Recent reviews by inconspicuous waterfowl

I'm unsure why I put my expectations on the same level as Bug Fables and Escape from Ever After going into this game. I had heard from others that the game was a step down from those games and after playing for a bit they were 100% correct. The primary reason I bounced off this game is the un-interesting character designs, mid (and hard to see) writing, and a very basic world. I wasn't initially hooked by the premise and that makes me kinda sad considering how much I wanted to try this game, being apart of the Paper Mario-like genre.

The platforming wasn't all that special from what little I played, but losing 2 health to simply falling off a cliff felt like a little much. The enemies also exclusively target Loaf and never your partner, despite sometimes visually looking like they attack closer to the camera to indicate changing targets. It also sucks that you can't change your difficulty mid-game. I had heard this game was pretty easy so I chose the harder option, then died and lost 45 minutes of progress. It then dawned on me I wasn't deep in enough for the sunk cost fallacy to kick in yet, so I refunded.

Now some more subjective things I found weird while playing that aren't necessarily dealbreakers to most. I felt it especially hard when I entered the Savers Guild and saw no less than 6 designs picked straight from the weirdest corners of deviantart furry oc's and it actively put me off. Every other animation does the thing cheap internet storytime animators do where they make the character sprite bounce when changing between poses to trick you into believing it isn't as cheap as it actually is. I love cartoony artstyles, but this was just not my cup of tea. Combined with the small font size and loaded lines of dialogue made me skip through almost every social interation much faster that I would in any other game in this genre because I was not invested in the slightest. I think the writing could've saved this game and would've kept me for over 2 hours, but it was not nearly interesting enough to see it through.

All that being said, if you get it on the current discounted price of $5 USD and like it, more power to you. I just didn't.

What a game.
Being the fake fan that I am, I actually didn't know of this game's existence until I got an early review key in my inbox, and I've been in love ever since. This game is basically the same level of quality and passion as bug fables (another Paper Mario-like) but with much nicer visuals.
Combat with action commands for guarding and attacking with simple to understand minigames has always been a hit for me and many others. The fact that nearly every attack has a minigame that plays differently is something we take for granted. The effort that goes into making the game not feel repetitive needs to be shouted out. There's no superguarding like ttyd, but from a game design perspective that was pretty overpowered so it makes sense that feature isn't included in any of the followup indie titles.
I absolutely adore all of the character designs and the artstyle as a whole. I would die for Wolfgang if anything happened to him. But even past that, the unique 2d images in a 3d environment this genre is so well known for is always a treat when done right. Even the basic npcs look very stylized (shoutout to the bird npcs in chapter 2) and animations are all done by moving each individual part like you're sliding around those parts as pieces of paper on a table. It could look cheap to some, but I still absolutely think it helps contribute to the style this game is going for.
The music all goes for this Big Band Jazzy style and it all sounds great. It's also a very nice touch you can listen to each track as you hear them for the first time by going to your office and selecting the music player. If you leave a song playing, it'll even start playing again if you enter your office! I bought the supporter pack specifically for the soundtrack because I'm totally going to listen to these tracks on loop for a while.
I won't get into spoilers here since I myself haven't even finished the game, but if you're on the fence with whether or not you should buy it, BUY IT. Its been a minute since we've had a Paper Mario-like of this quality and the wait was 100% worth it.

One of the best platformers ever created.

This game was... not what I expected initially. I got baited in by the funny trailer, which lasted all of 10 minutes before the secrets started showing themselves. I like how it is theoretically possible to go through and beat the game with 0 upgrades, but the platforming is kind of slippery and there are 0 checkpoints. I do recommend this game, but there are a bunch of glaring flaws that I would feel would be disingenuous for not pointing out.
Pros
- Funny bits. I don't want to spoil most of them, but the jokes are pretty frontloaded so if you open up the game for 15 minutes you should see them.
- Intriguing Exploration and mystery
- Challenging Gameplay
Cons
- 0 options menu (no graphics, no sound, no gameplay, nothing)
- Music during the 1 very large level gets draining
- The bare minimum controller support, i.e. you can use the d pad and a jump/dash button but none of the menus work without a mouse (or the very slow simulated mouse with the control stick.)
- Slippery controls and minor annoyances. Sure, you get used to it after a while but it didn't feel nearly as precise as the level design wanted me to be. Also every time you die, you start from the beginning which would be fine if the restart animation wasn't so long and unskippable.

Overall, in hindsight I wish I paid the $5 to support the developer on what is most likely their first big game on steam, and I am very interested in whatever gets added to this game next.

what a cool freaky video game
sure, the combat is dated and fails to escape the core issues with jrpg combat (like ffs was it really necessary to have a rtb system? its so slow), but the remastered soundtrack is some KILLER stuff, especially with the full circle moment that Toby Fox had making music for this game. The visuals during fights are pretty dope. I especially love how everything gets more surreal and lovecraftian when viewed in a battle compared to the somewhat normal appearance in the overworld.
The start can feel a little silly with just how much it beats the fourth wall over your head, but it's entirely passable considering this game was one of the first to do so back in 2008.
A must play for anyone looking back at undertale's history and gaming history in general (also pretty easy to 100% for steam achivos)

its ok

(Review text hidden)

cutest keylogger ever :3

HOLY PEAK
what can i say that hasn't been said. Toby fox did it again. 1000% worth the money even if it's not fully finished. Once it is finished, this will be one of the most legendary jrpgs ever released.

Warioware meets the world of Aether.
Very funny game released for april fools 2025, story is finishable in around a half an hour. The final minigame is friday night funkin
Also achievements so it's automatically good.