Here I shall mini-review demos and/or full games in Ludonarracon 2025. (Be “advised” I am using a press access edition of the event, so not all games or demos mentioned will be playable for you, but you can still wishlist and/or buy them).
Ludonarracon runs till May 5th so you have plenty time to check these games and the sales out still.
Keep Driving: There is definitely a story here of taking the road and finding adventure, but it is burdened by being quite the difficult and at times unforgiving strategy game. Before even making it to the first town I could rest in I basically lost all energy on the road, fell asleep on the side, woke up and lost energy again encountering a tractor in my way. For a Narrative the game system needs a lot more balance, but even if the narrative was minimal, balance of encounters definitely needs reworking. This is one to keep an eye on, but I hope the devs are still actually working on it.
Compensation Not Guaranteed: A very fun demo of an upcoming Papers, Pleasesque. The art, world and characters introduced are fantastic and as long as it stays zen like and not add speed rounds but just more things to look at and the weird twist in the dreams I think we have a gem of something new here.
The Horror at Highrook: First let me state that I love the gothic supernatural setting, the familiar but tropic group coming together to solve a mystery at a creepy manor. The art is also amazing, reminiscent of Mike Mignola and John Paul Leon to my eyes. That said I don’t think this type of game is made for my thinking. After I completed the introductory tasks I felt completely lost. I didn’t know how to unlock rooms or use certain cards. I was just befuddled. That doesn’t mean it isn’t well done, I just needed a little more hand holding. You on the other hand, especially those who play TTRPGs or card games will be in paradise.
A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe: Wonderful cartoon art displaying a personality trait many can relate to or understand wrapped in a visual logic puzzle. Worth trying your hand at and seeing how you vibe.
inKOBINI: You only get a taste in the prologue but I feel this is a zen style game with fun little explorations in to life and never truly a stressfull feel on running the shop. Fix labels, check supplies, very serene and not feeling like actual “work” but instead idle devices to keep iccupied while “reading” simple tales of everyday people.
Usual June: Based on the demo this is the kind of game I love. Third person action adventure with interesting art, quirky characters, fun and not too complicated but not too easy combat, lots of exploration and a big story. Which is also what it promises. I will be keeping my eye on this cause ghosts, mystery, weirdness. The only thing I’d add was a jump button, there aren’t enough Psychonauts like games out there! I also hope they optimize the game a lot before release, my rig had trouble but didn’t feel like it should. I may need to play this on console.
More to come before the end of the Festival!