Bittersweet Birthday

[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[/b] https://youtu.be/jx6NOXSVwgI [h2]A Hidden Gem For Sure[/h2] I’m a sucker for deep storytelling, and BitterSweet Birthday delivered in so many areas. The narrative is unpredictable, not rushed, and feels fully fleshed out, everything it sets out to do, it accomplishes for a story. The themes of child experimentation and intertwined destinies are explored in a well thought out manner, with mini-games sprinkled throughout to keep things distractive? But also still easy to follow. The characters are given a lot of depth, and I especially liked the small, clever references (Velma quote, Scooby-Doo!). It’s not often you find a story as engaging and rich as this in games, and I loved every moment of it. It's nice to see that it wasn't just a short 5 hour adventure, but over 10 to complete. [h2]Issue[/h2] While the boss fights were drawn out and felt more like bullet sponge encounters, they didn’t quite capture the same energy as the rest of the game. A more dynamic or unique battle system might have resonated better with the emotional depth of the story, because it's not a Boss-Fight only type of game, nor are the boss fights all that fun. However, I do have experience with some deeper boss rush titles like NanoApostle and Gurai, so like... that could be a bias. I just feel like the bosses were not all that fleshed out as they were quite a waste of time with their slowly drawn out phases and DPS checks. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] Don't want to give out too many spoilers or anything of that sort. The game’s side content is rich and varied which is nice to see as it does reward players who enjoy exploration and attention to detail. Though do be prepared to take your time and explore thoroughl, there's a lot to uncover, and some things can be easily missed if you're not paying close attention. With the inability to return to missed locations, you might find yourself needing to restart the game if you overlook an item that you can no longer acquire that isn't in the day or night cycle of the main town. So, take it slow and don't rush through and you'll have a great time.

holy peak so glad I backed this game

[h1] General Review [/h1] Bittersweet Birthday is a very story-driven game with boss fights sprinkled in as you progress. The art is great and the story may be deeper than what you initially expect when you start the game. The dynamic of switching between the puzzles/bosses in the facility and the more side-quest/free roam aspects of the memories the protagonist has as he sleeps is quite enjoyable. This makes the first part of the game very strong in my opinion, as there is enough content in both areas to actually warrant balancing these different gameplay sections. I do think that the second and third part of the game are noticeably weaker. In the second part of the game, there is an absence of puzzles in the facility with that area of the game specifically being allocated to bosses. There is a portion in this part where you are placed in an area specifically doing puzzles to progress, but it does not take long to do at all. Other than that specific area, there are no puzzles. The memory portion of the gameplay remains the same, except that there will be more areas to explore as you progress through the facility. The third portion of the game was incredibly dense with story and dialogue where I found the game shift from the puzzle/exploration genre entirely. You are essentially playing a walking simulator to read more dialogue and story without any bosses at all until the very end of the game. I will say that the story was very interesting to read through, but if you are not willing to sit down and read everything, there is very little to do besides that. This concludes my overall review for the general gameplay. [h2] Bosses [/h2] [spoiler] The bosses were generally pretty fun. I think that Rocc was the most balanced and most well designed of the three. His attacks felt fair and balanced, but limiting in the amount of attacks he could do. I liked the detonation as bullet hell elements of his attacks. If any of the attacks mixed together, it did not feel like one was under or overcompensating at a time. Vega, although rich in variety of attacks, reveals herself as quite an annoying boss to deal with. This is mostly due to her teleporting around the arena as this naturally slows the progress at which you can defeat her. As you progress through the fight, the frequency becomes almost unbearable and I have found myself ignoring her attacks in general and purely reacting to anything that closes in on my character model in order to make the fight quicker to deal with. There are many attacks of hers that require the player to remain vigilant at all times. You can predict her next attack by counting how many thunderbolts she has at a time in the top left corner, but I did not use this mechanic very much. Cerie was the weakest boss out of the trio as her attacks are very slow and sluggish by nature. This makes reacting to her attacks almost trivial and the fake Ceries she does send out only serve to prevent the player from progressing quicker. This makes the fight slightly underwhelming in my opinion. The rematch fights of these characters were definitely more fun. Rocc became the hardest one to deal, yet remained the most well-balanced still, Vega became more annoying to defeat, but with even more variations of her attacks and Cerie was still an easier fight, but shifted the formula of her previous encounter entirely. The other boss fights, in my opinion, are nothing to write home about. They felt more story driven if anything which didn't really make me enjoy it very much. [/spoiler] [h2] Story [/h2] The story was very rich and complex, filled with sci-fi and backstory for each important character. This makes up a significant portion of the game and almost completely fills up the third part. I'm not going to say much about the story as doing so would be a disservice to how the game actually presents it. There is only one thing I am confused about which is [spoiler] what was the point of the cake that was presented to the protagonist as he opened the door with Cerie, Ada, Rocc, and Vega standing behind it. There didn't really seem to be an explanation for it and it's still gnawing at me [/spoiler]. Other than that, I found myself invested in the explanations as well. I can guarantee that a lot of the questions you have about the story will be tied up in the end.

Fighting one edgelord at a time. A cool little story driven boss battler. I recommend this game if you have amnesia, wait what am I doing here?

Unforgetable experience with "layers" of storytelling and so many plottwists. if you liked for example omoris story which in some sense is a bit similar. Be ready to not understand anything 90% of the time. 9/10 would recommend

제법 고사양 게임인데 재미있어요!! 전 세일할때 샀어요

More story than i expected at first, but i enjoyed it a lot.