Away From Home

This is advertised as a full game but it ends after only one chapter. There's not even any reviews here with over 6 hours of playtime! the games main content includes a tutorial, 2 mandatory fights, then the game ends. There's about 6 optional 'boss' fights i was able to find, along with 2 basic mushroom enemies... The trailer shows several minigames, yet i didn't see any of them in my playthrough. the dev also advertises weird events occurring if you go afk or load old saves enough times, but i havent been able to find anything like that in game. This feels like a scam. Also of course the game is full of bugs. But I don't know why no one else is talking about how the game is so short??

[quote] Please consider following my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41005226/]Curation page[/url]. I cover a wide range of genres both paid and unpaid, providing unbiased opinions as well as regular giveaway events. [/quote] [b]Video Review TBD[/b] https://youtu.be/8BWeByjNOsw [h2]This Is Deceptive[/h2] The game itself offers practically no clarity beyond its store page and a vague mention of being a "prequel" to a larger story at the end of it's description. Do not waste your money here. What you are buying is neither complete nor functional in its current state. [b]Away From Home is the following:[/b] 1) A prototype. 2) An unfinished product being sold without the transparency of Early Access. Think of the PirateSoftware situation, except imagine that same level of unfinished and unpolished content being sold as a full release instead, which is blatantly scummy behaviour. 3) Functionally unplayable. The sheer number of crashes, bugs, soft locks, and hard locks makes this two-hour teaser more frustrating than engaging. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] I'm purposefully keeping this short as I do plan on explaining it in a video review in the future, but once you have seen the trailer, you already know how this ends. The two kids go into the forest, get kidnapped by the weeping man, and the screen fades to black. No credits. No resolution. No further interaction because that's effectively the end of the preview. At that point, the game simply stops and asks you to wait for the developer to fix the bugs and add more content later. That is the deception. You think you are purchasing a full game. You are not. You are purchasing a concept, which in an of itself is so depressing because I actually really wanted to see this game do really well, great concepts all around. [b]A note to the developer:[/b] Update the metadata and clearly state that this is not a finished game. Contact Steam Support and explain the situation. This is a simple step in the right direction, and it is entirely within your control. The release format should be adjusted to Early Access. That transparency matters, both for players and for the long-term health of the project.

I usually don't make reviews but I felt this one deserved some talking about. The game is not listed as early access or alpha/beta despite having no more than 2 hours worth of content, and in the almost 7 hours I've played I got softlocked each time trying to get access to side battles, if you deviate from where the story goes too early, you'll be unable to experience most of the current content in the game but I digress. I mostly want to talk about expectations: Yes most of us get that you're a solo dev and stuff happens in life, but if you're going to make a post at the beginning of the month promising multiple updates for March, yet still don't actually push anything the ENTIRE month, then you need to be more honest with people. Admit that things are taking longer, admit that you're struggling, don't make wishful promises of way more content and then fail to deliver time and time again because it leaves a bad taste in the mouths of people who actually spent money on your work. I sincerely hope that you continue working on this game, but I want you to do so with the intent on not pulling rugs out from under consumers. Start by adding early access to your steam page, then work on regaining trust by actually setting reasonable update dates and following through with them. I wish you all the best, but until this game gets updated more and the dev becomes more transparent on his work, don't spend your money on this yet.

I'm really upset to be writing such a negative review as I've been following this game's development for quite a while, and although I've seen the developer responding to comments and releasing frequent patches, it just doesn't hold up to what it's advertised as. I can look past things like bugs/crashes etc, games have issues and the dev has made a great effort to clean them out. The one thing I can't get behind is how the game's advertised to be much more than it actually is. Many of the sequences you see in the trailer aren't in the actual game, It's as if It's advertising a game which doesn't exist yet. This is clearly a promising start to a game in development, but is advertised as a full release with only a couple hours of playtime, which is made even more confusing because the game has a demo (and a previous release with near identical content bulk). All these things aside, it's got a huge pricetag (which ordinarily I'd be happy to pay), but alongside the other issues and faults I've mentioned I can't help but feel like I've been ripped off, or borderline scammed. From the other comments and notes I've seen, it does seem like the dev cares about this project and its players a lot, and I really hope the game becomes something as promising as the trailers advertise, but for the time being, that isn't what I paid for.

Disclaimer: I have interviewed the developer. This might be the hardest rating I've had to give, and yet I frankly think it couldn't have been any more deserved. It's the manifestation of a young man's 9 year journey into making a game, thoughtfully pulling inspiration from left field greats like Earthbound and Undertale, as well as less-known indie games like Knuckle Sandwich who've coyly pretended they never played Earthbound or Undertale. Away From Home lives up to its pixel rhythm RPG pitch by being exactly that: carefully crafted sprites and a rocking soundtrack complement the game's combat system via charted attack and defend notes that you must hit in sequence. Chaining a combo gives you the ability to power attack, and items can be utilized in your attack notes to modify the rate of the notes, heal yourself, or damage the enemy further. The dialogue is really juvenile, at the same time clever enough to realize they aren't just imitating the style of another game but trying to live in its own. Some NPCs will flat out use you for their own gain, other NPCs are insane and attack you when provoked. [b]There are some small balance complaints[/b], as there is a difficulty spike when you leave home for the Town, and then again when you enter the Forest for the first time. Apart from that, the final fight with Hat Man requires effective item usage to beat him, as his later phases barrage you with attacks. There is also the elephant in the room, which as you may have guessed from the fellow reviews, is that the game is unfinished. While it's the developer's right to scope their game however they see fit, it's also your right to comment about how much they're charging for how much game you're getting. But there is certainly justification for the anger - this game is more of an extended demo than a full release, and for context the demo comprised around a third of the actual game. Through the years I've run into the dev who's been pitching the game far and wide, he's also had to go through the ringer to complete it. While there were two unsuccessful Kickstarters for this game, [url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/squishedy/away-from-home]one five years ago[/url] and [url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/squishedy/away-from-home-rpg]one in 2024[/url] so that he could hire more people and not do it all on his own, he didn't give up. Instead, he invested in himself and enlisted a talented handful of people who were either attached to the project, or commissioned on. And that brings the game before you today, 9 years later. Now, that doesn't excuse the left and right crashing which would probably have been sanded through with some broader playtesting, or the fairly high list price of $24.99 for about four hours of gameplay. But these were some fairly fleshed out four hours, and for me, they were pretty enjoyable. I want to see a sequel, but just as importantly, I want to see the guy who's making this still flesh out the game, balance it out and provide more value to the $24.99 (now $17.99) preposition. From what I see, they're trying real hard to meet players somewhere in the middle.

Very expensive and incomplete. It should have been released early access. And at a discounted price commensurate with its' development state. It is in active development with multiple updates a month ago, but the lack of transparency on the store page is concerning. Bugs are quickly fixed when reported and i haven't found any. I do like the rhythm gameplay, but the notes come at you so fast that it is difficult to master any boss. You can tank missed notes with stats but as a rhythm game, I feel it is a bit half-baked. I would like a slower tempo practice mode. Performance is quite poor on Steam Deck for a pixel art game. Below 30 fps mostly in the overworld but a bit smoother in battles. I chose to stream from my rtx 3050 pc (a low end GPU) to get 60 fps. The pixel art and music is of high quality. But i have to be honest and pick negative for the fact i paid for a fully complete game and did not get one. Would pick neutral if that was an option. Last, some constructive criticism for dev: I was often at a loss for where to go next. There needs to be a bit more direction; perhaps a way to ask your sibling or phone for a hint? And consider moving to early access if it isn't too late. We need a roadmap or timeline until the game is finished and honesty about its unfinished state. I am rooting for your success.

Be warned, the boss fight rhythm charts are much harder than I expected. I'm usually excellent at rhythm minigames. Even with full medkits and level 12, I can't even get this manditory boss down to 70% HP, much less beat him. At the time of this review, there are lots of bugs, which I'm reporting, perhaps they'll be worked on soon. The most egregious of the bugs makes it impossible to turn down the sound effects, which are overpowering the battle music, which makes it hard to hear the beat and succeed at the rhythm. The game ends shockingly quickly. I don't have any problems with a short game, but a 3-hour RPG isn't what I was expecting. The game seemed to be building to something with its plot, not to mention the tons of battle items I was getting. but no, it's just... suddenly over right when I thought it was delving into its inciting incident. Edit: Apparently the game is still in development and that's why it ended before its plot was done?? Very strange. This game is not listed as early access so I can't imagine why it's been submitted to steam as if it's a finished project. It does have things going for it, don't get me wrong. I'm impressed by the pixel art animations, which go above and beyond. The game is bizarre in an interesting way. There aren't errors in the writing. It just wasn't enough to outweigh the parts of the game that I was exasperated by. Wishlist this game and buy it once it's done. It's clearly not even close to done right now and it was a mistake to market/list it as if it was.

I have a rule that if a game doesn't catch me within two hours, I'm refunding it. And I'm refunding it. First, the good parts of the game right off the bat : - The music is really good and catchy. - The pixel art is EXQUISITE and played a big part in my initial purchase of the game. - Animations are really well done and you can tell a lot of efforts were put into the graphical polish. Now, what made me severely dissapointed : - French translation is downright horrendous and most likely done by Google translate or something in those lines. Thank god I'm fluent in english because as a French person it was truly awful to read. - I wish I could enjoy the battle animations, however seeing how difficult and demanding the game is right after the tutorial, this was not possible. I had to focus and play for my life only an hour into the game. For those who finished Undertale, think of battling Sans an hour into the game, you'll get the idea. It's not a bad choice per se, I just didn't expect it to be so demanding right away and thought I could enjoy my time cosily before ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan a few hours down the road. - There is NO CONTEXT WHATSOEVER about the game. You don't know where this takes place or when. You go to the city with a teleporting dude, to do... Well, nothing, the game doesn't tell you a single objective. So you walk and walk, talk to random NPC's in hope you'll get a clue. Somehow you stumble into a fight or two, and make some decisions. Relevant decisions ? Don't know, maybe it'll have an impact in several hours ? - The world doesn't make sense. You have anthropomorphic animals, humans, nothing is explained, so the player doesn't care about any of it. Railroading a bit the player in the beginning of a game isn't a bad thing in itself, most indie games do it, this one doesn't explain a THING aside from combat mechanics. - Minor complaint, but the fade to black transition screens are about 4 to 5 seconds long, which doesn't seem much at first glance but piles up pretty quickly when you're exploring the city entering every house in dire need of ANY direction to follow. I'm truly dissapointed to say the least. I've been waiting for this game since its very first trailer and it hurts to leave it a "bad" review. I'll keep an eye out for some major tweaks to the game and might consider to buy it in a year or so, if drastic changes have been made. I love indie, pixelated games and I hope this one finds its path because there's raw potential in there. As for now, it looks good but feels bad to play. Consider grabbing it on sales if you're really into rhythm games or if you have 20 bucks to spare to help out an indie developer.

this game crashes all the time, you cant save whenever you want, and its too hard. i once farmed for an hour to grind from level 13 to 17 to fight "hat man" and when i entered the fight my game crashed. I am so upset

This is a promising demo for a game that is not available yet. The gameplay is snappy and fun, and the visuals are very stylish, with some stunningly smooth pixel animation. Ultimately, I think I could recommend this game, but with some caveats: [b]1) It's not finished.[/b] The game ends pretty abruptly, presumably because the story is not complete yet. Many planned features are also not yet implemented. Even if you pay for this game, you're basically just getting a demo, so you'd best take advantage of the demo available on the page to figure out how you feel about it. I'd really prefer the developers be honest about the state of the game and list it as early access, but I suppose that ship has sailed. [b]2) The difficulty curve, as it is now, is way too steep.[/b] I'm a pretty experienced rhythm gamer, so first trying every boss was trivial for me. However, someone who's not used to reading dense rhythm game charts will probably struggle with most of the bonus bosses, and will certainly struggle with the (currently available) final boss. Being an RPG, grinding is possible, but given the only option is hunting down mushrooms, I don't think most people will find that engaging if they're having trouble with a difficult song and just want to pass it. Perhaps the difficulty will be more spread out the more content gets added to the game, but as it is now, there's just not enough material to practice on to get good enough for the end. Wouldn't say there's nothing to enjoy if you're not a sweat, but you might get frustrated. That all said, if you played the demo and liked what you saw, I doubt the final game, once it's finished, will disappoint you. So maybe consider buying it now an investment in the future! Or just wait until it's done to buy, like a sane person.