Recent reviews by Slothtimist

Oh boy, where do I even begin with this one.
You're going to have a bad time if you think this is an eroge.

Story starts off with a grandmother who wants her grandson the be an upstanding citizen, despite coming from a low income background.
As a child he gets bullied and withdraws into the comfort of the Internet and becomes a streamer. Chat being chat, eggs him on with promise of donos, pushing the limit of how far he is willing to go.

Lots of subtext and foreshadowing in this one.
If you pay attention to the environments, there is actually a lot of visual and auditory storytelling, so just look around each area thoroughly and take it all in:
Depression messes, Demonic Latin on garbage, and the contents of the human body (not just sexuality). Hell, there's even references to what appear to be"Requiem for a Dream", "American Horror Story", "Live Leak" and the Old Internet shock sites, further amplifying feelings of dread and lost.

You're going to want to keep a notepad open and just take notes with what you encounter in the world.

There's a physical manifestation of trauma, abuse, and spiral into the development of extreme fetishization and paraphilic attraction.
This is a very depressing game to play through thinking in terms of the main character as someone who is just "disposable" to those in positions of authority, and being abandoned by those who were supposed to love him.

Eastern Euro bros going to relate HARD to this game.

To the people saying "this is the most disturbing game I have ever played", I'm sorry but they are coming from a place of privilege to have lived a life with little exposure to how awful the creative mind can be. This isn't to degregate them, rather it's to show how mentally put together they are, and that they have lived a more "normal" life compared to others. This game, IMO, is milquetoast compared to the many games already out there trying to evoke shock and disgust.

I will say, if you want to play a game that will make you "feel" something, then yes, this is a good game for you. I picked this up for less than $2, and walk away with my life being better for it.

We own our own minds, so imagine if that was taken from you.
Slowly, the mental manifests externally.
Until we no longer know who we are anymore.

Tell those you hold dear that you love them.
Hold them close to you,
For one day they will be gone,
And you'll never get them back.

For the positives:
The art direction of the levels and characters looks decent.
There's a genuine attempt to flesh out the world and lore.
There is actual combat strategy necessary to progress.

For the negatives:
Enemy balancing needs tweaking.
Character movements are too floaty.
Dialogue transitions graphically pauses too frequently.
Plot is explained too early on...and reads like something from fanfiction.net.

I tried to play through this game without having sex figuring it would be the challenging mode.
The game requires a lot of grinding, even within the first 5 minutes of playing.
Due to game progression reasons, it's impossible to skip sex, even with random enemy encounters.
Giving into sex after a defeat awards gold, and you'll need a lot to trick out your loadout, otherwise you will keep losing.

There's also issues with automated objects remaining active during dialogue, like boulders in the Goblin Cave.
While talking with a character, I was bulldozed and sent all the way back to the entrance, which was frustrating and avoidable.

Even though the sex scenes themselves visually have good ideas, are ruined by the stiff animations paired with the dialogue pauses. A scene that takes less than a minute may take 2-3 from the lag.

You can rewatch scenes whenever you like in the gallery, so the is an incentive to actually lose your battles.

Monster Souls seems to have put all of its' development into putting sex in the forefront, rather than the game mechanics and world. Games like Flip Witch, Paradiso Guardian, and Robin Morningwood are all sex games, however they place their game mechanics first making them solid, with the sex being secondary, yet very rewarding, IMO.

At time time I just can't recommend the game in its' current state, though if it received some polish I do think there's potential for it to be really good!

I innitially discovered this game through HMNK's discography and wasn't sure what to expect.
I'm glad I took the plunge because this was a fun game!

This is a faithful Metroidvania, right down to all the backtracking.
The progression is difficult to start, but soon enough you'll be able to tackle every challenge.
This is a game where you actually HAVE to work for those CGs.

Pros:
Beautiful pixel art and character design
Thematic score
Balanced difficulty
Effort placed into world building
Lewd scenes optional

Cons:
Story not fully fleshed out
English localization

There's a lot of foreshadowing throughout the game if you read the archaic language, that hints this story isn't done yet, and I'd like to see more expanded on in the future to fully explain more about the Angels and Demons.

I only purchased this game because of people trying to get it banned.
What could be in this game that warranted harassment of the creator?

Story is genuinely tragic,
characters are well-written,
Comedic beats to break up,
Appropriate music for tone.
Timeless art direction

I want to thank everyone who made a stink, and to thank Nemlei,
and her husband for being so supportive.

I eagerly await the conclusion to the true ending,
and whatever the next project is.

A Metroidvania that's easy to learn, but difficult to master.
-Beautiful pixelart
-Catchy soundtrack
-Tight platforming
-Challenging bosses

The quests will have you scratching your head, until it just clicks.
Backtracking is unavoidable, though the economics system didn't make it tedious.

My only gripe is that the dialogue feels kind of jeuvinile,
I guess it's to be expected from the type of game this is.

Overall, would highly recommend, even if you don't play adult games.

I caught a Kirsche stream of the prologue. That alone was enough to draw me in. Experiencing it for myself, I cried. This happened all within the span of 30mins.

A game has never evoked this reaction from me so quickly.

The longer I play, the more I'm falling in love with the game:
-Music is BY FAR the best I've heard in quite a long time
-Combat system is engaging, easy to learn, but difficult to master.
-Character builds require strategy
-Dialogue and story are genuinely interesting
-Environment concepts and areas are chalk full of little details and world-building that I find myself constantly getting lost just to see what I can see
-So many optional sidequests for gear
-Game doesn't hold your hand, it just tells a story.

I'm only 6hr, in Flying, and I already know this is winning GOTY 2025.

Can't wait to see where the story goes from here. Looking forward to your next game, and thank you for breathing life back into the video game industry after a decade of stagnation!

A really immersive experience which covers loss and growth. I had no idea what I was getting into. The house itself feels like a time capsule and brought back memories of houses I've lived in growing up: family photos, kitchen as an everything storage room, gaudy bathroom decor, this game has it all. The game isn't too long, but but well-worth it for the price.

To start, I wanted to say this game has a lot going for it:
-Puzzles can be challenging
-Every character has a different personality
-The atmosphere and story are engaging
-The story is investing
-There are hidden dialogue gags that add more personality to the characters

I had a lot of curiosity with how this one was going to end, and as I was playing there were instances that really removed me from the immersion:
-The open-ended approach to puzzle solving caused dialogue conflicts
-The ending act goes on for a long time in circles without really finding out why the murder occurred
-The actual ending ends abruptly and felt like there was no payoff to me
-Poppy and Fifi came off as Mary-Sues to me

I can tell a lot of passion went into this game, and had the scripts been refined a bit more and ending tied up, I think this would have improved the game for me.

I do look forward to seeing what the team works on next. This is definitely someone's game though.

I had heard of the YS series, but wasn't sure what to expect going in.
After my time with the game I can say it was a wonderful experience.
I chose Hugo and played on hard for my first time, and that was a mistake.
It's by no means a bad thing, but I would recommend doing an easier difficulty if you're new to ARPGs like YS.

The story kept me engaged because I really wanted to know how it would end.
Some of the characters are your standard anime tropes, but otherwise I found most likeable.
The music and gameplay though, that's where the action is!
I died so many times, but through trial and error I persevered.
It was similar to the thrill I got playing through Elden Ring.

Now I'm off to start YS I+II; I just need to know how this story ends!

Reminded me of the carefree days of childhood, where imagination and curiousity and imagination run rampant.
Each character has their own charm and personality, and the dialogue kept me engaged.
The relationship between the gators was really wholesome.
The ending is bittersweet in the best kind of way.