Ramona

Ramona was recommended to me by several people not long after it released. It looked interesting enough, so I figured… why not? I’ll give it a try. What I was not expecting… was for it to land in my top 5 favorite horror games of all time—right up there with MADiSON and Visage. But here we are. And that’s saying a lot. I stream horror games for a living. I’ve played a lot of them. When I go into a game, I’m looking at everything—story, atmosphere, sound design, voice acting, jumpscares… all of it. Whether we realize it or not, those things shape the experience. Ramona absolutely delivers across the board. The story pulls you in and keeps you there. It’s engaging without feeling forced, and it unfolds in a way that makes you want to keep digging deeper. The atmosphere is exactly what you want from a game like this—unsettling, immersive, and consistent the whole way through. The puzzles hit that sweet spot too. Not overly frustrating, but just enough to make you stop and think for a minute before things click into place. And the jumpscares? Yeah… they’re on point. They’re timed well, they don’t feel cheap, and when they hit—they hit. Also… I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t mention Ramona’s extensive collection of… let’s just say questionable reading material. Chat and I had a great time with that one. But jokes aside—this game really impressed me. By the time it ended, I wasn’t ready for it to be over. Not because it’s short—it actually took me around 7.5 hours to complete—but because I just didn’t want to leave that world yet. That’s when you know a game did something right. All things said and done, Ramona easily earns its place at the top of my list. I genuinely don’t have any real complaints—and that’s rare. If you’re a fan of horror games, this is an easy recommendation. This one’s special. 👀

Thank you again to Daniele Doesn't Matter for a copy of this game. I'm super excited to have loaned my voice for this game. I appreciate solo game developers that can put in this kind of work. [b] Trigger Warnings: [/b] [spoiler] Implied child physical abuse. Nothing is shown on screen, but the dialogue and notes imply physical abuse to children in a foster care/caregiver situation. There is also one note that uses the hard N****R racial slur. [/spoiler] You play as Samuel investigating a woman caregiver (Ramona) accused of crime (see trigger warning). You walk around the house solving puzzles, unlocking rooms while unfolding the story about Ramona and the children under her care. This game is very puzzle heavy with minimal "fighting". [b]PROS:[/b] * Items replenish after about 3-5 minutes in the same location, making candles and matches unlimited * Autosave locations are plentiful * Decent story (not as good as some of his other games) that unfolds by solving puzzles and reading notes left along the way * Controller friendly with simple control scheme for controller or KB&M * Collectable Twitch/YouTube streamer hidden gems (see if you can find me!) * Lots of puzzles to figure out; make sure you backtrack! * I rarely ran out of inventory space unless I was hording candles and matches [b]CONS:[/b] * I mentioned to the Dev the racial slur (see trigger warning) that was in one of the notes as being unnecessary. He debated that it was accurate to the time period of the game. I personally do not think it added to the story whatsoever, and still think it's 100% not needed to get the point across and found it racist/tacky. * You'll need to have a good memory to navigate the house as there is no map system. * The enemy is easy to avoid/ignore once you understand how the mechanic. I rarely encountered her and only needed to banish her a few times. * Not as scary as some of his other games, I didn't get as many jump scares as expected. * AI art (Daniele knows I grump about this but he does warn about it on his store page) https://www.seravium.com https://twitch.tv/seravium

Gramona – witzig, aber Ramona ist das Herzstück der Geschichte 😄. Das Spiel nutzt ein paar Jumpscares, die aber gut eingebettet sind, und kombiniert sie mit Rätseln, Story-Triggern und versteckten Details, die man selbst entdecken muss. Der Abspann ist lang, melancholisch und nachdenklich, und für aufmerksame Spieler öffnet sich ein subtiler zusätzlicher Bereich, der dem Spiel noch eine weitere Dimension gibt. Besonders beeindruckend ist die handschriftliche Arbeit des Entwicklers, (ja ich mag die Spiele von diesem Entwickler wirklich sehr) von den Rätseln über die Animationen bis zur subtilen Story. Ein kleiner Kritikpunkt: Farbrätsel können für Farbblinde herausfordernd sein, was die Zugänglichkeit etwas einschränkt,dies eine Rätsel hat mich gefordert wegen der Farben. Ramona belohnt Geduld, Beobachtung und logisches Denken. Wer Horror auf intelligente Weise erleben möchte, findet hier ein einzigartiges Erlebnis, das lange nachklingt. Kann das Spiel nur empfehlen, auch wenn ich es noch nicht ganz bis zum endgültigem Ende gespielt habe.

I have played most of Daniele Doesn't Matter's games, and I really like them. My favorite is Lost Alone Ultimate - recommend. And Ramona did not disappoint; it had the same feeling and atmosphere as Lost Alone Ultimate, which I appreciated. Creepy, uneasy atmosphere, most jumpscares really got me good and the puzzles are probably the devs strongest side; they are perfect in difficult-level - challenging, but not too hard. I am looking forward to the next game! (Thumbs up on the removal of one word in the letter of kids names.) My playthrough of RAMONA on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JvmDRYSZViw?si=rtSWmwk855r6u7LC

Gran bel gioco , divertente e fato molto bene , sono contento del fatto che ci sia completamente in italiano , mi spiace solo che non c'è la mia foto insieme a quella degli altri streamer . Per il resto ULTRA CONSIGLIATO

I have played a lot of this developers games, and this is truly creepy. The music is spot on and unique. Puzzle codes are different everytime you play it. unlike other games like this. I highly recommend this game.

"Hey, Grok, make me a horror game." Slop. Also, random and unecessary racism. Game sucks.