Hi!
Welcome back. This time I am going to review a game I played a lot of time ago. I think it was about five years ago, and the name of the game is PSYCHE Locke. This is a game made by OldPat (author of many cool games I've reviewed, such as Karma Flow and The Lady Puppet) with RPG Maker VX Ace made in 2018 (for a GameJam Event) that won the won "Game of the Year" and "Excellence in Narrative" awards during RMN's Misao Awards of that year.

But why this title? Well, Locke is none other than the protagonist, and he's... a PSYCHE! A Psyche is a gifted individual that can read other people's feelings, other people's thoughts, their personalities. Anyway Locke despite his powers is an empty husk, since he lost all his memories due to some mysterious event! That's ironic for someone that can access other people's memories, isn't it?
Anyway Aidi, a doctor that works for the mysterious SEELE group, has decided to help Locke escape from the facility where they were making esperiments on him. This is the opportunity for Locke to recover what he lost: his memories and his freedom! Anyway the Colonel, leader of the SEELE's Special Unit, will do everything to capture him.


Our poor Locke is an amnesiac hero! Play and see how the story unfolds...

PSYCHE Locke is a pretty short stand alone game that took me less than two hours from the beginning to the end, but I admit it was quite fun and interesting. The story is pretty simple to follow since there is a total of four important characters, anyway that it impressed me more was the gameplay.
The game makes us play as Locke, that is able to make his soul leave his body, wander and possess various Npcs, but the power is limited by a timer of 30 seconds, and after this time Locke has to stop and return to control his body.

But possessing people also grants access to the Mind Palaces, dimensions where Locke can get hints and informations about connections, characteristics, skills, weaknesses and strengths of that person. This is useful since some people are so strong that they can push heavy objects, others are influential and can persuade other characters, and some can instead unlock particular doors.

Graphycally the game is very good: the portaits and some cutscenes were all drawn by Oldpat with an old-anime style (like in Karma Flow), while maps are made with assets from the POP! Horror City pack, that's pretty much the best choice for a game with a modern setting. But assets aren't enough, the game in fact has also good maps with nice use of lights and shadows, the cutscenes are also well made. Music and sounds are also very good here, so nothing that could be improved here!
There are only two little problems: the first is that those SEELE soldiers sometimes seems to have an inhuman perception, the second is that the game relies on autosaves, and sometimes this means that failing a puzzle will require restarting a section from the beginning. Siiiiiigh. But for the rest it's all good, really.


You didn't expect some classic crate-pushing puzzles, did you?

Final Verdict
Like Karma Flow this is another GOOD stealth game, even if with different mechanics and situations (despite the setting isn't really different: futuristic world, evil corps, a lone hero Vs many faceless goons and so on). The only problems that I have with this game is that it was made for an event, so it could have been expanded and enriched in order to become a classic, in any case I had really few complaints, as you can see from my review. I like a lot the assets used and HOW they're used, and I liked the mechanics and the story. So yes, this is a good game for sure, play it. Recommended!

PS: I liked the cameo from Afro Guy the protagonist of Acceptance, it was so unexpected and weird that made me lol!