Hotel Sowls

I discovered this game through ManlyBadassHero, and I’m so happy I had a chance to play it for myself! The art style is charming and interesting and the story is really fun! It’s easy to play and I barely got lost!

Okay, so. The aesthetics of this game? Immaculate. I loved them from start to finish. But the actual gameplay is a bit obtuse. My time spent with this game was not a waste but the experience really needs some improvements. I found it hard to know what could be used/picked up and what things could be used on. I think the game would have benefited from items/interact-able areas having an outline so that if there was, say, an onon near an onon patch but you clicked the patch thinking you had clicked the onon you maybe wouldn't have walked away not knowing the onon was separate from the patch. They did a sparkle graphic for the diary pages which I think would have been too much for EVERY interactable but... I also never missed any of them. It would have been good to also let you know when you've altered or combined two objects that a new one had been moved to your inventory. It might seem silly hearing that complaint out of context but it was not intuitive during gameplay. This game would have benefited from some dialogue editing from a native English speaker as I think some of the nuance was lost in translation (which isn't to say that the characters weren't still endearing) but it may have been part of why I find the progression a bit. random? TLDR; a very cute game with an incredible aesthetic and endearing cast of characters but the story is a bit disjointed and hard to follow in parts. The made the puzzles (which are not especially difficult once you have all the information) difficult to solve. The aesthetic, though unique and beautiful, impeded gameplay. You should WATCH someone play this game.

A small cartoonlike point and click game with a story that is somewhat dark in spots but overall feels more like magic realism than horror. there is a lot of silly comedy and odd dialogues, which makes it fun to wander around in the environment and interact with things. There are several endings, one of which can only be reached after getting another one. To finish the game and the differnt endings you'll probably need a walkthrough. There is nothing really hard to figure out except near the end, where you have to combine things in a certain order. Lots of extra achievements for doing various extra things. The endings themselves don't have achievements, nor do many of the main story points. I had trouble getting a few of them and didn't quite 100%. It's playful and not that serious. Great when you want a small game with some mysteries and humor in a cartoon setting.