You Shouldn't Be Here

damn

The story uses a little too much: [i]"If I use a bunch of complicated verbiage and nuanced surrealist terms my game will sound deep"[/i] but it is a very unsettling, well written experience about a heavy topic. The pixel art is gorgeous and the scares were fun, definitely worth it.

it was truly a once-in-a-life-time-just-jump-in-it-with-no-knowledge type of game. I loved how the game played and it brought some tears to me.

Oh... Short and pretty depressing. Grim subject matter. Really like the visuals. Music helps elevate each scene. It put into words things I've thought about but never really known how to word them succinctly. (Incase this somehow gets misconstrued in anyway: no, I am not suicidal. I am fine. If you feel that way you should talk to someone though.) [spoiler] that boy do piss tho [/spoiler]

6/10 Sad story, no happy ending here. [spoiler] Unless you count flipping off your inner demons a happy ending. [/spoiler] Deals with dark topics and it plays like a haunting graphic novel (instead of a game, as there are no real choices just reading a novel) and covers the cycle of addiction. I do like how relatable it is and the pixel graphics are nice. For the price it is worth a play, but maybe not for young viewers as it does expose players to extreme depressive emotions and topics of suicide and overdose.

A short linear VN that's really well done

A short & sinister narrative experience! It was quite capitivating and in some ways whimsical, despite the haunting metaphors and dark themes. Can't quite describe this game but can say that was a unique and vivid experience for sure! If you like dark crawling narratives give this ago!

Should have been a web comic. you Shouldn't Be Here is a short story fashioned as a visual novel. The game inundates you with "choices", but with only 3-4 exceptions, those choices aren't real. Even when they are real, they don't change anything, as this is just a simple and short story. If you don't pick up on what this story is about before the end, I'd be VERY surprised as its very on the nose. Even if this was a free game, or a web-comic, I don't think I'd consider it a very good one. It's obvious that the game is trying to be very moving with its prose, but it really feels more pretentious than meaningful. With how much positivity there is in other reviews, I thought this game might be a hidden gem. It really isn't.

The stylized pixel art and moody score are the highlight of this short experience. That being said, the pixel art swings wildly in quality—at times it is oddly childish, other times genuinely beautiful and surreal. Unfortunately, the tedious, albeit verbose, narrative seems to constrain the artwork. Rather than the narrative being interspersed with dreamlike poetry, the dev has chosen the opposite route: The poem is broken up with shards of narrative and worldbuilding. The writing constantly shifts between child-like, simplistic narration and overly-complex, adjective-heavy prose that desperately attempts to force profundity upon the player. Unsuccessfully. This game sits on the razor's edge between visual novel and digitized illustrated book Gameplay mechanics are extremely light bordering on the non-existent. There are a handful of jump-scares and only one actual "choice" that i came across during my playthrough. The "wrong" decision lead to instaDeath. However, the character quickly respawns at their point of death and is no longer able to "choose" the previous death-laden path. As such, there's no tension or consequence to any player action as far as i can tell. I would go as far as to say that I believe one could blindly click through the game and end with the same overall result. What kept me going was the underlying sense that one is only seeing the tip of the iceberg - because despite the short length of the experience, i was often bored and continuously had to weigh the option of just exiting the game and requesting a refund (but that felt "wrong" for something that currently cost less than a dollar). I persevered as there's seemed to be a much richer world and lore bubbling underneath. Alas, i was mistaken.... The experience consistently drops sermons of existential introspection and thinly veiled metaphors about addiction, drug use, and the crushing roles society forces on the lower classes. The ideas aren't bad in it of themselves - but the execution is dismal. Disappointingly, the commentary felt like forced trappings on a multimedia vehicle meant to promote a singular poem. Despite the low price (even on sale), this one is difficult to recommend. Its not that it's a bad "game" (experience?) its that it should probably be free or the "prologue" to something much grander.

Very short but otherwise very beautiful in the message it wants to impart cause boy do i love horror waxing philosophical at me.