Reviews by kqr

In contrast to many others, I did not go in with very high expectations of Photopia. What I did know was that (a) it's very different; (b) at the time, it changed what people thought text adventure meant; and (c) it's best to play it without knowing much about it. I grew tired of trying to avoid spoilers, and decided to just play it instead of continuing to live in fear.

It was indeed different from most of what I have played before. Each vignette progresses linearly, and rarely am I getting stuck looking for what to do. The parser is forgiving, and in many instances just waiting or walking in any direction will progress the story for you. I liked this approach, even though it does feel less interactive than a full-on simulation.

I don't really get the meaning of the colours and I had trouble keeping track of which character was which, which made the vignettes particularly disjointed. However, after repeatedly instructing the PC to hug and kiss baby Alley in this game, I realised the game was fairly moving. More importantly, I should go and repeatedly hug and kiss my children now while they are young. Bye!

I had a delightful time in the Dreamhold and its surroundings. The pacing is slow and the game rewards methodical exploration. At first the geography was confusing enough that I had trouble mapping it, but then once it fell into place it made complete sense. My spoilerful map here: https://i.xkqr.org/dreamhold_map_spoilers.png

The game lets you finish once the main puzzles are solved, even with many side-puzzles left hanging. I think I must have missed a few portions of the game, because I didn't get a good grasp of the narrative. However, the puzzles and environment made up for most of the weak narrative. I am impressed by how much character the author manages to give the varied environments of the Dreamhold using rather few words. I truly feel like I've been there, explored the paths, and looked out over the mountain sides.

I'm not a huge fan of big maps (because when I get stuck, there's so much to explore) but it didn't bother me all that much in the Dreamhold, because the rooms had so much character, and the connections between rooms felt so natural. I quickly learned to type out a path from one room to any other with my eyes closed.

There are plenty of red herrings around which had the effect of slightly discouraging my explorations, but I suppose someone with more patience than I would find the uncertain reward for exploration more appealing.

In the end: fun puzzles, probably with many more hidden secrets than I uncovered, maybe a so-so narrative, but excellent environmental immersion. If you've ever wanted to explore a wizard's home in an isolated place, this is where you can do that.

This might be the longest parser game I've played so far, although that does not say much since I can still count the number of parser games I've played on both my hands.

I know the author has stated that they intentionally wanted to convey a vast castle that is empty, and I know the convenience command GO TO was implemented to help not make that annoying, but the problem was not going to known locations – the problem was when I didn't know where to go next, and had to blindly search for clues. Then suddenly having nearly 40 rooms, mostly with just flavour text, to explore became a chore.

Maybe all this flailing about the big empty map is just my lack of problem-solving skills. It is possible there were obvious hints about where exactly to go, only I missed them. But that sort of makes me wonder whether this is really a good beginners' game, or if it ought to be more of an intermediate players' game? (Similar concerns with a large number of items that do not fulfill a function. Beginner me felt the need to carry them with me in case they become important, because I don't trust my memory with all the items I've seen lying around. But that gave me a huge inventory to try to sift through when I vaguely remembered some item I had seen.)

That said, the castle does really convey its castliness very well and it was a joy to map all parts of it, even before I had access to a light source and I could only label many of the rooms "darkness", "darkness", "dry sifting", "dripping", "darkness", "open space", "darkness"! To see a spoilerful map from when I had managed to lift the darkness, go to https://i.xkqr.org/bronze_map_spoilers.png

The narrative itself was interesting and very well presented. I have no idea how the Beauty and the Beast is traditionally told, but I don't mind making Bronze my canonical version of it going forward. It is rich, personal, and makes sense.

In total, I'm trying to figure out whether I will give this game three or four stars. Part of me think I'm inclined to give it four stars only because I'm worried of deviating too much from the crowd consensus. I think three stars is my honest rating.

I don't even know where to begin. This is an extended puzzle with multiple steps in a limited geography. But boy does it make me invest in it, emotionally and cognitively. The puzzles are difficult but – except for one where I missed the hint entirely – not too difficult. The main characters (narrator and PC) are eminently relatable and lovable.

I found the destructive behaviour of both narrator and PC so off-putting that I at times wanted to quit just on principle. But then they were also somewhat supportive, maybe? And I had invested a lot in their relationship, and I really wanted to see how it all would end. It's a glimpse into what appears to be an unhealthy relationship dynamic but which truly, really engages.

The author of this game really committed to the theme to a degree few authors do. The game is solid, detailed, and fleshed out in almost every corner, and the narrative seals it as one of the best games I've played in many years, any category. I highly recommend you play Violet.

I enjoyed the first half of this game, but then it became very samey but with tedious sweeps of the geography to find all the triggers for progression. There is a system for diegetic hints which probably would have made the game more enjoyable, but I didn't understand it until closer to the end.

I suppose maybe the narrative could have been interesting in some sense, but I don't think it worked very well for an interactive format. Or possibly it would have worked better with less repetition.

In the end, I'm left mostly confused and wondering if I should get better at abandoning games shortly after they've stopped captivating me.

This was the fourth parser game I played. Having now gotten a grasp of some of the conventions of the genre, many of the early puzzles had solutions that came to me fairly quickly. When they did not, the game allowed me to bumble about until I found the solution. However, while the first puzzles seemed fairly logical to me, the later puzzles were more difficult – mainly the ones of the sort where one just has to guess at both nouns and verbs.

In some of the more critical plot points, the author has done an excellent job of allowing multiple solutions. I thought I had found the way through the game, only to discover when reading more about the game after finishing it that there were many more ways to go through it. Some mistakes will get you stuck (and the game tries to hint at this although I didn't catch the hint...), but other mistakes simply let you pick a different route to the end.

I also liked how even some of the more obvious failure states are not complete failures – the game takes the opportunity to teach the player a mechanic by allowing some observation after death. I know this is frowned upon in modern design, but it worked well for this game.

I enjoyed the setting greatly, even when it took a turn for the more mystical or abstract. I think this is a tale I will carry with me for a while. That said, there are a lot of details that yearn for implementation. Many things mentioned don't exist in the model world and cannot be examined. Some solutions that seem logical do not work unless the exact right verb is found.

In all, a very satisfying game with a compelling story and neat mechanics. If a few more details were implemented, this would get a five-star rating from me.

This was an odd one. It almost managed to capture my imagination with its sparse descriptions and limited scenery, but there was still something missing. Maybe the vast number of rooms and large amounts of cycling dialogue made it tempting to start skimming and miss out on some of the setting. I think this is a game played for other reasons than immersion.

I played this as my third parser game -- although with just four cardinal directions and two other actions (wait and status) it doesn't strictly need parser input. I really appreciate the way this game streamlines and automates the parser gameplay to the point where almost all actions happen automatically. And it still manages to set up some good puzzles!

I played this on a phone with the auto-map. In hindsight, I think it would have been a better experience with pen-and-paper mapping. With the auto-map, it was easy for someone with my lack of willpower to thrust through to every unexplored room, missing subtle cues and geographical hints along the way.

I definitely think you should play this one, because it extracts one of the cores of parser gameplay while peeling a way a lot of other things. It's a fun puzzle, but perhaps even more interesting as a very well executed abstraction.

I like the idea of telling a story in disjoint pieces -- it can be done really well. But it is harder than telling it straight (because there are fewer conventions to lean on).

In this case, the story parts seem somewhat disconnected from the actual choices made, and in combination with trying to guess what commands are accepted, I get a little tossed out of the story each turn. The narrative is intriguing, but not intriguing enough to keep me in it. Maybe I'm just incompatible with one-turn games.

Either way, you should give it a try! Clearly some people like it a lot and the investment is small.

There was something surreal about preparing the childrens' breakfast at 5:50 in the morning while playing a game about someone living alone being woken up by a phone call from where they are needed at 9:05. I've been that someone (well, not exactly, but still), and it feels so far away now. I really appreciate getting the opportunity to relive that.

There are some immersion-breaking omissions in the morning routine[1], but in the end, the strange narrative that unfolds compensates for that. This was the first time I decided to re-play a parser game to see multiple endings! Its short duration helped with that, too, of course.

[1]: (Spoiler - click to show)I did not get to wash my hands after using the toilet unless I took another full shower. I never put my shoes on. At first I was worried about not being able to lock the house in a shady neighbourhood, but then I realised I didn't care so much anyway.

This was the second parser game I played. The puzzles were fairly easy (minus a couple of parser beginner gaffes – I forgot to examine thoroughly enough in a couple of rooms, and I failed to find a relatively conventional verb for an action I wanted to perform[1]).

The game is barren in terms of interactable scenery, but this amplifies the ambiance rather than frustrates. Indeed, what stands out about this game is, I think, its presentation. I really appreciated how the foreign environment slowly turned more familiar as the game progressed, but still retained its eerie feeling. I liked the seriousness with which the narrative was treated.

Unfortunately, it feels like the game is the first act out of a three-act play, and the other two acts just aren't there. It ends just when it has gotten me invested into the story. It's definitely still worth playing though.

[1]: Interestingly, I did not have any problem with throwing things or manipulating cables, which it seems like some other people may have had.