Reviews by manonamora
French
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A Gaul village mystery, April 28, 2024 Le chaudron d’Anaritium is an interactive mystery made in Open Adventure (the author and system is one), set in a Gaul village at the dusk of a dreary winter. You play as Isara, a bard-in-training tasked to find a missing artefact before the gods turn on the village. Will you find the artefact and its thief? and figure out the why and the how?
On the Open Adventure platform, you are introduced to the mystery at hand, and the different paths you can investigate, whether it be visiting locations or talking to other characters. As you find more clues, new paths may be open to you. Along with two large maps, some paths are also illustrated, in a watercoloured comic-style.
Every path taken is listed one below the other, in a way that you can re-read them with ease. The engine also lets you know when you’ve already visited a section, and only puts forward on the main page the most interesting location for you to visit.
The prose is quite lovely as well, bringing to life an atmospheric setting, filled with mysticism and legends.
And when you believe you’ve solved the mystery, you can fill in your answers to the different questions in a text box, before how correct you were and get the epilogue. But, because of how the game is set up, you’ll never truly be wrong at the end. The website collects the answer and gives you the solution right away, regardless of how close you were to the truth. So while the mystery was interesting, and fairly simple to figure out, I wished there would be a bit of a consequence to who you accuse of the crime or explain how you think things happened.
Insatiable Jeunesse is a short "storylet"-based interactive story, where you incarnate some sort of creature needing to hunt down people to keep young. You come across potential victims, judge the situation (will you be satiated? is it dangerous), before you get to choose whether to eat or move on. But, watch out, if you're caught or starve, it's game over!
There are (as far as I could tell) three endings: the good one, dying of hunger, and getting caught because you were too suspicious.
The blurb describes itself as an unbalanced prototype, which is pretty on point, as you end up going through the different potential victims pretty quickly and it is *very* easy to die (or I could just be unlucky). Quite a good deal of randomisation, in the situation text (variation in victims, feeding and danger levels) and in the consequences of your action (how suspicious you are before you are stopped). The game requires quite the balancing act to win.
I am sure it is possible to win, but I have still not been able to do so...
On the game page, the author described their plan for a future update with more narration and locations, and a more balanced gameplay. I hope I get to play this update one day!
Deep water murder mystery, April 9, 2024Meurtres en eau profonde is a relatively short Binksi game (mixing Bitsy and Ink), where you play as a rookie goldfish police officer given their first ever case: finish the case left behind by the former Inspector. Interacting with the different elements and locations, you will find how deep the mystery goes.
Since it was made in Binksi, you need to use the keyboard arrows to navigate the little orange goldfish around the screen, and to interact with the different elements. There are a handful of puzzles (like fixing a computer or cutting down weeds) to progress through the story and unlock further interactions.
As you are an officer on the case, talking to witnesses and perps is also an important task of the job. The game includes conversation trees, with options hidden until you find a certain item or information.
The mystery itself is pretty simple, it is just a matter of whether you interacted with all the relevant items or asked the relevant questions to reach the end.
Thought there wasn't really anything to do in the museum, it was fun to explore it and see "humans" on display. I also, for good measure, got drunk on the job (it's just for fun, and does not impact the game. I laughed out loud having to bypass the computer security in the bar too.
This was a cheeky little game, which I enjoyed quite a bit!
Le Dernier Serment is an old school parser adventure made for the Amstrad CDC, in which you must rid your village of a nasty curse: losing their freewill, leading them to their death. The adventure includes a nice range of puzzles, and an external manual/feelies pdf. There are no hints, help, or walkthrough included. There are also 5 endings listed (though I am not sure whether one of them is possible?).
I definitely had a few difficulties going through some of the puzzles, but it’s probably more due to me not being good at (French) parsers or just not reading the manual correctly, or whether the puzzles are actually obtuse (which, for an old-school parser, wouldn’t be too surprising). But figuring it out (and seeing the environment change before your eyes) felt so darn good! The puzzles are pretty varied, going from interacting with your environment to timing puzzles. I struggled with one so much because it dealt with opposites and transposition.
The game is also GORGEOUS! Every screen includes pixel art, one part showing what is in front of you (directions between rooms can change) ~ each being distinct from the others, and another showing yourself (and your state). The font used might not always be legible, but its design is so atmospheric.
A beautiful neat game!
Le Bastion de la Porte is a fantasy game made in Moiki, where you play as Salma, a Trimolienne in the land of Sargh, as the newly appointed lonely guardian of the Door up high in the mountain. Your task is to guard the door, and try (but not pressure) any passers-by not to cross it. What is behind the door? No one knows, as no one has ever come back from it. How will you handle that task? Will you let everyone through or force them to turn back? Will you go through the door yourself as your predecessor has?
The job, however, is a lonely one. Aside from your monthly delivery (with the best boi Ernest!), few climb up the mountain, wanting to reach the mysterious landmark. But when they do, you get to listen to their stories, ask some questions (and maybe answer theirs), maybe share some wine, and potentially change their fate. There is never a right or wrong answer, though maybe some will make you question your ethics and morals. It is touching and emotional, and makes you reflect on what is important.
Throughout the story you get may be able to ponder on the meaning of the door and what it could represent. One character might make you think it is simply an allegory for moving on to the next plane, another as a escape from danger and difficulties, a final one as a celebration to dive into the unknown. It is quite interesting how one single thing can represent widely different concepts.
While it is already pretty entertaining (and with an impressive count of over 900 screens), I wished we could have had more during the downtime. You are able to interact with elements around the house, though it is sparse and does not change much between periods. You can always take the same shower, reel in some water from the well, pick up some dried meat, and look yourself in the mirror or at you sparse house décor. And when you do, the text seems to be the same (or fairly similar).
It would have been interesting to maybe do some activities to spruce up the hut, like gardening or fixing the roof, remark upgrades done by the Fédération after you complain about things, picking up a hobby…
And, being able to wait for time to pass in other spots than your bed, like at the desk doing some writing or doodling, or sitting by the fire, and when during the spring/summer, maybe waiting outside on a log enjoying the nice weather.
The game page indicates further updates, which would include missing chapters and other types of gameplay, are to be expected. I’m looking forward to those.
Les Trois-cités : les préludes d’une odyssée is an incomplete RPG game made in Twine, wherein you play as a dwarf looking to save their brother from a magical mushroom-related illness. The game based on CYOA gamebooks with dice-gameplay elements, with options to choose your class, getting equipment and potions, and levelling up your stats. RNG will be your best friend and greatest enemy here.
There is a lot you can do here. Along your main fetch-quest to find the required ingredients to save your brother, you will quickly stumble upon other side-quests – exploration of the city and interaction with other NPCs being necessary to get the ingredients. As in any fantasy setting, quests will range from finding missing characters, fighting brigands and thieves, resolving arguments, helping the less-than-fortunate, and even levying the taxes.
Though it is not in its complete form, you will easily spend a handful of hours to get through what is currently there: three cities are mentioned, two being accessible, and one being complete with dozens of neighbourhoods.
While maps are provided, showing where you are on the page and a couple of the available locations, you cannot click on it to move to other place – only adjacent spots are selectable through a list of links (no teleporting or fast travel unfortunately, it’s a bit annoying when going from one end to the city to the other).
It is obvious there was a lot of work put into the game, and even if I think I found myself stuck in an impossible place, it was pretty neat. If the other cities end up becoming as thought out and detailed as the starting one, it would make for a pretty epic adventure.
Immobilistes is a micro interactive piece made in Decker, where you are tasked to determine the danger/risk level of a radical group called "les immobilistes". You are given instructions and a database of elements to analyse and render judgement (not dangerous, maybe a bit, suuuuper dangerous). That is... if you find how to access the database: (Spoiler - click to show)in the textbox, press the letters very slowly, there's a delay between you entering a letter and the game reacting.
The documents are fantastic to go through. Between pictures, exchanges between the characters, transcriptions of journals, formal interview... everything creates a strange and almost conspirational web around the two instigators. The political and judicial climate of the game feels extremely real and topical. It is both chilling and strangely hopeful, in some way? Having to make the decision at the end is hard, no matter how you read the file...
ha, 42
Though short, the game is very intriguing, whether it is the lore or the setting, or even the reasons for you to investigate the group, forcing you to fill in the blanks at times. It is becoming a trend with game from the author (which I really like, all the unsaid and mystery).
I would be *very* interested to play an extremely long version of this game where you also to the investigating... or having to deal with the consequences of your judgement.
And please, let us (Spoiler - click to show)search that database at least!
Decker is a very fun system but also finicky...
Larme à gauche is a slice-of-life game made in Twine, when you play as Gloria, a young woman living in Brussels, who drove down with her partner Lucy to the Pyrenees for the funeral of her grand-father, a former general in Franco’s army. She had not seen her grand-father since she was very young, as well as most of the family will may be meeting today.
Don’t speak ill of the dead. Family must stick together. Family above all. These were the perfidious sayings that kept crossing my mind as I was going through the different paths and learning about the different characters and their relationships. Sayings written white on black on the screen, said even by some of the characters, as Gloria struggles to find her place in the matter. Between her grand-father who committed atrocities, a father who could not see the truth, and other family members who didn’t seem to care much about her, what is she left with…
The game deals with difficult topics, uncomfortable ones. But does so with a strong and touching story.
Yorouba Un prince venu d’ailleurs is a kinetic Twine story about a non-human being (re)incarnated as a man, and the mysticism around him. Part of the story in the human world is set in and around Gombe, a commune of the DRC.
Due to the writing style, it is quite hard to get into the story. With the peculiar and unusual syntax, the prose will often go from one topic to the next with barely a punctuation mark or a return to the line. Often, characters will change name, going from to the other without much of an explanation (I think they are the same people, just a different way of writing the name).
I did struggle to try to find sense in this story, which was not helped by the way it was structure on the page and from one page to the next either. The game starts with Episode 1, moving then to Episode 7, then coming back to a different Episode 1, which was followed on the same page with Episode 2 and 3. Where were the other Episodes? Were they locked behind the unselectable choices? (A closer look a the file shows that they are nowhere to be found.) Am I missed something?
Trying to piece out the elements to make something cohesive proved difficult. I think I left the game more confused than when I got in…
La Fabrique des Princes is a philosophical satirical story made in Twine, inspired by Machiavelli’s The Prince. Here, you play a Prince on its last of Prince-in-training. But before you can set your behind on a thrown and rule the lands, you must prove you are worthy enough of the title, by winning a debate. Unless, you choose another path…
Though you could march right down the corridor and be done with the debate, the game nudges you to get ready for the fight, with the right costume and tools in your arsenal, which you can buy with coins, which you can earn by testing your knowledge of The Prince. (It felt good to get all the answers right, not going to lie…) But there are also other actions you can take, like listening to some tales, or exploring the surroundings of the building.
The debate is essentially a one-punch fight, a fairly arduous one, where chance matters quite a bit. I wasn’t sure whether you were actually supposed to win the fight (I kept reloading my save, and trying again without success), but there is. You need to have juuuuust the right tool and be incredibly lucky. Though, having found the other ending, I’ve been wondering if you were meant to win the fight, after all. As, instead of following the path predestined to you as a Prince, you choose your own, one where your name may not be remembered.
Aside from the passages with the timed text (which weren’t as fast as they maybe should have), it was a pretty interesting experience!
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?
Retrouvailles is a multi-POV sci-fi kinetic story created in Twine, part of a larger multimedia universe Mémoires d’un Veilleur/Veillorz. It took me at least 2h to go through it all.
This release is a recounting of two linked events, which one of the protagonist, Jack, mentions to be one of his fondest memory. Following the disappearance of a group of scientist in some far away site, a special task force, led by Jack, is entrusted to investigate the situation. However, the investigation is sidetracked due to past trauma and unresolved baggage, forming and strengthening new relationships. The second event happens a couple of years later, with part of the team returning to the scene of the crime. Those events are told through three POVs (Alex, Jack, and Solène), which you can read separately or synchronously.
Interactivity-wise, there isn’t much to do but go back and forth in the story, change POV, or language. Which makes sense, considering the author categorised the entry as a book on itch. Though, it would have been nice to have some sort of agency, if not in the story itself, maybe in the investigation part (like looking on the site, or running test, or going through the scientists affairs - each with a different POV).
On the narrative side, I was confused for a while about what was happening. Though the mystery is the framing of the story, it often stays in the background of inter-personal issues between the three protagonist (Jack, Alex, Solène), with the location of the event heightening their emotions. Having the different POVs helps framing some situations, especially the past of the characters through their inner monologues.
A romance between two of the characters ends up taking centre stage, pushing the story forward, by the end. This personally made me uncomfortable, due to the strong age gap and power difference, especially with how Jack refers to Solène when trying to flirt with her. Their rekindling in the second chapter, while in character for both of them, didn’t particularly made me wish to root for them.
A neat thing from the prose: it exclusively uses French inclusive writing.
Radio liberté is a short fairly linear Moiki game, part of a series, set in the future where (I think) France may have conquered the world… or at least space. To the dismay of the government, who tries with great difficulty to shut it down, a pirate radio broadcast less-than-rosy news and support for striking workers. In this setting, you play as Hego, an electronic repariman who hates his job and his “tyrannical” boss*, and dreams of being a radio celebrity. You’d leave everything behind if you had the opportunity.
*lol on his name
In this setting, the prose is fairly light-hearted, with the occasional sarcastic comment in that French humour kind of way. There are many references in the text and options, like Jupiter Inter being the futurist counterpart of France Inter, a radio channel. The main reference of the game (and the series at large) is about freedom of broadcasting, which was a political fight in France in the late 70s-early 80s, with the broadcasting monopole being abolished with President Mitterrand.
Anyway, your world turns upside-down when you either decode the strange message coming from your radio from the start or after meeting your favourite radio celebrity - the first choice affect which path you take, but the branches meet back at one same point. That choice, however, ends up being the only meaningful one of the story. While you have other “choices” down the line, they end up being either false choices (just there for variation/move the story along) or forcing you to re-do the choice again until you pick the correct option.
With the entry being a prologue to a supposedly much larger series, it makes sense that the story with little deviation to the main path, as you will need continuity with the following parts of the series. But it would have been nice to maybe have some alternative paths, maybe towards non-canon endings, or making some actions feel like they have more impact.
I’d be interested to see how Hego gets out of the situation he’s currently in.
Snooping in attics and finding out, February 27, 2024Le grenier de mon grand-père is a short interactive game, similar to Bitsy in its gameplay: you move a sprite around the screen to interact with the different elements. You are at times given options, either to examine something further or continue a conversation.
In this game, you are an eighteen year old who is snooping around their grandfather's attic, searching for information about his past. This is because he never talks about himself, nor ever allows you to get in the attic. But he's currently away, so you take this opportunity.
In the attic, there are a handful of elements, like stacks of old letters, clothes that you don't remember ever seeing in person or in pictures, and trinkets from your childhood. It is only when you check all of them that you hear your grandfather coming back. Follows a discussion with the man, where you can confront him with what you found.
Because of the branching in the conversation, there is one path that reveals everything, making the puzzle of his past whole(-ish). The grandfather's past is full of tragedies, some of it his own, some of it being just life throwing curveballs. It is clear he is a flawed person, and I felt both pity and distaste for him.
I did wish it was a bit longer, maybe exploring other side of the grandfather's life and his relationships with his children (like your mother, who is mentioned in passing for dropping you off there and not coming back?), or reminiscing maybe on kinder times with the grandmothers or the kids? The conversation bit felt a bit too rushed to have the impact it could have.
A neat game otherwise.
Puzzle-galore escape game, February 27, 2024Le Manoir Abandonné is a multi-episode escape game based on the LucasArt game Maniac Mansion, imitating with its images the point-n-click feel. This review continues on the one in the first part.
In the first part, you found yourself stuck inside a manor, and was able to explore the "front" part of the building, with a hallway and a few rooms. During that time, you gets bits and pieces of the former owner of the manor, with hints of a tragic event. This game continues where the previous part left off ((un?)surprisingly you are locked inside this new part), and allows you throughout the game to piece out what happened.
Spoiler for the mystery: (Spoiler - click to show)A brilliant surgeon/doctor loses his wife in a tragic accident. Ridden with grief, he gets in his head that he must find a way to revive her. After many trials and errors, he unearth the body of another young woman who recently died, resembling his wife in some ways, and manages to fulfil his wish... for a few minutes. The revived wife soon turns on her husband and kills him. Still her ghost remains.
This part continues in the same vein as the previous on, in that it is choke-full of puzzles, and different variety at that (as much as a choice-based format allows you). There are many more ways of succumbing to your wrong choices, but the game sends you right back to your previous action (unless this is the last escape bit, when you run out of time, but I'm sure that is a bug). Out of the puzzles included, I liked the putting the torn paper back together, the books in the library, and the unlocking the doors without a key, the most.
Unlike the first part, this game has fewer hints for some of its most important puzzles, forcing you to interact with all of its elements, even if it means dying in the process. It is at times tedious, having to go back and forth between the many rooms because you needed to examine an item multiple times in a row even if it told you there was nothing in the drawer, or finding a key in one section for a door on the opposite side. The frustrating aspect of the game feels very much similar to the old point-n-click games.
It does, however, include a video walkthrough on Youtube.
The horror aspect in this game is cranked up higher, as you start in a hallway with bloody arrows on the many doors and on walls, meet some spectres, have strange visions, and get a few more jump-scares. The ambient sound and sound effects does add to the creepy ambiance.
As for the prose, it follows the tone of the previous part, with its humour and wittiness, playing again on the tropes of the horror genre.
This was a good game and I enjoyed it quite a bit!
First part of an escape game, February 27, 2024Le Manoir Abandonné is a multi-episode escape game based on the LucasArt game Maniac Mansion, imitating with its images the point-n-click feel. This review will only account for the 1st part.
Starting the game with a prologue, the prose plays on horror tropes with the sudden breakdown of your car and that manor looming in the distance as your only place to find potential help, taking a witty approach to those. Once inside the manor (you really have no choice, no matter the other options), the doors shockingly close behind you, leaving you stuck inside the building. Starts then the escape-game portion.
In this first part, you get to interact with the "front" part of the house: a large and luxurious hall and a handful connected but locked doors. Some of the rooms are quite freaky, down to the more obvious horror elements (like blood on the wall).
The game allows you to explore this section of the manor, examine items lying around, and manipulate them through a list of options. There are a handful of puzzles, which are fairly well hinted, even with the curveballs it tries to throw at you. The thing that took the longest was trying out the different keys on the different doors (lots of back and forth).
While I got to the end of the section, which is fairly abrupt, there was still one locked door that stayed locked, even after solving the main puzzle.
Looking forward to play the second section!
Tiny fun adventure, February 27, 2024La fugue d'un homme-poulpe is a small fantastical Moiki adventure, in which you incarnate an octopus-man stuck on a pirate ship. Though your fate is more alluring than being enclosed in a zoo, you yearn for freedom. With your trusty herring spoon and oyster fork, you will face some trials before you can reach your goal or... chose the wrong answer and end up back where you started. There are 20 endings to find, most resulting in your bad choices.
While short, the prose is witty, veering at time on the sarcasm. The companions allow for a branching of choices down the line, which is neat. The game includes some illustrations, whose different styles don't always match well together, and sounds, which do add to the ambiance of the story.
Nice for an entertaining short break.
The start of an Epic journey, February 24, 2024Le Grimoire de Saphir : Prologue is a short Moiki game, which, as the title indicates, is the prologue of a much larger fantasy epic. Leaving your home, you are in search for quests and adventure - hopefully, glory and riches would come to follow.
After a rude maritime crossing, you arrive in the town of Sirfang, which you can explore or try to find and employer. Thanks to a handful of coins, you can visit a few spots in town, like its library, a smithy, or a bazzar. The latter option will give you a quest: find the titular grimoire so the great wizard Saphir can be dealt with. Unfortunately for you, this quest will also land you into some political intrigue, as multiple parties have different goals with the grimoire.
It will be up to you to locate the book and decide the best path for its use... in the next episodes!
So far, the series seems rich in worldbuilding, which you get a taste of, and a nice amuse-bouche. I'm looking forward to see how it will continue.
Build-a-Prophecy, February 24, 2024Les Prophéties Perdues is a short interactive prophetic piece. Finding your way to the Temple of Destiny, you are able to interact with a tablet to alter a prophetic poem, which may or may not (but definitely will) affect the world as soon as you step out of the temple. There are seven endings to find, six involving interacting with the poem, and an early out ending.
Interacting with the poem is not obvious at the start, at least not as obvious as the large choice buttons at the bottom of the page, and requires a good memory (or a piece of paper) to remember the different options. The cycling of alterable words is finite - once you reach the last option, there is no way back to the start... until you reload the game to reset it.
While I would have preferred the option of having an infinite cycling option (to test out and edit the poem at will), the context of the story does makes sense for why it is not: it's an old temple made out of stone... there's only so much mechanic you can have hidden xD
Fun mechanic! And pretty fun text too!
Par une nuit d'Halloween is a short Moiki Halloween adventure, meant to be read out-loud for children (according to the comments on the Moiki website). In this game you play as a child during Halloween, going around the neighbourhood to pick up some candies. Between the spooky house and the grand manor, the game subvert expectations in what you encounter in these locations.
The concise prose is simple and light, perfect to be played with children. It was sweet.
Will you be a good ant monarch?, February 23, 2024Four Mates is an interactive game made in Moiki, in 48h for the Global Game Jam, where you play as a queen ant whose subjects are not quite happy with her. Humouring their discontent, the queen must find ways to increase their happiness, without making a fool of the kingdom or loose all the money in the treasury.
The game is incredibly delightful, both in the prose and the interface. The former is full of puns (on names, organisations, and locations), some memes, and absurd jokes. I found the dig at La CAF to be hilarious. There are a lot of silly choices you can make throughout the game (like make the country drunk or have a military parade worthy of Monty Python.
The game includes a bunch of endings, and quite a large amount of variation. Depending on your choices, you could be done in a few minutes, or spend a good half-hour sorting out your advisers' ideas. I managed to max out the happiness meter, getting my subjects to essentially worship me!
An important part of the game is the design of the page, with its many illustrations. Like the variation passages, these added a lot of flavour to the game: from "photoshop-ing" famous masterpieces to silly little children drawings made in Paint, or the many depictions of the scene... all fit so well with the game, and made things at time even funnier.
Very funny!
Find the ingredient, cure the disease, February 23, 2024Folie Contagieuse is a short interactive game made in Narrat, following an epistemologist looking for a cure (for a disease that may or may not have taken their grandparent's life?). You get to explore the home of another scientist to find clues, which will help you put together a recipe for the cure. While the puzzle is relatively simple, you will need to go back and forth between rooms to unlock doors and get to new locations.
Could rival La Fontaine, February 20, 2024Le Dingo et l'Épicéa commun is a short Ink game made for La Sens Dessus Dessous formatted as rhyming fables, referencing fables from La Fontaine from the start. A Dingo meets a spruce tree, who asks the former whether the latter truly is ugly. Branching in different paths, the playful (and always rhyming) prose is full of wit and surprises!
Quite the successful writing exercise!
Surrealist Thriller à-la Eco, February 20, 2024La voie du professeur Echo is a thriller adventure, in which you stumble into by "accident" on your way to work, as you crash into Professor Echo. Finding strange items in your hands, rather than your stuff, you proceed with a quick investigation to find answers (and maybe get your stuff back)... only to find yourself entangled in some sort of conspiracy - one that Professor Echo predicted.
In between discussions with NPC and exploring the Louvre, you may be able to find the truth... if you manage to solve the puzzle in a timely manner. Otherwise, it's back to the start with you!
The very confusing and convoluted prose (and incidently the story) reminded me of Foucault's Pendulum (which is referenced in the text), with the crazy conspiracies, the predictions, the loose red-links between the mentioned elements. Like with the book, I struggled a lot in getting into the story, because of the writing style.
It was only at the end that all this confusion made sense, when the twist is revealed. The whole game felt a bit like a fever dream...
Nos Voisins les Robinson is a short visual novel made for La Sens Dessus Dessous. Structured as a sitcom, the story combines puns on puns and improbably scenario. Stranded on an island with naturalists trying to find a rare butterfly, you hope to repair a radio to get rescued. Though you are stranded, the island is populated... by no other else than Robinson Crusoe!
This little game is quite silly and plays on the codes of sitcoms, with a laughing track to boot!
Meaty memoir!, February 18, 2024L'héritage de la chair is a short binksi game following George Augustus Frederik Charles Hollyroy, the son of an Earl. Being stillborn in a family of scientist looking for an heir, the body of George was replaced by a piece of meat with buttons for eyes by his mother. Follows an absurd recollection of moments from George's life, as he "grows" and finds himself. I didn't see the twist coming at the end, and it made me cackle!
The different pixel visuals added to the absurdism of it all.
Musical communication, February 18, 2024Estelle et le Cosmusicien is a short Twine sci-fi story set in the far future. You play as Estelle, a scientist, having found a strange incident with the asteroid belt going against the laws of physics. Enters a space explorer, the Cosmusicien, and his belief that one can communicate with celestial bodies thanks to a strange musical instrument.
The game brings an interesting approach in terms of communication: through music. Us humans can convey feelings and emotions through music, even if we do not speak the same language or have problems understanding each other. Here, it flips this concept by turning towards the stars, which is pretty neat. And magical almost.
There are different ways of achieving an ending, with quite a poetic few.
Short treasure hunt, February 17, 2024Le Grenier is a short puzzle game made in Moiki, where you explore the attic of your childhood home. Among the forgotten comics and old games, you stumble one a locked box, tied to which is a note from your mother that starts a small treasure hunt. Going through the different old boxes and furniture pieces, you must solve a little enigma to find the code, and open the locked trunk.
It was cute, and the prose felt sentimental. I struggled with the code, starting with the wrong end of the hint...
Les Idylles is a short demo set in the fictional fantasy land of Loghria, filled with mystery and magic. In this episode, your goal is to help Elinor, a young woman who was tricked by a magician, needing help to break the 'Tattumanti' pledge. The short game includes multiple endings, some helping the woman at the cost of your own freedom, some changing your mind and leave her to deal with her problem by herself.
It was a fun little puzzling adventure, and I'm looking forward to further episodes. I liked the playfulness of the writing, with the play on words.
It's not easy to be a chimneysweeper, February 11, 2024In this tiny game, you play a child chimneysweeper on the first day of their job. You'd expect the chimney to go straight up to the top, but... multiple paths strangely lay ahead of you: take one and find yourself in a strange world, the other takes a more creepy and suffocating approach.
You never know what's around the corner...
Absurd supersticious adventure, February 11, 2024L'épreuve divinatoire is a short choice-based adventure that tests your knowledge of superstitions, common sense, and a few idioms. In this small absurd story, you are on your way to take your exam to become an oracle but are met with a few trials of your own. If you manage to solve the issues and finish your exam before the allocated time, you may be able to continue your studies! Or... you could succumb to the distractions put on your path.
It's stilly, definitely absurd, and fairly entertaining.
A digital tragedy, February 10, 2024Until Tomorrow is a short experimental interactive piece made with Decker where you can explore the content of a computer.
Starting with a browser opened on a Youtube page for the song Comme de bien entendu, which sets a tone for what you may find, you are able to go through multiple folders on the desktop, a mailbox, and the last opened page on the browser. The game is very subtle in delivering the story, making you piece together the different elements as you examine the digital fragments of a life.
The final tale is quite depressing, being centred around loss, greed, and injustice.
Short Soap Bit, February 10, 2024Amour et déception is a short Texture game spoofing soap series like The Bold and the Beautiful, where twist and turns, deceptions and revenge, plots foiled make up the story. In this episode, you play the mother of the bride, who does not approve of her future son-in-law - so much so she is ready to kill him to save her daughter from a dishonourable path.
The game is very silly, playing on all the soap tropes, adding twists when you least expect them, and of course ends with a jinggle!
Apocalyptic Future, February 10, 2024La constellation des Intracines is a short choice-based game set in an apocalyptic future where humanity is under the threat of extinction. A strange plant from underground has started taking over the ecosystem: drying out the land, rendering the waters acidic... Between the military in its futile fight against the plant and the scientific community in shambles when faced with little solutions, humanity tries to survive as best it can, even with this uncertain future.
Your background as an astronomer helps little with this struggle, and you can choose to despair and accept humanity's fate, turn to the stars for solace with this end, try to find other survivors and fight until your dying breath, or succumb maybe to madness.
The writing does a pretty good job in capturing the horror and gloomy aspect of this apocalyptic future and the unknown of this natural enemy, and the mental breakdown of the PC when faced with the realities of the situation.
Say your final goodbyes, February 10, 2024La Maison de Mamie is a fairly short parser where you play as Sarah Wolverton-Pelletier, a woman who recently lost her grandmother, going through her house to retrieve some keepsakes before your mother sells it.
Through the exploration of this home, which was yours too for a time, and inspection of the different objects in each room, you remember fragments of your past and people of your life. Through the memories of the individuals that crossed your life, you can piece back the broken puzzle of Sarah's fragmented relationships.
Those memories are quite short, just a handful of sentences at most, and are either linked to examining objects or remembering people. You learn of tensions between mothers and daughters, as they understand their identity and find themselves rejected by the ones they love. The prose goes from bitterness to warmth as you remember things, though most of the text felt quite detached and indifferent to things.
While I wish you could remember more things, like through the different events mentioned, it was interesting to find the different hidden elements to get the background story. (Spoiler - click to show)Your grandmother married your grandfather after the war, a marriage that fell apart when she meets Chantal and realises she prefers women to men. Your grandparents divorce, something that your mother doesn't/can't accept. Your mother first keeps you from seeing your grandmother (now in a relationship), before kicking you out later on (when you realise you are gay too). You find a roof and acceptance with your grandmother. It is really telling, and sad, why the mother wants to sell the house...
Why bother with the philosophical questions when you could just make the trolley dilemma a humorous light-hearted murder-fest? Yes, you read this right. With a plethora of endings, from not even starting the trolley to just roll over absolutely everyone, this is a truly absurd take on the dilemma.
The writing is minimal, but to the point and poking fun at many things. It shouldn't be taken seriously...
There are many branches, some even looping, to lead you one of seven endings - some more funny than others, some more satisfying than others too.
In this micro CYOA booklet, you play as Aoda, a hotel accountant prone to falling asleep, dreaming of other worlds. Sectioned in small paragraph (about a sentence), the story takes you on a seemingly cyclical journey where you travel from dreamworld to dreamworld, only to be awaken in burst... and falling back into the arms of Morpheus.
The prose is incredibly dreamy and poetic.
There are no other word to explain it, it's just beautiful.
I also found the mechanic quite playful, with the tiny subtle enigma (which may or may not lead you to a secret ending). It will push you to go into the cycle again and again, making the story feel much longer than just 500 words.
In the formatting, the game forgoes the use of numbers for each passage, like you'd expect in a CYOA book, but words representing the section - which you can click like you would a hypertext game. This little subversion adds to the dream-like ambiance of the game.
The Emoji Interactive Fiction, January 19, 2024😱🔤😱 is a short and wordless interactive game, that relies only on emojis to tell a story. What story? Well, it is for you to figure it out!
Because I certainly didn't...
There is something so interesting about using a "language" that is know to all (emoji), but used so differently depending on people. Is 🔣 unknown words or insults? What does 🔤 mean to you? Is 💨a wind, a sigh, a fart???
When combined in a string, how do you decipher it into a proper sentence? When a whole page is full of them, how to you turn it into a coherent sentence?
As a whole it's a very fun puzzle! A very confusing one, and a very novel way to tell a story.
Deux ans. follows a conversation between a man and emergency services after an intrusion at the former's home - where he currently is. You play as the emergency responder, trying to diffuse the situation and help the man.
The game is full of tension from the first second of the "call", with a bit of a twist when the intruder can finally be "heard". With vague unsaid, you can imagine what happened two years ago (title of the game) - though it will never be explicitly revealed in the story. There are three endings - one I found more satisfying than the others (and which I got first!).
The game takes advantage of images to visualise the different callers, as well as uncomfortable background sound, to create a captivating and chilly ambiance.
In this mini-entry, you play as Artour, an elf taking part of a protest because the King is at it again with his shenanigans. People are angry, walking towards the castle for (I guess) reparation. You must watch out for the "vouivres" (winged police?), or you'll end up burning to ashes.
Following the Partim500's theme, you can take a little detour and get into some shenanigans yourself. Whatever you do, however, the end is the same.
The writing style is incredible silly and je-m'en-fous-tist - the description of the game does warn you of what is ahead - and includes very unusual words (still unsure if they are part of the "youth" dialect or just made up for the game).
Still, with a good dose of French tradition (protesting and walking to the king's castle for demands) and a fantasy setting, you end up with a pretty funny entry.
As a tiny Choose-Your-Own-Adventure booklet, based on the 1958 of the same name, you play as a young child playing with your friends. The game: throwing pebbles at passers-by.
Pebble in hands, target acquired, you must roll some dices to determine your chances at a hit. You are then met with a choice: wait a bit longer (the target is not close) or throw it now - sending you towards one of two different endings.
The writing style of the game is very playful, almost childishly so, which works so well since you are a child doing childish things. It is also very visual in the limited descriptions - especially with its even-numbered passages.
A cute thing to play for a five-minute break!
Superficial story about having faith, January 16, 2024With its minimalist prose, the story follows a woman with a heavy past who found solace in faith. This faith is tested when the woman meets a man with a questionable situation (mainly of loose morals and little virtue). Follows a series of moral choices in regards to the relationship with said man (like breaking off the friendship due to his work/actions, pressing him to stop and turn to faith, following him into this path of vice, etc...), whose consequences are only displayed vaguely - mainly linking it back to faith.
As there isn't a lot of text, and since that text is pretty vague in the descriptions of the woman's past or the man's actions, or consequences in general, I had a hard time connecting to the story or to the characters. The choices are often in clear opposition with one another, often to an extreme (all or nothing, virtue or vice, letting be or push for penitence). I found the whole quite superficial in its implementation - especially with how the good and bad endings were portrayed.
Can't spend your holiday in peace, can you?!?!, January 16, 2024What would you do if the goddess Hera came to spoil your much needed and chill holidays, meant for you to get over your ex? Well... not much, aside from agreeing to her demands - not like you could refuse her demands anyway.
So, you are forced/accept to participated in her schemes, which is to essentially mess with the eternal cheater of a husband: Zeus. You have little to form a plan, however, as you are immediately transported from the sunny and relaxing Greek beach (where you were having ouzo!) to the decadent party on Mount Olympus, to fulfil your mission.
Many paths are open to you, from drinking yourself silly to converse with other godly beings, or just choose to take a detour to refresh yourself for the final "showdown". The results of the path taken are heavily dependant on some of your firsts choices, some with very drastic results (it might be even Tough of Zarf's scale...). If you fail... you will face the wrath of the Goddess, and (Spoiler - click to show)share a similar fate to IO mooo.
It took me a while to get to an acceptable overall path. Granted, I did not choose what might have been a very obvious option at the start of the game.
The prose is fairly light-hearted and full of humour, mirroring what was supposed to be a chill and relaxing holiday - though it keeps the familiar and light tone still as the story gets down to business (hey! it's a party!). A fun game!
An adventure with more than it lets on., January 16, 2024Set in your run-of-the-mill fantasy setting, you are a newly made adventurer looking for quests and riches - a small search as a quest lands on your lap pretty quickly: you are tasked to retrieve a precious stone in a cave on a faraway island for a 100 gold.
Nice and easy right? Well...
Obviously, a precious stone in a cave *has* to bring troubles. Follows trials and tribulations for going against the gods/spirits guarding(?) the stone. Fights and wild seas render you momentarily stranded.
The story goes a long a fairly linear gauntlet style narrative, with endings (mainly failures) parsed throughout the game (I found 3 of them). However, depending on your choices, your adventure can be 1/3rd longer than the quest requires... though you can miss it completely if you didn't see the signs (and got a bit sneaky).
While I appreciated this "bonus" content (having missed it entirely the first time around - I thought we were going on another quest next), it made me wonder if there could be other ways to (Spoiler - click to show)deal with the nefarious individual: like forgoing the quest altogether and snitch on him, or maybe fight him because he caught you red handed?
Overall, it was cute.
A D&D adventure... without the wrath of the RNG god, January 16, 2024With its fantasy setting, based on Norse mythology, this textual adventure follows three characters looking for treasures: Sehlif, a charming rogue with slippery fingers, Freya, a powerful enchantress, and Nümgur, a cranky dwarf warrior. Their quest is not without tribulations however, as our protagonists find themselves running and fighting for their lives - having suffered the ire of the Gods.
I liked the D&D-like aspect of the game, with the characters getting special cards for a visual representation (an AI-generated MTG card), the balanced Rogue-Mage-Warrior team on a quest and using their skills to their respective advantages, as well as the different game mechanics (the puzzle, the escape, and the combat).
The game also includes QTE elements for two parts of the story (the escape and combat), with its quite short timer adding a much needed tension to the story (especially the cave!). It still stayed quite accessible, with the text emphasizing on the required action to advance the story
I think my favourite bit of the game was with the enigma/puzzle in the temple. It took me a while to understand the order of things, but it all clicked when linking the code to the story as a whole. Very thematic.
Will you save humanity?, January 16, 2024Thrown without warning in the midst of a trial for humanity, you find yourself before a handful of gods, ready to make their judgement, using you as humanity's intermediary. Answer their question and hope to bring the gods to your side... for the good of humanity... or not.
Le Procès de l'humanité is a fairly short game, that includes multiple endings (at least 3 I am sure, having found B and C). The ending is somewhat tied to the trial, though it has a little twist. I saw it coming a bit, but it was still nicely done.
The setting reminded me a bit of the anime Record of Ragnarok, in which humanity must fight the gods to ensure their survival, though the literal physical fight is replaced with exchanges of arguments here. The choice of gods included in the game, from their name to their visual representation, reminded me of American Gods, especially POP.
(Spoiler - click to show)LOL at one of the visual representation with Captain America Trump showing up on the screen
There is an interesting mechanic in the game, in how you answer the gods' questions: with different kinds of approaches (from convincing to joking, or even going full on conspiracy) - with the last option being specific to the god you chose to represent you. Each option will have different effect on the god criticising you, the consequences then neatly represented with stats bar on top of the page.
On the interface aspect, there were a bit of friction with the text display or clicking on available argument options - though the first could be fixed by simply zooming out, and the second becoming clear after clicking on one of the option.
I did like the different screens, their palettes and animations (with SFX!). It gave more character to the... characters, and helped differentiate between each of them.
Do you truly want to learn why?, September 6, 2023Edenia is a dry sci-fi game, set on some strange planet, where you play some sort of humanoid character afflicted with strange reoccurring dreams. Aside from your tumultuous sleep, your life is pretty mundane and calm... unless your path takes you somewhere else...
Built in a Gauntlet-style, Edenia offers multiple paths to reach the many different proposed endings. Set to undergo a routine scan, with an eerie timing around your dreams, you get multiple opportunities along the way to cure your ailments and go back to your life, or dig deeper into those strange occurrences - maybe even uncovering secrets.
Though it is easy to "call yourself to order", especially at the start of the story, the game makes it obvious the path to take, the "winning" state, is the one where you question your ailments and look into the mystery of those dreams. Something is wrong with you, but why? (Spoiler - click to show)Some medical staff urges you into procedures without much explanations, but for what reason? Other brush off your concerns or try to move you out of the way, but why? It becomes quite transparent you are not supposed to have those dreams, and your changing condition will make it hard for the authority to control.
Still, it was not an easy game to get into, as you are thrown into this world with alien concepts and names without much explanation. The writing itself was quite dry. It was frankly at time disorienting - I wasn't sure if I misread something at the start or whether I was supposed to have played another game before this one. While it does add to the distress you are supposed to feel as this character with out-of-the-ordinary dreams and build on the suspense, it also felt at times tedious to go through.
It was nice the game allowed you to return to a previous choice block if you arrived at an end rather than having the play the whole thing back. It made checking the other options much easier.
An adventure of a lifetime (literally), September 6, 2023Filled with cat-puns and light humour, Capitaine Chavire ships you on an adventure of a lifetime (potentially literally). After setting up a small crew you sail the Milk Sea in search of treasures, food, and companions. Along the way, you may encounter other ships you can fight against or negotiate with, deserted islands where you can pick up lone crew members or find extra food, and mystical creatures to face.
If you manage to keep enough crew and food, navigating the tempestuous sea for long enough, the game will abruptly call the final trial*. Depending on the crew aboard your ship, you may manage to pass it and fulfilling your dream. I have yet to beat the requirements, always missing something by the end.
*I think you need to have clicked on a specific cardinal direction a certain number of times?
While the resource management gameplay is fun, I found the humourous writing to be the highlight of the game. Everything in the game is cat-related. You barter in kibbles, recruit crew whose name will start with Cha/Chat, sail the literal Milk Sea... (Spoiler - click to show)all to fight a mystical fish. Even replaying was entertaining, as locations and names were randomised at every turn.
(Spoiler - click to show)Speaking of the fish, it reminded me of the Rainbow Fish children's book, with... well... it's rainbow scales. Cute throwback!
Either I'm bad at resource management, or I didn't explore enough, or I just have bad luck, but not reaching a positive end has made me wonder if there is a winnable state with the game or if it is possible to reach it at all. The title of the game, and of your name, Chavire, implies something to capsize. While this could refer to the consequences of the trial if you fail, or the treacherous seas, it could also imply your ship will always capsize no matter what you do.
On day, I'll try to get on this milky sea and try my luck again...
There is always something you forget to do before a storm, September 5, 2023A powerful storm is coming, and you might not have forgotten to fully prepare for it. You expect some damage, but can you avoid it?
You know there is a storm coming, and, while your abode has withstood harsher weather, you hope to find little damage the day after. Unfortunately for you, the preparation you made were not enough, as disturbing sounds alert you of broken things around the house. Saddened by the realisation of how much must be replaced when surveying the day after and the little care you put in preparing for the storm, you think hard about what you could have done instead and...
(Spoiler - click to show)...you are sent right back to the beginning of the game. Thanks to some sort of time-travelling powers, you are able to correct your mistakes, and securing better your property. The storm comes and goes, before you will have to inspect the potential damages again.
(Spoiler - click to show)This looping gameplay will repeat, introducing different element around the house that the storm will target, forcing you to check its condition and prepare for the oncoming storm in the following loop. A few screens will have a timer, choosing the first listed option if the timer runs out. As far as I could tell, there was no failure ending, as the game will continue to restart until all elements are taken care of. It is very merciful game on the player, allowing them ample space for mistake and correcting them.
The UI is made of three different screens: before, during and after the storm, each with its respective colour palettes to align with the background. The background looked strangely pixelated or had a low resolution. The nicest to the eye was the after the storm screens.
The Consequences of Your Past Actions..., September 4, 2023Following a mundane incident, revolts have spurred around the land. Previous action on your part having failed, they are now marching towards the castle to demand retribution. As Lord of the land, you must ensure the safety of your subjects as well as bringing peace back. Seeking council from your advisors, the Intendant and the Chef des Guardes, you may find things aren't quite as they seem...
Behind the literary prose, the game is more layered than it lets on at first. It is not just the safety of your subject that should matter to you, but your standing with them, and how far they could go to regain some sort of peace. You will need to play through the story a few times to get the whole picture - two playthroughs at least.
If not just to find all endings, the intrigue itself left me wanting to know what was going on. After all, time is pressing, and you have little to interrogates those around you for information (assuming you don't already know).
Though the game is fairly linear, with certain events being unavoidable, the game offers enough choices to avoid feeling being dragged along by the story. One of the major choice branches the story in two separate, yet fairly similar paths. There is some interesting investigative interactivity in each path, uncovering quite the secrets, albeit short depending on the sequence of action.
The game has a simple UI, with a single colour background, a few lines of descriptions or dialogue, and a list of choice or arrow to continue. To differentiate between orators and internal thoughts, the game will change the colour of the background, adding sometimes inconsistently a portrait of the relevant orator above their title.
While the main story was quite rounded, I found the final section confusing. Doubling down in the fantastical, the game introduced a new character to set the ending. I thought this was a detriment to the rest of the game, as few to no hints were included ahead. It is still unclear whether the end could be a cliffhanger to a future project or if I just missed something crucial in previous passages. I think the game could have worked just fine without.
Still, Ending A felt more thematically on point than Ending B, the latter being the more confusing out of the two.
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