四魂-X Shikon-X Astro Defense Fortress

I must admit the game looked a bit random in the trailer, and yet it's a delightfully goofy narrative with a few clever arcade elements. I enjoyed most of the characters and got maybe a dozen of laughs playing it, there are a few very charming moments. I am not always a dedicated reader, but I thought the writing was enjoyable enough and kept my attention in most parts. It's about 2.5 to 3 hours, maybe a little longer if you read everything. There are 3 different elements to the game, there is a visual novel which is probably 40% of the length, there is some limited exploration with simple puzzles, and sometimes you will play a decently made arcade mini-game. Most of the puzzles were just a simple item delivery, find the item and automatically activate it by interacting with a correct location, mostly low stress as long as you not missing the hints in the dialogue, sometimes I felt like taking screenshots to remember certain elements. I probably got stuck 2 times in total for no more than 10 minutes, the game is not hard but some of the solutions were a bit too creative. On that note, I liked how some puzzles required a transformation or a different character, it just comes across as a playful experience where you constantly poking at different characters and get to see them react to your mischief. The story is a little odd, mainly because I thought you were not going to take it seriously given all of the meta jokes, but only at the very end it seems like the game wants you to be more absorbed in the story, and I am not sure that it really worked for me, the whole dark twist at the end didn't feel like the best place to end it on. I still enjoyed the whole self-aware part of the narrative, I kinda got the feeling that you were mostly making it for the lols, but I think the chemistry between the characters worked well, and the main character herself had a nice smug personality. [h1] Pros; [/h1] (+) Personally I liked most of the jokes, I think the characters worked well together, and it had some creative solutions for the puzzles that made me laugh. The design of the game overall comes across as very playful and it was fun to explore its limited locations. (+) Kind of a unique aesthetic to the game, like a weird mixture of 3 or 4 different art styles with a little bit of fan service XD. I especially liked the facial expressions on the character. It was fun going around poking at things. (+) Actually some decently made mini-games, relatively speaking I feel like you put more effort into them than a mini-game should justify, even though they kinda there to be part of the theme. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] - I thought ending was a bit abrupt and not very satisfying, I kinda wish you would draw a few extra panels for the character during the text roll, otherwise it just feels like the game kinda drops. On that note, I didn't feel like the game wanted me to take the story seriously at all until the very end, and then it kinda ends in a dark tone, so I am like, that wasn't really the tone up to this point. - Maybe a little hint saying "the supervisor could see me taking it" or something. I am not sure how I found the random rock, if there was a hint for it I totally missed it. - I am not sure that alarm frequency at the start was a good idea, if you can't figure out the solution right away, you gona listen to it for a bit [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] The game is kinda mostly made for the lols I feel, and to be fair it did make me laugh a lot, feels like the jokes are from the gamer for the gamer, a lot of silly references there, not scared of Disney huh? I liked the characters and most of the puzzles had very charming ideas, I just wish the ending felt a bit more wholesome than just kinda twisting the chill tone of the game. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

このようなヴィジュアルのゲームが、遥かチリのスタジオからやって来たこと、そのこと自体に驚き、心動かされました(ベネズエラからVA-11Hall-Aがやって来たときのように！) 私が生まれる前の日本のアニメが、地球の反対側に到達し、私がいまその残響を受け取ったという、そのことに！ ところで、2時間で終わってしまう作品のボリュームについては不満があります…続編を待っています

Something about this game intrigued me, maybe it's because I couldn't find much about it online. I'm glad I took time to check it out! It's short, but it is charming and I feel like it has love put into it. I enjoyed the humor and the characters. I hope the team will continue the story, I'd love to see more. I liked the mini-games and the character portraits were very nice. Keep it up guys, I enjoyed your game and hope to see more from you all in the future. :)

Как же я балдею от псевдотрёхмерности

This game is basically a controller-based adventure game with a dash of shmup thrown in. The plot is less Star Wars seriousness and more Spaceballs farce. The art style is anime-esque. Is it short? Yes. Is it sweet? Also yes. Is it worth $10? I would also say an additional yes. If you like puzzle-solving, shmups, and the lulz, this game is for you. As I said, it may be short, but it's very much worth the price.

アドベンチャーパートの導線が弱すぎて いちいち隅々まで調べたり何回も話しかけたりしないといけないので 大して中身のないストーリーもなかなか進まない もっとサクサクすすめてサクサク終わるゲームを期待していた。 雰囲気は良かったので残念

Shikon-X scratches an itch I have for short, focused games that pull in bits and pieces from a couple different genres. It's maybe five sixths walk-and-talk point-and-click (with no pointing or clicking) with a handful of quick arcadey sequences. Know that it [i]is[/i] very short – I think a little over a quarter of my four hours in-game was spent either afk or (VERY stupidly, [i]God[/i] I'm glad the developers couldn't watch me playing because they would have shoved my keyboard down my throat) trying to do the pinball game before I was supposed to. Overall, though, I'd call it brevity and a positive for the kind of game this is – it means the puzzles are straightforward and keep the momentum going. I'm trying to think of how to say more about the art and music than just "Was good, I liked" and I'm not sure I have the language for it. Was good! I liked. And the banter and Daaia's comments had me regularly "heh heh"-ing. A+ credit roll, too. I eagerly await Shikon-Y, and Shikon-Z, [i]and[/i] Shikon-α.

Venía esperando probar Shikon-X desde que jugué la demo hace un par de años. En aquel entonces me había llamado la atención la mezcla de estilos de juego y la historia parecia divertida por la personalidad de sus personajes y chistes que hacían. Todo eso está en la versión final y sigue siendo una agradable carta de amor a los videojuegos, al tener aún más minijuegos inspirados en otros juegos clásicos perfectamente aplicados a la trama (no se sienten forzados). También se nota el corazón en el guión y diálogos del juego. Otro punto alto es el apartado artístico, al que solo podría criticar algunos de los pixel art. Aún así, me resultaron increíbles las animaciones en dicho estilo y en conjunto me hicieron sentir jugando a alguna serie animada de los 80. Lo que me frustró un poco es que siento que es un juego corto que termina muy de repente. Pero bueno, eso también se debe a que me gustaría poder haber seguido jugando, lo que es una buena señal. Aún así, como la historia iba avanzando y tomando proporciones mayores y mas serias (lo que es otra cosa que me gustó bastante, a pesar de predecible) no sentí que Shikon-X iba a terminar donde terminó. Pero bueno, lo que se logró es un puntazo. Espero que Shikon-Y mantenga la calidad de X y que pueda salir pronto. Observación: me encantaría un modo para jugar los minijuegos separadamente.

Found it from discovery queue, beat it in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it. Short, but highly polished and fun. The characters/world/story are great, and the minigames are solid on their own and fit in nicely with the adventure. Props to the devs--they re-encoded their videos to make it fully Linux/proton compatible, and it ran perfectly for me.

Bastante bastante cortito pero divertido.