I first saw Usual June on the last E3. I was already interested in it, after seeing that trailer alone, partly because I really liked the art style. Having supernatural themes and mystery definitely doesn’t hurt! So, when I saw there was a demo, I jumped on the chance to try it out.

Usual June needs more time

The demo drops the player into a strange place. It’s part way through the game. June has been following a ghost named Teddy to a place that the local kids don’t go near due to the rumours that it’s haunted. Considering June followed a ghost there, I’d say that the rumours are true this time around. It starts off with June and her friend exploring the confirmed haunted building for clues. I’m not sure what the clues were for as the game doesn’t really explain this. As I said, it just kind of drops the player in there.
After some exploration and chatting to the ghost Teddy, June follows Teddy upstairs to activate the machine that will allow Teddy to go home. This end up opening a rift that June and Teddy are dragged into, and this is where the action-adventure part of the game kicks in.
Now, I feel like I need to mention that the frame rate became very unstable in this area. It was so strange because it had been smooth as butter before that. It didn’t help that June was now running instead of walking everywhere. Following Teddy through an alien landscape, June learns of someone called Ravenhurst who has apparently done some horrible stuff. It introduces combat clumsily with no tutorial leaving me to just try the good ol’ “try every button and see what it does” technique. For those wondering, X does a light attack. Y does a heavy attack. A is dodge. LB and RB allows the player to cycle through projectiles while RT throws or deploys them.
The art style was what initially drew me to Usual June and it does have style in spades. I definitely enjoyed the aesthetic, which makes it even more of a pity that there were other things that didn’t quite gel with me. First the dialogue sounds took a while to get used to. It sounded a bit like a person talking backwards and my brain kept trying to decipher it. This went away with time thank goodness, but a new problem popped up. When doing puzzles during the investigation/exploration section, June needs to focus on things to interact with them. This leads to the camera zooming in on the item, often at awkward angles. This was a minor issue that only happened under certain circumstances, so it wasn’t the end of the world.
I was forced to stop playing after being in the action area for a while as the unstable frame rate was giving me sim sickness. It was also annoying me that for a 3rd person action-adventure game there was no lock on button. This is 2024. You need a lock on to help keep the camera steady. What’s the point of having a dodge when half the time, you can’t see the thing you’re supposed to be dodging?
As this was a Pre-alpha demo, I’m hoping that it all ends up being sorted by the time it releases because it seems like the story is going to be interesting. It just sucked that they dropped players in, gave no tutorial and have it missing essential things like a lock on button. It’s supposed to release next year, so fingers crossed.