Indies to avoid this weekend
2022-04-02 by Callum Andrews
Memory Low
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. My first visual novel and I'm sad to say that it was an underwhelming experience. This one sticks to the same tropes as most visual novels seem to hang on to which seems to be the colorful anime aesthetic. Considering its mostly static pictures these sorts of games need to have compelling dialog and story to capture the players' attention and this one sadly didn't. The story seems to be about a guy whose father owns a company that has invented a sort of computer which is able to alter the reality we live in. Once the computer A. I. turns hostile it's up to you to stop it. The game is currently still in progress and an ending to it hasn't been made yet. But as already stated there wasn't much that captured me here and I was struggling with keeping my interest to continue further. There were also some technical issues where the game would occasionally just shut down. I'm convinced that there must be other visual novels out there that surely are worth my time more than this.
Game Link
![](https://newsameoldgaming.b-cdn.net/article/2022/april/indies%20week%2013/ram-low.jpg)
Onzil
So this is one of those that jumps on the difficult, roguelike game trend bandwagon. This is also one of those games that have nice packaging but no substance. The game does look nice and has some nice music that reminds you of the 8-bit/16-bit era platformers. Even the description on the games site sounds really interesting and compelling. Sadly though that's where the good things about this game stop. The controls might be one of the most unresponsive I've ever experienced. Usually these types of games, especially considering how hard they strive to be need to have tight controls and this one misses that mark horrendously. There were several occasions when I tried jumping but the controls weren't responding. Another thing was that some actions didn't work at all. According to the description of the game on its controls, you should be able to either throw your weapon or swing it with a different key. The swinging action didn't work at all. On the other hand, when you want to throw the weapon you need to first press one of the arrow keys for the direction you want to throw it in and the spacebar to throw it not doing it in this order makes it impossible to throw the weapon. Making it more clunky than this I would say is next to impossible. Atop of all this is the mechanic that your own weapon can kill you. Initially, it sounds like a compelling mechanic adding a twist to the combat system but considering how bad the controls are it just ends up being such a nuance that I just stopped playing altogether.
![](https://newsameoldgaming.b-cdn.net/article/2022/april/indies%20week%2013/onsil-new.jpeg)
Also for some reason, the character you play as is just a static picture. So when you move around in the game it looks like you are just gliding on the various surfaces. Why the developers didn't add some movement animations here is beyond me especially considering that some of the enemies in the game do have them. There are so many better indies out there that deserve to be played. Please go and play them instead.
Game Link