Recent reviews by Romeo

Asked for a refund.

One of those game again that makes you click away a single sentence so you can read the next one. I don't know what silly mind once came with that idea. I understand it can sometimes be used to great effect, just like when the layout of a book makes you turn the page so you can read the assassin's name, but every single sentence? Would you read a book that makes you turn the page after each sentence?

There's a screenshot on the storepage which is a 3 pictures comic strip.
1st pic, character A asks a question (text)
2nd pic, character B ponder their answer. (no text)
3rd pic, character B give their answer. (text)

In game, it translates into 3 clicks, one for each single picture to appear, just to read the set up that leads to the final 3 options choice at the bottom of the screenshot. So far you clicked 3 times to read 2 sentences. And it goes on and on. It's not a one time thing.

I tried for a time, because I liked the art, but I finally gave up.

- Very good reading. Loved the writing and the characters. Very funny.

- Lots of options to pick and they do matter: first they matter when you pick the option that fits the character you're playing juuust right (because that's what those games are about really. Yes/No options aren't enough, you need some "yes, but" some "no, unless" and some "let's look at it differently" options.), and then these choices matter again when you face the consequences.

- The thing I feel is very nicely done here is that sometimes, in such games, the story has to go in a certain direction and so you feel cornered into a path you'd however never have let your character walk but since it's either that or the story ends you then just try and figure some reason why your character would have done/said/promise such a thing etc. But here, the beauty of this game is you just follow your master/mistress and deal with the crap they get themselves into (and you have lots of options to chose how you want to deal with it). So the story goes where it should while you feel like you're really contributing in the "how" it got there. That's very clever.

Top class CYOA. Very nicely done.

Asked for a refund.

- Choices feel too far apart.
- When available, the choices are limited and lack a more in between/temperate option. So you just pick the lesser of two evils.
- The wording and outcome of the option you picked can sometime come as a surprise à la Fall out 4 sarcastic dialogue options.
- Lots of clicking "next" after reading a few lines, only to get presented with another page with very few lines again and no other choice than "next". Feels like *next* a japanese *next* visual novel *next* sometimes. Just let me read everything from a choice to another in one go, especially when there's so little to read on each no option pages.

NO, NO, NO and again, NO.

I had to let a few "NOs" out of my fingers because I didn't get the chance while playing.

it seems the points the game is trying to make are:

- The end of highschool is sad and everything falls apart.
- You are jealous.

To both I'd like to say "huh, NO?" and go on a more interesting subject but just couldn't.

There were times when the available answers were:
- Yes
- Definetly
- Yes I am so sad/jealous

And sometimes, when it seemed like you had a "NO" answer available, it turned out to be a yes nevertheless, like so:

- Yes
- Defintely
- No (but now that the full answer is typing in, you can read to your horror something like: "No, but I think you're right, yes, I am indeed sad/jealous")

Then the game draws its own unexpected conclusion: "The end of highschool is sad and everything falls apart. You are sad and jealous."

This game just flew about 40 000 feet above my head. Totally irrelevant.

I don't know what this was about really. NO clue.





EDIT (SPOILER):
Reading the other reviews, it seems like you're bound to fail your first playthrough and need a second one to get a "happy" ending.

- Well first, I am not going through that a second time.
- Second, I am not 100% sure staying with your highschool crush is a happy ending.
- Third, why forcing players to go through that first failed playthrough instead of say, a "this is how I failed" intro and then let the player try and figure out what to do differently.
- Fourth, I am sorry, but your crush appearing on a picture with someone else or sharing a link to a youtube playlist to someone or just adding someone in their friendlist does not mean they're cheating on you. This is madness and I don't want to be forced to creep/spy on them.
- And even if they were feeling attracted to someone else and finally decide to dump you then alright, farewell, next chapter please.

I feel like there's some really F'ed up thinking here. Gives me some "overly attached girlfriend" meme vibes.

I had written a longer review but it seems it was too long, so here's a short version:

The story is bad (help the gods oh chosen one, hitman of the gods who kills the gods, go play pirates and kill beetles in a tropical cave)
The intro is bad (help the gods-> NO -> back to menu. Will you help the gods now? -> Well I guess but why? because I said so!)
The combat is bad.
The game runs bad.
The skill check tooltip is a rebus that looks like some maths maybe?.

Props for the ability to hire mercenaries as companions, so you can spec and customize them the way you like.

Deserves a thousands thumbs-up. This game is incredible. Certainly one of the most haunting gaming experience I've enjoyed. The landscapes and music are up there.

The world is as big as you're small. You're nothing and the world goes on with or without you. One of the videos says "the world is not the setting, it's the game." and this is exactly what Kenshi is about. There's a game going on, you don't know what the rules are (aside from some basic common sense) and it's your turn: what will you do?

It's like playing a D&D campaign with a DM ready for just about anything:
- "I will kill this guy" -> sure.
- "I will have my own trading caravan" -> sure.
- "I will build my own town/fort and basically be a lord" -> sure.
- "I will escape the prison at night" -> sure.
- "I will farm until I get enough money to buy a home in this particular town" -> sure.
- "I will raid this faction with 27 companions" -> sure.
- "I will roam the map solo and sell whatever I can scavenge, steal or hunt for survival" -> sure

One thing I would say to a new player is: it's not over until the fat lady sings. The first time I got left for dead in the middle of nowhere and someone, out of nowhere, came and patched me up: it blew my mind.

There's a stat that can only be increased by being knockdown. There's a stat that helps you not shoot your companions in the back but it will only increase when you friendly fire them. Embrace you failure(s) and rise up tougher and wiser. (and there are so many opportunities for a come back, it's crazy and it makes for epic stories)

Loved every second of those hundreds of hours. Cant' wait for Kenshi 2. In the mean time, since it might be a long while before it comes out, I would definitely recommend anyone to play this first game: squad management, stats on characters weapons and armors, base building, roleplay, exploration, factions, crafting-mining-farming-trading (can be automated) this game has just about everything.

As of today 05/05/21 I can't recommend it.

Tutorials are a very delicate thing. I don't like tutorials being forced on me and I certainly don't like them slow and unhelpful. (like those game that won't let you go any further until you press WASD to move the camera etc.).

Anyways, I feel like a 1st stage to move 1 unit in a straight line is unnecessary, especially when it's just a matter of dragging the cursor from left to right. It would advantageously be merged with the second stage which is the exact same thing, but with the right click/aiming part. I'd be as bold as to suggest that the next stage, which is the door opening part, be merged in that first stage as well.

I stopped the demo when I couldn't seem to chose where to throw the grenade (4th stage maybe?). It looked like it was already set for me, right on the target. Either that's what it was and this tutorial was turning into a chore at this point or I missed something and that's when I would have needed more detailed info.

Now, I had seen a video before trying the demo, so I had wishlisted the game while the game was downloading. The things that made me write this review are these:

1- As someone else pointed out, the exit buttons' colors (red/green) are backwards IMO. However good the concept or final game is or is going to be, it might benefit from some attention on the UI and tutorial part.

2- Being finally faced with "exit and wishlist" or "exit and already whishlisted", even if you can pick either with no real consequence, is greedy, cheap, and pushy and I just really don't like things being forced on me. This is the kind of BS you can find on a phone game and I don't think the dev should aim that low.
So I Alt F4 my way out just in case there was some tracking of what people click and unwhishlisted that game that I had whishlisted on free will minutes before.

At the time of writing this review, it's March 10 2021, the game price tag is 24.99 and I have played 130 hours.


TL;DR:
You need to give it a try. It's fun, there are real choices to weigh and ponder and Todd keeps on working on the game adding stuff and listening to the community. There's a lot of little nice and well thought things like for example the music track you can add from your own library so that your RL favourite song is played on stage by the band. Well worth the price IMO. Deserves 2 thumbs up.


What's in it:
It's a sim management game in which you hire/fire musicians with different skills, train them, manage their affinities, restyle them, buy/sell/repair instruments and parts with various stats (down to amplifiers, guitar chords, drum sticks etc.), write songs with different topics/energy/moods/playing difficulty that may or may not suit the audience in a given time frame or world region, record them by yourself or with the help of a studio engineer (depending on your budget and skill), and then put them all on an album which cover you designed while you book gigs depending on the reputation you've built in bars and cafés to then build up your fan base in a given city.

The mini game through which you write a song (the jigsaw puzzle thing) is easy to learn but not so easy to master as you'll have to cater for your band members' low or high ego, their inspiration of the moment, the trending topics, your fan-base here or there, the potential high score of the individual puzzle pieces etc. Do note that there's no countdown or time limit in this mini game so you can take your time and write the perfect song, or just bank the good ideas for another writing session.

You'll get phone calls from bands you played with (or against, in the battles of the bands) who'll usher you in new places, You'll start by touring the nearest cities before you hire a manager that will or will not be worth his salary and commission on sales and then play larger venues.

You'll pimp your band van, get your own private jet, tour Europe and north america, buy your own flat in Montreal, NY, Paris, Oslo or any given city, decorate it with pictures provided in game or the ones you can upload from your hard drive, there's even a build in workshop-like thing in which you can download the pictures other players have put online.

It's sim management game done right: fun, addictive, strategic choices (the song writing in itself, the set list for tonight's gig, the gigs calendar, the new expensive drum kit, the great frontman with an awful ego etc.) , lots of side treats that don't bring anything to the core game but give it flavor (e.g. you can design a giant flag to serve as a background during gigs) and man I love how Todd is active and involved with the community.

I'd give it 2 thumbs up if I could.

I asked for a refund after 20 minutes:

The tutorial tells you how to do things after you did/tried/experienced them (movements, turns, combat placement, some sort of timer/time line it seems? IDK, that's the point). I don't like that.

Game's not in a release state. Bugs everywhere, awful incomplete tutorial. Stay away.