Exiled scientist-alchemist Celsia had enough of living in complete seclusion in Barren Lands. Her ticket back into civilization is her newest and the most brilliant creation - Elixir of Immortality! With it, she will show all those ignorant old men, who had the guts to banish her into a wasteland, who's the best in the world! There is just a small problem, tiny really… the potion isn't ready yet. And what's worse, her latest attempt didn't go as expected and she ended up with sealed-up powers. Oh, and she also shrank in size! If word of this disaster reaches the Ministry of Mages it could mean her ultimate demise so there is no time for idle!

Absolute Alchemical Potion is a standard otome game with three romanceable boys. What isn't much standard is the role of the main heroine - she is in a higher position than her suitors. Gestalt is her former assistant (and lover), Sitri is her familiar and Glem is her servant. Their interactions are influenced by this position and although I am not exactly a fan of this, it wasn't that bad. At least it was a change from the mostly naive and useless heroines. ;)

The writing is rather good and most of the time engaging. At your disposal is even a logbook that describes the important facts about the game world. The visuals oscillate between pretty and average. There are a lot of additional visual effects that make the screen more vivid, but sometimes they can prove bothersome - like when the screen is shaking even with the text you want to read! The music is fine. There is no voice acting, but I don't take that as a bad point.
I liked the look of the interface but totally hated the save system - it's done vertically and every time you want to save/load you need to scroll down… unbelievably bothersome. Searching for a specific save in the growing pile can also be rather confusing as you can only see the date and time of the saving - it's hard to recognize the scene just by that.

The endings are influenced by affection and (Celsia's) character choices. I liked that you can check on your status anytime you want. The game is quite linear and you shouldn't have any problems with going through all possible lines. You can even see the conditions for each ending!

All in all, it's a nice otome game, good for a short relaxing gaming time. The characters are sympathetic and the story is rather interesting with quite a lot of funny moments. The quality of sprites and more importantly of CGs isn't consistent, but it isn't something that would put you off. The endings are pretty good and surprising!

Something bad is happening in the mind! Heavy thoughts full of darkness cloud the world and from them emerge three fearsome nightmarish creatures. Their presence leaves the mind in a state of chaos and it slowly crumbles away! The only hope for the mind world is its former courageous protector Dusty! But his most famous days are long over and he now wishes only for a good iced drink. But not always can we have what we desire and instead, we have to go and face the most unpleasant things in our lives… like Dusty and his joyful friend Piper!

In the surreal world of Figment we will explore the recesses of the human mind via The Cerebrum City which serves as the center for our adventures. Through there we can access Freedom Isles, Clockwork Town and finally The Pathway. Our goal is to defeat the Nightmare at each location and free the mind from its fearsome presence. The path isn't easy though as the Nightmares are doing all they can to hinder our progress and pollute the mind the best way they can. Dusty needs to sharpen his fighting skills as their dark minions make regular surprise attacks against us. But not only the enemies are slowing us down. To be able to progress we need to find panels for repairing elevators and colored batteries for operating switches or windmills. Like this, we will be running back and forth quite a lot.

The fighting is rather simple - we have a normal or strong attack that needs to be charged first. Enemy attacks are best avoided by rolling away. If you don't get surrounded by a larger group of stronger enemies the fights shouldn't prove too hard. There is no penalty upon dying and the checkpoints are luckily frequent. After defeating the enemies we are rewarded with gray balls that raise our maximum health bar. Green balls that are often growing around are used for healing. Different cases are the boss battles. The Nightmares can't be hurt by our attacks. Instead, we need to turn their attacks against them with the help of our surroundings. It doesn't take long to realize what to do to defeat them, but the fights are still rather challenging.
The game is also full of puzzles - pushing boxes, memorizing and then recreating patterns, replaying melodies… nothing too hard and they are fun to solve.

The hand-drawn graphics are very pretty. Each world is different from colorful and lively to gloomy and dangerous. The music is also very good. It accompanies us at our every step as most of the things around us play some music - like trumpet trees or guitar grass! The Nightmares love to sing and boss battles are accompanied by a song. Here comes my complaint - I am unable to concentrate on fighting, avoiding enemy attacks and listening to the song lyrics - moreover to be able to read them! Like this, I can't properly enjoy it. The voice acting is heartfelt and funny, but I have found Dusty to be lacking sadly.

There is no quick travel and if you missed a collectible memory or some puzzle-related achievement you have to navigate through the locations yet again. It's fine that you can get back freely but the backtracking is horribly slow like this, luckily the game isn't long so it doesn't turn into frustration. The overall mood is cheerful with hints of serious themes. I liked that, but the story didn't in truth touch me much. Most of the time I had a feeling of playing Bastion combined with Dust: An Elysian Tail, which isn't per se a bad thing as those belong between my favorite games. In terms of design and gameplay, I have enjoyed it and can safely recommend it.

I am rather torn apart on this game. On one hand, it's almost an artistic piece full of emotion, on the other it's a lengthy walking simulator with an extremely blurred view.

11-11 Memories Retold brings us a story about World War I. It's told through the eyes of two simple men who both end up in the hell of war. Harry - a young, naive and hopeful Canadian photographer joins the army to become a hero and win the heart of a girl he loves. Kurt - an older, devoted and kindhearted German technician joins the army to find his son who went missing on the front. Although they are enemies they are bound to meet and even to establish a peculiar friendship. But as the war is nearing its end their characters will be tested, for the better or worse.

We have two main heroes and our decisions are shaping both their characters and lives. At the beginning of each chapter, you select whose story you will start first and after completing it you get automatically switched to the other one. I have enjoyed this switching perspective as you get to see the same place through the eyes of the Allies and then as a German! You always have a goal that you must reach, but before doing so you can explore your surroundings. You can find collectibles that describe true historical items and events, you can talk with your comrades or you can take some photos (as Harry). Sometimes though it isn't exactly clear what will trigger the switch and you can end sooner than you wanted and like that miss a collectible or some achievement. This can be a little frustrating because even though you can select a "main chapter" for a replay, you can't select from "little chapters" and have to play through both Harry's & Kurt's stories yet again.

The visual style of an oil painterly is… strangely beautiful, it adds to the game a different kind of feeling. Some scenes are, thanks to it, very emotional. But you can become fed up with it pretty quickly, especially if you are searching for collectibles that are in some cases practically invisible. The orchestral soundtrack is exceptional and helps to create the right atmosphere. Without this music, the whole game would be empty. Very important is also the voice acting as only through it we can properly connect with our main heroes. Harry is voiced by Elijah Wood and Kurt by Sebastian Koch. Both have done a great job of portraying their emotions and characters with their voices.
I enjoy multi-language games (apparently only games about World Wars are like that, right Wolfenstein?) and their interactions when they can't understand each other are nicely done. However, I was disappointed that Kurt was speaking in German only in the story, his thoughts and summaries were all in English. Even the letters from his wife were voiced in English. I don't really understand why it wasn't all consistent.

The story of two men and their fates unfolding in the background of a horrible war is interesting and I was rather captivated by it. I wanted to know how it would continue, but sadly a believable story became slightly ridiculed toward the end. I have also found Harry a little bit annoying over time and I cheered mostly for Kurt. Also, playing as the cat is a simple joy.
It is important to remind us about our history and the game manages to portray the distress of the war very well. Just, if it wasn't made as a game with achievements and collectibles that distract you from the story and like so interrupt the immersion, it would be much better.