Disillusion ST Reviews

Melpomene is wifey

LSD Dream Emulator + Yume Nikki + Disillusion

I really love when games really don’t give a damn and are as weird as possible.

Unironic Buddhist masterclass + very fun on drugs

I've been following this game's development since version 0.02 dropped on 8/15/23. The release game is almost identical to what was free up until the steam release of this game. I refunded the game after I got a key for free because the dev ended up handing out a bunch to people in the discord server. Let’s start with the positives. Disillusion ST nails the aesthetic of a late 90s to early 2000s PC point-and-click dungeon crawler. Visually, it’s a huge upgrade from the original game, it has tons of animated cut-scenes that are very heavily based off of early PC games and they all look fantastic. There is also a number of detailed point and click areas with their own unique cut scene's as well. Unfortunately, that’s where most of the good things end. Since this is the second Disillusion game, comparisons to the first are going to happen. The original had a clear, linear structure. Every room felt unique and the art style stood out, there was a ton of variety and nothing felt recycled you always saw something new no matter what. It was a solid 4-5 hour long game for only 3 dollars but from start to finish it was a unique, thought-out very consistent experience. In contrast, Disillusion ST leans into an industrial, cold atmosphere. Many of the rooms look dull and the color scheme is washed out, none of this would be an issue if it wasn't for the next point I'm going to make but before i get there the soundtrack is also a downgrade, a lot of reused tracks, and not much variety. Several zones and soundtracks are reused from the first game, which makes the experience feel even more repetitive. I'm willing to cut some slack about that fact because this game was made by a single person, everything from art to writing to coding (except the music). But the core issue lies in a very specific design choice. The entire game is driven by RNG. Doors lead to random rooms. NPCs are random. This design decision has sparked a lot of controversy in the game's Discord community. The creator was trying to create variety but all it ended up creating was constant loops and repetition that just becomes frustrating after a while. It was so frustrating to so many people that the developer added warp orbs as a patch to try to help players escape these loops or track down specific NPCs, but they don't fully solve the issue. All it does is just give you another dice roll. There was another attempt to fix this by [spoiler]adding a room in the HUB that’s currently blocked off by NPCs, which contains teleporters to most zones in the game[/spoiler]. I truly believe Disillusion ST could have been something fantastic and topped the first game in every single way. But the creative decision to make the entire game randomized ends up undermining and ruining the whole experience for a large number of people. It turns into a frustrating, repetitive grind that makes progress in trying to get new things to happen difficult. If you haven’t played the original, I recommend starting there and stopping because you will be let down. And if you have played and loved the first game, save your money.

One of the weirdest and surreal games I've ever played. Definitely not for everyone, but if you stick with it you'll find it's got a pretty interesting narrative and characters under it's strange exterior.

Love the game and love the sequel to it. The combat is not really the best, and you can miss out on certain cut-scenes if you do pacifist, but the game itself is amazing. I'd absolutely recommend this game if you love games similar to Yume Nikki.

I played Disillusion and I would say it was a really great game. But this? I spent 14 dollars that's more than triple the price of Disillusions AND IT WAS NOT WORTH IT. Every single interaction either teleports you to a whole new location, I feel as if i'm missing out on so much and the only way to go back is by restarting, I like how they kept soundtracks and room ideas from Disillusion but this was not worth it. BUNS.

Disillusion ST is an really interesting game. The game feels very surreal, you wander aimlessly through the Naraka, meeting all sorts of original/interesting NPC's. For visual alone this game is easily a 10/10. This game has very colorful or abstract. visuals, world, characters but also the opposite, some "levels" were quite dark, somber, depressing. but it all felt unique. For gameplay, still good, but not really a 10/10. I loved following the NPC questlines and collecting the objects needed. the game is very rich in story. most NPC's will give you scraps of information about the world or each other. the playing cards also was a pretty clever way to give out even more scraps if information about the others wandering around. And not to forget i LOVED the pre-rendered cutscenes, the style of them are just amazing! At the start it can be a little bit confusing on what to do, where to go, or what door does what. The combat is not really great, it is very basic. But i did like the aid's you could collect and use to aid you in combat. but combat is not the focus of the game anyways. Disillusion ST is definetly recommendable, it is a great game!

I usually don't give in-depth reviews, but this game specifically got me to do so. If you want the quick answer to if you should get this game or not, I highly recommend it, it's an amazing experience you won't get from any other game, but it's definitely not for everyone. The game isn't perfect, but I think that's part of the beauty of it. If you're not super focused on action gameplay, patient enough to deal with RNG to see through a beautiful story, as well as an appreciation for this game's experimental artstyle, you'll love this game. I learned about this game through a random video on Instagram talking about "Cheap Games that Don't Suck" which this game was featured on, immediately the unique and entrancing artstyle and character designs peaked my interest, so I decided to check it out. At first, the game was very confusing, which I did expect, so I stuck to it and kept playing. As I kept playing, the brilliant world and surprisingly emotional story slowly pieced itself together; your journey through memories along with the Muse of Tragedy, Melpomene, builds itself up masterfully with amazing payoff. All of the characters you meet are all so unique, and their sub-plots with each other are a joy to witness; characters like Gomi, Sir Seven and Himiko are a few examples of characters that always brought a smile to my face on each encounter. While the world's exploration is confusing, and sometimes a bit luck based, there's a huge payoff and sense of achievement by figuring out the ins and outs of the Naraka, and how to traverse it. Figuring out what locations lead to where, what NPC's can take you to places you need to go, and where to go to find specific events is part of the fun and I recommend playing through majorly without a guide; the exploration is part of the fun. Even though by the endgame I had seen almost all of the Naraka, it was always a surprise to sometimes stumble onto something I've never seen before: a completely new location, a new character or a completely new cutscene between my favorite characters. The game always seems like there's more to find, unexplored secrets to discover that adds a sense of terrifying wonder to the world of Disillusion ST. I played on Pacifist Mode on my first playthrough, which to anyone reading this before playing, I highly recommend doing so as well for your first run through. While the Combat Mode does make the game overall more active and engaging, it makes it a lot tougher and definitely feels more intended for those who know their way around the Naraka, as it can be pretty punishing if you don't know what you're knowing. While the combat is pretty bare bones, it fits into the general vibe of Disillusion ST and it keeps you on your toes without fully breaking the flow of gameplay. As per usual with this game, the unique fight graphics are always a pleasure to witness, and all of the enemies feel so unique from each other. Something I love about this game that I don't see many people talk about is one of the overarching themes of this game that you come to really see, and feel throughout the game: Love. Through the many, many interactions with the inhabitants of the Naraka, you eventually come to feel a grand sense of community within this fragmented and confusing world. Without spoiling anything major, a huge theme of this game is the feeling of guilt, and the want to atone for past sins; a part of the messaging is how to deal with these feelings, and how the help, the love from others can help you escape from these dark emotions. Even though some residents of the Naraka disagree, sometimes despise your quest, they still eventually come to root you on. The love and affection of the friends you make, this feeling of connection in an inherently disconnected and abstract world is what motivates you, the character you play as, and you the player to reach the end, to dredge through the difficulty to obtain your goal. By the end, you feel as if you have connected with this world, connected with all of it's wacky inhabitants. You feel friendship and love, in a world that seems to actively try to withhold that. In all, Disillusion ST is an abstract experience filled with mystery and intrigue, you explore a world filled with secrets and wacky, memorable characters that fill you with a sense of connection in a world that is disconnected and expansive. It's an experience you won't find anywhere else, an experience you'll have that is different from others who play the game, and it is an experience filled to the brim with artistry, friendship, connection, and most of all: love. I can't recommend this game enough, a genuine 10/10 in my opinion, and I hope more people find this masterpiece.