple hint of "draw a map," it's actually not too difficult.

Why I'm NOT recommending it is the completely unnecessary use of A.I. art for the City propaganda (even if it's ironic use, to give this deliberately unsettling feel that non-A.I. art can't replicate as easily). I just can't really support it even if it's somehow ethically sourced. Take that out, and it's an alright way to waste a couple of hours (other than the first challenge).

This is fun to play, like... once. I think I got frustrated enough on the first stage of JUST THIS FIRST GAME with its "only" five rooms, much less the SIX others (as of this writing). The problem is it feels like I'm being gaslighted, when I've replayed the game like ten times and feel like I know all the anomalies* and yet suddenly it will hit me with the GAME OVER YOU DEAD screen. Worse, when I'm finally just about to wrap up my shift! There's not an easy way to tell whether there are any anomalies or if I've overlooked anything, no Anomaly Counter to let me know to look more closely. Sometimes, I just have to guess at a report and hope it takes (though, I won't have any idea what it was after the fact). The later games (based on a stream I saw) at least hint at what type of anomalies were missed, but not this one.

*okay fine, I looked at a guide, but even by THAT, I still somehow missed two anomalies per the game's count, and when I compared the screencaps I took shortly before clearing the first stage, I could NOT find what the missed anomalies were!

This is a beautiful—AND FREE—visual novel/fake documentary about a whale from birth to puberty, the twist being this is a whale species that forms symbiotic relationships with various other flora/fauna to disguise themselves, as naked "Brillo" whales are immensely vulnerable compared to armoured ones.

The accompanying narration sounds exactly like a real nature documentary such that I could see this being played on National Geographic or BBC Earth and not bat an eye. The one feature that makes it stand out is the optional "extra footage" links that direct to, in some parts, almost a whole new embedded documentary. It would be nice if there were a sort of link tree to jump to various parts already viewed, but it's not so long that rewatching a chapter is tedious.

The one puzzling thing, from the in-universe standpoint of the team making the documentary, is WHY are they waiting so long in between stages of the whale's growth? If the point is to chronicle it from start to finish, vanishing for the 5-6 years between infancy and puberty, then another TWENTY to reach adulthood, feels like ignoring a LOT of important development. Yes, I get this is a long-lived species, but a lot can happen (as the documentary shows).

From a creative standpoint, I get it—it's already a lot to draw, so skip to the key parts. It just feels strange to have the research team DECLARE that they aren't even checking on it in the interim so long as their data feeds are still sending information. I don't know.

Pretty standard Nancy Drew fare, and a bit weird how there's this whole school with ZERO classrooms in it and almost NOTHING comes up in their card catalog (yeah yeah I know programming a game and all, but it always feels artificial). At least the puzzles in this one mostly make sense, vs. some of the ones with wood box puzzles with *A.I.*

Recommend if you already know and love the Nancy Drew series, as it's more of the same. Haven't played the original to know what's remastered, but this version is nice.