izigame.me

I waited 7 years for this game

So, at least a little bit of patience for it to come out!
In that timespan, both DELTARUNE Chapters 1 and 2 released, both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom released, even Hollow Knight released which means that for anybody who found Hollow Knight after release, I've waited for this longer than they've waited for Silksong. I've made friends, lost them, I've learnt so much about myself and my identity and gone from a child in middle school to an adult with a full-time job and college in that time.
For this review, I wanted to make sure to write this review after seeing all it has to offer, so I just 100%ed all achievements for this game last night, and I want to talk about it and if it's worth a damn. I just also want to give a little context first.
In July 2016, I found the game Pocket Mirror back when it was just a demo and got to check it out when the full version released shortly after. That game is a game I hold close to my heart, it was even a major factor in me later realizing I'm queer, so it's really important to me.
Not too long later, the developers announced Little Goody Two Shoes. It was a bit clear from Pocket Mirror that there was still some things not really explained and would need to be addressed in a follow up, and this game is a prequel!
I waited, and a lot of stuff happened and time passed. Yuzuki had a great remix of the Pocket Mirror soundtrack! I joined the official Astral Shift Discord way back when it was small in the start of 2018! There were some teases of some images of the game world and art, and it made sense that the game would take a long time to make. They had this awesome pin you could buy of Pocket Mirror! I missed my chance to buy it and was extremely saddened and wish I got one. Around 2019, we got some music preview and pictures of the main crew of characters and a livestream of working on some art. The game had a little teaser since it was getting some spotlight by Playstation. A while later, we got a look at the church interior! Yuzuki released an animation for Pocket Mirror that I was waiting for since 2018! That was neat! That was... 2021, I think? 2023, Pocket Mirror got a remaster; it was beautiful and it's on Steam! Added a little bit more content and completely remade all visuals, definitely recommend.
And then the game released.
I want to first say that of those seven years of waiting, I felt like the game was really justified in taking forever with the quality they were doing, but any game can end up like YIIK, so I was a little cautious. But then, opening the game, seeing that opening? Hearing that title screen? Playing the game?
Well, here's my review on the game now.
I guess the first thing to say is yes, the art is amazing, I don't have much to say here though jes' art is always wonderful. I just always watch the opening when I launch the game.
The music is amazing. The title theme is so good, I've listened to it so much on loop. Red Ruby Shoes is amazing. Night Prayer is so lovely.
The horror isn't that scary or anything, it's a lot ligher than most other games like this. Pocket Mirror had more horror factor to it if it's worth noting, but there is still some ominous atmosphere in this game. I just wouldn't say it's particularly frightening.
And now, here's something I'm going to just be really critical about; the gameplay.
So, to not spoil much, this game doesn't have too many puzzles compared to Pocket Mirror since it has other gameplay that fills up everything else. But when it does, they... really aren't that great. A massive amount of the puzzles in it are super cryptic and took forever to figure out and brought down the experience. I've played so many RPG Maker horror puzzle games, which this tries to emulate heavily, and I just... don't think this game does them well. A lot of other games like Ib or The Witch's House execute their puzzles a lot better because they put the clues and cues in pretty well and you're able to pick up on them. This kind of doesn't. I didn't use any guide for them, but I certainly did not like them. One of them even requires external knowledge of what each moon phase looks like because the game has a puzzle requiring knowledge of that. I don't find it that entertaining to need to Google something to solve a puzzle, if the game had a picture ingame naming the phases it'd be fine but it didn't.
This issue wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for how bad the game is with some cases where you'll be punished hard enough to reload a save from a while back. It has heavy resource management and some areas and choices that force you to prepare for them, but if you somehow are short and didn't realize it, you may need to do a lot of replaying. For example, you need to balance food, but you can only work for certain times of the day and then as enough time passes, if you didn't prepare well enough, you may have to redo over an hour of content if you're unlucky just to proceed further. This happened to me near the endgame and it was not fun at all.
And there's this one part that genuinely is BS, there's a missable task that will lock you out of a lot if you miss it but the game only lets you know you missed it if you continue and do another hour of playing. This also happened to a friend who was really into the game and they almost dropped it (but came back later and got to the ending). It's not much of a spoiler but if you want to be safe, on Wednesday, make sure to talk at the windmill during the morning, the stables during the evening, and the windmill during the afternoon. It'll then say "ask about the key" to indicate you did it right.
As for the plot? I enjoyed it, especially as a Pocket Mirror fan and it's enjoyable without being one. It's hard to describe without spoilers. But one major factor of the plot is that the game is also part dating sim. And I'll be blunt. The dates are amazing and super ungodly gay??? It's really cute and beautiful and it was extremely memorable and I got really attached to some characters. It is unrestrained and lets the characters actually be little young lesbians and it's so cool for that, if you're like playing games for queer rep then this is going to hit well there. And I do just need to say, in seven years of waiting for this game I had no knowledge it'd be remotely queer and I think it's poetic that this game has so much good LGTBQ+ rep when the first game helped me so much in realizing I fall under that umbrella.
I think the thing that just really hits me is that this game, despite how critical I am of its gameplay or feel that it didn't do something as well as Pocket Mirror, will be something that I know I'm going to think about for so many years going forwards, much like the original. The sights, the sounds, the beautiful CGs, the charm, the plot, the endings and the dating, it's all going to stick with me. The experience and days spent through all the tasks and slowly approaching the end curtain and all the build up there were a lot of fun and I just really feel so happy to have gone through this.
So yes, without a doubt, this game was worth waiting over 7 years for. I'll wait another 7 if I have to for Astral Shift's next game. I really loved this, and I'm so glad to have seen it start from just the tiny demo with Pocket Mirror to now being a giant long and beautiful game and even get published by Square Enix. I'm just riding a wave of euphoria; I'm happy. I really am. I'll hold my memories close to my heart.
Now please put out merch so I can buy it instantly... I'm begging you...