Recent reviews by Drugo⚸a

There is a game and you will play it. A you and a you and a you and a you. Because long after this local space erupts, when there's no longer you and me, this piece of art will remain and its memories will remain. Hekki grace!

If you love it, it'll love you back; in all its shades, violet and pink and green and blue... to red. The colours chosen for you by our ancestors. By your mother... and her mother before her, and her mother before her... Does it stretch on like this? Nowhere to go but back and forth...

Everything I just wrote is either a direct quote, a paraphrase or an echo from the game. It's all from different chapters, timestamps, from miscellaneous contexts, but arranged to fit together, be evocative and make emotional sense. I even toyed with the idea of writing the whole review with nothing but phrases from the game. If there ever was a piece of media where over-citing would make a perfect referential fit, it's this one. Its narrative is literally built on the power of repeated words. The main storytelling device, the pivotal means of communication, the central theme - words echoing back and forth... back and forth... through generations, time and memories, putting you in a constant state of déjà vu. Imagine if you had an intergalactic library of stored memories of all time and all history - would you even need new words? Everything has already been said, you can only repeat it... back and forth...

I dream every night of going back home. Haunted by a place that doesn't exist. My eyes start watering, it's as if the ocean wants its water back. I am spilling. It's too much for any one to hold. Spill my insides all over the inside sky... The very fabric of me is transforming.

A dangerous gravity, this game. From the very start, from the sight of the dark still water, I was caught in it. This has been a thoroughly cathartic experience and I was thinking why it had such a profoundly dehydrating effect on me, why I'd become so flooded as to just start... spilling... and spilling... "Bodies have so much water." Is it sickness or just sadness? The answer is complex and multifaceted just like the game. I'll try to capture some of its most resonant strands.


The story isn't a tearjerker though, it doesn't need such cheap tricks, but it's one deeply human, heartfelt sci-fi, built on the bones of its ancestors, on remembering those that remain, and remain, and remain... A postapocalyptic speculative fiction about past, history, time, reminiscing. Hauntingly nostalgic, reflective and impressionistic, looking back from the future, while trying to move foreword. "Swirly... Like a ballet of possibilities twists beneath its surface..."
https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3261765482
Fragmented yet linear, monumental in scope yet poignantly intimate and personal, spanning generations across time and spaces, diving head on into a messy yarn of swirling timelines; traversing huge bodies of water and intergalactic dust alike, searching for a home, looking for new memories. From Hong Kong to Canada to the Orchard; from two stars to one star; from sphere to square; from dangerous nearness whose gravity is echoing to a landing and a remaining. "A diagonal slice through time, place and form" - to quote another piece of gaming art whose migratory ghosts I couldn't help but see wandering about.

From immigrants to aliens, from blue to red, one to six, from allfather to allmother, mothers to daughters, shell to sister, hair to hair, from theocracy to red terror, from individualism to collectivism, sphere to square, names to functions, from traditionalism to progressivism, grace to gratitude, doublespeak to common tongue, pandemic to Sinophobia, discordance to concordance, fire to water, resistance to survival, from apocalypse to ascension, from decoupling of substances to fundamental reordering, history to myth, from a mean high school girl to a hallowed saint, from ancient sins to bleeding wounds, traumas to oceans of tears, from the last supper of a family that eats together to the mass communion with a new family, from city to obsession... "The us is a weave that can be unpicked."

Narrative threading is incredibly complex, but the game plays it tight and loose with exceptional confidence, using mirroring, patterns and associations to connect all the assorted strands. Because underneath them all, this is a game about memory. And what better means to weave a story through, because that's what (hi)story essentially is. Or rather, her story.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269240393
The game tackles herstory through generations of women, their sacrifices, fighting spirit and survival. It's a story of her, and a her, and a her: Iris, and her mother, and her mother's mother, and all the sisters. It's matrilineal like that. It's a game about abandoning your mother, about overcoming her while honouring her. Mothers as authority figures, overbearing, controlling mothers, mothers as perpetual martyrs, always serving others. Mothers carrying severe post-traumatic paranoia together with the thanklessness of parenting, and passing it on down the line. Daughters becoming like their mothers even though they swore not to, mommy issues galore. Ancient sins and traumas get propagated and perpetuated; same patterns repeat throughout herstory. "There is an us with a pattern we are threading."

The repeating patterns are very familiar from our real world history and culture; they resonate with stark clarity, as this individual herstory becomes collective by slowly turning into myth, a hagiography, a gospel. Religious imagery and allusions are strong in this one: from the original sin and loss of innocence, to departure from the Garden, to the Ancient Sister's pride, to allowing your gods to die... To Ascension and Mass Communion. Through it all, cultural, social and political strands tighten into a knot. I already mentioned some, it felt like watching mini history unfold within a small enclosure. "There is a choice and you will make it." - but only at the very end of the game; otherwise, player 'choices' are either flavour or dialogue options, means of conversation. Still, complex societal themes and currents are expressed, dilemmas and messy decisions hard to reconcile: to be water and survive at all costs, regardless of the soul, or to burn for justice and keep your anger close in order to right the past wrongs; to find comfort in tradition which can be a dangerous gravity, or to move so fast to notice there are things worth remembering; to keep an open bleeding wound or to cauterise it; to forgive... or forget. To carry baggage and clutter constantly with us because we're scared of loss, or to choose what to inherit and what to let go, to learn that we can't hold onto everything, because... "Sometimes, you just don't fit in the backpack."

Are we still talking about societal things or have we ventured into a personal space? It started to feel too close to home somehow. That's what the game does constantly; it echoes, resembles, implies... It resonates.* The foreshadowing, mirroring, parallels are masterfully done, they hit you in tidal waves. Truly, this game works like water, and water is a recurring visual and symbolic motif; it creates such strong murmur.

AND IT'S SPILLING... ALL THE WAY INTO THE FULL REVIEW

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3261769243

HeartCoreDev's previous game (my review of Synthetic Lover) was an adequate sci-fi story wrapped around a solid gay game. I felt that it could've been a much better sci-fi with some gay in it, but it was a satisfying BL romance, at least for one action packed route. This time the gay is elevated even more, all the way to the stars, shot up through the stratosphere to space. From light cyberpunk of the near future to frolicking space adventure centuries from now. From Blade Runner to Star Trek. Well, not quite...

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217758417

For how much the gay is heightened, to the point of seriously inducing regular nosebleeds, the story and characters are that much more simplified in The Symbiant, stripped down to bare nakedness *ahem*, enveloped and tightly knitted in sticky tendrils of red... meat spaghetti, or "danger noodles", as my friend called them. With only one route/LI - unlike the two in the previous game with the second feeling tacked on - The Symbiant is a significantly shorter game which definitely can't be accused of overstaying its welcome. The plot (yes, there's some) takes place on a small cargo spaceship when our drop dead horny Terran, Danya, and his BFF, emotional support and cheerleader, Juniper (similar role to the gay couple's girl best friend from Synthetic Lover), pick up a strange cargo - a drop dead gorgeous blue alien with long white, silky hair and smooth, ice-cream cold beauty, Brahve; and a mysterious sarcophagus exuding some intense primal atmosphere of fear, anxiety and excitement in equal measure. A weird casing for a plant, alien or not, don't you think? The sickly looking blue boy was too good to be true, acting all shifty, that I was just waiting for the red flags to start showing, hm-hm. And oh boy, did they, a whole phallus-sea... Bonding moments over a cup of tea, stolen glances, shiver inducing moans travelling through the vent (yes, I left it open) - all set the stage for the main star, a highly excitable Oatith, to make his... entrance.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3215797892

Look, it's all very simple, it's about tentacle stuff. Everything else is but a basic context for fun alien kink fest. And I'm totally okay with it.
Because...


I must emphasise that this is something so refreshingly rare and not to be taken for granted, as usually tentacles are used for mind-breaking rape fantasies by forcefully filling every imaginable orifice until she likes it (ugh, it's usually a 'she'). Not only are here men subjected to such impaling treatment, they're doing it willingly and loving every second of it. The game is very big on negotiations and consent when even a primal tentacled eldritch understands the meaning of it, enough to go against his more d1ckheaded instincts... after sufficient training and bonding. This is also a welcome departure from some of those unfortunate yaoi tropes, as there's no rape, dubcon, nor incessant edginess that often plague the genre. The game is kinky as ♥♥♥♥ (duh, exotic and out there even for perpetually horny Danya) but very sex positive. Kink shaming and fetish compatibility are addressed and used as a mini character arc to kink acceptance.

No rape, but there's a rape role play which is carefully negotiated all with a safe word, and ties into the "fu/ck or die", magical healing d1cks, 'life saving sex' tropes. Entangled, or should I say ententacled, relationship dynamic itself between Brahve, Oatith and Danya (Broatnya?) is also mediated which, in the best ending, becomes a rather happy polyamorous family of sorts, ménage à trois of true symbiotic relationship. Delicate balancing of interactions with the derata is positively ritualistic, but I wish this aspect was accented more, not just told. It would've added a much needed mystique, weirdness and danger that I thought was really missing. For a game dealing with surrendering your body and soul to the ancient sex god, it's remarkably safe and, dare I say, a bit mundane? It's kind of reflected in the visual design actually. The tentacles are very suggestive and all, but too clean, plastic-y even. I would've liked more messy, organic presentation, more slime and dripping with drool, I mean, fluids. More throbbing, squishy ickiness. Oh well, I suppose it would be hard to remain wholesome then.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217766074

The whole route to the best ending, which was my first and quite easy to get, I was thinking how curiously tension and drama free the novel is. The other ending(s) has a bit of faux-conflict, quasi love triangle, but ultimately, the almost cosiness and ease of communication saps all tension out of it. On the other hand, it has such a warm, healthy spice in how gayforward it is that I can't really fault it. It's unabashedly sexy, reverberating with horny moans that defy the laws of physics, but also touches upon relatable struggle with prejudices even aliens face, finding refuge and new perspectives in space. It celebrates diversity which is kind of cutely, if obviously, colour coded: warm orange, cold blue, fiery red and calming green - "so different, yet close and connected". It's so disarmingly wholesome in its comfortable predictability like some long lost Star Trek episode fanfic. And we all know Star Trek needed more tentacles, amirite? 🪱

This is a game about trust. Armed not with a pristine blade, but with choices and questions, you decide whether to put it in Her or Him. Word of advice though: don't believe His lies! If you do, it'll be the end of the game. And without these wounds and horrors, you would be as you were before, you would not feel the joy of experiencing this transformative "song written in blood" in all its multitudes, for you wouldn't know its absence. The only way out is through Her. That's how it is in love and war. Right at the start it tells you that it's a love story, and with it, it gives you a lens through which to see it, frames it in a particular way. Make no mistake, that's the only thing you can believe in, but perhaps not in the way you expect. Not in all the ways...

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3149519071

Whatever you think the game is, it isn't... just that. It shifts and moulds, ebbs and flows, challenges expectations. It's elusive, you can't catch it and put it in neat drawers, shackle with labels, bind it in roles, just like the titular Princess. As soon as you grasp it on one level, get to know one aspect, she transforms into something else. From the parts that don't fit your logical and ordering gaze appears another layer and another, the deeper you descend the circles of hell reality, the more you unwind the world. The best thing is that it works on every one of those levels, they are thoroughly entwined. It loops back, collapsing into itself, and yet staying the same.

Starting as a subverted fairytale, with a generic Hero on a path in the woods, where a cabin awaits and in it... a Witch Princess you're supposed to slay/save. The dichotomy and playing with millennia-ingrained associations are set up right off the bat. And from then, it goes farther and farther into archetypes - from fairytale to creation myth. At the same time, when you glimpse through a prism of another mirror, it positions itself almost like a "battle of the sexes". A man and a woman in the cabin in the woods, playing roles to occupy forever. Mirroring each other, enacting all the mind games and power dynamics taken to their absurd, volatile conclusions. And to whimpering endings to awkward starts of the relationship. A definitive dating sim if I ever saw one. But that's just one facet, one of many masks it wears.

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The heteronormativity is inevitable by design, owing to feminine-masculine paradigm carved deeply into our lizard brains by eons upon eons... therefore perfect for reimagining. It entirely reflects the binary play, dance of the opposites, yin-yang of the central theme. Permeated with dichotomies from top to bottom, the game deals in polarities, dualities that are inexplicably, perplexingly caught in eternal entanglement, not knowing where one ends and the other begins. "It's in our nature to be trapped", but also complementing and completing each other like two halves of the same whole. "We aren't stuck. We're one." It's like it flirts with some grand Romance... if only we trusted each other.


Where to even start? StP touched on every aspect of toxic codependency it could fit within this mutually tethered infinite dance bathed in blood. Love turned to hate turned to seething.

Trust issues, betrayal, resentment, power play, backstabbing, cruelty, wrestling for control, trauma bond, co/interdependence, enmeshment, gaslighting (tbh, the Narrator was the one who gaslighted me the most), shared illusion. Boundaries? What are boundaries when you're you're caught in twisting vines of the Wild force of Nature, contorting you, intertwining you? Boundaries are a reminder of the pain of separation and fear of falling apart. A limit of your world. "We're one... We're a path in the woods" with no beginning and no end, and on that path is a point where toxic codependency becomes sacred ontological symbiosis.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3151414361

Have I just romanticised malignant dynamic? Has the game? Relax! If anything, it plays with romanticisation in a cosmically cheeky way rather than being one. It works because it's thoroughly metaphorical and allegorical, keeping the needed distance while making it fun and poignant in equal measure. Smart and witty, its healthy self-aware humour saves it from the paralysing horror. (Chanting "Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves." also helps.) Every line is full of valuable insight, firing your synapses in multiple directions. But underneath it all, it's deeply heartfelt, emitting a "warm soothing glow", as if saying "I'm sorry if it hurt" with its open, bleeding heart laid bare outside of its ribcage, after ripping yours out.


When you pass by another mirror, just squeezing through a crack between the cage and the abyss, a whole new perspective opens up, a vast and quiet plane that will make you see this dynamic more fully and profoundly. Is it the ontological symbiosis of abstract concepts dressed as an interdependent relationship, or is that kind of personification of the universal used to explore human connections? It works both ways. It works in many mysterious ways: human, mythological, grand metaphysical and metanarrative. This is a place where, in playing with metanarrative tools, metafictional and metaphysical become one and the same. Yes, that's a lot of meta. Or rather, the metaphysical underbelly of reality becomes fictional, the game, whereas the fictional world in need of saving shifts into metafictional.

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>>Uncut FULL Review<<

I composed this write-up as if I'm going down the circles of reality, passing many levels on which this game can be enjoyed. Reflections on myth, existence, meta... Love. But for that you need to read the pristine version of this review as some of it would be considered "spoiler", so perhaps check it out only after getting one ending. A tickle: think of many contrasting concepts that we like to gender and how the game subverts it. It masquerades as dualism, but is perspectivist in essence. Who's Acting and who's Reacting, who has Roles to play and who has Choices isn't so clear-cut when all the paths are circles.

When you abstract the world down to the solipsistic level, an island locked within a cage of cold isolation floating over the abyss... all of it is You. Well, except that one thing, outside of you. The Other. To cross the limit of your world towards that other, to make a bridge, to free yourself from the prison of inward-facing mirrors - that's love. To see yourself as a reflection in their eyes, like you can never do on your own. That's why the line from the title is so powerful, even if poetically ironic after such violence. It's unpredictable, it could start a raging fire; it's absolutely terrifying, sharing a heart with another. "But the most terrifying thing of all is to leave one's heart unshared." To project yourself over the vast nothingness of the abyss, you need to make a leap of faith. It was always about trust.

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Never mind that... All these heady themes aside, the game is simply unapologetically FUN. It revels in it. The best way to fight oblivion. I was savouring it, not wanting to put a dot on it, because I couldn't ever play it again for the First time, even though I played it numerous first times. But She, in her infinite wisdom, "unfurling an endless cascade of smiles", told me to not mourn her... for she will make for an unforgettable heart.<3

I had this thought that finished shaping itself just as I was finishing the game, a marvel at a curious phenomenon: How did PARANORMASIGHT manage to amass such an overwhelmingly positive reception? What trickery, witchcraft did it use to tickle the spirit taste and satiate both: non-VN players, considering the lack of gameplay depth, and traditional VN fans, given the shortage of storytelling depth. That is the real mystery of Honjo! It must be doing something right; I mean, I haven't had this much fun with a VN in a while.

It's almost as if perceived weaknesses work in its favour, attracting all kinds of players to it with what are essentially gimmicks. By doing them really well. There's a lot of dearth here... if you look at it from a particular viewpoint. Coming to this game expecting involved investigation and deduction, or an adventure/VN hybrid with puzzles and minigames (Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, Zero Escape etc.), you'll find it lacking. If you're hoping for a multilayered mystery with rich thematic undertow and characters with believable emotional dimensions, you'll be disappointed. What you will find is still very compelling nonetheless.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3065673807

Under all the frills and ruffles of would-be adventure game dressing, PARANORMASIGHT is essentially a highly interactive panoramic visual novel. One where you drag the screen around a fixed point, engage with hotspots, and click on buttons, like *think* or *curse*, hopefully in that order. But mostly, you're navigating dialogue trees until you exhaust all options like in an adventure game. (Actual choices are rare and directly lead to bad endings.) All of this is put together in a rousing, stimulating way, smoothly knitted into the plot, making the narration itself interactable, so it feels like there's more proactive gameplay than it is. It's an illusion of control. In reality, you're led by the hand - be it by the in-game map, or the meta-map aka the flowchart; or by the curse button, which will cast itself even if you don't press it, or won't, even if you do. (It's sentient like that.) Although you're piecing together information from multiple sides, converging to one point, the whole game is rather linear in its non-linearity - another loophole.

But it's all so dynamic and exciting. Unlike the inertness of a typical VN with sprites against static backgrounds, evoking actors in an intimate tableau vivant of sorts; here, it's a phantasmally deepened space of a TV box. Everything comes alive in a spirited flash of cinematic tracking shots, dramatic close-ups, zoomings, interesting angles that play with visual depth. Sometimes swallowing characters while panning over the vast skies of scenic Honjo, reducing them to accidental bystanders. Other times, this 360° slow rotation from a constricting spot creates a rather creepy effect in its limitation. Coming back from slowly combing the area, the tension and horror build as you anticipate something to jump at you... Like someone's face suddenly coming into your focus, gawking at you... ahh!!

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3056915522

Alas, only the prologue is this eerie and spooky. (Ok, and the high school chapter - why are they so creepy at night?) Afterwards, it settles into a procedural rhythm of an investigative mystery. From the very start, I felt there was something TV-show-like about this world; and yes, it may seem like I'm saying something obvious seeing how the mysterious host, The Storyteller, literally transports me through a vintage colour TV set into the game universe. Hell, the small screen aesthetic permeates everything, its curve extends even to the menu - from the grainy look and the colours washed-up to the hauntingly nostalgic monochromatic tint, to the clickety-clack noises and schlager-like music, to the swift zooming on exaggerated grimaces all with the "a-ha, gotcha" jingle. But this quality extends way beyond appearance, into the storytelling itself. The way I was thrown into the middle of a scene, with little context, I never shook the feeling that these characters are, well, characters. Actors, who seem to be going along with all that freaky paranormal stuff a little too easily, ready to curse others with the most flimsy motivations (some exceptions), like it's a game. Well, with all those rules and conditions, it is, but one I can only watch them play. Becoming a curse bearer is accepted rather casually, blindly, as if following a script.

And despite having several POV characters, I never got an impression that I'm playing as any one of them, but more like with them, in-between, as a gamer/observer. As if they're my puppets who I even tell when to think, with the button; their strong black outlines almost making them into cardboard cutouts. I can read about their backstories in Files, on the side, same as those legends of Japanese curse folklore, same as all the tourist spots in Sumida, Tokyo. With the already established meta framework tying into the use of Story Chart in interesting, smart ways, I was intrigued by these layers of reality, hoping for some absorbing thematic throughline. Because only a transcending mystery would be able to compensate for the undeniable sense that this story is rather gamey, but without substantial gameplay to carry it and not sufficiently novelesque to fill that hole.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3139769226

But in place of such mystery, I got a puzzle instead. Not a puzzle game, but a puzzle story. And what a thrilling puzzle it is, one that grips you hard, occasionally quizzing you, making sure you're paying attention, seducing you with witty tricks, letting you feel smart. What comes next, how it all ties together? You forgive it a bit too twisting of twists and too many neat coincidences; chalk it up to the 'small screen-small world' syndrome. Plot, plot, plot... everything fits, even things that seemed off at first. Every line is purposeful, almost utilitarian. Yet, cardboard cutouts or not, the characters are fun, their dialogue engaging, despite information density, occasionally straying into wild tangents... that also prove to have a concrete purpose. Getting to the solution of the puzzle is paramount. Its pacing doesn't let some 'filler' stop it, like, uh, breathing between the lines, or asking questions like: "What's it all really about? What's it saying that it isn't saying?"

Great plot, poor story and thematic depth. The central question of "how far would you go to bring someone back from the dead" isn't really explored deeper in a satisfying way. It makes for a catchy tagline though, can even fit on a tourist brochure with other trivia. My biggest gripe is how the meta framework doesn't amount to anything more substantial than yet another gimmick that doesn't say anything interesting beyond the clever a-ha moment.

That said, I can't deny I had great time with this game although, in the end, it's just a clever puzzle story, nothing more, nothing less. And that's... ok? Is what I'd like to say, but I can't shake the feeling there should be more to it. This will especially appeal to those averse to anything that isn't directly plot related aka 'filler'; those who consider reading a passive activity and need to make it more stimulating; and those who need their mysteries to have neat solutions.

Mystery of Honjo solved! It took me a while to figure out what was bothering me; now I can put it to rest. It already started fading by the time I wrote this review. I'll remember how much fun I had if not the story itself, but hey, that means I can experience it again as if it's the first time. Although I'm not sure if replayability in this (meta)context is a blessing or a curse.

You're thrust into it without so much as by your leave, let alone preparation, other than a few words on the phone from your employer, practically from the assembly line into the middle of a film reel. You are after all just a corporate drone pieced together haphazardly from the scraps of your previous colleague who went and got his head blown off. And the same can happen to you. I mean, how hard can it be "to turn on the surveillance system, eavesdrop on conversations and scan objects"? The amusingly bored corporate voice even said they already knew the answers. Then why are you even gathering all this intel? Obscurity just oozes from every aspect of this game. Although I felt some things could've been communicated better, the more I played, the more I saw its cryptic minimalism as a feature rather than a flaw. The shadowy vibe certainly fits the theme, but its colourful surrealism was what had me positively mesmerised.

You're in the dark in more ways than one, starting from the working environment: Three drab panels with few points of interest, lonesome silence barely filled up by some vaguely ominous ambient hum, only interrupted by the piercing phone ring at the start of every day and bunny girl's morning broadcast. That is until you insert the disc and turn on 16 cameras in the middle panel where all the action takes place and your world opens up. You're supposed to spy in real time on 5 curious creatures of the mysterious Undercroft for some faceless RA Corporation for whom you're one of many faceless agents. No other context, background, worldbuilding is provided. I suppose it all feels dystopian and a bit post-apocalyptic.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3086822456

TOBOR is one of those surveillance simulations, management type games with a surreal twist; kinda similar to Do Not Feed the Monkeys, but with the resource management severely stripped down. You don't have to manage time between spying, working and sleeping, you don't need food nor money; you're a robot and although a slave, you're at least free of such burdens. You can just observe characters for six days, trying to make sense of their unfolding chopped-up narratives. Still, there is multitasking involved. Your main actions are to eavesdrop on conversations and tap significant highlighted lines, and scan for objects to further reveal information; all the while following blinking camera lights and moving from scene to scene. Occasionally you will have to quickly pop to the right panel to press some buttons in order to reduce the ever-increasing glitching and noise. Easy-peasy. Well, it certainly becomes a routine after a while, but it takes a bit of getting used to as all the gameplay tips are relayed while you're trying to follow what's happening on the camera feeds, so it's easy to miss things. (Like to follow one character per playthrough, argh!) At the end of the day you report to HQ and this part I especially enjoyed. All the intel you've collected is digested into semi-interpreted pieces of information, crucial keywords from which you choose three at a time that best correspond to the objectives, so called "deriving intel". Finally you can read at your own leisure dispersed slices of character backstories and Undercroft history without rushing and missing anything. Bit by bit, piece by piece, the story forms. A strange tale about the Ark and its dumping ground deep under the sea, about failed clones, and one locked up AI, sad and angry... Ok, I better stop here as revealing the lore is the main point of all that spying.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3086848708


But TOBOR isn't all about spying and looking outward. It's also looking inward. I mean, who wouldn't start tripping blue daydreaming during all that relentless gawking into other peoples' lives. You let your mind glitch wander and suddenly you're transported into a light point'n'click game, or rather a dream-like interactive interlude. Atmospheric and stylishly monochrome, these visions look as if you've entered the monitor, through a looking glass where interactions are amusing but seemingly inconsequential, until you're presented with a choice that can actually alter characters' realities and influence endings.

The highlight of the game though are surreal dreamscapes at the end of every day, a dive into subconscious slumber aka charging the batteries. What do robots dream about? Whose dreams are those - Tobor's, Machine's, Its, Yours, Mine? Either way, it's in COLOUR! In stark contrast to the gray everyday, these surreal visual novelesque segments, the dreams, are very vibrant and colourful, rendered in striking minimal style. And remarkably human. By that I mean there's a whole carnival of child's! recurring nightmares: a labyrinth of hallways, doors, tunnels, forest trees, rabbits, dolls, masks, hands, evil grins and all-seeing eyes. And mazes galore you navigate with simple choices. Even though it may appear you're lost, the only way out of the dream is right through it... something like that. Meaning, just go with the flow, enjoy the evocative and highly symbolic scenery that seems to hint at the crux of this tragic story, reflecting the bigger overarching narrative - and you'll find your way.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3088935443

It feels like there should be an overarching story tying all these splattered chunks together, and not just in your mind, but with a finite ending, a proper closure. The biggest challenge in this game is the fear of missing something, especially if you're a story completionist: sticking to the storyline you're following, deciding what to give your easily scattered attention to, letting go of that very interesting conversation you just stumbled upon cause it's irrelevant to your current objective. You must come to terms that you can't see everything, but choose the threads, prioritise a character you've selected to observe to be able to meet the intel quota on the topics that are required*, or you'll get terminated. It struck me how this starting and stopping makes the game simultaneously immersive and immersion breaking. Which is by design since you're a voyeur on the outside looking in, only witnessing slices of lives that unfold independently of you. It's a bit like taking a tour among set pieces - and characters do have an air of theatricality to them, like actors in a play - but nowhere staying long enough to see the end of the story. This creates frustration, but one that bears curiosity, the need to complete the picture. Before you know it, it becomes addicting, compelling you to come back for multiple playthroughs.

The game is conceived to be replayed... at least once for every character. Sadly, I realised this after my first playthrough when I observed a different subject each day and got an unsatisfying non-ending. There is adequate replayability to sustain starting from scratch; obviously the surveilled intel will be fresh, but the surreal parts also show quite a bit of variety. However, I'm not sure that's enough to justify not having a Day replay, if not a manual save, for quickly exploring mild differences over which I wouldn't want to completely restart the game, even if one playthrough isn't that long. Another thing is about what constitutes sufficient mission quota, as I would get A+ for deriving 2 out of 3 intel, another time I got F for the same amount. I feel this could've been communicated better.*

Other than these complaints, I found TOBOR's atmospheric minimalism refreshingly imaginative and its mysteries compelling enough to tickle the peeping tendencies we all have... Um, just me?

The Shell Part I: Inferno is a Shiravune remaster of the original Kara no Shojo, previously published by MangaGamer, and as its new title suggests, it's the first part of a trilogy that will finally come to Steam in this repackaged form.* I have loved and been transfixed by the Girl in the Shell ever since I laid eyes on her two years ago - on the verge of breaking, being born from the egg; amidst the white empty space where nothing exists but you, looking out through the black cracks, leaking red gooey liquid. The splatters of crimson are the only thing disrupting this smooth luminosity and a voice like ringing of a bell. This kind of associative power stirring something from deep within, you can read about in my old Kara no Shojo review. I suggest you check it out for the story, symbolism and gameplay elements (and disembodied d1cks) as this review will focus primarily on this specific release, a sort of comparative look that will hopefully help first-time players in deciding which version to get.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3013650318

But first things first, it absolutely MUST be played patched! And no, not because of all the porn. When I heard of this release, I was actually hoping it would get rid of those infamous, artificially tacked-on, out-of-place, out-of-character, mostly random and badly shoehorned generic h-scenes. I thought it to be that 'reverse patch' the original desperately needed, a director's cut of sorts, as those scenes always seemed like not a genuine part of creative vision, but fan pressure. Shedding itself of those stale eroge expectations that hold many great stories down, it would almost be without blemish, like an inside of an egg, or bathing in the moonlight... sanguine accents included.

And it would be such an easy, clean cut. You wouldn't even notice. Alas! Instead, the game is completely butchered. Not only it got rid of all the juice, some lighthearted flavour, the seasoning, along with huge chunks of meat, it got rid of the very blood of the VN altogether. In a dismemberment murder mystery, it's literally missing body parts: a left leg here, a right arm there, the whole torso in the middle, but unforgivably its head is nowhere to be found. Where could your face be? This will not do; I cannot complete my game like this. Meaning, those unsettling killer POVs and crime scenes are bodiless, showing some dull draperies. Good luck finding a mutilated head, bruised chest, open abdomen, leg/arm stump to click on during investigations, let alone crucial evidence that would let you advance the story. Because of that, you're locked into a specific bad end due to being a bad detective. The nerve! From what I've seen while testing it unpatched, you can only get two bad endings; you're simply locked out of the whole second part of the game without means of finishing the story and solving the mystery, making it an almost glorified demo.

Before you cry censorship in despair while running off to buy the good old uncut original, in a tried-and-true VN tradition, there IS a free patch* that will restore all the missing content: all the demented and bittersweet endings (normal and true), gruesome scenes dripping in blood and gore, a testament of the cycle of abuse and killings spanning generations, often inspired by that ultimate manual of punishments that is Dante's Inferno, dealt out to women for daring to break out of their shells; psychotic obsessions over preserving, reconstructing their ideal image, the icon, the art piece on a pedestal, or a tomb/womb; compulsive search for lost mothers, for that smile and peace... and pieces.

Its chopped-up pieces are stuffed back into the shell, together with disembodied d!cks, sigh, pixelated this time. Whazzut?! You read that right! Even with the patch, there are mosaics over the 'naughty bits'. Among all the sick, twisted, disturbing ♥♥♥♥ depicted in this VN, this is where the line is drawn?! I'll never be not perplexed by this kind of overzealous self-butchering.*

Then why get this version instead of the old game? It's a full remaster: HD, widescreen/16:9, sporting new slick, revamped UI in the style of KnS2. It flies technically, gone is the clunkiness of the original, skipping is lightning fast, even better, you can jump directly to the next choice or interactive screen. Another frustration-diminishing tweak: the investigative sections are more lax about clicks and you decide when to end them, making it way fairer than before.* Content wise, with a restorative patch there's nothing missing, hell, there's stuff added: a lengthy prologue widening the context; a new movie; a broken girl's intimate diary-like passages between chapters; transitory close-ups of corpses' vacant faces etc.

One addition was pivotal in swaying me towards the remaster. The previously mute sardonic and somewhat goofy detective MC, Tokisaka Reiji, whose face the original went out of its way to hide in CGs, is now fully voiced completing the rest of the stellar VA cast; and he has a portrait so you can watch those unruly locks adorning his handsome face while listening to that sweet baritone. All characters got their avatars now, making for one polished, stylish package, so elegant... all the way to the sacrificed readability (↘).

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3013646863

And then, there's the translation. It's... different. It has a good natural flow, is eloquent, possibly easier to understand. The old MG translation feels clumsier in comparison, probably because it's closer to literal? Well, I don't know Japanese to really tell, but the English had a peculiar rhythm, penchant for mantric repetition so hypnotically effective that I can't help but ascribe it to the idiosyncrasies of the original language. But that is exactly what makes it weirdly poetic, perfect for those surreal passages from The Egg of Neanis and The Shell of Sheol, childlike, naïve, bizarre fanfiction of Dante's journey through Hell and Purgatory, carrying a black egg, searching for a mother, or her head. Conversely, the new translation is well suited for making the dialogue lively and dynamic, although it tends to take liberties with faux-dialects and slang.* Certain word choices make it too contemporary western for the 50s postwar Japanese setting. The curse of localisation.

Which means, yes, the honorifics are dropped, sadly, and titles like sensei, senpai etc. are translated. I'm not a fan, personally; some cultural quirks shouldn't be localised as they're integral to the setting and context. I suppose it's a tricky balance to find between making the translation natural while letting the original language shine through. Even if it's sometimes awkwardly literal, the spirit is retained. I want that a bit more Japanised English that mirrors its rhythm, maintaining its peculiar poeticism. It renders itself perfectly to the uncanny strangeness of the VN.*

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034013652

All that aside, the new translation does immerse you with ease, not letting you think about it, which is the point. Most people probably don't care about these nuances, but for you pedants, speaking in tongues: Would you rather have Reiji's pretty face and voice or honorifics?

Playing it the second time around, I can say it's as haunting and bizarrely enchanting as before, but I'm especially noticing the beats that make it wildly unpredictable. Starting as a murder mystery thriller, it opens up to something wider, deeper, more complex and archetypal. Well, I reviewed it twice, it must mean something. See ya in Purgatorio!

SYNESTHESIA seems to be almost an antithesis of The VII Enigma, the developer's previous game I reviewed last year. Colourful vs drab; anime stylised vs western graphic novel look; typical (if compressed) VN route structure vs a procedural TV-show-like composition; a ragtag bunch of high school college kids, aka Scooby-doo gang vs a professional, mission-oriented band of freedom fighters; in-jokes vs progress reports. In contrast, grand cosmological, eschatological concepts vs dystopic down-to-earth time travel. Yet, they're more alike than first meets the eye: eclectic at their core, scooping from many soups, as if following a recipe. It certainly seemed that this novel tried to stuff as many ingredients as to the point of overflowing, almost like this is the last pot.

Both are unabashed in their love for the meticulously technical sci-fi, resting on diligently crafted, rigid (faux)scientific jargon that can prove overwhelming for those unaccustomed. However, SYNESTHESIA was, on the whole, more fun to read. The most substantial improvement is in pacing and exposition. I can't even say it's a fundamentally different approach, but while The VII Enigma was guilty of rather crude, dry exposition and relentless, extremely dense technobabble, SYNESTHESIA was enriched with something crucial that was missing previously: a sense of mystery, awe and wonder. So... mystybabble?

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3016800253
And that is in no small measure thanks to the major Steins;Gate influence. In a lot of ways it felt like SYNESTHESIA was following this classic VN's template just in a rather compressed form. And by that I don't just mean that there's a tsundere girl-genius, Eris; a kind girl next door, Isla; a cryptic one you must protecc, Maya; and the criminally underused guy best friend. Jase who? We're missing a catgirl and a femboy, but I digress. Familiar Japanese VN tropes are abundant (hell, this is an ELVN, yet it's set in some near future Japan), but more importantly, where this influence really paid off is in a gradual spread of mystery.

A big part of it is a route structure built around one true path, while all the others are side threads leading into it, collapsed states that happen when you'd rather postpone the inevitable by prolonging simple, carefree days with your friends. Seize them while they last, stretch the moment to eternity, the fleeting wonderful everyday. Thankfully slice-of-life is kept here at the bare minimum as all the side routes are compressed which, on the flipside, makes for unconvincing character backstories and motivations, most evident in Isla's story. There are even some light romantic moments, remnants of a truncated harem structure, but they're not the focus. Despite the shortness, these routes do their job in building up (to) the next. And therein lies a thematic resonance: they're like worldlines building off each other's failure for that one single, perfect line to succeed. The golden thread, the spiral stairway to Heaven, "a staircase built off the corpses of our alternates..." Even though character routes had left me underwhelmed, the road to true ending was paved, resulting in a much more satisfying read going forward. A cumulative effect of sorts.

Multiple routes seen as parts of one whole, slowly knitting the big tapestry, is ripe for implementing the playable flowchart, like in Zero Escape. Even if the order of play is semi-enforced and divergence limited, it was refreshing being able to just jump between branches and onto specific forks. A lot of the things I wished for have been included, like interactive elements for one. Don't expect much, they're quite rudimentary, but those exploration segments and a few colour-based puzzles contributed to feeling a bit of agency in revealing the mystery. The designative synesthesia is interwoven throughout, as a gameplay and story element alike; not to mention, it makes for a colourful and illuminating world. This tingly, chromatic quality extends to music with a few memorable tracks, especially the tangibly vibrating one during mysterious revelations. It manages to transform what could've easily been many a dry lectures into something more awe-inspiring.*
https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018521569

All of this is just a frame though. Mystical, cosmological concepts; paradoxes, conundrums and philosophical speculations are the meat of this VN, just wrapped up in a colourful anime package. It's a cauldron of a bit of everything: hard problem of consciousness, universe experiencing itself, propagating patterns and teleportation paradoxes in relation to identity and its continuity, nature and (super)structure of reality, higher dimensions, the shape of the multiverse etc. All of it caught in the mystery of the Golden Spiral and with it themes of repetition and endless cycles of death and rebirth with no exit. Ouroboros, the poor snake destined to devour itself for eternity... Add such ideas like conscious reach and karmic impression - which is just a more technical way to say that desire is born from pain and the will makes the world go round, or as one character put it: "true abstract longing of all reality" - the VN referenced plethora of questions from theoretical physics to metaphysics to mystical, spiritual traditions, especially Hindu cosmology. It's like an anime version of a unified theory of everything; heh, string thread theory. Ambitious and quite grandiose!

But is it in tune with the Music of the Spheres? Is syn(es)thesis achieved? The biggest challenge in science/philosophy-heavy fiction is how to organically weave it into the narrative fabric without it appearing artificial, superimposed, or pretentiously preachy. And it's a mixed pot here. It's meticulously thought out and strung together in abstract, exposed mostly through lectures, research, night visions and monologues. But it doesn't fully resonate emotionally for me, even though it strives to be emotive, a result of those compressed routes and simplistic characterisations. There's a discrepancy between typical anime melodramatic sentimentality and momentous, fundamental questions about existence and true nature of reality. My impression was that they are what the writer really wanted to answer, everything else is just a familiar, borrowed, almost ready-made casing. On the other hand, this hotchpotch of grand and silly is so anime in its own right and requires a taste for operatic flamboyance to fully appreciate. It'll sooner be transcending your mind than its VN roots.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3025790368
Still, there's a lot to ponder in this litany of abstractions, but going deeper into it all is beyond the scope of this review, not just because of spoilers; I... don't have much to add. I know, preposterous! The game already said it all. Understated it ain't! On the contrary, it's overstated, overexplained, over-elaborate, especially the finale which I felt would've benefitted from more surrealism* (I’ll overexplain my pet peeve in the comments.)

Despite appearing like I got caught in winding convolutes trying to untangle all the threads, I genuinely enjoyed it. One question still lingers though. Is the spiral descending or ascending? Whichever the case, the only way out of the cycle is by... letting go. Not a spoiler, that's an ending all of us ought to know from the beginning. Right?!

"Don't look back, don't even look within. Look beyond..."

I am of two minds, my spirit is divided, as if hollowed out. This duality followed me every step of the way throughout this rather lengthy novel, but more as my ambivalent experience of it than whatever theme it feebly tried to express. There, not quite there, an almost misfire, the whole VN is aptly reflected in the title, Lkyt., whose real meaning will be revealed after the first proper ending - such romantic and angsty sounding but ultimately weightless phrase. Playing these yaoi games, I’ve come to expect a certain level of melodramatic cheesiness and exploitative edginess as part of the genre, rain or shine. I’ve decided to give it a thumbs up because it does a lot of things right, but given how ambitious its aim is, it should’ve reached much higher.

Lkyt. has a lot going for it, it’s hard not to recommend really, steep price notwithstanding. Confident artwork, exciting music placed just right, and memorable voice acting, this is a high-quality Japanese BL release all around. Not to mention, like previous parade VNs, it’s QoL galore, one of the most feature-rich VNs I’ve played. I mean, there are options I didn't know I needed, even options have their own options, while being very light on resources. The only flaw is the lack of steam overlay, but there are other... options ;)

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2984475050
Beside these technical qualities, its premise is like a catnip for a fujoshi/fudanshi. The faux-medieval fantasy setting with (hot) brave gay warriors bleeding such idealistic notions like duty and honour, heroism and sacrifice, is ripe for exploring the bromantic loyalty and rivalry (bros gotta watch each other's backs; and by watch, I mean wash), that fight or fu*ck tension, similar dynamic between sex and combat, the destructive (or creative) nature of violence vs horniness. Throes of passion and anguish of battle can look awfully similar, that complementary dance, something, something, Eros and Thanatos. Using love to boost the fighting spirit aka magical boning bonding as a convenient excuse/context for porn was so unfailing that I was tempted to call it Deus Sex Machina. Can... can this be the gay Hakuoki I've always wanted? - I thought.

I almost wish that was the focus, potent and virile as it is, and given parade’s track record when it comes to juicy content, I’ve no doubt it would’ve made for a wild ride. But Lkyt. had loftier ambitions, and so this Eros part was considerably tamed compared to the kinkiness of their previous work. Oh, don’t fret, there’s plenty of porn here, but contrary to the perverse indulging in wanton bloodshed, body horror and even torture porn, sex scenes themselves, with all the wet, slurping sounds, copious amount of bodily fluids and reverberating moans, salacious descriptions of musk and taste, not to mention explicit imagery, are actually... pretty wholesome. Whether friends with magical benefits or bonded lovers, it’s all between fully consenting adults, and this point was confirmed numerous times - a refreshing feat in (Japanese) yaoi usually disseminated with dubcon or downright rape.

Maybe it’s because the protagonist, Tasuku, is such a cute little top who would never, no matter how horny. And he’s always horny! So eager to topple... friends, gods, demons, destiny, the death itself. One of the best (and cutest) yaoi protagonists I’ve encountered. A proper cinnamon roll, he takes the innocent, idealistic MC trope and through earnest fearlessness and selfless/obsessive readiness to fight until his body is destroyed transforms it into uncanny madness. A true, archetypal sacrificial hero, able to penetrate and disarm the most cynical of hearts. The poor bastard.
https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965721765

Generally, I found the characters distinctly drawn, some of them effortlessly transcending the trope mould they were first cast in. There are four routes and I recommend this order: Takeru - Yael - Ango - Towa (more in the comments).*

The choice system is remarkably simple, it almost reads like a kinetic novel. Another potentially refreshing simplicity (YMMV) is that routes are curiously drama free. By that I mean that despite the ‘end is nigh’ lip service, there’s very little of that tension felt until the finale. This way Tasuku gets a rather cosy time with his beau, strengthening that mystic force. It’s so... straight gayforward. But also very formulaic and quite repetitive as all the routes follow the exact same beats.

While that routine worked best with Takeru, when I even wondered if the plot thus far had been just a very elaborate context for the ‘plot’, later, after it picked up the pace during the finale and finished in an angsty crescendo, setting the expectations higher in subsequent routes, sexy times were becoming increasingly samey and predictable, taking a lot of shortcuts, focusing more on lust than genuine connection - as I craved more of the story, wanting it to go deeper, harder, to fulfil the potential it obviously had. It's like it finally started to resonate and stimulate my imagination with interesting lore, some potentially subversive insights into LIs... which should've happened way earlier, not in the form of backstory dumps, but through a proper exploration of characters. Show, don’t tell!

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3007244438

As you may have noticed, my tone has become gradually disgruntled. I can gush about details all I want, but in the end, if the whole is shaky, their shine will be dimmed. And that’s my main problem with Lkyt., how disjointed it is. It felt rushed and overwrought at the same time. It’s full of these contradictions feeding the feeling of wrongness. It’s seemingly quite story heavy, dedicating a lot of its time to meticulously weaving the lore mostly through a bit clumsy and repetitive exposition full of magicbabble. Worldbuilding felt very detailed on the surface, but without significant depth to it. Shoreline Nation in the barren wastelands of the far east has a sacred duty, shrouded in myth, to guard the world from life consuming corruption. The whole nation has adopted a ritualistic pattern of death and rebirth led by a fanatical sense of duty and honour in dying for some vague hope in better future. Obvious allusion to Japan is obvious; what a grandiose dream. Even though the plot itself is a fantasy staple, there are some worthy themes that can be contemplated.

But all of them could’ve shone much more brightly if the overall narrative structure was better. There's a disconnect between the lull of the routes with all the expected beats and the exciting if prolonged culmination and finish. It’s why most endings feel a bit unearned and artificially amped up. These are all grand tragedies, ‘dark’ and melodramatic, and yet I struggled to see them as really tragic. There's bittersweetness, unfairness, but also purpose, heroism, sacrifice, all that good romantic and cathartic stuff. I’m sure the angst lovers will eat them up.

The prose itself can be very evocative with a nice flow to it, excellent for locking you in the moment. Details, characters, flashes of ideas are more interesting than the big picture. A case of not seeing the forest from the trees. I enjoyed being in it, but now looking back, it feels... hollow. Hakuoki it ain’t! Nor sweet pool.

Curator copy received via Otome Sekai from MangaGamer

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>>Full review<<

It moved in. First it lived under your house, now it’s in the next room. And it’s getting closer. It comes to you when you sleep, whispering, spitting its black bile... cocooning you. You've even stopped dreaming. Or maybe you’d never woken up. It feels as if it was already there, even before it manifested, “somewhere on the periphery of your vision.”

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2973863065
My monstrous roommate. is a spiritual sequel to the dev’s previous title I live under your house. the game I felt didn’t quite capitalise on its promise to really burrow into the dark tunnels of trauma and despair. It needed that extra punch and, well, time. However, this game is even shorter, and yet, contrary to before, it feels longer, fuller, and most importantly, focused with icy precision hallucinated lucidity on what it wants to convey. Similarly to the It lives under the house. DLC, it bites what it can actually chew and delivers a compelling and convincing experience.

It’s an intimate mood piece, a tonal exercise resembling an étude in game form, as it's aptly marked in the subtitle. Essentially an experiment, but one that can stand on its own while simultaneously adding a more personal, existential dimension to the previous game, filling its many orifices retroactively. It certainly made me look at it a bit differently. It can be said that if I live under your house, with its jittery hotchpotch of styles and tropes, invokes the goofiness and pulpiness of B-horror movies, My monstrous roommate. is more akin to a lo-fi arthouse experience. More abstract and yet clear-cut and quite tangible thematically; I can still feel its slimy mould and black clot tightening my chest. Things are explicitly stated in ILUYH, even if allegorically, but here they resonate more. Here, they’re like a raw cry for help. I doubt, though, it’s gonna attract as much attention as its predecessor, but to me, this is a more satisfying game.

It’s more compact and unified visually as well (another criticism I had before) with its grainy, lo-fi, haunted look dominated by red this time. Ok, there's still that, a bit jarringly clashing, textbox flatly plastered over, but I almost started to view it as a peculiar quirk of this VN – Walking Sim (un)holy union. It can be kinda effective on a symbolic level when a constricting 2D space of your room, suffocated between thick black bars, opens up to a freely breathing 3D of your dreams. I thought the barren sound design consisting mostly of abstract ambient drones and howlings, and silences, was crucial in painting the mood state.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2977567988

By now this loose “your monster neighbour” universe has a clear thematic throughline that starts with a question: “Who is the monster?” And although the answer changes with perspective, it always comes back to: “The monster is me!” Not a spoiler, don’t worry. This is a solitary, contemplative psychological horror, a continuation of the hikikomori/ agoraphobia/ claustrophobia thread where the main fear is that of being stuck. Even when it feels comfortable and cosy in that tight, snuggling hole... especially then. It’s the fear of being unable to change anything, to leave, to escape... the house, the cycle, dreams, reality... It’s the fear of falling asleep(!) because you may never wake up. No, it’s the fear you might wake up... to another day, just like this one.

Just like you thought you found the exit from your nightmare only to wake up to another, and another, and another... There are four dreams/vignettes somehow packed in these 30 minutes of playtime. Talk about making the most of it; that's why it feels longer. Don't mind my time, I got lost in the blizzard, as I do. And then I stopped to listen to a song for a bit, till the end... as I do. I also may have overcounted the cracks on the dungeon wall and stared a bit too long at the ominous door in the middle of a desert. But mostly I was thoroughly spellbound by the hypnotising dance of light and shadow in the theatre of liminal illusions that is the labyrinth of ghostly corridors in the mind's backrooms.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2977575906
I hope the culmination and further crystallising of these ideas is yet to come and that SpoocleMacBoogle is working towards a more ambitious synthesis of sorts. But till then, flawed and raw as they are, I'm strangely drawn to these bite-sized games, perfect for chewing, heh. Even if they leave tar between teeth.

This one is rough around the edges, but a pure, fervent expression of depression. I'm glad I played it when I did.

I haven’t played Charles Games’ previous title Attentat 1942, which gave me some trepidation that I might miss crucial context for the after-war challenges awaiting in Svoboda 1945: Liberation; however, that wasn’t the case. It helps that I’m bit of a history buff, and even though I might not have been familiar with the particulars of Czechoslovakian situation after the WWII, it bears an uncanny resemblance to what my country on the hilly Balkans went through, continuously ruptured between the West and Russia.


I suppose all post-war stories are essentially similar: persisting bad blood, blame shifting, reparations, reconciliations, making amends with the past, taking accountability, the importance of discourse in dealing with guilt... Forgiving but never forgetting. Well, that's how it's supposed to go.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2960744845
You don’t need to know history though; the game is primarily educational, designed to teach in very engaging, interactive ways and, most importantly, provides plenty of context to help you smoothly navigate the tumultuous currents of time, the darkest and most chaotic in recent history. Numerous documents, chronicles, photographs, footage, not to mention an extensive encyclopedia, will help you brush up your dusty history book seamlessly and in no time. Some of this meticulously researched material is optional for completing the game, but I suggest going through it for it will help you place all those poignant personal stories in a proper wider frame and understand better the complex, intricate historical undercurrents that are still felt today.

Svoboda 1945: Liberation is a FMV interactive documentary in essence, but one enriched with diverse narrative and gameplay styles - from black-and-white dynamic comics, re-enacting traumatic war and post-war stories, to various minigames, flawlessly blended with narrative threads, knitting them like only games can. Above all, talking to people, listening to witness accounts through dialogue trees, is what will make the history come alive the most. You play a conservationist sent to a small Czech village of Svoboda in Sudetenland, a border region with long history of complicated Czech-German relations. Mission: decide the fate of a school. And maybe find out what your grandpa was up to at the time.

Among the major topics covered: the pains of liberation, expulsion of Germans, communist collectivisation etc. – there's this old school at the centre, the focal point where all threads collide and intersect. The significance is ostensibly symbolic, but as you dig deeper it becomes multidimensional. Listening to all the different viewpoints and perspectives, the question of preserving the school as a memorial site or tearing it down for the local business to expand becomes a crucial, most important, the only real question after a war/trauma: to remember or forget. Which is mirrored in our attitude towards history - to learn from mistakes or remain wilfully ignorant.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2956285746
The school is like a microcosm of this whole region, the country, reflecting the constant ebb and flow seen on the big historical stage. Just like there was a steady stream of students from the interior, carrying with them different textbooks and teaching methods, this whole area has witnessed comings and goings of people with diverse/foreign customs, politics and worldviews. The main movement though is in “Czechifying” after decades of Germanisation, just as Sudeten Germans were being deported at the end of the war, and Volhynian Czechs repopulated the area.

A sensitive topic, the expulsion of Germans (used to be euphemistically called deportation or transfer) is examined carefully, from different perspectives: Czech locals remembering the mistrust, the anger, and a first-hand account of a German woman who was a child during the traumatic exodus that tore families apart. Was this retaliation justified, inevitable, understandable? How to come to terms with guilt decades after the events that still echo through time? The school is an aching reminder of the pain and confusion of liberation. Hordes of refugees, death marches, vengeful massacres, Germans fleeing as Russians were advancing. One witness said that it was more dangerous than it ever was during the war. No wonder people would rather forget it.

Alas, ironically, the game is determined not to let you forget anything. Like I said, the same information can be heard parallelly from multiple sides, yet it doesn’t feel repetitive thanks to the variety of styles used to convey it. What’s more, you can revisit these memories any time on the town’s map, and together they form an abridged timeline of major events. Excellent for easy memorising during studying. The same topics are also expressed through more traditional gaming segments aka ‘minigames’ that can be replayed from the menu, also as memories.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2960746868

One such game, the farming sim, I hated at first, but after replaying it a few times for the achievement, it has become my favourite. It is simply the epitome of narrative and gameplay cohesion. And the most convincing way to capture another post-war disillusionment: communist collectivisation. You can’t win it, it’s impossible. The game is rigged! But you’re hopeful at the start as you’re meeting quotas that you will rise to the challenge. Then watch your hopes get smashed as communists take your machines and land piece by piece. (‘We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.’) There’s cognitive dissonance between the gaming convention that says you’re supposed to beat the game if you just try harder, play smarter, cunninger (git gud), and the fact that none of it matters ultimately, it’s all meaningless. You’re playing to lose. It evokes the similar, but substantially more fatal dissonance kulaks must’ve felt when the initial post-war optimism and energy slowly turned to dust as the new reality settled in when communists seized power. And you’re even told to be grateful and proud that your new slavery is the celebrated solidarity. Just like you’re proud you’ve finally won this meaningless achievement.

But no one wants to dwell on the past, right? Take your restitution and shut up! “It’s nice that you’re interested in history, but it won’t put food on the table”, you’re told. “People don’t care what happened fifty years ago. People care about tomorrow”, and the jobs this new and improved slavery business will give them. Forgetting is practical. You can go save the church if you want, it sells oblivion in spades, just not the school. Don’t go now stirring old blood, it's already dissolved in water under the bridge, flickering like barely glimpsed ghosts of the past. Let the sleeping dogs lie... until they wake up more rabid than ever. Or deliberately poked and sicced on some new target, while we’re scratching our still buried heads and rubbing our sand-filled eyes, surprised, unaware, even mad we’re awakened from a comfortable unconscious slumber. Because everybody knows conscience is scary. No, there’s nothing pragmatic and smart about being wilfully ignorant in the long run.

When I was faced with the final choice at the end, to save or not save the school, after everything I’ve learned and know, it was no choice at all.

Review copy sent to Otome Sekai