Serenity Forge Game Reviews
Slay, bestie!
Saving a princess has to be the most overused trope in the fantasy playbook. If pixelated plumbers and heroes clad in green tunics have taught us anything, it’s that princesses need rescuing – right? Not if Slay the Princess has anything to say about it. In this psychological horror visual novel, you're tasked with killing a...
Review Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! (Switch) - A Cute And Absolutely Horrifying Dating Sim
Thus with a kiss I die
You've probably heard of Doki Doki Literature Club. The anime dating simulator achieved massive popularity largely through word of mouth, and the Switch version — which this review is about, obviously — comes almost four years after its debut, which means you've either already played it, or you've heard about it and not...
Mini Review Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing (Switch) - A Love Story That's Too Close To Reality
A quaran-teeny tiny game
The original Half Past Fate has been out on Switch for almost a year now, and our review praised it for its striking pixelated visuals and engaging dialogue, albeit with a few too many mini fetch quests. The same can be said for its follow-up, Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing, a short (really short) story in which two...
Mini Review Neversong (Switch) - A Lovingly-Crafted Metroidvania Which Sadly Ends Too Soon
Nightmares and dreamscapes
Neversong is an atmospheric adventure game from developers Atmos Games and Serenity Forge, in which a young boy by the name of Peet is searching for his kidnapped girlfriend, Wren. Set in various mysterious locales, the game is primarily a Metroidvania in design, but one which strikes a nice balance between narrative and...
Mini Review Half Past Fate (Switch) - A Great-Looking Rom-Com Adventure Brimming With Personality
NOT a Steven Seagal movie
If you’re in your teens or beyond, chances are you’ve probably found yourself falling head over heels in love with someone at least once in your life. We all know the feeling: you see a stunning stranger out of the corner of your eye, someone who you’re absolutely sure is way out of your league, but your eyes lock,...
Don't take a sip
Given our hobby's slavish pursuit of the validation and prestige afforded to cinema, it's entirely common (and expected) for a video game to want to tell a story. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine goes beyond these limited aspirations, instead offering a story about stories, where narrative is your weapon and your currency. That...
Review The King's Bird (Switch) - A Crafty Quest For True Challenge-Seekers
Taking flight
Some video games gently pull you through a narrative experience, offering the player everything they need along the way without any barriers or fuss. Movement is unrestricted, the environment is an ally, and there are no pressures of failure or time in sight. And then there is The King's Bird. Developer Serenity Forge has thrown their...
Review Pinstripe (Switch) - A Short But Surprisingly Scary Trip That's Sure To Leave Its Mark
Scarily good
From its opening moments right up until the last few seconds as the credits began to roll, Pinstripe had us emotionally hooked. The game, which was painstakingly developed almost entirely by just one man over a five-year period, tells the story of Ted, an ex-minister who gets thrown headfirst into a nightmare-inducing series of events...
Review Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition (Switch eShop)
Lost in space
On its barren surface, Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition is a difficult game to quantify. Is it a sandbox exploration title? A walking simulator? A puzzle-platformer? A sci-fi adventure with a splash of horror? In truth, it’s an amalgamation of all these things, but it only ever dips its toes into these creative sources and ends...
