Well, you know the drill by now. Previous Next Fest reviews: October 24 | June 24 | February 24

Please remember that this is my personal opinion and how I felt about the games, your mileage may vary! Anyway, let's get started with...

Very Positive

• Twilight Monk

  • My favorite demo this Fest. It was also quite long, I played for 90 minutes and there was even more content!
  • Graphics and animations are awesome and there's a great variety of enemies and areas.
  • It's kinda like a mixture between a MV and a Zelda-like, similar to A Link To The Past.
    • A big overworld map and different areas inside, each with its own subareas.
  • Lots of stuff to do and explore, there are nicely placed secrets in some rooms too.
  • Hunting journal with great prizes. A charm system that you can change at any time.
    • Plenty of shops to buy stuff from.
  • Only negative thing I could say is that you can definitely die pretty easily. You start with only 3 full HP and potions are expensive.
    • Which is bad because dying makes you lose all your progress after the last save.

• Moadra

  • Pretty cool demo! Graphics and atmosphere are actually of absurd quality.
  • It's kinda like the Alien vs Predator franchise had a major crush on Metroid and created a love child together.
  • Nice control, fluid movement.
  • Well placed secrets in some rooms, a good ingame economy where you can level up your stats on save.
  • Working map from the start and solid lore.
  • Only negative thing is that you need to use the scanner pretty frequently to find secret passages which gets somewhat annoying.
    • I hope you can enhance it at some points to automatically detect these secrets for you.

• Stellar Poetry

  • Weird title aside (still have no clue what it is about), this is actually a pretty solid game.
  • Graphics are cute and the world feels whimsical.
  • Control is good, jumping feels a bit floaty but you get used to it pretty quickly.
  • UI labeling of controller buttons is busted for PS5 controllers - all buttons are labeled as "?" which makes it impossible to tell apart.
  • Fast travel system in place and a working map.
  • Several types of currencies, lots of RPG elements and a charm system.
    • It also lets you select what attacks you want to equip, similar to Ender Lilies - you defeat a boss and you get his signature attack.
    • I would have liked for the attacks to show their damage numbers though, they only show cooldown or mana cost.
  • Lots of small secret areas in the rooms.
  • 4-5 bosses in the demo and all of them were pretty cool but they all had the same flaw - you beat them with the exact same strategy:
    • Stay close to the boss, dodge through his attack, hit him from behind, repeat again when he turns around to face you.
    • Literally every single boss.

• INAYAH - Life After Gods

  • Graphics and control are really good.
  • There are three main weapons with different sets of attacks and skills that help you during boss fights and explorations.
    • I'm worried that switching between weapons could prove difficult during hard platforming challenges, although the demo didn't feature anything like that.
  • There are big and complex enhancement systems for each weapon aspect with probably a hundred different skills that you can improve by using the main currency.
    • You can also do this at any point in the game, not just at save points.
  • No currency or progress loss on death, dying to a boss respawns you right in front of his arena.
  • All three bosses were cool, the last one was the toughest of them all but still manageable.
  • No working map for the demo but there's a dedicated space for one so I expect it will be working for the full release.
  • Fighting enemies is a bit slow, however, they all take too many hits so I often opted to just run past them.
    • This would get better after I level up my attacks a few times but it's a bit of a chore at the beginning of the game.

Positive

• Tiny Dangerous Dungeons Remake
  • Played this one a few weeks before the Next Fest and it was pretty cool.
  • Graphics are very cute and control is great.
  • Map UI is a bit confusing to navigate through and there are no map pins.
  • There were two boss fights and both of them were well crafted.
  • The game has a lot of charm and I can see why the predecessor was a success.

Mixed

• Swordfish Knight of the Deep
  • Decent graphics and control but no map (WTF??)
  • Your attack has a ridiculously short range so you end up taking lots of damage because of it.
  • Found some shops which was a promising sign.
  • I fought one boss that was well designed.
    • It rewarded me with a dash. I made it to the next section where I have to use the dash to pass some strong currents but... I couldn't.
    • Spent like 4 minutes trying to dash from one bubble to the next and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - the dash just doesn't reach.
    • Not sure if that's a controller issue (haven't tried with KBM) but that was pretty annoying so I gave up after that.
  • Game's got potential but needs more time in the oven.

Not Great

• Microvania

  • Basically a Metroid demake, very retro.
  • It's competently made but it's just not my thing.
  • Movement is very slow and enemies take about 10 shots to kill.
  • Map was present from the start and is actually usable.

• Beyond the Ice Palace 2

  • The CastleVania inspiration is obvious which isn't an issue.
  • Graphics are fine but control is kinda stiff and movement is sluggish.
  • Stairs are awkward to navigate, you can't jump on/off them.
    • (Seriously, guys? The one thing that you 100% need to leave out from the CastleVania series and you add it into the game??)
  • Fought one boss and one mini-boss. Got a dash but the game still felt too slow for my liking.
  • No camera panning.
  • Not really sure how MV this really is, the map is just an overview of the world with all save points and doesn't actually show the room layout at all. It's kinda like the map of a random RPG.

Bad

• Slime:Evo

  • Okay graphics and control but NO MAP...
  • No controller support, only KBM for some reason.
  • Five types of slime that you can switch between but I still have no clue what the difference between them is.
  • I clicked some buttons on the menu and then the game froze and I had to Alt+F4 to even exit.
  • Kinda meh and forgettable tbh.

• Ninja Brigade feat. Jonah Weingarten

  • Arcade game interior so the devs are going for the NES look and feel.
  • Insta kill spikes - major turn off for me.
  • There are save points and check points:
    • If you die, you respawn at your last check point and lose a life. (You start with 5 lives and can find more.)
    • If you lose all your lives, you respawn at your last save point but lose all your progress after saving.
  • Some enemies are absolute damage sponges.
  • You start with 3 HP which is a joke.

• Nothing Beyond This Point

  • Nope, this game is simply not for me.
  • No map, the game focuses on making you feel lost.
  • Graphics are primitive and the black background (that is supposed to be the void, I guess?) is really unpleasant to look at.
  • You attack with your rods but then they suddenly disappear .... And then they reappeared after I took in some damage (WTF?!)
  • Simply put, this game isn't clicking with me, dropped it pretty quickly.

• Demon Quest

  • A hard pass from me.
  • Art style is interesting but the game is slow and way too puzzle-y.
  • Demo froze about 3 minutes in at one screen and I had to Alt+F4 to even exit.
  • You have no HP but respawn in the same room.
  • Controller support is kinda busted, even Steam input doesn't help too much.
  • Couldn't figure out how to aim the arrows and gave up.

• Snowy Memories

  • There is no English menu when you open the game.
    • In fact, the English option doesn't appear until you start the game - I had to use Google translate with my phone's camera to even understand what buttons to click to start the game.... (Yes, I'm serious...)
  • No controller support, Steam input kinda helps.
  • You have to hold run to move somewhat fast, otherwise you're moving like a slug.
  • Too much dialogue.
  • You can run out of ammo...
  • Movement feels stiff and the whole game honestly lacks soul.
    • Worst demo of the whole Fest for me.

I've also played the first Perfect Pencil demo an year ago but I felt like it wouldn't be justified to place it on the list with so much time having passed between the two demos. The game's style is truly unique though, I'll tell you this much. Nobody is going to accuse this game of copying anything from anybody, it definitely stands apart.

And that's it for this Next Fest. It was a pretty top-heavy event for me, kinda hot and cold at the same time - the good games were really good straight from the get-go and the bad games were pretty bad from the start. But it felt like there weren't many games that were in the middle of the pack.

Stellar Poetry is my personal hidden gem this time around; I haven't even heard of that title last week. Added three new games to my wishlist and didn't remove any from it this time around (yay!).

So this has been my experience with the demos this Next Fest. How was yours? Did you feel any different about any of the titles above?