Recent reviews by xTrashPanda12x

(temporary review, subject to change)

As someone who is coming from the Sims - inZOI is definitely bones but the bones are *damn good*. You can tell Kjun and the other devs are cooking up one hell of a broth. Life sim gamers will be eating well for years to come.

What a wild ride, and so much game for free.

The Shadow Over Cyberspace was everything I've come to expect from a Fiction Factory Games title, and then some. There may be a few light spoilers in this review, but I will try to keep it as vague as possible.

TL;DR - If you can handle an emotional story with some psychological horror elements, I highly recommend this. There is only one possible jump scare near the beginning of the game and it is telegraphed well beforehand. And if you end up liking this - go check out the other FFG titles!

I admit that was a bit skeptical of this release when first announced, I'm generally not too keen on horror games. I was determined to give it a fair shake, and I'm so glad I did. Mr. Gagne's subtle-as-a-sledgehammer commentary on the direction of the modern web, the fear of not knowing what the future may hold, and the feeling like you have a short time to make something important happen hit me in an incredibly cathartic way; the nostalgic wrappings of the late 90s/early 00s and references to other games in the wider FFG Cinematic Gigaverse were just icing on top.

As with other FFG titles, there are tons of accessibility features baked in, from being able to change to a more readable font, self-voicing, turning off moving/flashing images, and even a "cheat" bypass for the hacking minigame, which was a huge relief as someone who is objectively bad at Minesweeper :3


I initially thought that the representations of the Old Ones were a little stereotypical, but I spent a couple days analyzing my opinion before mentioning something in the Discord. I had come to the conclusion when I brought it up that I was probably being a bit too harsh and was missing some kind of subtext, which we eventually determined was actually a criticism of Lovecraft's actual stories. All of the Old Ones eventually subvert their respective stereotypes, and by the end of the game found I could relate to all of them on some level or another.

All in all, a fantastic experience that I'm glad I stuck it out for. As always, I'm looking forward to the next release from this amazing one-man dev team.

The best $10 I ever spent on a gold sticker. Thanks Twoflower for making such excellent games. :3

This review is subject to change pending further playthroughs.

I finished my first run on Penny Larceny about 3 1/2 hours ago as of this writing.

I'm still processing a lot of it. The game requires 4 runs to get the full story, and there's not a lot of overlap between paths which is very unique (and very cool) for a Visual Novel.

It's a bit heavy-handed but it's delivered so incredibly well, which I expected as a veteran and fan of Stefan Gagne's writing.

Much like it's predecessors, the Arcade Spirits series, it left me feeling seen, appreciated, and mildly emotionally drained in the way a good book that's well-written tends to do.

Well worth the $12.

It may not seem like it based on my Steam hours, but this game has made a huge, important impact on my life.

When I first opened the game, I felt an immediate connection to the protagonist - I saw a lot of myself in them, I going through a career and home transition and kind of just letting things happen as they happened. Coupling that with a nostalgia for an experience I never got to have growing up (playing around in an arcade) and this game was a surefire hit with me. Visual novels weren't really my thing, but this one hits different.

But, truly the best thing to come from picking up this game was finding a community of fellow fans who love this game as much as (and some probably more than) I do. I have never been made to feel anything less than welcome in the Discord or around streams of the game on Twitch, and to me that says a lot more about this game than anything I or anyone else ever could. I really couldn't leave this review without mentioning it.

Nitty Gritty Details

Pros:
-Three pronoun choices for protagonist (he/she/they)
-Multiple male and female romance options
-Friendship-only option
-Various skintones for the protagonist
-Diversity in romance options
-Non-binary romance option

Cons:
-A few typos throughout and some clumsy wording in spots. As I understand, due to limitations in the way the game is packaged, this is unable to be remedied.
-Voice acting (NOT tts), if enabled, can be unpredictable at times, causing issues if reading aloud.


Overall: 9/10. Highly recommend.

Dinkum = Minecraft and Animal Crossing had a beautiful Australian love child.

Oooookay. So there's a lot to say here.

While I do really, *really* recommend the game I want to make a few important points very clear right up front before we get to the fun part:

1. If you buy this game right now, YOU ARE NOT PURCHASING A FINISHED PRODUCT. If that is not made abundantly clear by the "Early Access" label, I don't know what to tell you.

2. As an incomplete product, there are, indeed, several possible hard- and soft-lock bugs that you could run into that may completely mess up a save file. Turn cloud saves OFF and back up your save after every play session. Keep abreast of known issues using the technology available to you in this day and age -- I'm 33 so not exactly young, and *I* figured out how to navigate the Hokko Discord and Wiki, I'm sure you can too.

All right! Now for the good stuff.

Oh, how to summarize the 92 hours I've spent completely lost in this game. I could talk about the six different saves I've started over the last year to experience updates as they came out, and how each of them has its own unique charm. Or I could muse about dinner plates gone cold due to how absorbed I've been making sure these wooden design pieces line up *just right*. I could joke about how we used to have Rosa build houses just so we could drop our inventories in them, back before the storage update came out, or tease Oleander about being a salty old dog.

But, if I'm being honest, this game isn't half as good on its own as it is when you start to look into the community surrounding it. From Robert, the game's creator, all the way down to average, everyday players like myself - there's such a wholesome, friendly vibe that it's hard to be anything other than happily relaxed while designing something and talking it over in Discord with other community members, or asking for help when you've run into a snag with your save!

I'm not going to bother comparing Hokko to any other games in its genre, as that would do it a disservice. All I can say is that if you're looking for a wholesome, cute game for Grandma or the grandkids, Hokko isn't a bad way to go!

I admittedly play for only a day or two after every new update but I continue to be amazed with all of the obvious love and dedication that has gone/continues to go into the development of this game.

Pros
-Gorgeous music & a unique, vibrant pixel art style
-While the world and conversations are not fully fleshed out, the feeling of the world being alive and full is already apparent
-Constant, honest interaction & transparency between the community and the devs -- if you haven't seen an update in a while you can be assured that will be addressed in the next blog! The devs also take feedback seriously, they want to make a game for us to enjoy as much as they enjoy working on it.

Cons
-After the tutorial, I found myself at a loss on how to progress and all my hours of Stardew Valley and Garden Paws did nothing to help me with time management and planning in this game.
-This game requires serious patience. While it is 100% playable as-is, buying this game is a huge investment of time on your part should you hope to see the full fruits of the dev's labor -- they've made it clear they're not going to be finished with the game anytime soon.

All that being said, I know there is a certain reticence to buying Early Access titles, but I don't see the devs slowing their momentum on working on this anytime soon, and when it's finally completed, it will likely become quite costly. If you're willing to be patient enough to wait to buy until the game is released, I recommend instead purchasing it now and just waiting to play it until all updates are released.

After another 500 hours played in this game, I came back to update this review. In just under two years this game and the community surrounding it has grown so much and with the upcoming Switch release I can't wait to see what else this game will have on offer.

I got this game as a gift over the 2019 holiday season and spent 100 hours playing in the first two weeks I owned it. 500 hours and seven in-game years later, I still feel like I haven't quite done *everything* there is to do -- and for someone like me, that's a good thing. A quick scroll through my list of games will tell you I'm very particular about which games I keep coming back to, and this game fills a cozy niche that no other game quite matches.

Where Stardew rushes you to complete quests in a couple days, or meet a specific villager at a specific place at a specific time, Garden Paws offers you season-long quests, and stresses the relax factor more than a consistent gameplay loop defined by passing out at 2 am. That's not a criticism of Stardew, I'm just highlighting a difference that makes me enjoy Garden Paws more.

The combat in the dungeon and special island isn't particularly engaging but for a relaxing farming sim I really can't complain, as I'd just as happily see combat cut entirely as see it improved. I just avoid it completely, although if you start dungeon diving there is plenty of good loot to be had.

While yes, money-making can be a hard grind, and yes, the quests basically consist of "go here, talk to this person" or "find 10 of X flower", that kind of stuff really brings on the nostalgia for me. I used to play a lot of free MMO's when I was younger and honestly, the grind and the fetch quests were my *life* for several years.

600 hours in and just now starting to get to the end of the published content so far. The devs are always working hard and the community is full of mostly wholesome folks who just want to be chill and share the cuteness <3