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[ebonysplendor]

psst 👀 you should check out “Where He is King” by mellowbile on itch.io

Hmm...heard 👀

TL;DR: He's a joker, a jester, an absolute clown...but the pain that he puts us through is no joke

That was horrible, I know. I couldn't think of anything else. Plz let me live ._.

Game Link: https://mellowbile.itch.io/where-he-is-king

Notable Features: Nameless MC, Female MC, Demon/God LI(?), Yandere LI(?), Choice-heavy story Spiciness: 0/5 -- Unless you're into the whole dismembered from the inside out thing, then 5/5. No kink shaming here LI(?) Red Flags: 5/5 -- Physically abusive, Torture, Sadist. That's about it, but it's pretty gruesome/vivid stuff

Wanna know more? Not if you're not at least 18! Y'all were good until it got updated a few days or so ago due to the gore. Anyways, if you're part of the 18+ club, let's get into it!

!! C O N T E N T !! !! W A R N I N G !!

He looks more like a jester to me, but it may trigger that whole fear of clowns thing...just a heads up

So, this one was a request, which I'm always excited about, so of course I had to give it the old college try. To be honest, I saw and played this the same day that I had gotten the request (hence why I wrote the whole "y'all were good until a few days ago" thing, because it was a few days ago at the time), but I really wanted to get that Trembling Essence review out first, and then, I started adulting and lost track of time, and then a month went by, and yeah. Not to mention that I was looking FOREVER for a particular ending; I'll get into that more once the review portion comes along. Anyways.

Now, admittedly, this one wasn't too much of my style but...actually, just take a look at this:

I actually appreciate the disclaimer because, admittedly, the first thought I had was "This feels gorey for the sake of being gorey", but after remembering what they had said about it being more emotionally charged writing, I realized that it actually was pretty emotionally charged. Like, the writing itself was actually pretty solid and the art? Ugh, I loved the visuals. Those of you who have been rocking with me for some of my reviews know that I get completely undone over sprites, CGs, and all that visual stuff.

Admittedly, I don't really have too much to say in the intro. All that I want to say seems more appropriate for the review portion, so I'm going to go ahead and jump into talking about the game itself. As per typical, I'm going to tell you as much about the game without ruining the game itself.

So boom.

We're on the run. Well, let me rephrase that: we were on the run, but our ankle is kind've AFK, at the moment, and running isn't really an option right now. Just as a little backstory, the reason why we're trying to get away from him is because everything is literally going to shit, or Hell, more accurately. Villagers are disappearing, children are either becoming runaways or being abducted, and there's this hypnotic music that's (assumed to be) always playing in the background from a taunting distance, being just barely heard. Not long after, a devil -- that was intentional, by the way, because he's not the devil, but a devil. He ain't that special, but he's still dangerous -- catches up to us.

Friedrich "JunJingl" Marchosias. Yeah, I jumbled the pronunciation of that last name, too, but just know that that's his name lmao.

Naturally, he starts to taunt us, calling us a "broken toy" because our ankle is sprained, and we aren't much for running right now, which makes his pursuit less amusing for him. This wouldn't be such an issue if, one, Sir Jester Douche wasn't a literal psycho and a pretty serious threat, and two, we weren't literally the last human alive. That's right folks: we're what remains of humanity. Okay, well, maybe not that dramatic, but it seems that way because the people that would've been in the surrounding area are either dead or they were a part of his army, but that's not reassuring either because he only took the children for his army -- we're a full grown adult, so our fate isn't looking too good.

At this point, he's getting pretty pissed at us. That's because he's been talking mad shit this whole time, but we've been silent throughout his whole lil' speech. Like, oh, pardon me for my brain shutting down and putting survival at the top of the list, my good sir.

We indulge in his arrogance briefly, but just long enough for us to stall him while we make a gameplan. Now, here's the thing: if we make a run for it, we're probably going to die because our ankle is pretty messed up, but if we stay and keep talking to this psycho clown...we're probably going to die.

Huh. Okay then. With that being realized...

We bolt. We are outta of there. Point blank period, because it's like, if our chance of death is pretty much inevitable, we may as well make him work for it.

That's kind've falling flat though, because he's right on our tail, and he's not even putting in the effort while doing it. We can't worry about that for too long though, because we hear this music playing and...oh shit.

It's going from bad to worse. Now, we have to worry about his entire army chasing after us, too. It doesn't matter though because survival is still at the top of the list, no matter how slim or nonexistent the chance may be; we keep running. We run and run and run and run until we get to this well. Granted, it may have been a stupid move, but we actually managed to get a good bit of distance, and we stop to get a drink from the well. Like I said, probably a stupid move, but shit, we don't have much of a chance of survival if we're dehydrated. ...Actually, we don't have much of a chance of survival if we are hydrated, either, but a bitch is thirsty, so we get that damn drink, or so we thought we were going to. What we were expecting was a well full of rainwater.

It's full of blood.

We don't even have time to be scared before Friedrich pops up behind us. With our survival instincts kicking in, we get on our gangster shit. We notice that the bucket was silver and recall how a lot of the things in the village had been replaced with silver dupes because it could ward off evil. When I say that we got a good ass grip on that silver bucket...

And absolutely knocked his shit in?! We blasted the hell out of him with that bucket. Look at this man's face.

Lmao, no babes. Not that face.

Lol not that one either...

Ah, yes. We...might have just plummeted our inevitable chance of death to an inevitable certainty of death...

And the story continues from this point, my friends! Actually! This is only one route of ten! Which ending is this you ask? Lol like I'm going to tell you. You'll have to play the game for yourself to find that out. Just be cautious, because it does get a little...messy.

Okay, so! ...Wasn't really my cup of tea, not gonna lie, but it wasn't bad!

First and foremost, let's get into the visuals of this game. The art was definitely pleasing to look at. Like, ugh, I love CGs and sprites and visual effects and all of that, and this game had a looooot of them. Like, take a little lookie look.

Chef's kiss work right there. I really, really, really loved the artwork. Definitely my favorite aspect of this game.

Now, like I said in the beginning, the gore was pretty "in your face" and definitely gives the initial impression of being gorey for the sake of being gorey; however, I made sure that I read it with the "emotionally charged" disclaimer in mind. Pleasantly enough, I actually could get that vibe. The dev gave the go-ahead for personal interpretations but, mmm, nah. Even though I'm not the most analytical person, I was going to let you all in on my weird thoughts, but nah, I think I'll pass on that for another day.

Put it this way though, obviously, I took it as a metaphor for being in pain, but hear me out (TRIGGER WARNING FOR SUICIDE BY THE WAY): it's not just physical pain, but that pain that you feel from the inside. You know, that internal pain that's so intense that it feels like it's literally tearing you apart from the inside out. The worst part about that type of pain is that, even though you want to die, there's something that's keeping you alive, and it feels like literal torture. To me, the game was a huge metaphor for fighting to survive but staying alive feels like torture, and you're just left constantly wishing for it to just end -- maybe a sprinkle of being haunted by past mistakes and a possibly wavering faith? (TRIGGER WARNING END). Anyways, that interpretation may make more sense if you decide to actually play it for yourself. Lol I guess I did let you guys in on my thoughts after all. Guess we're getting kinda close at this point, huh?

Also anyways, another reason why it took me so long to post was because for the LIFE of me, I could not frickin figure out how to get ending number 7!! At the time, the game was extremely new. Like, still in the box wrapped in plastic new, and I was like "Shit, I'm on my own, and I'm dumb". I spent so much time and literally revisited the game on different days to see if I had accidentally skipped something and found nothing new. I looked through the files, and I was like "Bro, I've literally seen all of these sprites and CGs. What am I possibly missing?". When I say that it was driving me nuts... BUT THEN! I WENT TO THE GAME PAGE AND I SAW THIS

OH BLESS IT. I WASN'T BEING AN IDIOT; ENDING 7 JUST DIDN'T EXIST. THE RELIEF THAT I FELT. At the same time though, I was like "...why was there no ending 7?" But minor concern. Very minor.

Overall, the game was pretty damn solid! Lots of gore for sure, and I definitely didn't mind it, but the initial reaction was gore just for the sake of gore; however, when you really give it a chance, the writing's actually pretty okay. My favorite thing about it was by far the art and my other favorite thing was that we got to blast Friedrich's ass with that bucket. That was so satisfying. I mean there were consequences, yeah, but we still got our lick in lmao.

Welp, that's pretty much all from me! I recommended giving it a solid playthrough or two! I recommend it so much, I'll put the link right here so that you can give it a try. Also! Apparently they have a tumblr page for their art, and I'll link that here as well! I didn't see anything for a donation, but if you find otherwise, I'm sure they'd appreciate the monetary support. If you're broke, like me, send them some encouraging words and let them know "Hey, you did a thing, and I think that you should continue to do that thing because you're pretty good at it!"

But yeah, I'm going to end it here so that way I can FINALLY get this posted! Sorry for being MIA for a little. Adulting really be adulting, and I am ill-prepared for it a lot of the time ^^;

Anyways! Remember to drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Where He Is King

Dev's Art Tumblr

[ebonysplendor]

Trembling Essence (Extended Demo)🌲

TL;DR: Noah is cute and all, but what isn't cute is the fact that he wants us to stay holed up in this mouldy ass house with him. Like, I get that you live around, or possibly in, a swamp and everything, but damn, bitch, you live like this...?

Game Link: https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

Notable Features: Self-Insert, Yandere LI, Choice-heavy, HP Bar, Affinity Bar, Gender Neutral MC Spiciness: 0/5 -- Unfortunately, because this man is fine as hell... LI Red Flags: 1.5/5 -- Pretty bossy, pretty moody, and a lil' sassy, but other than, pretty solid dude (so far)

Wanna know more? Well, let's get into it!

So, listen. I have been meaning to finish and get this posted for like three, maybe four, or possibly even five weeks now, and damn it, I'm finally going to, so overlook the excessive grammar errors or whatever; I was lowkey rushing lol. This ain't about that though; it's about this visual novel, and let me tell you, I think it's really good, and it's super promising so far.

I know, I know, I know; I say that about every game but hear me out!

If you've read my reviews before, then you know that there are certain qualities about a visual novel that just scratch my brain in a particular way and absolutely ruin me in the most perfect way possible. One of those things is a choice heavy game. As I've said many a times, I am an absolute slut for a choice heavy game. It is something about every decision that you make mattering in the most detrimental way possible, bonus points if the consequence isn't immediate. Like, yes, make me hesitate and overthink if I should have waffles or cold pizza for breakfast, dev daddy...maker mommy...program parent? Program parent doesn't have as 18+ of a ring to it, admittedly, but we'll make it work.

Anyways, as I mentioned, the game is super good, and as far as I can tell, it's pretty choice heavy. Like, I'll play a route damn near the same way, but respond differently to one thing, and there's a whole new option the next time around like huuuuuuh? Absolutely love the visual novels that do that.

I'll get more into how amazing the actual game itself is in a second, but I'm a little impatient, and I want to jump into the synopsis. Nothing even really popped off as far as showing the LI's yandere side -- well, at least not as crazy as it could be. It was implied, and there were little peaks, but nothing too wild popped off -- but this has some damn good build up for the rest of the game.

Right now, and tragically, it's just the (extended) demo, but it is damned good. But, no, seriously. I'm going to go ahead and jump into the summary. As per usual, ya girl is going to tell you as much about this game as possible without ruining the game itself as a whole. Why? Because, duh, I want you to play it! That's the whole reason for the reviews, big dawg!

So, without further ado, I'm going to get into storytelling mode and summarize the game for ya!

So, boom.

When this whole thing pops off, we're lost in the woods.

Because we're lost with, like, zero bearings of our surroundings, we just kind've wait around in this hollowed out, rotten tree for someone to come along and help us. Admittedly, kind've a tall order, but we're trying to stay hopeful in this hopeless situation, so we wait it out.

We wait, and wait, and wait, and wait some more. We're sleeping on and off, and it's honestly making us feel worse. Why? Well, first off, it's hard to sleep in the current situation we're in anyways. Not to sound ungrateful, because at least we're somewhat shielded from the cold and wind and rain -- yeah, we're dealing with that, too --, but sleeping in a literal swamp area is not the most pleasant sleeping condition, let alone sleeping outside in general. The second is, since we aren't actually fully sleeping, we just feel tired whenever we wake up. It's just an all around sucky situation, but it'd be stupid to continuously wander around when we just see trees and more trees.

With not really much of an option other than to wait and get more crappy sleep, we wait and get more crappy sleep. The next time that we wake up though, it's because we hear the crunching of leaves and someone staring us down until we wake up, and when we do --

GYATT DAAAAAAAAAAMN.

Well, well, well!! Are we still asleep? Are we dreaming because I'm about to act ALL THE WAY up. Like, my most pleasant and ladylike woof for you, my good, visually pleasing sir, and I mean

Woof~♡

Even still though, going from seeing no one to seeing someone, especially this damned close, is pretty startling, so we try to go further back into the tree, but there's not really much further back that we can go.

This guy -- his name is Noah, by the way, and is an absolute bae -- sees us do this, and he's just like "Ayo, calm down. It's just me. Also, you look rough. Haha, sorry, that was rude, but like, this is what happens when you run off". ...Huh?

"Run off"...? Oh. Oh right. This is one of those games. Lmao I almost forgot that this man is probably psycho.

Anyways, he's pretty much lowkey talking shit. Like, he's not trying to from the tone, but he's pretty firm about what he's saying. Basically, we've been gone for about 2 and a half days now, and he's like, either we can come back with him and ensure our safety and survival or we can fuck around and find out. The reason why I say this is because apparently there' s another storm coming, and it's implied to be worse, not to mention that it's going to get mad cold.

...Well, we definitely don't want to fuck around and find out, so we go with him.

He's lowkey still talking shit, though, saying that he's glad we're being "very reasonable" this time and all that, but he's being pretty sweet about being gentle with us; he even helped dust our clothes off and offered to be better company this time around.

We make it back to his cabin, and it's still kind've ghetto and mouldy, but it's better than the last time we were here, so he must've been serious about trying to be better company. That being said, Noah starts trying to rizz us up a little...or that's how I took it, because I'm highkey down bad for this man.

In actuality, he just knows that we're in pretty bad shape and is trying to help us out by getting us on the couch, cleaning our face, feeding us, getting us warm, and, honestly, trying to be as gentle as possible. Partially, because he probably doesn't want us running off again, which he makes super clear because, as most people like him do, he explicitly tells us to never pull that crap again and that he just wants to keep us safe and all that.

Anyways, he gets us some clothes and let's us take a shower. Just because I feel that it's necessary to be said, there's mould in here, too, but it's only a little bit, and it's at the corner of the ceiling. Now the thing is, we can smell some kind of cleaning products so whether he used it on the walls or the utilities that were in the bathroom, we're not sure, but it reassures us that he does at least make an attempt to clean. I mean, the mould is still gross, but at least we aren't outside in the storm and freezing cold.

After a bomb ass shower, we head back out into the living room and regroup with Noah. He makes sure that we're all good and heads into his room to call it a night, but not before very sternly -- what's up with the random sass? -- telling us to not wake him up. Like, yeah, because there's so much to do in this dank, mouldy-ass, minimalist cabin that would cause such a ruckus, Noah. Like lmao be for real, homie.

Whatever, though, we just kind've let him go on about his business. Once he's gone, we look outside and oof...

He wasn't bluffing. Not only did it rain like he predicted, but it's coming down mad hard.

...

I mean, it would be totally stupid, yeah, but we could take our chances and escape for realisies this time since we're refreshed, or we could wake up Noah like he specifically told us not to do, maybe look around a bit which he also told us not to do for whatever reason.

Hmmmm...decisions, decisions.

Super sorry if the storytelling didn't flow as well as usual (if it even did beforehand), but I was pretty excited about getting to the review.

Me, personally, this was a demo done so absolutely correct. I'm honestly anticipating this visual novel so hard, and it's more for the story than the actual game because Noah is so...normal so far? Like, right now, he just seems like your typical tsundere hard ass that gets sassy for no apparent reason but has those really soft moments. I'm so ready to see this man come totally undone. Like, I need to see how psycho this man actually gets, because why did we run off the first time? Did we get kidnapped? Did he help us and wouldn't allow us to leave? Are we actually his partner and we tried to call it quits but our memories got wiped and now he's trying to start fresh so that's why he doesn't want us looking around? Was the reason we left because of the mould? Like, I have so many questions, and I'm invested in this story.

Can we also talk about the affinity and health bar? Such a nice touch; I love it. The way that everything in me just drops whenever either of those bars starts dipping down, and then the apprehension I got when they'd get dangerously low. Like, wait, what's going to happen to me? I'm honestly so excited to see what kind of turmoil the dev decides to create with it. I wonder if it's not what it seems though. Like, I wonder if you have to get his affinity in a certain range versus trying to max it out or as close to max as possible. You know, like you can't just always be a "yes" person towards him, but you're not supposed to be super combative either; just enough to get that cozy 72% and unlock a true ending or something.

This game has so many possibilities and so much potential, and I'm just damned excited about the direction that it's going in. The art style is sleek, the LI is a total bae, and the story is storying; it's an experience and a damned exhilarating one. Like, I'm in deep just because I'm so curious about, first off, what's going to happen next and, second, what tricks the dev still has up their sleeve that they hadn't showcased yet.

Okay, I think I've gushed enough. I absolutely recommend playing the game if you haven't already. Like I said, as far as the LI goes, nothing too out of pocket happens, just some sass, but the build up is damned solid. Definitely give it a good playthrough if you're willing, not to mention, there is multiple "endings" just in the demo which is wild. But yeah, if you want to give it the ol' college try, here's a link to the game. If you end up liking it and/or want to give the dev that extra push to keep going with a classic "Ayo, this game is kind've dope, and you are you. Give MOAR", head over to the game page (or the dev's tumblr) and post those encouraging words; if you're able, drop a few coins for them, too -- I'm sure they'd appreciate the extra support.

That's all from me though, so now, I'm going to somewhat awkwardly close this out and use this as a transition sentence since I can't think of anything better.

As always! A huge reminder! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to you around~!

Trembling Essence

Dev's Tumblr Page

[ebonysplendor]

The Science of Staying Awake Review 👁️

TL;DR: Sleep is often for the weak, but having, what is likely but claims not to be, a hallucination being violently in love with you is something that is not for the weak. Apparently, it's not for the living either...

Game Link: https://viscereye.itch.io/the-science-of-staying-awake

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Unnamed MC (referred as "You"), Yandere LI, Choice-heavy storyline Spiciness: 0/5 -- Not exactly wholesome because violence but no option to buss it open so no spice LI Red Flags: 1.7/5 -- Physically abusive, Crosses boundaries...other than that, he be's a touch starved boi who just wants cuddles

Wanna know more? Well, let's get into it!

Before I say anything, I just want you to read this:

Let me tell you, I had no idea how accurate that description was until I played it. That is a damned accurate description, and quite frankly, the only way to describe the experience that this was.

Anyways, I had ran across it when going through my game files, and I was like "Oh yeah! This game exists!" and decided to write a review on this one. I played this game many moons ago, and frankly, I don't see many people talking about or referencing this one; I honestly feel like more people should know about it, because there is a game to be played here. I mean, how many people are actually going to run across this review, I have no idea, but shit, hopefully it'll get a few extra downloads, because as "cheesy" as it may look, this was actually a pretty damn good game!

Honestly (and respectfully) speaking, you know how you look at a game, and you're like "This is probably going to be bad, but I'm curious"? From looking at the backgrounds they used, the description itself, and how they described the game as "cheesy" and a "creepypasta fanfic", I honestly thought this was supposed to be one of those "intentionally bad but funny as hell" games for jokes, but...yeah, no. If it was meant to be that way, I didn't get that at all.

I'll explain more in the actual review portion, but I'm going to go ahead and cut to the chase. As always, I give you the disclaimer that -- and those that have been vibing with me since the start of all of this already know -- I'm going to tell you as much as possible about the game without ruining the game itself.

Just as a side note, I think I do say that verbatim every time I write a review -- between that, "so boom", and the whole "drink water, don't be dumb" thing lol. I might switch it up one day, but that's honestly how I talk in real life. Like, can you not tell that I type the way that I speak? I mean, if it was something for college or work or something, yeah, I'm going to code switch, obvi, but for stuff like this? I'm pretty much talkin' to y'all like y'all are the squad because...well, y'all are lol.

Anyways! Enough chitchat, let's get summarizing.

So, boom (lmao ya see?).

We're in class, and we're tired as fook. Like, it's not even that "Damn, this class is boring" type of tired; it's that "I deadass haven't slept in 2 days, and I'm starting to hear colors and see sounds" type of tired. That "Ayo, why does this hard ass desk feel mad comfortable all of a sudden" type of tired. That plain and simple "a bitch is TIDE not tired" type of tired. Anyways, we recognize this as a current problem, and we know that we've gotta do something about it. Expeditiously. So, we hit up the vending machine, get something to wake us up a little, and then head on home.

When I say that it took everything to get up those stairs and to our bedroom...listen.

Like, as soon as we got through the door, we dropped that backpack to the floor, and we dive -- you hear me, dive -- into that bed. Now, with the way that we were feeling, dreamland should've been immediate. To be real with you, we were probably asleep by the time we were mid-air, but like, when we landed, we landed on something, and this something -- or rather someone -- goes "Ow". Like huuuuuuuh?

Again: Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuh? Fuck you mean, "Ow?" Like who the hell is yooooooooou?!

No, like, we literally ask who he -- ...it? --- is, because clearly, he was not here when we left, let alone just chilling in our bed, but he's just super casual about it, like, "Oh! I'm Vance!". Like, oh, right, Vance; that suddenly makes this whole situation totally normal and nothing to worry about -- as if that were even slightly true.

Here's the thing though, oddly enough, it actually is kind've true. See, we're not scared of him as a...whatever he is, but something about him is just...not right; something is very clearly off. Like, when he had introduced himself, he had shook our hand, and we immediately got this mad intense feeling of dread that we couldn't describe, and something about it just kind've made us feel like we were, quite literally, spiraling into insanity.

Naturally, we pull ourselves away from him and step back -- that spiraling feeling and anxiety is instantly gone. As you've probably guessed, it didn't take us long to put together that it's not good for this "Vance" creature to be too close in proximity, let alone anywhere near us.

He kind've picks up on this, and he's adamant that he's not going to hurt us. Still, we try to explain to him that, while we're not really threatened by him, we get this weirdly intense feeling whenever he's nearby, and he essentially needs to stay a little more than an arm's length away at all times; frankly, the further away, the better. Well...

He didn't take that well, and now, we feel threatened by him.

I hadn't mentioned this before, but Vance was already pretty upset that we wouldn't really let him come near us, let alone cuddle with him, but now he's extra pissed because we're essentially rejecting him altogether, even though he's, quite literally, driving us insane.

So, now that he's like this, we've got to get the hell out of there because, now, we aren't sure if he's still on the whole "I'm not going to hurt you" energy like before. That being said, we completely bolt, and he's like "Nah, bring that ass here, boi". Panic. Big panic time.

So, we do. We run off, but it does no good, because he finds us.

Granted, he doesn't know exactly where we are, but it doesn't matter because we're completely cornered. What are we going to do?

Well, let me rephrase that I know what I'm going to do; better yet, I know what I did. Now you guys on the other hand? Lol, I'll guess you'll have to play it for yourself to see what y'all are going to do.

I had honestly forgotten how good this game was until I had replayed it to grab some screenshots and to get a refresher on what actually went down. I'm not even kidding about that. My love for the game had literally re-sparked, and I can't believe that I forgot how good it was. If you've read my past reviews, you know that I mentioned at one point that I become an absolute slut for a choice-heavy game -- this is a choice heavy game and a damned good one. Speaking of choice-heavy...

Just to get off topic very slightly, you know what was crazy? When I went to replay it, apparently, I had done something different than when I had first played though the game and lmaoooooo, do you know that I had ended up finding THREE more endings? Wanna know something even crazier? One of them was a secret ending that I didn't even realize that I had gotten to!

Now mind you (lol you know the story is about to get a lil' spicy when that's said)! I had already unlocked like...if I remember right, like, 14 endings at this point, so when I found these other endings -- again, by total accident because, at this point, damn the review! I'm legit replaying the game for me, now -- I was now sitting at a grand total of 17 endings. So, now, I'm like "Ayo, what the hell?". Like, my mind is blown, because I was so sure that I had found all of the endings and completed the game. Remember, I hadn't touched or thought about this game in literal months because I was that confident that I had finished it. So, it's like, how many endings are there if I'm still managing to find more?

Naturally, I sprint to the dev's game page to conduct research on this burning question, and I am reading everything that there is to offer, but there was nothing. No "hey, this game has x amount of endings", no walkthrough map, no nothing. Did that stop me, though? Nah, because surely someone had experienced something similar to what I just had and was also like "Damn, how many endings are there...?". Lmaooooo well, I was right. You know what the answer is?

19. There are nineteen endings in this game.

I already knew the answer, but I go back to count the amount of endings that I have; there's 17. I dig into the game files for some more hints, and I find two icons (you'll know what I mean when you play it) that I've never seen before. Oh, okay. So, it's confirmed, but let me make sure that I've got the details straight:

Are you seriously telling me that, not only had I incorrectly assumed that I had all of the endings and finished the game because I had gotten all of the achievements, but the fact that I found three other endings -- again, by accident! -- doesn't even matter because I'm still missing two more because there's NINETEEN ENDINGS total?!

Wild. Chaotic even, and you're damn right that I'm here for it all. I LOVE that there are so many endings. I love even more that I have other endings to look for because I'm totally in love with this game all over again. Even though, lol, it was the deadpan, nonchalant "19" from the dev for me. The dev said "I said what I said, and what about it?". We love to see it.

Anyways, I'm a huge advocate for this game. If you've got some time, definitely give it a try. I highly recommended, and Vance is a pretty sweet dude, if you can find that side of him, I mean. Also, just for a very light spoiler but not really, the real ending was so sweet to me. Like something about it, it just...I don't know. It was just a warm feeling that washed over me when I had read it, and I was just like "That was actually really cute?" Bittersweet, even. Like, ugh, I am honestly really pushing for more people to play this game. It was genuinely so good, and I hope that the dev comes out with more visual novels. I truly forgot how in love with this game I was until I replayed it. This has, highkey, been a great experience.

Anywho, it's time that I stop my rambling and end it here. If you'd like to give this game a go for yourself and discover all 🌟nineteen🌟 endings -- which I highly recommend that you do -- a link to the game is at the very bottom of this post as well as at the very top. Hell, I'll even put the link right here so you can get to it quicker. If you're feeling extra motivated, visit the dev's page and post a comment telling them how great of a job they did and give them that extra validation to let them know "Hey! You're pretty good at what you do! You should keep doing the thing!". I didn't see where you could donate to them, but assuming I just missed it, remember that monetary validation is always helpful as well.

That's all from me though! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

The Science of Staying Awake

[ebonysplendor]

Absolute Adoration (Demo) Review 🪻

TL;DR: We basically tell Rai to piss off, but he said "Okay, but what if I don't?" and proceeded to try to bribe us with food. ...I mean, yeah, it worked but still.

Game Link: https://wanderingthoughts.itch.io/absolute-adoration

Notable Features: Self-Insert, Gender Options, Yandere LI...honestly, that's about it so far but apparently the full game will have more (as expected) Spiciness: 0/5 -- No porn for the plot, mah bois LI Red Flags: 1.5/5 -- Gaslighter, implied stalking, implied vehicular sabotage

Wanna know more? Well, let's get into it!

I ran across this game, like...honestly, a hot minute ago. Maybe around...September or so? It was way before I decided to start my gaming blog thing and write reviews and such. Anyways, I had recently revisited the page to see if there was any updates, and, unfortunately, there isn't. In fact...

...there hasn't been an update since March, which is super tragic, but you can't rush greatness, that's for sure, and I am pretty damned invested in the story so far.

Nothing super wild happens, but typically, whenever I play, it's just tradition for me to pick either the super toxic route (ex. throwing hands, yelling back, shutting shit down from the jump with the LI, etc.) or the super naïve route (ex. going along with the LI, ignoring obvious red flags, being super compliant, etc.). That being said...I was super toxic to the LI lol that's probably why it threw me that Eris was so toxic towards Milo, like that was supposed to be my job. He didn't respond to it poorly, but damn, did we respond to him poorly, and that alone has me invested because surely a puppy can only be kicked so many times before it starts to bite, right?

Anyways, I'm going to go ahead and jump into the synopsis, if that's cool. The intro is a little short, but...meh, I think it's still a decent length, yeah? Not to mention that the demo is lowkey pretty short as well, so it makes sense. Either way, whether the intro is long enough or not, this is what it's gonna be because I can't think of anything more to say lol.

But yeah, enough yapping about the intro length, let's get into the game itself. As always, I'm going to tell you as much about the game as possible without ruining the game itself, so stick around, because it's going to get...well, I'm not entirely sure, because the LI's actually pretty tame. Either way, just hang with me for a bit, and you'll see why I'm so invested in what this game has to offer next.

Okay, for realsies, now. Let's start summarizing.

So, boom.

We're waiting for the city bus, and it's cold as hell outside. Not only is it cold as hell outside, but the bus is late...like hella late...late as hell. Whatever though, this is what cell phones and social media and apps and all that crap were made for, so we whip out our phone and start scrolling. While scrolling though, we can't help but feel like we're being watched and...

We are, in fact, being watched. Like, okay then, that's totally not uncomfortable or anything.

Clearly realizing that he got caught staring, he looks away. We kind've brush off this super brief interaction as him being a straight-up weirdo and go back to scrolling in peace. Well, it doesn't last long, because he somehow worked up the courage to come over and talk to us. Is it to rizz us up, is it because he's bored? Who knows, but we aren't entirely happy about it because, frankly, we want to be left the hell alone and just get to our class even though, at the rate that we're going, we're guaranteed to be late.

So, now he's standing in front of us, and he's just like, "Hey!" and we're just giving him the look. You know what I mean by the look. That look. That "why the hell are you breathing my air" look, but he just keeps yapping.

"Sorry, to bother you--" Ayo, not the 'sorry to take up your time, but let me take up your time' approach. Lmaoooo here we go with this shit "--but my name is Rai! What's yours?"

The only way to respond to this was by way of bombastic side-eye, but he clearly doesn't get the message. Well, more accurately, he acknowledges the message, but he doesn't care, because he just keeps talking to us. Finally, we're like "Bro, nah" and try to leave because first off, it's ridiculous that the bus still isn't here, and second, it's aggravating that we've tried to dismiss him -- openly and, honestly, quite rudely -- and he refuses to do so. Notice I say that we try to leave, because tell me why he's like "Can I walk with you?"

"...What?"

"Can I walk with you? Please? I get really nervous walking by myself."

Like, bro, stop the cap. You walked all the way to this damned bus stop by yourself. Like, sir, if you don't leave me the hell alone. Like, we definitely had no choice but to stand on business, and ditch him and that damned bus stop.

So, we do. We ditch him, get to class, get that over and done with, meet up with our squad for a little bit, and head on home, but while walking home, something a little weird goes down.

We're walking to our apartment, and that same feeling of being watched comes back. At first, we brush it off as us still being stressed from what went down earlier today, so we decide to listen to some music to self-soothe. That being said, we are by no means stupid, so we keep an earbud out just in case we hea-- *snap, no crackle or pop* *And cue someone's barely audible but said with feeling "shit"*

...what the hell was that?

We turn around, and, as expected, there's no one. What's wild about this though, is that...we could swear we had heard something. Remember, that was the whole reason we only put one earbud in, but it must've just been a squirrel or something? Better yet, we write it off as a squirrel or something, but we're pretty adamant we heard something. Whatever though. We make it to our apartment, do our homework, and hit the hay.

The next day rolls around, and we head to the cafe to meet one of our friends. Oddly enough, it gets cancelled because of car troubles, but it's like damn, we're already here. Well, whatever. We try to order something from the counter because we're still pretty hungry, friend here to hang out or not, but the employee behind the counter is like "Nah, brah, we're out". Well, damn. Then -- unprompted, quite frankly -- they proceed to tell us some blue haired guy bought the last of what we were trying to order. "Blue haired guy" they said? Ain't no way...

We look over...

Well, damn! ... for the second time.

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah! Fuck that noise. We go to leave and pretend we didn't even see him, but he calls after us by name. Now, this is a red flag because, if you remember, we totally blew this guy off at the bus stop -- we never gave him our name, just a vicious side-eye.

So, we call him out on it, and naturally, he's trying to defend himself, and he honestly makes a valid point: why would he lie about something as stupid as us giving him our name?

...Aiight. We cave, and let it go.

Just trying to speed through this a bit, Rai bribes us with the snack that we couldn't buy to sit and talk to him for a while. We're a bit sassy and saucy and snippy about it at first, but we decide to lay off and give the guy a fair chance, and we leave when the sun starts to go down.

That's it! That the game! Lol kind've zipped through that last part, but meh, nothing really goes down, and I don't want to give you everything because, you've still gotta play this yourself, remember?

Even though much didn't happen, enough happened to make me pretty damned invested.

I just really hate that they haven't updated the game in almost a year because it honestly has potential. Like, the story is there; it just needs to, very obviously, be completed. I mean, the fact that we were able to pretty much tell him to piss off right from the jump just for him to pretty much corner us into talking with him anyways and then...well, I can't tell you that part lol. But, I was sharing that to say that it's a solid build up to the actual game and to the next day, and I need it!

Admittedly, some parts were a little slow and redundant, but like I've mentioned in some of my other reviews, story telling is kind've hard. I'd imagine that narrating those "transition" scenes, let alone actually getting to it, is pretty difficult to not make boring or redundant.

Anywho that's pretty much all I have to say about the game. I mean, I thought Rai was super adorbs -- not to mention his eyeliner is fucking flawless -- but like...I miss him lol. Like, ugh, no update, no dev logs, no side social to follow the game progress, just nothingness and a super intense waiting game. Man's took the hint and said "I'll listen. I'll stay away". Like, no, Rai, babes, come back, please. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it.

But! Greatness shall not nor ever be rushed! I'm sure whenever the dev decides to jump back in, they'll come back damned swinging, and we'll finally get the unhinged, blue-haired man that we want to force us into a relationship with him! Truly exciting to think about, and I honestly can't wait. Until then, though, I'm just going to keep an eye out like I have been.

Oh whoops, totally forgot about the recommendation itself lol. Uh, yeah! I do think you should play it. As typical, it's free, so like...why not, ya know? Just, if you do decide to play it, don't get too attached, because it may be a while before an update gets dropped.

Well, uh...that's...honestly it. Lol like I said, I didn't have much to say about this one since it's relatively short, but hopefully it was still somewhat interesting to read.

Anyways! That's officially all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around!

Absolute Adoration

[ebonysplendor]

Perfect Love: Milo Change -- TS4 Edition

This is totally not becoming a Perfect Love fan page ^^;; I swear I'll shut up about this game after today...

...ANYWAYS! Show and tell time!

So, I made the Milos in The Sims 4, so that's cool, I guess!

Introducing OG Milo Change, "Deceive, defame, and deny" Milo, and "Always choose violence" Milo.

Peep the eye colors though; red for violence, blue for manipulation

This is pretty much it, but it you wanna see me ramble more and/or the other pics, you can keep going :)

Okay, so hear me out. I think these actually came out pretty okay?

First off, it's very hard for me to make faces. What I mean by that is, usually, whenever I recreate characters in The Sims, I find a base "face" and then I edit it. I can dress them, sure, but the "genetics" part kill me; I can't recreate a face to save my life, and I absolutely rely on other simmers for that. That being said...I was on my own this time, so just ignore the faces altogether if they look off, even though, this time around, I think I did pretty okay.

Now, I do feel like I did pretty damned good on the wardrobe, especially for my "always choose violence" Milo; that one was my favorite, and he came out pretty close to the actual sprite, which was a big "yay" moment. At least, I think it did. Am I being delusional or overly critical...? I'm not sure lol. Like, I'm not trying to drag myself but I def do not want to overhype myself because these probably could've been better, but I honestly don't know, like... how to make it better. Whatever though, I did it for funsies, and now, I have the option to put them in one of my playthroughs, which is super exciting.

Now, admittedly, I'm peeved that I couldn't find exact clothing, and that's my toxic trait when trying to recreate a character in sims. For some reason, if I can't find the exact clothes and/or hair, it throws the entire thing off for me. It's not as bad when I can find something relatively close, but if it's not pretty much it, it bothers the living hell out of me. That's just a thing with me, for whatever reason, and that being said, why, oh why, could I not find a damned jacket with the sewn on patches and why could I not find an accessory hoodie for the guys? I have a shirt with an eye on it. It killed me not to use it, but I used what was the closest.

Anyways, enough rambling and trying to explain myself. Please either enjoy or criticize these Milos that I made to feed my obsession for this game.

Big preesh for checking this out, brah.

Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around!

Until next time~!

p.s. Just in case you were wanting to play it, or you somehow stumbled upon this and was wondering what game I was talking about, here's a link to the Perfect Love visual novel. If you just so happen want to read my review and see me absolutely foam at the mouth over this game, here's a link to that as well.

Okay, I'm leaving for realsies now. Lol later~!

[ebonysplendor]

I'm Sorry WHAT? 👁️👁️ (Small Flex and Perfect Love Follow Up...?)

Not gonna lie, this isn't a review, this is just to flex and, quite frankly, somewhat of a follow up to my Perfect Love Review but anyways!

Allow me to fucking flex for a second because I'm sorry WHAAAAT?

Wait, but it gets better because, do y'all see the first part?

Are you telling me this dev -- not just this dev, but the dev that made the masterpiece that was Perfect Love -- not only knows that I exist, but they follow me and has been following me??????? Even still, if they don't follow me and have just been revisiting my page every now and then, are you telling me that they knew I existed BEFORE that review???? And they like -- no, LOVE? -- the way that I write my reviews?!

I'm sorry, and I mean this in the most humble way, please, allow me to just...

I'm lightheaded. This is too much serotonin. What an experience to add to all my other happy memories.

For the sake of my health, I'll scream more about that later, but the part I'm more concerned about is this

Wait what...?

I'm gonna be real with y'all, I totally forgot that there was another ending until I revisited the game page -- which I didn't forget about the project I assigned. It was due last week, but I'll extend it to today, so get on that and download it and damned play it -- that I remembered "Oh yeah! The secret ending!" but this ain't about that! Find it on your own! I ain't spoiling that for you! What this is about, however, is not being conceited and inserting a name that wasn't my own, so if you'll excuse me and allow me to do that.

*Puts in THE name* I'm sorry, what????? *Goes back puts the OTHERS' -- yes!, otherS, with an 's'! -- names* I'm sorry, WHAT???? *Makes Milo's nicknames THE nicknames** I'M SORRY WHAAAAAAAT?????

Y'all...it gets deeper. There's more. There's certain dialogues that gets unlocked. I am floored.

In conclusion, and as a follow up no one asked for: this is the only visual novel that matters now. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

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..

...

..

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Now, I'm off to write about another visual novel to recommend everyone lol, and, who knows, maybe I'll find a new favorite to rant and rave to you all about. Hopefully, you'll stick around for it!

This isn't a review, but still, drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around! Until next time~!

P.S. Just some reassurance to the dev: I was absolutely not disappointed with the Milos, and Eris do be overdramatic, but the way they're written is so beautifully toxic. I gotta give them props, though: They knew what they want, and they were kinda boss for going after it and not settling. Lil psycho about it, sure, but still pretty boss. Good for them...even if it cost them an arm and a leg. Haaaaa, get it? I mean...not the arm, but...the joke still works, right? ^^;

[ebonysplendor]

Perfect Love Review 💖

TL;DR: Yeah, Milo is toxic and all, but growing up is realizing that, maybe I'M the problem. Maturing is realizing that it's not even a damn maybe; we're deadass the problem this time.

Game Link: https://c4game.itch.io/perfectlove

Notable Features: Sadistic MC, Gender options, LI turned Yandere, (8) Endings Tracker, Self-Insert Spiciness: 0/5 -- As far as I know, there's no spicy scenes, but I was so shook after my first playthrough, I just ran to make a review. That said though, this game is by no means wholesome LI MC Red Flags: 7/5 -- Sadistic, vindictive, manipulative, drugged someone, accessory to crimes, conspiracy to crimes, gaslighter, blackmailed someone, emotionally/mentally abusive, just..a lot of shit (and you thought Castiel was toxic)

Wanna know more? Well, let's get into it!

Fair warning, there may be way more grammar errors than normal because when I tell you that I played the first ending and ran to make a review, I mean that quite literally. That being exposed, just bear with me because this had very little proof reading because I was way too excited to tell you all about this game (without spoiling too much, of course) lol

What's up! Welcome back to another review!

Two things to start this off:

1. I know I already posted another review today, but I couldn't not write a review about this game and tell as many people that would listen to play it as soon as they could! 2. No, my friends, that was not a typo. It's not the LI we need to be concerned about; it's the MC. Yes, we're the problem this time around, and holy shit, please allow me to tell you about it! Or at least some of it, because I don't want to spoil too much.

As angry as this game made me, and as open and as wide as my mouth was during pretty much the entirety of this game, this has been the best damn visual novel I have come across to date! Yes, you read that correctly, and I will double down on it without hesitation; this is the best visual novel that I have ran across! Bitch, I would've paid money for this visual novel it was so good, and y'all know that I'm a cheap bitch! This was a $12.00 game (no, I still ain't over that! lol)! I would've gladly dropped that amount of money on this!

And I really hope I'm not exaggerating or overhyping it either, because I don't know which visual novels you guys have or haven't played, so let me clarify: For me, this is 1000/10 the best visual novel that I have read up to date. The pacing, the art style, the story its damn self, the fact that we're the problem this time around! Like, ugh, I could go on and on and on and on and on some more about this masterpiece of a game. I'm dead serious. I really believe that I could do an improvised one hour powerpoint presentation with absolutely zero prep time on how much of a chokehold this game has me in and STILL need an extra 30 minutes to an hour to really get my damned point across. It is that real for me. It is that serious.

All right, all right, all right, I'm gonna stop myself here because if I keep gushing, the intro is going to get way too long. That being said, it is officially time for me to write the synopsis. More than ever, I really mean this when I say, I'm going to tell you as much as possible without spoiling the game itself, and gods damn it, is it going to be difficult because, holy shit, the stuff that goes down?! I really want to tell you about it but fuck, if I do, then you might not play it yourself, and I can tell you right now, you have got to play this for yourself, and I highly recommend this game! Y'all are seriously missing out if you don't!

Okay, okay, I'm shutting up, because the intro's for real, for real getting too long and really redundant. Like, we get it, you love the game, start summarizing the damn thing! No worries, I hear y'all, and that's exactly what I'm about to do. Just a heads up, you're gonna need to buckle up for this one. Like, no, deadass. Buckle the hell up. I don't know what the hell kind of ride I'm about to take you guys on, but it's a damned wild one.

All right. Enough intro, enough talking. Let's finally get into it.

So, boom, and gods damn it, I mean, BOOM.

The game starts off with a little introducty-duction about how fucked up we are as a person. I'm not kidding about that. Basically, you know how we play these "dark romance" visual novels because the idea of someone being so unhealthily obsessed with you to the point of literally driving them bat shit crazy is something that just excites us for whatever reason? Yeah, we're like that in this game, except, we're literally delusional. Not the "quirky", cringey "aha, I'm so crazy~!", not delulu, like full on, needs to be admitted into the psychiatric floor of the hospital, delusional.

Anyways, we aspire to experience and permanently have that specific type of psycho crazy love, and damn it, we're going to have it, even if we have to go past just manifesting it and instead creating it ourselves, and I mean that quite literally. Let me explain.

See, at this point, there have been many failed attempts at getting this form of toxic love that we're after. At first, (or at least it's implied that) we tried to find it naturally, but it wasn't working out because, quite simply, it was never enough. I mean, sure, they cared about us, and sure, they would fight for us. Hell, they would easily do things for us if we asked, but they would always fall short because they wouldn't be willing to do anything and everything for us, let alone without us just being straight up about it and asking them to do so, and that, my friends, did not and will not fly.

Because we were tired of the constant failures and the constant disappointment, we decided to get on our boss shit and solve our problem instead of complaining about it. How do we solve it? By simply creating the love that we're after, and the first -- and most critical -- part of creating that love, is to find the right type of person. Someone who was a loner and an outcast. Someone that people ignored without so much as a second glance. Someone who allowed people to walk all over them and treat them any kind of way because they had no sense of self-worth. Someone desperate for affection, touch-starved even. Someone like...that new kid who recently transferred.

Milo Change. The perfect sap.

So, for totally non-selfish reasons, we play hero, and we step in to save the day. The bully -- his name's Ryan, by the by -- pretty much hightails it out of there once we intervene, and we're left with our suitor, and a suitor he'd better damn be because we didn't save his ass for nothing.

Milo gets off the ground, and he stumbles into us because he had gotten beat down pretty bad. True to expected nature, he apologizes, and starts rambling on about his friends for a little. He basically explains that, even though he knows that the people that he hangs around are really shitty, being new and not being used to the area makes him anxious to the point where he prefers their company over having no one and being alone. How coincidentally in perfect character he is...this is the one. Time to turn on the rizz.

When he asked why we jumped to his defense, we hit him with the ultimate "I was worried about you". This man's heart immediately gets to fluttering, and he's just making this too easy. It gets to a point where we make this "arrangement", so to speak. In exchange for giving him pointers on how to start standing up for himself, he has to date us. Of course, he jumps on this offer, because aside from him being the very type of spineless dweeb guy we're looking for, we knew that he had a serious crush on us. We know this because we had noticed that in passing and in the classes that we had together that he was always sneaking glances at us, so why not exploit that shoot our shot?

Anyways, we flawlessly sink the shot, and we get our date established. When we meet up, we decide to go to the batting cages, but it throws Milo off because they aren't the kind of batting cages that he was thinking of. Actually, quite frankly, it isn't really a batting cage but instead this really creepy room that has bats and is filled with mannequins.

Naturally, Milo starts asking questions, because now he's pretty uncomfortable with this whole thing, and it only gets worse when he sees us haul off and take a pretty ruthless swing at one of the dummies with a bat. At this point, Milo is holding one of the bats in his hands, and he's like "Nah, nah, I'm not into violence. Like, this is wild", but we reassure him that this isn't so much a reflection of character but a perfectly healthy way to get his anger out. He's still a little hesitant so we start planting thoughts giving him things to consider, and we're just like:

"Dude, are you not angry about the way that your so called 'friends' treated you? Did you actually like that they would use and abuse you when all you did was try to be nice? You did nothing wrong, and yet, they found it amusing to see you in pain. Do you really think you deserved to be treated like that...?" In short, we're just like "Getting your ass beat for the sake of friendship? Couldn't be me".

Milo stops for a second and really considered our words. After he really thought about it, he realized that he was and still is pissed about everything, and he goes in.

Like, really goes in to the point that the bat shattered and his hands started bleeding.

This scares the crap out of him because he didn't realize how much anger he had been holding in, but we find his performance desirable, not to mention severely attractive. Insert the Kronk meme because, my bois, it's all coming together.

We see the potential in Milo, and we're more than happy to help him reach that potential that we know he's capable of achieving. That being said, while he's trying to process what's going on, we just reassured him that we weren't scared of him and that it probably felt really good to finally get all that anger out. The tragic part is that Milo innocently agreed that it did.

We smile about the fact that he unknowingly took the bait, and we keep reeling him in. We tell Milo that we're really happy that he was able to get that anger out, because we understood that the world could be and is super cruel. While we're on the topic of the world being a really messed up place, we just idly bring up the concern of something happening to us and whether Milo'd protect us or not. Milo is once again thrown off because, yeah, the world is cruel, but why would we even picture a scenario like that? So, we explain that it's not necessarily that we wanted to think about it, but that because there's so much violence going on in the world, it was natural to think about.

That being said, we double down and tell him that he may have to protect us one day and fight back. We already know how Milo feels about violence, so we tell him to think of it more as self-defense and not so much as an excuse to be violent towards others for the sake of being violent. It was protection, really, for both himself and the people that he loves and "Milo...you'll protect me...right?"

And, once again, very innocently, he promises us that he will.

With that declaration, he became stronger. He upgraded from mannequins to glasses, plates, and whatever else in ramshackled houses to cars in abandoned lots. He even did classes that taught him how to fight, whether for self-defense, to protect others, or to simply hurt someone. He had become a bit more brash, and the "friends" that he had before started to back off because he was so different, but that was okay; that was what was best for him, and even more importantly, that was what we wanted.

Milo clung onto us. He knew that he was the only one that we could trust because our sweet Milo deserved the world, but the world didn't deserve him. He knew this because we told him exactly that, and why would we ever lie to him? We wouldn't, and because of that, Milo believes that we're the only one that he can trust -- as it should be.

Milo was slowly, but surely, starting to learn, but despite this improvement and despite this change...

...It still wasn't enough. Just the same as before.

Nah, nah, nah, I'm not telling you anymore, because it was hard enough withholding some of the details here. Know this though: this isn't even the halfway point let alone the thick of it, and this is one route out of eight that I just described to you. Yes, it gets damned wild, way beyond this.

FRICKIN FINALLY. I was about to explode trying to get to this part!

Guys, if it was not obvious, you guys have got to play this game! Like, I usually be like "Oh, if you want, and you have the time and feel like it, play this game" but nah, nah, nah, nah, NAH. This is not optional. You will seriously be missing out if you do not play this visual novel. Now admittedly, I got pissed at the MC because, shit, like, there's an option for self-insert, but I was so far detached from this character because this bitch is -- and Markiplier said it best -- fucking psycho crazy bonkers! Like, I saw certain stuff coming, but it's like, when it happened, it would be 10x worse than I thought it'd be.

Like, you honestly have no idea. The lil' synopsis I gave you at the top isn't even really a synopsis; more accurately, it's a teaser, because what I told you didn't even scratch the surface of what is going on. Guys, gals, gays, theys, all of y'all...please...I beg...play this damn game. Like holy shit, I cannot push this game enough. Like, yeah, sure, just to provide criticism or whatever, certain things or scenes are worded really "Ooh, I'm edgy and fucked up", and (unless I just read it weird) I think there were a few coding errors for nicknames and some super minor grammar errors, but like honestly, it doesn't even matter. I honestly couldn't give a damn because shit, the game is damned good! Like, there honestly isn't anything significant to complain about or critique. The dev? C4Games? They are out here, and they are setting the bar damned high.

Like, oh my gods, the fucking concept had me tripping out! Like, the whole "sadistic MC" or "The MC is crazy, too" trope isn't unheard of but, as far as I know, the execution itself is original, and I'm super geeked about it! A sadistic and twisted MC who is literally corrupting and molding an innocent guy to be the yandere that she craves. Like...what the hell? Ahhh!! I love it! Like, I literally cannot hold in the amount of gushing that I'm doing, and you can tell when I'm gushing because every other sentence will be "like, like, and like, like, like, and oh my gods, holy shit, like, like, like". Like lmao, I am gushing. I am ruined.

At this point, I feel that no other game will top this game. If I was making a tier list of the visual novels I have been reviewing, this is by far, no debate, an S Tier, God Tier, "whatever your highest tier would be" game. This visual novel is good, and I cannot wait to play the other seven routes, and guess what? The best part of all of this is that it's released! This is the entire game, and you can bet your ass that I'm going to be playing every route MUTLIPLE times!

Okay, I feel like the review and this overall post is long enough, and I want to stop myself from rambling and gushing anymore than I already have. That being said, that is officially all from me, and everyone's homework-- actually, nah. Everyone's project -- and it's going to be worth 100% of your grade -- is to play this damned game. EXPIDITIOUSLY. This is a requirement. This is an order.

Side note, I'm back on my sims kick, and I'm half tempted to make a family of the Milos I unlock because apparently -- pay attention! This is about to be a "pro, not really pro, but super helpful" tip! -- Milo's appearance and personality changes based on how you choose to mold him. Interesting, right? So, considering that there's 8 endings, I'm thinking there's 8 Milos, so...that's a full household in the Sims. Lol I might do it. I think I am.

Lol all right, enough rambling, I'm outta here for realsies! I hope everyone enjoys whatever time zone they're in, and, in case it wasn't clear or you missed it, play this damned game!

Anywho! Huge reminder! Drink water, don’t be dumb, play this game, and hope to see you around~!

Perfect Love

[ebonysplendor]

I'm a Copycat Review 👯‍♀️

TL;DR: Declan is fucking nuts, and if you thinks that's fucking nuts, wait until you figure out the MC's back story because it's also, you guessed it, fucking nuts ... fuck.

Game Link: https://drcllemlon.itch.io/im-a-copycat

Notable Features: Side-image sprites, named MC, she/her MC, Yandere LI Spiciness: 1/5 -- Pretty wholesome, for the most part. A sex scene was implied and there's a suggestive-ish cg, but...meh, super tame LI Red Flags: 3.5/5 -- Gaslighter, animal abuse, stuck in the past, physically abusive

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Yeah, I don't know why I dropped the "f" bomb so many times...? Well, anyways...

Okay, so, excitingly enough, this was actually a requested game! Not only was it requested, but it was requested by the dev themselves. Allow me to flex for a singular second or two.

No, like, deadass, can everyone just forget about the game for two seconds and focus on me? Like, I'm actually hype about this! I didn't have to go game hunting! The game hunted for me. THE DEV hunted for ME. I'm just mad excited about that. That being said, if you didn't know you could send me requests, now you know lol.

Anywho, so, the game!

Admittedly, this game was a lot better than initially expected? If you've read my reviews before, you know I'm conceited and want to be absolutely immersed and live out my sick, twisted fantasy by self-inserting. Unfortunately, this game isn't a self-insert, and the start was a lil' slow, not gonna lie, but like once shit started rolling? I no longer cared about the lack of self-insert because lmaooooo it got kinda wild.

There really is something so lit about a game that you're like "...Yeah, I don't think I'm feeling this" or "I don't think I'm going to vibe with this" but then you're suddenly super invested, and you're just sitting there like "What the hell is going on?!". I can honestly say that that was exactly what happened, and gods damn it, am I glad that I stuck around for the madness.

That all being said, I think the intro is long enough. Let's get into the game, because lowkey excited to tell you guys about it. As always, I will give you as much information as possible without actually spoiling it because you just may have to gotta, really, totally play this for yourself

So, boom.

We do the generic wake up in the morning feelin' like PDiddy thing and welcome the day with positivity. After admiring the sky for a little, we notice that there is that good breakfast smell in the air and rush into the kitchen, but not before putting on the glasses that our loving boyfriend always reminds us to wear -- don't wanna trip over any steps or anything like that haha ha... ANYWAYS!

Before we see the breakfast, though, we see the absolute snack that's in front of us. The snack is bae, and the bae's name is Declan. Look at this little cinnamon roll.

To go off topic for a bit, I've seen cuter/more hot LI's but this one got the "adorkably cute" aesthetic pretty good, because he is lol. He's a dorky cute, and frankly, it's fitting.

Anywho, so we exchange our good mornings, eat our breakfast, and help Declan clean, even though he's adamant that we don't have to. I mean, sure, we could've not helped, but what kind of partner doesn't help with household chores?! Nah, we're gonna help the bae! So, we do, and...we get hurt in the process. It hurts, and Declan's freaking out a bit, but we get patched up -- even though we're not bleeding or anything -- and life is all good again.

We get dressed, making sure to wear our super cozy jacket to make sure we don't get cold -- even though, we're never cold but Declan always insists that we are -- and get our day with Declan officially started, but not before this weird little quip happens.

See, Declan gets a call from work, right, and he's trying to explain to them that we still aren't well after our car accident. Apparently, it was pretty bad, and we got some kind of amnesia from it, so Declan took some time off work to get us reacclimated to...well, life, but corporate ain't trying to hear that and told him to bring his ass back into work, like, yesterday. So, Declan somewhat finesses it and is able to get an extra day, but he's super sad that he has to leave us, and the feeling is definitely mutual. No worries though! Why? Because we've still got two days, so why not just make the most of it while he's here with us! Until...he falls ill, that is.

So, us being the amazing girlfriend that we is, we take care of Declan like he's been taking care of us. After a little while, Declan just opts for sleep, and we let him do so. Sleep does help a lot when you're sick, after all!

Tending to ourselves, we try to make ourselves a fat bowl of totally not Lucky Charms, but Luck Jewels -- totally different, and not at all the same, so don't argue with or "@" me. Whether we're eating knock off Lucky Charms or a totally different cereal doesn't matter though because there's not really any of it left except the dust, not to mention we totally wrecked the shelf while trying to find something else to eat.

This is a bit of a problem because we don't have a screwdriver to fix the shelf, and we're still damned hungry! We don't really have any choice but to go to the store, but for some reason, Declan's really weird about us leaving the house since we're still struggling with amnesia and remembering how certain things work, let alone how to actually do it properly or so he tells us. So, we put on a brave face, get dressed, take some money from his wallet, and head on out!

While scoping out the supermarket, we make note of these really bomb cupcakes in the window of a bakery and make a note to visit another day, but right now, we're on a mission, and we must stay focused, my bois! As planned, we get in there, get our cereal and a screwdriver. Okay! So far so good! Well, our plan kind've diverged when we run into this girl, and...huh...

She damn sure looks...

...a lot like us. More than a lot, actually. She's pretty much an exact copy. Well, that's...slightly uncomfortable and extremely confusing.

Clearly, she's thinking the same thing about us because she kind've rushes out before we can think any more about it or even say anything to her about it. We decide to follow suit and rush home ourselves to fix the shelf and finally eat something! We messed up a little though because we had gotten hurt -- again -- and Declan isn't exactly wearing glasses for no reason; he immediately noticed. We handle it pretty well though through some innocence and tears, and Declan drops the topic as soon as it comes up. Everything is gucci, again, and we're able to move on with our day and go to bed like normal.

The next day rolls around, Declan goes to work, and we officially have the house to ourself and our trusted stuffed companion, Bruce. After some debate, we decide that today is the day we could go to that Bakery that we saw and get some of those cupcakes that we saw in the window. When we get there, something really odd happens.

The guy who works in the bakery is talking to us like he knows us, even going as far as to mention our dad. He starts trying to follow up with us and mentioned stuff about a break up, and this evil man, and someone named Mittens and...what the hell is this guy talking about?

So, of course, we're just standing there, because we came in for cupcakes, and this man just comes out of the woodwork with all this...information, and we don't know how to respond to any of it, but here's the even wilder part. Remember that doppelgänger we had saw yesterday? She's ends up coming into the bakery during all of this, and immediately, the man takes note of his mistake and allows us to go on our way. Like...what the hell was that?

Whatever though, we eat some of our cupcakes, hide the rest when Declan comes home, skip dinner (for obvious reasons), and get to bed. Fast forwarding a bit, we end up leaving out again, and we're feeling a bit adventurous and decide to buy some hair dye to color our hair like the girl that we saw because...well, we thought it was super pretty, and we wanted to be pretty, too, so it felt like the right thing to do lol. It...didn't come out well.

Like, at all. Aside from the absolute disaster that our hair came out to be, we have an even bigger worry: How is Declan going to react when he sees us?

Yeah, that's...what I thought.

Well, now...this is damned embarrassing, but still, Declan is our sweet and loving boyfriend! He loves us! Surely he wouldn't think it silly of us to want to dye our hair. Surely he wouldn't make fun of us for failing so miserably. Surely he wouldn't get angry that we snuck out to buy the hair dye. Surely he wouldn't get angry when he figures out that this wasn't our first time sneaking out. Surely he wouldn't lash out and turn into someone he isn't...

Surely not.

And that's all I'm going to tell you! Aht, aht! Don't make that face! You know that I (usually) never tell you about how a visual novel ends! You gots to play it for yourself if you want to know how it ends, and trust me, you're going to want to know. Just a tip, this isn't even the "true" ending, and believe me when I say...

It gets pretty wild.

Okay, so this game is actually pretty good!

Y'all know I wouldn't lie to you, even if a dev specifically asks me to review their game, and let me tell you, I was not feeling it at first. I honestly truly wasn't. The start was kinda slow, there was a side-sprite of the MC, and there wasn't an option to put your own name in. I was pretty bummed because one of the main things for me is the option to self-insert, so for me, the game was kinda doomed from the start, and I probably wouldn't have downloaded it if I was just scrolling along and saw this game on my own, but listeeeeeen.

The plot itself, while it's nothing super innovative or anything, it was pretty damn solid. I really want to tell you the specifics but it would literally ruin the game as a whole. Honestly, from the title and just what I told you, you can probably gather what's going on, but how everything goes down and the information that we find out and ultimately how it all ends is a bit wild.

It's not a super choice heavy game, but the choices that are available -- and pay attention because this is about to be a "pro not really pro but something I think would be helpful to point out" tip! -- are essentially options that dictate how the second half of the story goes and what points you to the "bad" ending, the "good" ending, and the "true" ending, so keep that in mind.

The only gripe I have about the game is that the title is kind've a dead giveaway as to what's going on, especially when you play through like the first couple "scenes" or so of the game. Other than that, it's a pretty good read! It definitely kept me interested despite it being more "novely" (if you read my other review, that's a word I use to describe visual novels that have a more linear story line). Not to mention, the art style was pretty damn adorbs, and I liked that there was a lot of different CGs. I haven't run across a visual novel yet that's had as many CGs as this one has, so that was definitely a welcomed change because...well, I like art/drawings lol. Like, look at some of these images!

Ugh, the amount of CGs just scratched my brain so correctly. I am a visual novel CG slut, I tell ya. Anytime there's a CG in a visual novel? I'm all over that shit. I love CGs. CGs for life. CGs forever.

Okay, that's enough gushing about the CGs...

ANYWAYS! That is my review of the game! Again, I thought it was a pretty solid read, and I recommend! It's free, so, what have you got to waste other than time? As per usual, I provide a link at the top, bottom, and within the review, and it is right here. Don't be shy! Go ahead click it, download it, play it, and share your thoughts on the dev's game page! Send them those lovely words of reassurance to let them know "Hey you! I liked your game, and I think you should make more!". As always, donations are super helpful as well, and if you want to be extra fancy, here is a link to the dev's tumblr page!

All righty! That's all from me this time around! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

I'm a Copycat

[ebonysplendor]

Apple for Teacher Review 🍎

**This is not a spoiler friendly review! Because of, what I feel is, pretty severe content, I'm going to tell you pretty much what happened from start to finish. Highly suggest reading the red flags in case this VN is potentially triggering to you**

_____________________

TL;DR: Ciel is deadass delulu if he thinks treating a person like shit is what makes you like them. Like you may be rich, you may be hot, and you may be rich, but you are trash. ...Did I mention that he's rich and that he has money?

Game Link: https://ataraxicgames.itch.io/yandere-love-apple-for-teacher

Notable Features: Female MC, Self-Insert, Yandere LI, Various language translations, 18+ Spiciness: 5/5 -- There's a literal sex scene featured. There's no visuals, but it's still pretty damned vivid without it LI Red Flags: 6/5 -- Emotionally abusive, verbally abusive, physically abusive, extremely controlling, rape, tied down

Want to know more? Well, if you're not 18+, absolutely not. Seriously. Go away, stay away from this game, and get away from my page; however, if you ARE over 18, let's get into it!

So...this is a short but pretty wild game.

Like I mentioned above, because I feel like the content is pretty intense, I'm not going to spill every single tiny detail about the game; however, I will be telling you the "important" story details and the ending. Also, this is another short visual novel so, as expected, the review will be shorter as well. Then again, because I'm actually telling you the ending this time around, it might be just as long. Who knows. Either way, it's just a couple of heads up before we get too far into this thing.

Now that that's out the way, the game was good but it wasn't like "This is top tier gameplay!". It was pretty decent and overall just...the best way I can describe it is simply an experience. There wasn't much choice involved in the game, if you'd even count it as a choice. The one choice is primarily for consent or lack of, but it ultimately ends the same and there's no pleasing this Ciel guy.

Don't throw any tomatoes though! While the game isn't the best, I think it's still worth a casual playthrough, but I'll get more into that at the end. For now, let me tell you more about this visual novel, and how shit hits the fan.

So, boom.

We're a university student, and if you have either been to university or are currently in university, you might have had that experience where that one class (or even multiple classes) was kicking your ass in the most disrespectful way, and it wasn't as easy as dropping it. Why? Because it was a prerequisite, and you literally couldn't go on with the classes for your major unless you passed that particular class. That's what we're going through in this story, but it's literally not even our fault. Let me explain. Oh, but first, I should probably introduce this -- very...very rich -- asshat.

Everyone this is Ciel. Ciel probably doesn't care, so I'm not going to bother introducing you guys to him. Trust me, it's for the best. Okay, NOW let me explain, but first, let's set the scene for a flashback:

By the way, this is deadass a screenshot because it was deadass a flashback. Like, I'm not being overly cinematic/dramatic this time lol.

Anyways, so yeah, we're a university student, and we have a class that we're struggling with. The reason why this is isn't because we aren't grasping the content nor is it because we aren't doing what we're supposed to do, it is quite literally because of Ciel. The crazy part is, he isn't even the damned professor, he's the TA -- a cold, hateful, conceited TA. Even crazier? No one else would believe that description except us. Why? Because if everyone doesn't have a crush on him and is trying to smash, they don't have a crush on him but still think that he's a pretty decent dude with some decent humanness that doesn't make people hate him. Fantastic.

Ending my ranting, though, basically we're doing so poorly that he does the "teacherly" thing and is pretty much like "Lol you're failing". Upon hearing this, we're just like "Yeah, no shit", but we don't dare say anything like that to him because, well, for one, he makes our life hell enough without back-talking him, and for B, we ain't done with this class. This jerk can, would, and will drop our grade if we piss him off. Just like we're for 1000% sure that he graded us harder on a particular exam than the other students -- he always does, but like, come on. An exam? University students, y'all know how heavy those exam scores can be and how much that can absolutely kill your grade.

Again! Lol ending my ranting, we just kind've go "Yeah, I'm aware", and he's like "If you don't get help, you're going to fail". Once again, no shit, but we're like "Yes, I'm aware", and you know what he does? He offers -- well, more accurately demands that we take -- his services. At first, we're like "Hell no" but he's literally like "I'm not asking to tutor you, I'm telling you that I'm tutoring you", and it just sucks. It sucks because he's already really shitty to us two times a week for 90 minutes at a time, 180 minutes total, which is literally over 2 hours of making us depressed enough to dread Tuesdays and Thursdays as a whole, but now he wants to add more time on top of it. Fuck, man...

Like I said though, we didn't really have a choice. He pretty much told us that either we accept his help, or he'll deadass just fail us because "we don't care about our grades". Like what? And sure, we could just go to the actual professor, but what if they didn't do anything? Exactly. It would literally make things worse, and that wasn't paranoia or fear -- that was real life what would happen if we tried to snitch or go over him.

So, we begrudgingly accept the offer, and...it actually helped, I can't even lie. It inadvertently made us do better in the other courses as well, so he may have not been bluffing when he said that he was the only one qualified to give us the help that we needed for that course. Not to mention, he actually started being a little nicer to us! No, stop, don't get too hopeful. This guy is still the literal worse. Just let me keep explaining, but now we have to go back to the present.

The semester is over. We're going to be free from the stress of school and Ciel for the next 2 months and a half, and we have a bomb ass summer job waiting for us that we might consider working for in place of going to school -- yes, the pay is that damned good. We can't bask in the glory for long, though, because guess who comes along? Ciel's ass.

To make a long story short, he shares the news that we passed and he's adamant that he wants to take us out to this really fancy restaurant. That being said, we weren't going to pass up a free meal that we'd never be able to afford, like ever, so we accept the offer, and that, my friends, was where we fucked up. Allow me some more time to explain.

Ciel -- or rather his chauffer -- takes us back to our place, and even though we're like "Yo, you really don't have to come to my apartment. Better yet, I don't want you in my apartment", he's like "Yet you don't know what to wear, do you?" ...shit. He got our ass there. While, yes, we do have an inkling about what we're supposed to wear and have a decent selection to choose from, we might not have the right "fancy" clothes, and we run the risk of going underdressed. So, again, we begrudgingly agree to what he wants to do, and he's in our apartment. Our safe place. Great.

So, he's up in here, and we're basically playing runway model with Ciel, except instead of being in awe, he's being this judgmental prick. Finally, he gets to a point where he's fed up, and he just comes barreling into our closet. Whoa.

Naturally, we're like "Um..excuse you? I'm changing? What if I was naked?" and he just says "I wish you were". Wait what...

"Huh?"

"I said I wish you were, and now, I'm gonna kiss you."

Oh. He's bold, bold. Gotcha. So, now there's some obvious sexual tension, but this is where shit goes very, very left.

So, as you can see above, we have two options: Either we can fall into the whole enemies to lovers trope and let him hit it or we can tell him to piss off...and he still hits it, but without consent.

Yeah, that's...that's what those choices are. Either we can pick the consensual route or the nonconsensual. It's pretty obvious which is which.

[ T R I G G E R W A R N I N G~*START*~T R I G G E R W A R N I N G ]

Should you be like me, and you're a person that picks all options and combinations to see what ending you get, the nonconsensual route isn't nearly as explicit as the consensual route about what he actually does while he's raping us, but it does get pretty descriptive about how we feel as it's happening, and it can definitely be triggering. It's a relatively quick portion, but not so much if you're sensitive to that kind of stuff, so definitely be careful and keep that in mind if you decide to play. You can definitely avoid that part altogether should you choose to play anyways, and it doesn't really change the end. It's a same scenario, different wording type deal.

[ T R I G G E R W A R N I N G~*E N D*~T R I G G E R W A R N I N G ]

That being said! As for the other route, that's clearly a lot more pleasant (at least to an obvious extent), it's way more descriptive about what he actually does to us, but it's 1000% consensual. Okay, now for where it all comes to a head and both of these routes combine into the same ending!

So...yeah, the deed is done, and now Ciel is like "Okay, pack up your shit", and it's like "...Huh?". Basically, this man has scoped us out since day 1, and like, he is making us his wife. Of course, we're like "Uh, no? You're awful," but he's just like "Remember when I wasn't asking to tutor you? I'm not asking you to pack. Pack your shit."

Not having much of an option because of how aggressive and strong he is, we do as we're told. We pack the necessities, and we head to his limo. The worst part of all this, aside from going with this guy, is that we don't have any family or friends that are going to notice that we're missing or that something is wrong or anything. We can't even rely on our new job being concerned about our whereabouts because we've never set foot in there. They're going to quickly dismiss it as us being a "no show" and simply move forward. That's, quite literally, going to be it, and we're deadass stuck like chuck because of it. That realization combined with everything that was going on just causes us to freak out even more, and we end up passing out. Now mind you, how we pass out depends on if the sex was consensual or not.

Either way, we end up here:

Oh, it's actually a pretty nice room! Sure would be a hell of a lot nicer if we, like, you know, wanted to be here, and we weren't literally bound to the damned bed. I mean, not to be ungrateful or anything, just a bit of constructive criticism.

Ciel doesn't care though. He knows we'll adjust. We don't have a choice but to, and he doesn't care how long it takes. Know why? Because...

We have all the time in the world now.

Pretty solid game!

This was definitely more novely, if that makes sense. Actually, let me explain just in case you guys' brain isn't wired as goofy as mine is lol. What I mean by "it's more 'novely'" is that there's no choices to really make. Like I mentioned, the only choice -- and I mean that literally -- that has to be made is whether you consensually have sex with Ciel or not. Other than that, it's a linear story, and...it wasn't bad.

If you've been reading my reviews, you know that I've mentioned having a preference for choice heavy games, but this was still pretty good, even if I wanted to deck Ciel in the face and was not presented the option to do so...

I honestly don't have much to say about this one. The character was pretty cute but extremely toxic, the visuals were nice, and the story was short but wild. Can't really complain or comment on much. It was a simple game, so a simple review is all I have to offer lol.

Oh! Just as a heads up though! The part that stumped me the most was this screen:

Lol uh...that's the title screen.

When I tell you I thought that I had downloaded the wrong game or that it was the wrong game file on the page, I mean that. This dev has a game by this exact title, and I had saved it to play later, and I had honestly thought that I had either downloaded it by mistake or that they had uploaded the wrong file, but it's correct! If I understood what I saw, Chains of Fate -- which is what you see on the title screen -- is the game that the dev is working on, and Ciel's route -- or rather this particular game -- is a part of the whole game...I think. Lol just hit play and keep it rolling! You're playing the right game is what I'm saying.

But yeah! I thought the game was pretty okay! I recommend giving it a casual playthrough! It's a free game, so what have you got to lose other than about 20 minutes or so of free time? As always, be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they've done a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance to keep making games. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the very top, here is a link to the game so that you can play it for yourself, and I hope that you do!

All righty! That's all from me for now! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Apple for Teacher: A Yandere Love Short

[ebonysplendor]

Mine Review📖

TL;DR: Keith is hot, but Damien is hotter. Damien isn't an option, so Keith kidnaps us. Oh, and we have some waffles. Ayyyyye~

!! Heads up! This one isn't free like the others I've reviewed !!

Game Link: https://yamie-es.itch.io/mine-find-the-story

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Self-Insert, Nameable MC, Yandere LI, 18+ game Spiciness: 5/5 -- Literal sex scene. Nothing too crazy, though, but yeah, we get consensually banged LI Red Flags: 2.5/5 -- Has a temper, murdered someone, trauma boy

Wanna know more? Not if you aren't at least 18. Come on, you know the drill with this. Now, if you ARE at least 18, let's stop wasting time and get into it!

All righty, so, I'm gonna expose myself a little bit here: Visual novels, especially the raunchy ones, are my guilty pleasure.

Granted, I don't go foaming at the mouth for any and every visual novel, but the gods damn it, if I don't go feral when it's about an unstable man with an ungodly obsession for me, and bless it, don't give me the option to buss it wide open for him in the most sinful way...

Anyways, I was telling you that to say that a really close friend of mine was telling me about this game she had gotten off of itch.io and how it said that it was released but didn't "feel" released. Coincidentally, I knew exactly what game she was talking about, but, not even gonna lie, I never actually played it because, I'm a cheap bitch. That being said, when I ran across it, I was like "Mmmm twelve dollas tho...?" and decided to pass on it. The reason I gravitate more towards the free stuff is because:

1. If I hate it, or it ends up being subpar to me, it doesn't feel like a waste 2. It's not like I'll return to it after playing it to completion. At least, not for a long while because it's not a rogue-lite or procedurally generated game or anything like that where the story is ever changing 3. It's honestly habit at this point for me to look for the free stuff and ignore the stuff I have to kick out cash for 4. Like I mentioned, and frankly, the whole of it is, I'm a cheap bitch

But yeah, so my friend essentially let me download it from her account and play it ... I immediately knew what she meant by it said that it was released but it didn't feel released. To answer your unsaid question, yes, I would've been pissed if I had paid for this game.

Now, that's not to say that the game was bad, because it wasn't, but to me, it was not worth $12, even remotely. At max, I'd say it's worth maybe -- and this is a huge maybe -- $5. Let me explain by giving you a synopsis and my thoughts on the game.

As typical, I'll tell you as much about the game as possible without actually ruining the game itself.

So, boom.

We are a failed literature student. Lol already a rocky start, but anyways, we've always have had this thing with books, but because of circumstances, we can only read as a hobby now. So, as a book lover, where do we go? The bookstore. While in there, we get some help from the guy who works there; his name is Keith, and Keith is kinda cute.

Like, yeah, eye bag game is strong, but the bags are Gucci so, what the hell, right? Anyways, everybody say "Suh" to the bae. Suh, bae.

Anyways, so Keith asks us out, and we're like "Sure" because we deadass have nothing better to do, and it's lit. He takes us to this cafe, then we have this cute little moment in the park, and he's just being really sweet and spitting his game. Typical date shenanigans.

Keith takes us home, and we go to bed. When we wake up, we have a splitting headache and...ah, hell no.

This is not our room...

Naturally, we start panicking a little because...what is going on? One minute, everything was normal, and we went to sleep in our bed, the next, we're in some dank room with concrete floors, brick walls, and no windows. Keith then enters stage left.

He's giving us the whole "I'm doing what's best for you" speech that most yanderes give, and we're just like "Lol piss off", and he...actually respects that? Like, yeah, he got really pissed off about it and snatched us up a little, but like...he didn't really get violent. Like, he actually left us alone. I mean, this wasn't actually the best thing either, though, because now we're just left alone to cry and keep thinking about how we're definitely going to die here. Yep, totally pleasant and positive self-talk that isn't going to make us feel even more helpless and hopeless.

Anyways, Keith comes back, what is assumed to be, hours later. He brings us food, specifically waffles, and is essentially apologizing for losing his temper with us. He asks how we are, and we just tell him that we're tired. This time, he doesn't get upset, and he leaves us to "sleep"; in actuality, we just wanted to be left alone with our thoughts again, but we actually do end up falling asleep.

The next day comes along and so does Keith. He basically tells us that he has breakfast set up upstairs and to come join him. Not having much of a choice, we do, and he has a pretty sugary spread with, like, cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, and this fat jug of orange juice. How does any of this go together? No idea, but we eat, and Keith shows us around the house. We get to his room and...ick.

In the screenshot, the room is fine, but first off, it smells a lot like the fragrance that we wear, and, apparently, there are pictures of us like...all over his bedroom. Like, if it wasn't obvious from the "all over the bedroom" part, there's so many pictures, it's like, physically uncomfortable. Whatever though, because Keith has a cat, and of course, we had to meet the cat.

Okay, so I'm going to speed through this a little, so pay attention.

Keith goes to work

We make a gameplan

Gameplan ends up with Keith hurt

We're like "Damn it" because guilt

We help him out

We make "I'm sorry" breakfast for him

Keith goes to work again

He gets us flowers

Keith hits it in missionary

We get cockdrunk (or stockholm, most likely) and tell him that we love him

We walk in on him murdering someone in the middle of the night

What happens next depends on whatever choices we made

The end

LOL WAIT WHAT?

Oop-- sorry, went too far lol. Let me back up a bit.

So, after we buss it open for him and slip up and tell this man that we love him, we fall asleep. We wake up in the middle of the night, but Keith is gone. Instead of just rolling over and going back to sleep or simply waiting for him to come back, for plot purposes, we go investigate in an attempt to find where he went. We walk down the hallway, and....yeah, we just kind've see him going ham on this dead body, and we are greeted with this:

Oh...oh okay. Well, maybe we can just talk to him. I'm sure he has a perfectly rational reason for trying to dismember someone.

Or not. The answer is very clearly not.

I can't explain the rest, obviously, because it's going to be super spoiler heavy, and I don't want to ruin it just in case you decide to play the game for yourself. Sorry, but it must be done lol. As the yanderes say: I'm doing what's best for you <3

The game is pretty decent.

I say decent because, me, personally, whenever something costs money, I automatically put it at a higher standard. Not to mention, the fact that this game costs $12, and it's only "decent" is...not good lol. I also see what my friend meant by it's released, but it doesn't feel like it's released, because...it doesn't. It feels very "in development" or in that "Update 0.7" stage versus an actual complete and polished game.

I'm assuming the dev's first language isn't English, which is fine, of course, but once again, considering that it's a $12 game, there is a lot of grammatical errors and some of the sentences just don't flow. The game is pretty short, and there's only 3 endings, not to mention, it's extremely easy to get those 3 different endings. This is because the game itself isn't choice heavy nor does it provide any scenarios to really make choices for. The options that you pick honestly don't matter until the end when you're trying to escape. That, in itself, is not worth $12 to me.

The other reason why the game was giving "it's released, but it doesn't feel like it", is because of what is on the dev's page. Let me explain.

So, let's just break it down piece by piece, bullet by bullet.

Nameable, gender neutral protag? Check. Five days? Check. Three endings? Check. Solid start.

Keith Voice. This was implemented. Great, but the VA is only for the first day. For $12, we only get one day voice acted? To me, at minimum, the voice acting should've been scattered throughout the entire game with a voice acted line here and a voice acted line there for emphasis or to set the mood or the tone or whatever.

NSFW Scenes and Options for NSFW scene. Somewhat seen because there was a NSFW scene, and it was marked so you could opt out, if you chose to do so. Now, admittedly, this could be me being an absolute degenerate and/or taking things too literal, but it said NSFW sceneS with an "s" and it said optionS, again, with an "s" -- I was under the assumption that there'd be multiple NSFW scenes; there was only one. Again, at minimum, 2 NSFW scenes for $12.

More mini-games, scenarios, and easter eggs. Guys, I have played this game up, down, left, right, and sideways. I have mixed and matched my responses. One of the mini games they're referring to, that I won't ruin, I did every possible way, but it ends up with the same results, which got confirmed by a comment on the page. As for the scenarios, what scenarios? There were very little choices to make, and the choices that you do make aren't really that hard to make because they very clearly point to a specific ending. I just...guys, for $12...?

Grammar errors. I'm not one to talk because I know that, as a native English speaker, my reviews are all over the place with petty grammar mistakes but .... they might need to revisit this point. It wasn't bad, but there was definitely some awkward sentences here and there and some minor to moderate grammar errors. That being said, quite frankly, the grammar errors being fixed shouldn't have been a future plan. That 1012% should've been a basic requirement and priority before releasing it for twelve dollars. I'm sorry, I know I mentioned the money thing like fifty times, but it's like, if you're going to charge people money, at least do the bare minimum of spell checking, correcting grammar, and having sentences that flow well. I totally understand that people are human and mistakes happen and English isn't everyone's first language ... but you're releasing it for people's money. The economy (in the U.S.) is literal shit, and someone spent $12 on a game where something like fixing grammar errors was an afterthought. That's just ... not okay to me.

Contrary to the bitching criticism, the game really is pretty solid. The concept is there, and I really like the animations that they implemented. Like, during the part that I didn't tell you about because it would've spoiled it, the animation really brought the scene together, and it paired well with the (I guess it could be considered a) mini game. That was honestly my favorite thing about it but...it still is not worth the money to me, at least not $12. $1 - $5? Sure, I could see that, but twelve? That's kind've steep for this game, especially when you don't even know who Damien is unless you go a specific route. Lol, yeah. He was mentioned in the TL;DR but you forgot about him, didn't you? I didn't. He just isn't present in the route that I was telling you about until the end, and he kinda just...randomly shows up. I mean, don't get me wrong, I think he's pretty hot, like look.

See? Pretty damned attractive dude.

But in that specific route that I walked you through? He's literally just a random dude that we apparently knew for a long time; it just wasn't explained in that particular route. Again, for $12. Yeah, no... I'd give it like $2, maybe $3, but only because the animations were pretty solid, we got to tango in the sheets with Keith, and Damien is pretty damn cute.

Put it this way: Where Winter Crows Go wasn't choice heavy nor had too many choices to make, had few lines voice acted, and didn't have any animations. To me, it was significantly better than this VN, and the suggested price was $6. Again, that game was significantly better, and it was only $6. Technically, it was free! The dev was just suggesting a donation/price of $6. This one is charging $12. Wild.

Anyways, to finally wrap all of this up and to stop bitching about the price of the game, um...I honestly don't recommend it. I know I said I was going to stop bitching about the price, but just one more time! If the game was free, then yeah, I'd say still give it a shot, but unless you have the disposable income or are super unbothered to the point where it's like "Meh, it's only $12. It's okay if it's bad. It's not a big deal", I wouldn't suggest getting this game. I hate to say that it'd be a waste, but...it'd be a waste. The game, to me, is overpriced and is just not worth the money. It's a solid game, and it isn't bad by any means like Killswitch, but I definitely wouldn't have paid money for this.

Okay, for realsies this time, I think I've bitched enough about the price of this game and the quality for said price. If you'd still like to give this game a try, by all means, go for it! I'll even drop the link for the game right here! Drop a comment on the dev's page if you think that I was trippin', and I overly criticized this game! Give them that ever warm "Great job!" and provide them that reassurance to keep making games! Shit, I think they should keep making games, too! Like I said, it wasn't a bad game! Not the best game out there, but definitely not the worst, and I'd 100% recommend it if it was free! The dev definitely has the talent, I just feel that their craft has to be tweaked a bit more before they can charge $12 for it.

Okay, okay, all right, I know, I'm shutting up about the $12 now! I swear! That was the last time!

But kaykay! That's all from me this go around! Remember! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

MINE

[ebonysplendor]

PFFT. ME EVERYTIME I POST A REVIEW 💀

The anxiety of the internet

[ebonysplendor]

Killswitch (Demo) Review 🦊

TL;DR: There's some guy named Clove, and we run some errands. Actually, that depends on which route you take. The important thing is that we end up eating stir fry either way, so, it's lit, I guess.

Game Link: https://dreadonarrival.itch.io/killswitch

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Self-Insert, Beastkin LI (Fox(?)-Human hybrid), Yandere, 18+ game Spiciness: 0/5 -- No explicit scenes or suggestive language in the demo. Barely any bad language Red Flags: 0.5/5 -- Implied stalking, implied break-in. Aside from that, for a yandere? He didn't really do anything.

Wanna know more? Not if you're not 18, you don't, but if you are, let's get into it!

I debated for a hot minute whether to do this review or not, and I decided that I would just so y'all can see:

1. I don't love/recommend every visual novel out there, as I've actually run across some that I didn't care for 2. This is going to lowkey give me a chance to vent

That being said, I'm just going to be real about it...I did not like this game in the slightest lol. Hear me out though.

The summary on the page sounded pretty solid, not to mention, I'm an absolute sucker for yandere LIs, if that wasn't obvious, and I'm a bit of a degenerate, so the 18+ content was a literal plus, even if it wasn't in the demo; however, this LI just...didn't cut it. At least not for me; it might for y'all.

I had already took the plunge when I saw that he was an animal hybrid, but I thought that his design was cool, the VN had great reviews, and, like I said, the summary sounded interesting.

After playing it myself, though? Respectfully...what the hell was everybody thinking when they rated it? I'm honestly starting to think I didn't play the same game, because I just don't see the potential that the game has to offer nor what was damn near 5 stars about it. The crazy part is, it's not even 1 or 2 or 20 or even 50 people that think this -- one hundred and fifty two (152) people rated this game, and it has almost a 5 star rating.

Wild. Absolutely wild. That in itself is more interesting than the damn game.

Just to be clear and contrary to what you just read, this review isn't meant to shit on the game by any means because this is still someone's craft, and it's extremely brave putting yourself out there on the internet; however, I'm here to review it and give it my honest opinion, and, as implied, I'm going to be honest. Just as a heads up, there's going to be a lot more negatives than positives this go around.

Anywho, I've rambled on long enough. Let me give you a synopsis of the gameplay, even though there's not really much to discuss. Keep in mind that because there isn't much to discuss, I'm going to pretty much tell you the gameplay from start to finish because ... well, there's nothing really to ruin. There wasn't a plot twist, or any jumpscares, or creepiness, or...anything really. That being said, let me stop rambling and start summarizing.

Okay, so boom...

The game starts with us waking up in our bed, and we have a pretty mild hangover.

We look at our clock, and we notice that we have a smooth seven minutes to get ourselves together for work and actually make it there by 8:30. We think about ditching work for a moment, but we're like, "Nah, let me go". So, we get ready super fast, and we bolt out of the door.

Luckily, we make it to the library right when our shift starts. During our shift though, we run into this guy. His name is Clove.

Clove, these are the homies. The homies, this is Clove.

Anyways, we're at work, and he's looking at the book of the week, so we gots to hit him with the customer service. We ask the typical "Are you finding everything okay?", and instead of answering, he's looks at our nametag and was like "Oh, that's a cute name, but Rabbit is more fitting." Oh...oh okay.

So, we're thrown off, and we're just "...huh?" because he said it with so much confidence like we were supposed to catch on to whatever inside joke he was trying to pitch. He catches on to our confusion, though, and he gets all flustered. He just kind've brushes it off and is like "Ah, dang, you don't remember me, huh?" and we just kind've stare him down because...like who's mans is this? Then again, he did look familiar...

We think about it some more, and the memory is actually there, but it's kinda fuzzy and the name just wasn't coming to us. We pretty much come clean about his face being familiar and where we remember him from and how we used to play together, or whatever, but not his name. He's cool with it though and is just like "It's Clove, like the spice". There's not really any small talk in between before we get called for assistance by one of our coworkers, and we just kind've depart saying that we'll see each other later, but after he leaves, we're like "Lol how is there going to be a later if I forgot to ask for his number?". Whatevs though. We live in a small town, so we aren't too pressed about it. Our shift goes on, and we head out to get groceries afterwards.

While in here though, we run into Clove again at the checkout line. He's pretty shocked to see us, but takes it as an opportunity to apologize and lay down the rizz a little. By lay down the rizz, though, I mean that all he really did was ask if we wanted to go out to dinner.

Of course, we say yes, and we agree on having dinner at our place. Clove's cool with it, so we exchange information, and we -- and just to be clear, by "we", I mean, like, you and me -- head off to get dinner set up.

So yeah, we change into some dry clothes since it was raining during our walk back, and we get started on dinner; we made stir fry.

Clove comes along, and we -- meaning us and Clove, this time -- eat dinner, not really talking much to each other. Now mind you, it's not so much out of awkwardness, but because, apparently, the food was really bomb. Dinner ends, and with the help of Clove, we clean up the dishes.

We don't really want the night to end just yet, so we offer the idea of watching a movie, and Clove's like "Yeah, sure!", and so...that's what we do. We watch a movie.

During the movie though, we snuggle up to him, and he snuggles up to us. He starts purring, and considering that we're already tired from the day, it lulls us to sleep, and...yeah lol. That's it.

No, I shit you not, that's how it ends. We wake up, go to work, meet this guy, realize it's an old friend, have dinner with him, and fall asleep with him cuddling us on the couch. Afterwards, we get hit with the "This is the end of the demo" bit, and then this screen pops up:

Yep. It took us back to the menu. That was it. That was the demo.

I have never been more antsy to get to the review part as I am now...

Before I get into it, like I mentioned at the start, please, do not take this as me shitting on the game, but I'm not going to lie to you guys about how I felt about the quality of the potential either. That's not me, but we're still going to do it respectfully...at least as much as possible. This is still someone's creation, and the aim is not to bash their work or destroy their passion to create, but to simply provide my unsolicited opinion to people who will listen. Das it. That being said...

Y'all...I did not like this game in the slightest lol. Like point blank period, I just did not like it. It simply was not for me. I don't know if it was the fact that homie was not fully a homie, and he was mixed with a fox(?) or if it was the fact that nothing really happened, and it was too monotonous; I don't know, but this game and me did not vibe, like, at all.

First off, I understand that there has to be some kind of build up because, while you can just jump into the drama, it has to be executed in a certain way. Like I said in my Parasite in Love review, an intro can be a little hard to write without making it super plain to the point of making a person give up on it, but not so much shit popping off out of seemingly no where that it simply doesn't even make sense.

This game, however, was nothing but build up, but that wasn't even the issue. The issue was...it didn't build up to anything. Well, let me rephrase that, what it built up to was super anti-climatic. For the sake of there being something I didn't spoil, I won't share exactly what that was, but just know that it isn't much. It hardly qualifies as "threatening" or something to be concerned about. Especially, if you go a certain route? The ending is more of a "Where the hell did that come from?" versus an "Oh! It's that guy!" type of reaction because, while you knew it was going to happen because, duh, plot purposes, it seemingly came out of no where, and it lowkey made no sense. It went from being kind've plain and monotonous to "NOW ENTERS THE PLOT FROM STAGE LEFT!". If it wasn't for the fact that it was a yandere game, and it was expected, that bit at the end would've been entirely random.

Not to mention, nothing in the game itself happened either, and I mean that quite literally. In one of the routes, you can choose to sleep in instead of going to work, and...it's just extremely boring. The only interesting part that happened was that we felt like we were being watched at one point, but that was literally it. There was no elaboration, no anything. We just left that area, and everything was all good again. No looking over the shoulder. No nagging feeling that someone could be stalking us. No sense of threat. No...anything. Just an "Oh, that was weird. Oh well! Let's do our grocery shopping!" Like...huh? Literally, no other interaction, except that piece at the end that I'm not going to tell you guys about, but that "being watched" feeling? It never comes back. It just stops, and we're perfectly fine. We're not suspicious or anxious or anything. Just a "Mmm, that was weird, but we got shit to do" type deal.

Just to provide something positive -- because at this point, I'm doing the exact opposite of what I said I was going to do, which is not to just flat out shit on this game -- the best thing about this game is that it's a demo. What others and I have played is not the finished product. It's still a work in progress, and granted, while I feel that it needs a lot of work, there's potential for the kinks to be worked out and for the beginning of the game to get outshined by the plot and drama in the full game. I feel that it definitely has more than enough wiggle room to grow, and I genuinely hope it does. Other people seem to be excited about this game, so hopefully it'll deliver, poor start to it or not. The intro can honestly be excused if the rest of the game is going to carry it to victory.

With all of that being said, I'll end my ranting there. Um...although I personally wasn't a fan, I still say give it a go because a lot of people did give it 5 stars, so maybe I'm missing its charm -- maybe I'm the problem lol. Besides, all jokes aside, I wouldn't want you to take my word for it and run with it. I'm always an advocate of trying things out for yourself, especially if it's available for free. So...give it a go, and see what you think!

As always, while you can't leave a comment on the dev's game page this time, you can send a "private" review and rating to the dev, and donations are always helpful to them! Like mentioned at the top, here is the link to the game if you'd like to try it out for yourself! While I don't really recommend the game itself, I do recommend that you play it yourself and make your own opinion about it.

Welp, that's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Killswitch

[ebonysplendor]

My Darling Review 🧑‍❤️‍💋‍👩

TL;DR: Takuya may be our boyfriend, but that doesn't make him any less psycho. He's still cute or whateva.

Game Link: https://water-horse-games.itch.io/my-darling

Notable Features: Yandere LI, Gender Neutral MC, Self-Insert (up to 6 letters tho) Spiciness: 2/5 -- There's a scene where it gets a little suggestive and another scene where the LI straight up mentions sex and making love. Other than that, it's extremely tame (as far as 18+ content). Red Flags: 3/5 -- Gaslighter, locked us in a room, tied us up, drugged us

Wanna know more? Well, let's get into it!

How do I tell you guys about the unhingednessnessness that is this game without spoiling it?

Well, for one, I can tell you that it's pretty damn crazy. Like always, it starts off so cutesy and "Oh, this guy isn't toxic at all! What do they mean 'yandere'?" to "WHAT THE F--K. IS HAPPENIIIIING?!". Okay, maybe not that unhinged -- actually, it isn't as unhinged as I'm suggesting at all -- but it still gets pretty crazy pretty fast.

This review is going to be way shorter than the other ones that I've done because the game itself is pretty short. It's only like 15 - 20 minutes long, maybe a 5 minute difference if you get the same "What the hell?!" reaction that I had at a very specific part that I'm going to try to avoid telling you.

That being said, the intro is about as long as I can make it considering the game is so short, so let's cut the bullshit and start summarizing.

So, boom.

We get off of work, and we are greeted by our man~

His name is Takuya, and...meh, a little basic lookin' but he still cute or whateva. I'd let him hit it.

Anyways, so Takuya and us are making small talk. In the midst of this small talk, he goes on this weird mini rant about technology, and basically, how he feels that it shouldn't really be a thing because it ruins relationships. We just kind've brush him off, like "Yeah, I know", end the conversation there, and eat dinner.

During dinner, we're talking again, and here he comes with the heavy stuff again. He drops the whole "Do you love me?" question because he's like really, really, really insecure about this, but we reassure him, and he's good again; however, now we're like:

"Aha, time for dessert, knowwhatlmean~?" Oh lawd...

And he's just "Shiiit, okay! But let me do the dishes first". Wack...

So, we put our little flirt session on pause for a second for household chores because he's just got to be the perfect house boyfriend, but it's paused for more than a second because we start feeling real dizzy and pass out.

For the sake of not ruining it, we have this pretty gnarly dream and wake up in a cold sweat because of it, but we are pretty damned disoriented because the dream was super vivid which was super weird because it felt so real. Takuya sees/hears us kind've freaking out and was just like "Don't even trip. I got you. Just go back to bed." but it's like, nah, son, because why are you just brushing me off when I'm trying to confide in you?

You already know that this started a whoooole bunch of shit, and it starts to rapidly go downhill from here. No, I am not telling you what happened or even going to give a synopsis because I can't! Lol don't look like that! You already know that I wasn't going to tell you how it ended nor all the juicy details because I need you to play this for yourself! But I will leave you with this very concerning screenshot from the game.

Yeah...this man is a little psycho...

Like I said, 100/10 I would give you more details, and believe me, I really, really, REALLY want to but also like I said, the game was super short and pretty much to the point. It damn near went from 0 to 100 without much warning -- it lowkey did, to be real with you. You deadass just have to play the game yourself, and I promise you'll see what I mean when I say it truly is short and psycho.

For it being so short, this visual novel is pretty damned intense, and it is good!

The best part about this game to me is the visuals of Takuya's sprite. As per usual, you'll know what I'm talking about when you play it yourself. There has been quite a few times that, when I read a visual novel, the imagery around the sprite will startle me, especially if it was meant to be a jumpscare or something, but holy shit, seeing Takuya's sprite change was extremely unsettling this time around. And then--! What made it all the more effective was what he said when the personality flip happened.

Ugh! It's so frustrating because I want to tell you guys about that scene so bad, but it'll ruin a crucial part of the story, and it's burning me not to include it in this review. I'll leave you with this though, and for like the third time at this point, you'll know what I mean if you choose to play this:

• The way that you THINK his sentence is going to end is not the way it ends, and it ran a literal shiver down my spine the execution was so good • That scene alone made that entire game. It was pretty good, but then that scene carried it on its shoulders. It really solidified the tone and creepiness and suspense of the game

That's pretty much all I have to say! Like I said, definitely play the game yourself, because explaining it without the really intense part just does not cut it. You honestly have to play it because you are missing out on a short, intense little gem of a game. Just as a fair heads up, it's a touch bit predictable, but at the same time it's not. If you're like me, you'll have a very clear suspicion during a specific part, and while you're right, it's not exactly going to pan out the way that you think nor for that particular reason. There's still some surprise to it, so don't let that deter you!

As always, be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they've done a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance to keep making games. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the very top, here is a link to the game so that you can play it for yourself, and I really suggest that you do because when shit goes down, it goes down. Anyways!

That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

My Darling

[ebonysplendor]

Where Winter Crows Go Review ❄️🐦‍⬛

TL;DR: Chaga mushrooms ain't the only thing that Crowe be foraging, but this time he doesn't want to share the spoils with the squad for research purposes.

Game Link: https://prikarin.itch.io/where-winter-crows-go

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Optional Reader-Insert with choice of pronouns, Yandere LI, 17+ Spiciness: 1/5 -- It gets a little flirty, but it's sweet and innocent LI Red Flags: 3/5 -- Manipulative, little hands on, has a temper

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Okay, so, the full release finally came, and ya girl was SO excited! The demo was very promising, but I needed a little more convincing. That being said, this wasn't by any means one of the one's that I was the most ecstatic about, but I was still excited enough about it to check back occasionally for the full release. I just so happened to get lucky recently and saw that it had actually dropped back in November. So, I was late, but not embarrassingly so. Now, this review on the other hand... But listen! I just recently decided to take the plunge and start making reviews, so mind ya business lol.

Anyways, this isn't about me and my tardiness, this is about this pleasant little game that really went for it in the full version, and boi, did they go for it!

I'd classify this as one of those "slow burn" visual novels, simply because it's not obvious that our LI is a lil' psycho off the rip, and there's nothing too unsettling from the jump aside from getting caught in a blizzard. Actually, since we're on the topic, the LI -- his name is Crowe Lynn, by the way -- is actually pretty damn hospitable, and he's a full blown scientist. The most shocking part is, he isn't even doing anything sketchy! for the most part. He is deadass living in the middle of nowhere for research purposes and is writing books to know why nature is...well, naturing, for lack of better wording.

That being said, I think the intro is long enough, and I'm really excited to tell you more about this game, because you guys have got to play this whenever you get the chance! As always, I'm going to tell you as much as possible about the game without ruining the game itself.

So, boom. We're -- or Aspen, should you decide to play through their eyes, but I prefer self-insert -- going on a trip in our favorite run down car to get to some town where there is supposed to be this really nice place to let off some steam via skiing. Trust me, we did research on this; we know what we're talking about. Anyways, while driving, we start noticing how we've been on this same road for a long time, and yet, we haven't seen anybody for an equally long time.

Run down car? Long road? No one for miles? You already know what's about to happen.

Yep, you guessed it, we get a flat, and as you've also probably guessed, we have no spare tire, but bear with me! The game isn't this predictable, I swear! You've gotta understand that it can just be a little hard to get away from certain tropes, and let's be real, they kind've have to happen for plot purposes. I mean, think about if we actually had a tire in the trunk. We would've been outtie, we would've had a great trip, and there would've been no game lol. Sometimes, you just gotta cut the devs some slack.

Anywho, so yeah, flat tire and no spare. Naturally, we hike it to try to find some help, but the weather kind've picks up, and the clothes that we have, while appropriate for the cold, aren't adequate enough for a full blown blizzard. No worries though, because guess who comes to the rescue? This guy!

Everybody, this is Crowe. Crowe, this is everybody.

As you'd expect (I know I keep saying that, but lmao it's not a overly predictable game, I swear!), Crowe is this really chill dude. Actually, more than a chill dude, he's a massive nature nerd. That's actually why he's out in the middle of the woods anyways! Like I mentioned before, he's researching why nature be naturing, specifically -- at least, his current topic from the way it was worded is -- partial migration. If you've never heard of that, don't even worry about it, in the game he explains it to us. Like, I'm telling you. This man is super into this stuff, and we love a smart man.

Getting away from that though, he basically ends up telling us that the town that we're in is pretty much deserted with the exception of like 13 other people, and because of the blizzard, the time it'd take to clean the roads, the likelihood of there being another blizzard right behind the one that just happened, and cleaning up after that blizzard, getting to our planned destination just wasn't going to happen. ...Well, shit.

What are we going to do then? Our car has a flat, we can't travel, and there's not any resorts nearby. No worries though, because the bae came through! He said "Oh, you can just stay with me!" Oh wooooooord???

So guess what we do? Make ourselves cozy in this bomb ass cabin. I'm not even exaggerating about that. Like, this cabin is REALLY nice! Take a peek!

That's just our room and the hallway. You can only imagine how bomb the rest of the place looks. Like, I'm telling y'all, it's super cozy up in here. But we must stay focused! And by we, I mean me, because I could go on and on about how nice this cabin looks.

Back to the topic at hand though, we've agreed to stay with Crowe, even though, we honestly don't have much of a choice, but it was just dope that Crowe was cool with everything. That being said, during our stay, we do all kinds of pretty cool stuff! We go foraging with him for chaga mushrooms and winterberries, we create some powders to add to other stuff, and we make some medicines. Everything was going super smoothly ... until it wasn't.

Crowe kind've has...a weird temper. Like, we had accidentally gotten hurt, and he had gotten super pissed about it. We love a man that cares about his guest, but he was a bit overdramatic about it. You'd think we would've lost a limb or something. The main thing that got him really pissed, though, was when we had mentioned our car and implied leaving. He did not like that, and when I say we got into it bad? Oh, the insults were flying. Like, look at this!

So, yeah, we fought, and what about it? It's whatever. Forget him...

...Actually, we felt really bad about the whole thing, and so did he. We talked it out, and everything was all good again; however, now he's acting really weird, we're getting really suspicious, and we still have to get home. That being said, we call it an early night, borrow one of his books, and pretty much make a gameplan so we can figure out how to get home as well as what the hell is going on that is not only making Crowe act weird, but what is going on in general.

And we do! We sneak out the next morning and ... we actually make things worse because now, we're REALLY confused. I'm not going to get into the details, but just know that there are more questions than answers at this point. So, yeah, while the investigating helped, it only helped a little, and I genuinely mean only a little.

One thing that we know for sure though...

This man is definitely crazy in love with us.

And that's all I'm going to tell you! Lol I'm sorry! But if I tell you the rest, it'll literally be the ending, and it'll ruin it! You know how much I want you guys to play it, so no way am I going to spill the details, but like most visual novels, how it ends is completely up to the choices that you make.

Guys...the full game delivered.

I prefer choice heavy visual novels like Darling Duality and Forcefully Yours, but this still wasn't bad by any means. I actually thought it was quite good! Like I said, the most shocking thing to me about all of this is that this man is deadass a scientist! Like, he really isn't doing anything entirely sketchy out there! That was the biggest plot twist of the century to me! But, anyways, letting go of that. Let me tell you more of my thoughts on the game, and why I feel like you should play it whenever you get the chance.

The visuals are absolutely stunning, first and foremost. So far, my favorite VN visual wise has been Mushroom Oasis, but this is definitely a solid number 2 spot. I absolutely adore the art style. I also appreciate the revamp that they did with Crowe. There is nothing wrong with femboys by any means, but to me, Crowe was a little girly looking, and he very much so looked like a small child lol. Like look at the difference in this.

This is the old Crowe Lynn

And this is the new Crowe Lynn

Lol you see what I mean? He looked like a child that wanted to be a scientist when he grew up versus the actual adult him that chose science as a profession. The redesign was definitely a good choice, and I love how he looks now, especially with the longer hair and worn out lab coat. What do you think, though? Which did you prefer?

Aside from that though, you know what one of my favorite things about the game was? The fact that -- and listen close, because this is about to be a tip! -- the endings that you get are based more on how the character feels about Crowe versus how Crowe feels about us. How curious is that?

In a majority of visual novels, the endings are literally dependent on how far we push the LI or their affinity for us, but it's not like that in this one. We get a different ending based on if we trust him or not, if we flirt back with him or ignore his remarks, and some other factors that I don't want to include and possible spoil the story. I just thought that was a really interesting take, and that was super creative of the developer. It was definitely refreshing to play as more of myself and base the gameplay on my -- or rather my character's -- feelings versus playing for the LI and his feelings.

With all that in mind, I definitely say give this game a go! It has a nice mystery/suspense to it, and not to mention, there is a really bomb song during the credits. I was so sad to see that it was not on Spotify! Well, let me clarify, it IS, but it's not available to me which sucks ass. It's not even on YouTube, and it hurts me so bad! Ugh!

Anyways, in case my feelings and opinions weren't clear -- play this game, play this game, play this game, play this game! As always, be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they've done a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance to keep making games. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the very top, here is a link to the game so that you can play it for yourself, and I really want you to play it for yourself!

That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Where Winter Crows Go

[ebonysplendor]

Parasite in Love Review 🦠

TL;DR: You're pretty much in a toxic, nonconsensual relationship with an even more toxic amoeba. Yes, an amoeba. That's it. That's the game

Game Link: https://night-asob u.itch.io/parasite-in-love

Notable Features: She/Her/Hers MC, Named MC, Yandere LI, partial voice acting Spiciness: 0/5 -- No explicit content LI Red Flags: 2/5 -- lack of consent, a lil hands on...but from the inside...?

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Let me just start off by saying... I genuinely thought this game was going to be wack lol. Like, no lie.

First off, from the synopsis I had read on the page, I initially thought that it was going to be more of the hallucinations that we were experiencing versus the parasite itself.

That being said, when I booted up the game...it was mad boring. I'm not even gonna lie to y'all, I was 2 seconds from clicking that ish out and moving on to another visual novel that I had saved to play later; however, I was like "Well, it just started. Let me give it a fair chance because this is clearly only the intro" because let's be real for a second. An intro is kind've hard to write without making it so plain that the person playing just loses interest nor making it so that shit just starts popping off out of seemingly no where. So, with that in consideration, I pushed through. I got through the first, like, day and 3/4 of the second day. THAT'S when things started getting a little more interesting, and I was like "Okay! Here we go!". After that, it was pleasantly interesting!

It definitely had a slow start with all the "I did this, then I did this, and then after that I did this" blah, blah, blah, but once it truly started? Oh, it was on. With that, I think I've rambled enough about my personal experience. Let's talk about the game (with as little spoilers as possible, as always)

So, boom, we're -- well, actually Marlowe -- is taking a vacay by...going in the wilderness.

No shade, no tea to you if this is your style of vacationing. I support, but no way in hell am I partaking. Ain't no way I'm going to get away from indoor struggles by experiencing outdoor struggles, like nu uh. Then again, Marlowe isn't exactly out here roughing it. She has this really nice cabin that she rented out, and she's going to chill the week there.

Even though this is a horror themed game, she actually has pretty solid reception out here, so we're good! We can call for help should we need it, right? ...Right?

Anyways, she goes to take a swim in this lake, and I honestly get why she did that...but why did she do that? Literally the intro to the game was a news story on this brain-eating bacteria that resides in -- you guessed it -- freshwater lakes.

What did we just take a swim in? A freshwater lake. Lol you already know where this is headed.

Okay, now that I'm actually trying to type this out, I don't really know how to present this story without spoiling it, but I'm going to try my damnedest, so bear with me.

So, without spoiling it too much, basically what ends up happening is that Marlowe gets really sick, and the friendly neighborhood germ, who's actually a lil toxic sumbetch, falls in love with her.

...

I know, I know, I said the same thing lol. We -- and by we, I mean Marlowe -- got sick, and the brain-eating bacteria that I mentioned earlier has fallen in love with us. But hear me out! It actually gets super interesting from here, so stay with me!

From this point, it's this odd tug-o-war game of survival. We're trying to survive it, and it is essentially trying to survive us from trying to kill it. To it -- this amoeba that named himself Niall and goes by he/him/his pronouns -- Marlowe isn't a host, but a spouse, and it's trying to build this family with her from inside her. For him, her survival means his death, and for Marlowe, it's the literal opposite.

By the way, this is Niall. Our...husband.

Anyways

During this tug-o-war game, Marlowe gets a little feisty with Niall, and Niall literally keeps her in check without physically touching her. Remember, Niall is a literal brain-eating bacteria. He's very real, but he isn't a person like she's hallucinating -- he's a disease. He's a disease that's making her ill, and he makes her symptoms worse whenever he gets pissed at her. Holy. Shit. Now, that's a crazy concept.

In an attempt to not ruin more than I may already have, I'll just say at this point, it's either him or Marlowe. As with a majority of visual novels, how this ends is completely up to the choices you make.

Like always, I'm not gonna lie to y'all. This game was significantly better than what I was initially expecting.

Like I mentioned before, the beginning was just really mundane to me, and I thought it was going to be the same scenario as another game I'm planning on writing a review about, but thankfully, it did not continue in that manner. Now that I've completed the game, it reads more like a "Everything was going great until it wasn't" type of thing, and it wasn't as "boring" as I initially thought. Still boring, but not "I wish this coworker would stop talking to me about this thing I don't care about" boring.

Now, that what I didn't care for is out of the way, let's talk about what I did care for: the concept of the story.

I could go on and on about how absolutely GENIUS I thought the concept of this VN was. Admittedly, if I did that, this review would turn out way longer than I'd want, and it'd seem like rambling. That being said, I'll just say this: By far, out of all the VNs that I've read so far (and admittedly, I'm relatively new to all of this, but hear me out), this has been the most original and the most interesting one as far as the concept that was chosen, not to mention it was executed well.

During this VN, I actually got a "...Okay, this is actually terrifying if you think about it" feeling. Not to mention, the take of "We're the same but different" premise. Like, Marlowe and Niall wanted the same exact thing as far as lifestyle but from different aspects. Hers was more of a life milestone or value that she had, and his was for the sheer aspect of survival. That was what made him cling to her the way that he had. It wasn't even about her looks or from the typical "You were the only person that was ever nice to me" trope, but a "You have the same will to survive like I do". Like damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! A deadly bacteria falls in love with you because he sees similarities in the two of you and is under the impression that you understand and consent to what he's doing. That is such an insane concept, and damn do I want to talk about it more, but I won't because I'll start rambling it and ruin it.

Overall, I'd recommend giving this game a go! Honestly, to me, it's not the most interesting reading-wise, but if you stick with it for the concept, it's a pretty solid read! Not to mention there's some partial voice acting which is super cool! Be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they're doing a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance. Like mentioned at the top, here is the link to the game if you'd like to try it out yourself! I definitely think that you should if you want to experience something different from the norm.

Anyways! That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around! Until next time~!

Parasite in Love Game Link and Page

[ebonysplendor]

Mushroom Oasis (Demo) Review 🍄

TL;DR: Mychael deadass wants to be MYchael, and it gets to a point where you're so wrapped up in the wholesome, you actively ignore the red flags. Also, there's butterflies and chickens. No, we don't forage those for food.

Game Link: https://deerspherestudios.itch.io/mushroom-oasis

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Reader insert, Yandere LI Spiciness: O/5 -- very wholesome, no explicit content LI Red Flags: 2/5 -- Manipulative, gaslighter

Want to know more? Well let's get into it!

Where do I start with this?

I am so overwhelmed with how good this game is. Let's get into the general aesthetics of the game. When I tell you that it's so satisfyingly pretty, I don't think you really get it. The art style is so captivating like...I can't explain it, but you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. It's something straight out of a children's storybook. It's so whimsical and so cozy and so...like look at this.

LOOK AT THIS.

These are the woods that we get lost in. I understand that we were supposed to be nervous for our life in this frame, but look at the scenery! And if you think that looks pretty, just look at this man Mychael's HOUSE.

He really said that this could be us all day, everyday. He done made his house into a home. And don't get me started on his garden area.

Ugh, I could literally go on and on about how much I loved the art style in this game. I am literally obsessed. Enough about that though, let's get into the real deal: the game.

I'm really excited about the development of this game, so bear with me. I'm going to give as much detail without giving away the story because I NEED you to play this for yourself, and I don't want to take its charm away by telling you exactly what happened. Trust me, it's so worth it! Remember though: it's just a demo.

So, boom, this whole thing kicks off because we lost our cat.

Obviously, we have to go looking for our family, so we take off one day and pretty much raw-dog it in these woods, but we had a little bit of sense -- we brought a compass. It proves to be useless though because, tell me why, as soon as we get lost, it gets lost, too. Like lmao what?

It's no big deal though because this kind stranger comes along and takes care of us. This stranger's name is Mychael. Say "hey" to the bae, everybody.

Hey, boo~!

All right, so we're chilling in his house, and he makes us some bomb food with some tea but...things get a little awkward at dinner. We basically find out that the spelling of Mychael's name isn't the only thing about him that's different -- it's actually him that's different, too. This is bae though, so, we just accept him for who he is because the man is so sweet ... then again, I'm not entirely sure if these are our own thoughts right now, but he does feel safe, and he isn't exactly treating us bad. Like, the man gave us his bed to sleep in while he just made camp on the floor. Talk about a gentleman.

So, the next day comes along, and he's pretty excited because, not only are we here to enjoy the next day with him, he has a surprise for us. Okay bet! We get ready in a, surprisingly, nice bathroom with some more than decent plumbing, enjoy some bomb food once again (courtesy of Mychael, thanks bae), and head on out. We see his garden and, oh my gosh, he has chickens!! Look at this cutie with his chicken.

LOOK AT HIM

But as cute as he is ... we still haven't found our cat. Unfortunately, we kind've had to remind him we had to go home because at the end of the day, he hasn't put a ring on it, we have a whole job, and yeah, gots to go. Of course, he's sad about this, and he's like "Well, let me just show you this one other thing, and I promise, I'll take you straight home!" Mychael is literally as wholesome as they come at this point -- how could one refuse? Then again, are we even able to refuse him...?

So, yeah, we go with him, and it is so worth it because where he took us was so magical! There are no words to describe the beauty of where he took us. I'm so tempted to show you guys, but I don't want to ruin more than I already have. I won't leave you hanging though! Just picture this clearing with all these butterflies and flowers and just the absolutely perfect amount of sunlight to set the whole "this place is amazing!" mood and just the right amount of shade to enjoy it all in. If you're picturing it correctly, that scenery should be on point, and you should feel an instant sense of calm and awe mixed into one.

Aside from that though, as nice as this was, we still had to get home. So, we remind him -- for, like, the third time -- "Hey, I really need to head out", because granted, the man knows this forest, but we still didn't want to run the risk of it getting dark and us walking around in it for however long it takes us to get back. Here's where it starts to get weird...

If it wasn't obvious, Mychael is laying down the rizz somewhat thick. He may not understand the concept of cosplay or family or even how it's "mama mia" and not "maummer mee-ya", but he knows how to woo a person! or at least manipulate them Like, he is putting in work to be MYchael, you feel me? So much so, he just brushes off that whole speech about us needing to go home, and instead, just tells us to relax. I don't know what it is about that man, but ooh, his voice. You just can't say "no" sometimes! So, we do. We relax, and frankly, feel kind've sleepy because we are so relaxed. Mychael seizes opportunity and starts showing off his musical skillz. Man's literally serenading -- well, more specifically lulling -- us, playing the most calmest of tunes on his little instrument. Everything just feels so nice, relaxing, and safe... oh shit!

We snap awake. We done fell asleep on this man, which is cute and all, but we have to get home neow! Mychael stops playing games finally, and for real, for real starts to take us home. Before we get too far though, we stop at a creek so we can freshen up. We catch a glimpse of Mychael in our reflection, and he catches a glimpse of us which makes him look at himself, and...the reaction was so heartbreaking yet so relateable.

You know how sometimes when you look in the mirror, all you see is your flaws, and it gives you (hopefully, only) a brief sense of ick? Well, his was past that. It was completely self-loathing in that look, and nu-uh, we do not support Mychael slander in this household! So, now it's our time to turn on the charm, and...we may have laid it too thick and too well because now he's blushing, we're blushing, and then he whispers something to himself, and now Mr. Righteous comes out.

Now, he's determined to try to find our cat (...lmao), but he's like "That means you've gotta stay for another day, though!" with this really intense look on his face. Once again -- and for like the fifth time now! The man is sweet, but he has a poor concept of "no means no" -- we're like "That's sweet, but I gots to go". Boom. We start feeling sick, real sick. Like, we had this weird feeling before while we had been hanging out with him, but now it's intense, and it literally takes us down. Mychael had to catch us or else we were gonna hit the ground. So, now, we don't have a choice. We had to go back with Mychael. We's in the thick of it now bois ... AND THEN THE DEMO ENDED!! AUGH!!

DEVESTATED. I. was. DEVESTATED. Lol it was getting so good! Like, you know how you know the demo is coming to the end, but you're hoping there's just a touch more afterwards? That's how I was feeling. It was getting so good, and I wanted to see more! Hell, it IS good, and I WANT to see more!

So far, so great! I'm really excited to see what Day 3 brings us! I understand that Mychael is toxic or whatever, but he's just lonely and a little weird looking. I can fix him!

Honestly speaking though, with how sweet he is, you genuinely don't even feel like he's "ugly" or "scary" looking anymore. His gentle personality and literal down-to-earth nature completely overtakes his looks. He honestly isn't even bad looking! He really is cute in that other-worldly, fantasy being kind of way. But if I saw him in real life, there's a good chance I probably would've freaked out and get the bad ending lol

But, no, seriously, this game is fantastic! This is such a fun experience so far, and the story is really captivating! Just a little tip from me, be sure that when you play through, you pay attention to those text color changes! It helps bring some understanding/context to the story as to what's going on/happening around you.

Fair warning, the "yandere" element isn't showing too much yet, but you can tell that it's just a pacing thing, of which I think is being executed just right! I guess you could consider this to be a slow burn type of story, but because it's so fitting, it doesn't feel like slow pacing at all. If you were planning to jump right into the psycho, crazy Mychael as soon as you were at home with him and made it aware you wanted to leave, it's going to seem slow, but if you don't mind the build up to the plot, even prefer it, this will be great to you. For me, the build up is doing the story justice as there's not really a dull moment. The pace that the dev is going is purposeful, and it's not just slow for the sake of being slow.

That being said, I think I'll end my raving here! Really anticipating what the developer is coming out with next, and I can't wait to see just how far Mychael is willing to go for the sake of companionship. If you're contemplating trying this game out, stop contemplating and just play it! It is so worth it, and you will find yourself just as excited as I am for the full release! Be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they're doing a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the top, here is the link to the game if you'd like to try it out yourself! I highly recommend that you do. It really is a great game.

That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around! Until next time~!

Mushroom Oasis Game Link and Page