Celestial Return

TL;DR: Okay to pick up at a discount if you like narrative games and don't mind a fair amount of jank. I appreciate the art style, music and overall vibe but in the end I didn't really enjoy it that much. I'm still upvoting because I support the effort behind it. The dice mechanic is fine (different dice, passive modifiers, items, etc.), but the game doesn't give you any clear hints on how/when you're going to get more dice, so it's hard to commit to spend them. I think there are too many special dice and not enough regular ones to use in simple tests or for small adjustments. There is no way to force-fail a test without spending a die (so you are punished for being short on dice even if you accept a failure). Additionally, there are situations in which winning/losing a check has no difference in the outcome, which feels stupid, specially when you waste a very limited resource. The setting is cool but the writing falls a bit flat. It tries to be profound too often. Some of the personalities are bland and uninteresting (foolishness in particular). I also locked myself out of some dialogue choices because the game doesn't hint at all about which events will advance the plot (and reset the map) and which won't (the name doesn't always make this immediately evident). Same thing with dialogue choices. If you play I recommend you save often and into many slots, and make sure to visit all map spots. The ending was also disappointing. The pacing is a bit weird with all the cutscenes announcing the name of the "episode" or whatever, sometimes some "episodes" last literally 1 minute. Those cutscenes are also accompanied of weird artsy visuals that don't seem to fit that much. The ui/ux is subpar too; there is a skill point system that is never explained, and I finished the game without knowing what it's meant to do (other than changing the name of your inside voices). I didn't notice any increase in scores nor any unlocked dialogues after upgrading. There's also a tab for body upgrades that I guess is simply for flavor. I also missed a way to auto-sort dice and a way to see your passive modifiers for all skill checks. Finally, there are also a few bugs. The game just locked for me after some choices (repeatedly, after many restarts) and I had to take different ones. Also, one of my saves towards the end just sent me to a different branch I never took when loading it.

Refunded the game after playing the prologue and a bit after that. What I didn't like: - You have some dialogue options that allowing rolling dice in the prologue, but after experimenting with them via save/load I realised that your choices in that prologue dialogue don't really affect anything, it ends the same way. If it is a "Disco Elysium" like RPG then make sure your dice rolls actually do something or just don't offer them and make a visual novel, both options are viable. - The game features "Inner voices" that can argue with each and talk to you. Why do people copy this element from Disco Elysium is beyond me, just player Esoteric Ebb that did the same. Don't do it. Make a text-heavy rpg where your dialogue choices actually matter and change things, no need to copy this very specific element from Disco Elysium. Maybe the game becomes better later, but the prologue didn't impress me enough to continue playing.

👍

I think this game is a solid first step...but man it needs a lot of work for their next game. Which again isn't to say it's bad, but I can't help but feel a lot of "What ifs" when playing it. The artwork is outstanding, the music is awesome, I think it nails the vibe. I like the writing and the visual weirdness that it has going on....with that said. As a game it kind of falls apart. You're choice don't really seem to mean much, The game actively tries to limit how much you can do with it's dice system which feels far more like the best way to play is to save scum. In order to get the best ending you have to do a really weird out of the way sidequest which really seems to throw a gut punch into the point of the game. I've never been a huge fan of "Godlen Routes" in games as it is, but in games like this they feel especially bad. There are times when you can spend the limited dice you have to buy something, Only for the check it saves you from to be the same or more than what you spent to get the item as is. The only items in the whole game worth buying are the ones that can give you permanent bonuses. It's got a psuedo augment system, but you don't really get to choose different paths for anything at least not that I could tell. Different moments in game just give you augments based on your choices, but not in a direct way. It's just a really weird thing to have a menu for especially when the augments mechanically mean seemingly nothing? This honestly feels like it needed another year or two to cook to flesh itself out. With that said again I did almost everything the game has going on, and don't regret the money I spent on it, but I hope they can take their time with the next one and really make something special. Final Grade C.

Amazing piece of art. Really loved the sound design and artworks!

not enough wolves for a turkish game....