Hypnospace outlaw is less of a game than semi-visual novel - an experince which you can really only have once. It is clearly a labour of love and passion by the dev team and an application of effort far beyond expectations for a normal team. It is hilarious, self aware and passionate. The biggest issue is just how nitche it is, catering particually and specifically to nostalgia for millenials who remeber the "old internet". Those without the exprience of garish hompages and idiosycratic blogs which perveyed the experice of "surfing" the internet in the 90's and early 2000's will in most cases be initially turned off. The process of playing the game is paradigm of sheilding your eyes from worce and worce mostrocities of idiosyncractic design and sound, which is charming and even impressive if you understand the context and satire of the game, but offputting if you were too young to experince this time period, or just did not frequent the internet during this time. The game just drops you in the deep end of startlingly outdated UIs and Synthesied Music and then shrugs, expecting you to get it really. Perhaps an onboarding system or disclaimer, helping other who arent immidiately familar with the topic of satire would have helped adjust expectaions and permitted borader appeal. Greater use of Video and Interactive mini-games in exchange for reading could have been applied to move Hypnospace outlaw less in the realm of visual novel and more in the realm of multi-media point-and-click adventure game - this might have also boadended it's appeal, especially with the ultra-innovative premise it may have been a massive hit. This is not to critisise the game, i Love it, if you have read this far you should just play it - your expectations have already been set just by reading this and you will not be startled or confused. The game is a masterpeice, I am only brainstorming ways it could have been more commerically succssesful and conseqeuntly prodused more sequals.
