Sally Face - Episode One

18:ЭЭ

Eu simplesmente amo este jogo. Adorava ver o Lubatv a jogar e tinha inveja por não poder jogar, mas finalmente posso, e simplesmente adoro

I don't hate every aspect of the game and there are even parts I genuinely enjoyed. But as an adult, I wouldn't recommend this 18+ game to the adult audience it's supposedly aimed at. There are a few reasons for that. One of the biggest issues is that while the game tries to be psychological horror, but it also tells this story through a cheap chuunibyou (eighth grade syndrome) lens. Not because we're seeing everything through the eyes of these young characters. Instead of feeling like something from horror novels such as IT, I often felt like I was playing some weird creepypasta written by an emo teenager in the 2010s. The story often feels raw and underdeveloped, and a lot of things feel like they're being forced into it just for love of the game. Gameplay was also one of the things that frustrated me the most, especially in Chapter 2. This game is (at the kindest way) basically a walking simulator. In general and especially in Chapter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 2 that I hate, there isn't much to do besides walking around the same map from door to door. And if you're so determined to make it a walking simulator, then at least give me a running mechanic, right??? Some of the puzzles are terrible, and they made me feel like the person responsible for the game design either wasn't very good at communicating what they had in mind to the player or simply didn't let anyone playtest these chapters before releasing them. First three chapters don't really offer much gameplay beyond point-and-click (?) elements and a side scroller. Chapters 4 and 5 try to introduce new mechanics of course, but I don't think they were executed particularly well. Don't get me wrong, Sally's guitar section and the final boss fight in Chapter 4 were fun, but that's about it. Chapter 5 starts becoming lame again. Speaking of lame, in Chapter 5 the developer seems to have tried to be quirky by adding a bunch of different art styles, but they mostly just look ugly and don't really seem to serve much of a purpose. To be honest it just looks ridiculous. I wish the effort that went into creating all those new assets had instead been spent on the cutscenes. As for the ending, [spoiler] I would have to go back about six years to when I first played the chapter 5 together with a friend on her almost potato computer. I hated the ending. It was completely unsatisfying, with everything being taken to an extreme and eventually becoming meaningless. Like, why does everything suddenly turn into a post-apocalyptic world after fighting some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ cult hiding underneath a tiny apartment building? (half joking in this sentence but man I really didn't like the ending). It's the chuunibyou syndrome. [/spoiler] I honestly think this game was made more for YouTubers and streamers than for actual gamers, just like 90% of indie horror games from the 2010s. “Chat, what is this??? Chat, I don't understand. What am I supposed to do here?” “Guys, I had to cut out this small section where I was stuck for a few hours lol. Please don't spoil it in the comments, guys!!!” You know the type of YouTubers I'm talking about. The exact kind of people who helped make modern indie horror games as lame as they are right now. But I still think there are some interesting aspects to the story. Even if at the end of the day, I just don't think this game was made for anyone other than youtubers and edgy 14 year olds who have barely played a video game in their lives. Of course, I'm not even going to get into how cliché and bland most of the characters are, how the OST constantly repeats until it starts getting annoying or how half-baked the game's art direction feels. I'm done (still planning to play the second game tho, but don't get the wrong idea)