Night in the Woods: Weird Autumn Edition

The art is great, the soudtrack is awesome, the characters are likable and relatable, the writing has depth - but the game is nothing of it. Foremost the pacing is severely off. You get a story bone thrown at the beginning of chapter 1 (of 4) and then essentially nothing evolves the story until late in chaper 3 where all the buildup is done and 'resolved' (ok, you cannot actually resolve 'cosmic horror' but what gives) in chapter 4, where events start to tumble over each other in the race for the ending. Until then you make your daily round and pick one of up to four activities for that one day, depending which character you want to hang out with and thus forced to skip the others and force you though replays with all the tedious fillers. The single buddy-stories, by themselves, are always great and utterly funny but the gameplay fillings between them just feels tedious. Then there is game mechanics. Every night you have to Jump n Run through you repetitive dreams, which also barely drive foreward the story or make a great setting and just feel tedious and more like labor than fun. They want to come across as 'the wonders of exploration' but they just aren't. The only reward for exploring is, that you are allowed to continue with the story. You are also getting thrown into minigames that are designed for you to fail, giving no explanation of the mechanics you are supposed know by psychic foresight. It's not that these mini-games are 'unwinable', but they feel so utterly tedious and pointless. I downright hated the unmotivated difficulty spike of the Guitar Hero-Minigame (and I was pretty good at PaRappa, once!). See, I love Novelle Vague and Existentialism and the themes of the 'small big adventures of daily normal life' and I appreciate the buddy-stories NITW has to tell but I don't agree with the direction of the whole. The ~10 hours this game lasts feel way longer than they are. NITW would have been great as a cartoon series, I guess.

One of the best, most touching games I've ever played. The story is beautifully written. All of it, all of the emotions and experiences of the main characters are spot-on, taken from real life and put into words perfectly. If you go through similar stuff as our heroes (and I do), you will definitely feel as if they're reading your mind. Some of the things discussed were real salt into my wounds and made me cry a lot, but I'd say it's a good thing – I wouldn't be crying if it was poorly written and I couldn't really emphatize with the characters. The mystery part, the thing in the woods, without spoilers – up until very end I had no idea what to expect, so it definitely kept me entertained and I wasn't disappointed after the reveal. The graphics are simply great, I really like the style. Possum Springs look lovely, characters look cool, what's not to like? Soundtrack is OUT OF THIS WORLD, I'd give the game two stars based only on the music! The dialogue options give you a whole lot of choices and you also have a lot of options when it comes to how you spend your day as Mae. I do wish the in-game days were longer, sometimes I only did a thing or two, but then again, time flies in real life as well. The minigames were a lot of fun, so no complaints there either. Only thing that kind of left me stranded were some of the open ends. Maybe it was the way I played and choices I made, but some of the stories kind of feel like they weren't finished. And since I loved the story so much, it really does leave me wanting more :) But thank to the variety of options, the game is definitely replayable (even though mysterious thing in the woods won't be so mysterious anymore), so I'm looking forward to the next run already! TL;DR: If you're looking for a breath of fresh air, something simply different, give this game a chance! This is not a sci-fi nor a fantasy, it's just a normal life of normal people affected by not so normal events.

This Adventure has some very light platforming, but more of a focus on exploration and social interaction. The way the towns little mysteries unfold is neat, prodding you to explore and wonder at what lies beyond this door or that gate. You talk to people in the town and hang out with friends, building relationships, and sometimes getting pretty philosophical. This game has a LOT of themes that it explores. Many nights, though, you have these really weird dreams that aren't quite nightmares, exactly, but are dark and have these monstrous animal gods erupting near the end; naturally, this is building to something. And it does, but without going too far into spoiler territory, everything goes back to normal without really being truly resolved. I'm still not sure how I feel about this game, and that's how it's been the whole way through. The autumn colors are lovely, of course, and the occasionally rainy weather only expands that. It's really all over the place, though, and maybe not good from a traditional storytelling perspective, but it's not bad, either. When people aren't saying much of anything, they don't drone on and on about it, like in some games, but the tone is so wildly inconsistent. All told, I'm glad to have had the experience, because I've never seen anything written quite like it, but it was so many wildly different things that I can't really process any of it. Mae is kind of an asshole, and a decent portion of the game is forcing you to ruin her life further, but she's also a good person, and it isn't really complexity so much as inconsistency. All told, maybe pick it up on sale, but it's an experience worth having, even if it's hard to process it all.

Something about this game just clicks with me. The likeable characters with very real and relatable problems, the ever-present dreamy feeling, the melancholic atmosphere of a little town in autumn, the truly amazing music and even a fully realised game inside the game - it all feels just right. The only drawbacks I can think of are some of the more confusing dream sequences - although that's kinda the point, I suppose - and the somewhat abrupt ending, but I am reaching. It's one of those things that I wish could go on forever.

As someone who is an older millennial and is partners with someone going through mental struggles, this felt relatable to life experiences. The protagonist is a brat, but the reasons seem mostly out of their control, and the game takes a steady approach towards showing you that. Great visual novel that might not work with audiences who haven't lived it.