Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

Kel Versus the Kitchen is a short meter-sensitive Twine, where you play as teenage Kel, walking in on a frenzy family affair, of getting ready for dinner. Before you can even take off your shoes, you are commandeered to do this and that, and blamed for things essentially out of your control. The entry does a pretty good job at depicting that stressful moment before guests arrive and nothing is truly ready. Very chaotic!! Depending on the choices made, which may decrease your/everyone’s patience, you will get one of the four endings, from frustrating to cathartic. But it’s pretty fun to try to find them all!

The eight-headed giant is a micro parser where you are some sort of fantasy office drone about to go face your eight-headed giant boss, and do an important presentation. But before you get into it sword swinging, you need to go around the office and get ready (i.e. collect all that you need). It’s pretty railroady and simple to solve, but I still manage to get stuck because I forgot to do the most important thing: FACE the giant xD
Also a neat thing: it has cool ASCII art!

you are an ancient chinese poet in exile is a short poetic day in the life of an Ancient Chinese poet in exile. Almost kinetic, with subtle variation between your choice of activities, you wake up in a beautiful scenic location, alone and maybe a bit lonely too, filling your day with distractions and reminiscing over your fate, sealing the day with a few poetic lines. It is delightful, both in the calmness of the setting, the bitterness of past events, and the melancholy of it all. Lovely!

To Let Go is a short interactive exploration piece between the ever changing state of nature and bustling speed of change in cities. Though, it seems somewhat a rejection of modernity, looking down on the city “winning” the fight against the woods, technological advancement ruining the natural state of the world. Maybe a bit naive in its nihilistic view. Disregarding the beauty and good.

I don’t know what to make of the interactivity. Coupled with timed text, you go back and forth between passages as some paths are locked until you see a specific text. I wasn’t always sure whether I needed to wait longer to see if a new link would pop up or if I had to try another path first. I did like the different text animation between the “city” and the “forest” sections.

A Mind to Call Home is a tiny adventure where you play as a Space parasite worm, jumping from one host to the next (or not) in hopes to live a long life an die of old age. There seem to be three major deeds to achieve between four hosts. So you need to balance your health and the host’s to get to them. I don’t think it’s possible to do more than one at a time? Some seemed easier than others (I reached one of them on my first run).

Liminal is a micro visual novel about two exes meeting each other on the street by accident, and strike up an awkward conversation… or are they?
This short-VN, with gorgeous (hand-painted!!!) visual and impeccable voice-acting does a great job at portraying that first meeting post-breakup, when things have sort of settled, but still hurt. The familiarity between two people, but forced somewhat to be distance, even with lingering feelings. The attention to certain details might seem strange, until the end. Then everything get into places, and it feels much sadder than it started.
A gorgeous piece!

would you remember is a kinetic Twine one-sided conversation between a recently passed woman and her still-living wife. It is a piece about grief and love, and those we leave behind. It is strange how it gives a raw depiction of grief from an outsider onlooker (the woman is “present” but only in a spectral? sense), yet still be so personal in the choice of details depicted. An emotional out-of-body monologue.

vanitas is a gothic interactive piece, following the death of an immortal, exploring grief and love for the departed. The prose is very luscious and delectable, full of imagery. The hurt is omnipresent, as the variation options often go from bad to worse, and the end made uncertain, leaving you to endlessly cycle through the final option. Surrounding the text are illustrations of lilies, symbolising purity and rebirth (an opposition to the characters), often used for funeral and burials. Very atmospheric and tragic.

pavement & rain is a short Twine conversation between a doctor and a failed nurse following the death of a young girl. Between the voiced words and the retrospection, the prose tell us with little words about the bleak setting, the current situation of the characters and their relationship. Yet, it leaves us with even more questions.

Food Offering is a micro fantasy Twine, in which you must deal with a rude fae. Like the title suggests, a food offering is in order to be free. Just a bite and a drink. You have a choice of snack to offer, and a drink-mixing mini-puzzle to complete. But you must watch out: if you choose the wrong combination, you’ll get cursed!
It’s a really cute short game, with adorable illustrations. It was fun trying to get all the different endings.