Next Fest 25|1 Day 6

Next Fest is coming to a close, and despite having played dozens of demos already, there are still ones of high quality I've not even touched! Today's batch may be slightly biased to personal preferences, but I try my best to be objective about them

Highlights: Run TavernQuest, Gentoo Rescue

Run Tavernquest

Run TavernQuest on Steam

A classic text adventure - but you’re not the one playing it. You act as the game master for an idiot player named STEVE. Parse the player’s enigmatic commands and decide how NPCs react to him. Who knew that running an RPG would be so frustrating?

STEAM

A phenomenal text adventure game, where you are the game and not the adventurer. The humor is specific but I loved it, the voice acting is enjoyable, and the freedom to make the adventure whatever you want is fantastic. The demo is also completely separate from the full game, so try and see what it's like!

16: The Art of the 15

16: The Art of the 15 on Steam

Prepare to master the power of the cursor in this skill-based puzzle. Move the tiles in the smoothest way possible to put the tiles in position. Improve your record time and analyze your solve in Classic Mode. Discover and practice the drills to become a master in Campaign mode.

STEAM

Going in I expected this game to provide puzzles based on the principles of the sliding puzzle 15. What this is, is more of a tutorial on how to actually solve these sliding puzzles, teaching you various "moves" you can do via sets of simpler puzzles where you focus on a handful of numbers. It's satisfying, and what it does it does well, but it's also not at all what I had hoped for.

Gentoo Rescue

Gentoo Rescue on Steam

A puzzle metroidvania about sliding penguins and walruses. Pick up items to push, pull, bounce, swap, stop, steal, or explode. Uncover surprising twists hidden in a world of puzzles inside puzzles inside puzzles.

STEAM

A very well crafted puzzle game, whose mechanics and level design cross-interact in a multitude of unexpected ways. And unlike in other similar titles (e.g. Baba Is You), the game provides you with a nifty journal that keeps track of everything you learn. The visuals might not be very fancy, but the puzzles are lovely

Katana Dragon

Katana Dragon on Steam

An action, adventure & dungeon exploration RPG, where you play as the ninjas Shin & Nobi in their quest to save the world of Sogen!

STEAM

An adventure game where you play as a young ninja, with all the ninja stuff you'd expect. The voxel aesthetic is extremely adorable, but it's not enough to make me like the game. The combat felt uninteresting, and platforming challenges were a pain if you didn't get them first try, not to mention a lot of backtracking without any fast travel options. There is a lot of love here, but I'm not sure if it's well distributed across different aspects of the game

Quadphos

Quadphos on Steam

Light up cells. Deduce rules. Solve puzzles.

STEAM

Grid-based rule discovery game. I always appreciate rule discovery puzzles, and even though this one didn't show off anything mindblowing, it's still a well executed member of the genre

Teller's Duty

Teller’s Duty on Steam

Work as a teller in Kertasia Bank, thanks to your distant uncle. Balance strict bank rules, difficult customers, and moral dilemmas as you save for your mother’s medical bills and dream business. Every decision shapes your future in this story-rich simulation of survival and ambition.

STEAM

Paper's Please, but you're working at a bank. It's generally good, but full of "but's". The localization is good, but here and there it's a bit off. The gameplay is good, but sometimes unclear. The characters are good, but sometimes you get the same ones twice during the same day, with the same request (which you may have already satisfied). It deflates the tension if you know ahead of time what the answer is because you've already answered it, and the demo doesn't get into any territory where you might be doing under-the-table deals to try and stay afloat. In short, idea is good, but requires more details to truly shine

Diacritic

Diacritic on Steam

Decode a layered narrative as you complete the work assignment of a Diacritic: to fit shapes into orthogonally projected outlines and provide answers to inscrutable questions.

STEAM

This is a two in one package: A simple 'puzzle' game about rotating and scaling outlines of boxes so that they match the outline provided, and a convoluted narrative shared through small diary entries, emails, and logs. Because of how detached from each other the two modes are I had a hard time getting into the narrative, but it doesn't mean it's bad. Same with puzzles themselves, I found them mundane and mostly trivial, and the ones I didn't solve instantly ended up being a slightly frustrating dance around the right solution (quite literally)

Isopod

Isopod: A Webbed Spin-off on Steam

You’re a tiny pill-bug in a big world! Roll, zip, and slam your way through the gorgeous landscapes of the Australian bush, unite your fellow bugs, and fight back the greedy Fire Ant Conglomerate!

STEAM

All about rolling and swinging as a tiny little buggo. All about skillfully maintaining your momentum when you travel between spaces as you try and unionize against the capitalist ants. Good silliness, fun controls, and an overall enjoyable time with the cutest little isopod ever

Tilemancer Dungeon

Tilemancer Dungeon on Steam

Tilemancer dungeon is a minimalist dungeon crawler - card game where you create & explore your own dungeon. Create your own path, fight your way through the dungeon, gear up and claim the dungeon to become the next Tilemancer !

STEAM

A game that does one thing, but does it well. You get random tiles from chests, and your job is to construct a path through the dungeon. Sometimes a tile will have a weapon upgrade, sometimes it'll have an enemy, always it will be one square less on the board. With incentives to put down many tiles the dungeon quickly grows into a messy layout with ever-stronger enemies. No complaints