▼ Not recommended
5 hrs
FAILED TO RE-CAPTURE LIGHTNING IN THE BOTTLE
First, I have to mention that I really want to like this game, I really do. However, in good consciences, I cannot recommend the game to anyone out of concern for lowering Vietnamese gaming standards. While I played and very much enjoyed the first game by the developer "Phở Anh Hai (Brother Hai's Pho Restaurant)", this game failed to re-capture the mundane yet charming gameplay and atmosphere that made its predecessor much beloved. Though many may say that I am taking a "meme game" too seriously, I must insist on reviewing this game as an commercial product from the emerging Vietnamese gaming market.
THE PROS:
- The environment is beautifully modelled, it improved much from the original and I can see the love from the developers for this place.
- It authentically capture Vietnamese street and academic life, giving you a good impression of how average Vietnamese live. I appreciate the effort of the dev to highlight Vietnamese cuisine through its eating mechanics.
- Some of the inside jokes I still find funny; while most no longer hit the same, I can appreciate the effort from the developer for featuring Vietnamese contemporary Internet humor to the global audience.
THE CONS (Hold on your pants, there is a lot):
- The gameplay barely improved from the original. Though I acknowledge the original game features similar simple gameplay, I think it was a major missed opportunity for not making the cooking and preparing a bit more complex so players can put in effort while navigating the story. It stays the same old "Prepare order that almost can never go wrong - Catch Cậu Vàng (the dog) if he get out" that become very predictable very fast, you can even predict when the dev will make the dog get out.
- A lot of pointless mechanics was introduced. Drawing, chess and gold digging minigamges are fun but there is little reason to do them beside earning "Điểm rèn luyện (Training Points)" for eating (arguably another pointless mechanics). Though I appreciate minigames (as a Yakuza series fan), these mechanics serve no purpose in the story and make you question whether the effort for making them could have been invested elsewhere to improve the core gameplay and story.
- The characters are plain. At some point, you may realize the game is just one big glorified place for cameo of Vietnamese Internet personalities while original characters who are important to the story (somewhat) like Lớp trưởng (Class Representative) or Thủ khoa (Mr. Top Scorer) feel very lackluster. Nevertheless, both suffer from a lack of characterization and involvement with the broader story. It somehow feel like the game has too many and too few characters at the same time.
- The school setting literally serve no purpose, you can literally set it anywhere and the story will not be drastically change. The campus has no reason to exist unless you want to see some gags and minigames, none of the story plots will be of any relevant in the school.
- A lot of reused jokes (e.g. dog theft, Manchester United obnoxious fans, etc.) that failed to evolve from the original, making it feel lazy and unimaginative. Some of the jokes even feel like virtue signaling that border cringe territories (I know the original has a lot of cringe toilet humor but at least then, it was executed well enough to remain funny).
- Despite its claim to be a horror game, the game has next to no horror moments. The only one is literally a jump scare near the end and... that's it. No mysterious stalker, no "spot it or you miss it", or any supernatural moments. The game leans way too much into comedy and forgot its horror promise.
- The story (alongside characters, are arguably what made the original so beloved) is just... bad. It becomes very predictable early on what the twist is; yet, the game somehow still manage to create disappointment in how the storytelling is executed and concluded. If you already read this far, be warn that I will now feature SPOILERS.
STORY SPOILERS AND CRITICISM:
- YOU CAN LITERALLY SKIP DAY 1 TO DAY 3 AND THE STORY WILL NOT CHANGE. The daytime conversations built up this mystery surrounding the original Đan Phượng crime syndicates and the scam ring occurring at the school but it essentially boiled down to nothing. The game even has a big exposition at the end just to explain everything and a lot of the story threads go unresolved (e.g. What happened to the Class Representative's cousin? How does the dead body in the Duy Tân river play into the mystery?), it feels like either the dev forget to resolve their own plot points or the storytelling is so bad, you cannot find all the answers you need.
- THE MAIN CHARACTER IS LITERALLY REPLACED AT THE END. I know we all love Brother Hai from the original game but was it that necessary to be forced back into his shoes for a "epic final fight" (which I must say, is also just bad due to the rudimentary combat mechanics and poor optimization creating a horrid experience). It really make the main character so much of a pointless feature that I would not be as mad if the game somehow pull another "The MC is actually Brother Hai/undercover police" twist.
- The story made the MC a big deal, being the mysterious "Kép Tòng" (one of the Boss' right-hand men) and the son of the Boss, but it means literally nothing as they were casted out of the story at the end and had no agency in the plot. Though the game hint at his mysterious background, his interaction with others lean too much toward empty talks that you cannot tell if the background is relevant to the plot at all until the very end.
First, I have to mention that I really want to like this game, I really do. However, in good consciences, I cannot recommend the game to anyone out of concern for lowering Vietnamese gaming standards. While I played and very much enjoyed the first game by the developer "Phở Anh Hai (Brother Hai's Pho Restaurant)", this game failed to re-capture the mundane yet charming gameplay and atmosphere that made its predecessor much beloved. Though many may say that I am taking a "meme game" too seriously, I must insist on reviewing this game as an commercial product from the emerging Vietnamese gaming market.
THE PROS:
- The environment is beautifully modelled, it improved much from the original and I can see the love from the developers for this place.
- It authentically capture Vietnamese street and academic life, giving you a good impression of how average Vietnamese live. I appreciate the effort of the dev to highlight Vietnamese cuisine through its eating mechanics.
- Some of the inside jokes I still find funny; while most no longer hit the same, I can appreciate the effort from the developer for featuring Vietnamese contemporary Internet humor to the global audience.
THE CONS (Hold on your pants, there is a lot):
- The gameplay barely improved from the original. Though I acknowledge the original game features similar simple gameplay, I think it was a major missed opportunity for not making the cooking and preparing a bit more complex so players can put in effort while navigating the story. It stays the same old "Prepare order that almost can never go wrong - Catch Cậu Vàng (the dog) if he get out" that become very predictable very fast, you can even predict when the dev will make the dog get out.
- A lot of pointless mechanics was introduced. Drawing, chess and gold digging minigamges are fun but there is little reason to do them beside earning "Điểm rèn luyện (Training Points)" for eating (arguably another pointless mechanics). Though I appreciate minigames (as a Yakuza series fan), these mechanics serve no purpose in the story and make you question whether the effort for making them could have been invested elsewhere to improve the core gameplay and story.
- The characters are plain. At some point, you may realize the game is just one big glorified place for cameo of Vietnamese Internet personalities while original characters who are important to the story (somewhat) like Lớp trưởng (Class Representative) or Thủ khoa (Mr. Top Scorer) feel very lackluster. Nevertheless, both suffer from a lack of characterization and involvement with the broader story. It somehow feel like the game has too many and too few characters at the same time.
- The school setting literally serve no purpose, you can literally set it anywhere and the story will not be drastically change. The campus has no reason to exist unless you want to see some gags and minigames, none of the story plots will be of any relevant in the school.
- A lot of reused jokes (e.g. dog theft, Manchester United obnoxious fans, etc.) that failed to evolve from the original, making it feel lazy and unimaginative. Some of the jokes even feel like virtue signaling that border cringe territories (I know the original has a lot of cringe toilet humor but at least then, it was executed well enough to remain funny).
- Despite its claim to be a horror game, the game has next to no horror moments. The only one is literally a jump scare near the end and... that's it. No mysterious stalker, no "spot it or you miss it", or any supernatural moments. The game leans way too much into comedy and forgot its horror promise.
- The story (alongside characters, are arguably what made the original so beloved) is just... bad. It becomes very predictable early on what the twist is; yet, the game somehow still manage to create disappointment in how the storytelling is executed and concluded. If you already read this far, be warn that I will now feature SPOILERS.
STORY SPOILERS AND CRITICISM:
- YOU CAN LITERALLY SKIP DAY 1 TO DAY 3 AND THE STORY WILL NOT CHANGE. The daytime conversations built up this mystery surrounding the original Đan Phượng crime syndicates and the scam ring occurring at the school but it essentially boiled down to nothing. The game even has a big exposition at the end just to explain everything and a lot of the story threads go unresolved (e.g. What happened to the Class Representative's cousin? How does the dead body in the Duy Tân river play into the mystery?), it feels like either the dev forget to resolve their own plot points or the storytelling is so bad, you cannot find all the answers you need.
- THE MAIN CHARACTER IS LITERALLY REPLACED AT THE END. I know we all love Brother Hai from the original game but was it that necessary to be forced back into his shoes for a "epic final fight" (which I must say, is also just bad due to the rudimentary combat mechanics and poor optimization creating a horrid experience). It really make the main character so much of a pointless feature that I would not be as mad if the game somehow pull another "The MC is actually Brother Hai/undercover police" twist.
- The story made the MC a big deal, being the mysterious "Kép Tòng" (one of the Boss' right-hand men) and the son of the Boss, but it means literally nothing as they were casted out of the story at the end and had no agency in the plot. Though the game hint at his mysterious background, his interaction with others lean too much toward empty talks that you cannot tell if the background is relevant to the plot at all until the very end.
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