Recent reviews by PLUH

w + unique + fun + cool artstyle + banger music + overwhelmingly positive + hype + pandora

reina stomped me while in heat 10/10

Edit: Will not recommend until they make Genmaji Temple free at the very least for Deluxe and Ultimate Edition owners or compensate it with something else. Bamco has to stop with this ridiculous corporate greed.

Edit 2: They fixed it and compensated everyone, albeit not ideal but pogchamp nevertheless. Still have trust issues to the Executives tho.

A buggy game until you realize that it was all intentional. English translation can be quite immersion-breaking for some, but I didn't mind it too much. Story was ok, fun and engaging for a simple game. The art was a little bit all over place and I know it might be intentional, but still "being intentional" doesn't excuse you from bad execution. Overall, the game felt like a hidden gem you just found in itch.io, also it's FREE. Honestly, it felt like a steal. This game should've been at least 2-5 bucks.

Final verdict: 7/10, however since it's free I kinda feel obliged to give it an 8/10

Mainly the gameplay mechanic has two main core loops. The first one is the resource management for the ship to explore through space. The second one is to explore ruins to gain more resources and progress through the story. The resource management is pretty simple and easy, but satisfying. Players can upgrade the ship to be able to explore more places. The space exploration itself was never boring. Every node/place has its own unique artwork and sometimes has little story/lore in it. It was very addicting to just explore the world and see what was in store.

Usually, you'll find puzzles in the ruins. The puzzles were, I think, very intriguing. The mechanic itself was very simple, but the feels and satisfaction are just off-the-charts. What made me feel the oomph the most is the audio. I'll explain it in the experience section. The puzzles gradually got harder, but never too hard. Some of the story-specific puzzles were kind of different from the puzzles you'll find in the ruins, but usually, it comprised walking through the level and fetching for items/clues.

There's nothing much to say about the gameplay due to how simple it is, but let me say one thing: everything felt so satisfying. The game managed to implement simple mechanics and then maximize its feels. Everything was well executed. Nothing felt out of place, boring, or tedious. The gameplay was very casual. However, I couldn't stop playing not only because of my curiosity about the story but also how satisfying it was to explore through the space and the ruins.

I have played previous Opus series and I have to say Sigono always has convincing and consistent growth between every iteration. Not only the gameplay and the presentation/experience but also the story. In the previous games, they only introduced a few characters and the world felt too small. In this game, however, the world was so much bigger and with more characters too. But, it's not just about quantity, there were some qualities too. Still, at the end of the day, it's always about intimate romance stories that are more focused on fewer casts which Sigono has always liked and I don't hate it either. You can clearly feel the ambition Sigono has with this game. Everything was put together nicely to drive the narrative, it was almost like watching a movie, except it's fun and playable.

Another thing that Sigono never ceases to impress me was how they always stand by the story-writing golden rule: Show, don't tell. Everything was subtle and never too on the-nose. The little details and lore were put nicely around the world for the players to find and figure out what they imply or symbolize. In the previous series, the world was so much smaller, yet the number of details was ridiculous and now it got so much better because of the bigger world, there were so many more to find. Every interaction with the world events was engaging and never meaningless, it always had something to contribute to the lore.

Lumen is some sort of a natural substance that had become a valuable resource that everyone's fighting for. It provides energy to use for space ships, weapons, and or machines in general. The scarcity makes it so valuable and the witches are said to be able to detect it via sound. Lumen is a symbolization of feng shui based on traditional Chinese culture. It's the energy of nature that in this game is expressed as a sound or song. It's also a symbolization of memories. This narrative is heavily tied to the gameplay with how the puzzles are audio-heavy.

Despite the rich lore and big world, this game had, at heart it was still an emotional tale about the hardships of the main characters and their relationships with each other. The main characters are Jun, Eda, and Remi. They were on a journey to support Eda in seeking salvation by looking for remnants of her master. However, it was stated clearly at the beginning of the game how their destiny would turn out. It's a symbolization of how the end is always tied with the beginning. It was a bittersweet story, a tear-jerker if I must, that really captured how bitter reality is, yet at the same time the clock keeps ticking and it will never stop, and the only thing that they can do was to just keep going. They're living in a cruel world while treading upon cruel fate, yet the world still goes on and memories remain, and that's exactly what makes it beautiful.

The sound was just perfect. You wouldn't be able to enjoy this game to the fullest without wearing headphones or any audio equipment that would help you to get immersed. The way how the puzzles sounded was so satisfying and addicting. The soundtrack was also great, especially the final theme song and the credits theme song. They like to use ambiance and noise sounds which worked perfectly to capture the sound of nature. The singing was also perfect, it brought beauty to the whole experience when exploring ruins. I also like how the singing usually was a symbolization of emotions in the lore.

The 2D and 3D art styles looked coherent and consistent. Low-poly for the 3D and simplified anime-like figures with hints of cubism for the characters. It looked pleasant in the eye because if either one of them was more detailed than the other, let's say they used a super detailed anime style for the characters, it wouldn't be as great and fitting, except they also used ultra-realistic 3D models. This means that the team understood their limitations and managed to bring out their full potential without being too ambitious.

Unfortunately, I played the game before the Full Bloom version (with Japanese voice dub) was released so I can't give any thoughts regarding that.


Emotional and intimate story with interesting world lore combined with simple yet impactful gameplay. 9/10

Firstly, the exploration may be connected to the story. The player has to find all the Keys to complete the Hangman which will progress through the story. Regarding the Hangman itself, it will be explained in the Story section. The feelings when exploring the world were very similar to old-school RPG games like Mother Series on Gameboy which was clearly one of the main references that were used in this game. One thing that made this game different for me was the Tagging mechanic. It added decent depth to the puzzles in the exploration so it didn’t feel too boring, but at the same time, it’s not ‘phenomenal’ either. The Tagging mechanic felt more like a story thing rather than a fleshed-out mechanic to be experimented with by the players. Another thing that’s worthy to be mentioned is the real world and headspace switching mechanic. If Omori stabs himself in the Headspace, he will return to the Real World. On the other hand, if Sunny sleeps in the Real World, he will return to the Headspace. The Real World works quite similarly to the Headspace, except the players don’t have skills to learn or weapons to find, therefore fewer RPG mechanics. It also has a wholly different map to explore, also different NPCs to interact with to potentially get new side quests. However, the switching is scripted and is, again, more of a story thing rather than an actual mechanic.

The combat was really just like a classic old-school RPG. In the beginning, the emotions mechanic stood out and it felt fun for a little while. But then surely everyone will come to a realization that it’s merely just your typical elements mechanic. For the first 5-10 hours I was still engaged with the combat, but slowly it felt more and more repetitive to the point where fighting enemies wasn’t as fun as it used to be in the early game. I actually used to always fight every enemy that I see, but not until it felt too tedious. Boss fights were also relatively easy, there were some moments where I struggled, but in the end, it was by no means challenging for me.

If someone’s gonna say, “Well, it’s a story-driven game. Of course, the gameplay wouldn’t be too complex,” here’s the thing. There’s a blurry line that differs between an easy game and a boring game. Unfortunately, Omori, at times, felt too repetitive and tedious. There weren’t many things to experiment and the side quests were mostly if not all, just either a ‘fetch me x’ or ‘kill x’ or ‘talk to x’ type of quests. And this isn’t coming from a hardcore mechanic-driven lover. I love playing games with compelling stories, but if the gameplay is boring then I’m definitely going to notice.

There was a big contrast between the Real World’s and the Headspace’s characters. The Headspace is but merely a manifestation of Sunny’s, the real main character, imagination. Everything in the Headspace is the exaggerated version of everything in the Real World. This one specific detail pretty much changed my perspective about the Headspace. It started as this happy, cute, and blue-pilled experience, but once you realize that it’s pretty much just escapism for Sunny, it became a bit sad. It’s interesting how seemingly one-dimensional character in the Headspace perfectly portrayed how black and white children’s undeveloped mind is considering Sunny was also just a child who’s struggling with mental distress. In contrast, the Real World was more realistic and sad. Relationships were broken, and everything was messed up. This also gave a nice dynamic between dramatic and sad with fun and happy experiences to the players. The story was never boring because the author masterfully mixed positive and negative emotions so that it didn’t feel too one-dimensional and on-the-nose. Every character felt alive and definitely left their traces in my memory.

To add icing on the cake, the Yume Nikki-esque horror scenes are also worthy to be mentioned. This could be a turn-off to those that are weak to scary creatures and jumpscares. But despite that, it was surprisingly bearable and the horrors were more psychological and unsettling rather than scary. Sure, it could feel terrifying at times, especially near the end, but what made it interesting wasn’t because of the jumpscares, but how almost every horror scenes were meaningful to the story and everything was a manifestation of Sunny/Omori’s anxiety and fear. It was also smart with how most of the scariest jumpscares were usually just easter eggs, not necessary to progress through the story, therefore it wouldn’t turn off non-horror players. Speaking of easter eggs, usually, it could also be unlocked by switching to the Real World from the Headspace at the wrong time. This way, the switching mechanic felt more meaningful.

In summary, it was a long introspective journey of Sunny overcoming himself. Sunny/Omori is a self-insert character and every struggle that he had might be loosely connected to the author’s own mental condition. But not only that, it could also be applied to all of us players. Mental health is an important part of our daily lives that in some cases is underestimated. Playing Omori, especially for those who struggle with similar cases of anxiety, insecurity, guilt, depression, you name it, would feel relatable and it gave this sense of ‘being understood by the game. The author managed to express that idea quite masterfully. The game had a very childish and cute vibe, yet the story was very mature and gritty. It’s clear that the author is a highly self-conscious person to come up with a very introspective story writing like this.

The last thing that I really wanted to mention is how I really love Sunny as the main protagonist. I generally don’t like protagonists that are too ‘perfect’ and one-dimensional. Everyone loves a hero story in that the protagonist will save everyone by sacrificing himself. Or maybe a story about revenge from a victim of wrongdoings. Everyone wants to be either the hero or the victim. However, Omori is different. There is duality in Sunny’s personality. He was by no means a saint, he had done pretty messed up things, and the most important thing is that he was aware of it. So aware to the point that it broke him. He was both a perpetrator and a victim. He was filled with so much self-hatred and guilt. This duality is what makes him feel human. Nobody is free from sin, but some might just not be fully aware of it. However, overcoming sin and guilt while also taking responsibility is important for us to keep living. We all want to be free from sin despite the fact that we have committed so much. It’s hypocritical by nature, but its contradiction is what makes us human.

Presentation is always important and I have to say they did a great job at it. The hand-drawn art style stuck out the most to me. It perfectly delivered childish and cute vibes. What was also interesting is the art style also fits nicely with the horror scenes. The Headspace had pastel color palettes to emphasize the cuteness, while the Real World had more down-to-earth color choices. The White Room and the Black Room had a monochrome color palette mixed with a dash of red and it worked super well to add tension and the feeling of discomfort to the horror scenes.

The soundtrack was a mix of retro chiptune and electronic ambiance with a dash of psychedelia. It worked really well to make the game feel both nostalgic and modern at the same time. The symbolic instruments, like violins and piano, in some of the songs, added a nice depth to the narrative. The SFXs were more to the subdued and bassy style compared to high-pitched retro 8-bit which is good because human ears generally can handle lower frequencies more than higher.

Very introspective narrative like no others, but a bit flunked gameplay-wise. 9/10

bought the milk at a discount but my schizophrenia is not going away help

OPUS: Rocket of Whispers is the second installment of OPUS series and the sequel(?) of OPUS: The Day We Found Earth. There will be two main points that I'm going to review which are gameplay and story. I’m not going to explain the whole thing, but just some stuff that I either deem as commendable or worthy of critics. Let's start with the story.


In short, the story felt minimalistic, but not in a necessarily bad way. It's a small game made by a small indie company (at the time the game was made and released) so it would just make sense that the whole package itself is simple. Now, the most important question: Is being simple bad? The answer is absolutely not. It reflects with how aware SIGONO was with their own capabilities and then working around it. The story focused mainly on two individuals: John the survivor/scavenger, and Fei the witch/rocket engineer. It was an intimate journey on how they overcome problems, fights, and constant bickering to strengthen their bond. It's a classic soap opera template that was put in a rather unconventional circumstances, in a good way of course. The world itself was pretty small and focused, but VERY detailed.

SIGONO didn’t lose their sharpness since their previous game, in fact they had improved substantially. The number one rule in storytelling: Don’t tell, but show. Simply put, they nailed that. If you care enough to understand the lore, well you’re in for a treat. One of the biggest problem that I had with the story was with how poorly they differentiate between metaphors and literal. The setting was sci-fi, space, but suddenly they include ghosts?? At first, I thought it was just a metaphor of John and Fei’s psychological distress like fear and guilt which I think might be the case, but at the same time it’s also literal?? It just didn’t sit quite right for me. I know it’s just a “device” for not only story, but also gameplay. Still, I think it’s just them being either lazy, or just simply running out of ideas which is understandable. Either way I feel like it would’ve been so much better if they'd just committed to make it metaphor only.

On the bright side though, the connection and dynamics between John and Fei were the things that kept me going. Each time you managed to collect the parts for the rocket and assemble it, the past would be unveiled and the future continued. The mystery aspect was decent, it kept me asking about what happened in the past between these two individuals and the city itself, but not necessarily jaw-dropping. I think the main aspect the author was trying to convey is the emotional and intimate aspect of the characters and I can safely say that it actually got through to me. So, kudos to them for that.


The gameplay though, just like the story, was also pretty simple. You explore through ruins, fetch some stuff, go back to base camp, and that’s it. The “survival” aspect was very lenient and the resource management/crafting was not rocket science either (pun intended). Overall, it was an easy checklist game, fitting for a story-driven exploration game. But, there was one problem that I just couldn’t stand. I said before about how I didn’t 100% the game and this was one of the main reasons (aside from me also being lazy to be fair). There was no map. Yeah, that’s right, you had to fully rely on your memory. Now, this might not be a problem for some people (especially those with good memory, not like me), but if you see it from the standpoint of how this is a story-driven exploration game, not the opposite (exploration-driven), it just felt tedious. I had to search things up on google just because I didn’t remember what goes where which really broke the immersion and that was just a sign of a badly designed gameplay. I get it, they wanted to emphasize on the “explore through ruins” stuff, but I felt like the risk and reward didn’t make sense because for the reward which is to be immersed in the world by exploring lores, you had to possibly sacrifice risking immersion by googling things that you forgot??? Now, that’s questionable, three times even. That being said, I was still glad that they included fast travel (albeit with risk of losing in-game time which actually makes sense and is a good design decision) because if not, I might question it four times.


Oh also, visuals were great, I liked the somber blue gray-ish color palette. Looked nice and fitting to the theme. The music was also nice and increasingly intense as the story progresses. However, was it exceptional? Well, that’s debatable.


Overall, I would give the game 7/10. Definitely worth the time and price (I bought it on sale, although I encourage you to buy at full price because it’s worth it), but with some questionable designs here and there.

OPUS: The Day We Found Earth is a story rich cinema-like short game made by quite an idealist (based on behind the scenes) developer group SIGONO INC. I found out about this game quite long ago, but sadly it never caught my attention, until I watched OPUS: Echo of Starsong's launch trailer. I was so captivated by the theme song and the visuals, and at that moment SIGONO INC. was caught into my radar and I bought every single OPUS games series including the OSTs. I can't wait to play the sequel which is OPUS: Rocket of Whispers, but before that I will review this game first.

!!!!POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!!!!



Story

The story itself is pretty simple. Humans no longer live on Earth. Lisa and Makoto only had one mission: to find Earth, yet they didn't manage to find it. In the process, Lisa created a robot named Emeth which purpose was to operate the telescope and help Lisa to find Earth.

One day, Emeth woke up, but Lisa and Makoto were nowhere to be found. As he was searching for Earth and Lisa at the same time, he was greeted by a holographic AI which has the appearance of Lisa. The interaction between Emeth and Lisa's hologram (real Lisa too) was cute and heartwarming. Although it was kinda weird with how Emeth never saw Lisa's hologram as real Lisa. At the first time meeting Lisa's hologram, Emeth thought it was the real one, until the hologram said that it was just an assistive AI. Emeth instantly believed it and never questioned how can an AI acted like its creator, Lisa, despite the constant hints (calling Emeth "tinman" and quoting Lisa: "A robot without a goal is nothing more than a calculator.") The game never explored about "What makes a real person?" which could be really interesting. Everything in Emeth's eyes are too black and white, it's always either it's Lisa or it's not. It would be really nice to see Emeth in the grey area, questioning whether it's okay to acknowledge Lisa's hologram as the real Lisa which unfortunately never happened.

That being said, it's understandable that they didn't manage to include that concept in considering it's only 1-2 hours long and as a short game I think it was decently executed and the message did come across to the players. I also have to commend them keeping The Golden Rule in Storytelling: Don't tell, but show.

Mechanic

Pretty simple, yet satisfying mechanics. The puzzles were not the most challenging thing in the world and I'm not planning to get 100% completion rate in this game. Why? Because the mechanic is only fun because there's a story behind it. I tried some of the curiosity locators, but I could see myself getting bored in the next 5 minutes so I stopped. There were 2 difficulty modes: Story and Normal. I finished the game in Normal mode and even that was still very easy (not in a bad way though). It managed to give enough time for the players to get used to the current mechanic before advancing to the next one without making them feel bored because of too slow, or overwhelmed because vice versa.



Aesthetics

This is the part where they nailed it. The visual was great. I really like how they portrayed the planets, it definitely tickled my exploration curiosity, wondering about "What will the next planet I find look like?" The cutscene animations were simple, but good enough not to be called as cheap, and it actually fit the theme.

The audio was simply superb. Crisp SFX, beautiful soundtracks. I really liked how the soundtrack got the more and more intense the further I progressed through the next zones, especially at zone 4. The soundtrack genuinely gave me anxiety (in a good way, weird I know). I remembered the time where I unintentionally discovered the black hole and I was genuinely terrified.

Gameplay & Experience

EVERYTHING FELT SO SMOOTH. The UI, controls, pacing, everything was just so satisfying to see (and hear). The way the story and mechanic progressed never felt forced. It had the explore planet -> story progression -> repeat flow and it didn't feel too repetitive, probably because of the fact that it's a short game. I couldn't find any bugs or glitches which proved that the devs really cared about the game both in artistic and technical aspect of it, huge respect.


It was a solid one and a half hour worth of experience and I'm happy with it: 7/10

A metroidvania game that is more focused on platforming and puzzle-solving rather than combat. The superb art and pleasing soundtrack really hit the mark and it managed to create a beautiful yet sad atmosphere. Story is pretty simple, but it's not really the main selling point of this game so I'll let it slide. The level design is really great, but with some flaws. There are still some parts that's a bit too repetitive (especially at the last part of mount horu), but it's still fun nevertheless. The backtracking is also a bit lacking, at least in my opinion. This game has lots of micro backtracking (backtracking only in the specific area), but not so much macro backtracking (backtracking from one area to another). In fact, you can finish the game without having to macro backtrack at all (Just constantly follow the instructions of where to go). It's a hit or miss, some people might like it that way, but unfortunately not for me. I much prefer to explore a world, and then figuring out what is happening and what to do all by myself. Definitely not the most sophisticated metroidvania out there, but overall it was a decently fun experience. Recommended for those who likes platforming and puzzle-solving, but if you're looking for combat and boss fights then I think it's better to play Hollow Knight instead.

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