You can tell the devs had a story to tell and tried really hard to not make the gameplay overly intrusive or challenging for those who simply want to experience it. Unfortunately, they didn't entirely succeed. The experience is marred by uninspired puzzles and fiddly controls that get in the way of the narrative once too often. But the real bummer is that halfway through the story, the narrative itself starts to crumble under the weight of its predictable cliches and sloppy delivery. Some character beats are plain stupid (i.e. Anne's outburst at the beach) or painfully lame (like struggling to build Anne's emotional connection to a character we never heard of before) and made me lose interest in the characters' fates long before the dramatic final choice hit. Other dramatic beats just lack the punch that the authors intended and fall flat. At the end of the day, Forgotton Anne is a somewhat enjoyable affair carried by its charming premise and cute art style but brought down by unfitting gameplay and a lack of storytelling finesse.
[played this on Epic back when it was first released] I loved Oxenfree. It was charming, well-written, spooky, and genuinely funny at times. Afterparty is a trainwreck. The main idea is cool. The actual plot, though, feels too meandering and pretentious. I felt zero emotional connection to any of the characters, least of all the two main protagonists. The writing is painfully tryhard and obnoxious, trying to replicate Oxenfree's hip vibe and failing at every turn. Gameplay is pretty basic, much like in Oxenfree. They added a bunch of -poorly explained- mini games to offer some variety and raise the stakes. Those can be occasionally fun to tackle but mostly annoying because of the lack of tutorial. Art is pretty good, the music is ok and the voice actors did a great job. Sadly, their efforts are wasted in delivering lame lines that are nowhere near as witty as the writers thought. I really hope Night School will bounce back from this and give us another indie gem in the vein of Oxenfree sometimes in the future.
