A friend of mine messaged me at about 4:30 this morning raving about this game. Basically, it is an RPG on Steam where you play through the story trying to survive encounters with monsters without killing them. You still have the option to kill them, which in turn will make you stronger just as in any other RPG, but doing so defeats the real purpose of the game, and leads to the bad ending. Every monster has a unique way you can interact with it to try and reason it down to becoming less aggressive. The bosses in the game amount to really powerful monsters who are adamantly trying to kill you but you somehow end up being really good friends with instead if you manage not to kill them in the process.
I know that sounds really strange, but it's also extremely relevant somehow. I'm only about two hours into the game and I absolutely love it. Everything is set up to feel 8-bit and retro, including the soundtrack, which is also amazing. The story so far is filled with feels-- like some of the deepest **** I've seen or read in a very long time while at the same time maintaining a very high level of intense goofiness. The humor is very light-hearted and well done, appearing whenever it is appropriate.
The characters all have a way of attaching themselves to people you know and are just instantly memorable in a way that is strangely profound for the likes of 8-bit sprites, who feel every bit as animated and alive any game characters done with today's technology.
I have to stress that I have all of this to say and I'm barely a fifth of the way through the game from what I understand the game's estimated duration to be (about 13 hours I've been told.) I am playing through it without any sort of guide and I have no idea what to expect next and it is simply a brilliant and fun game that I likely won't stop playing until it's done. Anyway, here is the trailer that should have been a lot better: