Qui Domi

There's a lot in this game I like, a few things I love, and a lot that could be improved. If I was reviewing this as a full game, (and I disregarded the lack of an ending) then I would give this game a score of about a 3. However, it's obviously not a full game. It's a demo, and so I'll review it as one.

Art: 5/5
The art in this game really leaves nothing to be desired. It's not breathtakingly beautiful, but it doesn't try to be. It's cute, dark, cartoonish, and gives the game personality. It knows what it is, and it doesn't try to be something it's not. The colors aren't particularly interesting, but they don't have to be. They work for what they are. The face graphics are cute and expressive, and the same applies to the sprites. Overall, it's just really good. The game also uses pictures in some places for cut scenes, which works fairly well and is more interesting than just having the sprites sit around in a circle with text boxes popping up.

Music and sounds: 5/5
Aside from the music, the sounds on their own are just beautiful. Everything from the cursor sound to the chest opening sound gives the game personality. I'm not sure if they're all custom to the game, but they certainly feel like it. Everything, and I mean everything, has a sound, and it all works so well. My only gripe is that when certain characters talk, they make a noise before their message pops up. This is fine on it's own, however one of the noises for a character that does this is an annoying giggle, and another is a coughing noise, which didn't work very well for me. The music is also pretty great. There's nothing super amazingly special about it, but nothing wrong with it either. It's good music, and it serves it's purpose.

Story: 2/5 - 4/5
I put two scores for this one, because I feel like there may or may not be something else going on that will add to the story. This part is going to contain minor and or possible spoilers, so just a heads up. The story starts out with you being locked in your room, because you're grounded. (The first room is done very well by the way. I'll get into that more later.) Then, your Teddy bear named Balloonus starts talking to you. Ballface continues to explain to you that there's a portal under your bed to a realm where only children can go, and that it's being destroyed by monsters. You then leave with Balls-r-us to go this world, where you have to fight off monsters called child-eaters to save the world or something.

Personally, I kind of find this story to be, well, not good. I hate when there's a world where only children can go or something along those lines in media, because it just doesn't really make sense, even from a fairy tale perspective. However, that's just a personal preference. My major gripe with this story is that, in the demo alone, it basically repeats the same formula three times in a row. Enter a world, fight monsters, meet a child who helps you, leave the child behind, fight a boss monster, move to the next world, repeat. It looks like the full game could follow this formula the whole way through, but I really hope it doesn't. It very well could take a different rout, and I hope it does.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that there's a plot twist coming up that involves our good stuffed animal friend Bailutron, but I could be wrong.

Writing: 4/5
There's nothing particularly bad about the writing, but it didn't really leave an impression either. Not to say it's not good, because it is, there just wasn't any real moments that stuck with me, or any lines of dialog that really stuck out from the rest. I also felt like there was a lot of dialog that didn't really add anything, and could be left out to improve the flow of the game. However the writing does give you a clear sense of what's going on, which is what writing should be. There's also a bit of humor in the game, particularly revolving around the constant mispronunciation of Ballyious's name.

Characters: 5\5
They're good. All of them.

World: 4\5
The world of a game is something that's really important to me. This may not be something most people would usually consider when reviewing a game, but to me it's arguably the most important part. Despite the whole "only children can enter" thing, (I kind of selfishly hope that that was actually just a lie Baioules made up to get Annabelle to enter the world.) I really like the world of this game. It feels a bit post-apocalyptic, and I hope this will be explored more with abandoned towns and such. The whole "child-eater" thing feels a bit like an alien invasion, which is cool.

Gameplay: 2\5
The gameplay falls really short for me. The combat is different from other systems in a way that you use items to fight instead of skills, however I feel like it can get a bit button-mashy at times. it can still be pretty fun though, and I like the direction it took. I hope it will be expanded on a bit more in the full game. The puzzles are pretty, well, I'm not sure you could actually call them puzzles. Also, there was a really annoying maze where you literally had to bump into walls of thorns to see if you could walk through, without any indication which wall was the one you needed to enter.

The little things: 5\5
This game really has good attention to detail. It follows the mindset of "Don't use the excuse 'no one will notice' because someone will notice." From all the little sounds, to the little facial expressions the sprites sometimes make in cut-scenes, to the fact that the main character changes from a scared-looking battle sprite in the begging in the game to a more brave looking on towards the end, it's just all really great, and I really appreciate the effort put into everything. There's especially a lot of detail put into the first room you start out in, which gives the player a good first impression.

Final thoughts:
Overall I really enjoyed this game. It's clear how much thought and effort and time was put into this game. The few gripes I have with it are things that I'm sure are to be improved on, and I'll be looking forward to future updates of the game. I really hope I can update my review to five stars in the future.