Kamilia

I have playtested Kamillia, and honestly it's an amazing game! The story is rich and I really enjoyed the plot twist at the end! I trully got into it and didn't even notice how time flew while playing. I REALLY recommend playing it!

A touching storydriven story, engaging and nice for a long relaxing afternoon. got hooked!

This is my review of Kamilia by RQ Play; as a note, I’m a fellow rpgmaker dev and that will color a lot of my thoughts. Apologies as I promised this review sooner but I wanted to organize my thoughts. Kamilia sits in the drama-mystery category; a lot of gameplay involves collecting clues, and small but fun, mostly intuitive puzzles (I struggled way too long finding the lost puppy behind the tree lol). There is SO much detail in this world. As a story-driven game, you’d expect as much. But I was truly impressed with the little things in Kamilia. There’s really clever use of reflections in mirrors (if you know rpgmaker it feels like wizardry lol). Many things can be interacted with and you can feel the care RQ has put into world-building every area. Scenes are lively, with NPCs moving, walking around, and sharing little stories of their own. Many come around in later scenes or at the end scene and I loved that detail as a fellow writer. Those characters feel less like obstacles and more like intentional people in Roga, the game’s city setting. Some spoilers: [spoiler]we learn why Kamilia was kidnapped and killed right as it happens, so there is less mystery to her death and more focus on Will’s (her husband) emotional journey to learning why she was killed and coming to terms with it. It adds a different kind of narrative tension that I really appreciate in a drama. We’re less focused on the “why”, though there are a few twists and additional reasons as to why Kamilia became collateral.[/spoiler] Since Kamilia stakes a lot on its emotional core, I have to mention about the AI art: There is a big irony to having the main character, who is a painter, using generative AI art and calling him the most talented painter in his city. I understand there isn’t an intentional part on the creator to make a statement like this, but as a player I don’t FEEL like Will is a talented painter when I know the images shown of his work were just generated. The most jarring use is for the character portraits. Kamilia, our titular character, is first shown to us with a realistic AI portrait. Then we see her later in-game using an rpgmaker sprite portrait. They don’t feel like the same people at all. The funny thing is, I PREFER the rpgmaker default sprites! They emote and are customizable enough that every character gets their own unique look. Kamilia as a character is a sweet archetype and I love that she has her wits about her to try to escape her captivity. When she’s a few steps from freedom and suddenly we see her kidnapper emerge slowly from the shadows, it made my heart drop. All this time you’re with both her in-game and portrait sprites and the emotion worked really well here. There are so many well-put together cutscenes (the initial massacre, the music performance venue was a highlight to me. I LOVED the dedication to filling an entire music hall with NPCs and using that time to tell a few stories through gameplay). Not every player will notice or care that AI art was used, but I think eagle-eyed players will feel whiplash at the mix of styles and disconnect from the narrative. As the story goes on, there is a larger reliance on AI portraits to tell emotional scenes that just didn’t work for me. There are other AI fragments in the maps, like many of the kitchens and bathrooms literally having the words “kitchen” or “bathroom” over their doors lol. But overall, the map work feels moody and atmospheric and fits really well tonally with the story. All this to say, this is a fully fleshed out game with multiple endings and choices that actually matter through routes. Though the use of AI for some of the art didn’t work for me, there is undoubtedly an immense amount of love and care put into Kamilia. One other highlight for me is the mix of what I think are royalty free tracks and evidently some commissioned songs. Most songs fit perfectly in each scene and map, and along the story and spritework, are my favorite bits from the game. RQ has mentioned wanting to continue making games and I’m looking forward to what he creates next.

Update: Developer has made some updates that addressed these issues and has definitively tagged the game as not playable on steam deck after attempting a fix. I haven’t gotten a chance to play it yet but I’ll take the patch notes at face value and based on the 15 minutes I did get to play, change this to a recommend. [strike]This game is not ready to be shipped and while the developer has responded fairly quickly to my concerns, the responses were dismissive and a bit defensive, not a good sign. Many developers try to recreate the wheel instead of improving on the existing wheel or creating something new, and they fail every time. This game is another example of that. It sounded like a lovely story and I see in the updates the developer postponed the release to pour more love into it. Unfortunately, love does not equal playable game. Hard do not recommend. [/strike] (1) The AI art was disclosed but it was very strangely hedged and not clear about what was actually done. “Less than 1% of AI-assisted content” ? Less than 1% of what lol. File size? File count? Creative assets? who knows. It also is a point against the developer. Three years and they couldn’t be bothered to create original art for “less than 1%” of whatever? In a review reply and on the discussion boards, the developer has tried to brush off the AI art as limited to a few paintings but lol dude they’re literally the plot devices and the main character is the PAINTER of them, these aren’t just flavor art pieces in the background. the developer said they were looking into patching that art out (without timeline or commitment) and I trust(ed) that they will do that when I bought the game. [strike] (2) I played on a PC with a keyboard and mouse and switched to a steam deck. This bricked the game. First, the keyboard and mouse controls were awful. There is no cursor, so you’re just waving your mouse around to see what buttons or tabs light up before you try to select whatever it is you want to select. Second, the game got stuck on keyboard/mouse controls, so it was completely unresponsive to any steam deck controls, no joystick no buttons nothing. This points to a problem with input switching. it got locked in when I started the game on my PC and either isn’t detecting the different input or isn’t switching inputs after detecting the new input. there is no user option to switch control schemes. Most upsetting, it looks like the developer was notified by Valve that this was an issue and shipped the game anyway. It’s been over a week since release and there have not been any patches, roadmaps, or plans to address this. (3) There is no access to the settings menu and no way to pause during unskippable in-game “cutscenes” where the sprites are meandering around the screen silently. This is not acceptable. Holding someone hostage to their screen for your exposition is bad game design. Worse, the developer is aware of this issue because multiple people have pointed it out, and yet here we are, 10 days after release, no fix, no roadmap, no plan. (3) The game’s chat system is poorly designed. In basically every other game, if there is a pause in a conversation, one of two things happens: (a) a chat box remains on screen with the last message or some indicator of a pause, like “,,,” or “hm.” or SOMETHING (b) the chat box disappears and the characters on screen do *something* like turn around thoughtfully, pace, turn left and right, cross their arms, *emote* with a bubble or some anime style symbol, or a long list of other things. In this game. the text box disappears, nothing is happening on screen, and for several seconds the only indication you have that the conversation is ongoing is **your character can’t move at all**. That is terrible game design. (4) I didn’t get very far so I don’t know how much of an issue this is, but little things that aren’t gamebreaking just start adding up to make the game unfun, like the absence of a quest log or chat log. Early in the game you chat someone up and they sit down while you have to go find a quill. If you miss the line about the quill and try to talk to the other character again to figure out what you’re supposed to find, you get a “thanks for the wine” and that’s it. I imagine the list would continue to expand but that’ll stay in my imagination because I can’t even play the game lmao. [/strike]

[h2]Overview[/h2] A solid, enjoyable title — and a great fit if you're into pure, story-focused visual novels. [h2]Pros[/h2] [list] [*][b]Performance:[/b] Runs great. Smooth, with no crashes or freezes. [*][b]Story – 8/10:[/b] Well done. It's just enough to leave you with a bit of emotion and a lasting impression by the time you finish. [*][b]Gameplay:[/b] About the same as other RPG Maker titles, so there's not much to comment on here. [*][b]Graphics – 7/10:[/b] Solid for a 2D pixel-art game. [*][b]SFX – 7/10:[/b] Good. [*][b]In-game music – 8/10:[/b] The vocal/lyrical track really stuck with me. [/list] [h2]Cons[/h2] [list] [*][b]Story:[/b] Feels like it's still missing something to make the narrative feel fully complete. [*][b]SFX:[/b] Decent overall, but a few moments get a bit harsh/piercing on the ears. [/list] [h2]Bugs[/h2] [list] [*][spoiler]In the theater section, the song's subtitles and audio don't line up.[/spoiler] [/list] [h2]Suggestions[/h2] [list] [*][spoiler]In the chase sequence with Lorena, it'd help to extend the timer by another 3–5 seconds (especially after the player has failed several times).[/spoiler] [*][spoiler]Add a rollback option for the choice that affects the ending (kill or spare). It would save players from having to replay that entire section just to see the other outcome.[/spoiler] [*]If the engine supports it, an auto-advance option for dialogue would be a great addition — right now you have to keep clicking to move the conversation forward. [*]If possible, add a few more manual save slots (2–4). [/list]

I have to say Well Done!! (I am KimemaberHeyMom just a different account) I was stunned to receive a key for the game from RQ Play because (I think) of the review and YouTube coverage I did of the demo. The game is based on a novel and I wish I could find it available for sale anywhere. (I'll keep looking.) This is a pixel art, choices matter, murder/kidnapping mystery story game. I started it and had no idea what I was watching. It was not at all what I was expecting based on the demo. I wondered if maybe the concept had been changed. But then why keep the tagline the same? Eventually all became clear and I realized that there the tie-in was foreshadowed in the spooky house scene in the demo. But I was again scratching my head when Kamilia was at the seaside. Dev you know what I mean. It's relatively early in the game and again I'm left wondering "What?" BUT... even though those two things kind of hit the wrong note at first, if I hadn't played the demo I might have still been a little confused at the seaside, Now I realize the underlying question was not WHAT but WHY, for Wilf anyway. (I'm trying to not give spoilers here.) So here it is in a nutshell. I really, really enjoyed this story! I can honestly recommend this game and the price is so worth it. I've spent more money on games I found out I hated and if you like stories this one is worth the $10. (Just a little heads up: the whole story is rich and engaging. Don't quit at the seaside or you'll miss the bulk of the game, the beautiful story telling of twists and turns in the investigation, and the WHY.) Many of the decision points are "How nice (or not) do I want to be?" I like choice driven stories because it gives everyone a different experience in the game. There are some points with more than two choices you could make and ultimately 4 different endings. This was a very, very good game in it's genre and I hope the dev will find another novel to adapt even if it isn't an investigative story. Well done! If you are interested in seeing the demo video I did, you can find it on my YouTube channel @HeyMomPlayThis. I also streamed the whole game on my Twitch channel, also HeyMomPlayThis and those are on YouTube on my archive channel @HeyMomPlayThisTTV.