The Phantom Fellows

I love these kinds of games so much! You can really tell how much care and love went into this game. Superb story, cool visuals, and very funny. Also, this has the best hint system of anything I have ever played. That is absolutely not hyperbole.

Really wanted to love this as a lover of P&Cs, but have to reiterate what others have said here. It's not terrible but overall can't recommend as I don't think I will end up finishing past day 4 due to multiple frustrations. - Graphics are well done, but unlike e.g. The Darkside Detective, important items are quite hard to determine with the chunky pixel graphics, as they are often single "pixels" or otherwise blend into background elements. - UI is super, super clunky. The game's had me cursing many times as I manually cycle through multiple times to find the action I want. - Ghost character is inconsistent in what items he can and can't pick up, which makes some of the puzzles just trial and error. - SO VERBOSE. The story is good, the writing's quite decent, but every interaction results in a full page long skit, which breaks the flow of the game a lot.

This is the funniest game I've ever played and I am legit sad it's over. I'm already thinking I want to revisit it in a year or 2. The writing is incredible, every single line has thought behind it. You can even travel around the world and get treated to new interactions each day and some of those interactions had me in stitches. The game doesn't use pop culture or classic adventure game references, it's entirely fresh and unique in its humor. As the game goes on it really builds on itself, you start to see how the characters care about each other, and I loved how the ghost becomes a mentor to the "breather", Oliver. The puzzles are great, they feel a part of the story as opposed to an obligation in the way of progress. The hint system feels natural and the music is top shelf, really cool synthwave vibes. I loved every minute with The Phantom Fellows, this is a standout adventure game for me because it captures that adventurous feeling of exploring and being surprised to find responses for anything you can think of. So many funny, unexpected moments. Even the achievements are funny. And it's not just funny, each day/case in the game has a really well thought out story, you end up feeling like you know the people in town. It's just exceptionally written. 10/10 if you play 1 point and click adventure game, play this one.

Fun game, a little too dialogue heavy for me but it was still fun

Two important things first: First, for windowed mode, press Alt + Enter. Second, it ends on a cliffhanger. I think this game will divide its players. If the game's style of humor matches yours, I think you'll love it. It didn't work for me. I really enjoyed Darkside Detective, I love absurdism, and I can see what the devs were going for here. My main issue is that much of the humor is repetitive. Not literally the same jokes over and over, but the same kind of jokes. Extremely long awkward conversations. The main protagonist's neurodivergence constantly making him say the wrong things. His ghost companion frequently talking down to him, in an equally overly wordy manner. The entire game is extremely wordy, so if it doesn't click, the playing experience becomes tiresome. I should note that I was streaming the game, so the long conversations did not make that fun, due to the amount of text to be read out loud. I think this is a game best played on your own, unhurried, without an audience. If the long conversations bore you, you can read and click through as fast as you like. Of course, important information could randomly show up in the middle of long irrelevant rambles, so clicking through too fast is a slight risk. It took me about 12 hours to get through to the cliffhanger at the end. When the devs say it's a "Narrative based adventure game where the writing and the story come first", they aren't kidding. This game was built around delivering amusing quips from conversations, and by interacting with the environment. The adventure game puzzle solving doesn't take second place - it takes third place. Second place is occupied by optional achievement hunting. There are 100 Steam achievements! Without even trying, I got a little over 40 of them. Still, I needed a walkthrough, and the devs have provided one on their website, though it's for completionists so it's a little difficult to discern which actions are the bare necessity to progress. I will say, I loved the absurdism, the pixel art, the atmosphere. Chapter 5 really pulled me back in, I was enjoying it so much... until the end of the chapter, where during the climax, the main protagonist's social awkwardness returned to full strength and ruined it for me. The later parts of the game also started getting more crass, with a lot of ♥♥♥♥ jokes. My recommendation: Find a YouTube video of someone playing the first chapter. It's not going to spoil anything for you; the starting chapter's puzzles are extremely simple to solve. Pay attention to the way characters talk, and how they describe things around them. If you're enjoying the writing style, then I'd say buy the game. If it's not grabbing you, don't go further. The style of humor and conversation will continue in the same vein for the rest of the game.

[h2] This. Game. Rules. [/h2] If you're a fan of point-and-click adventures, along with easter eggs and meta humor, this is absolutely for you. There is so much to love about this game, and it's clear that an immense amount of time and dedication and heart were poured into it. My favorite things: - [b]Extremely Effective Pixel Art[/b] captured emotion, subtle movement, and even glances... - [b]The Charming Characters[/b] are such a gift. It's incredible how these 2D blocks of color can provide so much personality and humor and heart to this game. By somehow both playing into character tropes [i]and[/i] subverting them, the creators provided us with a collection of characters that are easy to understand without sacrificing depth. - [b]The Humor[/b] Oh. My. Lord. This is one of the funniest games I've ever played. Comedic timing isn't easy to do when you don't have audible speaking, and somehow they really frickin nailed it. With such a natural cadence, it's just truly so freaking good I loved this aspect of it so much. - [b]Everything Is Clickable[/b] in this thing. There is so much effort they put into writing something for the characters to say about what must be [i]hundreds[/i] if not [i]thousands[/i] of objects, people, places, etc. Please y'all, you [i]gotta[/i] experience this game.

I haven't played that far into it, yet, but so far it is incredibly charming. I've found myself smiling and audibly chuckling at the quirky dialogue QUITE OFTEN. I haven't rolled my eyes even once (which is saying a lot). The humor is very well-written, and has a sarcastic snarkiness that really hits me in the right spot. I'm a fan of this developer's podcast, The Classic Gamer's Guild, and you can definitely tell he wrote this. I'e listened to so many of the casts that Paul's voice is absolutely all I hear when Oliver speaks. So to Paul- Great job, buddy. I'm looking forward to continuing this little gem.

I just loved this game. The dialogue/humor was just astonishingly fun and funny, and the gameplay is such a throwback to all the best '90s adventure games (plus I loved all the random Fun Facts™. I was also pleasantly surprised that the protagonist is Jewish (and it isn't played for laughs or stereotypes). I have also played the Darkside Detective, which I know people think this ripped off, but I loved both for different reasons. I can't wait for the sequel.