Cricket: Jae's Really Peculiar Game

I was enjoying the gameplay and level design, but then out of the blue, one character innocently asks another about something he saw abut her race in a movie (because it seems like nonsense), and a third character goes all Karen on him for stereotypes. And the next major event is the introduction of a character who announces "I'm a they".

The game and story are very grounded. I won’t spoil anything, but most players will relate to the issues this game explores. It’s honest, emotional, and manages to mix that with humour in a way that feels genuine. It reminded me straight away of the South Park games – both in tone and basic mechanics. Gameplay is fun. Hiding spots reward you with better gear, but do get repetitive. Combat works, though it could be more dynamic. I ran into a few issues: Two random crashes, usually after the game stops responding to my gamepad inputs. UI and settings feel unpolished: On launch, you’re asked to press any button, then shown three save slots where you can load or continue. The Options menu is extremely limited – no fullscreen windowed or borderless modes, and no proper exit option (you have to Alt+F4 the game). The resolution setting doesn’t actually change anything. I tried selecting different resolutions, but the game stayed the same. Textures are blurry on QHD, especially in fullscreen. Clearly designed with 1080p in mind, which makes it feel a bit off on higher-res displays. Even though you can play with keyboard and mouse, I found the gamepad surprisingly more intuitive — and I almost never prefer gamepads, so that says something. This feels like a game with great heart and potential, but it's missing polish and attention to detail. The issues I mentioned would have been obvious with proper playtesting. Unless this free version is meant as a public test, the current state makes it feel unfinished. That said — there's definitely something here. With more polish, this could easily become a little gem.

Overall, a cute, beautifully animated indie game with an interesting approach to RPG combat. Highly recommend to those who like RPGs; only thing I disliked was that the encounter rate felt too high in some places, but you can avoid fights if you know what you're doing. Interesting secret, you can make enemies more difficult by making NPCs mad at you. Took me way too long to figure this out ^_^;

Finished this game on the Switch, but I wanted to leave a review of it here! I loved its battle system! It felt great to find out which team combos were my favorite. Loved using Symphony, Charlie, and Twila the most with their combination of great moves, damage, status conditions, and reach! Stacking the enemies in columns requires you to think ahead as you knock each of them out so you can optimize your strategy for them. The game's overworld was also fun since you can run into stuff in the environment or into the NPCs to get a reaction out of the world! The story was deceivingly deep, too! At the beginning, I was expecting it to feel more about Jae than anyone else, but the game ended up having much more depth to all of its characters, not just Jae. It was great to learn more about them and see all of them hang out and help each other. And the world itself might seem just like ours on the surface, but it has a lore of its own which was also interesting to discover! Looking back on it all, it has to be one of the best turn-based RPGs I've ever played! I'd definitely recommend it!!

Charming jrpg with a satisfying combat system.

I enjoyed this one. First off, note that the JRPG elements are mostly set dressing and cool animations, the combat is very simple. There's status effects and combo moves and gear but what 99% of combats boil down to is using your best move and/or something that inflicts Skip Turn which is a busted status. The game is 100% linear with practically no side content to speak of. It would be more accurate to call this a VN-lite or experiential story. But it is a very well-written and charming one. If you purely want JRPG combat and exploration, skip this one, but if you enjoy character-driven story with a little gamified flavor, this is a great pickup. This game is entirely carried by its writing (and to a lesser extent its art and music, both of which are incredible). The game captures the vibe of a ragtag group of kids traveling around their locale on an idealistic fantasy adventure (compare to Earthbound or Omori). At the start, the world is quite grounded in reality minus the quirky JRPG wildlife, but it quickly goes off the rails and it becomes clear that the setting weaves classic fantasy with a pastiche Eagleland. The plot is driven by a slowly growing group of friends all journeying to a place that will magically grant their wishes to overcome their individual struggles. Of these, I think Symphony is my favorite character personality- and design-wise while Twila and Zack have the best-realized story arcs. Both in and out of the party, the dialogue feels realistic, witty, and full of personality. Text features are also used to great effect, with speech bubbles overlapping one another to add a sense of punctuated timing and different sizes and colors of dialogue for dynamism. The story overall was incredible; each dungeon carries a sense of childlike wonder and adventure. The two things I wish were better-paced were [spoiler]Acacia's entire arc being speedrun over just a couple of dungeons and then cut short by deus ex machina, and then abruptly picked up later by a [i]different[/i] deus ex machina to be resolved, instead of being resolved on the spot earlier[/spoiler], and [spoiler]the hand-wave of the many unresolved questions caused by the sudden and complete resolution to the final boss, which could have been addressed with a longer ending sequence and/or epilogue[/spoiler]. Good emotional story game for a rainy weekend.

I see that there is now a "quick save" option, but it still kinda sucks. It sucked when Dragon Quest did it. It sucked when Majora's Mask did it, and it sucks here. Just don't ever delete my save. I will buy this game when there is a proper save system.

This game is worth trying it yourself!

Definitely got to give this game a try. The gameplay is simple and fun, the visuals are beautiful, and the story is pretty darn good. I hope more people manage to find this game and play it!

I hitch-hiked to the moon. I fought squirrels, loan sharks, cosplayers and sports drink mascots with a garden rake, a traffic cone and extreme acrobatics. I overcame road blockades, racial discrimination and student debt. I met a duck. This game is a relatively simple but delightful JRPG in the style of Earthbound or Omori, featuring turn-based combat with some bells and whistles. It's surreal and whimsical, and sports some top tier writing that most indie games can only dream of. The characters are charismatic, distinctive and funny, with great lines of dialogue all the way through, both when it comes to jokes and important lessons about friendship, growing up and overcoming adversity and past traumas - you will literally laugh and cry. I only have minor gripes - zero when it comes to dialogue, but at times I wish there had been more to do, mechanically speaking, in the various areas you explore, other than chatting, fighting and finding items in danish butter cookie tins (like in all JRPGs, I finished the game with a lot of unused items). Combat was fun but it felt harder in the early game and relatively easy towards the end, especially after I figured out a couple winning strategies. It doesn't matter (because there are more items than you need), but coins sometimes dropped inside walls. Even so, I had a great time playing this game; I wouldn't hesitate to play more games by these developers and would love to see more of these kids.