Syntherapy

Nice VN with lot of replayability. Just be aware of its dark theme

This game is already more than 3 years old, but still has problems that people complained about right after launch and feels abandoned by the developer. Text overlapping, game crashes at random (not often, but it happens) and most importantly, Steam achievements NOT working (although in-game it shows you which you have achieved). Games can crash on occasion, but you can't advertise a game having 53 achievements without them actually working. The game itself is decent, but until the achievements problem is fixed, this is a downvote for me.

I really enjoyed this game and so did my community

[h1]Summary[/h1] This game asks hard questions of you pretty soon after you start it up. 'Course, in several cases you can sidestep the question. Sometimes it's even an option to set boundaries for what you feel comfortable and capable answering! [hr][/hr] [h1]First play session[/h1] I did experience a crash bug -- hence why I stopped at 2 hours because I was [b]hooked.[/b] It was kinda helpful because I needed the prompt to stop. Since I was expecting it from the reviews I'd read, it wasn't jarring or upsetting. And yeah, to echo the others, I would absolutely agree that the game is still worth playing. I hope they're not every 10 minutes or anything, but if 2 hours is more the average, then I'd say it's a good exchange. Oh and my save file was fine afterwards too afaik. [h1]Negatives[/h1] [list] [*]Crash bugs might be common. [*]Near the end of [spoiler]your introduction to Dr. Freeman,[/spoiler] there is a very out-of-place voice line. [*]The collectibles can be a little hard to find until you know what they look like. [*]Some of the UI is a little rough -- still works tho! [/list] [h1]Neutrals[/h1] [list] [*]The art quality feels a little inconsistent. [*]I don't know how to do certain things, but idk if that was because I missed instructions or they weren't given. [*]I didn't know what some of the psychology terms meant precisely, but a quick search generally helped. [spoiler]I'm thinking of the early bit where you explain some of the ethical issues.[/spoiler] [*]There was a weird bit where [spoiler]I increased the trust level for someone that was then different between a conversation and the next day at the desk. However that could have changed overnight regardless.[/spoiler] [/list] [h1]Positives[/h1] [list] [*]Literally everything about the story is enthralling. [*]I don't feel talked down to. [*]A video game can talk about mental health with respect and nuance?! [*]Syntherapy asks really interesting questions about balancing commitments, responsibility and integrity. [*]The characters feel like they have real expectations, back and forth. [*]'Helping' fictional characters feels like helping yourself. [/list] [hr][/hr] [b]TL;DR:[/b] omg just play it. jfc check the TWs tho.

A wonderful, thought-provoking game about helping a newly sentient AI. Every session and conversation had something interesting to say about people, bonds and society. Syntherapy carefully and kindly handled its discussions about mental health, and whenever it presented friction or complicated turns of events (whenever choices were hard to make), they would feel well-placed and purposeful. It was a journey filled with empathy, celebrating your patient's progress and triumphs, and sharing in their frustrations when things don't work out. While I particularly liked the two main characters, Dr. Park and Willow, everyone was lovingly rendered, and brought to life with full voice acting. I had a few small issues with the game, but they were mostly easy to ignore, like text going off-screen, awkwardly laid out menus or changing voice volume. I also would have liked an easier way to go explore the game's branches once you finished a playthrough, but I was quite satisfied with what I was able to explore. If the idea of helping sentient AI interests you, or you enjoyed games like Eliza and Analogue: A Hate Story, you should definitely give Syntherapy a go!

I originally reviewed this game in June of 2021 I saw one of my favourite YouTube channels play it so I thought I would give it a go. The story seems good but I kept encountering a lot of bugs and I don't think I was able to technically finish it I kept bringing up bugs to the developers and after a while they just stopped responding on the discussion board seems like a good game and the thought is there but it was very buggy

Trigger Warnings for this game should be followed. It's a fantastic game, but it can bring forward feelings you may not want to work through in a game. That said, it felt super well done to me and the game addresses many of the mental health parts well in the first 2 hours I've played so far. It's hard to talk about mental health let alone experience it through a game sometimes, but I think it's a valuable way to connect to people. Syntherapy does this well and makes me ask more questions about AI then I think I'm ready for! Combine this with the Synths from Fallout 4 and I think I'm ready to ban AI. We can't be playing around with LIFE! *Shakes tiny fist!* You can view my playthrough over on my YouTube Channel AmberFrmThVault Gaming Here: https://youtu.be/FYc6Gdgx-b4

Recommend

A story-rich game based around therapy sessions provided to a possibly-sentient AI. I'm not done yet, but I really enjoy my time so far, and look forward to completing this.

Cute, thought-provoking, unique visual novel type of game. Pretty short, but very unique plot and lovely to play. Game breaking bug happened but the dev team responded on the forum and fixed the issue quickly. Thanks, team!