(leave it to me to be so behind that i play someone's game almost the same day they released another one-)
(anyway aaa this was so cute & creative!! 👻👻👻👻👻)
(the concept is super fun and i'm really impressed with the execution. i absolutely love it when an rpg maker game is tweaked and twisted with its mechanics so it looks nothing like an rpg maker game anymore haha. i had no idea how some of this stuff was programmed. it feels like this game goes an extra mile with everything it does, and the result is fantastic!)
(first off, the visuals are amazing! the broodygaming™ style pops off as much as ever, and i loved how every aspect of the presentation is focused on channeling this ghost-like atmosphere (which is really fitting lol), but in a peaceful and fun way. the sky always being dark, the variety of colors, the looping animations, the different textures... it's aspects that have appeared in other games of yours, but here it feels like they have an extra purpose, if that makes sense? in a way, it feels like we're seeing everything through the eyes of the main character; like the reason why everything looks the way it does is because they're a ghost. but at the same time, this ghostly atmosphere is never used for horror or creepiness, it just emphasizes the nature of the game while still being light and fun (obviously there's still darker elements, which the game makes excellent use of). the visual design channels really well the vibe of "what if in a ghost story the ghost was actually nice" haha. and that's kind of the feel i got for the entire game; a subversion of the typical ghost stories that focuses on the more whimsical aspects of it, but doesn't hide the dark parts, instead using them to elevate the central theme of "you're just trying to help your friends"-themed kindness, and i dug every second of it! :> (i realize i've mostly used the visuals part of the review to gush about the game's concept lol, but i also need to mention the font, which is fantastic and fits the ghost vibe perfectly (seeing a new font with every chevie game is starting to feel like getting a surprise christmas present haha. no pressure on actually making a new one for every game ofc, it's just really cool when it happens), and the title screen, which is super cute and uses color extremely well and GOD that's what i call beautiful hair!!! (did i mention the main charater's design was really neat? :D)))
(and that sound design! the music was super good and fit the vibe perfectly as usual, and specifically the main theme?? super beautiful and ethereal and catchy?? hello??? an all timer for sure. and the way the last level switches up the music for realistic forest sounds!! sooo cool. and the little sounds that pop up with the character's actions were really good and distinct as well! the way this game sounds is pretty much as good as how it looks, which is saying a lot!)
(i really loved how the story and characters were handled; it feels both like the plot is non-intrusive and doesn't take attention away from the gameplay, but it's also the core of the entire game, and that's a really cool balance to strike. the beginning and end cutscenes were incredibly well made (using the "conspiracy theory pictures on a board" motif was a stroke of genius!) and emotional, and it's crazy how much the starting minutes of the game made me so invested in helping the main character's friends. and like i said, i loved how the plot uses the darker elements of a ghost story to focus on kindness; it's heartwarming to see the characters being helped by their friend, and it's especially effective due to the ambiguity of... well, whether they know they're actually being helped or not. i really liked how that was kept in the dark, with the final pictures possibly giving hints that go both ways (i headcanon that they don't know their friend is helping them, cuz i like angst >:D though if they know ghosts are real, they probably already guessed that their friend is a ghost lol). i also thought it was a super creative choice to have no spoken words, and leave the story and the character's emotions completely to the visuals, like how the dialogue of the friends at the van is expressed solely through emotion animations (maybe that's the only way main character can perceive spoken words now that they're a ghost... welp, back to the theorycrafting table!). the game's plot, while relatively light, is super well told and it manages to hook you for the entire game with so little!!)
(finally, the gameplay was creative and fun! i'll admit that at the start when every mechanic got introduced, i got a bit overwhelmed cuz it was a lot of things to remember, and while i still think it could've been introduced better, the strong visual distinctions of each icon made the gameplay feel kinda like second nature as the game went on. it's really fun interacting with objects and trying to find out the correct timing to make the characters see your actions. and while it isn't too hard to beat, i think the game balanced its difficulty pretty well; the belief meter restarting if a character sees an action they weren't expecting felt a bit weird and frustrating at first, but it kept me on high alert to make sure not to do the wrong thing by accident, which is easy to mess up if you aren't thinking. while sometimes it's a bit easy to spam the same event over and over when a character is in one room, overall the gameplay loop is a pretty satisfying juggling act of timing and movement that's a lot trickier than it seems at first sight! i will say that due to the main character's size, it was a bit odd figuring out what exact tile i needed to be on so i could perform an action, which was sort of frustrating in the more closed spaces where the characters leave the room pretty quickly. also maybe i just wasn't paying attention lol but i had no idea what the hearts meant, and why they kept emptying and filling up. still, the gameplay was fun! and like i said i have no idea how some of this stuff was programmed haha (also off topic but the fact that the main character can go anywhere and through anything, even outside the van in the scenes between levels, is a super cute detail! :>) (also also sorry for mostly talking about the story and visuals in this review when you explicitly asked for feedback on the gameplay snjdsmjsdj))
(btw, i don't know if this was a bug or not, but on the last level i filled both the characters' belief meters, but the level didn't end, and after trying out stuff i just ended up restarting it. i say that i don't know if this was a bug cuz maybe it had something to do with the hearts? just thought i should say it but maybe it was my fault lmao)
(overall this was such a great concept done really well! games that focus on gameplay but have an underlying story going on in the background are PEAK. and i could honestly see myself playing this on my phone as a mobile puzzle game haha /pos. great stuff!)
(p.d. if you're wondering why i put everything in this review in brackets, it's cuz playing this game turned me into a ghost. idk how you did that but i admire the commitment to immersion!)