Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

In this game, you are tasked with finding treasure and investigating evil in an old abbey. As you explore, you find things like casks of pigs blood, evidence of violence, and a library that is a real maze. Eventually, I realized that this all seems familiar, because it's based on The Name of the Rose! When I found the 'finis africae' it was clear confirmation. There's a lot more added, and it doesn't follow the plot of the book, so it's not an adaptation, but it's pretty clearly inspired by it.

I played this the way I do many older adventures: I wandered around seeing how much I could achieve for a half hour or so, then used the walkthrough. For about half of the game I thought, "wow, this isn't that bad. Just mapping every room and taking everything you see should solve the majority of the puzzles". Then I got to a puzzle or two that I think I never would have solved on my own, but Rovarsson's review states that he solved it by dying and someone else said something similar, so that seems fair.

The overall atmosphere is spooky and fun, just like the source material it was based on, but intercut with silly jokes in a way reminiscent of other games in that post-Infocom and pre-Inform era (like Unnkulia).

Don't expect anything to be described. You could find (hypothetically) a miniature alien with a tattoo of the Queen of England in the middle of kissing a moldy tuna sandwich and the game would say:
'>X ALIEN

You see nothing interesting.'

Most actions will say it's not understood. So for most of the game you'll be fine. There are a few actions near the end that are more complex, though.

Overall, a fun adventure and neat to see a game from an era that's not as common as others.

I had to play using the online link.

You've spent the night at a man's house, only to find out he's suspected of horrific crimes. While he's in the bathroom, you have only a short time to discover the truth about him.

This is my favorite of the RGB cycle by Charm cochran, a collection of small games revolving around Bluebeard-like themes (secrets, murder, forbidden rooms). This one includes some really nice US design, with a text message-like interface contrasted with room exploration and dialogue that use different colors.

It includes a lot of exploration and a fairly complex puzzle. I played to one ending, which I enjoyed, but didn't feel compelled to try more. Really neat just how much love and detail went into a small game.

This game starts with you finding yourself suspended in the air so that all of your weight is concentrated on a single point halfway down your spine. Things do not improve for you after that.

The idea is that you are skewered on a hook and have the opportunity to flail about in different ways. Your different choices are pleasingly displayed for you in blood-like red. While you're doing that, in differently colored text, you hear your wife and her mother moving around.

This game isn't long, but provides significant variety in interactions for its length and tells a story with a real plot arc (intro, buildup, climax/denouement) in just a few words. Pretty impressive. And violent but it doesn't lean into it, which in many ways increases the horror.

This game was written for the Bluebeard Jam and Neo-Twiny Jam. It's short, and recounts the events that happen right after the climax of most Bluebeard retellings.

I like the presentation style with differently-colored and -justified text on black background and with multiple options even for a short game.

Its voice is distinctive in that it uses thee/thou while also using modern profanity. I generally avoid games with strong profanity in them and that's the main reason I've avoided playing this series for the last half of a year, despite seeing extensive praise from others and despite loving this author's game. And I do admit, it is grating here, like a spicy hotdog with just too many jalapenos on it.

I know this sounds really strange but I actually love the opening title screen that explains how to play and understand the game and gives a brief preview. I'd love for that to become common in more games, and it looks really good.

This is a visual novel that consists of one scene between two old friends/partners/lovers(?), consisting of yourself and a polish model named Kaja.

The two of you haven't seen each other for a while, and it seems your relationship has been fraught with difficulties in the past. Kaja is famous, and has had trouble connecting with others.

There are a variety of choices in the game that let you roleplay how you'd handle the relationship. The art is on-point, and the UI looks smooth and made play easy, especially going back and forth between passages. The art really fits the mood.

There is some strong profanity.

Overall, I thought this was a good 'doomer' kind of game, like the kind you could play on a melancholy rainy Friday night. But 'doomer's not the right word since there's a kind of quixotic hopefulness that pervades it.

I also liked the sign language parts.

I've been interested in Chinese poetry the last few years as I help the mandarin students at my school and I've been watching C-dramas like Empresses in the Palace. I also visited China last year and saw a lot of the older stuff up-close. I like Du Fu's poems in translation.

So it was fun to see this. It's pretty simple; each page has two options you can click on, each associated with nature or something else lovely. At the end, you get a poem based on you choices.

I thought this was fun, and the choices of imagery were pretty.

In this game, you play as a trans girl explaining why she doesn't get haircuts anymore due to experiences as a kid.

You go to a barbershop and have choices thrust upon you that you don't care for. The game includes some helpful graphics to indicate what's going on.

It ends a little abruptly, but that's intentional and adds more force to the ending. There are some choices that lead to internal dialogue that varies depending on your choice, and I thought that that was well-done.

Edit: Upon talking to others I decided to replay and pay more attention to even the smallest details. I found some variations I hadn't noticed before and some funny patterns in the small text.

This is a darkly humorous game about amazon reviews for a portable battery-operated mini chainsaw.

Each review describes how the person used it, ranging from reasonable to typical-online-customer to dangerous to surreal. You can rate the ratings as helpful or report them.

The story progresses over time, advancing to a final culmination.

Someone on itch said they figured out how to get two different endings, and the creator confirmed that choices matter, but I don't know how. The first time, I rated all the nice ratings helpful and all the murder ratings 'report'; the second time, I reported everything; the third time, I rated everything 'helpful'. I got the same ending both times, but the last time the screen was dark with creepy music (but the text was the same). If anyone knows how to get multiple endings, I'd be interested!

This twine game starts with a phrase that can be clicked on, which makes one word unclickable while new clickable words appear, forming a sentence the longer you click.

I thought at first there was one link per page, and so I just clicked quickly, and I got the same result a couple of times, so I figured it was just random.

Then I realized that you're actually building sentences one word at a time, which I thought was really neat.

All the messages are related to the kinds of things people say to each in heated or repetitive forum threads. They are vague enough to be generally applicable in many situations. I think I might have liked even more specificity, more details to make it feel more grounded, or a variety of distinct 'voices', but this was pretty fun.

This is a brief story that is advanced by clicking. Every time you click, words fly up of the screen and new ones come in. After a few clicks, the lovely background changes, and this repeats until the story ends.

The story is about some kind of dying being who is travelling with you and plans to be part of the stars.

It's a short, pleasant experience with no kind of interactivity.