Ratings and Reviews by Tabitha

Moody games focused on traversing significant places and memories are always going to be my jam. This one is a quiet exploration of a flooded town, playing as a protagonist who knows this place intimately and is now set on leaving. As you wander, you encounter layers of memories on what is essentially a farewell tour. Mechanically, you need to acquire goods for your journey away, but it’s the emotional landscape that’s really important.

Ghosts of the past are everywhere; the game’s opening image, describing a washed-out bridge, mirrors the relational broken bridges the protagonist reminisces on throughout the game. Friends who’ve left, former friends still physically present but your friendship irrevocably lost. The protagonist moves like a ghost themself, lingering in the various locations largely unobserved or ignored, acting out echoes of the past. In one instance, they flee from a possible interaction. A sense of loss permeates; we and the protagonist pause in spaces once carefully designed and curated that are now abandoned, useless.

The protagonist has decided to leave before they really know where they’re going, but the emotional heart of the game is discovering a sense of purpose, reviving a broken connection. Leaning in to the memories instead of shying away. Following this path requires some minor puzzle-solving; while you can reach an ending without it, it’s definitely the worse of the two.

The game is accompanied by music written by the author. I played with it off on my first playthrough, but listened to it my second time through and found it fitting, a subtly melancholy backdrop.

Atmospheric, evocative, bittersweet. I liked it a lot.

I loved the slow-paced, realistically grounded exploration around London in this one, as the characters visit real places (illustrated by real photographs) and discuss real films, books, and politics. The premise—Nica is meeting her long-distance girlfriend, Chun, for the first time—was compelling and also very of-the-moment. The clear divide between them was captured so well, with Nica’s thoughts contrasting with what she chooses to actually say/reveal to Chun. And then halfway through, at an emotional cliffhanger of a moment, we switch and get the same few days recounted from Chun’s point of view, seeing the divide from the other side.

As an outside observer, and especially after getting both perspectives, I wanted them both to just be more open with each other; each character’s internal monologue reveals so many things they could be talking about and connecting over, but they both choose to play it so safe, keeping conversation surface-level. I love seeing this kind of thing explored in fiction, how terrifying and difficult connecting with other humans can be, and this was an excellent portrayal.

At the end, when the two finally discuss their relationship, their interactions explode a bit into melodrama, and this part didn’t feel as believable to me, both as to the characters’ emotions and their dialogue. (Spoiler - click to show)I also had a hard time believing either of them would want to continue the relationship after that. Overall I quite enjoyed and appreciated it; the ending just didn’t quite land.

(Sidenote: I loved the quality-of-life feature of the little progress bar that lets you know how many pages are left.)

Not marking any spoilers because, given the nature of the game, it's not really possible to spoil the solution!

This one really drew me in; I liked the *Toby's Nose*-esque setup where you can guess the solution to the mystery at any time, but to gain any basis for guessing you first have to thoroughly investigate. I enjoyed checking out the different locations, unlocking more information as I explored, uncovering potential murder weapons, and most of all learning about the deceased circus employees, their backgrounds and their relationships to each other.

So far, so good... but eventually I hit a wall. A massive, impassible wall. I'd been to every location many times; I had taken notes on which bodies I'd found, where I'd found them, and how they'd died. The problem was, there was one body I hadn't found---Vivian's. And without finding her body, I had no way of guessing where or how she had died. I also had no idea who had done it. I'd been able to concretely rule out a few weapons, and... that was it.

I finally came up with some semblance of a theory and guessed. Wrongly. Again, and again. Through brute force, I finally got the answer... and was absolutely baffled, because I hadn't seen anything that would have led me to that conclusion. (I was able to solve the after-puzzle very handily, though, because *that* information I had!)

I now know that the who, how, and where of the murder are all randomized---different players get different solutions, and it seems some of those solutions are discoverable! I really wish I had gotten a different one, because finding the clues and piecing the answer together would have been very satisfying. I can only conclude that either I completely overlooked a description of me finding Vivian's lion-chewed bones in the illusion gallery (I ended up opening the source in Twine to see *how* I was supposed to have gained the knowledge that "lions" was the murder weapon), *or* that the game had a bug and her bones simply didn't exist in my playthrough. I also am not sure if I missed something implicating Casper; I did uncover info related to them, but nothing sufficient to make me believe they murdered Vivian.

As alluded to above, the randomized solution will make players' experiences with this game vary widely. Sadly, for me, it was a game with a lot of promise that ended up falling flat.