Every week I scroll through a bunch of video game news sites, I listen to video game podcasts, and I am Patron for two video game content creators. A lot of great game recs come from these sources, and a surprising amount have demos live! For some reason, I was pretty agnostic or resistive to playing demos. I think this was based on how I viewed video games at the time. I didn’t view them like fiction - where there is an impossible abundance, so the point isn’t to read (in this case play) whatever you have access to, and instead only play what speaks to you. So, I think this will become a regular thing, if I end up playing more than three demos in a week, I will just post a little mini dump that I can refine my review and add trailers and the like for folks to check out!

DEMO: I Write Games Not Tragedies

If you were emo/alt in the 2000s, you need to play this game. It is a heartful nostaglia bomb wrapped in straight-from-your-composition-notebook visuals. The music is excellent, the writing all too relatable. It’s just good, and good for us. Maybe some hope can be found in the past.

DEMO: death howl

THIS GAME IS PERFECT. The artstyle, jarringly beautiful. The sound design, moving. The characters, haunting. The gameplay, somehow makes me not hate card battlers. I am absolutely infatuated. It gives me the same feeling Princess Mononoke did the first time I watched it. The duality of wonder and fear at the spiritual power of the world, with the terror of loneliness and darkness. Just play the demo and you will know if you like it. But just give it a try because this game is going to be special. There is a decent likelihood that card battler mechanics will become too difficult in the later stage, but for now the world and art is enough to satiate me and make sure I buy it when it releases!

DEMO: Duskpunk

I’m surprised. This is totally a me game. It’s a mix of two of my favorite titles and reminiscent of third that will undoubetdly top my all time favorites - those being Citizen Sleeper, Dishonored, and Disco Elysium, respectively. The demo just isn’t where it needs to be. It’s too jagged and each step you take feels disconnected from the next. These narrative RPG games are supposed to flow. They aren’t supposed to have resistance because narrative momentum lets you feel immersed in the world and buy into the stakes of the dice rolling mechanics. In its current state, I just couldn’t care about the world, my character motivation, or the stakes. I would say that I would check-in come release time, but this game is already out! And if this is how the demo plays, then it is a deeply unfortunate pass from me.

DEMO: Looking Up I only See a Ceiling

The first vertical game I think I’ve ever played on PC. The constantly shifting pixel art design of the world plus the color palette is simply excellent. The music is okay. It feels foreboding, but ultimately generic. The demo is reeaaallllly short. Like I have 3 minutes of playtime. I would be hooked simply based on the artstyle, but the writing was so painfully dull that I am torn. It is only $2 so we shall see.

DEMO: Saeko: Giantess Dating Sim

The intro cutscene and accompanying music really drew me in. The music is such a vibe! The pixel art is really unique and feels very cohesive. Another 2000s setting banger. The shaking animation and the scribbly text backdrop. All feel tactile and messy, its a grungy good game. All of the characters are distinct and charismatic in their own ways. It doesn’t mean they’re likeable, but I lovveeee a cringe girl and there are plenty so far.

DEMO: Unbeatable

Banger of a game. Art style and direction is excellent and unique. It has this lo-fi dither and 3D distortion over the visuals. The animation of the 2D characters is distinct. The text bubbles are Persona 5-inspired in the best way. The music is excellent, the gameplay feels punchy. The writing holds up too! Even the small things like the idle animations are really solid, they feel like old Street Fighter sprites. I’m not a rhythm game girl, but this is close to winning me over!