Ikenfell

Story: 3/5 The story is pretty uneven. Some parts are really well-written. Some parts are really poorly-written. On their own, most individual story beats are fine, but they're strung together in a repetitive, linear fashion. There are some pretty glaring plot holes. Sometimes there's no connection between what you just did and what you have to do now. Half of the game is a massive series of fetch quests. The best parts are the ones where you DON'T know exactly what you're looking for. It's not BAD - just not consistently great - and the good parts are quite good. The relationships...were not all handled well, in that there was no onscreen development to make them make sense. Gameplay: 4/5 It's a turn-based, tactical JRPG with heavy timed-button-press elements. It's implemented pretty well, but if you don't git gud at timing (or turn on auto mode) you die. Unfortunately some characters are objectively way worse than others so you never use some characters. Exploration is fun and rewarding and, except for three separate libraries, the environments are unique and well-designed. Music: 3/5 Ima's song is stupid. A song about Santa and Martin Luther King, Jr.?? In a fantsy not-Earth where God is a space whale and the gods are ravens, cats, owls, mammoths, etc.? And the place it plays makes no sense. ...most of the rest of the soundtrack is good, or at least OK, and there are a few really good, atmospheric, memorable tracks. But Ima's song...it's been awhile since a game so abruptly destroyed my immersion, lol. It's the one thing I'll remember about this soundtrack in five years. Graphics: 4/5 Solid pixel graphics. Characters and areas are unique and well-designed. They cheat sometimes with vector graphics, which usually look worse than the pixel graphics. Overall: 3.5/5 Fun, and notable for being the LGBTQIA-est game I think I've ever seen, although it stands on its own merits as a fun game, separate from that. Needs polish, but the good outweighs the bad.

This is a very "LGBTQ" game. I imagine it gets a lot of hate for this fact, because it does seem contrived. How did they manage to have every character be gay, bisexual, non-binary, or transgender? It isn't exactly in-your-face with this, but as the characters are introduced and the story progresses, it becomes obvious that this is one of the major themes of the game. The first character that they introduced as gay, I didn't think anything of it. Not exactly mind-blowing. But as the reveals came more and more, I began to see what was going on. One character was gay, then another, then one used neo-pronouns. Then I realized they never used any gendered pronouns for one character. I see what's going on now... At first, it was distracting because it felt so contrived. But then I began to think, does it really matter? I didn't even *notice* one of the characters was not referred to by gendered pronouns the entire game. At the end of the day, almost all narratives are contrived. Would I stop watching a movie just because all the characters are black? Does it take anything away from the story telling? No, not really. Most of this stuff wasn't even obvious until 50% of the way through the game, anyway. On the subject of the game itself, I love it. One thing I absolutely love is low-number balancing in RPGs. 1 damage is normal, and 2 damage is high. That's the difference between 1 turn or 2 turns! One of the main mechanics of the game is Mario RPG-style QTEs. Pressing a button at a specific point buffs your abilities. There's basically 3 potential outcomes for every ability. 50%, 100%, or 200% strength. I would have probably given up after the first hour if it wasn't for the ability to turn these QTEs off. The punishment for not hitting the QTEs is massive, which would have really dampened my enjoyment of the game. The pacing is great, the characters develop well during the game, and the plot is compelling. I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of strategy RPGs.

mostly a story driven "jrpg" where you have a quicktime event with every attack. except for the cheesiness my biggest problem with the game was, that there was no good indication for some attacks, when's the best time to press the button. i think with some attacks you even have to press the button before the attack hits, while you mostly have to press it, right when the attack hits. after figuring an attack out, it's all "crits" from there on.

Woke, LGBT+ positive, mental health positive, handles sensitive topics with sensitive care.