Sonic_Doctor

The Yawhg is fantastic. The art of the game has a wonderful story book charm to it and goes quite well with the writing which can be many things, from witty, quirky, light and happy to dark and depressing. The music fits amazingly to set the mood of the game. Droning, foreboding tones that give the impression of something horrible about to happen or could happen before the end. The ending/credits song fits so well with the game that it works with any ending you get, good, middle of the road, or bad. The Yawhg is basically a random story based fantasy RPG of pure choice, with the outcome of most of your choices being based on the stats of your characters, with the stats playing a large roll in what happens in the end. There are four unique (in look) characters to chose from, two men and two women. The choice of character just gives a different look at certain scenes, with each character showing different appearance from one another in each situation possible in the game. You must choose at least two characters to play as, even if you are playing alone. The game is better with friends, as you experience their reactions depending on how you or they effect the game for everybody playing, because one bad move could get a bad ending for everybody. The game is still extremely entertaining alone, finding out different story branches and outcomes. The main goal of the game is to guide the characters in their lives and build their attributes so that they can do well with helping out with the final part of the game. While the game is short, 10 to 15 minutes depending on how quickly you make your decisions and read through the choices and story points, it has phenomenal playability. Each place a character visits each day in the game has two things that can be done that day, like helping patients at the Hospital or cleaning it, or working at the town bar or drinking/partying. Each of these choices have random story bits that occur, and depending on your stats, the bit you encounter could end up differently if you encounter it more than once. With all the places one can visit and interact with, there are many story threads that can occur in each place. The places you got and interact with have an effect on the ending story of your character. There are 8 places around town that your character can go to, so right their is 8 possible story endings if you just focus on only going to one of those places for the entirety of the game, but that branches out since you have a choice of two things to do at each location, so the stories endings can branch even more. If you got to more than just one place, you can get a ending that is mix with a couple or more of the things you did. I've played the game eight times so far and I've encountered several new things on each playthrough. I recommend basing your decision of getting this game on the user reviews, not the "professional" ones. Looking those reviews over, I can tell that they didn't spend enough time with the game. Ten dollars is perfectly acceptable for this title because of it's depth within the short playtime, and it's artistic quality. In many respects, I do consider games an art-form. The Yawhg is definitely a work of art along with being a thoroughly entertaining game.

Simply wonderful! Recettear is one of the most fantastic and original RPGs I've played in the past few years. Classic graphics and game-play with a different spin of the main character being an new item shop owner trying to pay off a debt, instead of an adventurer. The game is split off into two sections, store management where you sell items at the right times for the price that will get you the most profit. It wonderfully works in the concept of supply and demand as you get actual news on market updates sometimes more than once a day on what item prices are up and what ones are down. Along with the store management is going to the market or merchant's guild to buy items to sell in your store, or to help with dungeon crawling. The second part is the dungeon crawling. On the days you need a large boost to your store inventory or ingredients for crafting, you can hire an adventurer from the adventurer's guild to go to a dungeon with you. This is where you will control the adventurer as your main character follows behind. Using the adventurer you will fight off enemies, picking up items that some drop and opening chests to usually get items/treasures. The good part about dungeon crawling is that you get items that you can sell for 100% profit, minus the fee to hire the adventurer. Lastly on the dungeon stuff, the adventurer you hire will level up through the process of killing enemies, like any RPG, which is a good thing because they will be stronger and you can later move on to bigger and better dungeons, but it is also a slight hindrance as well, because the stronger and more experienced an adventurer becomes, the more it will cost to hire him or her. As the game progresses through the story, you will be able to hire different kinds of adventurers. I'm giving this game a 10 because it is a solid RPG, with a fun and whimsical story, that has familiar game-play while still feeling quite original. I've played many RPGs in my day and I can say I've never before played a game like Recettear. The people that rate it real low because of a lot of dialogue have clearly never played a classic RPG, or they have been spoiled by playing too many fully voiced RPGs. One of the other reviews says says that the store management isn't complex enough to be compelling for more than 4-5 hours, the problem with saying that is that it shows that they didn't play very long, because I've played 16 hours and I'm still getting new facets and challenges to running the store. The game doesn't give you all the ways to run your store right off, it treats those like any abilities learned in an RPG. As you get more experienced at running your shop and level up as a merchant, you gain more things that you can do, like decorating your store and new ways to sell things to your customers. Finally, I would add that just because it doesn't have the latest newfangled sparkling graphics and gimmicky interface, doesn't mean that it isn't an original title. The story and store management along side the classic game play is what makes the game original. The art and graphics(classic around PS2 era JRPG type) are solid, fitting the style of the game and the story. It isn't hard for this game to shine with with all the samey RPG drivel that tends to be heralded as special and wonderful(usually only because of the graphics). I highly recommend this game to any gamer that is properly familiar with and loves RPGs.

YES! I beat the game on easy! That is something that you won't hear that often, hardly ever for that matter, when it comes to most video games. This game is difficult and takes time to master the intricacies of what will work in certain situations. While the game randomly generates each play-through, you will from time to time get events that are similar, but with how unforgiving the game can be at times, that is a good thing. You learn from mistakes and adapt, though you usually have to adapt more than once with each play-through. It is a wonderful top down spaceship command game, and with what games have come out in the past decade, FTL feels pleasantly fresh to me, but with a retro feel. The sound track is awesome; it's typical sci-fi fair but it definitely sounds original and also retro with the computerized sounding notes. The graphics have the same retro feel, like I'm playing a game that could have come out 15 years ago by the look. That is also a good thing, since it gives me something different to look at compared to the top of the line graphics oriented games. Not everything in gaming is about having the best graphics, and frankly, graphics rank low on the list about what is important in making a great game. Game play is a big factor in great games and FTL has just that. While the encounters can get repetitive at times, each encounter can change from that to different within seconds. On well placed hit by an enemy can have you sending your crew running to repair a hull breach or a heavily damaged life support system. It can get hectic at times, but the game does allow you to pause mid-combat to analyze the situation act out your best plan accordingly. Besides the music I mention before, the sound effects are great as well. The sound of missiles exploding as they hit their mark, varying "pew pew" style laser sounds from laser batteries, and the crackling of an ion cannon shot that has disabled a system on the enemy ship(though more likely yours). There is also is the ability to cloak your ship if it came with a cloak or if you bought one along your journey. If you want to teleport people, you can do that too if your ship has one or you get one. Teleport some of your crew to reek havoc on the enemy vessel. As I said the game is very unforgiving and permanent death is something that makes the game twice as nail biting since there is no save function that allows you to start at the last good place if you die. But since the game doesn't take that long to get to the end(play-throughs usually last no more that 2 hours), the permanent death is not a problem. Though it can tug at your heart strings, if you have named your faithful ship and crew, which the game lets you do. Oh, poor Engineer Gork, your effort in putting out the fire in the engine room was greatly appreciated, but sadly you perished from the lack of oxygen before you could get to safety in the nearby corridor. The game is quite amazing in every way. Though if you don't like a challenge, then I guess it isn't for you. As for me, I love it and all its quirks, so that is why I give it a 10.