Ratings and Reviews by Jaded Pangolin

this might be the last review i write this ifcomp (though ive played some games i haven't reviewed and i hope to still play more), bc im getting really busy, but i wanted to be sure to get to this one after the author's response to my review of fantasy opera.

this game is set in a fantasy world where you are journeying to see an eclipse and be blessed by a goddess. the setting is based on england but felt more like it's own thing compared to the setting of fantasy opera because of the focus on the religion, which i thought was really interesting.

this is the only game ive played that let me choose they/she as my characters pronouns and i was honestly so excited? which is silly maybe but it's nice to be able to match my real life preferences for once. there was a they/he character as well which was also cool to see. i am glad the game introduced the character jade before it asked me to put my name in though, that could have been really confusing (as that is the name i usually go by) 💀

along the way you meet various companions and can romance one of them. this felt much better integrated than in fantasy opera. i liked all the characters a lot and enjoyed romancing the shapeshifter.

there are also lots of opportunities to stop and talk to random people along the way or to take a moment to experience nature. in a lot of ways it felt like this was the real point of the game, like it's not the destination it's the journey, yk? maybe the real blessing of lorell is the friends we made along the way. and seeing an otter. /gen

anyway i don't know if this is like objectively the best or anything - it seems like other people haven't been rating it so high? - but it was just about perfect for me!

i like when games take a common kinda cliche narrative and look at it in an unusual way, like looking at what comes after it or using the pov of what would usually be a side character. not a deconstruction/subversion necessarily (though i guess this kind of is that too) but just another angle.

this game is kinda about a heroic fantasy quest, but it ends at the beginning of the game, and the main pov character is the chosen ones childhood friend who has been pining for him for many years. now the hero ronan has returned to his village. the mc kel and his sister letta both love ronan and this causes tension between them, and on top of that ronan has changed since he came back. then there are some twists and turns that i won't spoil, but it kept things interesting and the ending was satisfying to me.

i wasn't always sure what was going on in this game but i think that's probably my fault. i also wasn't sure if the choices mattered or not. but i liked the characters a lot and wanted all of them to be happy and was very motivated to keep reading to find out of that would be possible.

this is the kind of game i generally love, queer-positive fantasy with a customizable pc and a puzzle-y aspect that isn't too hard but feels satisfying. you play as a detective investigating a planned theft at an opera premiere in fantasy venice. you have a bit less than two days before the theft is supposed to happen, which keeps the size of the investigation small.

nonetheless, there are (what feels like) a lot of colorful characters to meet, with hand drawn portraits and everything. i can take or leave character portraits usually - ive liked some vns but it's also nice to be able to imagine characters the way i want to - but here i think the art is very nice and really creates a unique look/vibe for the game.

despite the time crunch, the vibe is pretty low-key and chill, and you have plenty of time to fully investigate all your leads. there's an rpg-ish stat system with dice, im not always that into randomness in an investigation type game but this seemed pretty forgiving, with multiple ways to get the same information based on different stats. im not very smart and did need a hint, but i solved the mystery and got 90 points!

i was excited by the romance genre tag but it was just a little bit and entirely at the end. it was cute but didn't feel integrated with the rest of the plot. i guess it would be hard to integrate it more with the timeline but idk i was kinda disappointed. that's why this is 4 stars instead of 5 but maybe that's unfair bc i think it could've been 5 if it didn't list the genre that way... mb ill change it later! but it just wasn't what i expected.

this is another ifcomp game that's a little outside my usual range. i tend to like games with high player agency, where i really feel like im creating my own version of the story (i would be such a choice of games girlie if those games didn't all cost money 🥲). but i love love love queer fantasy and games with romance elements, so i gave this a shot.

this game does have meaningful choices, but they're subtle and infrequent. the third person pov contributes to the feeling that you're not really controlling or being any character in this story; you are watching the story play out and occasionally you can give one of the characters a nudge in some direction.

but the writing is very strong, with compelling characters, and the romance was lovely, so i enjoyed the game a lot. i think many queer people can relate to the idea of sympathizing with what we're told by society is "monstrous", being drawn to a group of people treated as a dangerous other, wanting stuff that we're told will destroy the fabric of society if we allow ourselves to indulge in it, etc., and those experiences are reflected in the mc's interactions with demons as a class and with the love interest in particular (with the mc's academic advisor in the role of representing societal queerphobia).

i also appreciate the tasteful sensuality. explicit content is valid and i support it existing and being allowed on any and every platform, but i am personally not that into it, and this game was at a good level for me in that regard.

i don't play a lot of parser games but i was drawn to this game by the fun title and implications of a detailed fantasy setting, which is something i always love.

it turned out to be very friendly to someone like me. if you have to use a verb the game will pretty much tell you what it is. there are large sections that are basically cyoa except that you have to type "choose (whatever)" instead of clicking. so while i am a little scared of parser games, this felt not very parser game like and didn't intimidate me. there are four different sections with four different gameplay mechanics and they were all easy to pick up.

otherwise i admit i did not really vibe with this game. im all about worldbuilding and interesting characters really, and i guess this kind of thing was not the point. there were a lot of intriguing details of the world, but they were not explored in depth, and i had some trouble figuring out what kind of setting it was even supposed to be. it felt like high fantasy mostly, but sometimes the tech level seemed modern or even futuristic, like in the part where you have to crawl thru vents to get to a "hazmat room". this is a combo that can work but there just wasn't enough detail for me to figure out how it all fit together.

for characters, i was interested in the fateweaver. you get a whole section where you do nothing but talk to them so you really get to know their unusual/inhuman(?) point of view and that was fascinating to me. but with the other three former heroes i didn't really feel like i knew who they were.

and then there's the ending. (Spoiler - click to show)where it turns out it's all for nothing and the world ends anyway. this is the philosophical part, i guess, and i don't know anything about philosophy. but when so many of my peers are like "why do anything, we'll all be dead soon", i don't really like to see this kind of message in fiction. i guess the games perspective is "you should try anyway but just be aware you're probably f*cked"? but i do think that people are not gonna try unless they really believe success is possible, so i don't think the nihilism (?) is helpful.

the "gotcha" of it feels especially weird bc at the beginning there's like a personality quiz that sorts you into one of four segments (though you do all four eventually), and one of the questions is about what you would do if you know the world is ending. and only one of the answers is "try to save it anyway", but regardless of what you say, that is what you spend the game doing. you don't actually have the option to accept your fate and focus on spending your remaining time with your loved ones or whatever. so even if you accept the nihilism you can't make the "good" nihilist choice, you have to act like you have hope anyway and then the game is like "lmao you thought..." maybe the real winning strat is to close the tab and go hang out with your friends before we all die to climate change or world war 3.

but also maybe i am badly misunderstanding everything because i am just a humble idiot. i don't know if i am even understanding nihilism right.

anyway on a more petty note i might mind this less if i hadn't grinded for a million years to beat the final boss. according to the walkthrough (which i looked at after i finished the game) i guess i didn't have to but my dumb a** could not get through that conversation 💀 so i thought the fight was mandatory and i loaded my save to grind until i could beat the boss which was very tedious. and then it was all pointless anyway.

the game seems like it has a lot of work and love put into it so probably it is me that is failing here. probably this would be a great game for someone who likes philosophy and wants to try a parser game that's easy to get into. but it is not really for a silly fantasy girlie like me, and im sorry for not getting it.

edit: just realized ive been misgendering the fateweaver. as a fellow enby i should know better. im sorry about that too. should be fixed now, anyway. lmk if there's a stray she/her somewhere.