oath

i found it quite abstract and comforting. it's a letter that expresses the countless tragedies and experiences of guilt. you feel the suffocation and shame with each layer of dialogue. it's painfully familiar, so i'll keep my eyes closed a little longer. the bonus content has fun exploration and puzzles. you can tell the dev put alot of work into this project and i'm glad i was able to experience it :)

TL;DR: If this is your first time playing a kind of artsy, heavily emotional game like this, it's a good first experience and I recommend checking it out. If not (like if you're coming here from OMORI), I don't think it's the best thing you can try. NOTE: I did not play the free DLC, primarily because I just didn't like the gameplay of the base game and didn't feel like jogging through more of it. I'm judging this game primarily on the base game content, but this is by nature an incomplete review as a result of that. A really visually pretty game with a fairly compelling basis and plot that unfortunately tumbles over itself in the gameplay and writing departments. I'm unfamiliar with the musical artist who created this game, but it definitely feels like their musical skills are much more well-honed than their storytelling and game design skills. I really respect the effort that went into creating this game considering how difficult game dev is, but it didn't leave the best impression on me The plot is fairly simple, all things considered; despite the story revolving around a very heavy topic, the meat of the narrative impact is entirely condensed into about 30 minutes of interspersed cutscenes at the beginning and end of the game, and the whole narrative can be explained in about one or two sentences once it reveals itself. It's something I can respect getting emotionally invested into, especially in conjunction with the music and animations that play during those segments, but in comparison to other games I've played of this style (like OMORI and Hello Charlotte), there's not a lot of depth or worldbuilding outside of the moments where the story is explicitly telling you what's going on, and the fact that multiple replays are required to unlock the actual ending of the game makes that much more apparent. There's also a lot of tonal dissonance between the game's attempted themes and the cameos, nods and general dialogue in the exploration half of the game; a lot of the dialogue is silly or overly casual without actually having a meaning behind it (and the dialogue that [i]is[/i] serious feels overly so, putting words in my mouth without letting me ponder them myself), and sometimes it feels like the out of place or surface level references and nods to various things take away from the tone the game's trying to set. The general gameplay is the primary reason I'm not recommending this game, with the main culprit being generically bad filler quests in the exploration part of the game (stuff like fetch quests and arbitrary tasks disconnected from the main plot); there isn't enough actual story to justify slower segments like that here, and unlike similar games that also have long, uneventful segments (OMORI Sweetheart's Castle comes to mind), what happens during exploration here is almost entirely irrelevant to the actual meat of the story. The actual gameplay of these segments also feels terrible due to a general lack of polish in aesthetic design and controls; there are multiple moments where you have to find specific NPCs or items for quests, but because the whole game has a faded monochrome aesthetic and all NPCs look identical, it's a real pain in the ass to finish those without a guide. Often, it's difficult to see where to go due to cluttered environments and inconsistent wall placement (it's about a 50/50 whether you can go behind a prop or not), and the beauty of the environments and music can very quickly fade away when you have to clamber through each room as if you're climbing a rock wall. I'd say for 3 dollars, this is a worth it game to try out, even though I just spent actually like 30 minutes dunking on it. If you're here because OMORI ruined your life and you want to find something that can fill the void left behind as a result, I'd recommend Hello Charlotte instead, as that series has a similar price point for a much longer and more thoughtful experience. This type of game is always the best the first time you play one of them, and from that perspective, I absolutely agree with the other folks in the reviews here in it being a potentially really impactful experience; my opinions come primarily from me having played these games for years at this point and comparing them with each other. The fact that oath was able to reach people emotionally is proof that, despite my complaints, there's still something here to enjoy. Also, it's like 3 dollars.

游玩与演出的内容量惊人，极强的氛围 目前似乎存在存档会互相污染的问题，导致一些错过的时机哪怕重新读档也无法弥补，稍遗憾

another underground gem, why do i always find games like this? upd: just finished the DLC... peak game, thanks vai5000!

The game is good, not in the way that it's polished like other games similar to it, but it is good. The story is an elegy for lots of things, really, some I can't describe, but I really understand still. It feels like reliving something forgotten. It's not vague I wouldn't say, but more abstract?, But that doesn't take away from the story from my playthrough, which I still haven't finished completely yet.

müzik ve ses dizaynıyla ön plana çıkan bir oyun. sanat stili de oldukça güzel, atmosferi güzel sağlıyor. bu bence bir oyundan çok bir sanat eseri, sanatçı kendini belli bir konuda hissettiklerini ve deneyimlediklerini dışavurmaya çalışmış. sanatçıların bir şeyleri anlatmaya çalışması oldukça saygı duyduğum şeylerden biri ancak hikâyenin konusu pek benlik değildi ve bence işlenişi de daha iyi olabilirmiş. belki size daha çok hitap edebilir. anlam ve psikolojik alt metin olarak çok derin gözüken ama o kadar derin olmayan, onun yerine duygusal olarak derin olmaya çalışan ve bunu başaran bir oyun. yani amacı anlam değil, duyguları işlemek gibi geldi.

[i][url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEkE1EljPFOc]ᵐᵉ ᵖʳᵒᵐᵉᵗᵉᵘ ᵒ ᵐᵘⁿᵈᵒ ᵐᵃˢ ⁿᵃ̃ᵒ ᵉⁿᵗʳᵉᵍᵒᵘ ⁿᵃᵈᵃ [/url] ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ʜᴜᴍᴀɴᴏs ʜɪᴘᴏᴄʀɪᴛᴀs⠀ ⠀ ᴇ sᴀᴏ ᴀʀʀᴏɢᴀɴᴛᴇs ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLER7QIBu0lmiGeu4t0TUWtkNEI2TBpeTv] Qᵘᵉ ᴰᵉᵘˢ ⁿᵒˢ ᵖᵉʳᵈᵒᵉ ːcrossedː ᵖᵉˡᵒˢ ⁿᵒˢˢᵒˢ ᵖᵉᶜᵃᵈᵒˢ[/url] ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3715707326] ːlovesignː [/url] ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ᵀᵒᵈᵒˢ ⁿᵒ́ˢ ᶜᵒᵐᵖᵃʳᵗᶦˡʰᵃᵐᵒˢ ᵒ ᵐᵉˢᵐᵒ ᵈᵉˢᵗᶦⁿᵒ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[url=https://youtu.be/mZ0FoJ0fILc?si=7Dk2EpE-_ckRGQYj] ːplayingaroundːᵉᵘ ᵃᵐᵃᵛᵃ ᵛᶜ[/url]

I love this game! Very short but it had me thinking of the story for 3 days after I played it. Very impactful story. It was fun, so I recommend it.

I've been a fan of vai5000's music for a while, but Oath found me at a strangely important point in my life. I am dealing with my own emotional fallout right now, and its focus on trauma, loss, regret, and all of those lingering "what if" thoughts hit much closer to home than I expected. It does not give you any clean answers, but it gave me a space to sit with some feelings I have been trying to sort through. Maybe this is just a phase in my own life, but Oath arrived at exactly the right time and felt less like something I was simply playing and more like something I genuinely needed. The game itself is a super simple RPG maker game, but that works in its favor. The minimal visuals, little references to other games and music, and excellent soundtrack all support the emotional core without getting in its way. If you are already a fan of vai5000, it is absolutely worth playing for the price, but I think it also has something meaningful to offer anyone carrying around their own loss, unanswered questions, or difficult feelings.

overemotionalized and too ambitious when compared to developers' rpg maker skills, brother youre not omori. the vocaloid videos were pretty cool tho. worth its price.