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It's a very simple game but I don't think it aspires to be anything else
If you want a quick, cute and relaxing experience then this is a good game for u
It's a really good game
Tho
The grind and wait can get pretty tedious
However
Fun story
Cute characters
Plenty of customization
Simple yet skill requiring gameplay
It's rly nice go play it
I don't really understand the coding
And I don't think I will
But that's just me
The in built games are fun and the community games are also fun so
Good game
So
Overall this was a very short but decent experience
The gameplay is very simple and repetitive but that's to be expected with these types of games
At least they give you an option to manually speed it up a little
However I have some issues with two of the endings (Spoilers after this line)
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Or generally the entire part of the game after the "choose for him" choice
I don't have any issues with Cross dressing if the person wants to cross dress
But Nao doesn't seem to want to cross dress
In fact there are *several* scenes dedicated to the fact that he does not want to cross dress.
And also the fact the Protag immediately thought of making him cross dress and made him cross dress without even bothering to ask if he'd want to or if he's okay with that prior to forcing him to do so is just very gross to me.
Trying to take photos of someone without their permission especially when they've shown they do not want you to take photos of them is also extremely cruel and inconsiderate and it made me dislike the protagonist a fair bit to be honest.
Now
Moving on to the actual endings
First off
The "Dark Side" ending
Initially this ending seems really realistic
After being essentially used and manipulated by what Nao perceives as his only friend he shuts himself in and starts missing school.
I felt really bad for him during the intital mid-dialogues before the one with the full image
And then he... Pins the Protag down to the floor while talking about how he's a "man"
Which
Ew
Ew
Ew
It doesn't explicitly show what happens after that but whatever its implying I DO NOT LIKE IT
This also just comes out of literally f###### nowhere
You could argue the Arrogant ending also comes out of nowhere but that one at least has some reasoning (The fact he got exposed to positive attention from women by acting like this, which he didn't have before + his pre-existing notion that men like Ryota are popular with women which was established before on multiple occasions)
This? Has no reason to happen whatsoever
Why not just have a (still bad) ending where Nao becomes depressed after being used by the Protag and as such drops out of the contest, but is still willing to give the Protag a second chance even if what she's done heavily damaged his trust of her and strained their relationship?
Or idk just something that ISN'T THIS?!
I get that SEEC has some darker themes sometimes but this just seems like pointless shock value that came out of nowhere.
Now for the other ending
The "Princess" ending
Which is treated as if it were a good ending
Which just...
The fact that one of the good endings is achieved by using Nao and lying to him (judging by the phrasing of the choice, this is canonically Protag lying to Nao) is just lovely /s
If this was a story about a person with manipulative tendencies then this'd be fine but the Protag has never acted like this either before in the story or in different routes so what the f###???
The scene with Ryota mistaking crossdressing Nao for a girl and then having it revealed it was Nao during the contest was meant to be funny
And I guess it was
But it's not funny enough to make me enjoy the ending
The most screwed up part was at the very end of this ending when Protag starts referring to Nao with she/her pronouns?
Which just
What
The
F###
WHY
I'm hoping this is some error in the translation from Japanese to English because if it isn't this is extremely gross.
If this story had something implying Nao wanted to be more feminine or wished to be a girl or something
Like literally anything
Then maybe I could understand it partially
But the story consistently and continously implies the EXACT OPPOSITE so what the hell.
What is the reason for using she/her?
He's not a trans woman and he explicitly says he wants to be perceived as a man multiple times on multiple routes
He's crossdressing. This is said multiple times.
Those are completely different things.
In fact I'd argue they're the exact opposites.
So this whole ending was just really disgusting to me
What doesn't help is the fact I got the endings in order of Arrogant -> Prince -> Dark Side -> Princess
So after Prince everything started going downhill essentially and it left a pretty bad taste in my mouth
And like
We could've easily avoided the whole manipulation, lying and misgendering thing while still keeping the exploring Nao's more feminine aspect as the point of those endings so why did they have to do this.
Or just... Have Nao be okay with Crossdressing or actually enjoy it a little prior to Protag lying to him if you REALLY wanted the Crossdressing
But well overall
Nao is still cute
Even when he's crossdressing but it'd be much cuter if he wasn't forced to crossdress by the Protag
And for the remainder of the endings and the parts before the endings his progression feels pretty real to me and I like him as a character
I don't really like the Protag in the dark side and princess endings because I don't like people who use others for their personal enjoyment (+ in the princess ending specifically are also liars)
In the other endings she's also likeable though
I can't really say the story is good if I didn't like half the endings on objective points
But overall
The story is just ok
Everything else was good
(Also this isn't related to the rating whatsoever but the first version of Nao is the cutest actually don't @ me)
tl;dr THIS GAME IS SO GOOD PLEASE PLAY IT
So I was planning to write a proper review for this game anyways but since the event has started I might as well do it.
Candies n Curses is, without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite mobile game of ALL TIME, and honestly just favorite game of all time in general if we're talking pure bias.
And EVERYONE in my opinion should play it
But now, why is this game so good?
Well, there are many reasons
So let's go over them
1. The artstyle
This game is pixel art, using vibrant and contrasting colors for most of its art, as well as using hue shifted shading which is simply a gorgeous stylistic choice in my opinion.
All of the character designs have nicely designed color palettes and the backgrounds for the game, while still utilising what I mentioned, are dimmed down in terms of brightness, so that you can focus on the stuff you're supposed to be focusing on lol
2. The music
The OST is an absolute masterpiece
Banger after banger
There is no bad track in the whole OST
Every song complements the place its played in AND is a joy to listen to outside of the game
If you don't believe me it's on YT, Soundcloud, Spotify etc
Have a listen
Or just go play the game
3. The Story and Characters
So, this game isn't exactly story heavy but the story is a solid basis for the game, and my opinion is pretty interesting
The story is that Molli, our protagonist, is dared to go the mansion at the edge of town, which is rumored to be haunted, tired of the rumors, she decides to go through the dare.
...And then it turns out the mansion IS haunted, now she's stuck there and has to get out, game start.
The Characters are all very unique both in terms of design and personality.
My favorite is Olly, the shy boy who's been stuck in the mansion for 3 years prior to Molli's arrival, he also has a story behind that but you'll have to play the game yourself to find out ;)
I'm not going to go over all of them as some of them would be mild spoilers so just... Play the game please
Oh and also if you're a fan of lore and little tidbits like I am they have a whole little journal where you can read extra flavor texts about things as you unlock them which is a joy.
4. Gameplay
So I'm sure you're all thinking "Well that's very nice and all but this is a game not a movie how does this play?"
And well, just like in every other aspect
It is great
This game is a fantastic example of easy to get into, hard to master.
The controls are incredibly simple, and the tutorial does an excellent job of introducing the necessary mechanics that go along with the game.
But getting good at the game well
It'll take you sometime
This game is a roguelike, which are known to be like that but I felt it'd be noteworthy to mention still
The way a standard run goes is there's several rooms, in between which there is Treasure Room in which you can pick out of a selection of 3 randomly selected Candies n Curses (roll credits) which serve as a powerup for the rest of the run
The Candies are the safe options, but the curses provide a generally larger or more unique bonus but at a risk
As for your permanent equipment
You have your flashlight (your weapon), there are 3 different types, all of which play slightly differently, and all of the types have a few flashlights.
Later on the flashlights get some inherent abilities of their own
And they can also be upgraded
Every Flashlight has a certain amount of charm slots onto which you can equip... Well charms
Which also grant you something upon equipping them (For ex. a revive or summoning a cute doggo to help you etc etc)
Charms can also be upgraded
There's also a limit called Charm Points (CP)
The amount of CP you have is tied to your level in the game
And every charm has a CP value
If you equip charms and surpass the max CP you have you can't start a run
Both the different flashlight types and the charms are a great reason to experiment with what you have and try new things to see what works best for you
In my opinion both the Candies n Curses as well as the charms are balanced very well
I also find the difficulty curve to be extremely satisfying
You truly feel and see your progress
As you level up in the game you unlock more stuff which helps you get better which makes you go further which unlocks more stuff and you get better and go further and
God it's lovely
There's more to say but I dunno how to do it without overexplaining
Genuinely I think I lack the proper words to describe how great this game is and you're honestly doing yourself a disservice by not playing it.
It's an absolute indie gem.
Please play it
星之翼
3.0event