Recent reviews by Phoenix Falling

In Stars and Time is an RPG Maker homage to early JRPGs in the vein of Undertale or Omori. Much like these titles, it is a game focused on it's narrative. It tells a story about attachment, monotony, and the ways that our emotions affect our relationships.

The characters are charming and feel grounded in their setting, which is the direct result of competent build up and pay off of narrative threads. The game foreshadows information about its characters, setting, and plot through the changing attention of it's main character, Siffrin. These changes are driven by an increasing desperation for control over a series of events that repeat over and over again.

You as the player are trapped with Siffrin as their patience for their circumstances slowly erodes, and his relationships with his friends are increasingly strained as he passes in and out of hopelessness and mania. The game makes compromises with its own mechanics to evoke empathy through cultivating a feeling of impatience and frustration with the repetitive nature of the premise.

This game will probably not be well received by players primarily concerned with engaging game mechanics, but those who like to dissect the artistic choices of a game will find a lot to like about In Stars and Time.

This game has a lot going for it but suffers from poor execution. I enjoyed playing this game, but I had to look past a lot of problems. It's ambitious, evocative and bold, but also clumsy, tedious and shallow. Cosmic Wheel sisterhood takes a lot of creative risks that don't always pay off.

The game also suffers from some insensitive writing of a few characters of marginalized identities.

Play if you like visual arts and pondering possibilities
Don't play if inelegant writing bothers you

Wouldn't it be scary if your weird friend trapped you in a room with him and forced you to play his dumb card game?

This game has a lot to say about trading card games and the people who play them. Inscryption characterizes it's cast by making you draft their personal cube. It invites reflection on table dynamics, playstyle and the question of who gets to control the table. It's an uncomfortable look into the eyes of game culture, it's asocial nature, and our desperate need for connection. And it's a hell of a card game.

He did it again.

Testament

good art, cute story, catchy soundtrack

mmo raiding has never been more accessible

you can pet the catgirl

The game tries to be profound and artsy, but instead makes the player deeply uncomfortable by mishandling difficult topics. Says nothing of value and is unbelievably buggy. Please don't spend your money on this game. I expected better from Annapurna after Outer Wilds.