Reviews by Tito Valenz

This was a pleasant enough game. You play as a bartender who is saving up money for a goal of the player's choosing. You interact with customers and mix drinks in a mini-game. It has a colorful and well-themed UI that makes use of lots of little tricks to add detail.

The story is divided up into days, and depending what you choose, you may see different scenarios on different days, my favorite being the visit with the elderly couple. However, I found that there were a lot of repetitive tasks that never varied. I expected the drink-mixing mini game to get more complicated over time, but the only change is to add a timed element. Even when I increased the difficulty, there wasn't any challenge to it. However, if you really enjoy mixing the drinks, you can opt to play an Arcade mode that just focuses on challenges involving the mini game with no story running through it.

It is a fairly upbeat story with comical characters and playful scenarios. However, as it stands now, the grammatical errors are pervasive and jarring. They are on every page, and they disrupt the rhythm of the passages. I usually try to overlook them and focus on the story, but there was no getting around it. Some extensive proofreading and editing is sorely needed.

I enjoyed this one a lot. It was atmospheric and slightly creepy. The gameplay centers around your character asking questions to a girl who is begging for help. You have to guess the right things to ask, and the NPC responds. The author has developed an impressive system in which a lot of what I tried got fairly relevant responses. I was genuinely motivated to figure out how to help the girl. There are no content warnings, as that would spoil important details, but be aware you may read descriptions or see images that could disturb some players. I was able to finish fairly quickly, but I am interested to see what other responses are available, so I would replay Thanatophobia again.

I really struggled with this game. I never really got the hang of it, even though it's centered on finding rhyming words. I used the hint system and look at the walkthrough, but I still couldn't come up with a strategy for solving the puzzles. It was clear a lot of work went into this game, and it has a fun, light-hearted tone, but I just didn't connect with it.

This game is just about as brief as they come. There were so few details that I didn't really get any imagery in my mind. However, it did create a certain feel. Rather than describe what it was like, I would say give it a try. It's so quick, you may as well experience it to make up your own mind.

Somewhat of a mystery, this game has the player exploring around for clues. However, there is more going on than a run-of-the-mill mystery. It took me a little extra time to put together what I should probably be doing, and I think that might have cost me: I ended up failing my first playthrough. However, I can't wait to try it again. I like the puzzles and mechanics; the Twine format makes it very easy to navigate and retrace your steps when you realize there is something else you can try. Recommended.

I found this game very addicting. I had a hard time putting it down, even though there were things about it that frustrated me.

First, this is an RPG. It kind of reminds me of a solo module, or a gaming paperback, like the Fighting Fantasy books. Except 4x4 is randomized, so even though some of the content is similar, enough changed that I found playing again to be just as much fun.

I have played two 5-hour session, each one with a different character. The first character I chose was a trickster, whose skills were magic and charisma. I think my mistake was that I tried to increase her fighting ability, when I probably should have concentrated on learning more spells. Even after hours of exploring, the character still was not effective against difficult opponents. I have not finished the story with this character yet.

So I picked a mercenary for the second try. This character didn't have the charisma to get me certain advantages, but was it was a lot easier to get strong enough to actually finish some of the quests.

This is a really big game with a lot of content. I think the author balanced everything out very well. There are a lot of other things to do besides fight, and a good amount of stats to track.

I played this game so I could score it for IFComp 2021. I am very lucky that I got to this game last. If I had gotten into it earlier on, I might have been so absorbed with it, I might not have had time to give some of the other games a chance.

In this story, you have to read messages to a dead person left by their loved ones. Then, you have to contact the loved ones and ask them to verify that this person is, in fact, dead. It connects to the story of another of the author's games, "Weird Grief," which shows a lot more of the characters. I was surprised at the reactions from the characters during the group chat. This was pretty sad. I recommend playing the other game first.

This is a lengthy parser game in which you must explore a "...beautiful old house haunted by a lost soul." Your command set is very limited, so you have to find unique ways to solve puzzles. As a first game, I thought the mechanics were very clever, allowing this piece to distinguish itself from the pack. There is a mystery here, which unfolds gradually as your character explores and discovers details that explain how they arrived at their situation. I would have really liked (Spoiler - click to show)some branching with the final choice, because I felt that the only thing you are able to do isn't quite in line with the character as I came to know them. I understand the reason for having content warnings in the description of a game, but I was glad I didn't read this one before playing. I prefer to begin with minimal expectations, not knowing what kinds of emotions I might experience until the details unfold. Very immersive with medium difficulty and some startling surprises.

I guess I'm not a true metalhead. It took me way too long to figure out the possibilities of this game. I came SO CLOSE to reading the walkthrough because I thought I was out of ideas. I am sure true devotees of bone shattering riffs knew the kind of trial and error that was needed to keep progressing.

I enjoyed the humorous tone, and it was fun finding solutions to these situations. There is a little bit of in-game hinting to help players along, which kept me from getting too frustrated. The download includes a cool map, but you would never really need it; the location is easily navigated.

I have read comments criticizing the implementation of this game, and when I was playing the early parts of it, I would have agreed. However, after finishing, I actually think this game is written the way it is meant to be. For the first few puzzles, I was upset because I was trying things that I thought seemed like clever solutions, but were not the correct solutions. That doesn't mean the game is underwritten; just that it knows what it wants to be. You have to stick to theme when playing this one. One thing that helped me is writing down what I had already figured out, so I knew what I hadn't tried. I would never have been able to commit it all to memory.

The one exception is (Spoiler - click to show)the ending. What is going on with the IFComp this year and all the abrupt finishes??? This story was about to climax into a flaming ball of awesomeness and blow everyone's genitals out the backs of their heads, and then it was gone. You gotta give me more here, man!

I could nitpick about the whole glam rock controversy, but so much of this story is so on point, I didn't mind. It's a fun challenge with great theming and an interesting mechanic. If you disagree, then there is not enough room in this comment box to properly describe how much I hate you.

This game does a great job of slamming you right in the middle of the action and pummeling you with a sense of urgency. I haven't read through a story this quickly in a long time. Everything in the text drives the story forward at an incredible speed, and I felt like I didn't have a moment to waste. Having an NPC robot partner constantly shouting directions and telling me to quit wasting time contributed to the stress level. Luckily, the interface is incredibly intuitive. I thought it was set up so that the player can quickly decide what needs to be done with minimal exploration. Even when I got to a moment where things seemed to have settled down, the tension remained right up until the end. I also appreciated that the author used the description box to show the moments before the game started. More episodes in this series would be highly anticipated.