You Can Save Everyone

Game is basically completely unplayable without an octagon or square-gated fight stick. Probably some of the worst controls of a video game I've ever played without one This game needs a big red ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ label saying 'VERY BAD CONTROLS DO NOT BUY UNLESS YOU HAVE A FIGHT STICK SURROUNDED BY A SHAPE. It's real bad. IF you have one, the story and gameplay might be pretty good- I like the premise and I love room-style games like this but I feel like they should emphasize that it was designed FOR an arcade stick and not gontroller.

I first wrote nearly 2,000 words about this game and my thoughts on it. But honestly, reading that would take nearly as long as just playing the game itself, so let me just cut right to why I think this game unfortunately fails. 1. It's designed to be played with a fight stick, something most puzzle fans aren't likely to have. 1a. The non-fight stick control options have lots of unsolvable issues and break immersion. 2. The meta puzzles generally get worse as they go, and further limit what controllers properly function. 3. The characters really don't have all that much going on. I didn't find any of them interesting. 3a. The villain character who tried to kill 2 others has a random change of heart and everyone forgives him. 4. The lore feels unfinished. Things like time-travel happen without any justification. 5. The mystery isn't that interesting. 6. The game's inspiration (no-one has to die) is too obvious, and invites unfavorable comparisons. 6a. A sizable amount of the game's story is just lifted from that game (time-travel, importance of parrots/cockatiels, the facility caused the death of a character's family member but they didn't really die, etc.), but here most of them feel tacked on and half-baked. 7. The game's ending is a sudden "power of friendship" type beat that's impossible to take seriously. 8. It's all a clumsy metaphor for depression that gets weaker the more you think about it. 9. In trying to be meta, it breaks its own story. The player's existence is never explained in favor of a fourth-wall break. I hate being so negative, because it's clear there was a lot of heart behind this game. But it feels derivative of a flash game from 2013, and all of its unique ideas wind up being negatives. Meta puzzles and narratives are both VERY easy to mess up, and this game serves as a perfect example of that.

I wish I could leave a 'neutral' review, because I did genuinely enjoy what of this game I was able to play. The story was interesting and the gameplay mechanic was conceptually interesting. HOWEVER. Playing with an xbox or other controller is NOT ideal, even though the game says that it is an okay alternative to the arcade stick. The game was designed for the arcade stick, even though this is hidden under the 'read more' section of the description, and I am sure it would be fantastic played on one. I do not own one. The fact that I can see this has been echoed in other reviews, and the devs have replied to at least one of those, shows that they are aware that people are buying the game without reading the full description and realising that the game is designed for an arcade stick, and are choosing to not make this prerequisite clearer. I understand that reading comprehension is a thing, but I don't think I should have to carefully read every part of a game description to know there is a controller requirement. This should be extremely clear, or listed in the System Requirements section. That's the main reason I am leaving this review as negative instead of positive, because I feel deliberately misled into buying a game I don't own the correct hardware for. The game itself is good! I enjoyed what I played! But without an arcade stick it's not worth buying imo.

i don't usually leave reviews but damn... that last music track had me really feeling like a superhero.

I found this game through Khanlusa's channel and was playing it 2 mins later (keyboard). I now finished it and am really amazed at the experience, while yes this is a great little game in itself, I also think it's an interesting tech demo. More games should come up with unique ways of playing the game. [spoiler] Also some critique, the title of the game is great and nicely acts as a reminder of what the goal is. And as I saw the surface for the first time, I was like "bet" and was ready to save the sister. But then the game over multiple dialogues (I think mainly from login) made it painfully obvious that I was able to save her, and it even restarted the run for me and nudged me into doing it. I would have preferred for is to be a bit more subtle and maybe leave me at the main menu from where I could jump back in from. That way it would have been more of a "let's see if I can do it" and not a "ok the game wants me to get the other ending". One other funny thing I wanted to mention, was that I was so terrified up until the leviathan was revealed the first time, the build up to that moment was great, from what was said, to the stuff written on the wall and the small sounds, I was really on the edge of my seat. Obviously, as soon as I saw the thing, all fear was gone. But I think making the leviathan's appearance more scary and unpredictable would have probably prevented a fair share of people from finishing the game. Although I would appreciate a from start to end scary game as well, it really seems like this dev has a feel for things like atmosphere, I'll be keeping an eye on anything new that releases from them. [/spoiler] Thank you for this experience 💜

While I do rate this game as a recommendation, that's with a very, very, VERY big asterisk. I'll come out of the gate and say it, the segment where you save Joy brings the whole experience down IMMENSELY. There's a reason 85.7% of people have gotten the achievement for ascending the first floor and then it drops to a staggering 46.6%. I understand the point of the scene - it's meant to throw you into the deep end and begin questioning the game's title, putting the player into a position where they're almost guaranteed to let Joy die on the first try. And for that, it's clever... for the first time. After that though, every reset you're taken back to the beginning of the conversation and have to mash through it to get back to the actual challenge. Then, you have to not only fight against the time limit and reversed controls, but also you're own controller. The game says at the beginning that it was built with a specialty controller in mind and it SHOWS - D-Pad is too stiff while control stick is way too loose. If you don't want to feel like you're pulling teeth like I did, wait until you get the code for a file that will disable the timer. Have the patience to let that play out because I'm certain you'll have a MUCH better time without having to deal with the timer. And it's a shame that one part is such a pain in the ass, because I think the rest of the game is a decently evocative story about overcoming depression. While the controls on controller aren't the most intuitive, most of the rest of the game is forgiving enough for it to not be much of a problem. And while I wouldn't say the story and characters were earth-shatteringly profound (I kinda found some parts on the corny side but that may be my lingering bitterness from the Joy section), I can appreciate the clear heart that went into telling this tale - to let other people know that they have the strength to push past their current troubles. Finding the codes for each of the files wasn't too hard, all numerical ones are given to you while the words are either the same or intuitive enough to feel good unlocking them. And the music is great, especially for the game's climax, would be willing to listen to that casually. Overall, I think this is a good game, just one with an absolutely abysmal section that can and likely will bring the experience down for most players. If you're still open to the idea of an interesting little experiment with cheesey-yet-heartwarming writing, I'd say to feel free to give it a shot. If nothing else, I'm still intrigued to see what this dev has coming up in the future.

Indie devs really be like "I'm going to give you one of the most emotionally impactfull pieces of fiction you have ever seen in your life with gameplay mechanics you've never even concieved of before. It will cost you 3€."

not for me, its a bit repetitive

A very cute game - thank you for this!