Reviews by IFforL2

This Spanish work does a good job of being at once a game and a story. It was quite fun, but it felt like one of those graphic point-and-click adventures. The game world is medium sized; I didn't need a map, but I would have moved more quickly with one. Each chapter consists of an initial choice-based backdrop scene followed by a puzzle-solving exploration session.

Again, this game really was fun, but it could have been even more fun with consistent implementation. (Spoiler - click to show)Each magical device only works once to solve a specific puzzle. You can't tinker with the cauldron, the garden, or anything. After I solved the growing fruit puzzle, I tried to do it again, but the game just asked, "Why would you want to do that?" I tried putting other things like water and a rabbit into the cauldron and even lit the fire. Nothing even cooked! That rabbit is a survivor!

Most of the puzzles are standard for parser-games. Some of the puzzles use ascii graphics to imitate graphic adventure type puzzles. Whether or not such puzzles belong in IF, it would be courteous for an author who employs them to hyperlink the controls. The act of typing a command just to make a minuscule adjustment started to feel tedious after a while.

I considered one of the normal puzzles unfair. (Spoiler - click to show)Any interaction with the eagle suggests that she can't communicate with you and she's dangerous to touch. But lo and behold, you suddenly can communicate with her and touch her only when one puzzle requires it. When I consult an in-game walkthrough, I believe I should think, "Oh, duh. I would have thought of that if I'd given it enough time and patience." With this puzzle, I felt irritated that the game steered me away from the correct solution at every prod.

For Spanish language learners, I'd rate the vocabulary as roughly intermediate level. However, the work includes a warning that it is not for readers younger than 14. A walkthrough is accessible within the game.

這段恐怖視覺小說設在台灣的大學校園。寫作風格是還可以的, 有點陳詞濫調。有很長的無選擇的敘事，特別是在前面。後來一些選擇導致突然失敗，雖然可能把故事帶到兩個不同的結局。

This horror CYOA is set at a particular university campus in Taiwan. For this reason, it may appeal only to a very specific audience. The quality of writing is not bad, but unremarkable. There are long stretches of narrative without options, especially at the beginning. Later, there are a couple of binary choices, one leading to sudden death, and the other continuing the narrative. A few consequential choices do exist, and it is possible to find two different endings.

Although this is not Incanus' most polished game, it was my personal favorite until I found the time to play Ofrenda a la Pincoya. It's also the one I'd recommend for Spanish language learners--The parser never misunderstood me and didn't expect me to go through extremely detailed procedures.

Aunque este juego no es el más finamente construido de las obras de Incanus, todavía era mi favorita, hasta que leí Ofrenda a la Pincoya. También este es el que recomendaria para los que están aprendiendo el Español.

Although I enjoy many works of interactive literature just as well as text adventure puzzlers, I observe that puzzles help language learners to read IF with more focus, care, and investment. Therefore, I find it unfortunate that few East Asian visual novels include puzzles. Those that do tend to limit themselves to instant death by wrong choice. The Poisoned Soup is a rare piece in that the fluently bilingual author is well-read in a variety of IF genres. These range from parser-based puzzle games, to parser-based literature, to choice-based (and basically linear) East Asian visual novels.(Spoiler - click to show) Steven Dong intentionally makes it difficult to select all the right choices in the first play-through. However, wrong choices don't usually lead to instant death without clear warnings. Rather, most wrong choices cause trauma to the PC. As I made progress in the game/work, Dong's method caused, in me at least, a sense of desperation and increasing cautiousness, as well as personal investment in the PC's lot.

I would have to say that this is currently my second favorite Mandarin game after 逃出去 | Escape.

This story includes a light puzzle and a bit of creepiness. What I really love about it is the spot-on cultural setting. Right at the start, you can choose between two very realistic and quintessential types of Asian daughters for the PC. As you enter the scene, every detail, from conversations to "rooms" genuinely feels like modern rural China or Taiwan. (Please forgive the comparison! It's not politically motivated!) The author could have kept this as a very well-written slice-of-life. But the puzzle and the creepy plot do a good job of gamifying it all.

This minimalist idle game is available in lots and lots of languages. Not-so-unfortunately, after reading through the start of the Mandarin and Spanish versions, I must deduce that they were created using Google Translate. (I may be wrong, and I'd gladly eat a humble pie from Michael Townshend.) That's actually not so bad, as this game is one of a handful that make the most of a few short phrases. Julian Churchill's Tiny Text Adventure is another.

One of the things I love about text adventures.co.uk is the unabashedly amateur nature of many of the pieces. But it is nice to see near perfect implementation, and this is one example. In my opinion, this game is as entertaining, sublime and meticulous as many of the IFComp winners that I've played. It is also one of those games you can continue to "play" away from the computer during an interminable meeting or while proctoring final exams.

This story explores the PC's thoughts and memories, rather than geography. Compared to other IFs of the same concept (e.g. verityvirtue's Staying Put), this is relatively under-implemented, which kept me mindful of the parser. (Spoiler - click to show)For an example, talk to Claire.The author clearly didn't want the reader to go in that direction, but a more natural response would have helped me stay immersed.

I was quite excited to stumble upon this game. I like having parallel texts available for language learners. Also, Scott Adams' games nearly always feature very short narrative segments and generally low-level vocabulary. For both reasons, this could potentially be a valuable resource for the language classroom. Unfortunately, I encountered bugs early on. It is impossible to "coger libros" to find the secret passage. I'd be happy to change my rating to four or five stars if such bugs are fixed. The translation is natural, not overly literal. The background and visual effects match the original game, creating (at least for me) a warm fuzzy nostalgia.

The TPRS method/tradition in the L2 classroom gives students total freedom to further the narrative in response to the teacher's prompting. Mrs. Pollard may be familiar with TPRS, because every option prompt in this story allows the student/reader to move the story in a new direction. There are no dead-ends, and no loose ends. Vocabulary is limited to HSK level 1, meaning that a first-year student in an HSK standardised course would be able to read it.