Reviews by Cerfeuil

Played this one a while ago and can't stop thinking about it. Didn't expect much from the description, but the start is immediately engaging with its wonderful design, both in sound and appearance, and the 'you wake up amnesiac' plot hook (an oldie but goodie). Then the moment you think you've found your footing, it pulls you out into the Lovecraft Inn, and then.... I'll admit the system of switching between fiction and reality is a little jank, and there are some quirks of the game's behavior that I'm not sure are intentional. For example, (Spoiler - click to show)you can sell the suitcase, then ride the ferris wheel to get it back. (I also don't know what the suitcase was supposed to do, think I sold it then left the story so I couldn't get on the ferris wheel again. Whoops.) Is that a glitch? The game never tells you how everything is supposed to work—it would ruin the fun, after all—so I have no idea.

But generally speaking: As I learned to play the system, switching between hotel and story to shift things on both ends, I got more and more into it. So many satisfying parallels between fiction and reality, and the weird details thrown in there are excellently creepy. Especially the carnival. Sh*t gets wack, yo. And the ending is excellent.

Great sense of place, uncanny aesthetic (as befitting the name!), clever writing and puzzles. Didn't even notice the Dante's Inferno allusions until I saw one of the other reviews pointing it out.

A classic 'explore mysteriously abandoned spaceship' game: solve puzzles and figure out what happened to the crew. Rather simple story, featuring the generically named CORPORATION UNLIMITED as driving force for the plot. The AI was the most interesting character, but we barely get to see him. (I am biased towards AI characters, so take that with a grain of salt.)

Puzzles were well-balanced if a bit obvious, with hints galore telling you what you need to do. Didn't have trouble with any, thought the logic/math puzzles at the end were tedious. Not generally fond of puzzles you can solve by feeding into a computer. But the writing has a nice humorous touch and decent atmosphere, despite the rare typo. I liked the wacky corporate ship names, Silver Lining and Charitable Donation, and I bet there are other ships with names like Synergy or Paradigm Shift. 4/5 for presentation and because I'm fond of abandoned spaceships.

Playtime: about 50 minutes. Ended with (Spoiler - click to show)'Humanitarian' after 7 loops, where you bring the crew back and save the ship, because I refuse to trust that shady corporate AI. Discovered 2/3 dumb (and funny) ways to die. I'm satisfied with my ending, so doubt I'll play again.

Favorite quote:

> > 3. About CORPORATION UNLIMITED
>
> CORPORATION UNLIMITED was founded in the year 2072 by [redacted]
>
> It [redacted]
>
> Despite the [redacted]
>
> DOC reads the screen behind you.
>
> "Interesting! Several years ago CORPORATION UNLIMITED made their GREAT TRANSPARENCY PROMISE. I'm sure it'll take effect any day now."

(Let me guess: that transparency is never gonna happen.)

I love Chandler Groover's stories, and this one is no exception. It's minimalist but makes great use of what detail exists. Each location is vividly sketched out in a few sentences, hinting at an expansive wider setting. Loved the aesthetic as well. As usual, descriptions are lush and food is involved in a mildly horrifying way.

The puzzles are unique and charming. Last puzzle did give me some trouble, seems like I'm not the only one. Apparently (Spoiler - click to show)the merry droll-teller gives you a hint for the items you need, but I'd frozen him and couldn't remember the route to get him back. Ended up tracing the right path without collecting any items, so I had to look up the hint for solving that one.

Distinctive and playful aesthetic, charming puzzles, great ASCII art.

An old favorite, so I had to give it five stars. I like "trapped in a strange world" stories, and this one delivers. The repetition, uncanny setting, and unexplained mysteries all work great together. Eerie piano music really sets the tone. I'm also a sucker for horror and mysterious non-euclidean spaces, so this idea of a purgatorial setting with a repeating crossroads checks all the right boxes. While it's never laid out explicitly, you get the sense that you've done something horrible and that your experience is a punishment for past sins. The scene with the feather sticks out as a reference to the Egyptian weighing of the soul and an implication that the protagonist is far from innocent.

The scenes themselves are subtle and off-putting in just the right ways. The imagery—empty zoo cages, train stations, clocks stuck before midnight—drives in that sense of stasis and inescapability. The ending is a total gut punch. (Spoiler - click to show)The desire to escape is the carrot that's been luring you along the whole time, and you finally reach the ending only to realize there's no escape, and you're doomed to repeat these events forever.

No idea what Dampe the gravedigger is, but "Harvest Moon meets Ligotti" means I had to play this one. (Used Firefox, but unlike the other reviewer had no issues with links.)

Thoughts: Lovely setting with classic Porpentine weirdness. Similar structure to With Those We Love Alive, possible shared setting based on mentions of the Skull Empire, wouldn't be surprised if they share a codebase. Been ages since I've played With Those We Love Alive, but both games have the same bed-to-bed structure where you wake up, work, wander around, and go back to sleep, in a fascinating alien world that becomes less fascinating as you wear out its excitements. Then it's only mundane. Depressing, even. Repetition turns it all into mindless drudgery.

Skulljhabit is like that, (Spoiler - click to show)and when you run out of things to do your only recourse is to leave. You end up in another town, with another job not so different from the first. The more things change the more they stay the same.

The ending was anticlimactic, but in a fitting way. This game is full of anticlimax and hints at greater revelations that never actually happen. There are recurring dreams and mysterious books that don't add up to anything. Not sure if there are multiple endings, but I feel like there aren't, and that smidgen of grandeur is all you get. A strange and melancholy story.

Playtime: around 35 min