Reviews by manonamora

Sending you back to class, this entry tasks you with translating a Russian poem by Anna Akhmatova as your final assignment for a course you are taking. A poem (or the task of embodied translation), the teacher hopes will serve you in the future.
I should add there that I don’t understand Russian, nor had I come across this poem before. Went in there blind.

While most of the text will be translated by simply hovering your mouse over the text, the game will, in parts, give you choices (always in 3) to translate specific groups of words. With repetition in words, some choices are simpler than others. Even if not chosen, all choices should be clicked (~delicious flavour text~). Finally, you must choose a title!
I boringly compared the words of the title to the first line of the poem and wrote just that… I also played the game by not touching the translation bit, just continuing to the next passage, and the translated poem was so very funny in a stressed student doing in an exam way.

Then comes the painful process of waiting to hear back from your professor… or your boyfriend…
The poem itself is quite sad, and, as hinted by the game, might be mirroring your relationship…

This almost-kinetic entry time-jumps 10 years after Cinderella’s tales, giving snippets into her life as Queen of the realm. As her life is described from her perspective, it becomes clearer the title of the game reads more sarcastically as one might think. Overall, the piece was much darker than expected…
Parsed through the story are the lyrics of Labour by Paris Paloma, mirroring Cinderella’s life after escaping the clutches of her step-family. But it leaves you to wonder if she truly escaped that life or if only the walls of house just changed.
The entry seem to have perhaps taken a more realistic take of what would probably have happened to Cinderella after marrying the Prince (if based on the 17th-century iteration), considering the place, status and duties of a Monarch’s wife.
Overall, this was an interesting mashup of a fairytale and song lyrics.

Through the writing of a letter, parsed with words left unsaid/unwritten, this short kinetic entry deals with a loss of a close relationship, because of unrequited feelings and different expectations. It is touching in its tragedy, heartbreaking in its commonness.
In very few words, this entry beautifully encapsulates the end of something that is often stronger than romantic partnership. And how mixed feelings can tear someone apart.
The addition of sound and animation were a lovely touch as well.

Ever fudged so badly in your relationship you wished you had a time machine/trinket to go back and fix your mistakes by actually doing and saying the right things to save what is almost lost?
This is something that Tiel doesn't need to worry about, as his grandmother left him a neat little pocketwatch, allowing him to save his relationship... if he plays his card correctly.
Through a thread of choices, your actions will determine which ending you will receive, and whether you will manage to save your relationship.
Still, regardless of the end post, Heron's criticisms only resonate ever so louder with every new cycle. Sure, you may be acknowledging eir hurt and needs, but are you truly doing this selflessly? Don't you invalidate eir choice, the one triggering the story, by going back in time until you succeed in your goal or relent in your defeat?
The game does not just do time loop incredibly successfully, it also raises quite the moral questions about slippery slopes when rewinding time...

In this retelling of the Jenny Greenteeth folktale , you meet the titular character by the shore of a pond. Though it takes little for you to become entranced by her “charms”. Eyes, hands, mouths, hair… you cannot look away from the murky sight before you, let alone pull away from her grasp. Not like you truly want to pull away…
The horror oozes from the prose, its nails scratching your brain until it leaves a mark, leaving you wanting to wander by the lake, and once more meet the creature of your(?) desires?

I want to preface that this game was insane, and pushed all the right buttons for me. Is it genius? I think so. At least the ending I got was to me.

As a manic pixie dream girl, you are tasked by the Agency of Narrative Intervention to help the main characters of the short stories to fulfill their potentials, by making it all about “yourself”. Break some hearts, break some love, break some chains… But never become enmeshed with the story.
That is until…
… the story feels… off. And your role doesn’t quite fit anymore… You may choose to push through and finish your work, or maybe follow that strange character trying to make you question everything you know (was it your manic pixie dream girl?).

Along with some sort of red/blue pill choice, the ever changing UI almost pushes you down a path, one you might feel too afraid to take, one which could set you free? Yet, are you doomed to repeat the stories you were once tasked to change?

A really interesting and mind-blowing entry!

There is probably nothing more anti-romance than a couple on a verge of a break-up; when the spark is not just gone but harming both parties (in this case, one more than the other). A fight is how the story starts, full of resentment and misplaced hurt. Setting expectations that behind the bright UI of the entry, darkness looms ahead.

And yet, this is not the path the story takes. It does not wallow (for long) in the misery of hurt feelings, despair over failures, or doubles down in the hurt in the hopes to salvage the doomed relationship. Instead, it takes the path of healing and love - for oneself and others but with a healthier view and supportive friends.
Love is an action you choose to do, how you show people you care about them.

As a final point, the formatting of the story inside chat rooms was so fitting. Each user had their own distinct voice, that barely needed the username to know who was writing which message. The addition of typos during emotional moments, especially for Sylvia, were a great touch!

It is rare that I am enthralled by prose that flows through the page, and yet feeling nothing but confusion as I read through it. While I would usually stop reading and give up on a piece that I do not understand, here I stayed, hoping the story would fall into place and everything would make sense in the end.
It, however, did not do that. The conversations you have with other characters is interspersed with your thoughts or environmental descriptions, neither completely fitting in a way. I ended wondering if this was some sort of sci-fi/mystical retelling of some Ancient Greek mythos… or just vibes.
Yet… I could not look away… the prose kept pulling me through the passages, only leaving me hanging, stranded, by the end…
Was this maybe the point of this entry?

Oh, the pains of unrequited love! Their presence hurts with your feelings not being returned, but their absence hurt even worse. And what torture to spend an evening with the object of your love, in quiet spot, in the ever-so romantic setting of waiting for shooting stars. There are moments that could create a spark (a brush of a finger, some unsaid words), but reality always catches up to you.

They will never love you the way you love them. You ache for them to, but you don't seem to mind the hurt either...

Quite nicely expressed.

What’s the worst that could happen when missing your alarm? Here, being locked inside the hotel, after the owner has shut it down for the season. Without a phone to call for help, you are left to your devices to find a way out.
The puzzle is pretty simple (click on the correct links to progress), and quite reminiscent of parsers/text adventures (I would see this one as a pretty cute beginner entry imo).
Nice job!