There's almost only good things about this game: The visuals are wonderful, the complex looks nice and atmospheric and is varied enough to keep interesting. The story is just as atmospheric. The controls are very pleasing. The monster follows your mouse and it creates a feeling for moving as a flowing mass and combat is made to work around this. The abilities cover 60s - 80s scifi highlights and each one makes you really happy to have found it. And finally the game runs perfect on Linux, that alone is worth a star. The music isn't bad but it's minimal. It serves the atmosphere, so this is a neutral point. There's some minor faults though: Even doing everything, the game will take no more than 8 hours. The project is good though, so I happily support it with 20€, but I'd just as happily played another 6 hours. The game could be a tad more difficult. There's a few rooms you have to tackle 3 or 4 times, but most are a challenge that only requires that you don't make a serious mistake. There is too much about without any gameplay challenge. Because of the atmosphere, this isn't annoying, but even nice filler is filler. There is a very cool side story in the game, which could have been expanded on much more. So what's in there is good, there just could be more of it. For a first project by what's basically a two people studio, this game, even if not perfect, is an absolute gem. If the pictures look good to you, buy it, so there'll be a second part. It holds up to its promises.
A story about feudal Japan told in multiple missions. There's a nice amount of dialogue and an actual plot with a tad character development, which is actually more than I expected from the genre. The gameplay will give you what you expect. Many missions look impossible at first glance, but the game is a very fair challenge. Even though you might find yourself tacking a specific situation half a dozen times before it works out, a handy quick save/load feature means that even a dozen attempts won't take too long, so you'll have a steady flow of progress, making the game enjoyable, while feeling like you earned your successes, The levels are relatively straight forward, not offering widely varying paths, even if they do leave you a choice between to approaches now and then. But this never feels like a problem, as what's there is entertaining. The only downside I could mention is that the graphics could be better, but they're not ugly by any means. The world is nicely designed, both in visuals and in tone of the story, painting a stylish Renaissance Japan without being too melodramatic or excentric. I personally would also like more complex levels or skills, but at the same time I never felt that anything was actually lacking while gaming. So all criticisms boil down to: "I want MORE of this", and if this is all that's to complain about a game, it clearly has earned its 5 stars. I hope we'll see a sequel some day.
