I bought this on Steam so I had to come to Itch to rate and review as well.

My review:

Wow!! I bought this on sale, but even 5 bucks is well worth the experience. Overall, a really interesting and meta game that explores the ideas of strategy, communication, and autonomy. I don't want to spoil too much, but there are some very interesting mechanics at play during the turn-based combat sequences. Took me about 2 hours to complete the game, but there is still more content I haven't seen yet!!

The story is very interesting and the worldbuilding is so intriguing. First of all - and this cannot be understated - the art is BEAUTIFUL. The set pieces are so incredibly stunning. Everything feels so mysterious and painterly, really really beautiful! The portraits, character sprites, and environments are all cohesive despite the slight differences between chibi and full portrait design. The colors are genuinely delectable.

The characters are very unique and have their own strong personalities but I really wish that we could spend more time with them! I'll have to replay the game to get all of the conversation options, but I am still left feeling a little distant and curious about my teammates.

The camera is a little odd to get used to at first but then it felt very natural as I kept playing. I don't play a lot of turn-based tactics games but I thought that the combat was VERY well done. I am honestly quite bad at the game, which has a really interesting effect that you may not expect as the story progresses! However, I slowly understood the intentions and strengths of each character and got better at the combat, which felt very rewarding (and when I died/did poorly, the feedback from my teammates felt a lot more personal lmfao).

I don't want to say too much more because I think that this is a very good game to go mostly uninformed into. Please play it and amazing job by the team - this is such an impressive piece of media, especially by a thesis student team!!