demo-a-day

i didn't feel up to doing much gameplay-wise, and i didn't want to wait and risk forgetting to play a demo, so i decided to go for a visual novel today. i've played most of the visual novels by nomnomnami - credited here as sophie gray - so i was sure i would like this one. and i did! the demo is short, but it's enough to get a feel for her writing style and what the story has to offer. her style is simple but effective: not particularly flowery, but not boring either.

you play as ash, a chronically ill 22-year-old who's spent the last seven years in the hospital. she wakes up dead in an unfamiliar hospital. she runs into two other dead folk, scarlett and celadon. now, she has to figure out how to return to life. i liked all the characters a lot! my favorite personality-wise is probably celadon, and my favorite design-wise is death.

i didn't go through every possible choice, but i'm considering this the start of my first playthrough of the full game, so i won't be seeing those for a while. the game's on sale as of writing this, though it's already not particularly expensive, so check it out if you're interested!

this game is SOOOO cute! i love the low poly models and the color palatte. the game also opens with a cute 2D intro. everything about this game nails my favorite aesthetic. the gameplay is really fun too! you play as an intern designing galaxies. during your first tutorial, though, things go a little haywire...

that's right: the entire galaxy gets erased. CRAZY. after this, the game introduces us to the overworld. it's a cute 3D environment where you can run around and talk to the employees at bubblegum galaxy. the characters are all quirky and charming in their own unique way. my personal favorite is magda.

the galaxy building gameplay is really fun and pretty intuitive! i don't play a lot of games like this, so i don't know how it compares to the rest of the genre, but i really enjoyed it. you have goals you want to accomplish with each galaxy and you earn more points if tiles are the same color or the edges have the same things on them, but you're pretty free to do what you want. i only did two of the five or six planets available in the demo, but i'll be coming back to do the rest before the game releases! it has no set release date, but it's projected to come out sometime this year, so check it out!

this was a great demo! it's an action rpg, which i'm notoriously bad at, so i died like five or six times, but i think for someone who actually knows what they're doing this might not be too challenging. there are actually achievements, which i assume depend on how you treat fade, but i didn't feel like hunting them all down. i've actually been following the devs on tiktok since before the kickstarter, so i've seen most of what was in the demo already. i'm unfortunately too late to support the kickstarter, but i've finally checked it out!

rather than fade being the player character, you play as someone or something controlling her. it's a very short demo - it took me less than half an hour to complete one playthrough - so i won't go over the story of it too much. i liked all the characters, though my favorite we will probably never see again. i liked the dynamic between fade and ooma too, despite how brief their interactions were.

the bulk of combat works like a typical arpg, but you also have the option to shift into the nightworld. in it, time stops for your enemies and you can attack freely. visually, it's really interesting! i love the style the enemies are drawn in there. i found that shifting was the only way to really attack the faster enemies, which is likely what it was designed for. when the mechanic was first introduced, i for some reason decided i could only attack enemies in the nightworld, which is crazy inefficient - you can only stay there for a few seconds at a time and it takes a while to regain the ability once you shift back. you can unlock spells as well, but i never got to use any since i didn't unlock them until after all the combat of the demo was over. i think that's on me, though.

all in all, a fun demo! i'm excited to see the rest of the game. it's not coming out any time soon, but i'll be continuing to follow the devs on tiktok and i'll be following the game on steam as well.

i forgot to get pictures this time because i'm not wise. i had quite a bit of fun with this though! it pays loving homage to old-school MMORPGs, which i haven't played much of. i loved runescape and i played a little WoW as a kid, but that's about my experience. all in all, this was pretty fun! i didn't get super far, but i can definitely see myself coming back to it. i think it's fun to see all the little pretend other players running around and chatting, and i enjoy fighting with them as well.

the combat is pretty similar to an old-school RPG. you target an enemy, you attack it, and you auto attack until it dies, casting spells or skills all the while. i chose to play a paladin, so i had kick and an aggro-inducing spell i forget the name of. you can also invite "other players" to your party to fight with you. i invited one player to tackle the bandit's den with me and i really liked it! i tank in ffxiv all the time, so it felt pretty natural to me. this made me want to play ffxiv again, or maybe check out WoW finally. (like i can afford another MMO right now, haha)

all in all, i recommend it! i will say that i was a little bit confused at first - one npc i thought i had to talk to in chat, but it turned out i was supposed to give him an item. it's not always super clear what you're supposed to do, but if i understood the warning that came up when i opened the game correctly, this is intentional. it's meant to replicate the feeling of playing an old MMO, and as far as i know it's pretty faithful to that! whether you're an oldhead or, like me, you're kind of new to the genre, erenshor is worth checking out! it's also 10% off as of writing, so... :)

i had a blast with this demo! the animation is so fun and there's so much of it. the characters are charming, especially the main character ringo. i enjoy the combat, too! it's a unique take on turn-based combat imo. instead of choosing a single move, you string words together to create your attacks. one word describes the action - for example, kick or block - and the other words are modifiers that make it stronger or add an element to it. i really like the character design and the artstyle is reminiscent of old-school anime, which i've never watched but always liked looking at. i also thought wolfe was kinda fine. sorry not sorry.

i didn't complete the demo, though i think i got most of the way through. i'll definitely be finishing it later and i hope to get the game when it comes out september 19! i recommend checking it out.