farewell planet / おわかれのほし

Very impactful characters and impressive writing. Not much replay value as it is more about the characters than it is the gameplay, but an extremely valuable experience nonetheless. Something that stays with you for months after.

Tldr: Sad game, did cry

it really do be a game about saying farewell and man did my heart hurt. each person you meet comes alive with just a few sentences and you feel with them and their worries, fear, love, loneliness... the tragedy in how they'll never get to have that conversation, how they'll never know how much they were loved, how some died without knowing it's not their fault, that they aren't bad because of their emotions... man.
anyway. floor time it is for me.

On the face of it, Farewell Planet seems like a simple game, and mechanically it is. Others have described it well enough.
But it's this strange undercurrent that is really the focus here. Learning about others and then laying their bodies to rest in a dying world is more of a framing device that helps you dwell on how every person has a completely different outlook on life and death. Depending on how far you read into it, you might even see echoes of our modern world.

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

There's an irony that a game about machines has the most human characters of all. With only a drop of dialogue every person in this game comes alive, feeding into a greater narrative that slowly builds up the longer you spend in the world. If you want a slow paced meaningful game you can't get much better than this.
For my own personal recommendations, I'd suggest putting a few hours aside, turning off the guide mode unless needed, and putting the time into this game that it deserves. WASD/ ↑ ↓ → ← move you, whilst 'z' is your action command, and 'c' opens your menu.
Right the wrongs and fight back against the inevitable entropy.
(Notes my gameplay time has not been recorded; it was about 2.5 hours)

Please play this game. It is an emotional roller coaster. The characters are so well written. It is only 5 dollars and it will leave a major impact on you.

This was a delightful game to play through. To be honest the controls took a bit getting used to, but once you get the hang of it things are smooth sailing! There's also a guide feature integrated into the game (which you can toggle anytime from the settings), which is helpful for if you get stuck on any puzzles.

The atmosphere is great, with a charming art style and a relaxing, yet somber soundtrack to accompany the gameplay. The characters are also fantastic; their different experiences can get pretty heavy, but can also be quite relatable. Chances are, you'll find someone you can connect with in some way!

Definitely give this game a shot! It's well worth your time, and will stick with you well after you've finished playing.