>>1416567 Damn it I accidentally cut off the rest of the start for some reason >This is a time to actually This is a time to actually be able to try out a bunch of games without needing to commit anything outside of your time and internet usage to download stuff. Yes, you will need to get your hands dirty and will find shit but the gems that you can find and eventually the recommendation system surfaces will be pretty good.

>>1416579 As the guy who was making these threads, fuck I knew it was a bad time to take a sabbatical from dot moe. Guess somehow I'll go through the catalog and start picking out the good trailers to showcase. <lmao at me compressing Tribe Nine's PV only for it to EOS I also archived some demos I didn't post in the last one so maybe I'll get around to posting them. Then again, I said over in >>>/co/ I would compress the rest of Common Side Effects and then I ghosted them.

>>1416931 I'm not seeing anything interesting tbh

I hate when some demos only work during the event.

>>1416931 Too busy today too, I have them downloaded and started a bit on the first demo but too early to give a judgement, maybe tomorrow and definitely Saturday but I am knee deep in needing to dig through and find stuff. >>1417071 I should've been more clear especially now before public release, It's still too early to dig out the gems and get consensus on what is good. Most of the stuff you will find is per your interests and is shit digging hoping you find a diamond early. But it can be worth it. I think that is how stuff like Aethermancer got found early which was probably the best take on a roguelite monster catcher. If you don't want to do that, you can wait until June 9th for things to officially release and people will usually have a list of early recommendations to try. The threads on half will probably die after people get bored of initially shit digging. >>1417145 Some demos don't have DRM on them so you can still launch them manually but yeah, sometimes, I wish they give a deadline or heads up at least how long they want it to be playable because the fest genuinely is too short for the 3000+ games that participate.

>>1416567 So went through the first two >https://store.steampowered.com/app/3666180/Solitaire_of_Stygian_Shadows/ Alright but very barebones. Needs more meat to the bone but I'll have to see if anything else is out there more complete. >https://store.steampowered.com/app/3743400/Drunken_Rogue_Demo/ Spent all night playing this and the demo is really extensive. The main mechanic is needing to balance drunkeness and being sober and the fact that you can postpone encounters to another time which increases the difficulty of the event but also increases the reward and makes strategy important. Really great and wishlisted even if it has some really rough edges like the translation being really rough and a mechanic as a result you can try putting points in but not understanding. Found out the third one isn't out yet so I guess I am trying Shrine's Legacy tomorrow. Some more stuff that caught my eye. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2052300/Glaciered/ >Underwater Soulslike from Playism who usually has some good stuff every Next Fest https://store.steampowered.com/app/2592160/Dispatch/ >High budget VN from former Telltale staff about a superhero workplace. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3076910/UNDERGROUNDED/ >Japanese action adventure set in a dungeon made from American history https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401280/Forastero/ >God hand but you are an actual sheriffhttps://https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072400/Outrider_Mako/ Top down Zelda but about delivery and collection.

>>1416567 Next Fest threads are pretty cool, always a few games that are worth looking at You do have to remember that early on the "anti garbage" algorithm hasn't kicked in and not every dev has his shit up so you'll see a lot more trash getting promoted, once others have done some basic sorting and everyone has their stuff up you do see more consistent good results. >>1420909 >https://https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072400/Outrider_Mako/ It's been a while since I've had that on my wishlist >https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401280/Forastero/ That looks a bit rough but has potential, I sorta knew it had to be an RE4 reference to some degree even before reading th short description.

Always love nextfest. Ever since I found Witch Spring R in the first one I always make sure to try a few demos every time. Usually come away with a game or two I'm looking forward to. Man was there a lot of disappointment for me last time though. So many good concepts and character designs wasted on rougelike deck builders it made me want to give the Slay the Spire and Balatro devs a Teddy K special. Add onto that several interesting looking game demos just turning out to be early launches for F2P gacha garbage. At least I found Hyper Team Recon and am greatly looking forward to that game being finished.

>>1420909 Sorry forgot to post some impressions >https://store.steampowered.com/app/1435720/Shrines_Legacy_Demo/ Probably not worth it. It does the 16 bit RPG pretty well to a tee and even backports some modern stuff but nothing stands out. I also wasn't that hooked by the story either. Don't regret spending time on it but I wouldn't recommend it either. >https://store.steampowered.com/app/3076910/UNDERGROUNDED/ Really good, mixes a puzzle adventure with a retro game special power that is used at times. A bit rough around the edges but completely fine for the story it wants to tell. Better hook than the above, and I would try it if you like that kind of game. >https://store.steampowered.com/app/2592160/Dispatch/ So split on this. A lot of effort was poured into stuff like art and etc. and you really can see that Telltale DNA there as would be expected of most of the staff that came from there. However, they lean way too heavily into the "adult cartoon" stereotype and it sucks from a dialogue and plot perspective. Give it a try if you are a Telltale fan and like these types of games but I dunno, there are enough red flags here for me to not want to buy the game and wait for reviews.

I'm gonna wait for the demos to come out then take a look through the lists and see what pops out. I'll stream some more again too. Hard to believe this is the 3rd time I'm doing this already.

Literally impossible demo is motionrec btw

>>1448323 literally a skill issue. pretty fun game, thanks for the recommendation.

Forgot the name of the game but there's a demo for a game about the arm industry. Kinda like a excel simulator. Does someone know what's the name?

>>1448323 >>1448364 You are like a little baby. Watch this:

I tried Crown of Greed. Steam description: >In this Demo version of the game, you will set up your very first foothold and try to survive in the hostile realm of Rodovia. Bend your subjects to your will with an unusual indirect management system. Plan, build, manage and offer bounties to greedy heroes who may or may not take on the challenge. Very similar to the Majesty games which I liked. Pretty chill game to play as you don't have to really micro anything since this is an indirect control rts, and just focus on expanding your base and supporting heroes as they do their business. I enjoyed it for the most part, though I had a sound bug that muted the audio except for the story voice lines. I had one pathing failure as well when I put a bounty on a wolf den that proceeded to trap my heroes there until I cancelled the bounty. Final note in memory of the dead tax collectors who valiantly gave their lives charging directly into enemy forces to enrich my coffers. True heroes, every last one of them.

Next up I tried Anvil Empires. Steam Description: >Anvil is a massively multiplayer game where thousands of players work together to build empires, wage war, and conquer in a persistent online world. March alongside armies of players in massive melee battles and large scale sieges Larger scale medieval version of Foxhole. Just as chaotic and at times organized as regular foxhole. Needs a proper tutorial, as most players have no idea what is going on or even how to do basic shit. Listening to some underage faggot bitch and moan about basic things while spamming bruh every 5 seconds was painful. Server wait times can be completely terrible too, so just keep trying another server until you find one without a 64+ player waiting line. Game was mostly stable once in, but there were moments of choppiness due to lag that popped up randomly. FPS was low but mostly stable around 30 on my older pc.Combat itself was ok, nothing special, but it got the job done. Stamina/slowdown system was mildly annoying though. I also liked all the various siege equipment even if it was a pain to get people to listen sometimes.

Vindictus is fun, but hopefully they don't make it a live service. Btw if you find any good coom game reply to my post.

I tried out bitcraft online, it's like an albion/runescape mmo Wasn't horrible but the client has memory leak issues and launching into paid early access is a shame

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound actually has a new demo for the Next Fest. I'm unsure how I feel about it since there's no scoring system and that the game doesn't feel like the OG Ninja Gaiden games at all. Additionally there's this weird charge mechanic that kinda ruins the flow of the game. Still, here's the demo if you wanna play it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2542120/NINJA_GAIDEN_Ragebound/

>>1453088 Elaborate on that

>>1453088 The chinese don't have souls and therefore can't create worthwhile video games.

GASLIGHTERS Horror game taking place in a mining town where you've been retired for two years as a government hero under NDA for strange happenings in a mine you work at. A strange mist has broken out however (probably related to these prior shenanigans), and now you must survive. There are three different channels on the radio each telling you a different perspective of the events going on, and a console in your shelter with three lights linking to each "faction" of sorts and the radio has the three similarly color-coded broadcasts to tune into. The Government is blue, and reporting on the event in an official manner with their evacuation plan (but is keeping secrets about the source of the mist), The independent miners are the red channel, and are ran by some enigmatic protestor group who is very distrustful of the government, and The Survivors are the Green broadcast, representing the view of the common survivor and your fellow passive citizen. Your goal is to survive the five days until evacuation, and from what the demo tells and what I guess, eventually pick a side. You have a radio giving off these three broadcasts with the government one marked by a poster in your shelter. You'll get a suit from the government early in day 1 if you have the console on with the blue light, and this lets you go out once a day, presumably on later days you'll have to choose between the different groups. Also, since these are live radio broadcasts running simultaneously, you can't listen to them all, so you're bound to miss some key information depending on the broadcasts(s) you choose to tune into and at what time. You also can't sit idle at your radio fiddling with the dial all day, as the mist leaves creeping stains you have to clean up unless you want your sanity draining and your eventual death. It's an overall cool horror concept, but I do have two big complaints. <Demo is too short, only taking up day 1 and not giving you enough of the multiple paths perspective. <Time advances way too fast. Maybe the dev should either add a difficulty slider for time scaling or slow the time slightly down to 0.8x or 0.75xwhat it currently is, to give you a bit more downtime. Can't really get a true feel from this demo alone but if the game ends up being one of those $4.99 or cheaper quick experience games I'll give it a go when it comes out. Mostly because I love the concept enough. >>1453542 Vindictus, like the MMO? Or some new project with an identical name?

>>1453951 This new Vindictus is a singleplayer game though there are signs of Nexon wanting to add microtransactions.

BREAKSHOT HERO Marble/billiards puzzle game where you form a party from the marble characters you collect. The goal is to bounce all the enemies into spikes or damage them through your skills to kill them before they can kill you. Pure strategy on your end too since the AI doesn't "roll" to attack but rather deals 1 damage to the nearest hero. Found it insanely fun and love how the unit collecting works, being a gachapon system drawing from the characters you killed + any surviving ally units, but with your earnings based on performance and RNG protection in the form of the pool growing smaller with successive runs of the pre-set levels as you buy up units, plus a system to let you recruit units from a wider pool if you so wish. Insanely fun game. Only complaint is mouse control is a bit awkward and needs a bit more debugging and playtesting. Has a level-up system by sacrificing dupes, and you can use extra units you don't want to dye your current units, letting you change every color channel on the characters you do like. Love the cute artstyle the game has too. Overally, insanely fucking fun. Usually it takes me a minute to find gold in all the shit from these Nextfests, but here I am finding gold super fast for once. Keep an eye on it if you like billiards/pool marble style games.

CAT NAMED MOJAVE You get stranded in the middle of the desert, and this serial killer cat will fix your car, but only if you do some hunting for him first. Horror comedy with a very surrealist tone to it. Kind of short demo but I get the premise the game is going for, loved the little jumpscare screamer easter egg in the TV. If you're looking for a serious horror game, look elsewhere, but if you're looking for a good horror comedy you should keep an eye on it. >>1453974 >Nexon Yeah no thanks anon, I'm good. Don't trust those gooks after all their bullshit over the years.

The first demo I played was Plus Ultra: Legado. It's a metroidvania with a comic book style set in 16th Mesoamerica that explores the interactions and tension between the Europeans and the natives. This setting is what caught my attention first and foremost because of how few games I have seen take place in this time period (that aren't some sort of civ building/strategy game), and how none of them are metroidvanias. I was also interested to see how it dealt with the whole European explorers vs. natives situation, and from what I could tell from the front page, it didn't seem to be pushing any propaganda or message that demonized Europeans. And while that could certainly come later, or be purposely removed from the demo only to be added back in the final release, for now it is refreshing. The game also seems to be funded in some way by the Spanish government, so that is worth noting, I suppose. The game recommends using a controller, and I would agree with this advice. It is playable with keyboard controls, but it didn't take long for my wrists to get tired from all quick movements you have to pull off to dodge fast enemy attacks. The movement is pretty good, and from the start you can dash and propel yourself upward by slashing down at enemies, which makes moving around feel pretty satisfying. But it is also not overly easy either; it is clear from the beginning that you will have room to master the controls and make fewer and fewer platforming mistakes over the course of the game. There is already good enemy variety, and the environment lends itself to it naturally, with all the snakes, big cats, mosquitos, bats, and even lizards roaming around. The health bar is implemented in a simple but unique way. Instead of having hearts or a health bar, you have pieces of armor that break off one by one as you get hit. Get hit when bloody and wearing no armor and you die. This helps the game stand out while also pulling you into the world a bit, as an explorer would need to wear armor and find more once it is broken. The comic book style has a lot of potential and adds even more unique style to the game without being intrusive. When changing screens, the player goes between the boundaries of comic book panels. If the player goes up to the panel above, he grabs onto the blank edge of the picture he is currently in and pulls upward into the nearby one. You can also advance dialogue faster by slashing at the speech bubbles that appear when an NPC speaks, allowing you to advance through things very fast if you desire to get lore quickly before moving on. The game ends with a boss battle, which was fun. It's a basic fight which allows you to use all the movement options you have been practicing through the jungle and gardens. At the end of the fight, instead of landing a killing blow, a mysterious native woman (the one on the cover art) shoots a sleep dart at the large cat before she leaves as quickly as she showed up, which is both a fun way to end the battle as well as tease what seems to be the main human companion. Even if it's been done that way many times before in other games. Overall, solid mechanics so far and interesting art direction, looking forward to the release of this one. And I hope we get the chance to woo the aztec woman too.

I compiled a bunch of titles even before Next Fest officially started. Keep in mind I tend to select for Asian devs (often have limited-time demos) and these choices were mostly based off their trailers. HOTEL BARCELONA New collab from Suda51 and Swery. About what you expect from the two, incredibly good off-kilter illustrations, meh 3D presentation and performance. Still, give it a whirl if you can if you want something to whet you over until Romeo is a Dead Man releases proper. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2286600/HOTEL_BARCELONA/ Jump Ship Helldivers 2 coop PvE clone with Space Engineer trappings. Probably going to be one of the standouts of this Next Fest. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2841820/Jump_Ship_Demo/ Ghostwriter Workshop My pixel art bias rears its head. It's JP-only in language but it's a VN that uses letter-writing as its distinguishing mechanic for you to interact with its cast and determine narrative choices. Very good aesthetic but limited in reach obviously by not being translated. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3342800/Ghostwriter_Workshop/ Ascend to ZERO A Hades clone with a time manipulation schtick. Design is put together but time will tell if it can distinguish itself from its competitors. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3279910/Ascend_to_ZERO_Demo/ On a side note I guess it's funny that Next Fest has ballooned enough that big publishers and indie devs are actively factoring in these events for free promotion and they're become a regular tradition in online gaming culture.

Third game I tried: Tactical Annihilation. Steam Description: >Experience turn-based strategy with free-form base building, multi-unit control, colossal units, and powerful battle skills. It captures the depth of an RTS in turn-based form, like Advanced Wars with massive super units! A blend of Advance Wars and Supreme Commander. You can build structures with engineers and salvage wrecks. You have a Commander Unit that is powerful but fails the mission if killed like Supreme Commander. Your commander doesn't have commander powers like AW though. You also have the option to highlight and select multiple units to move them all at once which is neat. Only issues I had with it were some typos I noticed. I really enjoyed this one, and I look forward to seeing the full roster of units and buildings.

Will they talk about the new rimworld in the steamfest? >>1454750 >Hotel Barcelona I was going to make a joke about the lack of niggers but soon I noticed that the progatonist is a niggress

Fourth Game is Bannerbound. Steam Description: >Bannerbound is a flag-capturing game where you lead a customized army, combining strategy and action to dominate the battlefield. Organize your troops, adapt your tactics, and fight for victory! It reminds me of that Dynasty Warriors spinoff, Bladestorm. It seemed to work fine enough, but I don't have much to say as the demo is annoyingly short. You have a tutorial and 1 under 5 min mission where you face off against a singular group of enemies. I like that you can customize what units you bring and buy them shit like throwing weapons though. Fifth game is Tank Core. Steam Description: >"Tank Core" is a 2D top-down shooter game infused with Roguelike elements. Players will collect various random tank components in levels, including turrets, chassis, shells, modules, and cores, to assemble unique tanks that will protect base and defeat all enemies encountered Simple roguelike tank game where you upgrade and outfit your tank as you play. Simple but fun. Sadly despite the store page being in English, the actual game was not, so I had no idea what I was doing when customizing shit beyond just trying out things at random to see what they do.

>>1456554 For Tank Core, the button on the left of the menu buttons is a dropdown menu to select language. The base flag mechanic didn't really make sense to me, but maybe I was playing too aggressively with my health.

>>1454374 You might like expeditions conquistador if you enjoy that setting. It does justice to it without being preachy.

Here are some puzzle games demos that I liked. >Unknot! Pretty straightforward puzzle game about untangling knots. Most of the levels have a little tidbit of information about the knot. I think some of the levels have minimum swap counts that are too low, like the 7 pointed star and the two intersecting loops. >Orbyss The visuals reminded me of Ballance, but this game is much more about puzzles than platforming. There are a lot of mechanics, but they are introduced quite well, and the final level of the demo ties a lot of the mechanics together in a very satisfying way. >He Who Watches The first person grid based movement works much better than I expected. This game has one of the best hint systems in puzzle games I've seen, where it drops you into a smaller puzzle room that isolates one particular mechanic that is used in the main puzzle. The only criticism I have is that one of the extra levels feels like an introduction to a mechanic/idea that was used heavily in the process of accessing the room itself.

Day one of stream demos. Here's the good ones: >After Inc Revival From the creator of Plague Inc, this is like that afghan one they made a few years ago except after the virus. I like this one, a nice semi cozy builder. >All will fall Your crew are washed up on some derelict ruins and you have to build up to get more resources. Bridges can fall down and will result in everything crumbling if you're not careful. >Gold Gold Adventure Gold This is Majesty with different graphics. Place buildings, recruit heroes, collect taxes, place flags for heroes to go and get some money. I'll still play it though. >Grounded Aces Keeping an eye on this one. You have a squadron to keep in working order before Jerry flies overhead and bombs everything back to the stone age. >Hirogami This one is special. A platformer based around Origami and the way the characters move makes me thing they're digitized models. I think it might be a trick but it's very convincing.

>>1457582 >Hordelord It's Quake. Still kinda fun. >Hotel Barcelona. I don't like this one because of two clashing parts. It's essentially a rogue-like with a timer for some reason that forces you through stages. Nothing too bad except you lose all items on starting a new run and that means just redoing the same thing over again. The combat looks deep but is very clunky and doesn't flow well for a 2D game. I've seen some 2D brawlers that were this clunky before. It doesn't feel good to play and the mechanics make me not wish to play it. >I Hate My Waifu Streamer Russians do it again. The Ultimate Simp VN is here. Just don't flame her or she'll leap from the screen. >Rebirth: I Became the Emperor of America by Creating TokTik A Chinese VN that replicates South Park's graphics style for some reason. It's about a guy who gets Isekei so he can be Jacky Ma in America in 1984. It's weird. More demos tomorrow.

I played Dead as Disco and it's pretty damn cool It's a beat 'em up where the fighting is synced to the music that's playing. The level included is just a single short song but there's also an infinite mode which lets you import your own music, and that's really fun dicking around seeing what music works. Looks like the full game will have a more in-depth editor too. this is probably the closest I'll ever get to a Symphogear fighting game https://streamable.com/mtms37 https://streamable.com/g6p8zh

>>1457599 >A Chinese VN that replicates South Park's graphics style for some reason. It's about a guy who gets Isekei so he can be Jacky Ma in America in 1984. It's weird.

Game number 6 for me, Circle Empires 2. Steam Description: >Expand your empire, circle by circle, in this demo for the fast-paced follow-up to the hit RTS, Circle Empires. Gather resources, build armies, and defeat bosses (or your friends) in a world that changes with every game. With unique units and biomes, it's an addictive battle of wits and tactics A very simple rts. Easy to get swarmed if you stay too relaxed so make sure to expand and it is easy enough. Multiple factions are present and you can tweak your own units which is mildly neat. Feels like a game I would enjoy more on my phone, but overall I enjoyed it enough to try out all the factions they had in the demo. Game 7 is Medievaly Battle Simulator. Steam Description: >Feeling Medievaly? Travel to the most vibrant version of the Dark Ages yet to defend your kingdom from encroaching enemies! Devise creative strategies, manage resources, and enjoy a dynamic simulated medieval battlefield where every decision matters and the unexpected will always happen! Tug of war/line war style game with very light tower defense elements. Only one mission in the demo, and I kept getting fucked after a bit when the archer spam kicks into overdrive. I beat it after a few tries, but I feel like level 1 shouldn't be so unforgiving. This process is made worse by the slow restart time per each retry (it makes you sit through the tutorial message every time). I like the idea, but it needs work or something to ease you into it more. Only bug(?) I had was one where exiting the pause menu would have this really long delay before anything happened. >>1456662 I'll have to try it again later then. Thanks for the tip anon.

Any good platformers? Looking for more games for this aesthetic.

>>1458169 name?

>>1458468 That one is called Lunistice.

>>1457622 Is there a limit to song lenght?

My two contributions: >Balatro but chess (Passant: A Chess Roguelike) Surprisingly fun. I hate the style of Balatro, but this one has potential and is fun. Sort of a casual mix of chess where you can have builds and distinct playstyles. Short demo, but soon might be pretty nice. >Shitty unity CRPG (Elengard Ascension) Decent, has potential too, but is janky as hell. Hopefully the dev makes it more engaging moment by moment and polishes it, but since he's a solo dev, I have no such hope.

Game 8 is DuneCrawl. Steam Description: >DuneCrawl is an online coop action-adventure game where players take on the roles of desert faring privateers. Together, players explore the dust seas by piloting their Dune Crawler, a gigantic walking crustacean festooned with cannons and treasure maps One part exploration and beat em up kind of game, and another part giant crab battle. It had me chuckling about the mobile oppression palace from Futurama the entire time. Very much designed to be played with more than one player. Still I liked what I saw, apart from the lock on mechanic being finicky and some enemies doing a bit too much of the instant dodge mechanic that can get mildly annoying when overdone. Game 9 is Brew. Steam Description: >Face the challenges of The Tower as you enroll into the Alchemy Academy in this action-packed, third-person, roguelite. Brew potions to boost yourself in the heat of battle and use multiple weapons to defeat dangerous foes and pass your exams! Roguelike game where you play as an alchemist. You have basic attacks and a dodge but you can drink/throw and craft potions to alter your attacks and dodges or add wind spots that launched you into the air. Flying around like Goku on a little cloud was entertaining too. Performance wasn't the best for how the game looks, but at least it was stable. Game 10 is Jump Ship. Steam Description: >Jump Ship is a mission based co-op PvE for up to 4 players, where you are the crew of a spaceship. Transition seamlessly from crewing the ship to on-foot exploration and space walks. Engage in intense battles both on the ground and in space, and always keep your ship upgraded and intact Roguelike space ship game with exploration bits on foot. Reminds of DeepRock mixed with those 4 player co-op spaceship games. I really like the formula they have here, but at the same time combat feels underwhelming. Also something about this made my friend's computer/game crash like a motherfucker. I tried Solo as well due to the that, but this is another game intended for multiplayer. You can manage, but it is nowhere near as entertaining.

Gonna post some actual picks latter but there's a couple ones I couldn't resist posting here >chinaman courting a cease and desist https://store.steampowered.com/app/3546660/Dungeon_Legend_Party/ >Porn games delivering some interesting combos as usual https://store.steampowered.com/app/3602290/FEMBOY_FUTA_HOUSE/ >discount 3D GTA >https://store.steampowered.com/app/3578550/Hood_Tales_Part_1_Morocco/ >absolutely shameless https://store.steampowered.com/app/2106930/SOULHOT/ >What if VR chat but explicitly for degens https://store.steampowered.com/app/2236060/Anthro_Heat

>Checking out horror games >Keep seeing games where its just a repeating environment and you need to spot the differnece WHO THE FUCK PLAYS THESE THINGS?!

>>1460119 Is that Gaslighters? Yeah, I didn't get that one either.

>>1460119 YouTubers. It's also a flavor of the month thing, one or two got really big a while back and there have been countless imitators trying to cash in on the trend before it dies.

>>1460167 No, it was >Seen Before >Corridor Exit 8 >The Stairwell And more.

>>1460175 Found another >Snapaul 2 : Anomalies

>>1460119 >>1460167 >>1460168 >>1460175 >>1460210 Play Total Chaos https://store.steampowered.com/app/2208350/Total_Chaos/ https://www.moddb.com/mods/total-chaos

PHANTOM INCIDENT I somehow downloaded more horror games than I usually do. Huh. A lot got tagged under adventure for some reason. Anyway... You play as a ghost-hunter vlogger chasing a lead on a haunted manor, big mechanic of the game is setting up scenes to record in and using your EMF reader to track hotspots of paranormal activity. Game's going to be focused on solving puzzles and trying to put together the mystery of what caused the titular Phantom Incident and the sudden deaths of the manor's inhabitants. It takes place across the whole massive property owned by the family, including a guest house, massive woods, and spooky stuff in there. Demo is a time-limited demo, so if some autist wants to crack it you can probably get the full game out of it. It was alright but 10min is too low to do much with so I couldn't get a good feel for it. The dev did a good job with the atmosphere at least, but I despise jumpscare queues and there's a big one during your drive to get on-site. Mixed on this one, myself. Guess I'll have to see the asking price. I'd try it for a couple of bucks but that's as far as I'd go.

MAGICAL GIRL CRITICAL DELUXE Cutesy retro style platformer where you play as a magical girl. You nagivate through the level whacking the shit out of the enemies or jumping on them with your 50KGs of magical girl to kill them and make them drop money, which contributes to score and can be used to pay your annoying cat companion for revives. You also hunt for the eight keys in the level which when collected lets you do a bonus runner segment for a huge coin bonus, and also hunt for secret bosses for special rewards. The artstyle is really good and the music is definitely on-theme. However, the gameplay is incredibly simple and rather boring to be honest. You get magic later and that adds some depth but I don't see the appeal outside of a nostalgia thing.

>Darkenstein 3-D Kinda goes for a Wolf3D / RTCW / Brutal Doom mix no executions though just the whole overexaggerated muzzle flash / gore talking protag thing, really good potential here, but graphically there's issues, mostly with the fact that lighting makes everything look like plastic though I can overlook that if the game stays the course with what it's showing, that kick is fucking satisfying like none other. >Cleared Hot Some regular old isometric helicopter shooting fun, would've preferred if they went balls deep with the action movie clichés like Thunder Wolves but you can't get everything, has some jank to get used to with controls as aiming fights against your movement but overall a good bit of fun >Brutal John 2 Kind of a mix between DN3D and more modern "retro shooters", as much as I wanna hate the game for using the doge meme, everything else is just on point, the villain is actually evil (hoards all the GPUs to mine crypto) and the rest is funny enough to engage me, guns feel pretty good and stuff looks rather pleasing, if the game is 15-30levels of that I'm in >Turret Girls Sentinel Girls gone 3D, gone sexual, seems like it's gonna be grindy (first enemy that looked big literally did not die from me shooting it and only it from the moment it appeared) and the game gets a bit too busy to stare at the protags ass which is pretty much always on screen, you also lose clothes when attacked though I didn't get to see that. >Blaze of Storm Some good old shmup that feels straight out of the shareware CD era, good feel, not bullet hell wankery, interesting systems (think Image Fight style secondary weapons), I'll look forward to it

Game 11 is ERA One. Steam Description: >Era One is an innovative space game that combines elements of real-time strategy, base building, space survival, and tactical battles. Players can create and customize their bases from scratch, construct various types of structures and warships, manage fleets, and engage in tactical space battles Homeworld with DIY motherships. Pretty damn cool once you start figuring it out. Initially overwhelming due to no tutorial (or I just missed it like a retard) and a fuck load of things to look at, but I got used to it well enough. Performance wasn't great, and it was also one of those games where no matter what settings I use (Low, Med, High) the FPS difference was negligible. Unit prioritizing needs some work as a bunch of heavy turrets should be focusing down larger ships and not trying to overkill fighters with a battleship cannon. You can micro to fix their retardation, but I feel like that shouldn't be necessary. I also wish you didn't have to zoom in so much to actually hear the fighting. Unit voices and such are passable, but need some work still. Overall though, I really liked this one, and would likely sink an unhealthy amount of time just making ship designs.

>>1459332 Steam forums mention it crashes if you go longer than 30 minutes. Otherwise you can throw in whatever your want. I threw in trainroll and it worked fine. In fact it worked SURPRISINGLY well. https://files.catbox.moe/iytxtg.mp4

>Sinker Sound Feels like a PSP aesthetic game about fishing...except it's also a rhythm game...except it also seems to be one of the most complicated rhythm games I have personally ever played. Reeling in fish necessitates that you: <Keep a fish on the hook by maintaining a 'tension' bar which goes down over time. <The fish will break free if the tension is too low. <Tension is raised by doing some kind of rhythm-based timing-based skill check. <If the tension is too high, the fish will break free. <You must also block shaped coming in from all directions with the cursor simultaneously. <If a shape hits the circle in the center, representing the reel, you are prevented from raising the tension for a second or two. <Also some larger fish have additional rhythm-based skill checks in addition to the ones mentioned above, simulatenously I actually do welcome this kind of complexity and I think it is a breath of fresh air, but I figured I ought to comment on how it really confused me at first. The game also features a cute girl. Not sure if it can be considered loli, though. You guys decide for me.

>>1460243 Played that last Next Fest. It's a very polished demo. Do recommend. I played 15 more games. Day 2 of Demos. >Disco is Dead Like >>1457622 said, this one has you beat up people Arkham combat style to the beat of a song. Somehow it works too. >Dispatch Has a demo out. It's on that border of not terrible enough for me to ignore it vs not interesting enough that it's a must play. If you skip this, you're probably not missing much. Former Telltale staff are working on this. >Glaciered Forgot about this one yesterday. You play as a winged creature underwater and fight other creatures while exploring the enviroment. >Ink Reverie Chinese sandbox builder. Nice relaxing one too. Make a city however you want it and take plenty of screenshots. >Isekai Hero Guild. Korean pixel game about managing Isekaiers coming in and then sending them on quests. Battles are grid based not real time like I thought they were.

Gonna list out everything I've played worst-to-best for the sake of getting more positive as I go. Spooky Express Seemed like a cute puzzle game but the presentation is really dull, the levels in the demo were mediocre, the controls for both mouse and controller were really awkward because of the slightly-isometric angle, they lock two levels in the demo behind signing up for their newsletter, and the demo crashed the first four times I tried to launch it. Total shitshow. RA RA BOOM! This was disappointing. The presentation is very good with nice character designs and decent voice acting, plus "sci-fi cheerleader beat-em-up" sounds sick. Sadly the actual gameplay feels really stilted with Heavies not stringing from lights well, air attacks stopping your air momentum dead with no real jump-ins, your infinite-ammo gun being better than hitting things 90% of the time, and the Dodge the controls screen telling me I had never working. The boss fight at the end was also genuinely awful. A real shame. Baki Hanma: Blood Arena The presentation is solid even if they sacrificed animation for accuracy to the anime, and it's otherwise just Punch-Out where you build up to a super instead of earning stars. You only get one fight and then like 45 seconds of another (the latter at least teasing an interesting mechanic where you can get blinded on one side). Would be higher if I didn't hit the end of the demo in 5 minutes. Hunter X Hunter Nen Impact Trust me, I LOVE Eighting's fighting games, especially UMvC3 which this game is pulling the most from, but this just isn't quite it. The control scheme is odd, the feel of the characters is a little odd, the combo structure seems just awkward enough to throw me off. I think it's because none of the demo characters really click with me except MAYBE Leorio. I also hate to say it but Marvel Tokon & Invincible Vs are crowding out the space it's trying to occupy with much bigger IPs. Hotel Barcelona This is pretty much what I'd expect from a Suda/Swery collab roguelite. Awesome character design, solid overall aesthetic, nonsense space, a couple interesting mechanics, and very stiff & awkward movement/combat. The size changing and the ghosts of your past runs having their hitboxes active are really interesting ideas but it'd need to feel a lot better moment to moment. I want to fuck the main girl so bad. Morbid Metal Obviously compares itself to DMC/Bayo but it's like a non-mobage version of Honkai Impact with jumping and roguelite elements. You have a basic string, two cooldown moves, a super, and the ability to swap characters on the fly. It's fine for what it is and scratches the character swapping itch for these types of action games. The movement is pretty smooth for how linear the levels are but there are small secrets if you can platform with them so that's neat. It didn't run great on Medium and every time I started a run it force-changed its resolution for some reason, plus I didn't feel compelled by most of the upgrades, so I docked some points. Dispatch Worst part first: the writing is unbelievably tryhard when it's trying to tell a joke. Letting the VAs just banter naturally was more charming than any clear punchline, but they keep trying to tell jokes and it's going to get grating the more the game goes on, and that's on top of a couple of characters that are really annoying from the jump. The good: the gameplay you get is actually really interesting in terms of resource/time management and trying to match each hero's stats/personality to each job. The great: for in-engine the game looks incredible, this could pass for something airing on TV, and the expensive voice cast mostly (MOSTLY) pulls their weight. Also Invisibitch and Malevola are sexy. BALL X PIT I don't often follow Vampire Survivor clones but this one is really fun just because you're angling and bouncing balls like it's a brick breaker (and not catching them just shortens your reload time instead of penalizing you). The base-building aspect seems tacked on but there's a lot of potential in just having fun watching the balls get caught behind enemies and bouncing around a ton. Break Shot Hero Really great premise combining TRPGs and Billiards, charming presentation that comes off like a late PS1 release or something to that effect, plenty of mechanics to keep it fresh on top of randomized levels to practice/grind. The two control schemes seem good in practice but they're either a little inconsistent at reading minor movements OR my mouse is really shit (could be both). That said, I did see some mobile game-adjacent design like time-gating free refreshes on your drop tables for units. Demonschool Unsure if this is from this Nextfest but I saw a trailer for it this week that pointed out the demo. I'm usually not one for Persona-style games but I like Tactics and the combat here really has a snappiness to it once you get the rules. Good sprites, great music, really great backgrounds, decent character writing. I'm pretty impressed. Absolum Being half of the Streets of Rage 4 team made this one of the top demos I wanted to try and it has been mostly really enjoyable so far. The systems aren't as tight as SoR4 or other top-tier beat-em-ups but the controls certainly are tight and fluid, with the dodge/parry/roll/dash thing being insane for being able to cancel strings early (the dwarf can just do Jab 3 xx Roll for constant offense). The enemies are a little weak but not bad, though the boss I fought a few times was kind of bad because it just has armor until you hit him enough but is otherwise not that difficult to avoid if you're careful. Overall it'll be a really fun time like SoR4's roguelite mode even if it's not best-in-genre like SoR4 itself. Dead As Disco If this was by playtime this would be #1 by far, I have over 5 hours and I'm itching to go back. The core combat is just if Hi-Fi Rush was Batman Arkham combat instead of a simplified DMC/Platinum-style, but that makes it so much easier to focus in on the beat and try to maximize your score. The main game is VERY early but Infinite Disco and its ability to chase S-Ranks AND upload any audio file to fight to have really pulled me in. I just threw some Anarchy Reigns and Lethal League music in there and it was super fun. I expect this to be one of the "darling" games of the fest. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Haven't played Game Kitchen's other games since I'm not into the Soulsroidvania thing Blasphemous is going for but I really respect what they've done here. The sprites are somewhere between Saturn & GBA in terms of style, the music is on-point, the mechanics are simple but layered (and seemingly doled out over time to you), the level design is hitting a great sweetspot, and the ranking system really makes you take every part of each stage into account. It just comes together so well based on the levels they showed.

>>1461135 >Kill Your Heart A surprisingly earnest pixel game. You play as an agent in Cupid city, hunting down people who have had their hearts broken and turn into nightmare monsters. >Life Below Underwater builder sim. You have to manage an environment, temperature and PH balance of a reef while expanding into other places. Really like this one. >Lost Lands Comfy little grid builder. You place down buildings and fight against nature to claim what land is rightfully yours. >Mars Attracts Yes, this has a demo out. It's a theme park builder in the "Mars Attacks" series. ACK ACK and all that. It's a little rough but it looks promising. >Mecharashi Surpising that no one's mentioned this. It's a turn based mech game kind of like Front Mission but it's 12 gig in size so all the models are in really high definition. Had pretty good english VAs and the cutcenes remind me of the PS2 mech games in the way they move freeze for a dialog box. Features body destruction, so you can shoot the arm off a mech to stop it using a shotgun in close range for example. And Pile Bunkers. It says it features Japanese VA but I couldn't find an option for it.

>>1461144 Played one more, and I think that'll be it outside of injecting more songs into Dead as Disco: DISASTER ARMS Very Alien Soldier-esque boss rush run & gun, and when I say Alien Soldier I really mean it. The weapons are very similar, the structure is almost identical, and you can stand on ceilings if you double jump into them. Feels pretty good with a solid sense of flow and understanding of arcade fundamentals.

>>1461144 >Absolum breddy gud, apart from the constant yapping and interruptions and the pregnant she-coon >Hotel Barcelona <and very stiff & awkward movement/combat That's quite the understatement. This is the most horrid dogshit I've had the misfortune of having touched in quite a while. >Ninja Gays: Reeboot Played one (1) stage and immediately deleted the demo. Not even gonna bother pirating it. Because I'll just buy this day-1. Yes, I think it's that good.

Any shoot'em'up ?

I'm surprised to see MultiPlantery describe as a "Rachet and Clank low-poly clone" Not sure "low-poly" is what I'd use to describe this. It's more extremely amateurish, almost egglike.

>AEROMACHINA Platformer adventure game, clearly takes inspirations from a lot of 5 / 6th gen stuff (mostly the looks from 5th gen, mostly the PS2 action adventure stuff for gameplay), it's furshit but it doesn't seem to be real degen stuff. Controls and feels really good to play, the map feels real large and I'm not sure that having respawning enemies (that respawn that fast) was a good idea but they got the movement and combat down if they can polish the map and respawning a bit this'll be a great game. >MIO: Memories in Orbits Not-Hollow Knight "artsy frenchfags" edition, nothing much to say it's pretty much just missing the content to explore to be great, I really like the graphical style and effects they went for, though I'm wary of potential poz due to said artsy frenchfags >Raygun Gadabout Sort of a midway point between an MMX game and a full blown metroidvania (kinda like Pharaoh Rebirth in a way), looks way better than it plays, not that it plays bad it's just kinda middle of the road and not particularly interesting, to illustrate my point you start with what I assume is every movement upgrade unlocked and it feels like it's what you should be starting from and upgrade latter, but no the game strips you of all that and you're back to MM1 land, I'm also not fond of the "space exploration" part because it's very slow and not very interesting (think ME3 in system ship flying except longer and you have a gun). >Uppercute Momentum 3D platformer, I've not played 3D Sonic but it kinda looks like that without lock-on though it's not one big levels but many very small ones where you have to collect / kill a certain number of things to unlock the exit kinda geared towards speedrun fags I guess, downside protag is a nigger, upside everything else is pretty good with the most I could complain about is a slight lack of polish in movement feel, animations and an overly sensitive camera >Tahitian Driftin' AG racer, that is very mechanically simple but feels pretty good and looks on point for what could've been a Model 3 arcade game

Game 12 is Crown and Adventure after >>1453088 suggested it. Steam Description: >An open-world adventure RPG. Choose your favorite character, train your elite legion step by step, and crash all enemies on the battlefield. Strengthen yourself, establish a powerful family, create a great dynasty, and become the dominator of this fantasy world Chinese mount and blade format for the open world elements and then a simple but fun battle section where you can command officers and use abilities. Pleasantly surprised the chinks made something I enjoyed finally. I also liked how several quests had more than one way to handle them, as most games don't put in that extra effort. Customizing your squads is also enjoyable as I always liked experimenting that shit. Only issue I had was with the translation being pretty poor at times. Overall, I liked it, and I even cut my demo time short so I can enjoy the game more when it comes out.

>>1463144 I tried Dead as Disco out since you recommended it. I was averse to it due to the art style and the trailer had rap music, but Hemlock's level with "Maniac" as the soundtrack kind of made me do a 180 on my opinion of the game. It really has huge potential. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

>>1463712 Fast Paced Arkham combat really works. And having the beat downs sync up to the music is pretty fun. >>1463144 Yeah, the translation is sub-MTL tier. It's quite rough in several places. That said, the legion building aspect I really enjoy. Heroes have units they prefer and have passives that work with them. Each unit also has a passive and some when put into formations can affect the entire Legion when done properly. I really wanna go through it properly once it's out. Last 15 demos. Previous days here: >>1457582 >>1457599 >>1461135 >>1461161 >Plus Ultra: Legado. Not sure about that name. You play as a Spanish conquistador and use your pike against soldiers and animals that want to harm you. I kinda suck at metroidvanias so I didn't get out of the jungle. >Pompeii: The Legacy Built on a custom engine, it's a roman builder rebuilding the titular city. Resource collection seems simplified which is nice if you just want to build a roman city like the screenshot. >Primordial Empire You interact with underwater cells, making them move and feeding them to make sure they're not hungry. Looks pretty and plays well. >Realms of Madness 2D Stronghold where you're facing a Lich who assaults your forces. Kinda got into this one, it's simple in it's upgrading but there's a certain charm to it. >Wood need. >Wood stocks are too low sire. >Stone needed, m'lord. >Reflections of the Void A horror VN where you're the keeper of people in a run down house. The wards only have numbers and a new arrival seems very intent on getting out somehow.

>>1463755 >Star Overdrive. 3D surfing game. Huge open world that's had dunes and hills you can pull tricks off. Some standard adventure mechanics also included but I'm not interested in that. Features a guy looking for his girl. >Tormented Souls 2 Didn't play the first one. This is a Resident Evil like game with tank controls set in an Abbey where the nuns are holding the protags sister for some ritual. >The Trolley Solution Kind of simple trolley problem game but keeps throwing new things at the player, like this VN dating part That's it. That's all the demos I found. Hope you wish listed a few.

>Outrider Mako Top down action adventure, has all the makings of something good, it almost feel like it wanted to be a roguelite at some point (the hub in particular feels like that) but isn't anymore, probably for the better, the combat is rather simple but it's not easy to master by any means (basically you can "pounce" and stand on things which opens a bunch of new combat option and improves movement with a few reasonable drawbacks) which for something that looks like 2D LoZ games is a good thing Game is in JP by default but the menu items are in english regardless, so if you can't into JP go change that. >Vany Slash Think Oneechanbara, cool combat but it ain't too deep and the fanservice is off the charts, the production value and optimization is surprisingly not bad for such a title so I'll give it a chance once it release since the dev actually made something that feels like a decent game and not just wank material. Has dressup option that range from basically no clothes to full armor going by the trailer. >Hirogami Very chill and casual isometric platforming adventure game, I like the artstyle and while it is in fact a casual game, thinking about it more this might just fill a similar niche to Okami >Okko the Exiled 2d sidecroller, nothing too exciting or new, feels decent, had some weird bug that made stuff look very washed out, only stand out thing is the "rythm" mechanic where your attack can only pierce armored enemies (or deal extra damage to regular ones) at a specific time when you're focusing (which is a limited resource), devs seems very attentive to even small criticism which is always good, probably not a full price buy but I'll keep that game in mind. >Azaran: Island of the Jinn As straightforward of a N64 LoZ game clone as you'll get, looks like an uprezzed N64 games, sounds sort of like one too, not sure it's really gonna be worth playing over the original but it's a genuine effort and the game is well optimized so worth giving it a look I guess if you've overplayed the originals.

Game 13 is TerraTech Legion. Steam Description: >Play the free demo of TerraTech Legion, a chaotic Bullet Heaven Builder. Build the ultimate battle vehicle and survive waves of robotic foes, ramming them at speed and shooting infinite projectiles Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts in vampire survivors. Get parts and weapons at level ups to customize your vehicle. Mildly fun trying to make something half decent. Sadly the vehicle itself handles like a RC car on an ice rink at times, as something is very wrong with the collision in this. Bumping into structures will slingshot you around or even throw you through walls which I assume is not intended. Also RNG fucking me and not allowing me to make a symmetrical design drives me nuts in these building games. I'd like to be able to zoom out more too as enemies routinely spawn outside of my view and opened fire which I would then drive into as I had no idea they were even there yet. Game 14 is Beavageddon. Vampire survivors meets killdozer but with actual mission objectives to go and accomplish. You have to survive a progression of missions and you get a path to choose to plan your route. Surprisingly fun, and I though the gimmick of having to mount your weapon on the front/back/right/left sides. Owl character makes it like a conventional survivors game if you don't like the gun mounts gimmick. Alongside doing the missions you can also go smash down buildings for coins to repair/upgrade your vehicle and weapons. Game 15 is Mecharashi. Steam description: >Mecharashi is a mecha-themed tactical turn-based game. The game adopts a unique part-destruction combat system, where you can assemble mechas however you want, equip a wide selection of weapons, and choose your favorite pilots to engage in battle Hefty download size for something I learned was a mobile game in asia. High production values for a mobile game, but then again I might just be out of touch as I hardly game on my phone. All voice acted too. Downside though is it is a live service game with gacha cancer from what I was reading in the forums.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3744860/AEROMACHINA_TestFlight/ This and Jump Ship both look cool. Jump Ship jumps out at me (heh) as the best game of the lot, although that isn't saying much because there's an absolute flood of trash in there.

>everyone is posting on halfchan traitors

Some games I liked that I haven't seen talked about. >Star Birds Simulink in game form, like many factory games. Packing machines tightly on the surface of a tiny asteroid while making sure none of the transport lines need to cross each other provides a fun challenge. >ReCharge RC: High Voltage My favorite driving/racing game demo of this fest. The driving mechanics are excellent, from drifting and wheelspin to air control using rotational inertia of the wheels. The fish-eye lens effect in first person view provides a very good sensation of speed. >There Are No Orcs A single player version of the Nexus Wars custom map in Starcraft 2. You place down buildings that continuously spawn units, and arrange them to maximize adjacency bonuses. There are a lot of interesting effects and synergies between buildings. The balance seems off between the 4 heroes/factions available in the demo, and weirdly the Brutal+ difficult gives bonuses to the player instead of the enemies, making it less difficult than the Brutal difficulty. >>1467862 be the change you want to see in the world.

>The Rift 6DoF combat racing, wanted this to at-least be somewhat of a N.Gen Racing spiritual successor but it ain't and it's heavy as hell while looking mediocre so §I'll have to pass, if they do fix the ressource thing and allow proper gamepad control I might reconsider but as it is that's a no, which is a shame because there isn't many game in that niche (pretty much just Skydrift and N.gen Racing). >Lumina: Uprising of Folk Legends 2..5D sidecscrolling action, has that "how to draw anime" feel, if you're from Brasil this is your tax money at work, I really don't wanna hate too much on an obviously amateur project but for now it's very buggy especially controller input (just gave up and used KB binds on gamepad), but yeah that game is buggy as fuck and way too unpolished to bother, it does have some potential but right now it's not being exploited at all. >Tankiro Lowpoly Sekiro but you're a tank, if you're expecting anything remotely as good as that one video you're gonna be disappointed, the concept can work but right now lacks way too much polish to even consider playing. >Touhou ~ Dreams of a Sunflower Yuuka themed Souls clone, it's a bit rough but there's fun to be had, I kinda like the flying mechanic they have going, don't think it needs that much more polish to be worth playing >Unit Down Charge On rails Shooter, pretty decent, not really made for gamepad users though as usual mouse control makes it a bit too easy to aim in that genre, you're stuck on the ground but it clearly is Starfox inspired, not sure about the half PS1 half N64 aesthetic choice (some 2D assets clearly have that slightly blurry N64 feel, but most 3D assets are PS1 styled and some of the 3D stuff looks straight off one of those CG promo stuff for N64) >>1466153 >Jump Ship It does look really cool but unless you get lucky or the dev does a stellar job of making SP not suck ass I'm afraid this is kind of just gonna die due to no players.

>Void Drift Wave AG racer, demo's broken and won't actually play so can't really judge much here, guess the infinite loading screen is trippy. >TEXNOPLAZM FPS with heavy emphasis on melee, kinda like Condemned on steroids, pretty great feel from that one I've gotta say it's even rather easy to pick up compared to other games / mods that try a similar thing but still the skill ceiling is way high and I'll have to get good to get the most out of this one, parrying feels real nice and not unlike V.A. Proxy you can parry pretty much anything given the right circumstances (even a train cart charging at you), pretty polished for a demo, will definitely keep an eye on it. >Junk! Robot building arena fighter, as the demo basically demonstrates almost nothing it's hard to truly judge what's gonna happen when you do actually get the parts to build up your robot but yeah as it stands it feels a bit weird and the time to kill is way too long, but there is potential. >Gurei 2d action side scroller, kind of a boss rush deal where both you and your opponents gets stronger the more boss you defeat, controls are a bit rigid for what it wants to be, pretty neat otherwise, you can really feel the difficulty increase but the demo only 3 out of 9 bosses so it's hard to gauge just how the rest is gonna go. >AI-deal-Rays ZoE style 3d maneuvering combat, it looks really good and it definitely has some good fanservice thrown in but I pretty much have no idea of what's happening / what I'm doing when playing this, it kinda just throws you into a battle (and the first time playing everything is in JP so extra unhelpful (the demo restarts once you switch language in the options and the menus are mostly in english so that's not too bad), maybe it's because the controller support is only preliminary but it doesn't seem like I can do everything I should be able to, the audio balancing is terrible so be warned that some sound effects will rip your eardrums if you don't expect it in that demo, if it can fix those few things I can see a really great game behind all that (though sadly doesn't feel as fluid as the combat from ZoE from the little that felt I had intentionally done during the time I played)

>>1468038 >There Are No Orcs >"Human" faction is entirely composed of Orcs Also I wish this was less RNG focused. An actual recreation of Nexus Wars would have been fine by me.

>>1468530 forgot the videos Also yeah apparently AI-Deal-Rays has a full video tutorial, that's entirely in JP so I basically don't understand anything more.

>>1468534 I wasn't too bothered by the building RNG, since it's the same system that was used by Cute Defense, and it also allows for some of the more crazy buildings to be added to the game. For example, 1 windmill surrounded by 8 philosophy buildings would generate 40 gold every 6.7 seconds and only cost 200 upfront. So if buildings were unlimited every game would start with build orders like that. The relic RNG on the other hand is pretty bad, mainly because the relics are not balanced at all. The relic that gives gold generation to empty tiles and the relic that makes stables spawn swordmen as well as knights while also giving 3 free stables feel particularly overtuned, while many relic feel almost like dead weight.

These three games i might buy when it comes out. >Touhou ~ Dreams of a Sunflower https://store.steampowered.com/app/2929660/Touhou__Dreams_of_a_Sunflower/ autistic touhou soul-like game. Not bad,looks like jank but no bug found in my playthrough so far. >SSR Wives: The Murder Of My Winter Crush https://store.steampowered.com/app/2880000/SSR_Wives_The_Murder_Of_My_Winter_Crush/ PS1 slient hill clone. the pretty fun but has many gamebreaking bug I just bricked my save file only by overwriting save file.the game is pretty jank. >House of Necrosis https://store.steampowered.com/app/2005870/House_of_Necrosis/ look like original RE1 clone but it's really rogue-like dungeon crawler that has RE1 aesthetic.Perfect autist simulator I has much fun with this game.

Game 16 is Nexus: FPV Drone FPS. Steam Description: >Nexus is a high-speed FPV shooter where you pilot a combat drone through intense aerial missions. Master real flight mechanics while blasting through procedural missions. Customise your build, upgrade your base, and push deeper into enemy territory with each run. Play and learn to fly real drones Drone sim. I played on realistic which required a controller. This takes some getting used to, and you will probably complain at first. Once you start getting used to it though, I can see the potential. It had a time trial mode and roguelike mode depending on what you liked more. I never got the movement down perfectly, but there were moments where I had it figured out and had some crazy precision flying and it felt pretty good until I inevitably lost control again. Weapons all felt ok as well. Game 17 is Attack on Steel. Steam Description: >This is a mecha combat shooting game that auto-aiming, flying, and unique weapon abilities, as well as the ability to destroy parts Gundam Battle Operation 2 mixed with a Hero shooter and Armored Core. No customization as you just pick a hero mech and play. Only 1 vs 1 on a tiny arena although you can play against AI. This has the foundation with all the features required to a be a game I like, but the demo as of right now feels lacking. Hopefully the dev can polish it up more, as I wasn't a big fan of what I played despite this being the type of vidya I usually enjoy.

Game 18 is Age of Warbots. Steam Description: >The demo for the tactical battle simulator involving cool transforming warbots! Pick your army of shape-shifting droids and command them towards a glorious victory! Build your own warbots in the unit editor and go into battle with them! One part puzzle/platformer and then another part mech battle. Controls were fugged and barely functional at times, and the handling of the vehicles wasn't great either. Units shot through walls which I assume wasn't intentional. It had a unit creator which was neat, but the game needs a lot of work before I'd call it good. Too buggy and janky to make me want to play more so I had a short playtime with this one. Game 19 is Market Garden. Steam description: >MARKET GARDEN lets you relive the golden era of WW2 shooters, bringing classic, old-school FPS action back to its roots. Experience the epic airborne operation MARKET GARDEN in a game that pays tribute both to the genre’s finest moments and the real historical events WW2 shooter with low poly visuals. I have a few complaints as soon as it started, losing even a single block of health will bloody up your screen and will persist until you heal which annoyed me. Another thing is how your character positions his weapon when near an object, he will move it to position around whatever is nearby so you think aiming would snap over the object dynamically or something but it doesn't. I would have been ok if the game at least allowed you to blindfire over the top like it appears initially but again it doesn't allow that, as the gun will always snap back to the default position when firing before moving around again which makes it annoying. Getting shot while aiming also sometimes causes your ADS to glitch the fuck out instead of just bounce your aim around like you would expect. Shooting and such was fine, but most of the level design was pretty linear. Visuals were alright but the post processing effects kind of hurt my eyes after a bit. Game 20 is Whisper Mountain Outbreak. Steam Description: >Escape room meets co-op zombie shooter. The year is 1998, and an ancient curse has been unleashed, trapping everyone on Mount Bisik. Alone or with a team of 2-4 players, you must explore, find clues, figure out a way to escape...and survive the horror Isometric RE outbreak for 4 players. Go in and loot then complete your mission and escape. Then head to your base to upgrade and store your loot. Surprisingly good looking and fun to play. It seems balanced with co-op in mind though, but I was able to complete it solo. It also does the "body type" thing in character customization if that is an issue for anyone.

Game 21 is Mage & Monsters II. Steam Description: >Recruit a hero to lead your army, and use spells while they fight for you. Mage & Monsters 2 is an active auto battler, where you choose to either enhance the strength of your hero, reinforce the might of your army, or increase the power of your spells Choose a Hero and army, then upgrade it in an autobattler type of game. You also get spells which you can actively use in battle, but you never order or command any units. Pretty entertaining game. I like how you can choose how to invest in your soldiers/spells/hero, as it adds more replay ability to it. I saw some fags on the steam forum lamenting the lack of a progression system in case that is a problem for people who like that. Game 22 is Rogue Eclipse. Steam Description: >Jump in, drift across the stars and blast your way through swarms of starfighters, merciless armadas and vanquish a malevolent evil that spans the cosmos in this epic spaceflight action shooter for the new age! Arabian/middle eastern themed space fighter game. It was a bit disorienting at first (as a lot of space fighter games can be), but the arcadey controls were easy to pick up on. I really like the theme for the ship designs in this as it wasn't a style I've seen much of for space settings. Boss fights were cool with missilie and bullet spam flying all over, though it wasn't always easy immediately tell where you needed to hit the bigger ships to damage them. Only complaint I had was to due with the roguelike rewards being pretty bland. Minuscule buffs are boring. Yeah they add up after a while, but it just feels lame when they could have added more impactful rewards to vary things up. I enjoyed it overall, and would gladly accidentally space ship of peace Malak into another boss after losing track of where it was while holding the boosters for far too long.

>Mina the Hollower The gameplay is nice, and the titular character is cute. However, the artstyle leaves much to be desired. It's difficult to determine depth. >Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound I've never played a Ninja Gaiden game before, but the gameplay seems okay. How you play as the main character is a little contrived, and it's difficult to tell whether some things are from ESL on the creators' part or streamerbait. >SSR Wives It looks really cool, but it crashes constantly. The controls could be tightened. I felt a little taken aback when every other playable character was basically a soyjak but the chuddie default character looks like what I imagine to be the creator instead of chudjak. I hope it's improved. >No, I'm Not a Human The graphics have improved drastically since the previous demo, but unless there's more randomization, I don't think the main game will be much to write home about. >Phantom Squad The artstyle is really bad, but the game plays like SWAT but topdown and can be played with friends. I think it would be fun for a gamenight.

Game 23 is Nonentity Galaxy. Steam Description: >Nonentity Galaxy is a strategy game featuring starship combat, roguelike gameplay, and dark humor. You will play as a corporate investigator dealing with various factions and figures, upholding company interests while scraping together a chance to survive… or perhaps, a shred of dignity A nice looking roguelike spaceship management and autobattler kind of game. Combat is pretty simple, but you can do things like use a support power or focus fire on certain targets. I had fun with it when I was playing/customizing my fleet, and not reading the book's worth of dialogue that is constantly going on and on. Not saying the plot, writing, or characters are awful, just that many conversations go on too long and I just started spamming skip for what felt like half a minute or more at points. Definitely feels like a game I would probably burn a good amount of time in when I have a bit more patience though. Game 24 is Space Saga. Steam Description: >For centuries, the mysterious depths of space, full of secrets, have awakened in each of us the desire for exploration. In SPACE SAGA, you can fulfill your dream of becoming a real space explorer and embark on an exciting adventure, laden with peril and enigma This one looked a lot better than it actually was. Demo was timed, and the countdown starts during the very long loading screen which made me laugh. The game has no tutorial whatsoever, and I don't know if it was bugged or something, but I kept being constantly spawnraped by NPC ships at the starting station. Very buggy as well. Add in the under 20 FPS and I fucked off pretty quickly. The dev should have held off on a demo until it was in a better state.

Sorry, bad OP only coming back now to share some stuff that is still up because I forgot I made this thread, sue me, but yeah, I tried quite a bit more. I played more than what I am giving my opinion on but I don't want to do much repeating of stuff already posted here for some of the stuff I posted but I agree with the opinions posted. Really sad though Forastero never got out to demo status, hope they make the next fest. There was another Japanese game I hoped to get out a demo and they didn't. >Multiplanetary Played exactly how I thought it was going to in the OP, but with a lot more jank and rail grinding to get to some areas. Needs a lot of work, can't really recommend. >>1462310 Honestly I see it but I wouldn't really say they are really that except for the perspective and the physics and etc. are very different. >Outrider Mako I think it can be great but I bounced really hard off the idea of the red slime off for the arrow hits and etc. and it feels really bad when I feel like the combat has potential and the tools for that alone is hard to come by and the fact you would have to be grinding to be fully prepared. Art and music is as amazing as I thought. >>1465455 I really think it should've been a roguelite, but understandable it wants to set itself apart from the rest of the pack. I think everything else is already really good. >Artis Impact : Meiji Spa Demo Apparently a side story to the main game, still hoping the area makes it in the final product. Really not bad for being not real time and influenced by Nier and Chinese. No real farming possible, but a lot of different ways to raise stats, you kind of go through events and have a bunch of time to kill in between 12 days to get rid of rogue AI while at a hot springs inn as the femMC. Very interesting story and etc. The full game could be interesting. Wishlisted. >Quartet Similar to Shrine's Legacy but less puzzling and better story presentation and etc. Still not that sold but I have it wishlisted to see how the final game turns out. >Ratatan My biggest disappointment this fest. They took what made Patapon great and changed it for the worse. Roguelike elements weren't even my issue, it was stuff like the rhythm for some reason being off with enemies having really short telegraphing and not having enough health. I dunno how they can fix this without going back to the drawing board. I actually sadly had to unwishlist it. >Herdling Really interesting game about trying to herd some type of yak animal as some kid who finds them in the city and tries to get back into the mountains. They need some work to make the controls better but it is somewhat comfy and intersting with puzzle and navigation elements. Not really sold though, so didn't wishlist but worth trying. >Under the Island Typical kid arrives with another kid and finds a big adventure but the story is written pretty well. Zelda like with some other elements pulled in. Really wish the demo let you fight a boss, but it is pretty solid. Wishlisted but might not buy. Still have some games and threads on half to browse through to find games since I have been busy. Make sure to remember you can play games after the demo is taken down if you downloaded it. Most of the time, you can just do it by going to the game files and executing the exe file there to start it up. I usually take up to a month after the fest playing stuff I missed.

>>1461144 >BALL X PIT I dont play many Next Fest games but saw this in the devolver stream and decided to try it out I really like the idea of a Vampire Survuvors-Breakout crossover, though like you said the base building is really tacked on Also in comparison to VS the OST is just kinda meh, which will hamper my willingness to play it a bit. But at least I can just mute the OST and put on the VS obe I suppose

>>1479356 I can't find an exact example but the combat music in BXP reminded me a LOT of one of the generic background themes from Totally Spies.

Last one for the road >Brebeman Lane shooter (think Tempest) meets Rythm game (though not in traditional way) Pretty neat concept, good fun, unique artstyle, I kinda like that