Happy Life
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I was about to just give up on it, but then I thought—alright, I'll jot down a few lines about the indie games I've been grinding lately.
yohane the parhelion
I hate "intellectual" stuff, especially when it's not for cool people but for anime-idiots, so I'll give this one only 8.5.
Even a polished engine and animations, smooth gameplay, full Japanese voice acting, and references to the original material for anime-retards aren't able to compensate for some weird—though not critical—moments in the mechanical features. You could also add short completion time as a plus, but that's only relevant for a legally infringing free warez version, certainly not for a thirty dollar purchase.
tevi
I'm absolutely puking retardation in a steady stream, so I can't possibly rate this higher than nine and a half, even if it is from developer rabi ribi in the same format, with voice acting, a full plot, and a bunch of "quality" compared to the previous project, plus expanded customization and features.
That's understandable, but it's still a shame that for the sake of the infamous little plot, they had to move away from the light atmosphere of its predecessor into more grimdark territory.
octopath traveler 2
Working-class grind: season two. After starting to play, I realized it's quite a chore—something that was very easy and simple to feel even in the first part—but here they went down the path of increasing the grind by inventing day and night cycles, which change the location of town and wilderness NPCs, as well as the version of the ability used on them, which increases the number of clockwise laps two or more times. Even with that—if you overcome this feeling of plowing through WORK—you can enjoy the stories and main quests of the workers; they are at least no worse than in the first part, and you can also sail the sea on a little boat. But ultimately it all comes down to whether you like the format itself—if yes, then go for it; if not, you'll drop it quickly; if you "just don't puke over it"—you'll still drop it at some point, as I did, just not immediately.
astlibra revision
Crap if you have ADHD; absolute top-tier if you have time to grind, a desire to immerse yourself, and are okay with the combat—side-scrolling and not very dynamic, but requiring some skill in places. An anime-idiotic, ten-fold exaggerated multilayered plot, reasonably well presented, with ceramics and drama, and little jokes on top.
If you grind it fully, it'll take a own decent amount of hours, but you can choose not to do that and spend two to two and a half times less time, losing only in autism rather than final output.
Despite all the above—it's meditative and almost effortless, so it'll work even for boomers.
sanabi
First impression: Katana Zero-ish with a simpler plot and worse gameplay, but on the internet I saw another comparison—Ghostrunner 2D (if anyone besides me has played that crap and knows what I mean), which seems more appropriate to me.
The gameplay really could have been better; it makes sense and is balanced both narratively and mechanically, but personally it doesn't get me excited as such—it's a platformer where you pull yourself with a hook and one-shot enemies (robots) with the same hook, and its essence isn't about blood-guts-boobs-swearing, but primarily about calculated and competent maneuvering. Like... doubtful, but okay)))); it could have been better, plus a couple of separate moments really pissed me off with their complexity, even though there was nothing super hardcore in them, but the game's formula itself can trigger such emotions in places, even if you understand it's just an average title.
But overall, for the sake of the little plot it's worth it—it's not exactly mind-blowing or heavily twisted, but just very wholesome and quite well presented; for dumb sentimental boomers 30+ who have already seen everything life has to offer—it's perfect. In places it even reminds me of some typical (in a good way) sci-fi action flick from the nineties, where there is a certain chambered feel, if not limitedness, to the world, but despite that you feel very well that this same chamberedness doesn't narrow the world down to only the action events shown in it, but on the contrary—it's presented so that you feel the worldbuilding and the embedded plot idea behind it, even though at a glance you shouldn't. It might not be easy to explain in words, but being an elitist and getting it, you realize how competently and masterfully it's done; not everyone is capable of such a thing.
To sum up, I think this pro-ect will appeal to many—plot-idiots won't be too bothered by the gameplay and will like the story (especially since there's a casual difficulty you can turn on at any moment), and gameplay-idiots will find the gameplay acceptable, and they'll still understand the plot without guides, and it will strike chords in their hearts one way or another, because it really is made with soul. So... I can recommend it to many?.. I guess. You certainly won't consider the 7-10 hours spent on it as wasted in the end, but rather get a certain pleasure from them.
Lastly, I'll fart about the trendy youth (about a year or two ago) indie scene "vampire survivors" genre, of which I managed to play several titles.
vampire survivors - judging by the hype, not as cool as expected; judging by the gameplay, not as shitty as expected. There are dozens of heroes and upgrades that can be unlocked under certain conditions, which significantly adds to the playability, but at one point you might find that without an internet guide you no longer understand how to unlock things further, and without unlocks there's no point in playing, so don't be shy and look them up. But otherwise—as strange as it sounds—the most advanced of its "genre" in terms of graphics-gameplay-unlocks. It won't click from the first run, but it'll click fast enough, and you'll realize that overall, the initial antipathy is overcome and it's quite playable—not as no-brain as it might have seemed before.
brotato - some kind of bullshit like early 2000s Flash games; gameplay is polished enough in terms of understanding and transparency, and that seems correct, there's a conditional variety of upgrades-weapons-builds, but at the same time, despite the "quality," it lacks this very variety. Idk, maybe it's due to the lack of a global game layer, like in Vampires? Essentially, everything you do outside of strictly "quality" structured runs is trying to trigger an unlock for a specific hero under a specific condition, whereas in Vampires you unlocked all sorts of things, all covered by a layer of mystery, hints suggested enigma, maps were almost infinite in size and you felt something more than just calibrated numbers.
bio prototype - sort of Brobulba, but about mutating maggots. Gameplay on the maps here is even poorer, global unlocks are worse, but the essence itself is built on getting various strange mutation modules to install on the champ; they aren't super complex, but in places very strange and hard to perceive, not combining with each other, focused on building quite calibrated synergies. Overall, building a champ during a run is perhaps relatively interesting here, but unfortunately, everything else is done quite dullly, so the general impression doesn't carry it.
boneraiser minions - absolutely vomit-inducing pixels for graphics, but otherwise a very fun vampire-like (can we call this creepy genre that?). Here the essence is focused not on upgrading the hero's attacks during a run, but on generating and upgrading his summons, which smash mobs, though there are also separate themes for the hero's own attack, using spells with different effects, etc. There are also tons of different types of summons; they evolve into different branches, and there are tons of different heroes giving various bonuses to different types of summons or gameplay styles. You can play on manually chosen and customized maps where you can place specific buildings that give certain bonuses... In general, the customization here is huge, variability and replayability too, and unlocks are bought with farmed currency rather than by fulfilling conditions like in Vampires. This one is a clear top-tier among all imitators, moreover, one that fully competes with Vampire Survivors themselves without being a pale copy, but developing the "genre" in another direction. If dementia ever hits you and you decide to play this genre, then you can try this title—provided your eyes don't leak out.
yohane the parhelion
I hate "intellectual" stuff, especially when it's not for cool people but for anime-idiots, so I'll give this one only 8.5.
Even a polished engine and animations, smooth gameplay, full Japanese voice acting, and references to the original material for anime-retards aren't able to compensate for some weird—though not critical—moments in the mechanical features. You could also add short completion time as a plus, but that's only relevant for a legally infringing free warez version, certainly not for a thirty dollar purchase.
tevi
I'm absolutely puking retardation in a steady stream, so I can't possibly rate this higher than nine and a half, even if it is from developer rabi ribi in the same format, with voice acting, a full plot, and a bunch of "quality" compared to the previous project, plus expanded customization and features.
That's understandable, but it's still a shame that for the sake of the infamous little plot, they had to move away from the light atmosphere of its predecessor into more grimdark territory.
octopath traveler 2
Working-class grind: season two. After starting to play, I realized it's quite a chore—something that was very easy and simple to feel even in the first part—but here they went down the path of increasing the grind by inventing day and night cycles, which change the location of town and wilderness NPCs, as well as the version of the ability used on them, which increases the number of clockwise laps two or more times. Even with that—if you overcome this feeling of plowing through WORK—you can enjoy the stories and main quests of the workers; they are at least no worse than in the first part, and you can also sail the sea on a little boat. But ultimately it all comes down to whether you like the format itself—if yes, then go for it; if not, you'll drop it quickly; if you "just don't puke over it"—you'll still drop it at some point, as I did, just not immediately.
astlibra revision
Crap if you have ADHD; absolute top-tier if you have time to grind, a desire to immerse yourself, and are okay with the combat—side-scrolling and not very dynamic, but requiring some skill in places. An anime-idiotic, ten-fold exaggerated multilayered plot, reasonably well presented, with ceramics and drama, and little jokes on top.
If you grind it fully, it'll take a own decent amount of hours, but you can choose not to do that and spend two to two and a half times less time, losing only in autism rather than final output.
Despite all the above—it's meditative and almost effortless, so it'll work even for boomers.
sanabi
First impression: Katana Zero-ish with a simpler plot and worse gameplay, but on the internet I saw another comparison—Ghostrunner 2D (if anyone besides me has played that crap and knows what I mean), which seems more appropriate to me.
The gameplay really could have been better; it makes sense and is balanced both narratively and mechanically, but personally it doesn't get me excited as such—it's a platformer where you pull yourself with a hook and one-shot enemies (robots) with the same hook, and its essence isn't about blood-guts-boobs-swearing, but primarily about calculated and competent maneuvering. Like... doubtful, but okay)))); it could have been better, plus a couple of separate moments really pissed me off with their complexity, even though there was nothing super hardcore in them, but the game's formula itself can trigger such emotions in places, even if you understand it's just an average title.
But overall, for the sake of the little plot it's worth it—it's not exactly mind-blowing or heavily twisted, but just very wholesome and quite well presented; for dumb sentimental boomers 30+ who have already seen everything life has to offer—it's perfect. In places it even reminds me of some typical (in a good way) sci-fi action flick from the nineties, where there is a certain chambered feel, if not limitedness, to the world, but despite that you feel very well that this same chamberedness doesn't narrow the world down to only the action events shown in it, but on the contrary—it's presented so that you feel the worldbuilding and the embedded plot idea behind it, even though at a glance you shouldn't. It might not be easy to explain in words, but being an elitist and getting it, you realize how competently and masterfully it's done; not everyone is capable of such a thing.
To sum up, I think this pro-ect will appeal to many—plot-idiots won't be too bothered by the gameplay and will like the story (especially since there's a casual difficulty you can turn on at any moment), and gameplay-idiots will find the gameplay acceptable, and they'll still understand the plot without guides, and it will strike chords in their hearts one way or another, because it really is made with soul. So... I can recommend it to many?.. I guess. You certainly won't consider the 7-10 hours spent on it as wasted in the end, but rather get a certain pleasure from them.
Lastly, I'll fart about the trendy youth (about a year or two ago) indie scene "vampire survivors" genre, of which I managed to play several titles.
vampire survivors - judging by the hype, not as cool as expected; judging by the gameplay, not as shitty as expected. There are dozens of heroes and upgrades that can be unlocked under certain conditions, which significantly adds to the playability, but at one point you might find that without an internet guide you no longer understand how to unlock things further, and without unlocks there's no point in playing, so don't be shy and look them up. But otherwise—as strange as it sounds—the most advanced of its "genre" in terms of graphics-gameplay-unlocks. It won't click from the first run, but it'll click fast enough, and you'll realize that overall, the initial antipathy is overcome and it's quite playable—not as no-brain as it might have seemed before.
brotato - some kind of bullshit like early 2000s Flash games; gameplay is polished enough in terms of understanding and transparency, and that seems correct, there's a conditional variety of upgrades-weapons-builds, but at the same time, despite the "quality," it lacks this very variety. Idk, maybe it's due to the lack of a global game layer, like in Vampires? Essentially, everything you do outside of strictly "quality" structured runs is trying to trigger an unlock for a specific hero under a specific condition, whereas in Vampires you unlocked all sorts of things, all covered by a layer of mystery, hints suggested enigma, maps were almost infinite in size and you felt something more than just calibrated numbers.
bio prototype - sort of Brobulba, but about mutating maggots. Gameplay on the maps here is even poorer, global unlocks are worse, but the essence itself is built on getting various strange mutation modules to install on the champ; they aren't super complex, but in places very strange and hard to perceive, not combining with each other, focused on building quite calibrated synergies. Overall, building a champ during a run is perhaps relatively interesting here, but unfortunately, everything else is done quite dullly, so the general impression doesn't carry it.
boneraiser minions - absolutely vomit-inducing pixels for graphics, but otherwise a very fun vampire-like (can we call this creepy genre that?). Here the essence is focused not on upgrading the hero's attacks during a run, but on generating and upgrading his summons, which smash mobs, though there are also separate themes for the hero's own attack, using spells with different effects, etc. There are also tons of different types of summons; they evolve into different branches, and there are tons of different heroes giving various bonuses to different types of summons or gameplay styles. You can play on manually chosen and customized maps where you can place specific buildings that give certain bonuses... In general, the customization here is huge, variability and replayability too, and unlocks are bought with farmed currency rather than by fulfilling conditions like in Vampires. This one is a clear top-tier among all imitators, moreover, one that fully competes with Vampire Survivors themselves without being a pale copy, but developing the "genre" in another direction. If dementia ever hits you and you decide to play this genre, then you can try this title—provided your eyes don't leak out.
My sword, my trusted ally, unphased by my aspect.
