Neon White

I was gonna have to dock the rating at least .5 for the cringy dialogue but at least they had the decency to have a fast forward button so... 5 stars.

Neon White is a speedrunner's dream! In the game you need to beat levels against the clock, picking up and using special cards. They grant a specific weapon and drop ability, a move that allows you to kill enemies or climb and move between platforms, or sometimes both at the same time. At each location there are demons that need to be killed, miss one and the finish will not work. Each pack of levels introduces a new card and adds something new to the movement and gameplay, the levels in the game do not feel monotonous and boring. Even the battles with the local boss here do not differ from the main gameplay, but they are a kind of exam to consolidate everything that you have learned before. Neon White, on the one hand, does not load casual or average players at all, but also gives hardcore players and fans of time-based games a chance to roam. So, after a more or less fast run, a hint for a slice will open, which will allow you to beat the level to the highest reward, but it is not necessary to receive them at all, except perhaps to complete the game by 100%. Neon White also remembers and shows your friends' level records (it's so cool to beat someone's time and brag about it) and maintains global ranking statistics. The plot here is presented in the form of a visual novel and it is quite good, the dialogues are voiced, but could be written better. Relations with the characters can be improved by giving them a couple of gifts that can be found when exploring locations, opening bonus conversations, side quests, and memories of the main character. Great soundtrack, visually minimalistic setting, and in terms of gameplay, Neon White is truly innovative and one of the best games of the past year. Speedrunners, fans of 3D parkour platforming and shooters all rolled into one will appreciate it.

A perfect game for freaks. A game designers' game. Impeccably done.

I love these kind of flow-based arcadey games with bite sized levels, and while Neon White could have probably stood to be a little more open and flexible in design to really incentivise great and inspired play, there's no real complaints when I'm in the driver's seat. The game is fast but not so fast as to be uncontrollable, new entities enter the game at a decent rate, and the difficulty curve is just right. One could play the main game on end for hours, and the devs knew this; beating the game unlocks a level rush mode without all the fluff. Going back for better times is always fun, if again a bit limited occasionally, and getting the hidden collectibles can be frustrating but does genuinely offer a new, much more puzzle-based, take on the game's basic framework.

Unfortunately, much of Neon White's style despite its substance is lacking. While the main plot is okay, suitably engaging and breaking up the frenetic action just enough, and does touch on themes of religious revisionism, abuse, gaslighting and manipulation, it doesn't feel heavy enough for a game about demons invading Heaven, and it suffers from a usual action-adventure problem of introducing new elements as the plot wrinkles come up, rather than properly setting up the lore, which takes the punch out of many climactic moments. This would be easy to let go if not for the dialogue being totally obnoxious, not just taking too many anime cliches of genki girls who love violence and bros who don't understand metaphors, but being crude without pushing boundaries, relying on reference humour in the dumbest way possible, and ultimately leaving the interactions so bland and predictable yet tiring and annoying that I did not want to unlock all the side conversations, which is a big problem when you must do so to unlock the true ending. I was initially shocked when I saw We Know The Devil's AVB had a writing credit, but now I realise it makes total sense; this is a script written by someone who loves Danganronpa way too much. Shout out to the voice cast and the genuine relationship between White and Red, who both save it.

Neon White is still a great game, and any excuse to put Machine Girl on a pedestal is a good one, but it does feel like it's punching under its weight just a little bit, and doesn't feel aesthetically and tonally complete in a way that indie games are usually great at. An easy recommendation for those who love Superhot and the like, but less so for visual novel fans.

Neon White is a first person shooter/ puzzle game with an emphasis on speedrunning. The game offers plenty of well crafted levels to speed through. It rellies on a card system in which weapons can be picked up, offer a primary mode and have a secondary function (which discards the card). These secondary functions are usually their most important, as they give acess to second jumps or dash that are needed in order to beat the level.

Its really satisfying game on a moment to moment basis. The thrill of speed is enjoyable, as well as looking at levels like complex puzzles to figure out the fastest routes through them. I am not inclined to speedrun anything even if i do enjoy watching, but its satisfying enough to made me go back to previous levels and try and try again to beat personal records.

The anime style and actual story is something i forced myself to ignore all the way through, as its a cringefest.

An extremely solid title, that will definitly please for people into this niche genre.