Posted on: February 21, 2015

enrahim

Games: 732 Reviews: 1

Unikely well told story!

I have played computer games for more than 20 years, and one of the things I really enjoy is when I stumble upon something with a good story, or something that genuinely feel fresh. This strikes both chords. While the longest journey may be epic, Kingdom Hearts may be nostalgic and heart warming and monkey island is funny this game go for a completely different aproach. This game makes rather classical movie titles like "butterfly effect", "big fish" and even "Forest Gump" come to mind. These stories are thought provoking, providing perspective, and is more about the "feel" than a logical plot. I can't think of any game that I have played with similarily high ambitions that has succeded telling such a story to the same extent. Myst can be argued, but are much more slow-paced with less content; I have not completed bioshock but my impression is that gameplay quickly "steal" much of the focus there compared to here. This game tries to balance and aply the effects of exploration slowing down phase to allow time to saviour the different story-elements, and providing immersion enhancing interactivity (also called gameplay-elements). It can be argued that to find the perfect balance here for everyone is impossible, but no matter I think they have managed to come much closer to a "perfect blend" than any other game I have experienced with similar ambitions story-wise. In short I am extremely happy to have gotten the chance to experience this wonderfull game, and it is highly recomended to anyone that enjoy a deep story playing on an emotional level. It might not have the most creative plot nor the best gameplay, but it doesn't try to either. So I really think this is best played with a non-critical and patient mindset. As a sidenote. Was so lucky as to play this with my girlfriend, and she had the following exelent idea: I voiced the male characters and she voiced the female characters. For us this further added to the value of the game.

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Posted on: June 13, 2017

Infinipede

Games: 53 Reviews: 1

I opened myself up and you used me, game

This is a game worth playing. Is it good? ehh. but it's really divisive and I think you should come to your own conclusions. I'm not a person who'll deride a game for lack of gameplay, as someone who love VNs and gameplay-lite RPG Maker works. The gameplay is fine, if a bit obtuse at times - I find it tries to overcomplicate what should be a simple interactive story. There are some things about the way they used the engine I did like, the use of lighting effects to convey mood is spectacular, and the tiles are also good in that regard. The story, though - honestly, I love the concept and much of the early plot, but there's a point whereupon it starts to go downhill HARD. The game can be really emotional but also really manipulative, as others have said, and I'm not always adverse to that if the rest of it feels earned, but there's so much! At the end I felt used; I couldn't tell which of my emotions were genuinely sparked from sympathy for the characters and which had been prompted by the writers going down a the melodrama checklist. SPOILERS: So I'm autistic, but I'm not the kind of autistic person who cries ableism & I wish I could applaud this game for having an autistic character. They just about say she's autistic, which I like! BUT at the point where the story goes downhill, the narrative makes it known that she's just too ~hard to understand~ and ~getting in the way~ of Johnny's dreams, and he'd be better off if he hadn't gotten involved with her, & there's an implication that what he does for is out of pity. It's gross. The ending tries to fix this but it can't make up for the past couple hours that the game basically told me "you ruin lives, bro" Katawa Shoujo was a kinder representation of dating someone on the spectrum, and that char isn't even explicitly autistic! Even with the emotional manipulation I would have thought this game was ok, but that killed it. Subjective, I know, but this kind of art is, so play it for yourself and see how you feel.

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Posted on: May 31, 2020

GJERGJ

Games: 214 Reviews: 2

I cried...

and I do not usually cry...

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Posted on: July 6, 2022

KritaVandergild

Games: 53 Reviews: 2

If you have a heart you will cry

The story and soundtrack really made this game for me. I felt like I was watching a movie the whole time and I cried throughout. Now I get that the dialogue for Neil and Eva was supposed to be funny comedic relief and maybe they are funny to other pleayers but to me it almost ruined the experience. I actually almost quit the game many times because of their unfunny dialogue. The characters themselves would be lovable to me if there was better balance with their comedy in this game. Another issue I had was the game always telling me where to go with arrows and telling me how to walk every time a new scene ended. It was too hand holdy for me but that's a personal preference. Otherwise this game is worth playing for the story and soundtrack alone. Definitely good for players who want a game that's light on puzzles and gameplay elements with a focus on story.

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Posted on: July 9, 2022

AceOfCakez

Verified owner

Games: 34 Reviews: 3

Marred by Bad Gameplay and Dialogue

This is one of those games that does not stand the test of time. Admittedly, I heard it had a good story which is why I checked it out. It is an RPG Maker game and I've played plenty. What really destroys this game is its horrible gameplay. In most RPG Maker games, you can actually run. Here, your character moves slow and the reason why that's important is because you spend most of the game doing countless fetch quests where your walking around an environment and clicking all over the place. Not to mention that in most RPG Maker games, you can click "Z" to interact with items and you just can't do that here which makes the controls very archaic. It doesn't help that the controls are not always responsive either. Unfortunately one of the main characters, Dr. Watts, just proves to be annoying and an overall jerk. Imagine going to a mortuary and having the person there just make dumb and lame jokes about your deceased loved ones in a vain attempt to be funny. And that's exactly what this is: constant unprofessional cringe dialogue ruining a somewhat interesting story regarding the client and his wife. Then there's these really lame block puzzles that you have to do just to advance the plot. In essence, this game would have been way better as a visual novel rather than all this pointless slow walking and clicking which serve little purpose. These bad gameplay elements may have been okay for the time this game released, but I simply can't recommend this game to anyone nowadays.

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