Recent reviews by Val1407

Yet Another Killing Game, and yet it's one of the best one there is.
This game impressed me so many times in many different ways, and i'm excited to tell you why.

The positive

+ The visuals , whether it's the character models, CG'S or backgrounds are super impressive and detailed. While the rooms you explore are very simple , it feels incredibly realistic and pleasing to look at . The scenes where you enter rooms while it's dark , and the light slowly comes out are super tense and well done, making you fear what's actually in the room (or isn't!) . Big mention to the textbox which is probably one of the coolest one ever.

+ The soundtrack is excellent . I love Cece's investigation theme , being quirky and mysterious, fitting her PERFECTLY . The chase music is probably one of the most stress-inducing song i've heard in a long time, and the "sad" songs almost made me tear up , just to name a few. Stellar soundtrack, i wish i could buy it, but the game gives it to you for free , as you can listen to it in a menu ingame!

+ Brilliant storytelling. My god the writing in this game is a masterpiece. Very few characters but all are very in-depth and have a lot to tell. The contrast between Cece's jokes and Ria's seriousness is so well done, and they form a great pair. The story makes your brain melts in the best way possible, constantly throwing you out of the loop on what's going to happen or what is actually happening. Now that i'm done with the game, i still feel like i missed so many details, you know how games tends to have some open-ended story that makes the viewer let his imagination goes wild? Well this game kinda does that, but in a much better way, where you probably HAVE all the infos and you can piece it up yourself, but it's up to you to do so. Maybe i'm bad at explaining it, but i don't like when games gives you very little and it feels like there's so many plotholes or that the story is open-ended because it's half-baked. Well this game didn't make me feel that, i genuinely feel like all the mysteries can be resolved, and it's "my fault" if can't resolve it.

The neutral

= There's soooo many little choices in this game. You have a lot of hidden dialogue that you can completely miss, i will take for example the investigation scenes, where talking to the character you investigate with with a certain percentage of the investigation done, gives you completely unique dialogue! There's atleast 3 different dialogue for when you start the investigation, are halfway-through, or are done with it . And there's even variations if you investigated some items but not others! It's super impressive how in-depth it is. The "half-way" dialogue choice for example is often the most interesting, as an example your first investigation with Cece will have her ask about your favorite way of killing, while Ria's talks about your choice in the Trolley Problem (The one where people are on a train rail and you have to pull a lever) . And both choices leads to absolutely nothing, and are completely optional!
The main reason i'm putting this as neutral is because except if you're a maniac like me that chooses every single choice and rewind to see the others, you're probably gonna miss on a TON of little interactions.

The negative

- I wouldn't even call it that much of a negative, but it's honestly the only thing i can really complain about in this game : The lack of a flowchart. The game is definitely made around the choices you make , and i feel like a flowchart would have ruined a lot of moments, but also made some others more interesting . But hey it's a personal opinion, i feel like EVERY VN should have a flowchat of some sort, it always make the game flows better, especially when you have to redo a LOT (which isn't the case in this game, you can even skip investigations you've already done!) So yeah overall can't complain too much about it .

- Lack of achievements, again it's super minor, but hey i do like my cheevos :) And it would have worked for this game too, stuff like finding hidden dialogue or 100% an investigation, stuff like that!

- I will be very vague on purpose, but the path to the true ending , if you make a certain choice during the good ending (the "3rd choice") after the credits, the hint about the true ending is... way too vague compared to the other 2 choices. I was very confused on if i had to redo the ENTIRE game or not to get it , but it felt wrong , and eventually managed to understood what i had to do after checking the other endings. You will see when you get there.


The last 2 things i want to mention is that i'm missing the last background in the gallery and i have no clue how to get it, as i feel like i've done every possible choice i could (trust me, i rewinded a lot...) It's probably due to naming the protagonist or the dog a specific way ,as i did get a secret ending for doing the former, which was neat.

And the true last thing i want to mention is ... at 2 points in the game, but more specifically the true true ending choice, made me feel ... like i didn't want to see the other choice. And i mean that in the best way possible. You know in these games, you want to see every choices, find every clues , see the whole story... Well this is probably the only game where i genuinely felt like my choice was an ACTUAL choice, that i wasn't in a videogame and that i didn't want to rewind this . I will say i did succumb after the credit and did see that other choice, but i am regretting this a bit, as i feel like it ruined the charm and the wonder of it.
So if you get to the true ending and feel the same way as i do, please don't look the other choice. Sometimes you're not meant to find everything , there's times where you don't *have* to see all there is to offer. Sure you might miss out on stuff, but does it really matter in the end, if you feel fulfilled with what you got? And of course that applies to life too!

So yeah, in the end, was it Yet another killing game ? No it really wasn't ! It was way more than that, and i hope you will enjoy it as much as i did, as this is genuinely and truely, a masterpiece of a videogame.

A fine Ace Attorney-like little game that does it's job.

It didn't blew my mind, but it's solid enough that i can't really NOT recommend it for any fans of the genre... but let's get into more details!

* The Positives

- The visuals and the sprites are neat, every character is very recognizable, and it's pretty to look at.

- The soundtrack is alright, I can't say it's a soundtrack that i ever want to listen again, but it did it's job, especially the interrogation tracks were pretty good.

- Barely any typo ! I think i noticed a few during Case 5 but it was very minor, the dialogue overall makes a lot of sense, though there's a few sentences that made me "uh?" a little bit, but again, very minor.

- A complete storyline that unravels more and more, i can't say any of it made me "WHAAAAT" but it works and makes sense.

- THERE'S A CAT!

* The Neutrals

- The game is called Paper Perjury, and you deal with a LOT of paperwork stuff lol I think some people might like how the game is more grounded and touch legal stuff in a more realistic way, but i didn't really care for it. It was a bit too much. There's a whole embezzlement thing going on, and it got really complicated and technical sometimes.

- The price might be a little too high? I'm not regretting my purchase and you probably won't either, but it doesn't feel like i fully got my money's worth, especially with a game that's like 10hours ( I afk'ed a lot) and 5 cases that are aren't actually 5 (1 and 2 and 4 and 5 are basically one big case combined, so you really only have 3 different cases) .

* The Negatives

- I REALLY didn't like the main character. She was WAY too serious all the time and kinda ... not fun. There's some attempts at banter with Sophie her partner (which i also didn't particulary care for) but it kinda falls flat a bit . Probably just personal opinion though, but yeah i wasn't attached at all. Minor nitpick but she's 22 and she did like, 4 different jobs somehow? Somehow got an art degree, did customer service, was a manager for her father, and also did everything to become a police clerk, at that age??? It felt a bit much lol

- The game can get REALLY confusing at times, case 4 in particular was kind of a mess. Thankfully you have a system that crosses every wrong evidence you presented, and uncross it if you're presenting the correct one into the correct sentence, meaning you can kinda brute-force it if needed. There was a point in case 4 where presenting any kind of evidence to someone will results in your character saying "Why would i present evidence? She's family and have no reason to lie" or something, which made me think it was pointless. Turns out you DO have to present something to contradict her so uh... that annoyed me lol .

- I won't lie, winning didn't really feel good. Especially case 2 and 3 where it led me feeling empty and unsatisfied . It's mostly due to the game being very realistic again, as you're gonna apply laws for REAL, resulting in punishments that felt unfair/unneeded. But hey i guess that's because our laws sucks lol .

* Ending thoughts

But yeah, if you liked what you read, and if you like the trailer of the game and wants to try it, then go for it ! It won't be mindblowing, but you will get a decent time with it! And It's always neat to support cool indie devs like this, especially in a genre like this where it can be really hard to get known . We need more games like this in the market!

AND DO YOUR PAPERWORK!!!

A very fun little collection .

Fairune 1 is the most tightly packed experience, it's pretty short, but it's very well designed, with a good sense of progression and exploration as you explore the map ; I played it on 3DS years ago so it was cool to replay it again!

Fairune 2 is basically the same as 1 but improved in some ways, though the core gameplay is exactly the same . I didn't really like it at much because the map is a bit overwhelming and confusing, but after half of the game, it grew on me ! I will still say that Fairune 1 is better though.

Fairune Origin is short and sweet, you can beat it in less than 10mins! But it's an enjoyable experience, speedrun is a bit tight though!

Fairune Blast is a short SHMUP, and it's actually a pretty decent one! You have 2mins to score as much as you can, and 3 characters to choose from .


Overall i recommend this collection if you just like what you see in the trailer, it's a fun little experience, and going for achievements was enjoyable, though beware that you WILL need a guide for some of it, especially rare monsters (unless you feel like exploring the map multiple times) . I will say that basically no puzzle at all really stumped me, atleast in fairune 1, but i'm someone with a uh... a puzzle brain lol i've played many puzzles games and my brain and mind thinks of so many things at once, that most of the "ah-ah!" in this game clicked immediately, but i can see many people getting stumped VERY easily, i would recommend having a open-mind and thinking outside of the box when you're stuck.

I mentioned Fairune 1, Fairune 2 had ONE puzzle that i had to look it up near endgame in the tower where you have to push 3 blocks in a certain directions, and i couldn't find what indicates why you would push them that way, but that probably was a el stupido moment.

One last warning : The game was running at double speed, and i only figured it out... after beating fairune 1 lol if it happens to you, check the steam forums, it shows how to fix it if you have a NVIDIA card, weird bug though.

But yeah that's pretty much it ... Also the dev is working on a new game : Fairune : Fragment isles so that's very cool and i'm excited for it! So you should buy this game to support him/her :)

Probably one of my favourite VN out there.
It ticks all the right boxes that i really enjoy, and it was very enjoyable all the way through... It reminded me a LOT of what i felt when i played 999 and VLR on my DS when i was younger...

For the positives :

- The visuals are really nice, despite the lack of "character features" and only having silhouettes of characters which CAN be hit or miss (i felt like some scenes were a bit less impactful sometimes), you have some really good-looking CG'S, and some of them are animated too! Some scenes like the elevator scene are genuinely unsettling in the best way, but more of that later ;

- The soundtrack is really solid, despite the tone of the game, you have some funny scenes in this VN , and the music in those is so damn funny, it made me chuckle a lot ; And of course the unnerving songs are great too.

- Characters are kind of stereotyped, but also very unique in their own way ... Sometimes in some more "basic" VN's, it can be difficult to really identify who is each character because they can blend in together, especially in terms of japanese names ! But there, all names and characters are well-defined, leading to very few confusion, atleast for me!

- The story is really interesting. It's short, and to the point, there's a lot of random scientific "nonsense" (i say that in the best way possible) , and honestly, being someone who loves that kind of thing, it was REALLY hard sometimes to fully grasp all the concept... it definitely goes way beyond your usual "time-travel/parallel universe" theories at times, i will say that...
Despite the complexity, Everything flows kinda naturally , and ends in a kind of satisfying way! ( but i guess it's subjective) I felt like all my questions were pretty much answered (except for one character, but maybe i missed it)

- The voice acting was also solid ! I'm not the best expert at all to judge, but i felt like all of the voice acting was really done, i don't really remember any moment where i felt like it was odd or anything. I guess the main character can have some lines that sounds a bit weird, but i always felt like it was on purpose.

- But oh man honestly what sold me on this VN... and what i really wanted to write about is how well the setting of this VN is . It nails PERFECTLY that sense of dread, cramped, confined, claustrophobic places . I FELT like i was in some damp underground cavern/lab , and that there was no way back whatsoever. The animated scenes, the music and sounds, the writing... everything makes you feel like you're trapped in some horrible place and that everything can happen at any moment. I haven't felt that way since like i said earlier, the old days of 999/VLR with its creepy ambiance ;
I watch a TON of horror movies, it's basically my ♥♥♥♥, and there was one scene in particular, with a murderer going loose, that really made me feel uneasy, and that doesn't happen a whole lot nowadays.

For the negatives :

- Honestly my only complaint is probably the choices ; i LOVE flowcharts, and this one is ... fine, but it's also kind of ... well i guess it could be a bit better, but it's a VERY minor gripe ; Going back to the same scene multiple times for all choices can be a bit exhausting, especially if you're like me and wants to see EVERY line of dialogue (which as far as i know, you DON'T have to do, but some choices, ESPECIALLY the funny ones were worth it)(no seriously pick some funny options, it's really funny at times lmao) then yeah it can be a little bit... boring . Again, it's kind of a minor gripe overall.

And honestly i think that's it... I wish the soundtrack would be available cause i would buy it ... Also i'm pretty sure all this is made by one guy??? That's kinda crazy to think about ... Especially because of the crazy CG'S ! (unless he hired artists, but the credits didn't really mention it, though... they were in chinese and i can't read it lol) For the price you get? it's COMPLETELY worth it for the experience, no questions asked.

Very glad i played this, again, i would heavily recommend playing it if you really enjoyed 999/VLR's creepiness, unnerving tension , you WILL feel uneasy playing this, in the best way possible!

A very enjoyable puzzle game if you like stuff like Baba is you!!

Let's start with the positives :
- The visuals are very nice, everything looks clean and intuitive, and the game "feels" good to play, the overall presentation of this game is top notch!
- The music is both very athmospheric, and has strong vibes to it, resulting in tunes that are really cool to listen to!
- Lots of secrets and things to collect! You can find so many stuff to solve on every screen!
- Puzzle design can be really intuitive and fun, there's lot of "ooooh i see" moments in the game where you learn little things that helps you understand how the game actually works!
- Lots of Elemental-based stuff, which i find really neat in games
- The dev has plan to add more content later on, which is great!
- THERE IS A LITTLE WATER GUY AND I LOVE HIM SO MUCH, PRAISE THE LITTLE GUY!

For the meh :

- You can explore in a very openworld-like manner, pretty much how you want...... except not really, because you're sometimes heavily forced to go down a path to explore, it's very hit and miss on some areas
- The first 2 worlds are great!! But then... it kind of goes downhill after that and gets really... convoluted.

For the negatives :

- It's VERY hard to tell when you have what you need to do to solve a puzzle or not, it's very annoying to spend a lot of time... just to realize you can't beat the puzzle at all.
- Poorly puzzle design at times, resulting in a lot of clutter or confusing stuff... there's a LOT of puzzles where i have NO clue if my solution was intended or not...
- At the time of this review, you have no idea if you fully completed an island or not, but the dev has plans to fix this later!
- Just a small thing but it took me off from the game a bit, the music is great... but after a while it stops for like a full minute, where you can only hear birds chirping, water waves or stuff like that... which is very athmospheric and is neat for the people who like it... but i would honestly like a toggle for the music to loop, because the cut is VERY abrupt...

But yeah that's about it! Like i said, if you like baba is you-like games, sokoban or just puzzles games in general, give it a try! You won't be disappointed! And if you find the little water guy, please give him some love <3

A really solid game! When i saw the trailer for it, i got hooked immediately ;

For the positives :

- The artstyle is great, very cuphead-esque, bosses and NPCS are really good-looking, and there's a huge variety of monsters too! Honestly probably the strongest aspect of the game!
- The soundtrack is alright, definitely fits the vibe of the game, special mention to the forest one with the bass drop that made me laugh a couple times ;
- Boss fights are well-designed overall, later ones being a bit tanky, honestly the balance of the game is kind of all over the place ... But it's overall designed pretty well so nothing is too frustrating, and yet also not too easy .
- The story was interesting, not something i really expected, i thought it was gonna be more weird, fantastical, mythical and stuff like that but it's actually... very grounded. It's very psychological in a lot of ways, which is fine . It's just not that what i expected, but i enjoyed it nonetheless!
- Abilities are all very unique and feels rewarding, you can really have a lot of various playstyles if you so choose....... if basic attack wasn't already doing the job most of the time that is...

For the negatives :

- Hitboxes are a bit wonky at times, and the game can feel frustrating with the very little i-frames you get (you do get upgrades for it later)
- The game can feel VERY repetitive, especially later on when there are WAY too many ennemies on your path... granted you don't have to fight them all technically, but i don't really like NOT killing them...
- I mentioned it earlier but the abilities while they're great, are basically useless in combat, except a few of them that are very OP , like the big clown guy, or the umbrella (i have NO idea how i would have fought the final boss without the umbrella, it's super powerful)
- The backtracking is a bit too much, and i love backtracking, but there's a LOT of areas you can't get until later on, like the ice cubes walls that you see many times, which was kinda frustrating, especially redoing ENTIRE sections just for that one collectible... I would definitely say it's the weakest part of the game for sure.

As a side note, the game has been made by ONE dev, all arts and gameplay by one dude, which is kinda crazy to me... only the music and stuff like translations or testing he used other people, but the amount of content you get is very impressive. Also the game is VERY cheap , and the soundtrack too!! You can tell there was a lot of effort and love put into this game.

So yeah if you feel like clowning around, and you want a solid metroidvania filled with clowns and fun gameplay, go ahead, this game is for you!

Well, this was an amazing experience. Review is gonna keep spoilers to a minimum, but i will talk about some parts of the game.

I saw this game months ago, a bit before it was gonna release, and i just thought it looked like a cheap ripoff of ace attorney, so i was hesitant to buy it. And honestly, the trailer didn't hook me at first ... (i would recommend going into the game as blind as you can and not watch the trailer, or atleast not all of it, so you can experience the mechanics of this game first-hand) If i knew exactly what i was gonna experience , i would have bought it immediately...

I'm gonna start with the 2 best qualities of this game :
First is the world-building. It's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool. At case 2 i was already hooked. The whole magic system is incredibly interesting, and it made me my mind goes crazy about the possibilities of it ... The characters were very fascinating and varied too, which made me like a LOT of them, especially in case 5 where you already know most of them ; I wish i could tell more about the world, but i can't without spoiling too much, but it goes CRAZY (maybe a bit TOO much, especially at the end...) It just makes me so eager to know more !

Then is the music. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the music is amazing. It has INCREDIBLE soundtrack all around , that during case 2 , i was like "i NEED to buy the OST" which i did. And there isn't a lot of OST that i bought on steam. But jeez this one is pure banger, and i know i will keep listening to it for days (honestly, while i played this game, over the span of a few days, i had the music stuck in my head for a long time, it just stuck with me SO much) .

Now for the so-so parts...

The story was cool, and very interesting, but it also doesn't really make that much sense sometimes, can be very convoluted for no real reason (especially case 5...) and can be bit ... wonky at times ; Characters sometimes react very poorly to things that happens, and are quick to dismiss things completely , which i think is a bit of shame . Like i said earlier though, the characters in general are cool, and i enjoyed a lot of them ! But yeah sometimes it just felt ... off.

Cases ranged from fascinating, to kinda boring , case 3 being the weakest. Some cases have some twists to them, but most of them feel predictable and don't really have a lot of "oh ♥♥♥♥ no way!" moments, especially when the main villain is just ... SO stereotypical , like way too much (and also way too powerful...)
I LOVED the mechanics of this game, and the overall gameplay, it has ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool ideas that work well... and yet are SEVERELY underutilised, like the whole ARGUMENT system which is used very few times, or just the eye of horus in general . I understand that the game is kind of more about logical thinking , but i would liked more of those moments .

Honestly , i can't really say anything that's inherently bad, except that the game feels so short (but that's because i crave more of it...) i wished we had more interesting cases, more world-building related to case 1-3 (and i guess 4) , and not whatever the ♥♥♥♥ case 5 was , which i won't spoil, but it definitely felt too different than the rest of the game.

So yeah i had a REALLY great time with this game, i'm gonna miss it deeply, i didn't connect as much as i would with it, mostly because i feel like the impactful moments were VERY short, and very few ... but the game overall did leave an emotional impact on me, and i look forward to the sequel and what the author can do with it .

OH YEAH AND THE GAME HAS DRAGONS TOO WHICH IS SO COOL!

TLDR that you probably read on other reviews : If you like ace attorney, buy it without thinking, you WILL love it, no question asked.

I really don't want to give this a negative review... but my heart kinda wants to .

Paracelsian Project is a very short VN, WAY too short for the price and the quality you're given... The visuals are simple but nice, though very barebones (i did like some of the backgrounds!)

The music is definitely the best part of this game, it's really incredible, each track has a lot of vibes , it's very space-y , and it gives a huge claustrophobic feel to the game... Too bad we either can't buy it or listen to it anywhere online...

Characters were a bit flat and very tropey, the game is trying to force emotions through scenes (like with Aaron and Akio) but the game and the scenes are so short, you really can't feel anything for those characters ...

I LOVE flowcharts, and the one in this game is ... not that impressive, very simple and not that interesting to look that, but it does it's job.

The story is ... kinda boring. The whole "humanity is dead and we must save what's left of it, oh also amnesia" has been done so many times, and this game doesn't really give anything new, though i did like some parts of the true end . The plot is quite predictable, and a bit nonsensical at times (the main villain is ... something) i honestly can't say i enjoyed it at all.

I will give bonus points to the UI, the tablet , while mostly useless, was really cool and well designed, there was even a moment where someone breaks the tablet, which makes the button on the screen shatters, that was kinda cool ;

I liked the cypher puzzles, there were easy but simple to understand , i wish more VN had puzzles like that but that's more my own preference. But ♥♥♥♥ the 2nd puzzle for route 1 where you're given "paracelsius" "exodus program" and other things, but the answer is "paracelsian project" , which is both very specific and NOT written like that in the hint, i just typed that out because it was the name of the game... very stupid ; I kinda wish there was more puzzles through the true end , and that the puzzles were harder overall because they were VERY easy, but oh well.

Also , if you're missing the last 2 achievements... I had to look up with an external software that there is a secret bad ending where you have to be unfriendly with everyone... cool idea, but there was no way to know that unless you "cheat" to see the achievement, as far as i know nothing in game tells you about it... oh and the last cheevo is for getting all endings, so you might have to restart the game to get it. Speaking of the "friendly" system, i wish it was more developped... It basically was useless, most endings being dependant on a single choice ...

There is quite a lot of typos too, but i will give it some slack, though be warned they ARE here ; I got some weird bug during ending 1 where the background was just black, for both variations of the ending too ! Loading the scenes fixed it , but it kinda ruined it because things were happening on screen, and i couldnt see anything, and i had no idea at first it wasn't supposed to be like this...

I do love small VN like this one, and i want to do my best to support them and show appreciation ... but yeah, it's not worth the price at all... I will recommend it if you just want a quick VN that's visually quite pleasing , has some crazy good music, some cool UI, and some decent puzzles. But other than that... everything else kinda falls flat.

Hopefully the devs improve and make better VN (and story) ,i sincerely hope the best for them !

A very solid VN.

Some of the animations/CG are really visually pleasing and cool to watch for how abstract they are, you will see when you see them.

Music is solid too, arcade is a banger, other songs really sets the mood, my other favourite song is probably the "creepy" music (no idea how to call that)

Story was very well done and interesting, it introduces a LOT of scientific knowledge , but they are mostly very easy to understand and very interesting to follow ; Some good twists, although some a bit too predictable ; I love flowcharts, and this one was ... fine, the game doesn't really have a whole lot of choices, which is a both a + and a - , depending on if you like that or not (i personally like a more linear story)

It was hard for me to really relate to the characters and feel very emotional about them, they're kinda basic and not that interesting, though the special abilities was a neat touch ; Special mention to Jase which is the best character, but seem to also be a bit underutilized and just... there. Voice acting (which is semi-generated if i understand it correctly) was fine, though a bit too robotic (but that's to be expected)

Be wary that there's quite a bit of typos and weirdly translated sentences, which did makes some sections less impactful to me ;

I would definitely recommend this VN if you want a short, but solid story , which will ♥♥♥♥ your brain, but in a very good way. I will definitely think about this game for a while because it talks about some really interesting subjects that kinda passionates me . Nothing is really revolutionary , but what it does, it does it really well.

Fantastic presentation (visuals, music, sounds, BG and movement) really top-notch for a free game !
Didn't like at all that the character was speaking in "you" all the time and not "I" , even though there's a slight "robotic" meaning to it , i feel like it was very off-putting. Also didn't like how androgynous the characters were (cautionne looks like a girl but he's a boy, dr danger looks like a man but she's a girl, what..?) The voice acting was cool to have, but also very grating at the same time (i guess a bit on purpose cause cautionne is kind of a ♥♥♥♥ but still)
I liked the puzzles, but they were a bit too trial and error-y to my taste, especially in hard difficulty... But they were unique and enjoyable for the most part ;
I definitely recommend for any puzzle/escape game enthusiasts, massive props to the presentation and the design especially for a free game! Everything was visually pleasing and nice to hear .