DON'T GIVE UP: A Cynical Tale

[i] DON'T GIVE UP [/i] is a charming game about mental illness, determination, and the power to look on the bright side of life. Typically with (very) small indie games like these (with <100 reviews) you expect unpolished "stream of consciousness" that only lasts an hour or two. This, I'm happy to report, is quite the opposite. While it does have its rough edges (looking at you volume mixing -- RIP my ears), it's an enjoyable experience with a beautiful color palette and design, fantastic music, and humor reminiscent of [i] Undertale [/i]. The combat can feel clunky at times, but was only an issue for me (keyboard+mouse user) in the last couple of battles. Definitely worth a try!

The overall vibe of the game is very charming. Colourful characters with awesome music. Minimalist combat system that doesn't get old. The only thing that could be improved upon would perhaps be the gap between the easy and normal mode. I played on normal mode throughout the whole game until i hit Vezel phase 2. After dying many times, i tried easy mode just to see but then it was too easy. I could almost get hit by everything and my hp barely went down. But aside from that, good work! I really enjoyed the game from beginning to end :D

Really enjoying this game so far. It's clearly a labor of love and scratches that itch for a game taking place in a modern setting. It's clearly pretty personal for the developer and you can tell they put a lot into making this. The game itself so far seems to be 70% funny 30% serious, getting quite dark at times. Much of the humor lands, ranging from relatable observations to some cringe comedy, but generally you'll be rooting for the main character as opposed to laughing at him. And there's enough humor to make the moments where things get serious really stand out. I did encounter one bug that froze my character in place and made me have to reset, and I'd have made the autosave function a little more generous, but this is a unique project and is telling an engaging story that's funny, compelling, and relatable. I recommend giving it a shot.

Once again, caveat that the binary nature of the Steam review system means I tend to grade on a curve if I don't flat out DESPISE a game. That said, I see the game this was meant to be, and it's very cute with a neat battle system. The music is fantastic, both feeling nostalgically familiar but also distinctly for DON'T GIVE UP: A Cynical Tale. Certainly there are a few tweaks here and there that could improve the game: - sometimes it's hard to go through doors, or tell which doors are active - lots of empty areas that might have been for something but didn't get finished - would like to be able to adjust text speed uniformly, rather than the first line always autoscrolls, with subsequent lines able to be skipped all at once (and possibly too fast) - more than the one save slot I overlook most of these because it's a very indie game (and feels more documentary than not), so I'm inclined to be more impressed that a single person can create this much content, vs. if this had been from a larger, established company. It is on the more difficult side (especially New Game +) if you aren't able to figure out the timing and boss patterns, but I do think it's worth a playthrough!

cons: Don't give up has an interesting premise, but in my opinion is falls short halfway thorough the story. the villain seemed interesting but as soon as its intensions are revealed, made me loose al the hopes for the game's story. The story in part circles around the depression which affects character's everyday life, and it can give some nice insight on how people with depression reason or react to situation, for me it seem to fall flat at the end of the story. the story also has plot holes, especially as you progress towards the end, and in some way it took me out of the story since some of the informations on the characters are just left out. and it was hard to understand what was going on. the control setting is restricted only to the keyboard so you can't use your mouse which i found a bit annoying during the fights (hopefully i am mistaken and i didn't understand how to change it) pros: the art style is very nice and it really peaks during the combats scenes which keeps the game interesting to play, the music is the best part of the game in my opinion and it reminded me of undertale. before a fight you have a smack talk with the adversary which is an interesting feature but dosn't affect the fight in anyway. the fights are interesting but the last two boss battles are really hard so i had to lower the difficulty level to get past them since i was destroying my carpal tunnel by smashing my keyboard to avoid attacks, and repeating the same fight for the 50th time. overall its a short interesting game with nice art and music but the story looses out over time ps sorry if my review is incoherent, my dyslexia gets in what i want to tell

Great game! I played the gamejolt demo, and saw that it was out, so I had to play the entire thing! I think its worth more than 99 cents TBH, i would of given it a dollar or two higher, but I don't know TBH. I liked the story, but at some point it got a bit to complex for me, so I kind of tuned out, and just took everything at face value. I really liked the characters though, [spoiler]and I knew tris and subris were connected somehow from the beggining[/spoiler]. Sometimes the fights made me rage, but then I figured out a strategy to beat it. The only time I needed to swap to easy mode was fighting [spoiler]ashlord[/spoiler]. As much as I prefer openworld "do whatever you want" games, I really liked this game despite its ultra-linear nature. There isn't even any currency, the progression is the same all-throughout, for every person. The only thing that ground my gears when playing was overworld movement. When you walk along a wall, instead of sliding nicely, it just outright stops you. I know you aren't supposed to hit the walls, but I like walking along walls. There were also a handful of sequencing bugs. This game is severely underrated, and deserves more attention. And certainly a higher price, maybe if it got a few new features or modes. Also, "<sprite=23> to skip dialog" I think you missed a spot when playtesting. ; )

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