Cricket: Jae’s Really Peculiar Game

Doing homework, not worrying about the responsibility of adults, and eating junk food. Playing this game brings back of memories of being a kid. I played the demo during Next Fest so I had an idea of what the game offers and it pique my interest with the hand drawn art.
There is turn based combat with squirrels, plants, humans and other things.
After winning certain amount of fights, you get experience, can learn new attacks, and increases friendship level. As you unlock new friends, they will be added to the bench and you can switch them in if you want.
Pros:
- The story is emotional and will hit home for anyone that has lost a parent.
- There are hidden heal items and tokens to find in the game, which rewards exploration.
- Boss fights are forgiving. If you die, you can respawn without losing money or items.
- Combo attacks was a bright spot because you can try different attacks based on your active party members.
- OST fits the theme of kids taking on the world and facing challenges of growing up. Each area and custscene has its own unique music.
Cons:
- The timing based attacks are not my favorite part. If you miss, you deal less damage or heal less. For a game that is casual, this is an odd feature to add in.
- Too many forced battles and run does not always succeed. Also, enemies respawn too frequently so you need to fight more enemies if you don't beat the area quickly.
- Fights are largely the same in the game with 1 to 4 enemies to defeat. Later, harder battles have enemies that deal more damage and can do multi target attacks.
Suggestions:
- Running on the pathways could be better. There is an auto run feature, but if you run into a wall or object you stop running. Adding a bike or roller skates would be another option.
- Add a map feature so its clear where player can travel too and places previously visited.
- Add elements to attacks, classes like tanks and mages, or strengths/weaknesses. This will add more strategy besides killing off 1 enemy at a time. I prefer this over the timed attacks.
- Add mini games like in the Twilia section that player can access anytime. They are fun to play and add more variety to the game play.
- Add more background or details about Zack and Jae. There are gaps with information such as how they met and why they became friends.
Conclusion: Overall, a nice casual RPG game. The story is touching and reminds you what it was like being a kid. The turn based fights are lacking in variety, however, the developers put effort into focusing on the characters and their relationships.
Follow IndieGems for more reviews like this one.

It’s less about challenging gameplay and more about delivering a heartfelt narrative. It has all the standard components of an RPG—turn-based combat, leveling, equipment,—but none of them stand out.
You play as Jae, a boy nicknamed Cricket, who lives alone after the death of his mother. Though he’s still connected to his sister in another city, it’s his best friend next door who provides a guiding hand in his day-to-day life—and in navigating a world where talking animals and plants are the norm.
The narrative really kicks off after a mysterious girl with dreams of reaching the moon crosses paths with Jae during one of his forest adbentures. Her wish to visit the moon—a place where dreams are said to come true—resonates deeply with Jae, whose own dream is to bring his mother back. This sets the stage for a journey filled with new friends and oddball enemies (like vengeful flowers and a fish-market-dominating shark mafia).
While the story tugs at emotional threads, it doesn’t exactly break new ground. That said, its charm lies in the emotional impact rather than plot twists. It also touches on some deeper themes with sensitivity, and that alone might be reason enough to see it through.
Combat follows a turn-based RPG format. You’ll see enemies roaming the field, and whether they rush you or flee depends on your level. Engaging them first gives you an extra turn, and each fight plays out with all the expected bells and whistles—though don’t expect any radical innovation here.
Four options are available in a battle: single attacks, group attacks, items, and tactics. The game rewards timing skill too; hitting a button as a circle aligns boosts your attack or blocks incoming damage. A unique element is the "tide meter," which fills as damage is dealt or received.
You can use chunks of it to boost single attacks, or to unleash a powerful group attack. It adds some strategy, though not enough to lift the battles beyond routine. Difficulty-wise, the game leans easy. There’s a hard mode and even a "win" button for players who’d rather experience the story without combat hurdles. So while depth exists, it's rarely necessary—you can coast through most fights with basic attacks.
Characters gain experience and level up automatically without player input on stat distribution. Gear and abilities can be managed through an in-game smartphone, which also handles inventory, party selection, and messages. A neat feature, though again, not crucial for success. There's even a friendship system that unlocks combo attacks, but like many features here, it's entirely optional.
The world feels like a continuous dungeon, unfolding screen by screen. You’ll smash objects for coins, open cookie cans (this game’s version of treasure chests), and chat with NPCs who usually don’t have much to say. There are no side quests, no secrets (unless you count hidden paths), and not much incentive to explore beyond grabbing a few stat-boosting items or new gear—which rarely changes your effectiveness in battle.
Dungeons are compact and visually distinct enough to avoid being boring, and while enemies respawn as soon as move away far enough, you can usually dodge them with ease. Navigation is simple, and while maps only work in major towns, the linear design makes it hard to get lost.
Voice acting is mostly absent, replaced with repetitive grunts and murmurs like “oh” and “hmm” that quickly become grating. Thankfully, these can be toggled off in the settings. On the brighter side, the settings menu also includes several quality-of-life features, such as assist options and a fully customizable difficulty setup.

Little bit of inspiration from Super Mario RPG Legend of the 7 Stars, Bravely Default, and Mother (Earth ound).
Quirky, cute, fun combat, just enough challenge to not be boring but not too difficult.

The game and story are very grounded.
I won’t spoil anything, but most players will relate to the issues this game explores. It’s honest, emotional, and manages to mix that with humour in a way that feels genuine. It reminded me straight away of the South Park games – both in tone and basic mechanics.
Gameplay is fun. Hiding spots reward you with better gear, but do get repetitive. Combat works, though it could be more dynamic.
I ran into a few issues:
Two random crashes, usually after the game stops responding to my gamepad inputs.
UI and settings feel unpolished:
On launch, you’re asked to press any button, then shown three save slots where you can load or continue.
The Options menu is extremely limited – no fullscreen windowed or borderless modes, and no proper exit option (you have to Alt+F4 the game).
The resolution setting doesn’t actually change anything. I tried selecting different resolutions, but the game stayed the same.
Textures are blurry on QHD, especially in fullscreen. Clearly designed with 1080p in mind, which makes it feel a bit off on higher-res displays.
Even though you can play with keyboard and mouse, I found the gamepad surprisingly more intuitive — and I almost never prefer gamepads, so that says something.
This feels like a game with great heart and potential, but it's missing polish and attention to detail. The issues I mentioned would have been obvious with proper playtesting. Unless this free version is meant as a public test, the current state makes it feel unfinished.
That said — there's definitely something here. With more polish, this could easily become a little gem.

I hitch-hiked to the moon. I fought squirrels, loan sharks, cosplayers and sports drink mascots with a garden rake, a traffic cone and extreme acrobatics. I overcame road blockades, racial discrimination and student debt. I met a duck.

This game is a relatively simple but delightful JRPG in the style of Earthbound or Omori, featuring turn-based combat with some bells and whistles. It's surreal and whimsical, and sports some top tier writing that most indie games can only dream of. The characters are charismatic, distinctive and funny, with great lines of dialogue all the way through, both when it comes to jokes and important lessons about friendship, growing up and overcoming adversity and past traumas - you will literally laugh and cry.

I only have minor gripes - zero when it comes to dialogue, but at times I wish there had been more to do, mechanically speaking, in the various areas you explore, other than chatting, fighting and finding items in danish butter cookie tins (like in all JRPGs, I finished the game with a lot of unused items). Combat was fun but it felt harder in the early game and relatively easy towards the end, especially after I figured out a couple winning strategies. It doesn't matter (because there are more items than you need), but coins sometimes dropped inside walls.

Even so, I had a great time playing this game; I wouldn't hesitate to play more games by these developers and would love to see more of these kids.

Absolutely incredible game
It's SO frustratingly close for me to easily consider it a masterpiece, but I still love it all the same.
The Good
While the gameplay, visuals, and music are all mostly top notch, I ultimately found the characters and dialogue to be what truly sets this game apart. Considering the wacky premise of the game I wasn't expecting that much and figured there might be a good moment or two, but it kept on surprising me. It tackles quite the number of topics with genuine care and understanding.
It's hard to describe as it never really goes that deep and is mostly kept lighthearted, but the impact can be felt. It's just as funny as it is bittersweet. I nearly teared up at many points (maybe SOME water eye) as you really feel for the characters, especially if it's something you've experienced before or even still working through. They're probably the best written kid characters I've seen in quite some time and the game really comes together because of that. It's not perfectly executed with some things either happening too fast or too slow, but it makes up for that.
With that being said though, there is of course the rest of the game. I don't think much needs to be said on visuals/music as they speak for themselves, but for gameplay I have a few things to touch on. This is what I originally thought would be the game's strongest aspect (and a large reason why I played the game in the first place). I'm glad I held off until a few patches as I likely would've been far less satisfied on this front. The difficulty especially I care a lot about as being pushed to interact with the game's systems makes it far more engaging and satisfying as long as the systems facilitate it.
Thankfully, the game is about as mechanically solid (and responsive) as it gets. Boost, buffs/debuffs, positioning, character switching, team attacks nearly with all unique effects, it has it all and you get access to a lot of it very quickly. Not much customization, but it's satisfying enough regardless and the game is short enough to not be a problem.
I heard how easy the game was before so I cranked up the enemy scale slider thinking the max on it (x2) would be the intended 'actually presented a challenge' point, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got my ass handed to me even as I slowly adjusted it down to what felt right. I liked having the assist circle for my attacks, but not for the enemies as it feels better to naturally adapt to their attacks. Even as someone with a lot of experience with these kinds of games, putting it on anything above 1.3x made things quickly go out of control. I would've liked traditional difficulty options, but I had no problem experimenting with the slider. For a first playthrough, definitely DO NOT touch the hard mode button though.
The meh
Now for the only flaw of the game that actively got in the way for me: the map design. There's nothing outright terrible and a lot of it is quite good. However, there is something you will notice very quickly when exploring about and that's space. Nearly every screen in the game feels 20%-50% bigger than it should. This by itself wouldn't be that bad, but the game often demands that you find specific things within them and you're likely to just waste a bunch of time. There's one or two times where it feels like absolute filler, and others where it's a mild annoyance. Heavily depends how you feel about it. The capability of the map (that you look at) is also quite limited
I also expected a little more out of a certain character and the ending but it doesn't hinder the overall experience too much
Anyways that about does it for me. Fantastic game that deserves far more recognition.

This game is worth trying it yourself!