My Thoughts on 5 Demos (Demo Impressions Part 11)

Arranger, Dice & Fold, Hookah Haze, The Operator, Vampire Therapist

I played a lot of demos during Steam Next Fest and, since I was in such a rush due to being so behind at the time, I’m just releasing them now! I wrote impressions for a lot of demos and, since I really don’t think it’s a good idea to release them all in the same post, I’m splitting them up. So, here’s the first. Don’t worry, I won’t post demo impressions for two months straights haha.

If any of these games still have demos at the time of posting, I’ll put a (*).

Dice & Fold

Out Now

Dice & Fold really surprised me in how much I liked it. At first glance it looks like it would be a deckbuilder card game, but upon further inspection it looked like it was more of a “dice rolls are your damage” game. Well, I’m glad I ended up playing this demo as this only uses a card aesthetic. Starting out, you only have access to one hero, but there are a lot for you to unlock (and you can play five in the demo). Each hero has their own skill as well, which can alter your strategy, but it does look like the game is encouraging you to finish all the stages with every character.

Anyway, after you choose your hero, You’ll be sent out to the dungeon and defeat a lot of monsters and hopefully the boss. Stages with battles are more common and on those enemies will be dealt from the deck. So, how do you defeat them? Well, at the start of your turn, you get to roll dice. You can then use these dice in various ways. Each enemy card has between 1-3 squares below their card artwork which denotes what you need to defeat them. It’ll be either a number you have to lower to 0, a specific dice roll, or a qualifier like an odd number roll. If you have what you need, you just need to drag the dice to the slot and if you fulfilled all of the slots that enemy will die, or “fold”, leaving silver coins. You can also use the dice on yourself (or your companion) to power up your skill) There’s also the Gold Dice Set, which I totally overlooked my first two runs, which will grant you a gold coin if you input all six rolls into the spaces. In addition, there are different colored dice, with red letting you heal by the amount of the roll, a blue dice which will fill a skill slot no matter what, and a yellow which will reduce an enemy’s attack power for that turn. If you run out of dice or can’t do anything with the dice you have, the enemies will attack (and will randomly choose who unless an item changes that). Luckily, if there are dice you couldn’t use, either because neither you nor the enemy can take it or it’s the end of the battle and its leftover dice, there is a tray that will save three dice for you.

Other than battle stages and the boss stage, there are stages where you can buy items with the gold you have and get a companion to join you. A companion definitely helps as you’ll have another character with a skill for you to use, adds another dice to your roll, and another target for enemies. Items have a big variety of effects, such as giving you more dice, healing you, or decreasing a total enemy slot by a couple points.

I surprisingly liked Dice & Fold. I was going in expecting to not like it, but I found it pretty fun. It felt like it had the perfect difficulty and I liked strategizing. Not to mention the Hydra boss. I had to stop myself from completing the demo with all the available demo heroes and go play other demos I wanted to try out. So, yeah, I’ll look forward to this one. Though, I’m not sure whether or not I’ll wait until all the updates are out or not.

The Operator*

Coming July 22

Oh my gosh, this game couldn’t have had a better demo (or technically a better opening). When I saw this trailer, I was drawn to it as I do like games like these and it reminded me of Orwell. Anyway, The Operator starts with you staring into an almost blinding light, restrained, and answering yes-no questions. Before you know it, you’re in front of your computer with a killer hangover, but ready for your first day as an Operator in the FDI. Operators are basically those that assists Agents out in the field with any help they require for their case. Operators have access to cutting edge software which makes extracting and getting information easier and faster. Like, being able to get a plate number from security footage and finding out who owns it pretty quickly. This demo has the first two days on the job, with the first day mainly to introduce you to your job, mechanics, your first official agent request, and introducing the mystery. The next day brings along a most wanted list and brings that mystery to the forefront. An agent calls about their missing person case in a desert town and after learning that not all agents like having to deal with Operators (especially when it’s evidence that they can analyze themselves), you learn that this is a peculiar case. Not only did the missing person appear again in a totally different place than when she was taken, but she says she was taken by aliens. Other residents in the town even say they were taken by aliens and dumped in the desert. However, things aren’t as it seems and it seems to go deeper as you get hacked by HAL, a most wanted person, who seems to even be on your side. Hmmmm.

Gameplay here is pretty simple and easy. Once an Agent calls for you to help you with a case, they’ll send you the files you need to analyze and you’ll have one objective at a time. Depending on your objective, it’ll have you typing in a name or plate in a database, analyzing footage (which the FDI also has a tool to analyze elements for you with a click of a button), analyze photos, read over documents, and cross reference relevant information. Once you find what you need, you just need to click the objective and click the answer. There is a help button you can press if you need it.

I do wonder what the redacted name is though. I lowkey think it’s the character that we play, as the beginning of the game seems eerily similar to what Connie experienced, but I’m not sure if the redaction is big enough…

Anyway, The Operator does a great job in introducing you to your job, the mechanics, and getting you invested in what’s going on. The voice acting is also really good and the various elements are put together well (I seriously flinched and was a bit shocked on the first day where you see the suspect shoot his victim). Also, I just noticed that this has a release date of July and that makes me so excited.

Hookah Haze*

Out Now

Ever since I played Va-11 Hall-A and absolutely loved it I’ve been chasing for a game that’s similar. While no similar games have quite reached it, they have gotten close. When I saw Hookah Haze, I immediately wanted to play it as it did seem like a game similar to Va-11 Hall-A and the art was pretty cute! I was especially excited when I saw the announcement that Hookah Haze was going to release a demo for Next Fest and while I did put off playing the VN demos way too late, I made sure to prioritize this one. So how was it?

My first impressions were pretty much right, this is kinda like Va-11 Hall-A. However, instead of mixing up drinks you’re blending up different flavor tobacco for hookah. Honestly, I didn’t even know this and assumed you were blending up drinks so imagine my surprise when Amu smoked what I gave her instead of drinking it. I didn’t end up minding though. Anyway, the demo let you play through the first two days and looking on the Steam Page, this is exclusive to the demo build (don’t worry, it’s going to be a side story mode in the full game). In Hookah Haze, you play as Toru is the temporary manager of a hookah lounge called Hookah Haze. Each day seems to have the same pattern. When the day starts, you’ll be able to pick that day’s Special. This is important as it does determine which character will come to your lounge. Like Amu will come if the Special has dessert flavors blended in. Once you choose, one of three characters will appear. After a quick greeting, you’ll blend them a hookah flavor. Blending is pretty easy, only having to blend three flavor profiles to make a fully fleshed out one. Though, you might want to take the customer’s preferences into account. Once the customer tries it and gives you their thoughts, you’ll talk until the coals need changing. You two will actually still talk while you’re changing the coals and you’ll have to decide how many coals you need to strike the perfect balance depending on what Toru thinks about how the smoke is. Once you change the coals, there will be a one-on-one event dialogue that more resembles visual novel before going back to the lounge UI to continue talking before it’s time for them to leave. In addition, if your Special has flavors that more than one customer likes, you’ll get two visitors that day. You still get their one-on-one events, but the dialogue in the lounge UI will differ to include both customers.

There are three customers that can visit: Amu, Kurumi, and Kokoro. Amu likes dessert flavors and she’s your resident cutie who wants to be even cuter than she is now and is trying her best to debut as an idol. Or maybe she is one as she reveals that she’s going to have a solo live show soon and she wants you to come. She convinces you to let her practice, which also doubles as you learning her fan cheers as she hopes that you’ll come and watch her perform. Next up is Kurumi, who loves nut flavors and is pretty quiet and hardworking. She also may be short or just have the aura that lets her go unnoticed. Kurumi talks weirdly and is a bit hard to decipher her at times (Toru has no troubles though), but she makes dolls and she seems to be working nonstop on them. Even when she’s supposed to be relaxing with her hookah, she goes quickly to working again. You can probably guess that she eve forgoes sleep to work on her dolls. You do learn why she’s working as hard as she is currently as she’s preparing for a doll exhibition. Last, but not least, is Kokoro who likes spice flavors, is pretty upbeat, and likes boardgames. It seems like Kokoro usually goes to different hookah lounges and Toru uses his time with her to talk about the hookah chains that popped up and how other lounges make themselves unique. This prompts Kokoro to mention how fun it would be for Hookah Haze to host an event and Toru even agrees. They go to brainstorm ideas, which both are pretty good ideas, and in contrast with the other two, even hopes that she’ll come to his event. Between all three you do learn some information about Toru as well.

At first, I wasn’t really sure about Hookah Haze, but I ended up liking it. Heck, I ended up liking it enough to go through each individual route and then experiment. Which let me find out that two customers can be there at the same time. I even went to get all the different hookah blends! I do also like how this game is focusing on only a couple characters. Aside from my personal nitpicks, I enjoyed Hookah Haze and I’m officially looking forward to it!

Vampire Therapist

Coming July 18

This was another game where I knew nothing about, though this time it’s more because I saw a press release about this game which didn’t include any screenshots. The only thing I knew is that you’re a vampire who is a therapist for other vampires. Crazy assumption I know. Vampire Therapist follows Sam Walls a vampire who has been alive for almost 200 years and recently came out of a 90 year session of wandering the wilderness after leaving his old gang and meeting some kind humans. Those 90 years made him come to some realizations which made him want to help his fellow vampires. His old gang didn’t take kindly to him, but once he got on the internet, he came into contact with a 3,000 year old vampire known as Andromachos. Andromachos, intrigued with a vampire asking his aide to help others, invites Sam to his club in Europe to learn from him.

After getting through the bouncer, maybe helping a couple inside, and talking to the bartender, you get to be face to face with Andromachos. Here, Sam talks about his revelations, which Andromachos actually is quite impressed as he managed to figure out some cognitive distortions pretty accurately just by observing the thinking patterns of vampires. Though, he does give Sam the correct terms that more accurately represent the meaning (I miss Sam’s cowboy names though haha) and tests you to make sure you know how to spot them in speech. The next day, you also learn two more cognitive distortions. Sam successfully impresses Andromachos and Andromachos agrees to teach Sam his ways, but only on the condition that Sam receives therapy as well. After all, can’t have the therapist not on the up and up on his own mental health. Sam’s therapy sessions are with Andromachos and just based on the first session, it looks like this will be a way to get to learn about Sam more. His first session did go more in depth with what we heard him say in the introduction.

This demo included two client sessions. The first is with a vampire who was a physician when alive and is still continuing his work, albeit for vampires instead of humans. He turns out to pretty much hate Sam, but Andromachos made him your first client as he doesn’t hide his distortions as he wants to complain about things. The second client is more difficult and was once a powerful matriarch. During the sessions where you’re a therapist, you’re basically listening to them (meaning Sam and the client) talk. Sometimes, you’ll have a choice to make. Eventually, you’ll get to where you need to identify the cognitive distortions correctly. There are some tricky statements in there, but it’s pretty easy to identify them once you learn what each distortion is. It also helps that you had practice and experience. Due to the clients saying they’ll come back in four weeks, it seems Sam will at least have four clients throughout the game.

Aside from you successfully picking out which cognitive distortion a statement is, or identifying which statement has a distortion and picking out which one it is, there are two more things here. There’s a biting minigame for when Sam needs to feed. There isn’t a tutorial for this one, but it seems you need to click when the fangs are fully on the neck. There’s also Sam’s journal, where you can review the cognitive distortions, review his client details, and read Sam’s ramblings (which is basically his diary entries).

I loved Vampire Therapist’s demo. I really had no expectations, just hoping I would like the writing style, and man did it help me be surprised. I was not expecting this whole game to be voiced and everyone did wonderfully. The writing is great, it does a great job delivering the information it wants and humor, and I loved the characters. I especially love that Sam is a cowboy vampire. The art is also great. The only thing that I’d say this needs is a tutorial for the neck biting minigame (which the devs did say is going to be put in), a text log, and an auto advance. I can’t believe this is going to come out soon!

Arranger: A Role Puzzling Adventure*

Releasing July 25

I knew when I saw the trailer for Arranger that I would want to play this game and I would love it. Granted, there’s always a chance that I wouldn’t so that’s why I played the demo.

Arranger starts with you playing a mysterious woman who has the ability to shift the tiles that build the world. As she travels to the destination she has in mind, we see that she’s holding something which soon reveals to be a baby bundled up. She soon arrives to a big door, tearfully says goodbye to her baby, and leaves. Control shifts to this baby and as we lay there hopeless, a creepy shadows circle around you until an eye above the giant door opens and you hear a bell. Fast forward years later and that baby is all grown up now and her name is Jemma. Jemma has been dying to go outside this community, called The Hold, as she doesn’t feel like she belongs. After all, she wasn’t born in The Hold like everyone else and she kind of…maybe…totally moves everything when she moves. Jemma doesn’t know, but just like her mother the world is like a set of tiles to her and if anything is on the same row or column as her it’ll move with her. Some people don’t mind, but some others find it annoying. This demo takes place over the course of I guess you’d say Chapter 1 where Jemma is getting ready to leave and doing stuff around The Hold so she could; and stops a bit after Jemma leaves and you see her looking around.

For gameplay, Jemma moves on a tile grid and it moves with her, or arranging, around her. If she goes down anything that’s on the same column does as well. There’s even some things that can fall if you move them too much. Interestingly enough, for areas that are like a square, you can go down and pop up at the top (basically looping). This is especially helpful for unmoveable objects, which are telegraphed by a visual effect, or when you don’t want to move an object or want to move an object to a certain place. The puzzle aspect is finding out how to position items while also getting Jemma where she needs to go. Like taking items with you with your arranging powers as you can’t grab and carry anything or moving objects on a pressure plate and moving yourself in a way that won’t move it off (or that it goes on it when you move with the other axis). There’s also combat which has you move a sword to the vulnerable part of the Static monster, but you have to find a way while dealing with unmovable objects and pressure plates. The boss fight was especially hard, but it was so satisfying when I finally got it.

I loved Arranger. The writing is just right and I love how the humor is unabashedly dad jokes and the mechanic is unique. The game is also difficult and it’s just enough to where you’ll figure it out before you get annoyed enough (at least during Chapter 1). I also do like how there’s artwork along the edges of the world grid, which gives you a sense of what the world looks like, showing you what’s in the distance, and show what the character(s) look in the moment. I also like how the cutscenes are handled. Not to mention this is essentially a sliding puzzle game and I didn’t mind. I can’t wait to play the full release of Arranger and see what’s out there outside The Hold.