Bay Bell Reviews

Bay Bell is a delightfully weird little puzzle game/VN crossover. I bought it on a whim because the art looked kinda neat and I like space games, and it was more fun than I hoped. The game has a single puzzle mechanic that plays out something like the pen-and-paper game Hangman. As you decipher certain puzzles, more text elsewhere becomes readable, and then you can play through the rest of the game like a VN. Without spoiling the story - you are a robot in space, and the theme is languages and communication, which is a very clever way to support the jankiness of the script that eventually gets uncovered. The issue with the writing is that it is spectacularly florid, unnecessarily verbose to the Nth degree. But because of the setup of the game, you can almost forgive that as being part of the lore. In any case, purple prose aside, the combination of space game, casual puzzle solving and generally nice/friendly characters is exactly my kind of thing, so the game was well worth it. I can only hope more people discover it and that the developer continues making games. There's not much else out there like this.

I bought this game because it was on sale and the art style caught my eye. The game has great sound design, the noise whenever you leave a room or time loop is great. The background music is good. The unique art style is both interesting to look at and surprisingly clear. The game is also quick and easy as it takes around three hours for a session.