Recent reviews by farzi

This game is not your traditional dating simulator. Now that that's clarified, here is a summary of my review:

Playtime is around 4 hours, (The remaining 4 was me trying to figure out how to get some or the other
achievement plus revisiting of some segments to understand the idea behind the game.)

The game has a lot of potential but the lack of content does not allow the various ideas implemented in the game to shine. The mechanics force us down a fixed path with some small branches/deviations in between with the path again splitting at the very end to give us the different endings.

The lore/information shared while walking down this path and its branches is enough to justify the events but that's about it. The interactions with the characters, between the characters themselves and their behaviour does not feel natural/real when revisited. Making it more realistic won't necessarily cause further branching of this path we walk on but can make it way more memorable due to the potentially difficult choices we make along the path by adding some real cost to said choices. Of course someone who couldn't care less about the NPCs won't notice the lack of these interactions but this feels wrong as it goes against Rin's inherent nature. The lack of interactions really harms the psychological horror part of the game as it does not allow the player to bond with the NPCs enough. The characters are interesting, yes, but reducing them to one dimensional characters is easy when it comes to making a decision, making it really easy to reduce the game to a game of numbers by reducing the impact of our choices on us amount to almost nothing.

Of course, if one wants to, they can do this to any game, take Beholder (a different genre I know) for example, the best ending it essentially a game of numbers. "Yeah this decision makes me a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ person but in the long run, it helps me win so who cares?" But it is a really hard path to take when we think about the consequences of our action. Stealing from a friend, ratting out on your neighbour etc. We make those choices to save our family but each decision comes with a cost. People around you, people you talk to everyday, those people are affected by your decisions. The game makes it really apparent that your choices matter and they matter a lot. You are forced to see your victims pay the price of your choice and the game reminds you of it, telling you that you caused it.

Compared to that, decisions in SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim hold little to no weight. A game where all we can do is make decisions, most of which are forced, don't hold any value. Our decisions can easily be permuted with no real difference except for a different interaction between the permutations. You chose A before B, play dialogue X in between. You chose other way round? Play dialogue Y in between. X and Y don't change the outcome of the game unless these are the last few choices we can make to branch into different endings. Dialogue X might make choice B harder but now I don't have any other choice to choose from. B has to happen now. No one really acknowledges the order we chose because the other choice will eventually be chosen. It is this lack of acknowledgement by both, the game and the player, that reduces the psychological horror aspect of the game.

The game has great art, story and music direction. It has used great ideas. It really knows how to make you feel powerless against a giant like Saeko. But man, the execution could be so much better. I recommend it because honestly, I liked the ideas used in the game and the story it narrates, a not so detailed but solid story. If I sit down and think about how the plot progresses, excluding how NPCs behave, the plot is actually quite good. Events that happen over the game perfectly fit in an explanation for why a certain ending happened the way it did. But the lack of interactions/content really lowers the psychological horror part of the game.

The Silksong is real! Time to Git Gud.

I liked the story and how the environment is used to further expand on the current events and on the characters' past. It goes without saying that the audio and visuals are what games have over books when it comes to story telling. These allow a creator to leave behind subtle indirect clues without forcing a specific narrative. This game uses both audio and visuals well enough to make use of these benefits.

Bought these game on an impulse, really really underrated game, especially for such a low price. It can be finished within a day as my playtime suggests. The slow reveals with sufficient foreshadowing kept me going, the puzzles were simple enough and engaging. The script is well thought out. Comments are hoping for a part 2. I don't know if it is possible as the plot is more or less self contained, even though the ending does have a major reveal. Overall, worth playing.

I rarely buy early access games, I have no regrets buying this one. It feels like that this game has no skill ceiling. No enemy requires a particular equipment to counter. There is no right or wrong way to play this game.