Celestial Return

10/10 This game is a trip. Play it.

I love it

👍

I'm going to recommend it because I liked enough about it for it to outweigh what I didn't like. I really liked the willingness to not go all out on the cyberpunk weirdness but keep it at a measured level. It can get a bit overwhelming jumping into a story like this where you spend half your time wondering what things are. There was enough context to keep me going without feeling left out of the loop. The narrative, while being a bit disjointed and plagued with time skips, was a great exploration of a cyberpunk world with heart in it. The writing was good if a bit weird at times, but I imagine that was due to translation more than any lack of expertise. There were definitely some detracting factors though. For starts, the menus were a bit janky and without enough explanation. Passives and actives sat empty for the vast majority of my playthrough to the point where I wasn't sure there were any available to me. Over the course of the game, there are points of no return that you can get trapped in. I'd appreciate if there was something that would come up saying "Hey this is the chapter-ending area, are you sure?" so I don't miss anything. This meant a few occasions where I missed out on some additional lore or unlocks. Speaking of which, I HATED that I could see greyed out conversation points. Awful. If I haven't unlocked them, they should be hidden. Another thing I didn't quite get were the transitions between chapters. There were times when the title splash screens would come so often that it would take me out of the story that is being told. This was especially pronounced in the final chapter where there would be title screens after every conversation. On a similar note, I didn't quite get the point of the videos in the interscene transitions. Like the game is about to end and it's really high tension and then BAMN. Penguin? Still, I liked the vibe and enough of it to be excited to see what the team does next.

Refunded the game after playing the prologue and a bit after that. What I didn't like: - You have some dialogue options that allowing rolling dice in the prologue, but after experimenting with them via save/load I realised that your choices in that prologue dialogue don't really affect anything, it ends the same way. If it is a "Disco Elysium" like RPG then make sure your dice rolls actually do something or just don't offer them and make a visual novel, both options are viable. - The game features "Inner voices" that can argue with each and talk to you. Why do people copy this element from Disco Elysium is beyond me, just player Esoteric Ebb that did the same. Don't do it. Make a text-heavy rpg where your dialogue choices actually matter and change things, no need to copy this very specific element from Disco Elysium. Maybe the game becomes better later, but the prologue didn't impress me enough to continue playing.

niiiiiiiice！

A supernatural, detective-noir experience with a mentally unstable protagonist, amusing side characters, and a morality driven narrative touching on the meaning of (or lack thereof) existence. What's not to love? This is equally parts art and game with some terrific music and (actual) artwork displayed to compliment the atmosphere of the story. You'll be thinking how beautiful one piece is while the next may make you feel repulsed. It's clearly a passion project by a talented team and deserves to be recognized as such. Check the game out. Even if you only play through it once (and you will likely want multiple playthroughs) $15 for such a unique and compelling experience is well worth it.