First off, this game is short: I spent 1h44m and saw 3-4 endings. (There were two that I think were actualy identical, though slightly different events led to them). So don't pay too much for the game, knowing that it's pretty short. It's an interesting story; like the Blackwell games, it's driven by an investigation. I didn't have any problem with the puzzles until late in the game when I felt like I'd hit a wall and the game wasn't giving me whatever I needed to move to the next step. This was when I looked at a walkthrough; [probably not a spoiler:] it told me that the game was expecting me to do something that I really hadn't even considered. I suppose I could see myself trying it, once I'd exhausted (and re-exhausted) all other avenues....but all in all, I don't think that moment showed very good design. Anyhow, once I'd done that thing that I'm hinting at, it unlocked a dialogue option that (somewhat to my surprise) led to the climactic scene of the game. (I say 'somewhat to my surprised' because that was when I realized how short the game was.) btw, combat took a few tries before it 'clicked.' (Hint: Be "rabbi-ish.") Anyhow, I then tried a few different paths and saw the various endings. All had their merits, with one clearly meant to be the 'good' one and another the 'bad' one. All in all, not a bad experience. ...although the clue system lacked polish....such as when I had to save and replay the first few minutes of the game to remind myself of a name. ...and when the game talks about $10k as if it's a huge amount of money, it reeks of storytelling by an...'unseasoned' writer, trying to tell a story well outside their life's experiences. I suppose I too was once a 20-something apartment-dweller who had yet to realize that, for an adult with real-world responsibilities, having $10,000 is one bad day (or a could kids' tuition payments....or one chemo treatment, etc.) away from being flat broke, or worse. But I digress.
I've enjoyed the entire series, but for me this one was the most compelling of the lot. If I hadn't needed to get some sleep then I almost certainly would have finished this game in one sitting. I enjoyed the story, the characters, the sleuthing and everything else along the way. In terms of the puzzles, there was very little frustration but also no feeling that I was breezing through the game. I resorted to consulting Ultimate Hint a couple times....and in each case, it simply pointed me to objects in the game that I hadn't noticed. ([Mild spoiler] eg. The one sitting on a shelf that got Rosa into the gym, while I kept wondering what on earth I was doing, repeatedly rescheduling appointments for personal training.) Those tiny clues were all it took to get me back on track. It's disappointing to know that the series has ended, as it just kept getting better as I went on. This was easiliy one of my favorite adventures that I played this year, along with Whispers of a Machine (and replaying Thimbleweed Park after some time away from it).
The very first sound in the game was annoying and made me turn the volume WAY down. The very first character I encounted came off as obnoxious and made me wonder how far I'm make it into this game. Not a good start. The first 'puzzle' in the game required a pixel hunt, if you define 'pixel hunt' as having to mouse around the screen, knowing basically what you're looking for, but waiting for some indication that you've moused over it. You do this because you can't distinguish the object on your screen. This is how I found the key to the drawer: I moused around until I happen to pass by a yellow blob that was the key. That's pixel hunting to me....so all the reviews saying "no pixel hunting" sound like falsehoods to me. Or fools. After the first scene, I got an unintuitive interface with no explanation. (Four timepieces, and no indication of what the game was asking me to do.) I clicked one, then had to play through an embarassing scene of the character from the first scene trying to flirt with a woman on the subway. After that, I got the timepiece interface again; this time, it took me to an unfamiliar locale with a character I didn't recognize, telling me to accomplish something for reasons they weren't going to bother to mention. If the game is trying to be avant garde, I suppose they did it. Others might call it 'disconnected nonsense.' It was about this time that I had to start making use of the "short-term memory" mechanic. I lasted a couple minutes of that, then realized I didn't care about this game, its story, its characters, or making any further progress. Then I looked to see what kind of refund policy GoG has. Apparently they don't have one. (At least, not the kind for "I want a refund because I have no interest in this game" like you can find elsewhere.) That's unfortunate. Seeing my money go down the toilet on garbage like this game is going to make me less likely to spend money at GoG in the future.
I love rain. I love it in games, I love it in real life. So this game had some instant appeal for me. Once I was actually playing the game, however, that appeal started to fade quickly. The nonstop gravely-voiced voice acting grew tiresome. Too many lines were delivered awkwardly, like the voice director was absent. And you'll forgive me for speaking some Japanese, but the way every voice actor butchers the gang's name (bouryoku-dan) made me roll my eyes. The combat seemed like kind of an interesting addition, at first. Actually putting it to use, however, is a chore. And about half-way through the game, the game decides to throw even more combat mechanics at you. Nooo thank you. The game's designers seem to think that clicking one's mouse is the ultimate in gameplay. Want to get something done? Click, click, click, click, click, click.....and maybe a few more clicks for good measure. I played this game on my laptop, and it's made in AGS. AGS has yet to support 1366x768 (aka "that one resolution that many laptops use as their native resolution") in full-screen. So I play the game in a window, after setting that up in AGS's clunky configuration program. So far, no big deal....but when you couple that with how small the interactable areas are in the game, then anything but careful, deliberate mouse placement often resulted in clicks outside the game window. Annoying, especially when that brings up another window. And even when the small clickable areas aren't an issue, it often takes multiple clicks to get through a door....the hot spot areas are tiny. So, let's see....the story wasn't particularly compelling to me, I dislike the voice acting from the outset, I found many game mechanic annoying or aggravating....but I like the rainy atmosphere. Oh, and when I load a saved game (including the autosaves), the right half of the window was 'undefined video buffer contents.' Every time. You're charging money for this?
I didn't play this one when it was new, so I have no real choice but to judge it by my current-day expectations on adventure games. This game tells a really good story, and was clearly crafted with love. The remastered art looks really nice, but the original art looked like it would have been great at the time. (I'm a fan of pixel art, so I won't be bad-mouthing that in any way.) Voice work is generally excellent...although some character were voiced by actors doing "familiar" voices, which I find a bit distracting -- it breaks the immersion (for me, at least) a bit to hear The Brain (of Pinky and the Brain), for example, whenever one of the villain's henchman talks. That just leaves the things I didn't like as much. For one, the motorcycle motif of the game didn't really resonate with me...although that's no fault of the game's creators. Some of the music started to grate at me pretty hard as the game went by. The heavier guitar-specific stuff I enjoyed (Was that a JCM900 I heard?)....it was the janglier stuff that made me think about turning the BGM off entirely. And the puzzles....some of them got frustrating in a hurry, and when I looked at a walkthrough, all I could think was, "What am I even trying to accomplish that would lead to me to do ~that?~" Anyhow, now I've played through it once, and I'm a better person for having done so.
This game reminds me of why I never want to purchase a game without having played a demo of it first. (If only that were a more viable option....) I wanted something with an Elder Scrolls-style open world, and this game was talked about as being in that vein. I bought the game on the strength of those reviews....but now believe them to be the glowing memories of those who loved the game in its day, but who are now blinded by nostalgia. The game has all the things we (begrudgingly) accepted as normal in the earlier days of gaming: nausea-inducing camera movement, dopey dialogue with goofy voice acting, awkward controls, not-terribly-user-friendly interface, NPCs who are sometimes more caricature than character, etc. The story seems engaging enough, and there seems to be plenty to do, if clicking the stove repeatedly to fry up some meat sounds like a good use of your time. Unless you're strongly motivated to play this game because of fond memories or a desire to play every CRPG or something, I'd just leave it be.
