Nekomew's Potty Trouble

I feel as though this game is the first to actually bring me down to write a serious review here on Steam. Not because it's bad, but there was something about it that kept me wanting to keep going and playing it. Maybe the fact that not a lot of people either have heard about it was why... With that, there’s also room for improvement; and I'm going to go into detail why. Presentation: I can imagine some people being turned off by the subject matter and goal of the game, but that’s to be expected. What I like about the title screen is the music. The music does an overall good job getting the horror atmosphere across. The tutorial presentation is lacking though. The 3D models used for the side characters of the protagonist could be improved. It seems like the texturing could be a bit better, along with the animations. The father character sometimes just has his mouth open all the time during the cut-scenes. It was apparent during the tutorial level, and sometimes even the later cutscenes. The pacing of the cut-scenes that happen during Nekomew’s nightmares needs a bit of adjusting. I know that the dialogue and such happens because it’s in tune of the music, but sometimes there are just moments of waiting for the next dialogue box that last for a bit too long. Perhaps if that were fixed, then I wouldn’t have much else to say. I played this game in English, as I noticed there were some misspelled words and such and a few grammatical errors. I won’t fault the developer too much since I’m assuming English was not their first language (the trailer for the game released on YouTube had mostly Spanish comments), rather just mention that there were some of those present. I was still able to understand the dialogue regardless of the errors present. The pacing may also be because it was designed for Spanish as apposed to English? I’m not sure Controls: This is a horror game that centers its mechanics mainly to be in rhythm to the music that’s played during the game. I was able to understand how the game is played rather quickly while my other friends who played it did not (I let them try it out to see what they thought about the game too). I’m willing to guess the reason why my friends did not quickly grasp the controls/understand how to play was because of the tutorial. In presenting the controls, it does a subpar job explaining how to use them with the control layout. It only explained how to use the buttons and what to watch out for by practicing the controls with no nightmare monsters. The text given for how to deal with the monster is a bit vague (especially the first monster). There was no physical demonstration of the controls with what monster the player needed to use to deal with them (only with the father). The one thing a player should not feel is "unfair", like it was the “game’s” fault for not 100% with explaining the controls because it leads to frustration rather than them wanting to continue playing. GamePlay: The objective is for Nekomew to reach from his bedroom to the bathroom from a ridiculously long hallway by avoiding the nightmare monsters with either closing your eyes, covering your ears, and/or shining you light at them. The idea of having to multitask is a neat concept that goes alongside the gameplay. The one concern I have is that sometimes, the randomness of when the monsters spawn leads to impossibly difficult ways to get past them. One example that occurred often was when I had two nightmare monsters that both came after me from the front and the back. There is nothing I can if they both catch me at the same time. There is detection of when the monster needs to fade out for if you’re close to the end of the level, so I feel as though an improvement to the RNG to monsters chasing after you would be helpful. Extras: The extras content that is present in the game is from what I can gather, the only incentive to replay the levels again as it gives you access to some extra levels, and a gallery depending on how much achievements you completed per level. Which is great if you’re up for the challenge. Conclusion: Overall, despite my length critique on the game, I still had a good time with it. I’m also still willing to recommend it despite it’s flaws to only those who are curious with rhythmic horror games, and not turned off by the subject matter. The one thing I'd like is to be able to have is the music for the game to be released as a Steam DLC content labeled as the game soundtrack (or released online), as there’s currently no viable way to get them, as I would pay for downloading the OST.