Ratings and Reviews by Kastel

The Lady Thalia series is, among many other wonderful things, an indulgently lovingly crafted piece of queer IF. The series debuted at Spring Thing 2021, winning Best NPCs at the 2021 XYZZY Awards. Since then, it has been exclusively a beloved Spring Thing series until this year's IFComp.

I hadn't played the previous games, so I decided to play them before trying this newest entry. The first title made me smile, the second amused me, and the third left me intrigued to see what would come next. The games were easy to go through since they're lighthearted fun. The quips are memorable, the interactivity engaging, and the historical setting always a pleasure to escape into.

Despite having only played this for the past two weeks, the Lady Thalia series has become my comfort food. I chose to spend my limited free time from Japanese language classes playing these games, and I could feel the stress and pressure dissipate. If I played these games at an earlier date, I wondered if I would feel such a strong attachment to these characters -- perhaps, I might have found the fantasy of being a dashing lesbian Arsene Lupin with a detective girlfriend a bit alienating.

I was in the right mood to look forward to playing The Case of Clephan. However, what I got was more than I asked for.

The last time we saw Thalia, she had agreed to work with Mel at her new detective agency following their surprisingly successful collaboration. However, by the time the game begins, that fantasy of solving interesting cases has eroded away. Thalia is now a secretary, a job her late mother wanted her to choose over her prestigious acting career.

She only starts to feel alive when someone posing as Lady Thalia begins stealing artwork. Thalia and Mel must solve the case of the copycat perpetrator.

Anyone who has played the previous games will be familiar with the core gameplay: you talk to people who may have clues, and with the right responses, you can coax them into telling the truth. If a leading question doesn't work, the game may suggest a different approach (perhaps, a friendlier one). The first time I played a Lady Thalia game, I struggled to read the cues. But with having played the three games prior, I knew what to do and solved these cases rather quickly. Mel can also participate, which gives you two options for the same type of response. While I think the game is too easy, it feels nice to pretend to be a master thief for a few minutes.

Other adventure game mechanics also return. For example, you can solve a puzzle by referencing materials and mapping out an area for a later heist. I'm not fond of these mechanics, but they're simple enough that I don't find them tedious.

All in all, the game is another polished and refined entry of the Lady Thalia series. The gameplay feels smoother than ever, and the writing is witty. It's certainly the best Lady Thalia game to date.

But this entry goes beyond what's expected of the series and what I wanted from it. It tackles something that I think is scary for anyone seeking a long-term relationship: settling down.

By this point in the series, Thalia has strong feelings for Mel, enough to tolerate the drudgery of her secretarial job. However, this also means sacrificing her freedom. She and Mel now depend on each other and must work through their differences.

Although there are scenes that play on their homoerotic tension, I'm reminded that they're working together to secure a better future. The exciting premise of uncovering the identity of the fake Lady Thalia is overshadowed by the possibility that someone knows the identity of the real Lady Thalia and could use that information to jeopardize their current lives.

To me, this colors the game as melancholic, almost like grasping what it means to settle down after years of romantic escapades. Clearly, the couple's current relationship isn't what they had hoped for. However, they don't want to lose it because they care about each other. I see it as them trying to adjust to this new life, difficult it may be.

It was a shock to me. A welcome one at least, but I still wondered how these characters could continue to love each other. I think there's something to this dynamism, this uncertainty that captures how long-lasting relationships work in real life. They're not in full harmony, but they're in constant negotiation and a tug-of-war of desires and needs that don't 100% match.

And it's bitter medicine for someone who was subconsciously seeking an escapist fantasy. I understood these characters as people struggling with the same issues I and others face. It's not an understatement to say that this has been a humbling experience for me.

So, I would understand if people don't feel as strongly about this Lady Thalia entry as I do. But like the previous entries, this game came at the right time, just as I was about to leave Japan for home. Now, I can think about other things besides learning Japanese — for example, how should I care for the people I love? Thalia and Mel can't answer that question based on their gameplay mechanics. I look forward to seeing them grow as a couple and think together about what it means to settle down in a new life.

This is a masterful example of how minimalism can stimulate readers' imaginations.

Although the game is presented as a horror title, it is better described as a narrative game with resource management elements. You must travel to an abandoned city with two people who have special abilities and carry as many rations as you think you will need. Along the way, you may discover flora that has survived the apocalypse and that you may want to study to understand why the world ended.

Throughout the game, I never felt tense, but the world presented intriguing mysteries and opportunities that made me wonder if I should sacrifice some of my rations or the characters' energy to explore the world. Even when natural disasters occurred and impeded my pilgrimage, I could talk to my partners about their vocations and lives or just go to sleep.

The choices I have taken -- I am an Interpreter, I ignored studying many organisms, and I found something in the middle of the game I couldn't explain -- was certainly less than ideal. I must have missed a lot during my playthrough. There's so much I don't know about what I was doing.

But that is what I find most satisfying about the game: the choices I didn't take made me wonder, the setting feels beyond my reach, there are more stories than what the game can show, and I am awed by how little I know after trekking for 40 days plus.

Saltwrack was a magical experience, and I hope more people play it soon.

Following in the footsteps of games like Counterfeit Monkey and Retool Looter comes an escape-the-room game featuring several linguistic gimmicks.

After a long job hunt, you have finally found a position as a semantagician's assistant, but you have no idea what you should be doing. You are stuck in a dressing room with several machines that each have a specific function. You need to figure out how to use them to get out and pass the test.

While the premise may seem familiar to this community, this puzzle parser game feels a bit different to me. Even in one-room games like Oppositely Opal, there are many objects to interact with and try out. However, this game only provides a bit more than the bare minimum necessary to solve the puzzle. The main challenge is discovering the rules behind each machine.

This led me to think of so-called rule discovery games like The Witness, now popular in logic puzzle game communities like Thinky Games. As it turns out, the developer created this game for a Thinky Game Jam!

I started appreciating the game a lot once I realized how minimalist it actually was. The puzzle design allows for some really satisfying eureka moments, even when I started using the walkthrough for the later parts. If you enjoy word puzzles, this is a great game for a good brain workout.

(Warning: This review might contain spoilers. Click to show the full review.)

In a competition that tends to have long and substantial parser titles that demand all your attention, it's always nice to play a short, nice parser game.

You just got laid off from a shitty job, and you're planning to get back at your boss when you found out that the documents you were planning to leak had been taken away from you.

It's been years since I've played an Inform game with a score system, but I don't mind it. They're a quick and easy way to know I'm heading in the right direction. The puzzles are simple and intuitive for the most part as they focus on examining objects and using items in the right situations. But that kind of signposting is always appreciated.

The game also has one of the most amusing >x myself responses that I've seen in an IFComp entry:

There is one puzzle relating to a [spoiler]blob[/spoiler] that felt very guess-the-verb compared to the other puzzles. But thankfully, there's a > help command that explicitly tells you where to go and what you should do.

All in all, this is a nice appetizer for parser games in IFComp 2025. It's a cute, well-scoped game that doesn't take up much of your time -- I beat it in 30 minutes -- and I had a pleasant time helping our protagonist retaliate against capitalism.

The New York City Human Resources Administration might not be the first place that comes to mind when developing a game about an alien exploring human culture. However, the developer has experience in social work, and the game truly comes to life thanks to the specificity of the details.

While the alien prattled away with their whimsical narration, I was taken aback by how much people like firemen relied on the service. Eavesdropping on the various people using the service made me aware how inadequate social services in NYC are. In that respect, the game deserves a lot of praise for highlighting something missing from my political economy education.

If anything, I wish the game went harder on this aspect. The game tries to balance satire and political education/awareness, and it also tackles another theme – studying humans as test subjects – but I was more interested in the circumstances that arose while trying to sign up for the service.

This is an impressive debut title, and I look forward to the creator’s future work.

I have a history with thesleuthacademy’s games that made me enjoy this one a lot.

Their first game, Last Vestiges, appeared in IFComp 2023 (the first IFComp I participated as a judge). It was a rough but interesting attempt on an educational police procedural parser game that require you to know some toxicology to solve the case. They then followed up with The Case of the Solitary Resident for Spring Thing 2024, a Twine game where I thought the investigation was pretty fun but the case was predictable and the text too plain for my taste. I said that the developer should try to flesh out the investigation sequence more.

And well, this game is their best iteration yet, and it’s one I can recommend without too much hesitation.

Investigating the Litchwell residence feels rewarding this time round. I was snooping around different corners, interviewing different people with new leads, and searching for clues and the murder weapon. Compared to previous titles, the game mechanics feel streamlined and things just come in right when I am out of clues. There’s a silly puzzle I got stuck on, but other than that the game captured my attention from start to finish.

Solving this mystery feels satisfying. The logical deduction is fair, and you have enough clues to piece everything together. I was enthralled when I finally figured it out.

I think this is their most realized title so far, but the mysteries could be more ambitious. Nevertheless, I believe the developer has a bright future if they continue to create interesting mysteries. I’m definitely looking forward to their next titles.

I always enjoy playing KA Tan’s games since I like Chinese history and wish more people would create games set in ancient China (myself included). For this title, it seems inspired by a well-known event in Chinese poetry history: the Orchid Pavilion Gathering.

Your player character is a poet from a disgraced family who has been invited to an imperial ceremony. As an outsider, your job is to write a quatrain for the emperor that accurately reflects the conditions of the court and the world, serving as a kind of political code.

The sights and sounds you encounter will evoke the poetic imagery that accompanies your message. You might encounter a group of anarchists who imagine a world without hierarchies. Or you might find scholars interested in using divination to calculate the perfect orderly poem. Either way, your whims align with the game’s fancies in interesting ways, making me feel as if I’m embarking on my own poetic journey.

There are a remarkable number of endings that reflect the variety of choices you can make when writing your poem. Factions can rise or fall based on your diction. You could encourage the censorship of sexual expression. You might even find yourself in danger for speaking your mind. Your choices feel momentous, and I appreciate how your small actions can dramatically change the imperial court.

The writing is lovely too. I like the neat touches of description, and I find the sometimes serene, sometimes funny atmosphere engaging.

If anything, I would have liked more options to experiment with. Many endings seem to depend on making one choice, and I wish I had more sources of inspiration for writing my own poetry. Since the stakes are so high in the last pair of events before the feast, it seems like there should be more choices to try out there.

I am personally biased toward anything related to Chinese history, but I think this is a fascinating approach to creating interactive fiction based on it. I hope this game inspires people to learn cool facts about Chinese history and be inspired to create something.