STAY

I wanted so bad to like this game because of its unique psychological concept. And look I like headscratching puzzles as much as teh next guy but this is ridiculous. the 1st half of this game is easy and fine w/ the dialougue being a bit rambly & crazy which to its credit fits teh theme and I apprecaite the pop culture references o movies, shows & books both old & new. puzzl wise for teh 1st half the only tricky puzzle is teh bookshelf which is 1 that can makes sense if you examine it every puzzle after the "peacock wall" needs hints, an ACTUAL explanation of how to do it or something cause most dont make sense. The chess & color wheels one are solvable. but the TV puzzle=mostly hard, the peacock wall=mindless clicking til you eventually stumble into the right answer as they try to mimic minesweeper, the map puzzle=even when you look up a walkthrough and do it it still gives you a hard time for some reason needed to have a skip button.
and the mirror maze which Im currently stuck on=randomly generated maze thats different each time and even mapping it out on paper makes NO sense

I really wanted to like this game, and I'm sticking with it in case it somehow turns around in the end - but it isn't as fun as I'd hoped it would be. It's a good concept, the art is decent, but I have to agree with another review that Quinn is really not likable. I think part of it is the dropping of many types of references with regularity, which doesn't add to a suspenseful atmosphere but takes away from it. Supposedly Quinn is very anxious and yet he can be quite verbose and predisposed to some kind of showmanship in his way of talking. I also don't care much for the judgement calls at the end of chapters, they aren't fun, just kind of presumptive. I liked some of the puzzles, like the spinning circle one with moons but others I struggled with because the objective wasn't intuitive nor clear. I will say you get your money's worth as far as length of gameplay.

Overall, an enjoyable puzzle-adventure semi-visual novel kind of game where you're guiding an abducted person through a dangerous house. You communicate with Quinn via computer (and later phone) to provide advice for getting through the current obstacles and well as encouragement (or less encouraging comments). Bad advice might get Quinn killed or cause him to give up, or it might leave him with a less hopeful outcome at the end. As well, the game tracks time away once a playthrough starts which may have Quinn comment on long absences or give up (or when I took weeks off I came back to a skeleton). The pixel art and music are quite good (there's not many tracks so the music might get a bit repetitive).

My biggest criticism is that when going for the alternate endings the criteria for reaching them aren't clear and the game doesn't offer a flowchart or advice for how choices impact Quinn to reach a specific ending. As well, depending on how much Quinn trusts you they may question your advice or refuse to follow it in a few instances. This can lead to a frustrating time trying to figure out how to reach a specific ending - if this were improved then repeat plays to seeing the other endings would be more enjoyable.

This game may start out seeming like it might be a compelling, fun mystery. But what an actual waste of time it soon turns out to be. The writing is very mixed and the guy we're trying to save and feel sympathy for often comes across as an insufferable edgelord. The crowning glory however, is the addition of ridiculous puzzles that are way too cryptic and don't communicate anything to the player.
Trying to get any real enjoyment out of this game is nothing more than an exercise in futility

It's not that I disliked this game. On the whole, I really enjoyed it! I'm a huge fan of games like this, especially the Dangan Ronpa and Zero Escape series, and any game where "you" as a player are involved is likely to catch my attention.

However, I have a couple of bones to pick with this game. Firstly, that mirror maze puzzle in chapter 19 was insufferable. I had to guess my way through it even with the help of the filled dots that told you how close you were getting to the exit. Even if the game had a mini map to help you keep track of where you'd been, like in Mystery Dungeon games, that would have made it a bit less of a nightmare! The ruler/map puzzle was also very infuriating.

Secondly, the dialogue choices. I found myself getting frustrated when I made a choice that seemed sensible but it made Quinn mad with me anyway, especially when that led me directly into a dead end. It seemed like he was being contrary just to be contrary at some points.

However, the pixel art style, the bond/trust mechanic, the soundtrack, and the overall idea were great. I just wish that some of the puzzles and the STAY mechanic were a little more forgiving! So overall, I couldn't say I'd outright recommend this game. BUT if you have the patience and enjoy difficult puzzles, it may just be worthwhile for you.

1) Atmosphere doesn't hold you
2) Conversations are useless and silly
3) Moving forward with abstract puzzles that have no relations to the plot also feels out of place

better invest in some other quests

While I haven't fully completed the game, I've played it long enough to venture an opinion. I purchased the game because I was intrigued by the concept of helping a stranger with escaping from his situation; however, I don't find the character likable at all. Also a lot of the puzzles don't make sense because clues are not given. Here's an example: You find yourself dealing with a wall made out of bricks and there's a peacock strutting on the wall. Clues on what to do are completely absent. A lot of the puzzles are like that. It's also not cool to get mocked when you stop playing the game for a few days. You come back and the protagonist throws a fit and ends your friendship...

All in all, I would not recommend this game and I wish I had asked for a refund prior to playing it for more than 5 hours. 1 out of 5 stars...

A lot of the puzzles make no sense and don't even give you a hint, which is SUPER frustrating as you can get stuck on one puzzle for hours. The deal breaker for me was in chapter 22, you are giving the main character advice in a tense situation and it is insta-kill after insta-kill without so much as a warning. But it gets worse: then it reloads at the *beginning* of the chapter. I went through the beginning of chapter 22 six times to get back to this advice-giving part, and if I said one thing wrong (and again it gives you no hints as to what is right or wrong, so you have to just keep trying different combinations of lines), boom insta-kill. At that point, I said f this.

If you have absolutely all the time in the world and enjoy dying randomly with no rhyme or reason as to why, then go ahead and buy this game. If you are a normal person that is not clairvoyant, save your money as this game will just aggravate you.

This game has totally tied me up. The first time I played STAY, I was a little bit confused about the story. But I felt with Quinn. Sometimes I got crazy about him. Didn't understand why he is so down. But the longer I played the game the more I wanted to help Quinn getting out of the house.

The puzzles where not that hard besides the wall puzzle and the mirror maze. Yes the wall puzzle drives me crazy but that's how puzzles should like. I don't get it why poeple write bad reviews because of this.

I am very grateful to Appnormal's team for this game! I'll play it till I got all ends! <3

STAY is a roller coaster of emotions and probably the most intense chat i've ever had in my life. The old-school graphics, sound and narrative makes you feel immersed in to the thriller atmosphere of the game.
It's up to you to help the character, who wakes up alone in a house full of traps escape and at the same time you have to establish a relantionship of trust and bonding with him.
The writing is brilliant and inteligent throughout the entire game, The casual conversation with the character is deep and lots of times very funny and sarcastic, with lots of cinema, literature, mythology and history references which makes the story even more intriguing. I like the way sensible subjects, like menthal health, depression, loneliness, human connections and suicide are approached in STAY.
The puzzles are complex and tricky and sometimes you feel frustrated, but i found out to be the kind of challenges that tests my limits and imagination in the way i like, because you dont have the answers on a plate and when completed you have an amazing feeling of adrenaline and satisfaction.
I was hooked for hours playing this story full of surprises. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes storys that makes you feel apart of the narrative and challenges your brain.

One of the few reviews I've ever written.

The beginning of this game is amazing, and unlike a few people on here, I actually like Quinn. Being in the seemingly hopeless situation that he is in, wouldn't you be depressed and anxious as well?

Anyway, I'll break this game down into a few categories:

1) Story: 4/5

Story itself seems interesting enough. There are about 20ish chapters in the game, and I'm up to chapter 18. You are basically helping Quinn escape a rundown house by finding clues along the way and gaining his trust to do so. Losing that trust of course has consequences (as witnessed by the bad endings. That "Violent" tag really carries here).

2) Choice Mechanic: 3/5

This is where I started having my doubts about the game. Some of the choices you make through interaction with Quinn made since to me (being careful before you go down a dark hallway, etc.) and some others made NO SENSE AT ALL. It almost seemed like the game punishes you for being careful and doing the right thing. Quinn at times doesn't seem to understand that we are trying to help him! So frustrating.

Oh yeah, another mechanic in this game refers to the title itself: "STAY". Basically means that when you leave the game, you are leaving Quinn himself. Leave for a long time, and he loses all faith in you and wants nothing to do with you. I get this mechanic, but it's annoying for people like myself who don't have much free time with work, responsibilites etc. (Although i am typing this long review out...oops). Moving on.

3) Puzzles: 1.5/5

Oh boy, so many things to say on this one. Some of the puzzles you have to do which aid in Quinn's escape include things like breaking down a wall by choosing specific bricks, moving chess pieces to correct spaces on a board, you get the idea.

Let's talk about puzzles in general. I personally think that you should be able to have ALL the clues available to solve the puzzle in the game itself, wouldn't you? Well no, not here. You literally have to Google search some of the puzzles in order to figure them out. One example is that if you are not multi-lingual (like at least 4 languages), you will NOT be able to figure out one of the puzzles on your own. I'm dead serious. That is absolutely horrible game design and is my main issue with this game. If you have to Google search the game's puzzles, then what is the point of playing the puzzles at all??

Some of the puzzles are indeed great and were lots of fun to solve. It's just a shame that my experience was ruined by the awful puzzles that i had to do as well.

4) Overall Assessment: 3/5

I'll mention some other stuff here: Soundtrack is great, art style is fantastic, Quinn's a good character, and I don't regret playing this game.

STAY is a game that can be improved, maybe even have a remake with better puzzles and better choice design. The potential is there, and I am still grateful to the developers for the experience. However, the way the game is now, i cannot recommend this to anyone who wants a good adventure/puzzle experience.

STAY gave me an experience no other game had given me before.
The connection with the character, the acknowledgement of time away from the game, the relationship that you, the player, create with the game because of all of this.

The story made me wonder, made me try to understand. The puzzles were challenging, not easy but rewarding.

I wish more games tried to make games like STAY has.


And that is why I recommend STAY.

I don't leave reviews often, but this game got to me on a personal level. Being someone that is farily isolated, I felt like the storyline in this game hit all the nails on the head. The execution was excellent, although the puzzles were a bit odd at times (it would be nice to have a clue as to what to do sometimes). If you've ever experienced depression or anxiety, this game will feel way too personal to you, but you'll feel truly understood. Well done. <3

At stay you begin with Quinn reaching to a PC and starting a converstation with you, all our choices there matter( even thought i think the majority of them were critical for the plot), the conversation at first is awkard, we dont get to know a lot of things about Quinn until we share a bond and he trusts us ( which is logical and happens in real life ).
This game is not happy , you will probably feel sad, a small emotional breakdown and empathy for the main protagonist, but i assure you, it will be worth it.
Its duration is <=7hours , i did finish it in 7 hours but 3 of them must be on 2 puzzles...
The puzzles (which is the main activity you will be put through) are so damn SMART, but HARD..VERY HARD
They use in a brilliant way latin numbers and words in general i loved it, also in one puzzle there is a similiar game with chess(an indian one, amazing and very smart the way they used a dead game), in addition you should have a papper and a pencil and be good with directions (no more spoilers).
The music on the other hand is one the same level as our protagonist, sad and melancholic and relaxing at some points.
There are more than one endings.
I reccomend getting this game on a sale ( even thought 12euros is not a bad price for an indie game with more than 6hours gameplay)

Quinn is such an unlikeable idiot. spoiler alert or w/e

>Wtf i am trapped help me man I'm freaking out
>Let's talk about philosophy for an hour when my time is running out xDDD
>"bro, you need to focus"
>[TRUST LEVEL LOST]
>Hey, I've found a book
>"ok, open it."
>no, it's not just a book. Books are dangerous you know.
>[TRUST LEVEL LOST]
>Hey, we're in a mangled kitchen now
>"I think you should arm yourself in case of an attacker"
>no
>[TRUST LEVEL LOST]

Like what am I supposed to do to help? Just be a mindless yesman sympathizing with this moron while he is in a dire situation???

Sunk almost five hours into this game without blinking and usually my attention span is three games of Rocket League.

This ingame chat you have with this rnadom dude feels really robotic.
*random

Like that; it keeps repeating over and over evry 30 seconds or so.
*every

It has really gotten on my nevres!
*nerves

I have a love for this game, i really do. the puzzles are crazy hard but intriuging and really require you to work for the answers....

however....//SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!///




i am livid about the randoizing of the maze. I loved how extensive it was discovering it the first time, but it was long and stress full but it was something i was happy to acheive and be done with. But thats the thing, i solved it once, i shouldn't have to solve and struggle through it multiple time (at least up to 6 times???) to get to enjoy and figure out the other pieces of the story. I'm so no happy right now, and quite honestly that and that alone KILLS the replay value for me. I could even deal with the pain in the butt picture pieceing i had to do several times over just to get back to that one chance click fight when i made a wrong choice. Srsly i probably wont touch this game again and that upsets me becasue its really great besides that, so i hope the developers can make the maze one solid venture each time through, just like the rest of the puzzles other wise im going to have to keep my review as a thumb down. There is enjoyable hard, then there is insufferable hard for no reason.

I feel like I went into this game expecting the wrong thing. Rather than getting an atmospheric and intriguing P+C adventure tale that was dubbed elsewhere as something like a "Saw escape adventure", you get what's essentially a very limited VN with puzzles and multiple path choices, the weight of which seem a little arbitrary, and if not arbitrary, at the very least baffling.

The puzzles aren't all that original, though they're fiendishly unfriendly as the game goes on. I don't have much of an issue with them, though. My main turn off was the rather ploddy storyline, and a rather stupid "plays offline" mechanic.

I don't want to batter the dev here too much. The story is a genuine take on mental health and psychology. But it's hard to believe that a dozen or so text exchanges per chapter with an AI can be so mind numbingly dull and frustrating. In some ways I have to wonder if that was the writer's intent; that the player almost feels compelled to give up on Quinn every time he feels the need to correct a typo, quote from ancient texts and indulge in his self awareness. Thing is, this is foremost a game, and I had honestly lost the will to live at various points in the game, and the last straw came with the silly "consequence" to leaving the game for too long.

The game could also do with some serious explanations to its mechanics. It's never really made clear what the stats related to Quinn mean and how they affect choices. The four coloured "emotion values" seem like a neat idea, but I have no notion what they do, how they change, and if they have any importance at all. I honestly suspect they don't, but I suppose I lost interest long before then.

Not normally one for reviews, as English isn't my natural language but I felt it's much needed to do this because it's new game and if it wasn't for random Steam store browsing I wouldn't know about it.

In short, I do really recommend the game.

In long, on the day I bought it, I played almost all way to the end (only had to go to bed when I got stuck on last puzzle) -- I felt it was really neat to be able to bond with Quinn, and that you are actually working together with him to help him to try calm down, and escape the misfortune situlation he's in. The fact the game is also in real-time, even if you're away from the game it will still "play out" and when you come back, Quinn actually reacts to that and I thought it was really neat touch.

I was worried that it might be too strict if you happen to lead Quinn to death, but thankfully you can just re-try the said chapter without having to start over again, so I didn't feel too stressed about picking fatal choices (but at same time I still take my time doing choices, just I don't feel "stiff scared" to do it if that makes sense...)

The pixel graphics are really good, I mean I migth be biased but in this game some of scenes look really amazing and I think it works very well with the game.

The only few problems I had with the game is that:
- Some of the puzzles are hard, and I feel I had to look up outside of game to figure what I need to do for the puzzle. Some of them I don't really get why it's *that* answer. There's one puzzle I felt that relies too much on trail and error just to get through.
- I think the game could do with checkpoints before/after you finish the puzzle. Especially if Quinn die you'd have to re-do the puzzle.
- Silimiar to above, there's no way to advance through the text quickly. Ideally it's best to go to settings and turn the text speed to fast to remedy this, but I do feel it could do with advance through text.

It didn't really ruin the game for me though, I'm planning to play through the game few times so I'll have to see if the choices does actually differ the playthroughs but even if not, these choices wasn't really that easy and clear. I actually had to think about choices I'm going to make, which I do like.

Also as deaf gamer I will have to say thank you to developers for making it playable for deaf/hard of hearing players, and that none of puzzles requires audio. I was able to follow the story really well and I didn't feel my progrress was stopped because I couldn't hear. I had to say that, because it's really important to me in story-driven game with puzzles involved.

Well worth a playthrough or two if you've got money to spare and want to play something different.

A great idea which could have lead to several great experiences, but gets so frustrating and annoying. The start of the game it feelt awesome the art of the game is truly amazing i have to give them that. But the more you play you realize you are just babysitting an edgy and depressed adult which makes most of the time no sense whatso ever. Most of the puzzles are extremly poorly done, that gives you almost no clue on how to complete them. So unless you want to guess for litterally hours (or find a guide) then skip this game. Some of the puzzles that made sense was really great though and fun to complete. But the worst part of this game, is having to redo the chapters HOLY GOD. If you make a wrong decision that kills the main character you have to start the whole chapter over which sometimes lead to you having to do the entire puzzle over again. Or wait and listen to the dialouge which can several minutes until you get to the point where you took the wrong decision. If you have alot of patience, and love extreme puzzles then sure go for it. Or else then skip this, its more frustrating to play then anything else

It's been awhile since i've written a review and its also been awhile since I've actually enjoyed a story-driven game as I find them really hard to get into. This review contains a few spoilers.

This game, wow this game aha...unique
Its really good! You're incharge of helping Quinn a depressed and anxious therapist who's been kidnapped and trapped in desperate need of help, your required to find him salvation and keep him sane, where every second counts.. Literally!

STAY plays out in real-time, meaning that every minute spent away from the game is a minute Quinn is left alone. Drop out of conversations or leave Quinn to fend for himself for too long and there may be consequences. I closed my game and went to bed, came back 12 hours later and there was Quinn, depressed and anxious about where I went and why I left him alone for so long. It actually makes me feel empathy for closing the game! Every little thing I say to Quinn makes a difference and once your bond and trust grows he will listen to you. Quinn is on edge, and so every response matters. Your trust between eachother can make him share his findings and deepest thoughts. Fail, and his emotions may work against you. But you must be careful because you can lead him into his death.

For example

I managed to get him on the roof of the house where he's anxious because he can't see anything. Quinn I say, don't worry about it! This can be your once chance of freedom and dont look back! Getting his motivation and hopes up he thanks me for everything, for keeping him sane and not letting him hurt himself.. "I'll talk to you when I get out of here. I owe you my life, bye" I smile! I saved Quinn!.. Right? No! He's falling, He didn't see the traphole, he's falling! (I literally screamed NO! when this happened as it was the first time I got him in a bad situation that got him killed...) oh god what have I done..I just made him so happy and confident he found his passage out but really I got him killed.
Anyways its just, this game brings many feelings that actually make you feel like this man, Quinn who's trapped and needs your help is relying on you, even when your not there talking to him, he's waiting staring at that screen hoping, just hoping you reply again.

The artstyle in this game is phenominal, normally im iffy when it comes to playing pixelated games. Not because they're "bad graphics" or anything, its more of just preference and the feel. But many times this game shows players how beautiful it is when coming across items or the little cutscenes coming across new things/puzzles.
24 chapters, seven endings and dozens of replayability trying to see what you can do with Quinn, how the different ways you can drive him to end his own life..

The puzzles arn't too crazy, I'm about half way through the game and I've only been stuck once on chapter 11. But the community was great and helped me along.

Hope this helps you decide you want this game! Its only 10 dollars and shit.. I've already enjoyed it more than triple A $80 games.