Personal Nightmare looks more interesting to me. Probably still gonna be real rough, but I'm curious what a Horrorsoft game without the RPG elements is like. My expectations are lower for the Waxworks remake, since I can imagine it having more combat focus and less interesting/goofy stuff.

The big thing to note about 7th Saga's US difficulty is that the game has multiple required boss fights that scale up with your level. Them messing with the stats made it so leveling up makes these fights 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 difficult. Depending on your protagonist/level, they can even outscale to be impossible.

Pretty much all those RPGs are highly-regarded! Lord of the Rings Vol. 1 is a possible exception since it's more niche, but it still seems well-liked from what I've seen (It's a different game from the awful SNES one it shares a name with).

Also, think you meant Savage Empire, not Savage Reign.

Hope the injury's nothing too big.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

And without further ado, here is the staff that worked on this title:

Localization Direction/Translation: @jhoopergace.bsky.social
Editing: @qaenyin.bsky.social
Quality assurance: @ajogamer.bsky.social, @kittytama.bsky.social, @feebeechanchibi.bsky.social

Yeah, that may be the main point of confusion, since it fits literally, just not quite with the story term. I definitely think the abstract/surreal stuff is separate and non-deceptive, being more for conveyance of other things, like you said. Some is even reinforcing what's already obvious.

So it's not a true "unreliable narrator", but I think some may confuse it for that due to the delusions and out of order plot, which can make it "feel" that way at first and get some to doubt what we see through Jimmy's perspective more than they should. That was my main point, hope that's clearer!

I think you may be right we're talking past each other a bit, since I agree Mouthwashing doesn't have a true unreliable narrator, I was just giving my guess to why others may think that. I think Jimmy's lies with Curly are all that come close, but I know that doesn't quite fit the typical use.

Yeah, I agree everything Jimmy and the crew says was actually said, with the only exception being some stuff in the delusions, but both those and the false stuff is obvious (like dead people talking). I think the delusions are just to show Jimmy's state, not to trick the player.

It's only really Jimmy's words that are more unreliable to the player, though even those lies only really hold up early on; most people realize pretty quickly he seems a bit "off", and then his lies get pretty transparent and obvious as the game goes on, even to the crew, in many cases.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think Jimmy's perspective is pretty reliable aside from his delusions (which are obvious non-reality to the player, not to him). I think anyone who doubts everything the rest of the crew says through Jimmy's eyes (few obvious delusions aside) are probably overthinking it.

That said, a big part of the deception toward the player working is because the game presents the story out of order. So while Jimmy can be unreliable at times due to his lies, I wonder if some people may conflate the two and over-attribute those narrative deceptions to Jimmy.

The 2nd is how often talks to the crew. He props himself up as the dependable leader, is manipulative toward them at times, and also lies about Curly. I think the Curly lies are the main argument toward him being an unreliable narrator, since that lie tricks the player too for a while.

I agree "unreliable narrator" probably isn't the correct term for most of it, though Jimmy and his perspective is definitely an unreliable source of information in multiple ways. 1st is the surreal scenes you mentioned. I wouldn't call these "unreliable narrator" since they're obvious delusions.

The Steam page is up as well, so go ahead and wishlist to show your support!
store.steampowered.com/app/3296790/...

...Also, my avatar finally matches up to the appropriate game after a whole year and a half at last.
This, too, has truly been a long time coming...

You said that you were interested in seeing a video of it if anyone managed to solve level 1 of Let Out, so here you go: