A very pretty but otherwise "just okay" Metroidvania. Movement and overall control generally feel fine but the enemy AI is quite simplistic and combat scarcely evolves much beyond the opening tutorials; most of the "challenge" along the way can be laid at the feet of annoying baddie placements that further limit your options and encourage - if not require - plodding, repetitive "cheese" strategies to force your way past them. Boss encounters in particular, it should be noted, are all over the place; some are "...wait, that's it?" simple to conquer while others will fill the screen with so many random and at times undodgeable attacks that whether you have ample time to recover or are invariably crushed can come down to the luck of the draw. The setting and story work just fine to keep things moving forward, but progress felt gratingly padded thanks in large part to a striking lack of QOL features genre fans have come to expect; fast travel is very limited, the map can't be manually marked, pre-boss dialogue can't be skipped even on retry, and even the loading segments between certain zones constantly slow you down and stretch the journey out considerably more than they ought to. My playthrough took between 6 and 7 hours, but felt considerably longer; the occasional crash I experienced within that span certainly didn't help matters. All that being said, however, the impeccably stylish window dressing throughout is impressive enough that for some it will be worth grinding through the low points; the developers are apparently at work on another metroidvania title at the time of this writing, so hopefully they'll be able to use this release and the feedback it's garnered as a stepping stone to a more robust and polished end product. As things stand for 9 Years of Shadows right here and now, though, I'd recommend that anyone still suitably intrigued wait for a significant discount before giving it a whirl, while most everyone else should be safe giving it a pass.
In so many words, this is the sort of video game you'll be eager to show to people who aren't terribly into video games, as it's an attractive and accessible example of how much unique and innate potential the medium contains beyond blasting another round of space aliens. The detailed storybook-style visuals and relaxed soundtrack combined with a wordless (if somewhat superfluous) story and instantly-graspable controls will prompt pretty much anyone with so much as a passing interest to sit themselves down and start experimenting with the pictures, gradually and naturally discovering how the game's "world" works and what manner of pleasing spatial gimmicks the designers are guiding them towards. It should be noted that the game is quite short even if you get stuck for a bit at certain points (as I did), so for some it might be a bit of an ask at full price, but even for those folks I definitely recommend giving Gorogoa a try once it's a couple bucks off; it's an experience not quite like anything else out there, and its makers, in my estimation, have certainly earned a bit of time and money from anyone who can appreciate an end product that sets strict, meaningful limits for itself and does all it needs to within those confines.
A short and predictably silly title that plays more or less like a simplified 2D Zelda and does indeed involve a sentient turnip shirking his lawful financial obligations. Not very deep or challenging, though the developers state right off the cuff that they're primarily concerned with accessibility here, so one can't complain too much about not knowing what they're in for. When approached from that angle the game isn't bad for what it is, but the bizarre theme is obviously intended to fill in the sizeable gaps that exist most everywhere else, and personally I found that a lot (though not all) of the much-ballyhooed humor emitted a distinct "this is funny because we're presenting it as funny" vibe, though others' mileage will likely vary. Personally I'd recommend it only at a significant discount, since it went by so fast and offered so little beyond the "yup, we're wacky enough to actually call our game that" factor that I struggle to remember much of it beyond that admittedly fetching name.
Over the course of a few days I cobbled together some thoughts about this game, the first one I ever felt compelled to post a review of on GOG...turns out, it was a few thousand words too long for this site. As such, I'll offer an abridged handful of things you might want to note about my experience with Phoenotopia Awakening: - I am not a person who tends to enjoy games that get frustrating. - Phoenotopia Awakening had me raging more than any other title I've played in recent memory. - I still finished the game. - My final stats were over 70 hours played and a 97 percent completion rate. - Upon finishing up I immediately sought out and played the original Phoenotopia Flash game as well. - The vast majority of my time with Awakening was actually on Steam; my GOG purchase was a day-one double-dip. If you're interested in the original, more complete account of how all of this came to pass, I posted that at the following location: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198109626876/recommended/1436590/ Long story short: not everyone is going to be able to get into this one, but if this game's proverbial bug bites you you're not going to be able to tear yourself away: try it, and if you decide to keep it you will absolutely be getting more than your money's worth. It isn't perfect, but it is undoubtedly something special.
