Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

This is an interesting puzzlebox of a game with some cute 'characters'.

You play as a wizard that has lost all ability to use verbs. However, some of your words have possessed nearby objects, creating automatons!

You can use nouns instead of verbs. Unfortunately, this causes all loose verbs to converge on the given noun! This can cause a lot of problems.

This was a fun game, but also hard. It was hard to know how to start; it was hard figuring out if I had locked myself out of victory or not (spoiler: (Spoiler - click to show)it seems like there are multiple ways of doing this), and it was hard to win, so be aware of that coming in ahead of time! Although it was reasonably short. I think it's just fine being difficult (I think it made me like the game more) but I do think it could be useful to indicate the fact that you may need to restart/undo to win (unless I missed an ending that lets you do that!)

A very clever concept and a fun game.

This game is the first three chapters of a potentially longer game. Still, it is very hefty as is, and took a couple of hours to play for me.

The worldbuilding is strong here, which makes sense as it is set in the same world as a previous game (although it stood alone, for me). There are several kingdoms in conflict with each other, and you are employed by one of them due to your royal blood.

However, fate brings you into contact with the Kitherin (sp?), a mystical group that connect magically with mythical animals.

Most of the game so far revolves around meeting the other Kitherin and engaging in training with them.

It was interesting playing this game after recently touring a Daoist temple, with multiple shrines to different Gods, as well as the Summer Palace near Beijing, with its symbolic mystical animals. I felt like the setting in this game would be very much in place there, especially with the Phoenix and Dragon connections.

This is a Heart's Choice game, so the emphasis is on romance. I don't want explicit sex scenes in a game, but the characters were lovable, so I was glad to be able to fine tune my choices (cuddling, nothing sexual). I spent the most time with Rae, and found a lot of content with her, and I declined content with others, and saw less, which sounds like it should be normal but a lot of games get that wrong (constantly pressuring you to interact with people you don't like).

There is a lot of detail here and it can be kind of hard to keep track of which ridiculously attractive temple-goer is which; it helps that they contrast in experience/age and in jobs (like rune-maker), so mentioning those things helps me keep track.

I don't feel like the opening really meshes well with the rest. I had a bird companion and was excited to be close to it, so when I found out I could bound with animals, I thought, 'I can bond with my bird!' but actually you bound and become close with another animal you just met. Similarly, the intro part feels much more low-fantasy while the rest feels high-fantasy. I like the latter part more, and in fact started the game a couple of times and put it down before pushing through the intro to what I think of as 'the good parts'.

I think this will be a fun game when finished. For now, a slightly lower score due to its incomplete state.

I played two versions of this game; an Introcomp version a few years back, and this Spring Thing one.

They feel like two different games; the part of the Introcomp version I remembered most was branching paths and a butterfly, while this one is focused on divination symbols. Replaying the introcomp one, though, I found they share a setting.

In this game, you are a day early for a visit with a magic professor, and so you have time to think and contemplate your father's death (?). Gameplay consists of examining descriptions, finding symbols that translate into phrases, and DIVINE-ing a full sentence from these symbols.

The descriptions are lush and complex, giving a richness to the setting but also rendering it difficult to find important clues.

There are some bugs; the biggest one I found was The game saying 'There is a carving here' and X CARVING not working (you need to (Spoiler - click to show)X INITIAL).

I was unable to complete this without significant help from discord. Since discord isn't not publicly available or permanently stored, I want to record what helped:
-The number of symbols you need is (Spoiler - click to show)three
-The specific symbols you need to have found are (Spoiler - click to show)waves, piercing, concealment
-You find that first symbol by examining (Spoiler - click to show)the ocean specifically, not just water
-The final sentence you must type is (Spoiler - click to show)arrows planted in flesh are shrouded by an unaware mind

This game was part of the Back Garden in Spring Thing. In it, you wake up inside a sarcophagus in a tomb, and have to find your way out.

Here's my breakdown:

-Polish: The game could use more synonyms for things. Sometimes to use an item on another item you have to VERB SECOND THING and sometimes USE NOUN, which was a bit confusing.

-Interactivity: The lack of synonyms as above also caused some difficulties with the interactivity. There were mazes, but those weren't too bad and were easy to map mentally.

+Descriptiveness: I felt like some parts of the game had some pretty neat descriptions. I liked the opening in the box, and the ending sequence, and overall I could imagine the whole place (it reminded me of an NES Zelda dungeon).

+Emotional impact: I liked the atmosphere and enjoyed the feel of the game.

-Would I play again? The game was pretty slight and felt like it didn't tell a whole story, but I would play a fuller version.

For a first game, this is good, and I think that with more practice the author could make a truly exceptional game.

Review for Twine version:

In this updated review, I'll mainly focus on the differences between the two versions, while a summary of the content can be found in my original review below.

Transitioning to Twine altered the feel mechanics of the game in an interesting way. The original setup was more or less 'one correct action at a time', leading to the next possible action. Due to the nature of parser games, the main interaction with the game was trying to guess the correct command to proceed.

By limiting the set of possible commands through Twine links, this revision on one hand eases the pain of 'guess the verb', but on the other hand limits the feel of exploration. I think it's a net positive, though, as the interface with its inventory and 'nested' sub-links still allows for a feeling of achievement.

My expectations for parser games and twine games are different, so seeing this game in Twine gave me a new viewpoint on the storyline. It's not unusual for parser games to flimsy plots and bizarre settings, as many classic games like Adventure and Zork focused more on interesting set-pieces rather than cohesive storytelling. But Twine has a history of attracting expert storytellers, so the bar is set higher.

There's a lot that doesn't make sense in this game. Why is there an entire chest, locked, containing (Spoiler - click to show)a single gold ring? Why is there (Spoiler - click to show)an altar that requires sacrifice, but that sacrifice isn't killed, just trapped inside? Later on, most of these concerns are addressed, because it sets up (Spoiler - click to show)the second playthrough(Spoiler - click to show) as a resolution for many of these questions, but it's a bit bewildering on the first go through. On the other hand, the game is influenced by the Conan series of books, movies, comics, etc. and there is perhaps no better way to show tribute to the original writing style than to have a flamboyant, bigger-than-life story that doesn't quite make sense but allows Conan to hit a lot of things really hard.

Overall, I felt like this was a satisfying play. It has different strengths and weaknesses than the original, and I think I ended up liking both version about the same. I did laugh at the jokes the second time and enjoyed the details in the writing, and I feel like overall the 'Conan-style' writing is my favorite feature of the game.

Original review:

This game is one whose development I have followed for some time.

This is a parser game set in a Conan The Barbarian-like world, with a muscular barbarian king who travels about fighting monsters and wizards and generally destroying things.

There is a cast of memorable NPCs and the writing has a strong voice, with complete customization of almost all messages and a rich setting.

This was originally developed in conjunction with the single choice jam; this game, instead of having exactly one action in the whole game, like most other entries, has exactly one correct action in each location (or, more appropriately, only one allowed action in each point in the game, since some rooms require consecutive correct actions).

There is also a limit on available verbs (customized to have clever names), so that means that at any point, to progress, you need to figure out which of the available verbs to use. Theoretically, this means that you could progress at any point just by trying all of the verbs on all of the nouns. The author works around this by frequently requiring unusual or surprising combinations.

Overall, it took me around 1.5 hours, and I found it clever and richly descriptive.

This review is for the newer version of the game. I'll mostly be focusing on changes between the versions. The original review can be found below.

The biggest thing that struck me on initial play was the addition of AI-generated graphics and helpful windows on the side. But after completing, the biggest thing that struck me was the overall increase in code smoothness and good programming.

AI art has been controversial recently due to its being trained on artist's content against their will. I've seen it in a lot of games recently, and I find it tends not to contribute much as the art is often inconsistent. However, I definitely think it adds something here. Maybe it's because the well-known nature of the story it's based on has produced a lot of art over the years, or maybe because the writing itself is more utility-focused and so is complimented by art.

I did struggle with the side windows; the inventory one shows up just fine, but on both gargoyle and lectrote, I couldn't get the topics window to show up. Thankfully, typing TOPICS works just fine.

I liked the timing aspect in the new ending and the whole 'future' area in general much more this time around. I definitely feel like this is an overall improvement to the game.

Original review:

I beta tested this game.

This game is an adaptation of a static fiction story. This is something very hard to do well in a parser game; I've tried it myself and more or less failed, and so have many others. This game runs into a lot of the same problems: a faithful adaptation assumes a linear plot, while a parser game is centered around freedom of expression.

This game implements a house with many mentioned details but few which are usable. There are bugs, such as when one attempts to break a window (not needed in the game).

Plot wise, it doesn't follow the book directly, but instead starts after the action of the first one, allowing you to prove to the world that the time machine is real. The whole setup makes it seem like it will be very complex, but in reality there are only 2-3 puzzles and the whole game can be completed in very few steps.

This is an interesting game, entered into the Text Adventure Literacy Jam. It explores a small village and hotel in rural Japan, and includes a variety of Japanese monsters.

The emphasis here is definitely on introducing aspects of Japan to outsiders; I see the author has, on the itch page, credited others with help on being accurate, which is nice. The game goes into loving detail over the names of different mats, cabinets, etc. and includes a notepad with interesting terms and an encyclopedia/dictionary to look them up in.

My favorite part was the ending reveal, which I didn't see coming at all but seemed clear in retrospect.

The game does suffer a bit in implementation. Many objects are referred to by names that you cannot use for them (like 'friend' for your friend) and you can only CONSULT BOOK ABOUT _____ instead of LOOK UP _____ IN BOOK (which I could have sworn was Inform's default behavior anyway). A few interactions weren't clear to me (at one point I had no money, but once I did it didn't show up in inventory and I could buy tons of different things).

Overall, the enthusiasm of the author in presenting Japan feels like a big positive. My only drawbacks were some of the above-mentioned implementation issues, and a moderate lack of variation in the narrator's emotional tone, but they were enough to limit my overall enjoyment.

This game was entered in the Text Adventure literacy jam. It includes a brief tutorial where you take a nap, encounter a violent earthquake and are led to another world lying underneath yours!

The gameplay revolves around exploring the fantasy world, picking up items, often magical, and using them, frequently through the use of riddles.

The game makes heavy use of AI art to provide location images. It provides vivid and detailed images, but due to lack of consistent themes it made it difficult to really imagine the way things were.

I found the gameplay both polished and unpolished. On the one hand, several puzzles were well-clued and suggested the commands to be used. On the other hand, some simple things were difficult to do (to go to sleep, I couldn't SLEEP or ENTER BED but had to LIE DOWN ON BED, for instance). A frequent issue I encountered was that the solution to one problem was often very far away from the problem itself, which meant that a lot of the game involved just grabbing everything and hoping it would eventually be useful. You may say, 'but all games are like that! Zork! Adventureland!' and that is true, so if you liked the gameplay in those games you may like this style. I played about 1/3 on my own and used a walkthrough for the rest.

Somehow the story and setting felt like it was consistent in each scene but not consistent altogether. There is an overarching story with recurring characters, but outside of that a lot is random. The world is accessed through a ravine in your world, so it's like a 'portal' story. But then you go through another portal, so it's like an isekai within an isekai, but the second portal journy isn't really remarked on. You go from unused stairways to a city and from descending a dungeon area to being outdoors. Things like a pirate are included, but why? Plot points are repeated, like your cat running off and you rescuing her. Nevertheless, each component was fun.

Overall, it was interesting, and felt a lot like a playthrough of AI dungeon, except it's a single story, not a collection of them. So the best part of the game for me was the sense that everything would be new and unexpected in each new area, but I missed a sense of cohesiveness and purpose.

This is a polished parser game entered in the Text Adventure Literacy Jam.

In it, you find that Mother Goose was kidnapped, and you have to save her! On the way, you'll encounter many of the characters from Mother Goose's fairy tales.

Gameplay is classic parser style, with most of gameplay revolving around taking and dropping objects, using objects with clearly-defined uses, and talking with NPCs.

There is an odd feature of the game, where most of the time the use of an object is directly told you ('you should search this', 'you can open it', 'you can PUT IT ON something'), but other times you're merely told what you can not do, often with objects where some use would make sense. For instance, I was stymied when (Spoiler - click to show)the game told me that I needed to hide my smell, and I had (Spoiler - click to show)perfume, but the game only said (Spoiler - click to show)you don't feel like putting on the perfume. I felt like that was pretty frustrating. I found a different item later, but I thought it odd that the game had a clear solution which was just ruled out as a preference. A similar thing happened with (Spoiler - click to show)the need to make a loud sound and (Spoiler - click to show)the gunpowder. While I've spent a long time on this, these frustrations were only a part of the game and the rest was overall smooth.

I enjoyed the writing in general. The characters, while true to the stories, were also more flirtatious and/or violent than many modern adaptations of nursery rhymes, holding more true to the original versions.

Overall, a well-made game.

The trouble with parser games is that players can type in literally anything and hope to get a reasonable response out. This causes problems when the player enters something that seems logical to them which the game rejects.

There are two ways of addressing this: training players on a standardized set of verbs, so they enter a narrower range of commands, and programming more responses into your engine/game.

This game is a custom C# engine. Unfortunately, it doesn't recognize as wide a range of commands as most of the popular parser engines do, and it doesn't use common player-recognized commands and shortcuts like I and L, so it's missing both ways to keep player frustration at bay. I ended up frustrated a lot. I couldn't even read the initial text, as it scrolled off screen and mouse and arrow keys didn't move it (althought pg dn eventually did).

There are buttons and an extra text field, designed to make the task easier, which helped. But overall I think that the author vastly underestimated the ability of players (including me) to type exactly the wrong thing, over and over.

Combined with this, the game does not save or undo (and I had to manually exit to restart), and it has several instant deaths and other ways to lock yourself out of victory (I had to restart on two different occasions because I GAVE something TO someone, which the game accepted, but they didn't give it back).

The storyline is that you are in a dungeon cell where Excalibur has appeared, in the stone, and you have to escape. There are a few segments with fairies, but that's the end of this preview.

As a C# project made in a month this is very impressive, so much so that I would be impressed by this if I were on a hiring committee. As a parser game among many other parser games, it falls a bit flat. I don't know if the author reads IFDB reviews, but I'd suggest looking at some other current parser games to see what's possible in terms of responsiveness, and/or running more cycles of feedback with having people test the game and see what commands could be implemented to smooth gameplay.