itch.io

Many new things to take from this. If you haven't played yet, spoilers ahead. I highly recommend playing the game before reading this. Anyways, here are my thoughts on "The Numbers Game" so far. This is gonna be super long so if you care enough to read pls bear with me.  This is just my personal opinion so no one come at me for it.

We start the game right off with character customization which might I add is wonderfully extensive. The customization not only addresses pronouns, gender, and every physical aspect of the characters appearance, but also disabilities and mental triggers as well. That's very cool. I decided to go for a more timid main character on my first play through and you can really see how the customization affects your MC's actions.  For example, if you choose "tendency to fidget" during the customization process, your character will show signs of a preference for complete use of their hands as well as a need for something to do with them during stressful situations. I look forward to seeing how other aspects of your MC's personality and quirks will play into the story.  Now for my opinions on each of the characters so far. Zero is probably my favorite right now only because they treat your MC with so much kindness. The MC is clearly suffering from amnesia, and they take that into account when interacting with you. Not to mention I'm a sucker for the soft leader types. Even when you choose to keep your past relationship with Zero platonic, it's obvious they care about you a lot and I look forward to seeing what exactly happened between them and the MC.  I don't like One for obvious reasons. Knocking someone out while they're in the middle of a panic attack is...not ideal. To say the least. They seem like a wild little punk though, so I have a feeling they'll win me over really soon lol. We haven't really seen enough of the other characters yet for me to make any real opinion on them. Three seems cold and sarcastic which will definitely make for some hilarious dialogue in the future. And I haven't quite figured out Five yet. How they act seems to almost directly contradict how the games description portrays them. But its only chapter one so I suppose anything could happen. I like the fact that we didn't see every aspect of each character in the first chapter. That leaves you looking forward to finding out more in the next one. Plus, the alternative would have felt really rushed and forced which you obviously don't want from a storytelling perspective. To put it simply, this way makes the characters more interesting. The Boss is another character that was introduced and right from the get-go he's terrifying. He's cold and imposing and treats you more like an object than a person. MC shows very clear signs of emotional trauma the second they see him despite having no memory, and that only intrigues me further. What the heck did this man do to you? Overall, I am very satisfied with how this story is written. The only critique I have so far is the slightly unrealistic pacifistic nature of the MC.  I understand not wanting to give the main character the option to engage in violence (writing fight scenes can be a real pain and not everyone has an affinity for them) but I still don't like how the situation with One was handled.  It feels like we brushed off what they did to us waaay too easily. I understand not giving the mc the capability to intentionally hurt the cast, but I feel like that becomes a problem when the cast can very much intentionally hurt you. There's just a very concerning lack of self-defense options there. I just hope that in the future we can address that somehow, because if not it leaves a pretty big hole in One's development as a character (and their development with you if you choose that route). Again though, its only chapter one so anything could happen. Anyways that's all I have to offer. Overall, 4.5/5 stars. This game has so much potential already and I cant wait to see where it goes from here. So excited for the next update!