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jaybbird

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A member registered Jul 06, 2017

Recent community posts

This has become my current favorite game. I have been playing it every day, it's super satisfying and SO fun. I love the rough art style of the myspace blingees and the sudden onset stress that working with these emails can bring. My partner just described it as a webcore email rogue-like.

Critiques: I am not sure if this is a glitch or something I genuinely have to wait for but the REPORT: scientists say this is the lucky number email SHOULD correspond to the Budget Allotment email if I'm correct, but every time I type the number it doesn't register as the right answer but I haven't found literally any other answer. 

Similar issue with the Relationship email and the Trying to understand humans email. I tried the Triolingo email but it turned out to be spam? I'm not sure what the response to these are meant to be if the proper email responses aren't doing it. Maybe make these a little more clear.

Other than that PLEASE add a score storage feature. I've been writing my scores down but I'd love to have an offline score chart cuz this game is so fun and I play it constantly. Thanks!!

TL:DR review for new bundle buyers: Game is unfinished, buggy (despite creator saying they were fixing these bugs 4+ years ago and still hasn't) and has no story. It's not a particularly well crafted rhythm game nor is it an actually scary horror game and contains no actual jumpscares scarier than what the UI does to you. It's just a rhythm game that hates you. There is no "horrific past trauma." Good for maybe five minutes of play if you bought it with the bundle. but not the $5 on it's own. Maybe 1 star.

More in depth review:

This concept is on solid ground. A horror game that is a rhythm game following the notes of anxiety and not knowing when things are going to be thrown in your face on top of the idea of a game breaking down like your own feeble sanity. It's cool! The art is beautiful and the music is also beautiful! 

The aesthetic and idea are the clothespins holding together a house of cards unfortunately. I played this with my friend who knows rhythm games like the back of their hand and it's not... good. To repeat old complaints in these comments that we experienced: it doesn't pick up some of the notes that were DEFINITELY played, the last stage plays over and over without telling you that it finished the game, (going so far as accidentally rubbing it in because the voice acting says "no, that's not right" when you click on the menu button and just starts the level again), notes are dropped and sometimes you get failure effects despite doing well.

Beyond the unfinished bug aspects, the game has no story. All of the promised plot isn't there. None of the past trauma stuff and no cut scenes besides two or three lines of text with dialogue. I read up the comments and apparently this is going to stay that way. Development's over. It's done. Go home! And honestly? This just makes it... kinda sad? Where my friends were outraged at not being told this I'm just... disappointed. I love horror games (as a horror reviewer) because they delve into our psyche, they can be creative and emotionally fulfilling. I can see where this could have gone, from being a difficult, unclear, anxiety inducing game with proper jump scares, pacing, whispered voices going in one ear to the other only you can hear over the frantic keys of piano as she demands revenge, to one final piece after freeing yourself from the grasp of the spirit, played under blue skies and uninterrupted. Simple, beautiful music you make with your hands, without even a discordant note to reflect any mistakes, no knowledge of potential failure besides a percentage at the end of your score. 

But that's not going to happen and it makes me really sad. Maybe one day they will finish the game. Maybe they won't.  It's not up to us, nor will any of us know what happened to HANNAH or our player character, what's up with the dock at the lake, or quell the anxiety of it all in the end.