Reviews by manonamora

Murder at the Manor is a short pulpy murder-mystery game, where you play as Detective Picton, tasked to solve the an unsolvable case. The game, however, only lets you interrogate the different suspects. The corpse and murder weapon have been sent for testing, and you don't even get to investigate really where the murder took place. You only get information about the case through the suspects' answers (who give very little, throwing blame on one another).

With the murdered chosen at random with every game, the whole mystery relies on a he-said-she-said about each other's alibis - each suspect never changing their location but sometimes changing their stance on whether they saw the other NPCs. After talking to everyone (which you are forced to because the butler is weirdly invested in being part of the investigation), you can accuse someone and the game ends. You are told whether your choice was correct or not in an ending sequence, which, if you were successful, mention how tight your investigation was, with a folder full of evidence (WHERE?).

Because of its length, and the surface-levelness of the investigation, neither the good or the bad ending feel quite satisfying. You accuse someone and thrown forward in time to after the court case, told only of the result. Not knowing why the suspect would murder the major, or even how they could have done it... what was the point of it? Where is the conflict? Why was there a murder in the first place? How could they have done it?

I restarted the game a handful of times, randomly picked a suspect without going through the whole interrogation... and managed to get the correct murderer half the time. I think it would have worked better if you could actually do some investigating, searching for actual clues, maybe get the coroner's report or more information about the weapon, or pressing for motives.

On the interface side, the chosen colours for the links made it pretty hard to read with the dark background. The "Undo" button wasn't working either when you reach the end. There didn't seem to be a "Restart" button either.

In the format of a kinetic visual novel (you have *one* choice that doesn't affect anything), the story follows an almost fusional couple, brought together by a traumatic event. With surprisingly similar principled values (pretty conservative and somewhat condescending views on relationships and intimacy), the couple faces a bump in their relationship when Patty Nicole starts behaving strangely.

Unable to go to certain spots or to talk about what is bothering her, the games makes it obvious what happened to her (CW: (Spoiler - click to show)attempted assault), though it does it with a twist ((Spoiler - click to show) the assault wasn't physical at the end, because she escaped him, but he cursed her by "removing space" with magic???). Honestly, it feels like trying to make some sort of allegory for sexual assault on pure/virginal women, but spoiling it with its implementation of an otherworldly/fantastical element. SA is a very touchy subject, and the game handled it carelessly.

The games lays it on thick on the critique of society, especially the loose morals, individualism, and the focus on money rather than relationships. It comes out as pretty patronising, especially when opposite values are presented to the couple -- if you don't follow their principles you are bad -- and almost childish.

And that's without going into the last third of the game, where the couple deals with the Patty Nicole's issues, which weirdly turns into some sort of anime-like fight, with the big baddy monologue before the "power of love" punch ends it all. It does cheapen the whole thing...

In the format of a kinetic visual novel (there really aren't any choices), the story follows an Harvester - an otherworldly being who 'harvests' human memories - on a case: a young woman wanting to erase the memories of her former lover and the child she gave away.

I... don't know what to take from the game honestly. I can't say what the message of the story was. It seemed to be critical of one-night stands and loose morals - almost condescendingly, with pushing the almost unattainable 'pure love' - while dealing very carelessly with the situation of a child ((Spoiler - click to show)in what world was the child given away without getting the father's approval?? when the father was told about the pregnancy and birth? It seemed to hint the child was some months old?). It was as if the story put itself into a corner with having the child involved into the woman's back story and just... yeeted it away when it became too cumbersome. That was... very uncomfortable.

As for the climax of the game, the story kinda pulls the rug from under you, by having the Harvester (Spoiler - click to show)"seeing the light" and becoming a human because of what he witnessed with that case. I don't really get how *this* was the turning point for them to change this way. It felt a bit cheap?

I did like the introduction of the game, with the exposition of Harvesters and one of the humans who used their services.
I thought it could have been more interesting following *that* person after losing their memories...

I had completely forgotten about this short story until I tried to pick up the cookies. I thought this was going to be a Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die type of game, with multiple possible actions - but the game adapts more faithfully the short story than the title may let on.

The game does encapsulate the story pretty well in a parser format, leaving you with little to do but follow the events of the story (I did try to not pick up a cookie first...). It's pretty concise and very Adam.

I was not prepared to feel that secondhand embarrassment again...

When it comes to time-loops settings and gameplay, Tabitha always delivers. This time taking a more silly approach to the genre, with you playing as a "dumbass time agent" that ends their missions in the stupidest of ways (essentially winging it). The goal here is to get through a guarded door. Simple, right?

WRONG!
Who Thought trying to get through a measly door with just one guard would be so difficult!

With each passage are given a couple of options, each branching into other set of choice, until you either manage to enter the building or reach a dead end. The game also lets you reset the loop from the start. Resetting will sometimes add new options (when you uncover information).
There are 3 ways to properly end the game, with 4 achievements to get.

Each path is pretty silly, tricking the guard by confusing him, or distracting him. There are tons of funny one-liners and hilarious exchanges (I laughed so hard at the (Spoiler - click to show)UNO-Reverse No, I'm your therapist option). The third ending was so stupidly funny!

I had a bit of an issue with how the learned knowledge was displayed on the page (with the oldest bit disappearing from the page), but changing the colours of the links, to display which path had been taken or which led to a dead end, was really helpful when starting a new loop!

Word-play-ish parser my beloathed… (/jk)

Through exploration and mini-puzzles are part of the game, its central mechanic relies on the player trying to find the word for a special command to navigate through the coded world. While the commands [help] and [hint] are not configured, the descriptions/responses of actions or discussions with the NPCs (and incidentally the name of the game) hint at what that word could be.

I needed to restart the game a couple of times, because I kept being stuck in one room that required that command to exit it (and since I hadn't found it then, there was nothing else I could do). The game does advise you to restart and explore a different part of the world if your get stuck as well - so you can get another hint that would get you closer to the end.
[I thankfully got some help from super-parser players, after going through a list of potential word and being super frustrated...]

Even with the frustration of being forced to restart and getting stuck again and again, and trying way too many words, the game is still delightfully funny, especially in the responses from the game!

You play an (older?) gentleman doing some late night groceries after a long day. Most of it is pretty mundane and uninteresting, until you see some fresh gnocchi in the pasta aisle. Your mind can only think of the last time you had those, in Rome. Around you, the shelves block your view to the other aisles, and a brunette woman stands a few meters away, filling her trolley with pots of sauce.

And in this aisle you stop your trolley, waiting on what to do next.

Though I never found more than a few dozens by myself/with the French IF peeps, there are over 136 actions producing an ending in this game. 136! Whether you interact with yourself or your environment, there are a lot more you can explore with this very restrained environment.

Even if the experiment of one-action-the-end is truly amusing and insanely entertaining (who doesn't like a treasure hunt for all 136 endings), it is the writing that shines the most in this piece. The game is humourous, and dark, has bits of lightness, and becomes incredibly sordid, it is sad and genuinely touching... It can say so much with so very little. Truly incredible.

Through the endings, a backstory forms around the PC. Or maybe two or three. He had a wife, went to Rome with her, but something happened (death/illness/something else?), and he was left alone. It is not truly clear what happened to his wife, or the PC's involvement in said disappearance/death, but what is certain is the pain and the guilt the PC still feels after all this time (has it be years, by now?), making him unable to form new connections with people, leaving him truly and completely alone. What stays is his fond memory of that trip to Rome and those gnocchi he ate there...

I should probably preface this review by saying I've never read Hamlet (or Shakespeare's work) outside of lone lines or loose adaptations (I think the Lion King/Dune applies?). And while I know there are murders, betrayals, unrequited feelings, madness and monologues galore, the game does not punish you for not knowing the intricacies of the text. Because the story is set after Hamlet's death... and it is not really about Hamlet either.

E:aH uses Hamlet as a framing device to explore the themes of grief, the fear of and hopelessness about death, and identity (esp. Asian American), when living through a global pandemic. During this period, many of us have experienced grief and hardship, from not being able to meet people, to losing family members, seeing one's health worsen, or being subject to violence from others... And within its 15k+ words, this game creates a snapshot filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Yet, amidst the depressing setting, the prose is parsed with humour, little gems bringing levity to the story.

The story happens in two folds: you working on your assignment, trying to suppress worries about your loved ones and the state of the world, and your hallucinations(?) set in Elsinore, imagining events following the end of the play. Both somewhat mirroring or criticising the other. You struggle to find something meaningful to say about the the text, while Horatio scolds you for downplaying their agency as people. A "plague" starts in Elsinore, which you notice from a servant coughing. you share comforting words to Horatio and compassion for his situation, recalling times of struggles during the "war" against COVID and the violence some were forced to endure because of their ethnicity.

The game feels like a critique of the text, through the added character of Petra challenging the crown while passive Ophelia goes mad, or a critique of some reading of the text, like with the comments about the relationships between Horatio and Hamlet. The critiques are sometimes a bit more blunt, with the player character roasting Hamlet for derailing his father's quest (meeting his demise) or his poor treatment towards other characters (esp. Ophelia).

While the UI strayed very little from the basic Harlowe base, it does utilise the enchantment macros in an interesting manner, often enhancing the player character's feelings, a few even added to the hallucination assumptions (especially when ignoring the first sign). Some of the strangely formatted text will hide the way to advance through the story. I wasn't particularly fan some typed text (a bit too slow) or timed ones (wait a bit too long), and one hidden link was biiit too obtuse to find - but it didn't detract my overall enjoyment of the story.

But as every story, this too must end. So let's finish with the endings. The game has 7 possible endings. Some easier to get than others; some longer than others; some good, some bad, some neither. I reached the shorter ones more easily than the longer ones. Depending on your choices, the story will confirm these hallucinations were just a dream or will let you believe you are still trapped in Elsinore; you may reach a bittersweet end where your heart lightened, or one sharing the same fate as Ophelia. Out of those, I think I preferred the ones where the isekai theme was the more obvious, regardless of how forceful the return to reality is, as it mirrored best the start of the game and felt more like a closing the circle moment.

Please Answer Carefully is a very, very short game. And yet, in a few passages and very few words, it manages to pack a heavy punch. I remember this game being my introduction to litrouke's catalogue, leaving me pretty sick at the end (my review on itch at the time: So creepy. I felt nauseous at the end even. Great game!). It is a great example that you don't need much to make something impactful.

The survey starts pretty tame, with some very boring questions about internet use and communication habits. The UI is very simple and smooth, with fancy poll-like animation (the question cards disappearing when answered). Until...

(Spoiler - click to show)... a glitch appears in question 5, showing a probing personal question that should definitely not be there. It soon disappears, replaced by the expected question card. Further down the survey, you are given an extra option (I'm being watched right now), a strange dummy question asking about forgiveness, and further live-reaction to your answer. Soon, you lose your ability to answer anything else than what the "survey" gives you.

By question 7, it should be clear you are being stalked by someone, to the point they have found a way to break into your device and contact you through a simple survey. No matter how you answer, they are there watching you, trying to get to you.

On its own, PCA is very creepy. But as a woman on the internet having lived adjacent situation, the game truly captured that unsettling (at best) feeling...

It is a very effective psychological horror game.

Pageant follows Qiuyi (Karen) Zhao (mentioned as Karen below), a Chinese teenager living in the US, as she navigates through school and extra-curriculars, relationships and identity, family expectations and community, and the pageant her parents signed up for. Through limited storylets choice, you can carve Karen's priorities and relationships.

Pageant was created with Dendry, a storylet narrative program, where the player get to experience linear side-stories in fragmented way. Every week, the player can pick up to three options from the storylet lists to start or continue a path. As the list is often longer than three options, the player is forced to make choices and prioritise a certain path (a recurring gameplay type in Autumn's games). This makes for great and interesting replayability!

The story start with Karen being summoned by her parents, revealing that they signed her up for a pageant, happening in three months. There is no bargaining no quitting (it's good for college apps!). In three months, Karen will be on that podium*. During that prep period, she still needs to balance school (a full AP curriculum), the Science Olympiad, doing an understudy with a college professor (also set up by your parents), having dinner with your family, going to bible study on the weekend, and etc... Doesn't this sound like too much for a high school student? And was it yet mentioned that Karen is a socially awkward mess, who has trouble making relationships, is full of anxiety and self-loathing, struggling with her identity as a Chinese teenager in the US (her used name not being her birthname, and having the option to butcher your name's pronunciation) and a closeted lesbian (or something like that says the game).
*well, there is a way.

Along the way you are introduced to a handful of characters: Emily, a trans woman still in the closet, Aubrey, a girl Karen had a crush on also part of the Science Olympiad team, and Miri, Karen's only friend. There is also Karen's parents and her little brother, Kevin; Professor Chen and his grad student; the rest of the Science Olympiad Team; and the other families attending the Church. Through out the game (and your choices) you get to learn more about these characters, like how Emily deals with her family's trans/homophobia, or Miri's feelings towards you, your family's history...* The storylets really shine here, giving you crumbles here and there, forcing you to piece those back together (and forces you down a certain path to learn everything).
*Even after playing multiple times, I have yet to found all variations.

And at the centre of it all, Karen, the very flawed teenager. Yet, even with her self-deprecation and anxious spirals, with the awkward way she interacts with other people, with dealing with different cultural values and expectations about her life, or with her inability to stand up to herself (partly because of her guilt of "having it easy" compared to older generations), Karen stays a character you want to root for. You want to help her win that pageant and be more sure of herself. You want her to be more confident in her identity (and get a girlfriend). You want her to find her passions (in science?) and win accolades. You want to pluck her from her stressful world, wrap her in a blanket, kiss her on her forehead, and tell her that everything will be ok.

The whole game is filled with such genuine interactions, with teenagers blurting out their deepest secrets to strangers, declaring their love to one another even after but a few meetings, being self-loathing with a self they don't recognise or don't want to be anymore but unable to leave that shell, trying to handle the stress and anxiety of the expectations of others and not being able to reach those. And those are made all the more vibrant through Karen's inability to react "properly". Faced with bad and worse choices, you get to experience that anxiety of what would happen if I say or do the wrong thing. It feels genuine, because it feels real and lived through.

As the ending came around, and you get the rundown of Karen's actions, it felt like, while winning the pageant is definitely one/the goal, the journey was much sweeter than the destination. And that's what keeps making me want to come back to it...