Stray Children

Not even ten minutes in and I'm questioning why I am even playing. The linearity is grueling, all but two interactable props in the world mock you for wanting to explore them. It's not clever or witty, it's just aggravating; Why make something interactable if it's just going to spit flavor text that tells me the object is worthless or not worth my time. The rest of the world showcased in the screenshots looks so pretty, but if there's nothing to do in it then the game can't be fun. Judging by the other negative reviews, it seems my radar picked up on this pattern far quicker than most. I'm very disappointed, hopefully moon respects my time when I give it a go.

たいへん たのしさ こんなん たっせいかん せつなさ わくわく たくさんの いろいろな ときを たのしめます

Goated game, thank you Onion Games

A really odd but definitely really good game! This is undertale if it was more puzzly, each encounter feels unique, both in how they attack and how to befriend them, it's more like a riddle, and most can be bruteforced, but it's funnier to keep a keen eye for clues everywhere on what should be said. The story and overall vibe itself is also unusual, feeling like a mix of alice wonderland and the promised neverland of all things, the adults being the main menace and the children...improvizing throught all this. It's definitely an intriguing tale to explore. This game is not for everyone, but it DO provide a unique formula, and do it really well. And if it's onion game/lovedelic final game, they ended with a real banger! Highly recommended!

I understand the issues people had with this and I am a little lukewarm myself. Of the Yoshiro Kimura games that come to mind when thinking of this game- Moon, Chulip, adjacent Kenichi Nishi titles like Chibi-Robo or Captain Rainbow (the only of those 4 I haven't played), I do think I like it the least. I'm happy to support Onion Games though. More than anything I think it desperately needs some form of text skip functionality. The game is very linear as many have pointed out, and full of missable items and encounters, which isn't inherently bad, but feels worse in the modern era of achievements and worrying about seeing everything you can. If you do want to play through it again though, a repeat playthrough goes almost as slowly from the glacial dialogue boxes during battles. It's quirky and has its own internal logic, just like Chulip and Moon, but too many of the battles, even with a decent understanding of what the clues were hinting at, go slowly and have some amount of brute-forcing involved. The linearity hurts this style of puzzles as well- in Moon if you didn't know how to capture a creature, you could very easily mull on it and come back later, or try again the next time you walked by, and the same goes for Chulip. Here you get one area to figure it out, and combined with the multiple-choice options it almost encourages brute-forcing it. The important thing is that saving anyone doesn't actually hinder progression like it could in Moon or Chulip, but again, you'll have to find that refreshing in the modern era of gaming, or just not really care about getting everything. I also really preferred Moon's punched-up localization from Tim Rogers- the writing here comes off extremely dry by comparison. Moon also let you build an incredible custom soundtrack as you wandered around the world, got to know the characters and their routines, explored a bit further each day (Chulip had this feeling of exploration as well)... Vibes are just off here with the one world to another design. Also, even as someone whose [spoiler]father died recently, the ending did not really speak to me. It's very short and abrupt- the idea of re-using the combat dialog options is brilliant, but it's over in a minute and a half with not a whole lot to say. I suppose in real life nobody actually gets to have that real last conversation- maybe that's the point? There's nothing that can be said that changes reality? It did not move me in the way that I would have to assume the writers meant for it to.[/spoiler] Maybe comparison to other games hurts this more than anything- taken on its own merits, it's a weird off-kilter take on an RPG/Adventure game with some cool ties to Moon and some interesting themes. It's very rough around the edges though, in a way that I would not personally say Moon was.

wonderful game in a wonderful world with wonderful writing and characters, loved it

◎ストーリー、BGM、グラフィック、世界観、主人公の愛くるしさ、意欲的なバトルミニゲーム、素晴らしい各ステージの詩的でお洒落な作り込み。moonの精神的後継作として相応しい作品です。 ◯同時に、システム面にクセが有りかなりハードでやんちゃなゲームという一面も見受けられます。 （重要追記）ボス攻略にはバリアドロップをお勧めします。ターンをまたいで5回無敵になれます！ （ストレスのない自由でのんきなゲームをしたい時には向かないかもしれません…？） 一癖あることを恐れず、大海原に漕ぎ出そうと思われる方は、ぜひいい機会を見つけて冒険に出てみてください。あなただけの宝物が見つかると思います。 成仏を目指す場合の戦闘もですが、メインストーリーを進めるためのフラグも見逃しやすく全体的に難易度が高めです。隠しルートや隙を探るような探索が必要になります。 繊細な操作が要求されるため、Steamでプレイする場合はコントローラーの併用をお勧めします。もしかしたらSwichのほうがやりやすいのかも…？と思う場面が一カ所だけ中盤のボス戦にあります。 ※バトルは成仏させてしまうと二度とエンカウントしなくなるシステムのため、レベル上げとして敵を倒す選択も必要になると思います。というか、特に序盤は厳しいので、レベルを上げつつ成仏させていけばいいと思います。 ※アプデのためか、ラストダンジョンなどの全快セーブポイントとセーブポイントに戻るための手段がかなり緩和されているようです。おかげでヌルゲーマーの自分も攻略を見つつですがクリアできました。 スタッフの皆様へ この度は大変素晴らしいゲームプレイ体験を本当にありがとうございました。 この先のアプデで、既に緩和済みのようで恐縮なのですが、更にくるくるルーレットの当たり判定が大きくなったり、バトルで回復アイテム使用時にターン消費をしなくなれば、飛躍的に自由度が上がりプレイも周回しやすくなるかと思いました。ぜひ今一度ご一考いただけたらと思います。公式攻略本かサイトもあったらうれしいです。

Stray Children felt to me as an open letter to Moon, another game I highly recommend you play if you want to dive into Onion Games/Love-de-Lic's world. If you don't want to try it tho, I think it's totally possible to play and enjoy Stray Children on its own; this game's such a wonderful and meaningful experience that I feel directly talks to adults in its plethora of messages. I suggest you don't dive into the game with the obligation to 100% it, since it can easily become frustrating and also kinda defeats the purpose. Instead, do what you can along the road and enjoy the fantastic music, atmosphere and love the game has to offer at your own pace!

I'm going to start by saying this: You don't [i]need[/i] to have played this game's spiritual predecessor, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, to appreciate Stray Children - But I do think it adds something, especially if you go right from Moon into this. Stray Children is a fun and good and insightful game on its own, but there's an extra layer of conversation being had between the two games that the player won't even see if they don't know the themes of Moon. It's not necessary, but it does add richness to the experience As for Stray Children itself It's a very unique game. It's very story-heavy, which makes it difficult to speak to too much without spoiling it, but it lives up to its pedigree - there's both surreal weirdness and charm for days. The combat systems add a lot to the game - each fight involves defending via a sort of bullet-hell dodging section, and either attacking through a timing challenge or trying to tap into the enemy's emotions with the right sequence of responses. There are hints throughout the game about what the sequence to tap into emotions are, and figuring them out is honestly a very fun puzzle. Either way, as much as I enjoyed the peaceful, lumbering pace of moon, I do appreciate having more engaging gameplay in Stray Children. Overall, I recommend it immensely to folks who like surreal games, and highly to off-beat story-centric RPGs that make you think or fans of weird word puzzles. It's one that will stick with you - One of my big favorites I've played in 2026 so far, and something I'll be thinking about for a long time.

If you enjoyed Moon RPG, you definitely have to play this game. It’s a deep, dark, and tender story, with classic gameplay, waky characters, and addictive combat mechanics. I expected it to be a good game because of my love for Love-de-Lic, but to be honest, I didn’t have much faith in it… and luckily, I was very, very wrong.