Close Your Eyes

I have never actually written a game review before, but I am willing to give it a shot if it means more people get to experience this game. I feel like this game serves as a great introduction into the Yai Gameworks games, or into RPG horror games in general. Nothing is too intense that the game can't be beaten (except maybe Girl's Graveyard, which was super rough but an equal amount challenging) and many of the game's scares are psychological and rely on building the right atmosphere, as opposed to cheap jumpscares for the sake of cheap jumpscares. The story is engaging and surreal, making it an interesting game to play and formulate your own theories for afterwards. The gameplay itself is a nice mix between exploration and puzzles and it rotates between them enough to keep your play through interesting. When comparing this to the original, I am extremely excited for the new content yet to be released. This was my first time playing Girl's Graveyard, but I have played through the original Close Your Eyes before the remake's release. I enjoyed the improved sprites and visuals, like the glowing eye on dialogue boxes instead of the default RPG Maker arrow and the personalized colors for each character's dialogue. The orginal music is great as always, and some of the added sound effects were a great touch, such as the piano note when saving (which I believe is new compared to the original). If I could suggest a change, I think it would be interesting if instead of having all of the songs unlocked in the Annex at once, have them gradually unlockable when the player completes a specific task or as they appear in-game. Overall, it's a great game that's worth the price, and I am eagerly awaiting the content yet to come.