Atlas Wept

I loved every second of this game. The story is very thought-provoking and touches on a lot of topical philosophical questions about the value of humanity and choosing to overcome nihilism. All the characters are immediately likeable. Charlie especially resonated with me and it's rare to see characters with narrative arcs like hers that are so thoughtful and well-written. Her relationship to Dezi is also very cute and everything about them made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. There's a really interesting plot twist with the branching scenarios that I keep thinking about as well. There are quite a few typos, to the point where I think the script would have benefited from an additional round of editing, but overall the narrative side of the game is just lovely. On a gameplay level, Final Fantasy XIII is one of my favorite games ever, and I was surprised to see a game remix some of its mechanics (namely the Stagger system) in such an innovative way. This is paired nicely with the Panic system where you can regain back lost health if you heal in time (or, conversely, you'll lose max HP until resting if you don't heal back up). Potentially, this can mean making difficult decisions between healing immediately, or delaying (or even forgoing) healing at all to Stun an enemy and deal out tons of damage and potentially being vulnerable to damage later. Unfortunately, the developer adjusted the difficulty curve after an early wave of negative and high-profile reviews, and even by the very end of the game, I found that battles ended so quickly that I never had to bother managing my Panic meter compared to the demo. While I personally saw this as an overcorrection, most others enjoy the easier difficulty curve, and the developer mentioned she might possibly add a "Struggle mode" preserving the original difficulty in an update. I would absolutely play this game again, with or without that update. Kbojisoft shows a lot of promise as a game developer and storyteller, and I'm looking forward to what's next. For under $10, this wonderful experience is a steal, and if you're on the fence because of how under-the-rader this game is, definitely give the game a shot.

I forgot I had this game. Apparently no cloud save? Sadly so since I have to restart my progress after uninstalling this once. I like the art but I am going to thumb it down since no cloud save. Fix it and I will fix my thumb mmkay?

A game with a surprisingly deep and meaningful story. Definitely got strong Earthbound/Mother vibes, but it's just inspiration; this game very much stands on its own. It's not perfect; the battle mechanics get a bit tired by the end, and some of the battles really feel like they drag on. However, it's worth it for the story, the characters, and the fun retro feel. This game is *easily* worth its full $8 price.

Intriguing world inspired by mythology, touching story, and engaging mix of shmup/bullet hell and turn-based RPG gameplay. Before I knew it, I'd been playing until early morning. Even more impressive considering it's the developer's first published game.

It feels like an eternity, when does the game even end? Please make fights a little faster to finish, and do more play testing. I really want to finish this game, but it drags on for too long.

Я был крайне разочарован данным проектом. Я получил ключик по почте и решил всё же откликнуться на просьбу простримить эту игру. Запустив её я столкнулся с огромными проблемами в лице: плохая оптимизация, плохой UI для понимания, тошнотворная камера, которая не плавно следует за персонажем, а рывками вызывает у тебя рвотные порывы. Про музыку, я напишу здесь отдельно. Почему было не нанять нормального композитора, которые бы записал 10-15 треков за $200 для игры. Они же решили сами, что могут писать музыку. Как итог мы получили настоящую пытку для наших ушей. Хотелось выключить звук уже на 2 минуте... Всё это можно исправить, но мне кажется они уже ничего делать с проектом не будут. НИКОМУ не советую поддерживать проект )

Beat the game on normal without dying twice but it certainly felt like I got close a few times! I do feel bosses were designed to lose convincingly (which is a core element of WoW's raid designs apparently) and they are the highlight of the game. The random enemies were more annoying than anything especially when more than one joined the battle. The battle system is largely solid. Just wish it was boss battles tbh. For the maps: they are largely too bland and it rarely feels like Septimus is an actual world but rather just gameplay segments put together for you to go through. More detail would have been welcome. The story is...okay at best. There's moments it shines but also a large segment of it is largely dull. The themes could have been more subtle. One advice I got in school is the more times a story tells it's themes, the worse it is. The best shows/movies/games? They never say the theme. Don't know how true that is but I definitely felt like the game was telling me it's message instead of letting it come across organically through what happens. I'll recommend the game cause it's a solo developer at a reasonable price of $8 but the strength of the game (boss battles) means having to go through the rest of the game which is a slog.

whoa... rly beautiful game <3 definitely worth the purchase