this review contains spoilers, so please avoid this if you want to do it blindly

that was weird

i first found out on this project while browsing through a discord server and saw a lil piece of fan art on it, it got me a lil curious to what it holds, and low-key it was preetty cool

to put it in a little more detail, this arg knows how to make stuff hit for the viewer, or the "happy artist" is what the mascots refer to the viewer as. the cast is pretty lovable and all have distinctive looks that makes them shine more than the rest. not one mascot is the same, or completely forgettable. it sort of made me feel pity towards them once i have seen everything of what it brings to the table here.

and not to mention the horror stuff that is in a layer of itself. they all hit as well, and creepy too. sure, some of them are a little cliche and doesn't bring much of an impact to me because of the subtle foreshadowings mixed together, but man it does bring me that "fight or flight" mode that i never seen done in an analog horror arg ever. the videos and the soundbits themselves make for a wild trip, even if corny at times.

one thing worth noting despite the positives i gave is the fact that some characters don't really match what they look. some characters, like gwen, kazu, and bruce don't really seem like "rivals" and more of just filler. i guess i can slide that off as being okay, i mean the designs are really cool and fit the tone of the rivals category, but the personalities of those characters just doesn't hit or line up well with the more energetic characters. gwen especially doesn't feel like the exact opposite of theo that much. i guess i'm just nitpicking, but there is a lot of lost potential on those characters really..

another thing that this arg falters on are the puzzles themselves, the words to open the art rooms in the facility. there are some clues given to the viewer, but once you got the paper... that's it. you just have to find out on your own or have some walkthrough to help you. i sincerely think that this is hard to do, and especially when you are given so little information on them. the paper doesn't give you anything except just what you had already witnessed from all of the clues given. i wished it was a lil bit more easy to go through actually and put all of the pieces together.

don't take it from me though, i still haven't finished the entirety of it all yet, and haven't gotten the answers to get into the art rooms because my brain is puny, so don't go hating on me please.

overall, happy artists is one that i think is a really decent approach at a production company going wrong, and this is what's left of it. the scares actually do scare, the characters look cute, and the story overall is great, despite its many flaws.

i'm feeling a 7.5/10

writing this down so that i can bookmark it in this website. this work is literally underappreciated, however i do wish that this website has mobile support. i can understand if it's supposed to be like that, but still. would love to see it expanded upon