HALF-BAKED GIRLS

Found from discovery queue.
I bought it on a whim to practice reading Japanese, and for that it's been great so far--no massive cutscenes/monologues/etc, there's a story-summary journal, and the grammar/vocab has been pretty simple (at least as much as I have played, which is mostly the intro+first combat area).
The game itself is solid. While it's definitely a solo/indie-dev project, the atmosphere is immersive, and the environments are very well done. Enemies can be seen in the level, and battles actually happen in the level as well (no transition to/from a separate battle screen), which I love to see. Story gets right to the action/mystery; thus far, the game seems to focus on the mystery of the mansion, not fanservice/yuri.
There's a surprising amount of polish in terms of the UI/controls/etc. Menus are complete with icons, there's a full pan/zoom map, etc. Looking around with the mouse was a bit unpredictable (it's a click+drag thing), but WASD movement with arrow-key camera control works perfectly. No bugs/glitches that I've found.
All in all, I'm very happy with it, and I'm looking forward to further exploration (and Vocab!).

Fun indie JRPG game with basic, but interesting, characters, combat and story. It's a very straight forward simple JRPG with 2 team members only, in the beginning I was a little worry it would be kind of too raw or simple, it kind of is very simple but not in a bad way, exploring, discovering things and doing side-quests are actually enjoyable, even relaxing sometimes.
Combat is straight forward, but has a card system which gives you access to different spells so you can build your character the way you want, it's surprising interesting and encourages you to test and try out different strategies with it. The main characters are basically Renee (you) and your friend Mitka, so you are supposed to focus more on physical damage while your teammate focus on magic, but not necessarily, you can build them as you wish. Leveling up in this game makes a lot of difference, specially on the first half of the game, to a point I wish it has a bit less of an impact, also Mitka should be the mage of the team but she hits physically very high sometimes.
Story actually makes you entertained and wish to know more, also some side stories are quite interesting, not just filling a gap, some of them are even touching, like with Olga and Anya, which in my opinion was a miss opportunity to draw a CG of them reaching heaven there at the end or somewhat before.
The only lacking part of the game is the polishing of certain aspects, like some rooms are well-built adn detailed where others are devoid of anything, nearly no objects or props on them, also the whole castle could use more vases, plants, portraits on walls, and stuff in general, though you could say it makes sense to some parts to be empty since that's an abandoned mansion.
The sounds could do better, like text sounds while the text is filling in the screen, better spell sound effects (lightning felt very underwhelmed because the lack of sound). Also some enemies could be better balanced on their weaknesses and resistances, how the metal Dragonfly or the armors are not weak to lightning?? You could say they would be too easy to defeat that way, but you could also add a mid-tier weaknesses (-25% or so) then.
Getting the Ultimate weapons should have a fight bouded to them instead of just collecting on the spot, or a puzzle or something, to make the accomplishment more satisfying. Also the game could use a bestiary screen to show more info about enemies, HP, MP, weaknesses and maybe even some lore,
All that being said the game is pretty fun, as some cute momments as well as serious, sad, mysterious and thougtful ones.

At the time of writing this review I haven't completed the main story but it has thoroughly held my interest the entire time. If you're in the mood for a charming indie rpg with some really funny side quests then look no further.