Lenrual

Short but atmospheric discover-the-rules exploration game. the german age-rating for this one can safely be ignored.

This is a small, at first intentionally confusing exploration puzzle / metroidbrainia game, played from a first person perspective with no narration. You meet aliens; to say more would probably be a spoiler. Even the trailer technically has spoilers. If you like this type of game, you will probably like this one! I found it on the metroidbrainia subreddit where there was some discussion if it qualified, but I think it does (some discussion below under a spoiler tag). I took about two and a half hours to get all achievements and the credits roll (and a few additional minutes to tweak the controller setup - see below). I don't think I figured out everything, though I probably did figure out most things. It is VERY atmospheric. I loved hanging out in this place and slowly figuring out what was going on. The atmosphere was the strongest part of the game, some of it was just genuinely beautiful and touching to a degree I did not expect. Some of the earlier reviews say there is no save system, but this has since then been added (and I really do think that was a good decision). It autosaves! Don't press the save icon in the main menu, because that actually deletes your save. (I don't think this is a spoiler.) I think my only slight annoyance was (besides one optional section I discuss in the spoilers below) that the music was a bit repetitive sometimes. I also ran into two bugs, but I couldn't reproduce either: once I got stuck in some geometry, and once I just suddenly could not do anything. None of these were a big deal for me and I could quit and restart from the in-game menu. I played on the Steam Deck docked to the TV, with a PS4 controller, and it worked well. There were some occasional small framedrops, but not particularly bothersome and I did not reduce resolution or anything like that. I did have to adjust some of the controls. I inverted the Y - I'm not sure if this can be done in-game, because the menus just have a bunch of icons, and I figured it would be easier to do it from the Steam controller setup, which has.... words! I also think if you are playing with a controller, for the line drawing puzzles it helps to put WASD on the D-pad too, not only on the left thumbstick - it's just easier and more accurate that way. My customary "Is it a metroidbrainia?" section: I think it is, but it's short, so that limits how well can it fit the general idea. [spoiler] There absolutely are recurring concepts and also overall you spend your time gathering knowledge, but there are some non-knowledge-related unlocks too where you have to gather other things.[/spoiler] Even more spoilery discussion: Also, if you've played a bunch of these types of games, you'll probably assume at first [spoiler] that this is a Witness-like, when in fact it is an Outer-Wilds-like. [/spoiler] I thought that was fun. I also liked that even for the subgenre, this is one of the more cryptic ones, where at first, you'll genuinely just be "????". It reminded me of playing some early 3D games when I was a kid where I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do - in a good sense. Some other spoilery discussion for those who finished the game: [spoiler] One thing I didn't complete was the optional part where you gather lanterns after you've gotten drunk. I think this has a time-based aspect and i just got frustrated that I kept on dropping the lanterns; though this is in keeping with getting drunk, I suppose! [/spoiler] Also a kind of meta thought: [spoiler] I really like that in a whole bunch of these metroidbrainia and adjacent games, there is no combat and you have all kinds of positive interactions. Chroma Zero is also a good example where I felt that the story was actively heartwarming, and I got the same vibe from Lenrual too. I like combat-focused games as well, but I've played endless amounts of them and it is nice to see something different.[/spoiler] ____ Source of the game: Bought with my own money (I think on a small sale, but it is definitely worth full price)

I love how alive the world feels when you first enter it. You try to talk to random strangers who already seem grouped into their own cliques. You keep trying until you finally make a connection. Its really satisfying once you find something hidden! Then it goes dark and it’s kind of scary how alone the game makes you feel all of sudden. The game never says a word, and yet its emotionally rich, and the art is SO BEAUTIFUL Cant wait to come back and find more hidden stuff

Lenrual is a surrealist first-person exploration adventure game that throws you into an odd city where you interact with even odder characters — green ghostly apparitions of differing proportions who communicate via grid puzzles — and are left wandering the streets with nothing but your wits. It's up to you to walk around, interact, and figure out what this world is about. There's nary a hand holding you here. This is a game with a rich atmosphere and an ever richer story that I can't even begin to decipher. From what I could gather from what developer Jonathan Guite has posted online, a lot of the visuals and symbolism of Lenrual seem to be outwardly based on his Mizoram heritage, with references to the culture and its people in the design of the world. It's a visually striking experience no less, with a minimalist low-poly aesthetic that feels reminiscent of the works of Thatgamecompany. I'm getting mad Journey vibes from the character design alone, but the wordless narrative seems indebted to the studio's work aswell. Lenrual sits comfortably within a subset of indie video games I love: ones where you walk around a city and hang out and talk to intriguing characters and sometimes there's puzzles. Between this, BABBDI, Hyperbolica and upcoming titles Bernband and Fragmented City, this niche genre is experiencing quite a renaissance. It's a near-otherworldly experience that is brought down purely by the fact that I don't really know what happened during my playthrough. Even after beating it I'm left a little confounded on what this all meant. It might genuinely be too surrealist for my taste. There was a moment where after I befriended a bunch of the green ghostly apparitions the game turned into Katamari Damacy, but instead of rolling a ball through a room collecting junk, you manoeuvre through the streets collecting MORE green ghostly apparitions until you've become a swarm. It was an "oh what the ♥♥♥♥ this is sick" type of moment, but I don't know what the ♥♥♥♥ I was doing or what any of it really meant. Ultimately, Lenrual is worth your time if you like games that look cool, refuse to tell you anything, and take an hour to beat.

First of all, this is my favorite game aesthetic-wise that came out in 2025. I raise my hat to the dev for such cool visuals. I wasn't expecting a game to push Silksong into second place. If the city was bigger I would spend some serious time strolling around and vibing. Now, Lenrual is a hard game to review because I wasn't able to fully grasp it. I got the overall idea by building upon what I read on the Steam page though and I think it was enough for me to enjoy the game. Which consists of walking around in a hub and communicating/interacting with stuff. You don't get a tutorial except WASD so you need to figure stuff out. There were some subtle hints about what you CAN but didn't notice, I really appreciated some lol. This exploration adds to your fun (and made me remember the fun I had with Outer Wilds). There were some interactions that caught me off guard as I was testing random silly stuff and they ended up working. I have completed the game but there are some stuff that I noticed but couldn't figure out how to access yet. Definitely gonna come back to this one later and figure them out. [code]Recommended by: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38893669/]Experiences Worth Experiencing[/url][/code]

Quite short, and frankly indescribable. Just as charming as it is befuddling. Lovely time.

One of the most unique art styles I have come across. Absolutely loved how it plays with lights. Puzzles took some time but pretty rewarding experience once you start figuring it out. Will definitely return to explore some more.

Played it, got lost multiple times, thought about it for a whole day and then came back to it again. Every play unravelled things I missed or things I didn't get the first time through and every break after a play had me contemplating what I did right and what I didn't get. It was an experience I couldn't forget and has been a long time coming since I had a satisfactory struggle as this in this age of easy addictive games. This noob was coached and humbled. Really recommend it!

Cool concepts and relatable vibes! Should write more about it but I don't know what to say; haven't played anything else like it. Still need to figure out a couple of things after reaching the credits; will sleep on it, maybe solve it tomorrow or later.

In Lenrual they don't say "How are you?" they say: "🔼◀️🔼▶️▶️🔽" and I think that's beautiful.