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I feel like I went into this game expecting something very different from what I got. The slick, stylish cover art isn't reflected in the in-game art direction at all; instead, it has an early 3D game look that doesn't really stand out in any way.

The controls, too were the opposite of slick, namely movement and interaction with obects. Walking in particular felt slow and ungainly, and I kept getting frustrated by it. The game has an option to have a companion animal following you, which is the kind of thing I love in games, but its AI isn't very smart and often got in my way, slowing movement down even further. 

The game was also mildly buggy at times; the main thing I noticed was that sometimes, tasks wouldn't be marked as completed even after I'd finished all the objectives, but there was also one occasion where, mid-quest, I was told to relay information to a character, but when I spoke with them, I wasn't given any dialogue options other than ending the conversation. The ending slides were bugged too, referring to things that never happened in my version of the game (i.e., the MC "breaking up" with someone despite my not having gone for any of the romance options.)

Honestly, my frustration is increased by how I did like a lot of what the game was trying to do, story-wise! The execution there isn't perfect either; I feel like the game tries to promise a level of flexibility that it can't deliver, and that frustrated me a little as well because the set-up for this game made me want to take advantage of that promised flexibility. 

Some aspects I did particularly like was Old Town as a setting and being able to help people in small but still meaningful ways. I also loved that Brialynne got to reunite with the one still-surviving member of her adventuring party; their dynamic and the hints of what happened with him in the time since intrigued, and I really wish there could have been a little more of that. (Honestly, "enjoying it, but wishing there could have been just that tiny bit more" is a pretty accurate description of my feelings about nearly all of the narrative or character elements that I liked about this game.)

A solidly made visual novel. I don't feel the need to rave about it, and I don't feel like I would have missed out if I hadn't played it, but I nonetheless enjoyed the experience. 

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A DELIGHT. I'd describe this as Legend of Zelda meets Undertale, featuring a well-done balance of a serious story with a delightfully meta take on worldbuilding. The sense of humour that shows up throughout, particularly in the descriptions of the monsters in the monster manual, absolutely delighted me. It's just a lot of fun to play. 

Also, Paige/Lenna! Paige/Lenna! Everything about their relationship delights* me, and their interactions in the perfect ending just cemented my feelings about them. 

* I know I keep using that word, but I can think of no better one to describe my feelings! <3

Honestly, I didn't get very far in this one. I died two times in a row without making any real progress, and decided that it wasn't for me.

Also, why do games that look like they're about animals so often turn out to be about humans instead? This happens in the opening of the game, so it's not a spoiler: this game isn't about a deer, but rather a hunter who is reincarnated as a deer.

I did like the art direction, though.  

Kind of cute, but not really my thing. Which I suppose that I could have predicted before I played it, but the lure of witches + baking + f/f romances drew me in.

(Vague potential spoilers in the next paragraph.)

One interesting aspect of the game was that while you could choose who the main characters had feelings for, you couldn't affect who had feelings for her. Unfortunately for me, there was one LI that I liked and one I really, really disliked—and only the one I disliked could lead to a canon romance. So that didn't help when it came to my personal enjoyment of the game. 

Very soothing to play. There is a story, but it's rather low-key: the focus is more on exploration and the journey up the mountain. 

I'm not sure how to talk about this one. It was fun at first, but somehow, it failed to have the addictive quality that I look for in games like this. I hit a point where I felt bored / didn't feel like I had enough to fill up the in-game days with, and not even the promise of more post-dating heart events with my chosen romantic partner could keep me playing.

Only got a few minutes into this one. Maybe it gets better later on, but the writing had such an amateurish feel to it that I couldn't bring myself to go further. It also kept breaking my suspension of disbelief—for instance, Hailey is Sirius' only friend & Sirius has supposedly spent the last month running over to her place every time Hailey calls about the ghosts, yet she doesn't know where Hailey's bedroom is or what her family situation is like? I just couldn't buy it. 

This had some interesting, match-3-inspired battle mechanics, though I feel like they could have been explained better—it wasn’t until I was about halfway through the game that I felt like I fully understood how it worked. 

I ended up dropping it because I got stuck on a stage and realized (after trying and failing to redo it several times) that I was finding it more stressful than fun, but that might’ve just been because of my mood on the day I was playing it. What I saw was solidly done, though, and I am curious about the Glitch Witch’s secrets, so I might go back and give this another shot someday.

Basically your standard coming of age/coming out story. It doesn’t bring much new to the table outside of the format of the game itself, but I did really, really like that format. (I think a lot about the intimacy of phones and how much one’s phone can reveal about you, so that was an immediate draw for me.) I don’t think this game is going to stick with me in the long run, but I don’t regret playing it either, and I'll probably be checking out the second game as well. 

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Really good! Definitely one of my favorites so far. The puzzles were engaging, I deeply enjoyed the way the multiple playthroughs were entwined with the story, and I loved, loved, loved all of the characters and their relationships with each other.

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(Note: as of my writing this, I've only done the Normal Ending, so that's what this is based on.) 

I really liked this one! The summary sets it up as this cutesy, light-hearted fluff game—which it really isn't—but it is true to the tone of the game, in that even when the game's dealing with the darker themes inherent in the backstories of the characters & their world, it's ultimately all handled in an optimistic and hopeful way. There are horror elements and (potential) deaths, but there's also Charlotte running around baking cookies, inviting people to parties, and just building genuine, sweet bonds with the other characters. The past is characterized by darkness, isolation, and trauma, but the present ends up being about chartering a newer, brighter path forward, and it's really lovely. 

Also: there are a couple of chase sequences in this game, but as someone who usually tends to panic when being chased in games to the extent that it’s usually a dealbreaker for me, I wasn’t too bothered by them.

Sleek, well-designed puzzle game where you need to get from point A to point B while fulfilling certain conditions.  

This had a very different feel from most VNs I've played. More grounded, somehow, despite all of the fantastical elements. The dialogue is both brisk and vague. It's fortunate that the characters are willing to tell their stories to each other, because the narration isn't interested in doing the same for the player. For instance, I think I'd already seen 3/6 endings by the time I found out what the inciting incident that led to the opening scene of the game was. At the same time, the characters do feel very real, in that it's obvious that the weight of their histories are informing their actions, even when the player doesn't know what that history is. Overall, I'm honestly not sure how much I enjoyed this game, but there's a lot to it and a lot to mull over.

I liked the journal mechanic, but the actual story ended up being too melodramatic for me. The voice acting was also a bit stilted, though I got used to it.

A winter-themed hidden object game centered around finding cats should have been right up my alley, but this one didn’t quite work for me. Most of it was the controls—this is a hidden object game with a 3D rather than a 2D environment, and I found myself spending more time fighting with the controls to try to get a view on the area I wanted to search rather than actually searching the area. Which is a shame, because the graphics were really cute (kind of a low polygon look), and I loved the way the cats meowed whenever you found one of them.

So charming and funny. Almost everyone is awful in a the-game-is-completely-aware-of-it way, and it's a delight to behold. I think my favorite aspect was the little songs that heralded in the characters on each visit. 

I played a few stages, but it didn’t really grab me. Basically, each stage is set-up in tiles, and you (in the form of a fairy) guide Little Red Riding Hood to her destination by swapping tiles with her. You can only swap with tiles that are right next to you, though, and sometimes there are objects (like flowers or berries) that Red needs to gather before you take her to the cottage. Maybe it gets better later on, but for me, it felt more tedious than fun.

The art direction of this game is lovely—probably my favorite thing about this game. Both the backgrounds and the sprites have this polished, fancy colored pencil sort of look to them. Overall, this wasn’t a favorite, but it’s well-made and still a solid gaming experience.

Melancholy IF game about a group of adventurers who fail at their grand epic fantasy-style quest. You get to see from the POV of each of the five party members, with each section being from a different timeline and utilizing a different style of IF. It’s a very neat style, and I liked how playing through each of the POVs/timelines helped piece together the story.

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This actually had a bit of a Stardew Valley-esque feel for me, even though the scope and focus of the game are different. It’s not a flawless game, but overall, it’s still pretty engaging and I had a really hard time putting it down.

CUTE. There’s not too much to this game, and the clicking was a little tiring, but I nonetheless was pretty fond of this one. The monsters were just too adorable, and I liked how raising their affection led to short scenes between them and the main character. <3

The game page describes it as “a peaceful puzzle game about water, erosion, and watching things grow”, which I’d say is accurate. It’s really soothing to play, and I felt like the puzzles were the ideal level of difficulty.

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UTTERLY DELIGHTFUL <3

I was not a fan at all. It’s technically fairly well-made, but the characters and story made me so angry. 

I really liked the visuals and music—very soothing and elegant—but the controls are a little stiff, which isn’t ideal when attempting to do timed puzzles.