STAY

 Switch
STAY Image
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 12 Ratings

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  • Summary: When Quinn wakes up alone in a locked room with nothing of note save for a computer hooked up to an internet chat room in which you’re present, you become his single ray of hope.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Nintenderos
    Nov 27, 2018
    78
    Appnormal's Team has created a remarkable proposal. STAY is a graphic adventure in which we will be co-protagonists breaking the fourth wall so that we can help Quinn in his escape. This video game is different from others because it manages to make us empathize with the protagonist through the conversations and will offer us a great experience.
  2. Nintendo Life
    Sep 21, 2018
    70
    STAY is a very unusual experience. Its unique approach to tracking time and using it as an influential factor on a character’s well-being makes it the kind of game you really need to try, but it’s one that comes with enough caveats that might make it less appealing to certain Switch owners. However, with some well-written dialogue, a mysterious house that keeps getting stranger and all manner of narrative paths, items, rooms and endings to unlock, there’s plenty here to warrant repeated plays. Just don’t nod off while you’re playing, or wander out of the house.
  3. NintendoWorldReport
    Oct 5, 2018
    65
    A lot of neat ideas are presented in STAY but they just don’t feel like they were implemented in an effective way. The most interesting segments get interrupted with puzzles that mostly feel like a way of extending the play time. I also ran into a few performance issues like puzzles becoming unresponsive which required a reboot and a chapter restart. I think the developer is on the right track but for this particular game some more polish and better or more relevant puzzles would have gone a long way at creating a more entertaining experience.
  4. Digitally Downloaded
    Sep 26, 2018
    50
    For its escape-room premise, Stay’s narrative is surprisingly large in scope, and despite all its shortfalls the eerie atmosphere does linger with you as you play.
  5. Switch Player
    Nov 12, 2019
    50
    Stay is a slow-burner which feels uneasy throughout with its dark and seedy-feeling online chat setup. There’s some good story to unveil here, but things are too one-way to make for a great game.

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6
  1. Cruzrock
    Sep 25, 2020
    10
    A great adventure that will keep you thinking at all times, I love it from the moment this great adventure begins, And Its Protagonist is aA great adventure that will keep you thinking at all times, I love it from the moment this great adventure begins, And Its Protagonist is a great character who you take a lot of affection for, Without a doubt one of the best I have been able to play This year… Expand
  2. itshiram
    Feb 2, 2019
    9
    This game is unique, I love the art style and the soundtrack, the way you interact with the character is great and how you can see his expressions.
  4. Vasair
    Jan 13, 2019
    8
    La verdad es un juego muy bueno, tanto en el sentido artístico y en el sentido de la manera de interactuar. Es bastante sencillo todo para queLa verdad es un juego muy bueno, tanto en el sentido artístico y en el sentido de la manera de interactuar. Es bastante sencillo todo para que se sienta todo fluido y que la narrativa siga a buen paso. Lo único malo, es que cuando haces cualquier puzzle llegas y te plantean algo que probablemente no sepas ni como funciona, ni como se usa. Al principio son los típicos puzzles sencillos, pero llegan a ser verdaderos dolores de cabeza si no quieres revisar en YouTube. No hay pistas ni nada que te ayude remotamente a completarlos, sin contar que muchas veces no si funciona un botón o no (Como en la review de abajo). Siento que son demasiado complicados los puzzles como para el tipo de juego que se concibió. No digo que no pongan puzzles, digo que les rebajen la dificultad para hacerlo más acorde al tipo de juego.
    La historia y que hayan finales alternativos les da rejugabilidad y como ya sabes como se hace todo, se disfruta muy bonito.    … Expand
  5. rhe
    Dec 31, 2018
    7
    This is an extremely interesting game that is marred only really by cryptic puzzles. The game opens with an excellent story that slowly beginsThis is an extremely interesting game that is marred only really by cryptic puzzles. The game opens with an excellent story that slowly begins to open up and interweave with multiple endings. The fact that it also tracks how long you have been away from playing the game is also a really interesting choice and it makes sense based on the situation the character is in which is really cool. However, this is one of those experiences that makes for a cool gameplay experience but it can be called a bit of a needy partner simulator.

    Then there is the most annoying aspect of the gameplay... The damn puzzles. Some of them I got with ease but then there were other weird ones which just made no sense like the minesweeper style brick wall and the chess game which literally devolved down to trial and error because the game literally does NOTHING to give you an idea of controls for specific puzzles and how the puzzles work. A few other things that also actually stood out to me were the graphics which while presented in an 8-bit style I actually really liked. Furthermore, the games music and its sound were also really excellent, with the sound having the right amount of punch and the music feeling good at reinforcing the feeling of sadness and loneliness.

    Overall, this is one of those games that is worth experiencing as a narrative experience as the stories effort to slowly unravel as the game goes on really makes you interested in coming back to a more interesting game. The game also does a very good job of introducing a really interesting gameplay element that actually makes narrative sense which is worth experiencing if you are willing to overlook the unhelpful puzzles.    … Expand
  6. emilycook
    Oct 2, 2018
    5
    I'm giving this a 5 because I do think the story is very interesting, and the art is nice. But there is one giant thing that would keep meI'm giving this a 5 because I do think the story is very interesting, and the art is nice. But there is one giant thing that would keep me from recommending this to anyone else. Almost every single puzzle is absolutely INFURIATING, which was such a let down because it was the main thing I was looking forward to. I have beaten the game, but not without heavy reliance on google and youtube. Let me be clear, the puzzles aren't difficult as in they're challenging or they make you think. They're difficult in that they give you NO direction with what to do.

    This is especially annoying on the Switch, because they give you absolutely no idea what the controls for a particular puzzle are. You have to sit there and press buttons and hope you figure everything out. As an example, there is a chess-like puzzle in the game where you not only click the pieces to rotate them, but you can also hold A and drag them. I spent a long time just trying to figure out how to rotate them the correct way and having no idea what I was supposed to do until I happened to drag a piece by chance. The puzzles took me forever not because the puzzle in itself was sooo challenging and too much for my lil brain to handle, but because I had to waste so much time figuring out what buttons to press via trial and error. The stupid Chapter 21 puzzle took me FOR.EVER. to figure out wtf the controls are.

    Reading through the Steam discussions, the difficulty of the puzzles for the PC version was a very common complaint. It seems the devs just throw the puzzles at you because "that's how Quinn is really experiencing it, there isn't an instruction manual by the puzzles lol." That's fine and all, but I'm not really Quinn solving a puzzle. I'm a person controlling his actions via a Switch controller. At least give me the controls dawg. Quinn knows he can pick up a piece and rotate it and move it, I'm not sure what me mashing random buttons adds to the immersion. I'm not asking you to tell the audience what exactly you should do with each puzzle, but "press A to rotate, hold A and move the joystick to move" would at least be nice.

    Overall very disappointed, especially because it seems the devs were aware of how frustrating the puzzles are in general for many players. Add to that the cryptic Switch controls and it completely soured my experience. Really a shame because the idea of it is really cool and I like the story, but it seems like not a lot of thought was put into the Switch port, or at least prior feedback wasn't taken into consideration as much as it should've been.

    There are a couple of side complaints I have as well. One, there's not a way to skip dialogue you've already read. This was also a common complaint brought up on Steam that doesn't seem to have been addressed. It makes the pacing of the story seem extremely slow, especially if you're wasting all your time figuring out how to even begin to solve the puzzles. :( Two, "leaving" the game during a puzzle completely restarts it. Very annoying if you're in the middle of one and god forbid you gotta take your dog out or something.    … Expand
  7. ganoncrotch
    May 4, 2021
    1
    Most of the reviews for this seem to be written by the publisher because if you check their profiles the only other games they've reviewed isMost of the reviews for this seem to be written by the publisher because if you check their profiles the only other games they've reviewed is this game on every system, but don't be fooled this is a garbage game, you have to just sit through screen after screen of terrible dialogue and about 2 times per "chapter" you get to have some say in the "action" by say I mean you either tell the character to "relax and not to worry" or you tell him some thing which makes him give you a game over then you need to sit through all the dialogue again with no ability to speed it up and yeah... it's awful, it's all awful.

    To the people who made this, that trope you do where the character does a typo and then corrects it on the following line with a * on the word... that is not something a regular person would do while they panic about being kidnapped, I don't think any rational human would correct each mistake like that with a new line, but I guess it fluffed out the run time of this trash by an extra 100 lines since it seems to happen a handful of times per chapter.    … Expand