Reviews by LoquySSS46

First, I would like to acknowledge what genuinely interesting things the game had going for it: Descriptive quality prose, a somewhat immersive atmosphere and a very fun and neatly designed walkthrough! A well, I did enjoy some its themes and the puzzles fit nicely in that regard. Otherwise, my first gripe with it is that the entry's introduction on the comp site is hardly related to the game itself. Although it was a nice attempt at giving the game a "meta" context, not much if anything at all in the game in itself tied back to or gave such an introduction any meaning, which made it feel a bit superfluous. As well, the puzzles didn't really work for me, unfortunately. I felt that they were just all a bit "fetched"; Even though they seem logical in retrospect, I just find that they either quite easy or much too specific.

This was not bad at all! I first want to highlight how interesting and clever the simple implementation of interactivity the author used to convey the inner struggles of the main protagonist(s?), which lives with something akin to borderline personality disorder, in real-time. Specifically, how some words are clickable and bring you to a page of dialogue occurring between Jan and Maria as they react to what is happening around them. Otherwise, it still remains a rather simplistic story, but I quite enjoyed this as a short story (in the sense of the literary genre). That being said, it's ending also left me wanting more and felt a bit sudden, so I do have certain issues with its pacing a little bit. To note, I felt slightly confused at times about who was talking between Maria and Jan, though I think that was kind of the author's intention, so that was neat!

That was quite charming! Though not quite at the level of Eikas, it was rather reminiscent of it, in a sense, stylistically. For instance, I appreciated the quality of each character's writing, and the entire structure of the game's lore, atmosphere and gameplay was sown with remarkable coherence. Of course, I wasn't left with a profound emotional impression, which is why I didn't rate this higher, but I don't hold it against the game as I don't quite think it is the author's intentions. It very skillfully achieved what it set out to do in an entertaining and mature manner: To take on a simplistic journey of peace and healing

It was cool in certain of its implementations of gambling, of music and display, of having two words that flickered between each other where both fit (e.g., referring to the Dealer as both the "Thing" and a "person") and the whole file repors as storytelling tools. It also effectively set an atmosphere of horror and dread that the , so I think I have to acknowledge the author's ability for immersive and atmospheric storytelling. That said, I can't bring myself to rate this any hire because I didn't enjoy this, as much as I would have wanted to. I came in expecting psychological horror, and I got what I wanted, but things were taken a bit too "gorey" to taste. And sometimes I felt like I was waiting for the author to get a point across and not always getting the revelatory pay-off that the game's mystery was foretelling.

I want to preface this by mentioning that I'd been wanting to rate one of the author's entries on IFComp for two years now, since their first entry! I had played after the end of the competition and was quite pleased by the style of IF, which is quite idiosyncratic and very fun! Though my hunger for humourous wordplay was thoroughly satiated, I must say this was unfortunately not as good as its predecessor from two years ago "Why Pout?". While I appreciated the addition of the graphics, I felt that some of the puzzles weren't very clearly indicated and I had to roam around the rooms quite a few times wondering what was left to do before realising, for instance, that I was suppose to find the solution in a room's name, somehow (that said, I quite liked the hint system of "THINK" and the Face Tats). Perhaps it is the novelty effect wearing off, but I'm still quite glad I played it and would highly recommend Andrew Schultz's games to any IF enthusiast, as the quality of their work never fails!

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised! I had kept my eye out for LampPostProjects, as many of this author's entries have featured in the top 10 of previous IFComps, of which I didn't get the chance to play or evaluate (especially with I think 2 or 3 separate entries making the top 10), and they did not disappoint! The game made great use of its magic-centric gameplay mechanics to quite artfully support the narrative premise, itself written in thoughtful prose, behind regaining lost memories gradually by revisiting certain locations and examining certain items once other memories have been retrieved! The ending was also well done with its split regarding you end up deciding to write once the everything is revealed to us. The ending also that the self (in the magical universe) is comprised of four facets, with the four actors we encounter being their respective physical embodiment: Self-image/identity (the woman), emotions/passion (the chimera), relationships (the couple) and ambition (Napoleon). Brilliant!

That said, I did feel that, at times, a few of your actions as well as a small handful of the puzzles felt a bit disjoined (namely, the horse/Napoleon ones did not make much sense to me). I think this is mainly what prevents me from giving it a perfect score (though I do laud it for being darn near such a rating)!

This was neat and, as a musician myself, I appreciated the topic and themes discussed. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like many of my actions nor reflections brought up throughout the ordeal really gave as much meaning to it as I much as I had hoped. On one hand, I was pulled by the notion of what music can mean to and provide you when it comes in your life at the right time; indeed, at a moment's notice, you may gush over certains songs and have them consume your every thought, for them to soon fade into subconscious appreciation or indifference at time's whim. On the other hand, None of your actions impact much of the story and I didn't feel like this slice of life had much direction or momentum going for it. I just wished the author had explored that more deeply, as the experience felt quite limited!

For the most part, I enjoyed this. However, my main gripe with this entry I feel is that its format of having dialogue interspersed in between your actions a bit annoying to read through. Albeit it makes perfect logical sense for the ongoing nature of a conversation to line up alongside your actions through time, I just felt that it made things clunky and hurt the game's pacing more than anything else, as I had to constantly flip between puzzle-solving and reading endless and sometimes "filler" dialogue. That said, I was able to appreciate the setting and the narrative colours in spite of that, granted some ideas for the characters' secret identities felt a bit underexplored, and the central mechanic of having to figure out how to distract the butler using the different crew members skills was well done!

First off, I am thoroughly impressed by this entry!! Though I find the implementation of the parser as a simili-Choice-based format a bit finicky at times and a bit frustrating as I felt that it slowed me down occasionally, I think it was rather effective at streamlining some of the experience. For instance, it lays out everything you can examine more saliently, which gives the reader the brain room for actual puzzle-solving as opposed to sheer memorisation. The missions were all quite compelling as well as the whole purpose for the adventure reeling you in. I absolutely loved the historical setting that made the whole universe very grounded and immersive, along with the pacing and the puzzle difficulty landing just right for me to get sucked in for far more than two hours straight. The impressive ASCII visuals were also quite nice to have without giving up too much information (as minimaps tend to do in a lot of games). Notably, I especially appreciated the subtle differences in the characters' designs that genuinely made them distinct from one another and added to their charm. All in all, the author crafted this quite masterfully.