Mary Skelter: Nightmares

Not really a review and perhaps I'll write one in the future, but suffice to say that I already played the heck out of this on the Vita and have every intention of playing it again here despite my ridiculous backlog. It's sometimes lewd, but mostly just an excellent contemporary DRPG that has some fun systems to play with.
An important note, however, is that if you run Malwarebytes real-time protection (malware and ransomware), it will stop this game dead cold every 30 seconds or so for just under a second. It's irritating as hell, and I tried many things to resolve it including futzing with the display settings, throwing it onto an SSD instead of an HDD, etc, but nothing worked until I disabled both real-time protection options in MWB. After that, the game was silky smooth. Small risk if you don't do anything in the background while playing, but worth noting as it took pretty much my entire playtime to figre out. Be advised.

An awesome blobber, with great music, setting, plot, characters and gameplay. However, this is a poor port and the game suffers from memory leak issues which will cause your game to crash the longer a session goes on. Thankfully, one of the first characters you get access to has an ability that lets you save anywhere, which is why I still recommend you get it, just make sure to save every hour and then restart the game!

Well, where do I even begin? The game certainly manages to entertain. The characters are adorably designed, and the music is solid — even after many hours of play, it remains enjoyable to listen to. I especially liked the background tracks for the Station Grounds and Waterside areas.

The story has a lot of potential, but unfortunately, the execution falls short. There’s too much unnecessary "little girl chatter," adults who behave in ways that don't come across as particularly intelligent, and it becomes quite obvious early on where the plot is heading.

That said, the gameplay is engaging. In addition to the standard dungeon-crawling mechanics and uncovering parts of the map as you explore, there's an interesting feature where you're hunted by "Nightmares." During these sequences, the minimap disappears, and you're under pressure to put distance between yourself and the pursuing threat. Unfortunately, uncovering the map is fairly straightforward, the paths aren't particularly complex, and the puzzles are easily solved.

The game also crashed regularly. I looked up the issue and found that other players had similar problems. I tried several suggested fixes like updating drivers, but none of them resolved the issue.

In short, the game has quite a few rough edges, but in its own way, it’s still fun. However, in my opinion, it doesn't quite hold up against titles like Undernauts or Labyrinth of Refrain.

I don't know why Steam said that I spend 23 hours on the game when I actually spend more than 100 hours.
I love Mary Skelter a lot. I played all games for 100+ hours, read the Prequel Novels, collected some merch like artbooks and did everything that the games has to offer. Out of all the games, I love this version of MSN the most. The story is great with a loveable cast. The world is wonderful to explore and aesthetically pleasing. The huge amount of references to fairytales in this game is beautiful and well done. I love the usual anime hijinks found in the game and how it works with the setting. Since the story takes place in a literal Wonderland. The Gameplay is quite balanced with a few spikes every now and then. Sure you can break the game in half like every IF/CH game if you know what to do. But the game is not unforgiving and gives you a lot of wiggle room for error. I do suggest to save often as I was told that the PC version will crash sometimes. THE MUSIC IS LEGIT GOD TIER! Great use of Rock and Violin. It fits the tone and mood of the world. I tend listen to the soundtrack almost every day. I recommend this game to anyone who is either an IF/CH fan or a dungeon Crawler fan. The game will provide some scares, excitement, solid gameplay and nice fanservice.

I adore this game! It's the first game I've ever felt really motivated to 100% (almost there, just need to clear underground jail) and the story is really fun. Sure, it's a bit fan service-y, but most games are in this genre tbh.
Just to note! The steam and switch versions are really different in their maps. I spent ages looking through guides for where certain affection events were just for the guides to be for switch instead. LOL!!
But I recommend this game, it's so fun and my first dungeon crawler.
Apparently you're supposed to play MS2 first. I only found out after that MS2 actually comes with this game and is required to play that version for the true ending. So i recommend this series- but don't buy this game. Buy Mary Skelter 2 instead.

as the first dungeon crawler game ive played, i had a good time with it
i think the nightmare mechanic is a fun twist on the format and it has some neat stuff in it
id recommend it for the story too, its the type of thing i vibe with
only real complaint is it being a bit buggy sometimes, had a couple crashes when trying to use the rabbit hole ability that makes a save point

While I do like and Recommend this Game. I will say Buy Mary Skelter 2 instead, MS:2 comes with MS:1 and is kinda a Prequel to MS1 and MS:1 Remake Unlocks after you beat 2. I did not know that at the time of Purchase or by the time I was half way through 1. I have decided not to play 2 for a while and Skip to Finale because of it....
Before I begin one Caveot, this game was Meant for the PS Vita so for PC Players I say Temper You're Expectations. Anyone Playing on Steam Deck like I did you'll be getting the intended Experience.
This is the First Dungeon Crawler I have ever Played So I'm probably easy to Impress.
I found the Story to be interesting enough. I was expecting a waifu game which honsetly this is, but its much more than that. I don't know what to say without spoiling it. Coming from playing the Neptunia Saga this is definitely a more Serious Title. You do need to pay attention and get 3 or 4 items that can be rather easy to get the true ending.
I'm a massive Fan of Turnbase RPGs. I actually found this Game Challenging in that Regard so I like it for that