Guide
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To be included, a game must satisfy EVERY ticked option from the "What do you want" section and NONE of the ticked options from the "What don't you want" section.
So for example, if you tick "visual novel" and "comedy" in the "What do you want" section, you'll get all the games which are visual novels AND comedies. But if you tick "visual novel" and "comedy" in the "What don't you want" section, you'll get games which aren't a visual novel OR a comedy.
I am working from vague memory, so likely missed stuff. And I was half-assed about looking up whether things are available on console.
What the work categories mean
- Title: The title
- Rating: How much I enjoyed it, on a scale of 1-5. This is not an objective quality rating in any way. Anything 3 or above means I quite liked it, and even the lowest rated games seemed worth reccing.
- Link: Places to download/buy the game. Not exhaustive.
- Gameplay: What you actually do to play the game eg "combat".
- Platform: What kinds of computer/consoles/phones it plays on. I was half-assed about checking for console availability.
- Genre: The setting/style etc, or more information about the gameplay eg "fantasy".
- Mood: The mood of the work eg "happy".
- Issues: Things some players will find off-putting eg "scary".
- Tags: Various other info.
- Review: What I thought of the game.
- Post: A link to a longer review, if one exists.
What I mean by the options
Gameplay:
What you actually do to play the game.- sandbox: You can play around and create fun/pretty things with no specific goal.
- crafting: Gather resources and turn them into more useful items.
- survival: Craft or die!
- farming: Plant, harvest and process crops.
- simulation: Repeated choices to maintain and improve a simulated lifeform/community etc
- exploration: Wander around dicsovering cool new places.
- visual novel: Mostly static images with lots of text. I've included interactive comics.
- point and click: Wander around clicking on things to see what happens.
- puzzle: Solve puzzles.
- hidden object: Find speciifc objects hidden in a static image.
- combat: Fighting enemies, generally in real-time.
- rpg: Win battles and improve your abilities with items and by levelling up. Not always combat.
- platformer: Jumping to get to places. I don't like jumping so anything I rec won't be 100% platforming.
Genre:
The setting/style etc, or more information about the gameplay.- word game: Create or find words.
- logic: Use deduction to solve questions.
- narrative: Tells a story.
- romance: Contains a significant romance narrative.
- comedy: Is pretty funny.
- slice of life: The plot and/or gameplay focusses on mundane, everyday experiences.
- action: The plot and/or gameplay involves fights and excitement.
- adventure: The plot invlves exciting adventures.
- mystery: Solving a mystery.
- horror: May just be a horror aesthetic without being super scary.
- fantasy: Magic or the supernatural, or set in a quasi-historical made-up place.
- science fiction: science fiction plot/setting.
- historical: Set in a real era of Earth history. May involve
Issues:
Things some players will find off-putting.- cheesy: I found it a bit cheesy/silly.
- death: Significant focus on death. Maybe be a major or minor character.
- violence: Significant on-screen violence.
- scary: I personally got scared.
- non-consent: Sexual content with impaired or non-existent consent. Often implied/off-screen, or only present in bad endings.
- sex/nudity: Onscreen descriptions/visuals of sex or nudity. I have not included implied off-screen sex.
- problematic: Racist/sexist etc. I try and go into specifics in the review, but sometimes all I have is a vague memory of going "ugh".
- dexterity/timing: Requires some hand-eye coordination or an action done within a time limit. Many of these are easy by my fairly low standards, if something's extra challenging I try and emntion it.
- difficult: I personally found it difficult enough that it interfered with my enjoyment. I am good at logic but bad at timing/jumping.
- unplayed: I either haven't played it at all, or have only played the very start.
- gacha: Pressures the player to spend real-world money on randomised in-game content. Can create gambling addiction.
Tags:
Various other info.- designer: Contains a designer for creating levels or in-game content.
- beautiful: I think it's very pretty!
- low plot: Has minimal or no plot, instead focussing on gameplay.
- short: Doesn't take long to play.
- m/f: Significant focus on a romantic or sexual relationship between a man and woman.
- f/f: Significant focus on a romantic or sexual relationship between two women.
- m/m: Significant focus on a romantic or sexual relationship between two men.
- non-binary: Significant focus on a non-binary character, or has an actively ungendered protagonist.
- binary trans: Significant focus on a trans man or trans woman.
- aromantic/asexual: Significant focus on an aromantic or asexual character. I specific which in the review, but most are aroace.
- polyamory: Significant focus on a romantic or sexual relationship which contains, or can contain, more than two people.
- queer: Same sex relationships, trans characters, aromantic/asexual characters, etc. May be in the background.
- female protag: The player character is or can be a woman.
- gender choice: Choose the player character's gender, or the gender is left vague but you can control their presentation.
- free: Costs no money to buy.
- rj bundle: Was contained in the Bundle for Racial Justice (it's big and hard to sort through)
What To Watch by sqbr is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://github.com/sqbr.