Technical Information
Developer: betetiro
Publisher: betetiro
Release Date: March 4, 2024
In Hazy Mind, the protagonist wakes up and doesn’t remember anything… until she realizes that an unknown girl is present.
It’s a visual novel that plays with our sense of reality while mixing it with psychological horror and addressing a serious theme.
Final Considerations – Analyzing the Game as a Whole
Graphics and UI
The art is very beautiful, just like the interface. Everything is simple but designed with good choices, making the game’s aesthetic harmonious and far from the amateur look that many indie visual novels have.
I loved the use of parallax and character movement in some scenes, as it gives a sense of interactivity (something that isn’t usually expected from visual novels).
Soundtrack and Sound Effects
In my opinion, this is the weakest point of the game. Not because it was poorly made, but because the overall volume wasn’t well balanced. Everything is very quiet, but at certain moments the music suddenly gets louder.
When the text is being displayed, a sound plays along with it, but I only managed to notice it during one specific moment when the music became really calm and quiet.
The game contains voice acting, but it presents the same balancing issue. I hope this will be resolved in the future, as it’s just a matter of adjustment.
Gameplay
In this game, the protagonist wakes up and realizes she has lost her memory. The narrative focuses on what is real and what isn’t.
Gradually (based on your choices), the story unfolds and becomes clearer.
Even while addressing sensitive themes like suicide and mental disorders, the goal here is to give the player a glimpse of how someone in those conditions might feel, encouraging reflection through dialogue. I found it very interesting how these messages were presented, and I believe it can serve as a helping hand for people going through similar situations.
The game has different endings and several save slots for you to explore your decisions. To make things even easier, you can skip text that has already been read (just hold down the CTRL key).
Unfortunately, it does not support controllers.
If you enjoyed Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk (and its successor), you’ll definitely enjoy this game! The vibe is very similar.
This type of game makes me really happy because it’s an indie project made with Ren’Py, and it proves that it’s fully possible to create a simple but well-made game.
Replayability and Game Retention
I finished the first ending after about an hour of playing. To see the others, I used the dialogue acceleration feature. It worked great. I don’t know if I would have had the patience to try all the dialogue choices without that option.
It’s a short game, but the experience was very interesting. I think it’s worth replaying, even years later.
