- Engaging, emotional narrative is central
- Cozy, calm atmosphere enhances experience
- High replayability with hidden details
- Satisfying object interaction puzzles
- Game-breaking bugs hinder progress
- Puzzles often lack clear direction
Emotions
Players find satisfaction in the game's high replayability, rich lore discovery, and overall pleasant experience, often highlighted by its charming style, atmosphere, music, and beautiful visuals. The gameplay involving cleaning and piecing together narratives, along with its concise yet impactful nature and fixed bugs, contributes significantly to this positive feeling.
Frustration primarily stems from numerous game-breaking bugs and minor glitches, such as falling items, non-functional puzzles, or lost progress, which severely disrupt gameplay. Additionally, issues like severe 3D motion sickness, unclear objectives, a short storyline, and the absence of a proper save function contribute to player annoyance and dissatisfaction.
Empathy arises from the game's deeply touching and relatable narrative, often prompting players to feel a shared emotional experience or connect personally with its themes of moving on. The storytelling, particularly through objects and the exploration of sad but familiar situations, evokes strong emotional responses, sometimes leading to tears.
Disappointment is mainly caused by the game's brevity, with many players wishing for more content and expressing that the experience felt too short. Additionally, encountering bugs that prevent further progression contributes to this negative feeling, as players are unable to complete a game they wanted to continue playing.
Appreciation is directed towards the game's high artistic quality, including its lovely environmental storytelling, beautiful art style, and music, which collectively create a wholesome and cozy experience. Players also acknowledge and thank the developers for their work, the game's compelling themes, and its perceived value, often considering it a favorite indie title.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 89% · Negative 11%. Score: 11 / 100
Positives:
- Players found the narrative deeply moving and emotionally resonant, often relating to its themes of growth, letting go, and personal experiences, including specific cultural references. The story is effectively pieced together through environmental cues, character interactions, and impactful choices. It often leaves players feeling nostalgic or reflective.
- The game provides a calm, peaceful, and warm atmosphere, making it a relaxing and meditative experience. It's often recommended for unwinding or enjoying during a quiet evening, with its unique and cozy vibes and summer feel.
- Players appreciate the game's replayability, finding new details, lore, and deeper immersion on subsequent playthroughs. This includes specific hidden references and encourages multiple engagements to fully uncover the narrative.
- The game's art style is consistently praised as beautiful, wholesome, and artistic, effectively conveying a melancholic yet charming aesthetic. The background music and ambient sounds greatly contribute to the immersive and emotional atmosphere.
- Players enjoy the core gameplay loop of cleaning and organizing rooms, finding it immensely satisfying to transform cluttered spaces. The ability to examine and rotate collected items to uncover lore and narrative details is a key and appreciated mechanic.
Negatives:
- Numerous players reported critical bugs such as puzzles not registering, items falling through environments, unmovable objects, and issues with action sequencing. These glitches often prevent game completion, achievement earning, or require restarts. Some pre-release bugs were fixed, but others remain.
- Some players found certain puzzles challenging to understand or felt there wasn't enough guidance on the next steps. This occasionally resulted in aimless searching and frustration when trying to progress.
- Reviewers noted that very small items, often lacking visual highlights, could easily get lost within rooms or fall into unreachable areas. This made them difficult to locate, impeding puzzle solving.
- Players indicated that the game's narrative required significant effort to piece together and fully grasp. The story's progression or meaning was not immediately clear to some.
- One player reported the absence of a robust save function, which prevented them from easily rolling back progress for achievement hunting or correcting mistakes, limiting flexibility.
Gameplay:
- The primary gameplay involves cleaning messy rooms by sorting items into correct containers, solving puzzles like code-locked boxes, and reading notes. Players can carry multiple items simultaneously to streamline the tidying process.
- The game progresses linearly through three friends' rooms (August, Beth, Ivy), each offering slightly varied gameplay focused on their stories. Players cannot revisit previous rooms, emphasizing the narrative journey and discovering character relationships in a slow-paced manner.
- The game is relatively brief, with reviewers noting a completion time of around 2-3 hours for 100% completion, including achievements. This suggests a concise experience, possibly for a couple of playthroughs.
- Gameplay includes simple mini-games for certain items, like painting, photo development, or using an eraser/stamp for character cards. Once items are placed, they can no longer be examined, prompting players to read everything first. Instructions often come from in-game narrative items like cassette tapes.
- The game offers helpful visual cues for item placement, such as a one-time highlight for the correct container when picking up a new item type. Players can also enable persistent outlines for all containers, and important progress items always indicate their destination.
Performance:
- Players discovered that many minor in-game glitches, such as unplaced items, could consistently be resolved by simply saving their game and then reloading it. This suggests a common workaround for various small technical issues.
- There's a mixed sentiment regarding the game's stability; some players note developer efforts in bug fixing, while others acknowledge that some bugs are still present but view this as normal for a release. There's a general hope for continued improvements.
- Some players initially found the mouse movement to be too fast. However, the game allows for mouse sensitivity adjustments, enabling players to customize it to their liking and resolve this initial discomfort.
Recommendations:
- Players enthusiastically recommend the game, citing high replayability and excellent value for money. Many consider it a must-play experience and express a strong desire to return to it.
- The game resonates with fans of narrative-driven, meditative puzzles and 'cozy' games, drawing comparisons to titles like 'Life is Strange' or 'Unpacking.' It's ideal for those seeking a slow-paced journey and wholesome narrative.
- A fatal bug initially led to negative reviews, but its resolution completely reversed player sentiment to strong recommendations. This highlights the crucial impact of technical stability on overall player satisfaction.
- Some players indicate they might return or would appreciate further engagement if new updates or additional content are released. This suggests a desire for ongoing development or content expansion.
- Reviewers express significant anticipation for the developers' future 'cozy projects.' This indicates strong brand loyalty and a positive association with the developer's distinct game style.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is characterized as a story-driven puzzle experience, frequently compared to 'Unpacking' and 'Life is Strange'. It delves into themes of moving on and saying goodbye, notably featuring prominent gay themes that resonate with players.
- One reviewer noted that while they typically don't experience motion sickness in similar games, they mentioned it in the context of this game, suggesting it could be a factor for some players.
- A key quality-of-life suggestion is to implement highlighting for interactive items, especially when they are inactive or when only a few items remain. This would help players locate objects more easily and prevent frustration.
