STILL PLAYING/ NEAR MISSES
A Perfect Day Switch Previously featured in E363, Coconut Island’s sliceof-life tale finally gets an English-language release. Set on the final day of the 20th century, it follows 11-year-old Chen Liang, who hopes to use an unexpected day off to give a belated Christmas card to a classmate upon whom he has a crush. Waylaid by circumstance, he finds the day looping over and over; each 24-hour period yields fresh information, new plot threads to follow – and steadily untangle – and items that, unlike the protagonist’s memory, persist between loops. With limited time slots in which to fulfil his needs (and those of friends and family), a prevailing theme is the futility of the pursuit of perfection. It’s repetitive by design but richly detailed, the specificities of location and period lending extra texture to this absorbing slow-burner.
Windy Meadow – A Roadwarden Tale PC One of last year’s finest games, Moral Anxiety Studio’s brilliant Roadwarden offered you the opportunity to at least attempt to right the wrongs of your predecessor. After a fashion, Windy Meadow is Polish developer Aureus Gaj’s attempt to do the same thing for his less-experienced self. This visual novel was originally released five years ago; buoyed by Roadwarden’s reception, Gaj has remade it. We get roughly half an hour in, captivated once more by his gift for mise-en-scène and characterisation, before realising that this is one to be savoured rather than hurried through during deadline week. Already, though, there’s compelling evidence that Gaj has managed to achieve his goal this time around.
Slay The Princess PC This visual novel wastes no time at all in setting out its twisted premise. You’re already on your way to complete a horrifying task: a princess is chained up in the basement of a nearby cabin, and you’ve been charged with killing her to save the world. As you make your way there, the dialogue options reflecting the natural questions you’d have in such a scenario, the story’s narrator warns you that she’ll try anything to change your mind. Even heeding his warnings, we allow a sliver of doubt to creep in, a decision that proves fatal – for us. Next time around, the entrance has changed, the stairs leading downward steeper and more numerous. And the princess? Well, let’s just say we’re made to regret picking up that dagger.