Shikon-X Astro Defense Fortress

I must admit the game looked a bit random in the trailer, and yet it's a delightfully goofy narrative with a few clever arcade elements. I enjoyed most of the characters and got maybe a dozen of laughs playing it, there are a few very charming moments. I am not always a dedicated reader, but I thought the writing was enjoyable enough and kept my attention in most parts. It's about 2.5 to 3 hours, maybe a little longer if you read everything. There are 3 different elements to the game, there is a visual novel which is probably 40% of the length, there is some limited exploration with simple puzzles, and sometimes you will play a decently made arcade mini-game.
Most of the puzzles were just a simple item delivery, find the item and automatically activate it by interacting with a correct location, mostly low stress as long as you not missing the hints in the dialogue, sometimes I felt like taking screenshots to remember certain elements. I probably got stuck 2 times in total for no more than 10 minutes, the game is not hard but some of the solutions were a bit too creative. On that note, I liked how some puzzles required a transformation or a different character, it just comes across as a playful experience where you constantly poking at different characters and get to see them react to your mischief.
The story is a little odd, mainly because I thought you were not going to take it seriously given all of the meta jokes, but only at the very end it seems like the game wants you to be more absorbed in the story, and I am not sure that it really worked for me, the whole dark twist at the end didn't feel like the best place to end it on. I still enjoyed the whole self-aware part of the narrative, I kinda got the feeling that you were mostly making it for the lols, but I think the chemistry between the characters worked well, and the main character herself had a nice smug personality.
Pros;
(+) Personally I liked most of the jokes, I think the characters worked well together, and it had some creative solutions for the puzzles that made me laugh. The design of the game overall comes across as very playful and it was fun to explore its limited locations.
(+) Kind of a unique aesthetic to the game, like a weird mixture of 3 or 4 different art styles with a little bit of fan service XD. I especially liked the facial expressions on the character. It was fun going around poking at things.
(+) Actually some decently made mini-games, relatively speaking I feel like you put more effort into them than a mini-game should justify, even though they kinda there to be part of the theme.
Feedback:
- I thought ending was a bit abrupt and not very satisfying, I kinda wish you would draw a few extra panels for the character during the text roll, otherwise it just feels like the game kinda drops. On that note, I didn't feel like the game wanted me to take the story seriously at all until the very end, and then it kinda ends in a dark tone, so I am like, that wasn't really the tone up to this point.
- Maybe a little hint saying "the supervisor could see me taking it" or something. I am not sure how I found the random rock, if there was a hint for it I totally missed it.
- I am not sure that alarm frequency at the start was a good idea, if you can't figure out the solution right away, you gona listen to it for a bit
Overall Thoughts: 7/10
The game is kinda mostly made for the lols I feel, and to be fair it did make me laugh a lot, feels like the jokes are from the gamer for the gamer, a lot of silly references there, not scared of Disney huh? I liked the characters and most of the puzzles had very charming ideas, I just wish the ending felt a bit more wholesome than just kinda twisting the chill tone of the game.
Niche, obscure and underrated games:

Something about this game intrigued me, maybe it's because I couldn't find much about it online. I'm glad I took time to check it out!
It's short, but it is charming and I feel like it has love put into it. I enjoyed the humor and the characters. I hope the team will continue the story, I'd love to see more. I liked the mini-games and the character portraits were very nice.
Keep it up guys, I enjoyed your game and hope to see more from you all in the future. :)

This game is basically a controller-based adventure game with a dash of shmup thrown in. The plot is less Star Wars seriousness and more Spaceballs farce. The art style is anime-esque.

Is it short? Yes. Is it sweet? Also yes. Is it worth $10? I would also say an additional yes.

If you like puzzle-solving, shmups, and the lulz, this game is for you. As I said, it may be short, but it's very much worth the price.

Shikon-X scratches an itch I have for short, focused games that pull in bits and pieces from a couple different genres.
It's maybe five sixths walk-and-talk point-and-click (with no pointing or clicking) with a handful of quick arcadey sequences.
Know that it is very short – I think a little over a quarter of my four hours in-game was spent either afk or (VERY stupidly, God I'm glad the developers couldn't watch me playing because they would have shoved my keyboard down my throat) trying to do the pinball game before I was supposed to.
Overall, though, I'd call it brevity and a positive for the kind of game this is – it means the puzzles are straightforward and keep the momentum going.
I'm trying to think of how to say more about the art and music than just "Was good, I liked" and I'm not sure I have the language for it.
Was good! I liked. And the banter and Daaia's comments had me regularly "heh heh"-ing. A+ credit roll, too.
I eagerly await Shikon-Y, and Shikon-Z, and Shikon-α.

Found it from discovery queue, beat it in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it.
Short, but highly polished and fun. The characters/world/story are great, and the minigames are solid on their own and fit in nicely with the adventure.
Props to the devs--they re-encoded their videos to make it fully Linux/proton compatible, and it ran perfectly for me.

Very fun little puzzle adventure game. The dialogue is very tongue in cheek, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The mini games are enjoyable too, one is basically a new version of asteroid. The game features a nice 90's aesthetic too.

nice character art and story is interesting, also includes a pinball minigame