Recent reviews by vermin

Picayune Dreams is definitely one of the best iterations of the Bullet Heaven genre to date. Culling down hordes of these enemies with fun early 90's CGI-esque designs and increasingly stress inducing behaviors with a variety of unique upgrades and synergies between them is borderline addicting. Bosses, while not particularly difficult early on given some time to acclimate to their movesets, are always fun and engaging to fight even after dozens of times. Personally, the very much appreciated mechanic of being able to select from 4 different areas each stage to suit your preferences of enemy pools and modifiers really cuts down on monotony that I tend to feel with other games in the genre. The delivery of the story very much resembles Yume Nikki in its memory segments both in gameplay and its iconic surrealist/abstract environments, which while executed very well, I feel may have benefited more by having a more... complex(?) plot to complement it. Lastly, but certainly not the least, the breakcore dominant soundtrack is just phenomenal and is just as, if not more addicting to listen to as it is to play the game. One of the best indie games released this year for sure, and an amazing one to send off 2023 with!

Gotta be honest, I was right in the middle of a marathon of some Suda51 games when the 2.0 update dropped and this game's existence was brought to my attention and I genuinely just could not believe just how much Kowloon's Curse: Lost Report could have fit like a glove betwixt them all. Everything about this game just emits substance and passion not just for the media that inspired it (If you like Megaten, Lain, and/or killer7 this game will be an absolute treat), but also on it's own merits with the surrealistic world-building, racy but very charming dialogue, and soundtrack with vibes that cannot be matched. The only negative point that I have against Kowloon's Curse: Lost Report at the time of this review is that the combat consistently bugged out for me with QTE skills so that you cannot really use them effectively, though this did not prevent progression (edit: now fixed). It feels almost too good to be true that this game is completely free. That being said; smocaine is for quitters, VIMBOL is where its at.

Super cool vn with a harsh, indifferent setting that's short, but quite succinct with its story. The atmosphere is incredibly moody from the get go in the best possible way, the ost, art, and writing all mesh together in a way that makes it feel both surreal and desolate. Highly recommend buying both the game and the soundtrack.

I'm a cleaner.

controls and enemy ai can be a bit rough around the edges at times, but overall the combat and plot are pretty damn enjoyable. I would've really liked to see more from the characters introduced throughout the story given Hayden and Nadia's relationship, but for a 7-8 hour experience I feel that it's fine.

Good PvP, Character interactions are memorable, mechanics are meh, Lore doesn't connect much with the first game, but still great, Amazing content from the DLCs, has more replayability. Overall 7/10.