Small Gesture, Big Impact || Tiny Echo (PC)

"Meraki (v.)  to do something with soul, creativity, or love; to put something of yourself in your work." 

Tiny Echo is an adorable exploration adventure style game created by Might and Delight. You play as Emi, an adorable character tasked with delivering messages to the spirits in the other realm. Emi has 13 messages, and a lot of ground to cover, so she better get a move on!

I was looking forward to getting this game, and it did not disappoint. The art style is what originally drew my interest, you know I love a game with hand drawn quality. Emi and the spirits all have their own unique appearances, and even the side characters and creatures of the world are quite cute. The music is wonderfully composed and fits well with the overall feeling of the game.

I just love the artistic style of this game.

The puzzles are a nice challenge, but not too difficult that it took me too long to figure anything out. I do wish Emi moved a little faster at times, but that may have just been me being impatient. I wish there was a little more use for the side characters, other than there just being an achievement for talking to them all. Maybe some integration into the puzzles, or something. That’s really the only criticism I have for the game though.

The story is simple, and a bit short (about an hour and a half of game play for me), but it was heartwarming, with a happy ending. I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too. You can buy the game on steam at full price for 7.99 *here*. Or add it to your wish list and wait for a sale (like I did!) and get it for 5.99. Either way, I hope you’ll enjoy it as I did!

Stay safe, until I see you next time, Jammers! Happy Gaming.

Bell

Looking for the Light || Actual Sunlight (PC)

Title

Actual Sunlight is an “adventure” game created by WZOGI. I put adventure in quotes because the game doesn’t quite fit what I expect my adventure games to be, in terms of gameplay. You play as a character who feels stuck in his daily life, and is having trouble finding the willpower to move on. This game tried to deal with some heavier and more complex issues, like depression, and suicide, but it fell short in a few areas for me.

I want to make a note that I could not finish this game. I have a pretty good idea of how it ended, though. I’ll check to see if I’m right before I finish writing this to see. Anyway, you follow your character through his daily life, and almost every object you inspect or person you interact with will give you a little blurb about something—like a memory, or an information tid-bit. I think this can be a useful tactic in the game, but when it’s almost the only way to get anything from the game, it because tedious. I’m talking about walls of text. If you wanted to make a point, this same thing could have been achieved by writing a short story, or an online comic or something. What’s the point of making this a game, if there’s not actual gameplay(other than walking around).

Wall o Text

The graphics are not spectacular. Keep in mind that I’m not a stickler on hyper realistic next gen graphics. But because I felt this game was, frankly, boring, it would have been nice to have something to keep me interested.

The theme of this game is meant to be depression and thoughts of suicide, but other than a few explicit mentions of it, I didn’t get that impression from the game. I felt that the character was unsatisfied in his life and harbored a lot of resentment and self-loathing, which can be a part of depression, but are not exclusive to it. Even so, this game could have been better if it used character development, interaction, or anything to help build a story, rather than the wall of text style that was used.

The office

Overall, I feel that this game could have been much better, but simply fell short. I got this game on a steam sale for, I think, 50 cents or so. So, it’s not a huge loss. Normally the game is 4.99, and I wouldn’t recommend it for that price. In case you want to read on it some more, or even try it yourself, you can check out the Steam page *here*. 

As always, thank you for sharing some of your time with me today. Hope everyone is ready for the holidays! Until next time, happy gaming, Jammers!

Bell

Sniping for You || Long Gone Days [DEMO] (PC)

From Steam Page

Long Gone Days is a 2D RPG game with visual novel and shooter elements in the works by BURA. You play as Rourke, a young man who has dreamed of being a Sniper for as long as he can remember. He gets his chance, and becomes a sniper in the Core—a highly isolated area that exists below the surface of the Earth. From the Core, squads can travel to the surface, to Kaliningrad. Rourke fills his post as sniper, believing that he is fighting against violent enemies…. But something seems a little strange, doesn’t it?

After he has exposed to the truth, Rourke decides to desert his post. Adair, the medic in his squad, decides to come along also. Together they want to escape the cruel reality they have come to find themselves in, but will they be able to handle facing their brothers in arms?

Adair, the optimist.

I did play through the demo of this game, and it looks really good. The game has beautiful pixel graphics, and visual novel style sprites as well. They work well together. The music is well composed and fitting for the scenes. I like the dystopian future vibe that the game has, and both Rourke and Adair are likeable characters. I feel for Rourke, as I imagine is his shoes I would have had to defect also (or die).

Okay, let’s talk about some of the features that the developers are promising for the full release! So, besides the classical RPG staples, LGD will also borrow mechanics from visual novel style games, puzzles, and shooters.

I really like the battle mechanics that the developers used, so I want to explain it a little better. On the battle screen, you’ll have the opportunity to fire at different areas of the body. Headshots, arm shots, body shots, and leg shots. Each had a different possible effect. For example, you can disable an enemy shooter by hitting them in the arms, or lower their evasion by making leg shots. I think this is a really interesting mechanic to use, and it helps spice up the battle gameplay a little.

In Battle

The game also says that it won’t have any random encounters, which is strange to hear for a game with so many RPG elements. Any battle will be plot related. Instead of leveling up with EXP, characters will learn new skills, upgrade weapons and craft new items. There is also no magic in LGD. Instead, characters have morale, which directly affects a character’s stats in battle. To keep morale up, you’ll need to know each character so that you know how to properly encourage them.

Overall this game looks really stylish, it has a good plot developing, the characters seem unique and have interwoven relationships with you that are important to maintain, and the battle system seems sound. I’m greatly looking forward to the full game release, which is set for February 2018. You can watch the trailer below or visit the Steam page *here* to try the demo for yourself, or get more information.

You can also watch my playthrough of the full demo on my YouTube Channel. There's a link to the demo video *here*

Thanks for shooting by to say hello. I hope you’ll take the chance to check out this game. Let me know what you think in the comments below! Until next time, happy gaming!

Bell