Reviews by manonamora
French
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La roche tombée du ciel. is a short fantasy demo made in Moiki, where you play as some sort of old herbalist getting ready for the tax collector’s visit in a couple of days. The problem is, you are certain you won’t be able to meet what is demanded in time, your bones are too old and it is too early in the season. Until, something comes visit you at night…
Out of the 4 expected playable day, you are able to play two of them: one where a neighbour warns you of the early tax visit, and one where that “something” arrives. Each of these days, you are able to tend to your garden, checking on each plant, watering them or giving them extra fertiliser, or check your notes. To keep you warm, you might even need to cut down a tree and get some wood. There’s EVEN A DOG YOU CAN PET AND PLAY WITH!
But you are limited in what you can do. Because you are old, these actions will take you quite a bit of energy (expect playing with the dog), which is only filled up by sleeping (which includes too many empty passages imo). Honestly, I could have played this loop for the rest of the game and feel very content with the game (I’m a sucker for those management-type games).
Still, I am intrigued to see how the mysterious “something” will come to play here.
Un foyer étudiant is a relatively short interactive game made in INK, when you are a student, moving to the capital. Not being able to stay with relatives, you check out a student residence, to see if it works for you. The game is meant to be a prologue for a larger project.
Though the setting might seem mundane, the game has a lot more than it lets on. Sure, you can learn about the different accommodations in the building, and how the current residents are behaving, or what you should expect. You can talk to the receptionist for information, a group of bros (limited questions), and a woman reading silently, each being more or less useful in giving you answers. And then… there’s the bulleting board. Filled with flyers of all sorts, you might end up going down a rabbit hole of informations, both random and relevant to the setting. From available activities to random art pieces, students looking for love or pawning their books, there is a lot you can learn there.
This game is very rich in details, and it makes you wanting to learn more about what is truly happening in the building (there are some hints of a mystery afoot). But I wished we knew a bit more about our character, considering the implications of certain elements. Finding accommodations as a student requires money, and the NPCs mention that as well when describing the different room types, but when you sign up there are no mention of this (who signs up for a room without even checking the prices?).
I do wonder how the story will continue.
Un Songe sans fin is a relatively short Moiki game where you play as the Mère Michel (from the nursery rhyme), a depressed older woman, who lost her cat, her partner and her job, AND can’t manage to sleep anymore. You were prescribe a strong pill to help, which… worked a bit too well. Will you find a way out of this strange and surreal place? Will you manage to wake up?
Being in a dream, the setting is obviously surreal (you first meet cats playing AIR-PING-PONG!), the objects around you are nonsensical too (the BABELFISH xD)…
and your available actions are not even closer to logical either. In the great French IF tradition, you can lick and taste many objects, like you would… the sun (which you can pick up, at your own risk and peril…). The prose is humorous to boot!
What cracked me up the most, was the Prairie Informe section. This game was originally meant to be a parser in Inform, but, due to time constraint, was transferred to Moiki at the last moment. Still, remnants of the other engine can be found in the page layout, choices available, and responses. It does give extra charm to the game.
Really a fun and cheeky time.
CINERIP is a surreal and horror interactive story made in Moiki. Freshly moved into a new city, you and your parter are invited to a secret free preview of a movie, an adaptation of a book you like quite a bit. So secret that you are given special instructions to get into the screening. Will you tempt the fates to see this much awaited masterpiece?
This was truly a wild and creepy experience. From the start, you are introduced as someone with stressors, unwilling to get yourself out there (maybe because of your past? probably because of who you are), needing to be pushed and pulled to meet people. Doubts often cross your mind at propositions of meeting people and having fun in social situations. Are your worries unfounded here? Maybe, maybe not… I didn’t expect where the story was taking me, not in the way that it did after reading the warnings. But I was engrossed in the whole so quickly that I restarted the game again and again trying to find all 500+ screens (I’m at 363…).
The narration gives just enough to hint at something greater, without revealing the big moment. Tensions slowly rises, from doubts crossing your mind to more anxiety-filled moments heightened by the Quick Time Event mechanic and strident background music. One sequence has a deep voice reading the words on the screen (the author’s?) which was so creepy!
This was a really neat game.
Zigamus : Zombies au Vigamus is a parser game set in a video game museum, where you must fight a horde of zombies to escape (and save the museum, maybe) - zombies that appeared when you tried the museum’s new game. Because the zombies came from a video game, defeating them won’t always be as straight forward as just hitting or shooting them.
I found myself being frustrated with the game, as synonyms are not always implemented (I can “play game” but can’t “play arcade” for example) or actions giving an incorrect reply (hitting a zombie with a game cartridge gave me an error message that I couldn’t hit it with a chainsaw), or just getting a ‘this is not important’ when interacting with a mentioned item. I’m sure there was logic behind some of the actions you have to take, based probably on some mystical game lore, but I’m still confused about the dentures…
I ended up checking the Club Floyd’s transcript of the English version to get passed some of the blocks
Though it is possible to get all 50 points when completing the game, you can also fail miserably by trying to fight the main boss before getting all the items around the museum or fighting all the zombies (and here I thought killing the big baddy would insta-kill everything I might have missed). I don’t thing you can’t win the game without all 50 points anyway.
Not enjoying zombies, I appreciated the version without the images on the side. Also, since part of the puzzle is rescuing NPCs, I did like being able to take my time to get to and save them.
Vesna is a fantasy Twine games about stories and telling stories. Wanting to leave everything behind, especially other people (because l’enfer c’est vraiment les autres…), you stumble upon the empty village of Vesna. Between the dilapidated buildings, and the clear signs of abandonment, you happily settle yourself to enjoy the peace and quiet. Until… you find Liv, the village’s chief, who promise you an easy-going life and fixed up village, if you attract passers-by with your stories. As you do so, breathing new life into the village, you will learn about its past, how it came to end up in this state, and a mysterious secret…
The game revolves around two fun mechanics: telling stories and exploring the village’s surroundings.
. In the first, you are able to craft stories by picking the genre, moving sliders to find the correct balance of emotions, and choose some themes. The first and last options are limited at the start. Recount your story under a tree to passers-by, who will either tell you that you should definitely give up and be ashamed of yourself because you have no skills or ask you if you were blessed by the Gods and oh please take the bard’s spot because your stories are absolutely perfect. You will also gain some reputation (which will attract more people) and some coins.
With the second, you can start mini adventures around the village, meeting people (and <S>recruiting them into your cult</S> inviting them to live in the village), items to decorate your house, and maybe find inspirations for stories (like new genre or themes). The adventures are random but varied (I did about a dozen I think, and it might not even count for half of those), some seemingly inspired from old tales. And this helps avoid the grind-ness of the story telling mechanic.
When you gain enough reputation, you are able to upgrade the village - like adding a market square or old temples. Some of these locations can be visited, with a few having extra interactions and collectibles. While you cannot build everything (which made my completionist heart sad), it is fun to see the description of the village change, as you see more people settling in. I do wish there would be something to do with every unlocked location rather than a few of those, like buy things at the market or pray to other gods, or even talk to the characters you recruted.
I’ve quite enjoyed playing the game, and discovering the secret of the village, getting there bit-by-bit (or page by page) through talking to the different NPCs, and see my reconstructions pay off.
Sur l’inévitable is a short, relatively simple parser, where you find yourself prisoner inside an empty sand castle. Through the window, you see an army on white horses ready to charge. You will have to find a way to escape (or stop them) before it is too late.
With its charming retro interface, this game takes us on a gratifying escape adventure filled with illusions. The puzzles are relatively simple (if you enter every room and use the magic action on everything x.x), and if your path crosses enemies, you’ll be teleported right back in your cell, back to the start… with all your inventory and previous actions still there. It’s pretty handy as a mechanic, you get to explore all the rooms without having to worry to re-unlock a door, or pick up an object again. Not just so, but “dying” even ends up helping unlocking other puzzles !
I also like the allegories of the different armies fighting endlessly, and the dreamy and surreal descriptions of the castle and its specter-like inhabitants. It was magical, in a creepy way. I think I understood the mystery setting before getting to the end, but it felt nice being right xD
Lovely work!
L’Orsimonous is an interactive monologue written in Ink, in which you reflect on the concept and changes of the ‘orsimonous’, when you realise your father’s has disappeared. The piece is fairly linear, with the many choices seemingly affecting only the following paragraph (or so). Here, it is more about the mediation of the words than the inherent interaction that is important. As if the text was pushing you to question yourself, on what ‘orsimonous’ could mean, on families and relationships, on the past and the future, on life and death.
As far as I could tell/find, ‘orsimonous’ is a concept created for this IF (I had to double check, just in case), some sort of veil/halo-like thing on the line between metaphysical and tangible, ever-so changing with the person’s moods, feelings, and understanding. Or at least, this is how I took the concept, influenced by the moody blurry animated background. A reflection, maybe of your soul?
There was something captivating with the prose. Simple, maybe even mundane, talking about life. I can’t put my finger on it, so I kept restarting it, trying all the options to read all the different bits of text, hoping to find why. I still don’t know. It was bewitching.
Panique à Mandonez is a fun little mystery game made in Ink, where you play as Camille, the friend of Comtesse de Peyrian who recently disappeared. Taking the first bus to Mandonez, you will do everything to find your friend, and maybe… uncover a darker plot.
It was fun to investigate the village, talk to the different inhabitants, and solve the different mysteries. You need to interact with different elements to get to the next bit of the game (like make a character leave the room to search through it), and the concise prose gives you just enough hint on what you should be doing next*. And, like every good mystery, it has twist on twist on twist!
*when in doubts: pick the options from bottom to top…
It was short, but I enjoyed myself quite a bit. A neat and polished short game.
Only slightly related, but opening a drawer to see Vous trouvez une demi-douzaine de boîtes de calissons. on the screen was so funny to me. Then it made me a bit sad, because it wasn’t real and calissons are delicious…
Croquemitaine is a short Visual Novel following Érika Wolfenstein*, on a mission to retrieve an artifact from a faraway planet. The mission is rather dangerous, but the protagonist is not so worried, being a highly competent and knowledgeable agent. Though your choices are limited, as the game is incomplete, you are given two main paths of action to reach the artifact, each with its own sets of tribulations being introduced… when the game ends abruptly.
*any relation to the video game?
Still, it is possible to parse what to expect from further updates of the game: you will have an adventure (to find and retrieve the artifact), resolve a mystery (what the heck is actually happening on this planet?), and maybe have a romantic entanglement or twenty (you were tasked to seduce the inhabitants for some reason). With the currently intriguing worldbuilding, diverting character, and pretty design, there is quite a bit of potential with this one!
will we be able to smooch the vampires?
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