I recently played 24 Killers.

Twice. Once with my friends on our shared game channel. Once alone in my room.

First let me preface this with... wow, I kinda loved it? Another friend of mine that I recommended the game to said she had trouble not just comparing it to Moon RPG, which the game is not shy about claiming as its inspiration. From its faceless protagonist, the core theme of empathy and self actualization, the charming mix of 2d and 3d graphics, to--probably the most obvious inspiration--the entire game mechanic.

I have not personally played all of Moon RPG, but I have seen enough to be like, "okay, yeah I get it." (It is on my list, but so are about 75 other games. I'll get to it eventually.)

I had a really good time with 24 Killers though. I quite enjoyed the writing. I like an abrasive main character that slowly grows more empathetic, and I really enjoy all of the weird little mons that you meet. Some of them are quirky or sad or have surprising personalities and each gives you just enough to understand a bit of their inner world. It really builds a nice microcosm I think. A well balanced pie slice of this little chunk of foam.

Now, as with all of the games I write reviews of, I try to interrogate them from my own view as a gamedev. What I would incorporate, what I might try to avoid.

I think, as I've grown older, pacing has become probably the #1 tone setter for any piece of media I experience, whether that be a book, a movie, or a video game. Good pacing can elevate subpar media and bad pacing can really throw a wrench in an otherwise good thing. You can probably tell from my previous reviews that pacing really makes or breaks a game for me.

The really slow and frustrating beginning of Garden Story really soured me on the whole experience, and likewise, the "it just keeps going" feeling permeating through the whole second half of Echoes of Wisdom has since kept me from returning to it.

While I take issue with the way some of the plot is distributed throughout 24 Killers, I don't think it's nearly as egregious as either of those examples. I would consider it to be pretty front-loaded with plot (which annoyed my friend who kept comparing it to Moon RPG), but at the same time, it's not really overeager to answer any of the many questions you may have, which I honestly enjoy. I really think stories that concern themselves too much with introducing all of their cool concepts and really expositing at you for long swathes of time are like... anti-interesting. Not merely uninteresting but the enemy of my interest. lol

My main issue was that it hit a real bottle neck for me about 2/3 of the way through the game, where I spent many days farming whispers, not accomplishing much, and unsure if there was something else I could be doing. After it passed, though, I kinda just zoomed on through to the end of the game much in the way that I zoomed through the beginning.

The first run that I did on stream with my friends took about 16 hours, which ended up being 31 in-game days. I started it in October and streamed for two hours every Monday (except 1) until the end of December. And then I immediately turned around and did a faster run to get the achievement for completing the game in less than 24 in-game days (I did it in 18 uwu (though it would've been 17 if I hadn't forgotten to water something right at the end of the game...)), which took me 10 hours over the course of 3 days.

I don't know what it is about games with calendars in them... Maybe it's because I've played too many Persona games, but I really try to engineer my days around doing as much as possible. Efficiency, baby. 24 Killers helps you track your progress by putting a star over your bed for every new event that will trigger the next day. Usually you might get between 1 and 4. I let out a little "hehehehe" one day when I went to bed and saw there were 8 stars floating around. Despite my personal gratification, I really think it's ill advised to play games in that way. When I played P3R, my stats were completely maxed out by November, so I just had nothing to do most days all the way until the end of the game. It honestly felt like I efficiencied my way into purgatory. It kind of feels, uh... bad? Haha.

By the end of my first run I had waaaay overestimated the number of whispers (the number under the green donut meter) I needed to complete the game so uh... I uh... finished with quite a lot... (I had nearly 10k, but I spent some of them...)

However, I think when you're playing 24 Killers like that, it's at its best. The second run I did was smoother. There were far fewer listless gaps in the story and gameplay. It is fundamentally one of those stories that is enhanced by a second playthrough as well.

But even beyond that, I do think the gameplay is lacking in someways... It's not a game with enough depth that I could spend a whole calendar year simply living life in it like you would in a farm sim. Most of the days are spent walking through the same handful of screens, grabbing whispers usually either by waiting for them to reveal themselves to you or by doing a mildly annoying but simple minigame of some sort (if you can even call them minigames). Gathering whispers becomes old after about the first 40 days, I think, which really meant I was kinda over it completely by halfway through my second playthrough.

I think in that way, it could probably benefit from a more robust new game plus, especially if the game is going to dangle 24 unlockable "universes" in front of you (you unlock a new one every time you beat the game).

But this brings me to my actual point. The high efficiency route through the game feels the best to play, and I have to wonder if it's because that's how the dev played it. You may have put it together from the title of this blog post, but this game was made by one person. Honestly amazing. As far as I can tell, it's the only thing they've published, and it's honestly great. But every time I pick up a game that feels to me... a little underconsidered... like someone did not watch a lot of people with diverse playstyles stumble their way through their game... my solo dev senses start tingling, and I'm usually right. In this case, it's less of a pervasive feeling but more of a "hindsight is 20/20" type thing.

I'm sure that after playing through this game 20 times because you're the dev, and you know all of the easy routes and small skips and time saves, the 24 day run of the game feels pretty good. Pretty smooth. Like butter. It's a good little game that you've made. And I do understand that you can never completely remove friction from an experience, but simply consider... a fishing minigame... for those who cannot figure out how to farm money more efficiently. (I'm joking... but like... not entirely.)

I really felt like this game just needed one more little thing to fill that gap while I was wandering through the same 6 screens, unable to advance. Maybe a fishing minigame is not always the answer, but it usually is. That's all I'm saying. lol

Anyways, that's about all I had to say about that. I really did have a lot of fun with it, and if you like kind of surreal, heady, but also laid back experiences, I'd say go pick it up!

Happy New Year!! Stay fresh!



I drew this for the year of the dragon, but I still like it so pretend that you're seeing it here for the first time.