#gurei

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Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

Steampunk Stealth Adventure.

The city of Eriksholm is under a wave of upheaval. The economic shock of the steam revolution has left many destitute, and there's an outbreak of a deadly disease called "Heartpox." You play as a former pickpocket, trying to live an honest life, who has just recovered from heartpox, comatose for weeks. Soon after you awaken, your brother goes missing, and the corrupt police are on the hunt for both you and him. Find your brother before they do.

The first thing that I'll say is that the world design is fantastic. Every area is detailed, layered, and has a good sense of verticality to it. The effect is both fantastical and grounded.

How this translates to level design is a mixed bag. There are points where it branches off for notes and collectables, but it's otherwise a very linear game, not just in "go from point B to point B" but how you're prescribed to get there.

Our protagonist has the modern game problem of "they are constantly talking to themselves to deliver exposition or to tell you exactly how to approach a problem." When she's not doing that, she's listening to NPC's exposit and then saying out loud the information that was implied by the dialogue.

I do like exploring this world, it just feels like there's a fundamental mistrust in the player.

Easy Delivery Co.

Driving game about performing deliveries in a snow covered town.

I'll say upfront, if you want a game with tight grippy driving controls, look elsewhere. While it's not "slippery," per se, this game's roads to feel like they're wintery. Going too fast and over-correcting can and will lead to a spinout. This doesn't help the fact that the deliveries you are carrying in the back of your trucks are physics objects. They can fall out of the truck if you drive recklessly. Though thankfully a failed delivery can be quickly reset.

Aside from the driving mechanics, the rest of the game is resource management. Your car needs fuel. You need energy in the form of energy drinks. You need to keep yourself warm if you get too far away from your car. While not overbearing, it adds this continuous pressure.

I do like the deliberate meticulousness this game asks for. Aside from the whole driving physics, buying an energy drink from the vending machine involves one button press to pay for it, and another to actually pick it up. Sometimes you need to kick the machine to loosen it. Picking up a delivery involves opening up your tailgate, placing the boxes, and closing it again. It's a game with a strong sense of physicality.

To finally address the elephant in the room: There is something eerie going on in this town, but the demo doesn't really go deep into it. The most I experienced is waking up in weird dark hallways after accidentally letting myself freeze, but that ended quickly. I don't know how much the final release will actually pull the trigger wrt horror.

Dragon Detective: A Friend from the Shadows

Furry Phoenix Wright.

The independent city state of Rivulette has been fighting a war of indepencence with the Felfeather empire for 50 years. The machinery of industry is thriving, but the machinery of government is starting to show cracks, as corruption grows commonplace. In this chaos, a mysterious detective helps two children find their missing mother.

I do like that, similar to Threefold Recital, (A title I recommended a couple Next Fests ago) the furry stuff isn't just set dressing, but signaling that this is a more fantastical setting. While it's use is limited, there are supernatural aspects. Our protagonist is a "miasma dragon" inherently attuned to poison and death, which in-game is presented as "can instinctively pinpoint the time of death of things around them." The specificity of the city's history is already playing a core part in the game's first case.

The investigations are interesting but a bit long. It has a sense investigation system, where you examine points of interest using one of your six senses. (the 6th being magic.) In practice this means examining the same thing 6 times over, which slows down proceedings a bit. But it does allow one of the gimmicks I like about it: false intuition. Our detective will sometimes make a blunder and come to the wrong conclusion after examining something, adding it to a pool of correct statements, and those need to be weeded out as you build your argument.

The biggest problem so far is that the confrontation scenes… lack a certain amount of sauce. The "OBJECTION" that's supposed to punctuate correct deductions isn't snappy at all, and the dynamic overall lacked a certain pizazz There was only one in the demo, though, so later ones may come off better.

Gurei

A Boss Rush Action Platformer.

You play as the spirit Rei, on a one man war against the 9 kami.

This is a game that's nothing but boss fights. The gimmmmick is that it's going under psuedo-Megaman rules: here's a bunch of bosses, choose who you try in what order, get new abilities from each one.

Unlike Megaman, the bosses aren't static. Each time you beat one boss, the rest get new moves and phases. To add another wrinkle, you have limited lives. If you run out, you have to start over from the beginning.

I can see a lot of interesting routing strategies coming from this. Choosing what abilities you want first, what bosses you want to fight at their weakest. Plenty of replay value too, dedicated players trying to beat every final strength boss.

(The demo only lets you route 3 different bosses, with an optional set-in-stone 4th to try at the end. Having experienced that... I can't imagine how hellish the 9th level will be.)

The core combat feels good. My main complaint isn't really a problem, just muscle memory going wrong: your dodge dash doesn't have any invincibility on startup, so doing it on reaction won't help. At least it felt like that.

I really like the game's "monochrome save for the boss's color" art style. Adds a distinctive flair.

Away From Home

Quirky Rhythm RPG

You play as a horrible child named Abby who beats people up to get what she wants. Also something about a mysterious cross dimensional entity stalking her.

The pixel art I feel weird about. In that I can very clearly see it's well put together and well animated but… something about the art direction feels oversaturated? Too much detail and too many frames. It seems a level of discomfort is intended, though.

The combat system feels kind of thin. It's rhythm based, and so far there are only two types of beats: enemy attack beats in red and free beats in yellow. Press down to block red beats, press left to attack on free beats, press right to use an item on free beats, and press up to use a super. 90% of the time you'll just be hovering over two buttons, the standard attack and block.

The battle system also clashes with the high detail pixel art. There's a lot of animation they want to show off, but the player will be entirely focused on the top 10% of the screen.

The interactions between Abby and everyone else was funny though. The game has a good sense of comedic timing. If the vibes and story stay good, I can see it making up for some of its design shortcomings.

Gecko Gods

You play as a little gecko traveling series of islands, exploring their ruins, and awakening the gecko gods, bringing life back to a withered world.

I'm gonna be real I thought this game looked interesting but… after having played it, I'm kinda disappointed.

The gimmick is, as a gecko, you can basically crawl on any and every solid surface. And I thought that was a fun idea, a lot more room for exploration and hiding secrets. The problem is that this is essentially an exploration platformer where you don't need to platform. Traversal isn't fun.

I could see this still being interesting if they leaned into secret hunting, but the demo doesn't seem to. The plot seems deliberately thin, and aside from catching bugs, the only collectable of note is coins with seemingly no purpose, although I expect the full game will better contextualize them.

Right now the game feels like a collection of Zelda dungeon puzzles. And that alone a good game does not make.