Pryzm

Pryzm Review: A Pixel Art Survival Mystery That Balances Horror and Replayability Pryzm is a survival adventure mystery game developed by Troy Chin, also known as DrearyWeary, a Singaporean comic artist and game developer. The game blends visual novel elements with turn-based combat in a unique hand-drawn pixel art style. The story follows six friends on a weekend getaway who end up in a mountain area haunted by an ancient secret. Players must manage characters, maintain their clarity, and make crucial survival choices throughout the 1-2 hour gameplay sessions. Each playthrough offers changing escape parameters, encouraging multiple runs to explore different outcomes. Pryzm’s strongest feature is its storytelling. The well-written dialogue brings characters to life, creating emotional connections that make player choices feel impactful. The non-linear structure allows for scenes to play out in different orders, enhancing replayability and the sense that decisions matter. Visually, the game’s pixel art is consistent and showcases the developer’s comic artist background. A minimal audio track effectively sets a gloomy atmosphere, complementing the horror-themed narrative. The turn-based combat system, reminiscent of classic JRPGs, adds variety to the gameplay but may feel disconnected for some players. Combat rules could be better explained, potentially leading to frustration. However, during dialogue and battle sequences, the clarity management system introduces an interesting resource management element. Pryzm encourages replayability through features that allow players to improve their performance, explore the lore, and optimise resource management. An online leaderboard for speedruns provides an additional challenge for competitive players. While the combat system may not appeal to all, Pryzm’s narrative strength, visual style, and replayability make it an intriguing choice for fans of visual novels and survival mysteries. Players seeking a short but intense horror story with multiple paths and outcomes will likely find Pryzm a satisfying experience.

I played this, not knowing what exactly to expect going in and I want to say this exceeds my expectations! I like that it's not too long that replaying to get different routes and ending isn't a chore, and that choices you think don't matter can change the entire trajectory of the game. Was genuinely mind-effed at some points as well, which I loved. 10/10 would recommend.

I enjoy visual novel hybrids a lot. Games that take the narrative heavy construct of visual novels and attack another gameplay focused element to it. Something like Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, Zero Escape or Ghost Trick. I value story a lot and having a break between longer reading sections, helps a lot to absorb the information and get your brain going. Comparing Pryzm to the before mentioned games however would be unfair as the scope and style are vastly different. You start the game as Kyle. A young boy who is isolating himself from life as it’s just too complicated for him. For one reason or another he accepts the invitation of his sister to join her and some friends to a vacation. Perhaps Kyle should have stayed home, as the mountain bears a harrowing secret. The vacation quickly escalated in a survival adventure. Weird earth shakes, placed that suddenly look abandons when they shouldn’t and dangerous man shaped creatures. You will make a lot of decisions in this game and these actually change the route and whether your characters will survive at the end or not. In general, you play through roughly five perspectives (there is a secret sixt one that can be unlocked), each splitting from your decisions. You can jump through the different perspectives after each scene The deeper the plot goes, the more expensive the path is. Expensive? Yes, you start of with a resource that needs to be spent to continue the story. This resource however can be also used in battles for spells like healing or buffing. The combat is a classic turn based fight. You can decide between a simple attack, evading, spells and risky manoeuvres. Those risky manoeuvres consist of fleeing, critical hit or absorption. Their success is dictated by a visible percentage. This percentage gets higher and lower by your different commands and by getting hit. What starts as a simple combat routine creates room for complex decision-making. We can raise the percentage to try and absorb some of the rare resource from the enemy. We could evade the whole time and try to flee if the damage is bigger than the merit. You can focus on evading and taking out the enemy with critical hits. It’s a fascinating game with a hand drawn style and lots of replay-ability. Each run takes about 1-2 hours and will provide you with more knowledge. To stop it from being boring, the escape parameters can shift a bit in every run. Ever thought of speedrunning a visual novel? It’s possible here! Curious for more indies? Check out my blog: https://freakingindie.com

A short visual novel that send chill down your spine. The best description I can explain is this game is a mix of classic MS-DOS VN games with a sprinkle of multiple decision that affects the character. Although I'm hoping this game features fast forward mechanic

allah sabir versin

I hope more people notice this game. I had so much fun playing it

Here's a few notes: I was quickly captivated by the short story and atmosphere. I've yet to determine the truth of everything that's going on, so expect it will take multiple playthroughs to hopefully uncover and make sense of everything. I finished the game on my first try in a little under 2.4 hours, so it's short enough to be completed in a sitting, but it looks like there will be plenty of replayability with the amount of choices I faced. I've yet to see just how much variation and story there will be, however... I'm under the impression there should be a good amount. (Will try to update this when I replay and complete everything.) As for the choices, they were basically flipping a coin at times (like choosing left or right, or different paths), and I don't know if I got lucky, or if there's randomness involved. I don't want to spoil anything, but do expect to be clueless a fair amount of your first playthrough. (I was even a bit confused partially with how things ended for one of the characters.) But the atmosphere and my interest or curosity was pretty strong throughout. As for the music and presentation, they worked well together. Loved the comic like panels. I wasn't too keen on some of the side profile pictures, and the simple look of the characters might take some time to appreciate... But it might contribute to the overall experience. Also will mention there are some RPG related elements in the game, so it isn't completely visual novel. (Don't want to elaborate, as it was fun to experience it blind. Though I guess it's in the screenshot and trailers lol.) I'll just leave it at: on sale, this game felt like a good value. I can recommend it for a spooky adventure at night. (Try the demo if you're on the fence?)