This might be one of the annoying Pokémon things I've ever played, and yet at the same I enjoyed my time nonetheless. I do want to ask you about this game's difficulty, for a demo, though.
I get the Level 25 and Level 45 Metapod battle being annoying on purpose, since all they can do is use "Harden" even when they cannot raise their defense higher. But I found the fights with May, the Beedrill guy and Tracey particularly annoying. May is annoying because of the limited but still cheap movesets of Torkoal (Snore, Ember, and Rest. Mainly Snore and Rest for how often it puts the Clefairies to sleep, and regains Torkoal's health.) and Torchic (Mainly Double Kick's sheer power, with the occasional Protect.). The Beedrill guy is annoying because of the Beedrill's repetitive use of Fury Swipe, due to its frequency to hit a lot no matter the Girl ability's usage. Tracey is annoying because of the spamming of Smeargle's Circle Throw to damage the team and force a switch every time, alongside the additional spamming of Spikes that doubles onto that damage count, all combined with how you have to repeat that pain six times.
I know this is more or less a shitpost game. I do. But I do have two things that bother me.
a. Tank controls for everyone, and the S button is useless because you can't move backwards
b. The jump is really slow, both when getting off the ground (which can result in you hitting a spike anyway), and when in the air it's like they're on the moon (the coins will probably despawn by the time you get down).
I'm sure these things were intentional, but regardless.
Actually, hear me out: what if instead of the villagers getting a craving for flesh, it's Hamtaro who does?
In a remake by your team or someone else, instead of the game revolving around MissingNo., have that line about Hamtaro deciding to not eat that first day have more significance. Give us the option of whether Hamtaro should eat any of the meals he cooks, or just gives them to the villagers.
Give us a happy ending if the player can satiate both the village and Hamtaro himself, throughout the game. Give us a bad ending if we either keep all the food to ourselves, or only feed the town. And it could all be done with an alteration of the canonical ending:
When Bunjamin invites Hamtaro over, the result depends on how you played. Have Bunjamin try to be nice if you did everything right. Have Bunjamin get angry at you if you deprived the village. Have Hamtaro have a bad feeling about this, if you deprived Hamtaro, leading to two different scenarios: 1. If you choose not to go, Hamtaro will die of starvation. 2. If you do go, Hamtaro will end up eating Bunjamin, and maybe three different paths could occur: Hamtaro loses it and goes on a killing spree, Hamtaro simply covers up what he did and moves on, or Hamtaro admits to his guilt and is punished.
This was underwhelming. I hoped that there was an option to just race like normal, before you had to do the whole "search for a secret" thing. But that's all you can do.
By the time I got to the block room with the glitchy bodies, I was more annoyed that I was having so much trouble finding an exit. And the ending jumpscare, while well animated, doesn't feel all that scary to me. By then, I was already numb to the scary stuff.
I knew going in that this was a horror game, thanks to ToadBup's video on Kitty Kart 64. But even so, I was kinda surprised by what I saw, both in a positive and negative way. On a positive note, I appreciate the gradual buildup to the whole town desiring Hamtaro's flesh, as the static infects their minds...
But on the other hand... why is the monster just...MissingNo.? I think you could have come up with some other glitch-themed creature to serve as the villain, because it being MissingNo. just feels off to me.
And speaking of glitches, there is this one glitch if you get near a bridge on your scooter, resulting in Hamtaro and the scooter splitting from each other until you get off the scooter. And worse, at one point during play, I got stuck in a corner between a hill and a bridge, meaning I had to start a whole new game because of how this game saves wherever you chose to quit.
Everything else, I appreciate. I enjoy zipping around and bouncing off of hills, and the bonus of the scooter time trial was nice. I just wish there was more to it. I even enjoya engaging with the dialogue, including with Bunjamin. I hate that guy.
However, I do have a piece of criticism to offer: if you intend to make more games like this, as in visual novels that involve boss fights, maybe try to not make them luck-based? I know it's multiple choice, but it's why I can't say the final boss is all that fun, because of the limited time combined with having to guess at every screen before the ending -- and getting even one screen wrong sends you back to the beginning of a phase.
Either you figure out the pattern through trial-and-error, and have to memorize the exact choice for the exact screen, or you cheese it by saving whenever you get to another screen and continue to load the game until you get it right. That's how it went for me, anyway.
Part of me is bugged by just how many endings result in the same thing: blood splatters, lost appendages, and the cat just killing the player without much variety other than what leads to it. But at the same time, there are plenty of creative and horrifying ways that the cat can kill the player... and heck, despite the fact that the cat doesn't want the best for the player anyway, some endings (Including the true ending, of course.) actually feel comforting despite everything.
Perhaps it's something that reflect my own mentality and mental state, particularly when it comes to online relations and the way I sometimes engage with fiction, but part of me wanted there to be an ending without the player dying or lose their autonomy, and just have the cat be a legitimate friend for once. It's why my favorite ending is the one where the player emotionally breaks down, and while the cat ultimately seals them inside of some sort of fleshy prison, the cat actually tries to comfort them and talk them out of their dilemma in a way that for once feels genuine.
This game is creative and disturbing, and even fun beyond just the scenarios. Really great work, and I hope that this game has affected me for the best.
A pretty solid game overall. I mostly like the game's art direction, which goes well with the quirky little narrative you've got going on. Seems to be a common theme with puzzle-based visual novels like these.
If it weren't for the butter-slippery physics of this game, I would probably enjoy this a lot more. During the final level in particular, the fact that your movement is so slippery makes it WAY too easy to screw up. I know the level is supposed to be hard, with the giant hazards, the cloud puzzles, and the final chase, but the jump height, in combination with a lack of ability to see what's beneath you when you jump, makes it a lot more frustrating than it should be. Not to mention the size of those enemies, and having to do the jumps JUST right, especially with how fast the Thwomp comes down and how fast the Podoboo pops up and down.
Still wondering just how far you are going to go with this, without crossing any boundaries (those vocally unwanted by the original creators of the characters)
I find it weird that a demo has the player already starting at Level 38, and yet the standard enemies can be so hard to defeat on your first try. If this is supposed to be like Pokemon, let the demo ease you into the game INSTEAD of tossing you into it. I can appreciate there is a guide, but it doesn't work if you aren't given a tutorial in the game itself. And due to how the stats system works, with that, it's difficult to know when a move will do solid damage or be a bullshit OHKO. And this is in the single-player campaign. Why?
This game came out in 2022? It really feels like something that would have come out in the early 2000s. Based on your website and how this was designed for Windows XP, I'm pretty sure that was intentional.
Except for the final portion of the game, where Lamu stalks you with their weird-ass 3D model, I wouldn't really call this game scary. Maybe if I was younger I would be a lot more horrified by this, as horror is subjective. At the same time, though, this is still a pretty fun and goofy game! At first, I was kinda unnerved by Lamu's design, but gradually I just found it funny the more you ate the innocent people. This feels like a vore game, especially considering the second ending. Solid game to kill at least half an hour with!
Well, this is the weirdest game I have ever played. I do like the art style, the various Easter eggs, and the soundtrack choices. However, the game felt way too linear for it to feel enjoyable. It was boring, but strange enough for me to keep going.
